Zalman Challenge Ride

Home from our journey to the Toft endurance event, the Zalman Challenge FEI ride.  We left home on Wednesday taking 2 horses for the FEI * ride, seasoned horse Shades of Shagrir and relative newbie Pioneer Park Azaylia.
Arriving Thursday mid-day, Shagrir had a midly swollen leg from a minor surface cut sustained just prior to leaving so the decision was to over-react and treat the leg and therefore with drawing him from entering the ride.
Peter Toft to the rescue - Toft Endurance offered Steve one of their up and coming super stars to ride along with me and Azaylia in the one star event, the Arab cross Appaloose Rupert TE.  Rupert is a well built grey gelding with forward moving attitude.

Friend Nicole Cameron arrived to stay for a few days and help us strap - lovely catching up with Nic and fabulous to have her on hand to assist us...still recovering from her broken shoulder she was a massive help during the weekend.  Thanks Nic!  Mid ride Friday night also seen the arrival of Ashley Ross and Carmel Trevorrow also to assist strap.  Azaylia is sired by Ashley's stallion, Turingal Park Nijinksi who we used to own.  Ash also has a gelding we bred, sired by Shades of Shagrir, so she was interested to see these 2 horses we had brought down.

The ride was great, and we were both successful in completing - Azaylia had terrific recoveries which is really encouraging, I think she's gonig to be every bit as good as her older half brother Navarone and then some.

We were able to bring home something very special - our mare Tractor (aka Agecroft Sahara).  Tractor had been with Toft's to visit Sadaqa with the hope of another special foal; but she had other plans and visited not Sadaqa but Sh'Tann!  Terrific to have her home, she looks fabulous and looking forward to having her PTIF today.

Pioneer Park Azaylia pre-ride

Revamped Website

Pioneer Arabians website is being totally revamped again by our good friend and very talented artist Nicole Cameron .  With just a few finishing touches to be made and the addition of some professional photos we plan to be able to launch the site in the next week.

Nicole is probably more known for her amazing portrails of animal life, mostly of the equine kind.  Her ability to capture the subject's true personality within her work is really spectacular.
We are very fortunate to have a number of Nicole's works here at home, mostly portriats of our beautiful arabian horses.
However she is really starting to make herself known building well desgined, bright, refreshing and functional websites as well - all touched with her artist flair to ensure they are totally unique.

So if you are looking for a website, new or revamped, a team or business logo or a portrait then we suggest you check out Nicole's website to see some fine examples of her work.

Fernvale Zalman Challenge

Very much looking forward next week to the Oz Endurance FEI Zalman Challenge at Fernvale in the SE corner of Qld.  Although it has only been a few short months since we last competed it feels too long!
We have had a better prep than I anticipated tho the horses are still nowhere near being fit but believe they are fit for both the trip, and for the ride.

The horses we are taking - Shades of Shagrir who is now into his third season of endurance.  He has previoulsy completed successfully a FEI 80km* and 120km**.  Also Pioneer Park Azaylia who is the baby of the family, being only newly qualifed into endurance during 2010 this will be her first FEI* ride.  Azaylia is a half sister to our well permormed gelding Pioneer Park Navarone.

Much more exciting is that we will be bringing home our very special horse, Tractor aka Agecroft Sahara.   She has been away in the excellent care of Toft's, spending time with a special man called Sh'taan. 

Training and Cyclones

This morning we had the most awesome training session.  Steve on Shades of Shagrir and me on Pioneer Park Azaylia we rode 30km around the newly slashed headlands then along the river that winds its way around Cattle Creek and the base of the mountains.  The weather was kind, warm with a little wind and then about half way we did get some rain that cooled us and the horses, making them really want to run for home.

Tonight we are waiting for Tropical Cyclone Anthony to cross the coastline about 200km's north of us around the Proserpine/Bowen district.  Pretty certain that here although we will still recieve stong>gale force winds and a bunch of rain, that should be the extent of it.  TC Anthony is currently a category 1 cyclone which is rated the weakest but may cross as a category 2.  Last March, we experienced Tropical Cyclone Ululi in full force and at Category 3 was pretty full on but luckliy for us we maintained little damage compared to others.

However the tracking forecast for later in the week is alarming to say the least.  There is a large system that has been formed and is named TC Yasi.  THis is still located around the coast of Fiji.  Yasi is very large, and apparently extremely destructive with a massive 300km+ storm centre.

From Google Earth.  Australia on the right with TC Anthony about to cross
the coast of Qld around Bowen, with TC Yasi the massive white cell to the right.

TC Anthony nearly at the Qld Coast line with the much more impressive TC Yasi on the right.  Kinda puts things
into perspective.  TC Yasi is huge...nearly 1/3 the span of the Qld coast.

Hey True Blue

Pioneer Park True Blue left for his new home last week; what a sad day, was hard having to say goodbye.
3 year old Bluey was sired by the now gelding and endurance horse Shades of Shagrir, and out of Sue Evan's mare Coolmunda Shaneen.  Blue has the loviest nature and was alwasys the first to have a chat or come up for some attention.  Small in stature he certainly made up for this with his large character! 

In his new home his young family will have him started under saddle and then have a lot of plans for him.  Dressage, PC, plus clicker training and also trick riding!  A nice young family & I'm sure they will be very happy together.

Rain

And lots of it.  Again.  Guess thats what it is all about living in the sub-tropics.  Over the couple of days surrounding Christmas we reieved just over half a metre of rain (+500mm) - so very glad we live on the side of a hill!  So far for 2010 we have recorded 3663mm of rain - over 3 metres year to date.  That's a lot of water!

While all the paddocks are wet, the drainage is excellent and constant so the horses are not actually standing in water.  Except of course there is the generic mud-pit happening at every gateway of each paddock where the horse stand and meet each afternoon and wait, patiently for dinner. 

Riding and training right now has pretty much come to a stand-still, but with the excellent training country and formed rolled roads its generally only a day and we can be out again after rain.  Being Christmas figured the horses could have an extra couple of days break but will resume training soon.  Keen to get back to riding...and Endurance!

Exchange

Couple of days ago we came up with the name for the foal, EXCHANGE.  Thought about it for a few days and it seems to suit him, and is different so it has well and truely stuck!  Pioneer Park Exchange it is.

We've had about 5 days straight now with little or no rain so Azaria and Exchange have been able to enjoy getting out into the paddock during the day and just using the stables of a night time.  Have been spending a lot of time watching Exchange trialling his future endurance legs, carving it out in the paddock - running flat out doing laps and circles around his mum - up & down the hill and then shortly after flopping down laying flat out, knackered needing to sleep!  Foals are such fabulous creatures to watch grow.



Pioneer Park EXCHANGE



Pioneer Park EXCHANGE 7 days