Emma and Kate © Zoe Townsend

By Emma Pidgeon

The last few weeks have been pretty intense. I trekked out to a small town with one pub in western Queensland called ‘Comet’. I had both Arthur and Kate with me for Kate’s first official comp. Kate lifted my spirits by really kicking some goals. She was flawless with clear rounds all weekend at her 70cm height. Arthur brought home the Equitation rug sponsored by Rainforest Chia. It’s a much nicer 5.5 hour drive home when you have a weekend like that!

The following weekend however, Kate stepped up to the 90cm class at Cannonvalley. A small club 2 hours up the highway from home. Kate let me know in no uncertain terms that she was not ready for 90cm. My long legs are apparently just for looking nice in short skirts; they’re certainly not for hanging on. I hit the deck – TWICE! Sheepishly I finished off the weekend with Arthur picking up the slack with second overall both days (always the bridesmaid). We went back to the drawing board to work on Kate and get her confidence back to continue with 70cm. We’ll stay at that height now for a while until she lets us know she’s ready to go up. She is a thinker, with a lot of scope so I don’t want to push her.

Kate (Haveitoldyoulately back to her comfortable height) © Zoe Townsend 

The weekend just gone we finally got to compete on some home turf. Just 10 minutes up the road this time. Kate silenced all of the critics with a stellar performance finishing third overall in the 70cm class. Arthur on the other end blew us all away coming home with the win in the 80cm class! I was thrilled because it was so hot I was very tempted to scratch and stay under the shade! It was electrolytes all round for the ponies, and despite all the contrary advice from super-athlete Amanda Ross, it was a coke can and mince burger for this human athlete… *guilty eye dart*.

Kate has earned her place in the family with her own impressa false tail. I need a little more practice putting it in before I can share with you a proper before and after shot. As I described in a previous blog (I think it was called presentation for dummies by a dummy) I’m no presentation guru. I’m not the one being head hunted as a groom for show horses… It is a beautiful quality tail though and I’m so excited to have her looking schmick (well, once the rest of my presentation skills have some work).

The old reliable! Photo by Zoe Townsend. Again the shirt! Ugh!

The plan for the next few weeks is to keep Arthur’s fitness up for the upcoming state champs, polish up his performance and work on some wicked jump-off turns. With Arthur only jumping 80cm, he’ll be competing against all the kids who were previously in the pony and Galloway classes. That class was an absolute blood-sport so we need to step up our corners to keep up with those wild ones.

The last few weeks have been so jam-packed the above is such a brief summary. I think I would have travelled over 1200km with the horses in just 3 weeks. With the season barely started it is looking to be a big year. Lucky the fuel prices have gone down!!

Until next time,

Emma J