Kapeta New Forest and Performance Pony Stud

Australian  Pony Stud Book Society Victorian Show

Bendigo Showgrounds, 16/17th January, 2010

Kate, Belinda and Dorothy journeyed to Bendigo last weekend with two ponies, Kapeta Wilverley and Kapeta Makebelieve and what a weekend we had!  The weather was very hot on Saturday and with a gusty wind that blew lots of dust around.  At one stage we thought a tornado had hit when the spectators' tent in the middle of the arena took off when most of the poles blew down and the pegs securing the ropes became loose and almost came out.  An urgent call was sent out for a sledge-hammer and it was lucky that, because of the sun, spectators were jammed in under the tent like sardines  there were lots of people to grab hold of poles and ropes!  We all had visions of a couple of hundred ponies going beserk with panic as a very large blue tent tumbled through the rings!  Still we battled on enjoyed much success.  Kapeta Wilverley (Ruby) competed in 4 classes and received a blue ribbon in all of them and also won 2 Champion sashes and 2 Reserve Champions and was also Supreme Champion Led New Forest Pony .

Kapeta Makebelieve (May) on her first outing ever was first in the Part-bred Mountain & Moorland class and then went on the be awarded Best Mountain and Moorland Led Part-bred.  She also competed in Open Led Part-bred Show Hunter and came 6th. For her first time out in the big wide world she was perfectly behaved, except for an altercation with a hay bag in the stable (no harm done!) what a darling!

We were also very pleased to at least two of Kapeta's Faro's foals competing and doing well in classes and another of his daughters, Kapeta Prediction and her foal (now 2 year old) Treasured Gipsy competing.

Top:  Kapeta Wilverley - Supreme Champion New Forest Pony   Centre: Kapeta Makebelieve and Belinda strutting their stuff. Bottom: Kapeta Wilverley, &  What a couple of glamour girls - Belinda and May              More photos on Gallery page.

We heard some fantastic news from Stacey (Kapeta Spellbound's owner) after the weekend.  They competed in Grade 4 at the HRCAV Top Teams Showing competition which was held at Albury.

He won six firsts  one Chamionship, one Reserve Championship, was Overall Best Performed Barefoot Horse and the Highpoint Jackpot for Grade 4!!  He went home with a swag of trophies and received some very favourable comments from the judges and spectators.  What a lovely boy and what a great ambassador for the New Forest Pony breed and Kapeta Stud.

Here is the horse of the moment, Joey,  almost weighed down by his ribbons, etc!

Congratulations, Stacey and Joey!

Our New Forest/Thoroughbred filly, Kapeta Makebelieve, came back from the breaker's last week and Belinda has taken over her training.  She is just beautiful, according to Belinda - very teachable, very laid back (nothing fazes her) and with a very good temperament.  She is going ahead in leaps and bounds (not literally!) and she has enabled Belinda to get over her separation anxiety with Joey going to a new home!  Stay tuned for progress reports.  She will have her first outing at the APSB Stud Show at Bendigo on 16th January taking part in the partbred led classes.  Good luck Belinda and May!

Kapeta Makebelieve:-  Sire: Kapeta Faro    Dam: Divine Magic

Kapeta Spellbound (Joey) has been sold, so our horsey family is now one less!  We were sad to say goodbye to Joey, but happy that he has gone to a lovely home with Stacey in Torquay.  He has settled down well and made friends with his next paddock neighbour!  We hope that Stacey has as much fun with him as Belinda has had.   We cannot thank our dear friend Belinda for all the work, education and love she has given Joey over the last months.  Thanks heaps, Bel!!

Here is Joey in his new paddock, with his new friend and his new rug!  Spoilt already!

On Monday evening, at a very reasonable time, our thoroughbred mare, Divine Magic, gave birth to a lovely colt foal by Kapeta Faro.  She had an audience this time unlike Lyndhurst, of Kate, Belinda, Ellen and Thomas.  Thomas thought it was all rather gross, but great apart from that.  We have named him Kapeta Trickster to follow in the magic name line.  He is a full brother to Kapeta Wizard, Abracadabra, Spellbound,  Make Believe and Fantasy. Mother and baby are well.                     

This is Trickster, with Mum, Divine, on day one!

More photos in gallery.

Exciting news!!!

