Horse of the Year 2024: Ridden Classes

 Our first ridden class for the show was Arwen with a tiny little kiddo. This kiddo rides Faith at home, but she's a bit small for her and Faith can be a handful at competitions, so I gave her the option to ride Arwen instead. Madam Dragon is kind of a legend at the stableyard so the little one was positively starry-eyed at the prospect.

I was desperate for this particular kid - who's had a hard run of it lately - to have a good show. I'd been stressing for weeks about whether Arwen would be good for the tiny tot and my stress levels did not decrease when I saw that she was all alone in her class, so she'd have to go off to the spooky end of the Bob Charter on the dragon right away.

my lil sister came over to watch which I loved 💜

With this in mind, I'd sacrificed prepping Wynnie to perfection in favour of warming Arwen up before the chaos of the in-hand classes began. I needn't have bothered. The second I got on Arwen that morning, she was ready for anything. She was absolutely relaxed, focused, obedient, soft, and willing, but with that little bit of sparkle that makes her special.

After Wynnie's group class, I saddled Arwen up and popped the kiddo on, and they had a relaxed and easy warmup. She was only doing the best walk and best trot classes, so we stuck with that, and Arwen was perfect.

Finally, with my heart in my hands, I sent them in. I knew Arwen would never hurt the little one or chuck her off or do any of her usual dragonishness with a little kid on her, but this kid's confidence needed a boost and I was desperate for her to have a really good class. And Arwen performed like a total pro. They walked around, they completely ignored the stallion who arrived for the best trot class, and Arwen even went in a cute little frame like a proper kid's show pony.

They were alone in their age group and obviously won both, but no kid is ever mad about a bit of satin. The little one was floating in the clouds when they came out. My whole heart unclenched and it was time to relax and enjoy the show.

Things had settled down significantly by this point. I let Arwen have a short rest in the stables while I got my stuff together and did haynets and water for everyone. Wynnie was chilling and eating her hay, happy as a clam; K was getting Faith ready for her class. K and Faith disappeared for their class while I was tacking Arwen up, and I barely saw them to wave to in the warmup before they went inside.

my turn!

I didn't have a ton of time for Arwen's warmup, but it was long enough to establish that we didn't have time to prepare her flying change. So we abandoned that idea and headed in for our class---congratulating K and Faith as they came out with a lovely second place ribbon---with the plan to do simple changes through walk instead.

classy girls 💜 photo by Denford Studios

All I can say about our show riding class is that I rode the best I've ever ridden and my horse went the best she's ever gone. It was one of those rare moments that both of us were totally focused, totally delighted by our work and each other, and in total harmony. Those are the rides we all live for, and I'm always honored when they happen at home. For the first time in ten years of competing, that ride happened for us at the show this time. Arwen was absolutely effortless. I don't remember a single flaw in her rail or in the individual test.

my dragon 💜 photo by Denford Studios

We'd been placed second after the rail - our competition being a gorgeous half-Spanish stallion with incredible movement - but after the individual test, the judge pulled us out and pinned us first against this extremely beautiful horse with a professional showing rider. We earned that ribbon. The judge mentioned to the other ride that Arwen's superior conformation also nudged her into first, so that was cool to hear as a breeder.

The championship class followed and it was a little weird. She stopped to poo as we went in and that's the only reason I can think of that we ended up in the placing were we did. The stunning stallion who came second in our class won the championship and the pony rider came second. We got the gate. I wasn't super mad because qualifying for ridden supremes would have given us a really long day on Sunday, but I'd have loved to know why the placings shook out the way they did; we literally trotted and cantered large for five minutes before we were placed and both horses went about the same as they'd done in the open class ten minutes before.

I was still beaming as we came out. We've never won the show riding at HOY before, but this time, we did it---and we earned it.

There was time to grab a snack and shout some words of support to K as she rushed between arenas, and then I hacked over to the working riding with Arwen. She was feeling fabulous by then, and I was on cloud nine; it was a perfect thing to have my husband riding alongside on his bike as my Arwen strolled merrily on a loose rein.

