Of chickens and vegetables...

Winter is nearly upon us, and my sidesaddle desperately needs a repack - and I'm still trying to talk somebody into doing it for me! So I'm going to digress today, as I have been putting the veggie patch to bed. Plus I lust after the set-up over at Too Many Tomatoes :)

I have 6 beds that are 1 metre by 5 meters. 4 are laid out radiating off the central statue (making a big X) and then 2 on each side. I also have two large beds either side of the shed. One is my asparagus bed (to the right of the shed) and the other (to the left of the shed) is going to have globe artichokes.

On the other side of the hedge is the chicken run, the pond and it will also be the orchard and has the larger veggie beds and my berry house. I decided to let the chickens free range as their run gets so muddy in winter. This is how they repaid me... this USED to be the winter veggies - silverbeet, cauliflower, kale, cabbages, broccoli and pumpkin...

The culprits!

We will eventually put a chicken proof fence around the outside of the bed to stop them getting in. Since they have trashed it anyway I am letting them scratch everything up, as they do a fantastic job of turning the soil over. They are like little rotary hoes.

Hubby built me a berry house last summer, so at least they can't get in there. 

The fruit trees are coming in July and I am planning on planting them into large 4WD tyres. It gets quite wet out here because of the pond, and I want to raise the trees up a bit. Plus we can run the irrigation on top of the tyres, and hopefully hubby won't run it over when he mows... :)

Show Report

Well I will admit to my reservations at 6.30am, wandering out to the paddock in the dark (and freezing cold!) trying to distinguish Molly from Jasmine with no torch when they are both the same size with the same blaze. I ended up counting white socks in the muted moonlight to make sure I had the right horse! lol

And dispite the apprehension I had, that there might be a bit of a fuss, the show organisers, judges and competitors were lovely. I had heaps of hands to hold Molly while I got my apron organised and people were just so supportive and interested. Not at all what I expected from the serious DQs and the registered judges (who can be terribly harsh in their judging).

I didn't warm in for long, my saddle is seriously sliding to the left now, the panel looks quite deflated, and I didn't want to risk going too far over. So we did about 15 mins w/t/c and then chilled out waiting our turn. 

Molly put in an average performance, probably much the same as how we go at home. However she was obedient and is actually starting to listen to me now, so I was thrilled with both tests and finished up with a big smile on my face. It just "feels" so much better sidesaddle!

We came away middle of the field in both classes (6th & 7th out of 15) and scored 60% and 62%.

Her trot is still tense & rushy and our canter departs were muddled and need to be a lot snappier. So we have heaps to work on at home through winter and there is scope for us to make some big improvements.

Can I call myself a SSDQ now? :)

I did it.

I stuck my entry into the mailbox :)

We will be doing level 1, tests 2 and 5.

The good news is that neither test has that horrid 20m stretchy posting trot circle. The bad news is the weather has completely packed up here, it is wet and miserable, and I can't ride. So I'm not sure how we will go with no work! I can't use my neighbour's arena when it is wet and the grass in the paddock is too slippery. I'm going to have a go at lunging Molly in the driveway...

Do I or don't I...?

Coming up at the end of the month is a local dressage day. I have spoken to the organiser and she is happy for me to ride sidesaddle based on my para-classification. So IF I enter it would be our "official" level 1 sidesaddle debut.

But I don't know if I want to do it now... I have a major case of cold feet. I know people will stare at us and I just don't feel good enough. On the other hand winter is fast approaching and this could be our last show of the season. Plus numbers at this time of the year are much lower, so it would be a much quieter/less pressure debut than if I wait until Spring.

Hmmm.... I have to send off my entry this week if I am going... so do I or don't I...?