Well, having thought that I wouldn’t be ready for the Regional Championship with Annabelle being over-due, I am pleased to report that Felix loved being back in work. I was feeling far better than I thought I would as I had been out of the saddle for a few weeks.
We had our lesson with Rhett at the beginning of the month and although I had planned for it to be just a half hour lesson I felt we could have gone on longer and it was then that I thought “you know what, these regionals are more than do-able!”
So it was all systems go, after test riding practise for a week we were all set.
I would normally have taken Felix to a couple of competitions in the run up to a championship but I just didn’t have the time for this so I knew he would maybe be a bit fresh but we were up for a challenge!
My time was 7.58pm and the arena walks were early in the morning so I made the decision we couldn’t really do those either as it would have involved getting up too early with Annabelle and being at the competition all day.
So, we set off as a full family my mum, dad, Gary and Jess to help with Felix – oh and of course Annabelle! Enjoying her ride in the lorry we arrived in time to feed her, then I jumped on board.
Felix felt great although I slightly over cooked the warm up given both of our lack of fitness, I couldn’t have been more pleased with him. He entered the arena with his eyes on stalks and piaffing for a few strides. The more the test went on the more rideable he became and scored a very creditable 71.38% putting me in fourth place, the only down side was the top three qualified for the National Championships, so I am really hoping for a wild card entry but we will see.
I am pleased to say I have been back to work snagging lots of lovely Cyden homes ready for completions at the end of this month and next. It will be a busy few months at work for me in the run up to our year end at the end of October. I am very lucky that Annabelle is able to come with me and we can carry on almost as normal.
We have just brought our other foal and broodmare home from South Grange Stud. It is lovely to finally welcome a colt, this is one special boy by Bodyguard and my mare, Dixi is by de Niro X Landgraf, so hopefully there is an exciting future ahead for him.
As I do have a little bit more family time now, Annabelle and I joined my brother and his family for a few days holiday at Sandilands to watch my talented nieces and nephew win both of their respective age groups at the tennis tournament and catch a few days of sunshine.
We will be starting our homebred three-year-olds very soon so I look forward to reporting on those too.