Pony Club Camp - Waerenga 11/12 January

Well I decided to continue Flynn's education and took him to PC camp to play with the kids. This year it was held at Waerenga, so meant that I could put more time into practicing the stream crossings that we had so many issues with at the Waerenga Horse Trial. We went down on the Friday night and straight away went out for a hack across the farm. Made Flynn jump into the empty water jump which he wasn't at all phased about. He was however still really not happy about crossing the creek. After about 10 trips back and forward through the creek, he eventually just started marching through them. About freaking time! Took him back in & gave him dinner.

The next morning we had games with the kids, we had a trotting race, onion & spoon race (no eggs), 3 legged race and barrel race. Was such a laugh watching all the adults trying their hand at the games (quite a few of our adult ride went down to camp this year which made it a whole heap of fun!!) Flynn decided he quite liked the barrel race & we came away with 2nd place behind a mentally zippy pony hehehe. I have to say, I do really love my horse, how many have one fast enough to be competitive with the ponies, yet still stand on the buckle dozing with horses galloping past them at the finish line?

We then had to the gamblers stakes. Only problem is that it was filled with scarey jumps, including a jump where the whole top pole was covered in balloons (about 12) & they were all waving in the wind. We were 2nd to go & I figured that that jump would be the one worth the most points, so decided to go straight at it first so that if I could get him over it, we'd then be able to do it a few times over the minute that we had. Naturally Flynn freaked out about the jump but after a few dithering seconds in front of it, realised that I wasn't going to back off & that jumping it was the only option. So he unceremoniously threw himself over it. Seems to be his new habit, if in doubt, do a really unstylish body hiff over it!

So we carried on with the course, jumped the single half barrel on its side, the line of 20L water containers, the tyres etc, etc & managed to do a great line of 3 jumps that were on the most extreme angle possible whilst still being able to not hit the jumps stands. The last jump of this line just happened to be the balloons which was handy. Then the 10second bell rang, so we went down the line one more time, with the balloon jump last. Only problem is that by this stage after jumping it a few times, Flynn was pretty lazy & took it out with his back legs, knocking the pole off & popping every balloon bar 2. Sounded like fireworks going off, which didn't even worry him. In fact, out of the 30 odd horses, only 1 old boy had a spaz & even then it was over & done with in seconds. Only problem is that they had no replacement ballons & with me being 2nd to go, nobody else had to do the hard version of the balloon jump so everyone merrily sailed over it with no problems. I was proud that nobody could match my 3 jump line though hehehe. We ended up winning on 76 points, with the next person on 68.

Was so much fun & again, I was so proud of the big change in Flynn, he would never have jumped the balloon jump a year ago, he would have created a right song & dance & spent hours telling me all the reasons why he couldn't possibly jump it.

Then that night we took the horses out for a light XC schooling session, including some big jumps in the fence lines and practicing the empty water jump again. By the end of it, I had Flynn jumping the pre novice water combination, in over the upright jump in front, jumping into the water, out of the water & out over the last upright jump. He didn't stop at anything, the only thing that was holding us back at that point were my own nerves!

The next morning we got up & went for a nice bareback ride around the farm, had a few canters and jumped the gamblers stakes jumps again. I do like bareback riding, really should do more of it on Flynn as he really seems to enjoy it.

Then it was home time for some much needed sleep!