K and Faith were in the working riding warmup, ready to go in the novice class right before ours. I kept Arwen's warmup short. We popped over a jump or two, did a little work with one hand, and then stood in the shade for a while to reinforce the fact that we can stand still nicely with a rider on. K got a ribbon for being the only novice working riding adult and wrangled Faith admirably; Faith was squiggly but not bad, and boldly tackled all the obstacles, but K had to work for it.

Then it was time for the open working riding---Arwen and I versus a pair of little kiddos on excellent ponies. Both kiddos have given me a run for my money in the working riding before. One in particular was a formidable competitor despite being, like, 10 years old. (You know how it is).

Arwen and I went first. The course started with trotting through a lane and over some trotting poles, no big deal. It continued with cantering through bending poles on a curve, a challenging feat unless you're a Medium dressage horse who has done a lot of counter canter, so she popped through that with no trouble at all. Next we had to halt between two drums and move a basket from one to the other. Arwen was good for this, but I had a complete hand-eye coordination failure, parked her too far from one drum, couldn't figure out which hand to use, and almost bonked her in the head with the basket. She wiggled in protest but we got it done.

Next we cantered over a little jump, which went fine, and then we had to trot around and halt on a green mat. Arwen halted like a stone pillar and got a lot of big pats for that.

It wasn't a particularly tricky test but I thought that the canter bending poles would help us out - she does better the more spooky and the more technical a test is. The kiddo and pony also did a super nice test but didn't halt quite steady between the drums, so we squeaked ahead and got to win the working riding by a nose.

The championship class followed immediately thereafter. K and Faith as well as the novice child rider winner joined us in the arena and we repeated exactly the same test. This time, I not only rode well but actually behaved like a functioning human and moved the basket easily, so our test was pretty much perfect. I was super happy with it.

K and Faith went well too, barring a wrong lead into the jump, and Faith was happy to relax in the lineup next to Arwen. We watched the child riders go with some trepidation---they had nice ponies and they all could ride---and then the results were called. K and Faith were reserve champion. K was so flabbergasted by this that the judge had to call her several times before she actually went forward to get her rosette, and then Arwen and I were the champions. As far as show moments go as a breeder, having a sash on both of my mares was a pretty good one.

K was grinning all over her face as we headed back to the stables. It was her first sash, and I was really chuffed for her. 

Arwen's win qualified her for supremes the next day. We packed up and I sent Wynnie, Faith, and Erin's mare home for the night. All three loaded with no further ado. Arwen settled admirably into a stable next to Erin's riding horse, and Erin and I hung out for a while until it was time for her to go home, and then I just chilled in Arwen's stable with her while waiting for hubby to get back with the two-berth and our overnight stuff.

Supremes would follow---more on that later. God is good.

Halter Training Wynnie

 From the first day Wynnie got to go outside with Arwen, I taught her walk quietly with me just using a soft lead looped around the bottom of neck. As small foals I feel that their tiny necks are just too soft and the growth plates just too fragile to take the pressure if they were to leap back and pull on a halter (and let's be real, baby horses do these things), so we use the rope around the neck instead; if they pull then they pull with their shoulders or withers against the rope, so it's just safer.

Anyway, so this was what Wynnie grew used to, and quite a wrestling match it became too once she got a bit bigger and more fiery - she dragged my poor grooms around in the last couple of weeks. What's more, we have her first ever show next weekend, in the youngstock classes at Horse of the Year Show. So it was time for a major step in any baby's life - halter training.

By this point Wynnie is actually pretty used to almost everything. It was very cold right after she was born, so she spent her first few days bundled up in a dog jacket because I couldn't find anything else that would fit her tiny little self. She's groomed every day, has her temperature taken twice a day (something that is definitely easier to teach them when they're still small enough to restrain, lol) and I spend a few minutes each day on picking up her feet. I also bought her a fly mask, which is comically too big for her but did stop her from getting runny eyes from the flies. So I didn't expect the halter to be a big step.

It wasn't. I bought her a cute little purple foal slip and hung it on the stable door thinking I'd put it on for the first time that evening. When I was teaching that afternoon, I was somewhat surprised to see the grooms bringing Arwen and Wynnie into the stable with Wynnie obediently plodding along in the halter. Apparently they had thought that me leaving the halter on the door was a cryptic sign that Wynnie was now halter trained, and she didn't give them any reason to believe any different.

