Cross Country Schooling.

Last weekend we took advantage of this lovely weather we've been having by cross country schooling at Frying Pan Park in Virginia. This is a fantastic training course for horses and riders starting out as it has everything you need; water, ditch, bank, scary bogey men lurking behind the bushes.... I was accompanied by Lisa Kurr, Deborah Schuman, Gibby Booth and Alex Macleod. I took Amy Gaynor's horse and two of mine, Boo (Robin Doser) and Sydney. Lisa's pretty new to the whole riding thing and is an absolute champion. She lives her life by the theory 'jump in the deep end then learn how to swim, fast!' She's also new to the challenges that come with driving horses around. As we had 7 horses we had to take two trailers, one being Lisa's. Gwen (Deborah) and Roy (Lisa) were very comfortable and happy with Lisa's driving as was Deborah. They certainly looked to be having a good time chatting away.. The same could not be said for poor Gibby who was stuck in our truck with the two worst singers in the world, Alex and myself. And even worse for her was the fact that both Alex and I know ALL the words to ALL the songs on my Ipod!!! Think she'll be traveling with the horses next time.... For Lisa the only hiccup of getting a bit bogged which she turned into a learning experience, and that learning experience was that Kate, being the country girl I am, sure knows how to get a truck out of mud!!

Thanks to Alex for the great pictures, they were much clearer until I 'improved' them with Photoshop!!

The great weather encouraged a lot of people to Frying Pan on Saturday and we were lucky (or not!) to share our cross country course with a harness horse, coloured horses, crazy horses and hunters. The going was very slippery but we made the most of it and the horses all jumped well.

Australia is probably best described as a temperate climate so I'm still learning about all this ice and snow. I learnt two lessons on Saturday; 1, when the ice melts it makes the ground slippery, no rain necessary, and 2, get the person standing on the ground to test the thickness of ice in the water jump, not quarter horse having his first experience cross country!! Evidently even in 60 degree weather the ice can still be a few inches thick, lesson learnt!!! Lisa and Roy were the stars of the day and they had a blast. I LOVE helping people learn the ropes of this awesome sport, especially we they show as much enthusiasm as my students always do.

Rocco and Harmony came back from showjumping in Florida this week which is fantastic. They look awesome with their suntans and 'too cool for school' attitudes. Both of them feel great and have busy schedules planned. This week is pretty busy as Cowboy had a car accident and I have taken the bulk of his job. Hopefully he'll have recovered soon and be back on deck.

And also congratulations to Lara Dombrovskis (and her partner Alex of course, Australia) on the birth of their first child.