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CONGRATULATIONS to Simon & Claire on the birth of their baby girl, Anna!  
Simon & Claire Tim on Sammy(Claire's old pony)
Simon & Claire's World
by Claire Wilson Just to give you a quick run-down on the events over the winter… · Simon represented NZ in South Africa, in the Tri-nations Test, and NZ won. · Answer Back went to Equibreed for frozen semen collection. · We put up a new stable block and tackroom, very smart! · John Cottle has been down to do a busy week of coaching, at Mt Herbert. · Sold about 12 horses over the winter · Anna Wilson was born, phew!!!! And brother Tim is learning to cope with it all! It has been a very busy few months.
So now, the 2006/07 season is upon us… here is the low-down on our team for the coming season… My main crew of horses are · Sacred Hill Answer Back; current Horse of the Year, yippy!! I will be really targeting the World Cup series this season. Some conditions and venues have changed, and I am hopeful that these changes will be to my advantage. Brat is bred by mum, Di Murphy
· Sacred Hill Hawk Eye; this lovely horse was placed in every major age group title last season, so I will be expecting to do the same again, in the next grade up. He is a truly special horse, with a huge fan club throughout the country.
· Sacred Hill Tipsey; this homebred mare is now 5 yr old, and although didn’t do very much last year… I have quite high hopes for her… despite being a little on the small side
· Sacred Hill Cruiser; this impressive stallion is the full brother to Simon’s main horse; Right Royal. He looks very similar and looks to have the same big, careful jump. There is a lot of pressure on this horse, to measure up to his big brother. Owned and bred by Bruce Goldstone.
Simon's main horses are; - Vitapower Right Royal; undoubtedly the most exciting horse in the country at the moment; winner of the Super League series, 2 World Cups and National championships; as an eight year old . Roy is the one to beat this year! Owned by my aunt, Anne Magee from Ireland.
- Vitapower Swinger; 2004 Horse of the Year winner, and now over any soundness issues that pestered his performance last season. He will be trying to regain number one spot in his rider’s eyes.
- Vitapower Clifton, owned in partnership with Frances Stead, who is renowned as the owner of some of NZ’s best eventing horses. Cliff is a fun competitive horse, who will be aimed at the 1.20m+ classes as the season progresses.
Other horses that will make appearances during the season are;
Nicalette NZPH, owned and bred by Warrick Hansen Marksman, tb owned by Tony Wilson Au Dane, tb owned by Michel Brown and friends Belle, Annie, Sid and Ursula, all 4yr olds bred by me; that are yet to have official names.
Anyway; we had our first outing last weekend…. And the sad truth of the matter was that we didn’t have a very exciting Pukahu Show. I decided to leave Brat at home, (due to the very hard ground, and dealing with Anna and Tim) … and gave Simon the opportunity to make the most of the Grand Prix, without me in it (yeah right!). But sadly Roy and Swinger were just out of the money, with a rail in the jumpoff. Roy was placed the day before in the 1.30m, while Cliff was 3rd in the 1.15m class. Apart from that, the young horses were all well behaved, and improved on the second day. It was a big day for the girls, as we travelled up to HB and back each day… and both horses and grooms and riders are all very jaded today. This year were have a great crew of staff. - Shelley, back from England for a second year to help Simon.
- Sarah, another cheerful English girl who is dealing with my horses
- Claudine, the German Super Nanny; need I say more
- Helen; our old faithful (who has worked for me for over 5 years) and who looks after the non-competing and dealing horses
We also have got Kelly from Telford (Equine studies) , here for a month of work experience…. I am sure I am doing a good job of putting her off working with horses! So, next weekend, we plan to take the 3 Grand prix horses to Tielcey Park on Sunday. These next few weeks are a quiet build-up to the first of the World Cup shows, at Hastings in a months time. |
