20km competitive trail ride, pictures and stuff!

Cochise

Cochise

Moderator
Jun 3, 2002
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Auckland, New Zealand
Hello, took Cheeks on a 20km competitive ride at Cust in North Canterbury, NZ last Sunday.
Was a beautiful day, warm and sunny and great views of the Southern Alps with snow on.
Cheeks had a resting heart rate of 52 as he gets pretty excited at these things.
He set off in high spirits and bucked and carried on especially as our riding partners decided that a slow canter was the pace of choice rather than a nice steady trot!:rolleyes:

After about 12km, he settled into it and thoroughly enjoyed it!

I let him have a small drink in a water race and this blooming horse practically leapt on his head as it jumped into the creek. After that, Cheeky got haughty and wouldn't ride on the same verge side as them! :D

The finish line came on us sooner than we expected and we came in 8 minutes early! whoops!!

Heart rate coming in=64, resting rate half an hour later, 48.
Not too bad for a horse conditioned for short bursts for show jumping!!

Now pics!!

You may remember back in April me posting pics looking south over the Ashley forest? Well this is looking north!

Springphotosandtrailride038.jpg


My riding partners, who I only just met that day, our horses were fairly well matched in pace.

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Nice mix of farmland and a sneak of a peak at the Southern Alps

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Gotta have the Cheeky ear shots!! Looking at the horse who practically leapt on his head, before it happened!

Springphotosandtrailride029.jpg
 
Sheep or cows? Anyway, babies, its spring after all!

Springphotosandtrailride045.jpg


Tried to keep to the shade as much as possible, it was pretty warm for this time of year!

Springphotosandtrailride040.jpg


Finally, this is Gold one of our more aged members of the appaloosa club here (local) enjoying a well deserved beverage with us afterwards! (well he only licked at the top, but still, he enjoyed himself! heh)

Springphotosandtrailride052.jpg


Oh and one more for good measure! (I truly am lucky living here!!)
Springphotosandtrailride050.jpg
 
I'm convinced New Zealand must be tops among the world for places to own and ride horses. The scenery in your photos is always fantastic and the land seems to go on forever. What a wonderful ride that must have been!

Congratulations on the ride. Cheeky is one fit and fantastic horse. The partnership you two have, both in competition and play, is a wonderful model. You two always seem to have so much fun together.
 
Kedwards, it is pretty awsome to have a horse here in New Zealand, there are lots and lots of quiet roads to ride around, travelling is really easy, the land is furtile and the climate isn't too bad!
There are a lot of places to explore and horsey people are pretty relaxed here.

When it stops being fun, maybe people shouldn't ride anymore! I hope that NEVER happens to me! But having a spunk like Cheeky makes life always interesting!

Miriam, when are you coming then?:D
 
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