We had arranged a ridden and driven display as Emma Wiggins, Julie Harrisson and Mack brought three Thoroughbred or Standardbred crosses (all by Mill Creek Valiant) from Kerikeri to join in with our rider. Unfortunately our 14 yo son Conor had fallen at school playing chess- just joking he was playing volleyball so was not able to ride, luckily Sophie Arnoux was able to step in and she jumped B. Shamrock over a course of Showhunter jumps.
As we warmed up the horses a cold shower came over and drenched us all. Emma Wiggins drove her 5yo Standardbred X Welsh cob gelding Red Rupert (Mill Creek Valiant X Sasha) around our jumping paddock.
Sophie Arnoux jumped 7yo Ballytruckle Shamrock, which was very nice of her as she had only just recovered from a broken collarbone- but as it was the lovely Shamrock she felt safe with her- we all do!
then Mack and Julie Harrisson double lunged and longreined 2yo Ballytruckle Irving (Mill Creek Valiant X I Like Her) and 2yo Ballytruckle Tara ( Mill Creek Valiant X Tudor Moon).
Julie spoke about how she admired the Welsh cob X tb and was more than pleased with Irving from his movement for dressage, his tractability and his train ability.
Meantime Emma had got a set of harrows attached to Red Rupert which he gaily pulled around the paddock.
At one time the end of the harrows got hooked up on the stand for a jump and he just stopped and waited for Emma to unhook it.
Julie rode Irving very quietly at walk and trot in front of the delegates - it was his third time being ridden and he hadnt been ridden for about 2 months as they realise he is only a 2 yo but that is how Mack and Julie like to bring on their young horses, back them as 2 yo and ride them occassionally until they are three.
At Ballytruckle we dont back our horses until they are 4 yo and we dont jump them until they are 5yo as we have found that when you have Welsh cob blood they are late developers and slow to grow to their eventual size.
Rupert was saddled for Julie who rode him as well! What a truly versatile horse! The assembled watchers were shivering and needing to get on due to time constraints to view other studs.
The next horse to be seen was Cwmkaren Beaufort Express ( Nebo Dyfrig Express X Sydenham Brioni) imported from Australia as a 6 mo colt and now he is a 4 yo stallion and sire of three Champions In-Hand already. In a spontaneous moment we had some of the best showing people in NZ handling Beau as Tina McNab stood him up nicely and Shaun Horan ran him out for everyone to see his lovely movement. Thank you both for your wonderful assistance. Photos and video hopefully coming soon.
The delegates trudged through the mud to warm up and viewed most of the breeding stud. In typical fashion 8yo Lexie (Ballytruckle Alexander Rose {Tireinon Cadet X Waimarie Ceridwen}) was uncatchable when 60 people peered over the fence at her and her colt Ted- she can really move!
On the other end of the calmness spectrum 6yo B.Cleopatra (Mill Creek Valiant X Llandovery Mercury) thought it was lovely to have all these people come to see her and hopefully they brought some food with them!
To finish up we lead out a few of the remaining Thoroughbred crosses.