avondale warmbloods

Another wonderful clinic with Ilse this month! Choccie(aka LIndt) really worked hard at perfecting his medium test moves getting ready for an Official start at this level this month. Ludo(aka Libertine) showed us all how fantastically well he can piaffe and passage even though he did think Ilse was tremendously scary when her coat blew around in the wind and passaged for a ten for a few laps around the arena complete with snorts and tail in the air!  Mimi (aka Sonnet) really started to work through the contact issues and show she can be a big girl when she wants to be and Miranda( Resolution) was her usual easy going happy baby self learning about how to travel in a more uphill frame and shorten up her ginormous canter.

As usual its always a sad day when she leaves us but now counting the days until the end of August when we can host yet again another great 4 day clinic.

So it has been a rather late start to the competition season with once again the wet weather playing havoc with lots of comps having to be cancelled. We did make it to the local day in Allora with the baby of the team Avondale Resolution who was impeccably behaved and won both her tests!

The next outing for us was the Toowoomba Dressage Associate Championships. Avondale Lindt competed at medium level for the first time and was Champion overall! A great start to the season for him! He won a beautiful wool rug and some lovely prizes. Thank you to Horseland Toowoomba for their wonderful sponsorship of the event!

My students have been doing some amazing stuff on the Show Circuit this year with Kirsty Mason and her 3 Hacks competing in 7 shows for 6 champions, 4 reserve Champions and 3 Supreme Champions! Melanie Wellstead was Reserve champion Hack of Toowoomba Royal Show with the lovely Hypnotise, and has just recently gone top 5 and Top 10 at Lismore Country Hack Championships. More news to come as everyone has been out and about achieving some amazing goals

This week we are hosting Ilse Schwarz once again for a 4 day clinic, she is just hot of the heels from a week with Steffen Peters coaching. Looking forward to the learning to come this week!

It has been a really fantastic start to 2013 with the Ag shows kicking off at the end of January. My students have been going brilliantly and gaining some amazing results. Reserve, Champions and Supreme so far with many wins and placings along the way. You can check out the photos and full resukts on the Avondale Warmbloods page on facebook.

January also saw the start of a bevy of overseas instructors hitting our shores for the yearly Boot Camps! Peter Storr was the end of January, unfortunately into some horrendous weather but thankfully indoors. Just very hard to negotiate the flooded roads and we didnt make it for half the clinic. Peter works very closely with Carl Hester and I really enjoyed his humour and eye for detail. It was great to get my 4 yr old Avondale Resolution out and about even though it ended up being a bit scary for her she coped beautifully. So beautifully in fact that I decided to take her off the market for now in the hope that she will grow and be a competition horse for me.

Next was the indominatable Leonie Bramall, as always not exactly what you always want to hear but exactly what you need to push through and go up a level. Leonie is tough, but she looks at every horse and every little detail which is why she is a genious.

To finish off we had Ilse Schwarz here for a 3 day clinic. It was wonderful to have her back and great timing to help put all the pieces and learning together from the last few weeks into logic and a program that we can follow until she is back in May!

With the continued wet weather it has been hard to contemplate a start to the competition year for the Avondale team. So many Competitions postponed or cancelled its hard to pick a start date. Mostly comps are being held on the coast for us and it makes it very hard to think about competing until after April.

Make sure you check out the updated For Sale section, we have two very special young horses looking for great competiion homes. They are both really uncomplicated, easy going horses with talent and temperament for the big arena.

Shau Mich An, 3 yr old warmblood gelding.

Avondale Resolution 4 yr old warmblood mare

The middle of September saw us head a little more locally to the Brenda Wittman Members Championships. After a long lay off from competing I took Avondale Sonnet for the preliminary class and Alex Rowes lovely mare Regency Lanthee for the medium Chmapionships. Sonnet coped beautifully with the busy warm up but did get a fright in her first test at the arenas facing the busy Warrego Highway. The second test she kept her concentration and completed a beautiful test for second place. I wa sreally thrilled with her as it has been a long road back after her complete lack of confidence at competitions.

Lanthee won both the medium tests and the Champion sash so we were really thrilled with our day out!

