As promised, here is a bit of an update as to what is going on over here. If you want to have a look on my website www.emilybutcherequestrian.com, there is some info and video on there.
It has been a very exciting week for me, building up to the best part when Matt arrives back in Thailand tonight and we have two weeks holiday together....YAY!!!!!
We had another very successful Dressage competition, and an OK Show Jumping performance as well on Friday and Saturday. Friday was dressage day (well night actually). We didn't start until 6pm and I was still on my last horse at 10pm, very different from home. The competition was held at the Royal Bangkok Sposts Club (RBSC) Polo Club which is right in the middle of Bangkok....very crazy stuff. I was warming up in the outdoor arena under lights, surrounded by high rise buildings. Hopefully someone got a photo that I can put up for you to see.
I rode four horses again, three in the Novice and Filou in the Medium. I had two of my riders also competing in the Novice and we managed to take out the top 5 placings which was a real buzz. I won on Harley with a 69% score. He was first to go and I was pretty sure he wouldn't be beaten, he did a beautiful test. The next closest mark was 62% which was one of my Thai riders. I was 3rd, also on 62% on the coloured Stallion...he was such a good boy, and then 4th on the naughty 4yr old who had never been to a competition or done a dressage test before. This was even more impressive as we had to do things like leg yeild, medium trot and canter and counter canter...not bad for a baby. Matthew finished 5th to complete the Phoenix line up.
Filou put in a very solid performance in the Medium test. They are much harder than the Mediums we have at home, 3 flying changes, trot and canter half pass, 2 canter halts...it was pretty full on. Anyway, we won on a score of 64.9% (couldn't believe we didn't quite make 65%!!). It was a big deal as it was the HRH Princess Cup or something, so there was a fancy presentation and process to be awarded my cup which involved a lot of curtsying and photo taking and all that sutff that I enjoy so much!!! All worth it though, it was really fun.
The Show Jumping was in a tiny arena, maybe 50x50 with a full course of 9 jumps plus two doubles. A course designers nightmare but they did an admirable job. There were only two clear rounds, of which we didn't have either, but of the four horses, we had two on 4 faults and two on 8 faults which was pretty good when you look at the previous form of some of these horses believe me. Harley is renowned for taking 5 or 6 rails and he only had 1 down so I was stoaked with that (although I wish he had saved that round for the CCI).
So Sams lame horse has still not been worked. I have been taken off the case and they decided to go back to the original farrier, so I am just taking the back seat and waiting to see what comes of it. One of the riders horses was also lame this week and didn't get to the competition which was a shame. I have been absolutely blown away by the haste in which they throw bute at these horses. Any sign of an issue and it is straight in the vein. I am still not entirely sure what the logic is behind this process but I am beginning to think that it is just a more simple solution than trying to actually properly diagnose and treat the issue. Whatever the reasoning is, I am cetrainly not convinced; and it is not a practice that I will be bringing home with me!!!
30 May 2010, Day 14
Today one of my worst nightmares came to reality. At about 9am, the power went off. Now its not until you experience the extreme heat over here and the relief that you feel when you walk into an airconditioned room that you would understand where I am coming from. I am still alive to tell the story though, and the power was restored about 1pm. By this time I had taken to sitting on the floor as the tiles still provided some cooling effect, with a wet towel around my neck. All of the curtains were closed to prevent any daylight entering, and the sweat was still dripping off me. So if you are back in NZ complaining about the cold, at least you can put another layer of clothes on and sit by the fire.
The curfew has been lifted here now, so no excuses for my remaining two horses not to arrive. Hopefully they will be here in the next few days as we are planning on goingn XC schooling some time next week and wouldn't mind seeing them go first. I have been doing quite a bit of jumping this week and will be sure to do a lot more. Some of the horses have learnt to be vary careless show jumping and that is going to be quite a challenge to overcome. However we seem to be on the right track and all of the horses are progressing well. Next step the Riders, I think the horses will be the easy part...at least I can whip them!!!!
25 March 2010
It’s been over a week now since we arrived, Matt was here for the first 7 days and he went home on Sunday so all alone now!!!
I currently have 5 horses to ride daily, none of the riders are here yet and two other horses and riders are due to arrive any day from up North but have been delayed with a night time curfew and it being too hot to travel horses during the day. Today is the coolest day so far, but only just bearable to go out in shorts and singlet around midday...the sun isn't even out.
Rainy season has just started (apparently back home too I hear) so there are lots of thunder storms coming through and things are very wet. We start at 6am to beat the worst of the heat and I usually only get 3 horses worked before retiring till the evening, starting again about 5pm.
The horses vary, Sam owns two that are seasoned 1* horses with their own issues but pretty straight forward. I am riding a wee jumper stallion and trying to teach him how to go on the bit which can be pretty amusing, but a fun challenge. I am also riding a naughty 4yr old called Aragon, but I have changed his name to Arogant!!! The other one is an Aus import that came from Olivia Bunn two years ago, a lovely Warmblood that I am really enjoying working with. It is pretty boring for them though, 6 days riding a week and they are only ever working in the arena, living full time inside.
Matt and I were both really sick for a couple of days in the first week, but seem to have recovered from that....a couple of kg’s lighter maybe.
I have been pretty much left to my own devices this week which has its own issues. Sam’s assistant is the only one that is consistently around in the afternoon so I need to make sure all the messages for the following day get through as he is my best bet of getting the translating through to the Thai speaking grooms. Today was my biggest challenge of all, a jumping session with Thai speaking helpers....I was dreading it, but actually didn't work out too bad. They understand Oxer and Verticle, but apart from that it was all pointing and hand signals, very funny.
Hopefully I will have some riders to work with by next week as I have no idea what they are going to be like...hopefully their English is a bit better!!!
Thats all for now from Thailand
Emily |