Landcare research scientist Janine

Today a lady named Janine from Landcare research came in to school today to tell about some important information about pests. She told us about most common pests in New Zealand and how they remove them.

Janine brought in a stuffed possum and a stuffed stoat which was really interesting because I have never seen a real life stoat before so that was pretty cool. She also explained the difference between stoats, ferrets and weasels which was really interesting because I didn't half know what some of them even looked like before she showed us so that was a really cool thing for my knowledge.

Overall it was really cool and interactive and really interesting which was made it a real fun and interesting experience!

My lesson!

This is a photo from my lesson on Monday. At my lesson, we worked on getting his head to hand low and get him moving forward at the same time. At lessons, you usually have an hour to work on whatever you need to with your coach there to help you. I had my lesson on my newish pony, Ginge, and overall he was a really good boy!

My new pony Ginge!

This is my new pony Ginge! He is a 13.2 multi supreme purebred English riding pony. He is a Chestnut with 3 white socks and a blaze and his eyes practically pop out of his head! He is a fine saddle hunter and last year at HOY (horse of the year) he got supreme saddle hunter of the year, beating all the other saddle hunter horses and ponies. I have had Ginge for a month now and he has been amazing so far!

This picture was taken at Mc Leans island equestrian centre just after we had our second lesson with top dressage rider, Christine Weal. In the first lesson he was a really good boy and we learnt lots of new skill, but in the second lesson he wasn't quite keen on us drilling it into him... He reared wee bit but we got him in the end. Although he was a good boy in the end on the way out we had to go through a narrow gate and on the ground there was half a log and long story short he jumped it and on the way over I whacked my knee on the metal part of the other gate. So yeah, not the best ending but it was a good experience!