The last weekend of September we headed North to Nambour for the Sunshine Coast Titles. Avondale Lindt competed in the Preliminary and Novice levels. Unfortunately a large difference in the scoring between the 2 judges resulted in a lower placing in the preliminary and ultimately the Preliminary Championship as we won the second Prelim test with a score over 70%. The C judge even scored us over 73%! In the novice we placed 5th and 7th overall and I was pretty happy with my placings in a large field.

Looking forward to the State Championships in two weeks now with my Choccie boy and hopefully continue to move up the ranks

So the Ilse Schwarz clinic is done and dusted. Four days of fantastic teaching and learning. Ilse has such a clear way of explaining the finer details, telling you exactly how to ride something not just well, more hind leg or half halt more. Just very clear concise methodology. I really am starting to feel the results of consistent teaching methods, just one system that really works.

Avondale Lindt did the PRARG ** champs on Sunday 16th for good placings in a very strong, large field. I was so proud of my young horse that did not require someone to lead him from warm up to arena, or buck, rear or shy at every moment. He is really a wonderful competitor, loves to please and is rock solid in his attitude and temperament. So much fun to compete on an uncomplicated happy horse

My working pupil Karli Hatton also completed her very first Pre novice eventing on the weekend. Its been a huge year for Karli who has taken her horse Freedoms Ace from Introductory to Pre novice in one season. Congratulations Karli, your hard work is paying off!

I have just posted a new journal entry on Barnby notes if you want to pop over there and have read www.barnbynotes.com and look under rider journals. Its a great site and some fantastic notes from other riders to read as well.

The 12th August we headed south of the border to the lovely town of Armidale for an official comp. Its been a really difficult year to get any sort of qualifying scores or competition starts with so many comps cancelled so now its a struggle to get to as many as we can done in time to qualify for State Champs and the Nationals. As we drove into town there was sleet and the occasional snow flake! It was very very cold but they are a hardy lot down there and the show went on! Choccie again did really well with great scores and a 2nd and a 5th in the novice.

The next show was the Fraser Coast Championships at Maryborough, yes more big miles! Totally worth the drive though with good stabling and an Indoor with a great surface. Choccie won Preliminary Champion, narrowly missed getting Novice Champion and a second in the freestyle. I also rode Alexandra Rowes lovely mare Regency Lanthee in the medium divisions to take home Official medium Champion, associate medium Champion and won the medium freestyle. It was a shame the numbers were so low in the official classes, its a great venue, friendly commitee and some terrific prizes! Alexandra also competed her 4 yr old Avondale Panache in the official preliminary classes for a 5th and 6th place. A great effort and wonderful to see this young superstar in the making handle himself so well in a strange place with limited outings. A testament to the great job Alex is doing with this horse!

Special mention must also go Mel widdis from Fortissimo Freestyles who choreographed, edited and musically perfected both my Novice and Medium Freestyles. I cannot recommend Mel highly enough if you are looking to get a freestyle done then get in touch with her at www.fortissimofreestyles.com.au.

Also to Black Label Equestrienne who outfitted us in new riding jackets, shirts and stocks for the weekend! We felt fabulous and the results speak for themselves  The new 2012 spring range is now in store and ready to order at www.blacklabeleq.com.au

The next event on the agenda is the Ilse Shwarz clinic from the 5th to the 8th September. Once again it is a well attended sell out clinic. Fence sitters are welcome at a cost of $20/day and includes refreshments. The venue is the Allora Indoor for the first 3 days and then at home here at Avondale Warmbloods for the Saturday.

Mention must  also go to some of my students, Croxley Studs Three Tails, Amy Taylor and Clare Kelly who competed very  succesully at the Ekka this year with many placings across several classes. Christine Baker who has really improved tremendously with Psuedo Echo to place at the recent Hunter Trials and associate dressage at both Toowoomba and Allora. Karli Hatton my working pupil has been competing elementary dressage and placing well and also doing some hunter trials and schools getting ready for the jump to Pre novice eventing.

Mid July saw us head to the Gold Coast for a 4 day clinic with Lientje Schueler, who is Steffen Peters head rider. She was great fun, clear and concise in her teaching and I learnt a lot more about riding the horse up in the frame and keeping them travelling forward into a soft contact. All aids were whispered and harmony, balance and correct riding really reinforced. Recently Lientje took Regalo a %yr old to the Markel Young Horse Championships in Lamplight USA and won that division. You can find a link to that story here, http/www.dressage-news.com/?p=17495.