On Wednesday December 2nd screams were heard issuing from the mares' paddock early in the morning.  Ellen and Thomas immediately thought (or Thomas would have if he'd been awake) something terrible had happened to Kate as she was feeding the mares.  But no! She was screaming with delight as Kapeta Lyndhurst (Lindy, the daughter of our first and much loved NFP, Pahake Monaco), had produced a colt foal during the night much to everyone's surprise.   Kate and Ellen, the night before, had decided that she was  a week to a fortnight from foaling, but Lindy had other ideas!  Her foal is by Hilkens Nougat Cream, a German Riding Pony owned by Tina Fielding and the baby is  just gorgeous!  He is a buckskin with one white sock and a white blaze.  Kate has always wanted a buckskin so is really over the moon.

Mother and baby are both doing well.

Update - 16.12.09    

The photo above was taken on day one.  This one was yesterday so he is almost 2 weeks old.  We have decided to call him Kapeta Liesfeld.  Liesfeld is the maiden name of Ellen's great-great grandmother, Kate's great grandmother and Dorothy's  grandmother, whose name was Emma Emelia Alma Liesfeld and  was from a German family in the Barossa Valley. So he is named  in honour of her and his German background!

Other photos in Gallery.

Horseland Wandin Horse Trials

28/29th November

Ruby (Kapeta Wilverley) in the Training 4 Section, was 2nd after the dressage and clear in the show jumping but unfortunately had two stops at the water in the cross country phase and placed 17th overall.

Kapeta Kip in the Prelim section was sixth  after dressage with a clear round in the show jumping but with stops in the cross coiuntry finished 17th overall.  There was 15 mm of rain overnight and the cross country was very slippery and Kip did not appreciate the chopped up areas in front of the jumps particularly as he was the third last to start after 60 other horses.

HRCAV  Top Teams Dressage

15/16th November

Kate Sherwood, Ellen Sherwood,  Belinda Smith and Denise Wood competed in the TTT at Werribee Park and took along Kapeta Wilverley (Ruby) Mr Showoff (Red) Kapeta Spellbound (Joey) and Edmund Freckles to do the actual work for them.  They had a good time, although it was wet and windy.  The 4 humans and 4 horses made up the whole NF Supporters Group team  and managed to finish 8th overall out of 196 teams! 

Congratulations!   New Forest Ponies - the great all-rounders!  (except for Red - but he'd like to be one!  I know that for a fact!) 

By the way Joey (Kapeta Spellbound) is for sale.  What a great buy!  (Joey is now sold)

On the 24th October, the New Forest Supporters Group of the HRCAV organized a ring for members at the Euroa Show.  The day was a perfect spring day and the classes were well supported.  Judge, Janine Young ,was kept busy from 1 pm until after 5pm  when the Top Score Winner, Jane Parks,was announced.   The Highest Scoring NF Supporters'  member was Denise Wood on thoroughbred, Edmond Freckles, with Belinda Smith on Kapeta Spellbound second.

Ian Reynolds on Dallas Limerick,  Belinda Smith on Kapeta Spellbound and Denise Wood on Edmond Freckles

18th October, 2009, at  State Equestrian Centre, Werribee

Two teams from the NF Pony Supporters group competed in the HRCAV Top Teams Showjumping competition over the weekend.  One team was the 'The Inbred Purebreds" and the other was named 'The Outcrossed Partbreds'.

The Purebred team  were Narelle McFee on  Forestway Mantatten, Helen Watson on Haberfield Sweet William and Kate Sherwood on Kapeta Wilverley.The Partbreds were Belinds Smith on Kapeta Spellbound (photo left), Ian Reymolds on Dallas Limerick and Denise Woods on Edmond Freckles.The Partbreds won bragging rights over the Purebreds by coming 6th overall on a score of 10.41, while the Purebreds came 9th with their score 9.10.  Great results all around with 2 placings in the top 10 out of 58 teams!  It was a great social occasion with a little showjumping thrown in when there was time!  The Big Blue Party Bus belonging to Ian came into its own and even got mentioned on some websites!

Joey (Kapeta Spellbound) has his own fan club now!

