Meet my new man - San Mateo Tech Effects!

After nearly 8 months of searching and a couple of false starts, I am very excited to announce that I have found my perfect horsey partner! He's a 16hh, 9 yr old clydie x gelding called Tech, and he is just the most amazing boy. I had fantastic support from Jayne Craike and Jenn Savill at Showfields Equestrian Centre who tried him out for me to assess his suitability a few weeks ago, and the following week I made the trip over to Te Kauwhata to try him out myself at Showfields (with my 'test pilot' - aka Mum!).

The afternoon of riding and 'testing' went really well and we decided to take him on trial for the weekend at Showfields. So on Friday night I loaded my parents and my husband into the car and over to Te Kauwhata we went again! We spent Saturday 'playing' with him and Mum and I rode him twice. Mum had a great lesson with Jayne and really put Tech through his paces and got him going really nicely. I practised some of my dressage tests to see how easy he was for me to perform the movements and respond to my aids, and we bathed him and did a few other bits and pieces with him over the course of the day.

On Sunday, Showfields held a dressage competition which was the perfect opportunity to see how Tech behaved in a show environment. Mum rode him first in the warm up area with other horses around him warming up too, and she was happy with his behaviour to let me get on. I rode him around on the lead rein for a while before being confident enough to go off lead for a while too and he was very well behaved amongst all the activities of the show.

We then took him on trial for a week back home in Tauranga so that my coaches and other support people could assess his suitability and once again, he didn't put a foot wrong and everyone fell in love with him and his temperment.

So after his vet check from Liz Thompson at Blue Mist Equine Veterinary Centre, I decided he was definately the one for me, and I was able to buy him with the amazing grant I received from the Max Foundation for New Zealand Women last year.

It's been a long hard search but I'm so excited now I've found my horse!

Now Tech and I are spending time really getting to know each other and starting to train hard for our first big challenge - Horse of the Year in March. Exciting, nervous and scary all in one... watch this space!