The end of July was the Brisbane CDI which held at the new State Equestrian facility at Caboolture. The stabling and camping are fantastic and the surface in the indoor really wonderful to ride on. Avondale Lindt aka Choccie competed in the Qld State Young Horse Championships and did really well in the first round to go through in 7th place into the second round. The level of competition and horses was very high so I was pretty chuffed to go into the second round in such good company. We ended up 9th overall in the 5 yr old division. Now its home for some training and establish the flying changes for the 6 yr old division!

Once again we hosted the fabulous Ilse Schwarz for a 3 day clinic at the end of June. Once again big learning curves and lots of fun all round with a Christmas in July celebration on the Friday night. It is wonderful to see the big improvements everyone is making and as Ilse says "great to have such a terrific bunch of people that all come back each time "

Karli and I did our local competition here in Allora st the end of June for some match practise. Karli won her first ever start at Elementary level and Avondale Libertine won the advanced. Some of my students also did exeptionally well in the Prep, Prelim and Hack classes with wins and placings all round. If you are looking for a quiet outing for your horse or want to practise your test riding, I can highly recommend Allora as a day out. You can find them by googling allora show society or on facebook.

June seemed to be bugged with rained out competitions and it sure has been hard to get a start anywhere close. We headed off to Grafton for their Club Championships, its a 5 hr drive! Arrived to find what is usually held in a sand arena set up in the middle of the grass cow paddock! Fresh cow pats made for interesting riding and the unmown, unlevel ground was no help when they set up the arenas. Needless to say after a wonderful warm up Ludo (Avondale Libertine) disgraced himself in the advanced when he lost himself completely at a child jumping up and down on a wheelie bin banging it with a stick! I had to stop in the middle of the test to ask him to stop....PLEASE! Bad luck, yes, but in reality he should be so focussed on me that he doesn't notice scary things outside the arena. Back to the drawing board and more confidence building for Mr Ludo. I pulled out of the PSG as it just seemd impossible with the going to get a decent score and accurate test. They are a really friendly bunch in Grafton, such a shame that they just didn't seem to have it all together for this competition. 

Mr Ludo, looking happier on a nice sand arena!

We had a wonderful visit from Liz Pope who is Kareelah St Liebschens original mum. After over 2 yrs off and only one ride in the past 12 months we saddled Liebs for a little ride, she went beautifully and has not forgotten any of her training. Such a great temperament and still a fantastic comfy ride, makes me very happy to be using her in our breeding program. This breeding season we are again using frozen semen with her and have picked out a few special stallions as possibilities for breeding. Liebs is also the mum of Avondale Panache who can be seen out and about competing with his owner Alex Rowe. We have a really special Contendro Filly from this mare as well who is due to be started early 2013. 

The gorgeous Liebschen!

With a busy time at work and many competitions cancelled due to bad weather it has been a very slow start to the year and frustrating that it has taken so long to get out competing. The highlight so far has been another clinic with Ilse Schwarz at the end of April and we look forward to hosting her again 28th,29th & 30th June. There are spectator spots available each day if you would like to see this world class instructor in action. Please email me for further details.

The end of May saw Avondale Libertine aka Ludo win Advanced Champion at the Associate Championships in Toowoomba and the Advanced Freestyle. I also had the pleasure of riding Regency Lanthee for her owner Alex Rowe in the Medium championship and the Medium Freestyle. After a lengthy break from training Dreamy acquitted herself very well with good placings and a win in the Freestyle. Alex competed Avondale Panache in the preliminary championship and did some lovely work. For a just turned 4yr old he is doing remarkably well and is handling the competition atmosphere with great attitude and style.

This year we have been lucky enough to have a working pupil start with us, Karli Hatton from North Queensland. Karli has been a fabulous addition to the team and has been out and about competing in Eventing with top ten placings at all events so far this year.

The other big news is that I have resigned from work and travelling away to focus full time on riding and teaching. Its going to be a wonderful year

Alex and Avondale Panache

Karli and Pete rocking it at Warwick ODE.