42 – Road Trip South
We were on our way south. Kerry had done all the planning and had our schedule sorted. First night was in Palmerston North with Lindy as usual, the ponies must be starting to feel quite at home there!
Next morning we stopped at an equestrian centre on the way down to Wellington for a ride. Really lovely, there were multiple grassy tracks through scrubby dunes which ended with a bit of a beach ride. A great outing for the horses before a long time on the truck waiting at the ferry terminal and then the Cook Strait crossing itself. The ferry trip went well, very calm and lots of dolphins to watch.
On to Blenheim racecourse for the night. A bit exciting there were lots of lovely Gypsy Cob horses there, they had been down south filming with Peter Jackson. Before heading off in the morning we had a ride around the large grassy parking area at the racetrack, possibly not the best idea in hindsight as the Thoroughbreds and Standardbreds working on the track sent Lace into a complete tizz-woz that she hadn’t fully recovered from by the time we loaded up.
We found a lovely little park beside a bay at Kaikoura so were able to get the horses off for a pee and a pick of grass. Lace had chewed the wall board in the truck – and it was new so she wasn’t popular – she was clearly still a bit stressed from the morning at the track as she had never done anything like that before.
Kaikoura is world renowned for its whale watching and even from the park we had a great view of dolphins playing in the bay! Just across the road was a kindergarten with windows in the wall around the outdoor play area, little faces pressed against the glass… so of course we took the horses over to see them – as you do. It was quite funny, they’re all like “Horses!” and we’re “But there are dolphins, they’re much more exciting!”, “No, No, Horses!”
The parking paddock didn’t have much grass, but there was lovely grass to be had near the start, so over the course of the weekend we spent a lot of time out there with the ponies, always a lovely way to catch up with people.
We had arrived a couple of days early to give the horses a chance to recover from the journey. But Lisa and Emma weren’t flying down until Friday evening and didn’t get in until about 9pm, by which time we’d had the briefing and were in bed. Emma was riding so I guess she must have managed to weigh etc. Because of this we didn’t really have a team meeting/chat the night before, in hindsight I think we had slipped a bit into holiday mode and hadn’t quite got into endurance mode.
Pressing on down the coast road, seal spotting the while – the road is right beside the ocean and there were often seals lounging on the rocks. Then out onto the plains and to base. I noticed the more relaxed approach to road works – North Island = masses of cones and signs, South Island = maybe a cone or two along with the sign, but don’t count on it.
During the trip down I had got into the habit of tying Lace to the truck to saddle up. So without thinking I did the same thing in the dark on race morning. This is not something I would normally do, usually we saddle up in the pen. It was cold, Henry’s cover was folded back so Kerry could put the saddle on, I don’t do that with Lace, she doesn’t like it. But then Henry’s cover fell off giving Lace and fright and she pulled back. Riding her around before the start she seemed ok, actually she felt great, full of enthusiasm. The first bit along the edge of the road I wasn’t sure, but I ride on road edges a lot and know that I’m capable of imagining all sorts of things when on the edge of the gravel like that.
The rest of the loop she felt great and we had a lovely ride, coming in with the first bunch she vetted well, first into the vet ring so we avoided the queue that soon piled up as horses exceeded vets…. Heart rate 64 – perfect timing! – CRI 52, awesome… but lame behind. NO!!!! Yep, the same as before, pull back = sore neck = back out = lame behind. Possibly having done the same thing recently it flared up more quickly than previously or perhaps we had also trod on some stones to exacerbate it. South Island courses are quiet rocky compared to our more grassy North Island tracks.
Lace was very stressed when the other horses went out again without her, shaking in the corner. So I took her back to the vets just to check that there wasn’t anything else wrong and by this stage she had cooled down some more and was quite lame so got some of the good drugs and that seemed to calm her down as well.
Kerry and Emma were going for the buckle and had an enjoyable and successful ride.
We headed home with two out of three horses successful, so I guess that’s not too bad.
Back to Kaikoura where we managed to find a paddock for the horses while we all went whale watching which was great. Then I took the rental car back to Christchurch, staying the night with Nicki who had been part of the Kentucky trip, and meeting all her cats, dogs and ponies… and then flew home.
Another season finished, and not on the high note that I’d planned… but that’s horses for you!