Of course there is a difference between walking into the stable next to mama and actually being halter trained, so last week we cracked on with real halter training.

I thought we would need someone to lead Arwen at first, but when I went over to do a little session with her after lessons last week, she had let herself out of the stable and was gambolling around in the yard. So I put a halter on the little monstrosity and started walking her in a little circle in the yard. She was so relaxed and happy with that, seeming to enjoy the stimulation, that I led her over to the dressage arena (still within sight of mom) and we started working on a circle there.

She was amazing! She didn't call out to mommy at all (if she had, I would have taken her back - she's much too young to be forced to cope with something like this). Instead, she seemed excited to be doing something, showing the first glimmers of a work ethic very much like Arwen's. She got a bit overexcited walking back towards the stable a few times, to the tune of the odd leap and buck, but after five minutes or so we even had a little trot in hand. It was so adorable.

Later that week, her newfound halter skills were really put to the test when a pelting hailstorm came blowing up out of nowhere while my grooms were on lunch. The fields do have shelters in them so I left the grownup horses out, but I couldn't stand the thought of my poor Wynnie being rained on, so I went racing down to the field to grab her and Arwen. To their credit, they both actually came to me (Arwen has sometimes taken a storm as an opportunity to run wild laps around the field), even though the rest of the herd was bolting for the shelters. I wrangled Wynnie into her foal slip - she wasn't standing very still and those foal slips have the worst, fiddliest little buckles - and set off with Arwen dragoning in one hand and Wynnie dragoning in the other. This meant that I didn't have hands to spare to put a hand on her bum to move her forward, and we had to negotiate two gates.

Wynnie didn't put a foot wrong. In fact, once the gates were behind us, we jogged the rest of the way into the stable, and Wynnie didn't even pull me around or jump at all.

their matching expressions though

As for Arwen herself, she is doing just fine. She has attacked motherhood with the same aplomb as she does everything. Of course, she'll accompany Wynnie to HOY, and to tell you the truth I think she might be more of a handful than Wynnie herself. She's going to be very excited to be out at a show for the first time since late 2020.

She is a little on the lighter side still, but holding steady. I did switch her onto a nicer hay now that fresh-cut hay is finally available but I'm not pushing her hard feed. She's not going back to the stallion this year and tends to be overweight besides. I did think about making her nice and fat and then showing her in hand again at HOY, but to tell you the truth she doesn't look her best - a year off from riding has stripped much of her topline, and she's won the in-hand too many times to go and do badly now. So she'll just look after Wynnie this time and return in full splendour at HOY 2023.

Wynnie continues to find halter training to be wildly exciting. She stands quite nicely, although I need to do a little more work on her reining-back skills, but I'm not particularly worried about getting her to stand herself up square yet - she is only a baby and it doesn't matter if she doesn't go perfectly. Of course I do hope that we'll get a ribbon at HOY since she is the product of some careful breeding and hard planning, but truth be told, it's a foal class and anything can happen. The main goal is just to give Wynnie a nice first show experience and to get some pretty pictures.

Her trotting up needs a little more work, too. She trots beautifully until life gets far too exciting, and then she starts to plunge around madly. The little dragon somehow contorted herself in such a manner that she managed to kick me squarely in the left buttock while keeping her head nicely level with my shoulder. I have no idea how. It was just high spirits, she wasn't aiming for me, although she did get a little telling-off because it won't be cute once she's bigger.

I was delighted when Saturday dawned chilly with a thin, drizzly rain, a perfect opportunity for Wynnie to finally wear her tiny, purple waterproof blanket. It was a gift from one of my liveries when Wynnie was born in the cold, but it didn't fit her at all back then. Now she's somewhat grown into it. She was super adorable about standing patiently for me to put it on and seemed ready to tackle the day all bundled up.

The grooms are also very grateful that Wynnie now leads like a grown-up horse - BabyDragon was starting to be quite a handful. There's no question about it that she's a sassy lady with plenty of fire, a very different kettle of fish from my two sweet geldings. But I loved it in Arwen and so far I love it in her, too. There's just something about a good mare... even if it's a very smol mare right now.

God is so good.

