New living arrangements for my ponies!!

Those of you guys that have read some of my previous posts will know I haven't been happy with my horses grazing for awhile now. For starters, all the flat land available to ride on the grazing manager won't let me actually ride there, so my only way of riding has been up and down the road which is near impossible to do any proper work or training on my horses that way.
Also my ponies are not allowed to be locked up or restricted and there grass is crazy long and they are getting fat. Even with being ridden every day their weight is just continually increasing and it's not good for them.
I talked to my bosses partner and she told me I could lock them in the yards and put them in a paddock when I want to out at pretrainers. This is where we train our babies around a small personal track and where we work the racers till they are fit enough to go to the big stables.
For free.
All I have to do is feed up the horses out there on the weekends and put rugs on the working horse's on sunny days so we can let them enjoy the sun on there backs on a nice day.
I have access to the tracks if I want to take my ponies for a gallop, to the yards where they will be living for awhile, to the tie ups and hose areas. I have paddocks I can ride in and a good road which I can ride to tracks which lead to a beach.
It's perfect and only 2 minutes from my house....
It's not a permanent situation, just till i can find somewhere to graze them that offers what I want.
Today was moving day. The ponies both loaded straight away and travelled really good.
They are both happy and settled in.

That left Sophie. I wasn't about to leave her on her own. If you remember in my post about poppy I said she was going to be put with her. It's a bit further away but still an awesome place with a whole farm and plenty of space to ride. And also a lady just down the road who has a course of jumps we are allowed to use.
I was a bit worried about how the two mares would get on but they loved each other straight away.

Jumpout day!!

Its been pretty busy at work lately with all the Christmas races. We had horse's racing on Saturday, Monday and Tuesday.
The races on Saturday and Tuesday were local, which meant today (Wednesday) is jumpout day.
For those of you that don't remember, here are some photos from my first jumpout on my favourite horse On Debut.

In my jumpout today I rode another of my favourites. 

Silver Lady

I've been the main rider on her since she came in from spelling. She's very quiet, doesn't pull and I generally ride her with a long rein. She does have a tendency to lay in, pushing into her pair horse or just generally not going straight, but I've been working on her a lot, every morning making her stay straight on her line and she's improved heaps!!  But I was still a little worried today that she would drift out and clip heels with the other horses or drift in front of someone else. 

The boss just told me to stay safe and be aware!! 

I didn't really have to worry though, she jumped out of the gates good and went straight to begin with. She was galloping good and I ended up putting her 4 wide and asking more of her to keep up, but she did and kept giving when I asked for more. 

Super happy with how she went, she galloped super and the boss was happy. 

He said if it was an actual race I would have been screwed but I listened to him and stayed safe (because Im still learning) and had the horse go well so he was happy. 

Honestly, I've said it before but there's no better feeling than a racehorse in full gallop!!!! 

To finish with here are a few photos of my favourite baby out at the pretrainers. He's so cute and very cheeky and such a dude. 

Charlie!! 

Goodbye Poppy!!!!

The Christmas just before I turned 12 I got the pony that would make me of so much of the rider I am today. The pony that was going to be my best friend for the next 10 years of my life.
I remember feeling beyond excited when the horse truck dropped her off that Christmas eve.
Poppy was 4 years old, 14.3hh, Standardbred mare,and one of the best things to ever happen to me. She was my second pony and we travelled 6 hours to try her.
We learned she was a rescue and the lady we brought her off had rehabilitated her.
For a previously abused pony she was very trusting and after 6 months being out of work, I was able to walk trot and canter her no worries at all.

5 days after getting her home she lay down in the paddock with me, and fell asleep with her head in my lap.

Through my teenage years she was my rock. I'd go sit with her in the paddock when I was having a bad day, cry into her mane, and if I had nightmares i would often go out to see her in the middle of the night and just sit on her while she grazed. All of which she put up with never-ending patience.

Over the years we had lots of adventures together. She taught me to stay on, balance, to always have light hands, patience, and the true meaning to fall in love with a horse.

Over the years I learnt to jump on her, jumping her to 1m10 (3'6 I think??), I learnt mounted games and how to vault, competing up to national level. I competed her in, showing, inhand, mounted games, eventing, and pony club competitions. We even did a few dressage competitions. We came home in the ribbons every single time.

We spent our summers at the beach, swimming in the river, walking through the town. I taught her lots of tricks, she gives kisses, does the Spanish walk, smiles, rears and bows on command. I would ride her on the farm and bring the cows in for milking on her. I would take her to the school to give pony rides at the pet days and to show of her tricks. We even rode through the McDonald's drive through bareback!! I would do so much of my riding on her bareback and we progressed to bareback and bridleless.
I wouldn't be the rider or person I am today without this pony and I owe so much to her.

Every girl needs a pony like Poppy in her life and for Christmas this year my little sister is now the proud new owner of this one in a million pony. I can still see her whenever I want and soon my girl Sophie will be grazing with her so I will still see her everyday. My little sister is dedicated and has bonded with poppy heaps and I can't wait to see poppy make her as happy as she made me.

Merry Christmas Olivia.