The second week of the Victorian school holidays saw over 360 riders from all over the country converge on the National Equestrian Centre at Werribee Park for the Australian Interschool Equestrian Championships. Top riders from as far away as Perth and Darwin represented their states and a chance to be named as the National Interschool Champion competed over 3 days. An opening ceremony saw the state teams march in to a large crowd of excited spectators. Some riders, especially those from the Northern Territory and Western Australia rode borrowed horses, but some had made the long trek to Werribee Park with their own horses.

 Euroa Secondary College student, Ellen Sherwood, was the only Victorian secondary student to have qualified for all four disciplines contested. The first day was the Show Jumping on Kapeta Kip.  A poor first round then a second place in the second round and a mid field placing in the final round saw Ellen finish in 16^th position. The same day the Showmanship class was held and Ellen, riding Janelle Pitts wonderful horse, Mr. Showoff, was sashed as champion four phase 85cm winner from the second place Queensland rider with Western Australia third. A very excited and proud Ellen was presented with a championship rug and sash that night at the official presentation. The Victorian showmanship team, lead by Ellen was declared the runners up on a count back from the Queenland team.

The next day was the dressage competition. Ellen again riding Mr. Showoff placed 6^th and 2^nd in her tests to be third overall in the Elementary dressage class. Victoria came first, second and Ellen third with the Victorian team again being runners up this time to NSW. Kapeta Kip competed in the eventing and after placing fourth in the dressage was unfortunately eliminated in the cross country phase and then jumped a lovely clear round in the show jumping.

 The closing ceremony was spectacular with all the horses and riders led in behind their state flag and assembling around around the arena. The Victorian team, being the host team, was last and just managed to fit in.  The horses stood very patiently while the final presentations were made. The spectators were asked not to applaud for safety reasons, but everyone silently congratulated the awarded riders and teams and also the Victorian organizing committee for their great job.

Overall it was a great result for Ellen individually and for Victoria taking out the overall team prize from NSW. A big thank you to Mrs. Beresford-Smith for taking time out from her holidays to come and cheer Ellen on the first day.  Thank you to local businesses that have supported Ellen -  WB Hunters, Steve Hill, farrier, Seven Creek Equine Vet, and to super coach and owner of Mr. Showoff , Janelle Pitts, the biggest thanks of all.

Photos-:(Top) Kapeta Kip jumping in the indoor arena with the state flags in the background

(Centre) Ellen with Janelle very proudly standing with Mr Showoff with his awards

( Bottom) Just a few of the horses and  riders at the closing ceremony

Kapeta Kip has now qualified to advance to One Star Eventing level. This is an enormous achievement for a pony of 14.1½ hh.  His opposition will be about 15, 16 or 17hh!

Next week Ellen Sherwood will compete in the Victorian Secondary Schools Equestrian team in the Australian Championships at the State Equestrian Centre at Werribee, Victoria.  Ellen will ride Mr Showoff in the Showmanship and Dressage events and Kapeta Kip in the Showjumping and Eventing events.  Good luck, Ellen - we are so proud of you and Mr Showoff and PONY SUPERSTAR, Kapeta Kip.

The annual Friends of Werribee One Day Event was held at the  State Equestrian Centre on Saturday and Sunday 5^th & 6^th September.  It was enormously popular and had almost 500 entries. Great organization resulted in a smooth running event.

Ellen entered on Kapeta Kip and he  came 5^th in the dressage, was 3^rd after the show jumping and after a stop in the cross country finished up 7^th.    

After finishing 3^rd at Ballarat Horse Trials in May, Kip has qualified in  the Pre-novice grade in the Victorian  Eventing Team for the Secondary Schools Australian Championships.  Ellen will have a busy few days in the second week of the school holidays with Mr Showoff in the Showmanship and dressage team and Kip in the showjumping and eventing teams.

Ellen also entered Janelle Pitts’ Mr Showoff, at Friends of Werribee O.D.E. and he won his dressage, was clear in show jumping and cross country but incurred time penalties and dropped to second overall. 

It was a good, if tiring weekend and bed was very welcoming on Sunday night!

Kapeta Kip's  great jumping style showing a clean pair of heels

 with Ellen on board - jump No 1.and  lots  more to come

What a leap down the bank!

Smiles of relief at the end?  Ellen and her friend, Ally, still on a high!

Ellen with her friend, Tori, after the cross country phase.