January Photos

 How is it February already? Honestly, this is one of my favourite times of the year. Summer is in full swing, all heat and thunderstorms and green pastures. Once the frustration of trying to get the kids back to lessons before school opens - usually in mid-January - is past, the riding school starts to hit its stride again. Fresh new goals, shows on the horizon... January brims with possibility. (And paying memberships, ugh. But let's not go into that).

We started off the New Year like we always do - staying home and looking after the farm - but on Sunday the 2nd we went on a road trip to this fairytale castle of a stableyard in Douglas, Northern Cape. Douglas is seriously the middle of nowhere, a tiny town deep in the heart of South African diamond country. Kimberly is an hour away - home to the Big Hole, the largest handmade excavation in history, which was a diamond mine. Most of this area is surrounded by game farms, pock-marked by gigantic mine heaps remembering the time when South Africa was by far the largest diamond producer in the world. The world's largest diamond was found here, too, of course, although that was in Cullinan, north of us.

Anyway, we drove down to Douglas to visit Pela Graca Friesians owned by friends of my employers. They own Dries 421, a world champion Friesian stallion, who is the sire of Madam President and also one of the other mares I ride. One of our Friesians had gone down there on trial and was being returned, so we had a nice little breakaway to go and fetch her. It's a seven-hour drive but arriving at Pela Graca was super refreshing. We had this huge guest house to ourselves with a ton of luxuries and everything was just beautiful.

I forgot to take pictures of the horses but we took about 20 of their enormous fluffy dog.

Everything was so pretty. It really felt like sleeping in a castle.

We picked up our Friesian the next morning and took the eight-hour drive home. She was a little restless for the first half-hour, but settled down and traveled like an absolute champ the rest of the way.

Our route took us through the back end of the Free State, where we passed through the tiny village where the beloved was born. We also ended up having a mini-adventure to an even tinier village, Verkeerdevlei (literally "wrong marsh"), to get fuel.

We had expressly stayed home over the Christmas season so that I would be here to catch the two foals due in late December - Wynnie, due the 24th, and a Friesian, due on the 29th. Of course, the Friesian patiently waited until I was hundreds of kilometres away and then produced a gigantic healthy filly on the night of Sunday the 2nd. My poor boss had to handle the whole thing, including the placenta that the mare promptly retained. Nonetheless, mare and foal were happy and healthy. This is a first foal out of a mare that they bred themselves, so she's a very special baby.

Wynnie continued to grow at a rather alarming rate. So did her sass levels.

The first time I met the little filly. She is unbelievably sweet and friendly without the pushiness that some of the very well imprinted foals tend to have. An absolute gem.

Erin and her sister came to visit Ladybug and also saw Lassie and Rose. They're growing at an amazing speed and both super friendly, too. I don't halter train before 3 months or so, but they're used to leading with a soft strap around the neck, and also have their feet cleaned, temperatures taken and fly spray put on.

The Friesian filly came out all wrinkles. It's too cute.

Wynnie's size, sass and cuteness continued to grow. Over Christmas I spent a lot of time with her. I was super sick on Christmas Eve with some kind of respiratory bug and spent some time that morning stretched out on the grass in her paddock with her fast asleep on her side next to me. It was pretty special. My grooms thought I had lost my mind, the crazy boss in her pink pyjamas, sick as a dog and cuddling her baby horse.

She unfolded so nicely into a really chunky lil lady. And extra sassy. Definitely her mother's daughter.

The dragon ears 💜💜 In early January she had a mild, warm puffiness on her right hock that had me very worried. The vet put her on ten days of antibiotics mixed with probiotics, which she took like a champ with a pinch of sugar. It went away nicely once I moved her from the big barn into one of the foaling boxes, which has a dirt floor - I think she was sleeping on the small concrete section by the water buckets when it was hot, and gave herself a pressure sore more than real joint ill. Silly Wynnie.

Rose growing into a magnificent youngster. I think she will be very big if she carries on like this, judging by the length of her legs next to Rene, who is almost 15.3hh.

Wynnie and her Uncle Lancey. She doesn't baby-mouth for him, just pins her ears and snaps at his nose. Absolute little brat.

My new livery, Red. He was a bit sad-looking when he arrived and truth be told he still hasn't put on weight like I want him to, but we'll get there. He belongs to a very sweet kiddo.

The two old fogies looking wonderful. Legacy (left) is 21, Conspicuous (right) is 25. Old Spics had his teeth done in January, not that there are a whole lot of teeth left.

The old girl continues to thrive on the summer grass. She does seem to have a gap in her teeth on the right side of her mouth, so I occasionally need to pull a few clumps of grass out of there. It doesn't bother her. Nothing much bothers her anymore.

I got to have a few rides on the star of the show at the Friesian stud. This magnificent animal is a Dutch import standing 17.1 and just about ready to go Prix St Georges, trained by Coach J. He is the kindest stallion I've ever met. We'll call him Big Boy for blog purposes. He has another rider now, also a Grand Prix rider, but I enjoy our weekly lunge dates. Madam President is also under the new rider but they are a much better fit and I still get to ride two of the EM horses (including Shy Boy) and a youngster, which suits me so much better. I can give them all lots of attention now.

Wynnie's nose started changing colour.

Erin made time for a visit, fitting in plenty of Wynnie cuddles. Wynnie was quite on board with this. She also saw the farrier for the first time; he didn't actually trim her feet, just lifted them and touched them lightly with the rasp, and she was pretty good about it. She did jump a bit when he lifted the first foot but settled immediately after that. 

Thunder came into full work and his body began to change dramatically. I'll do a full post on him after this one.

Our second colt of the season driving his mother insane.

My late afternoon jumping lesson, all SANESA kiddos. The ponies, from left to right: Jamaica, Spirit, Dawn, Flashy and Midas.

My noble old warrior queen 💜 

Lassie, Rose and their moms moved out into the big herd and sleep outside now. The foals handled it great - I doubt most other Nooitie foals ever see a stable, to be honest - and the moms are putting on a lot more weight now that they're on pasture 24/7. Of course, these two are best friends. Wynnie will join them a little later when she's a bit bigger.

Thunder's skin 😕😕 It's the worst it's ever been this year. I tried a bunch of different fly sprays but nothing really cleared it up. The only thing that helped the torturous itching and inflammation to an extent was actually Ingrams' hemp oil cream (for people because horse stuff is just so expensive). Now I'm not one to jump onto the CBD train, but it definitely had a soothing effect, more so than the calamine lotion I was using.

Shy Boy and I working up a storm in the blazing heat. 

Magic is just doing unbelievably well. It's the time of year now where I throw him in the field and forget about him while he grows fat and feral and chases his friends around and has the time of his life. In a few months we'll be back on seven tiny feeds a day and I am not looking forward to it. Anything for this gentle face, though.

Just look at that happy dude 💜 He is dirty and gross right now but I don't think he cares. He's just living his best life with zero expectations.

We got the garden going in December and as always this little flowerbed brings me so much joy. These are all indigenous Namaqualand flowers - gazanias and vygies. Except for the burst of pink at the far end, that's phlox. Also the random tree in the back is the crazy spinach that's trying to take over the world. And behold the tomato that reseeded itself in the middle of the lawn for some reason.

Lassie and Rose are always super playful in the mornings when I check on them.

It is insane how fast my Wynnie is growing. Arwen is slightly on the skinnier side at the moment, but I'm letting her be. She's not going back into foal this year and she has been frighteningly obese in the past, so I'm sure her feet and joints are appreciating her trimmer weight.

My youngster at the Friesians! I love her to bits. She is the cutest thing on four legs. For some reason K, who is normally fearless, doesn't get along with her at all. Instead I, the scaredy-cat, feel totally comfortable up there. We'll call her Miss Sassy.

Dakota is back! He's covering Rene and Faith again this season, both once again on breeding lease to others. Faith will be having another foal for Dakota's owner and Rene's foal is going to a new breeder in the Western Cape. Those two ladies are looking great and I'm enjoying the whole thing. Rene loves being a broodmare and it's settled Faith down a lot, too.

Summer rides with the kiddos. We struggled to beat the rain in January, especially in the late afternoons.

Dragon love 💜

The same flowerbed by late January. I bought some more vygies and put them in the gaps to fill them up with a mad mess of flowers. My gardening skills are about a 2 out of 10 but I sure enjoy it.

Shy Boy and I closed off the month with the first show of the year, in the pouring rain. I'll post the professional photos sometime as well.

God is good.