On Sunday 30th August, Kate Sherwood and Belinda Smith drove to the great Equestrian Centre at Melton to compete in the Melton Plains Horse Trials.  Kate rode Kapeta Wilverley  and Belinda rode Kapeta Spellbound.  Wilverley (Ruby to her friends)  actually placed first in the dressage, but had to add 5 points in the equalizer, so then  came 4th. Her showjumping round was faultless and she went into the cross country phase running 3rd.  A great cross country ride, clear and under time ended the day with a blue sash for first place overall!  It seems as if the whole idea of it has just clicked and she has now got the idea of what it is all about.  She even jumped down the bank and into the scary water.  Kate was really over the moon with Ruby's performance and even if they hadn't won she would have been just as pleased!!  There will be no stopping them now!  Belinda and Spellbound were 5th after the dressage, clear in the showjumping but unfortunately were eliminated in the cross country at the 'terrifying' ditch after an very good first half run.  All in all - very good day all round.

Super pony, Kapeta Kip and Ellen have just been accepted into the Victorian Eventing Squad.

He will probably be the only pony in the squad!

Only one Kapeta pony competed at this show as it clashed with the Pony Challenge.  WELL DONE! to Kapeta Abracadabra and Georgia Rowles who won the Best Performed Part-bred  sash!!   This partnership has really hit their straps! Abracadabra is a full brother of Kapeta Spellbound by Kapeta Faro out of Divine Magic (thoroughbred).

This event was organized by the very small but dedicated committee of the A.S.P.R. and the organization was terrific.  Led by the tireless Margie Kuiper, the whole show ran like clockwork.  The volunteers were efficient, the program ran on  time, the results were up on the board very quickly and the prizes and awards were great.  CONGRATULATIONS!    

Five Kapeta ponies competed in this event held on 1st and 2nd of August at the State Equestrian Centre at Werribee. They all did ver well in different classes with only one pony out of the placings.On Saturday the 4 year old  dressage class was judged which resulted in the lovely, forward moving River Valley Sultan, owned and bred by the Hipwell brothers coming second in the 4 year old class. Sultan is by Kapeta Faro.  This class was judged by two experienced judges who have to agree on the scores for paces. conformation, movement, submission and potential before annoucing their decision.Unfortunately, this year, we did not have any of our own competing in either the 4 year old or five year old classes. They are judged in groups on the ring and the decision was made only after an exhaustive test.

The 5 year old class was judged by the same two judges as the horse individually rode a dressage test.  Kapeta Stud sponsored this class which was won by the lovely Weldh Pony Mithral Heroes Return in a very strong class.

The only jumping event is the much anticipated Pony 6 Bar.  The spectator seats were packed and the big cheers when the ponies cleared the jumps, and the big sighs when one was knocked demonstrated how much the spectators were involved.  Kapeta Kip and his nephew Kapeta Spellbound represented the stud. Kip had placed third in 2007, and second in 2008 so the pressure was on Kip and Ellen this year!!  Kip tried his big heart out and was the "last man standing" after the fifth and final round after clearing 1.25m. (Very scary for a grandmother!)  Ellen and her support crew were over the moon! What a cheer went up when he cleared that last jump!  Kapeta Spellbound jumped very well to advance to the third round, then knocked the fourth jump but cleared the last one set at 1.05m.  We were so proud of Joey and Belinda, his rider, especially Belinda as she was SOOO nervous before it started.

Next day was all dressage.  Kapeta Spellbound won his first preliminary test, with his cousin Kapeta Honesty placing second with his owner, Jemma Bird on board,  Spellound continued his good form with a fourth in his second  preliminary test and a second in his novice test.  Kapeta Spellbound was then sashed Reserve Champion Associate Preliminary Pony. Big, big congratulations to Belinda Smith who rides Joey and has put such a lot of work and effort into him.  Kapeta Wilverley did a cracker of a test in the first Official Preliminary test to place fourth out of 30 ponies, disappointingly only placed 12th in her other one although did a good test. Unfortunately, Kapeta Lucille missed out of a place in her class but looked super.  Kip did not contest the dressage as Ellen spent the day pencilling and had a great day and learnt a lot from the judge she was with.

Ellen Sherwood and the Superstar  Pony Legend,

KAPETA KIP clearing 1.25m

(Photo by David Kelly - with thanks)

Kip bragging about how brave he was to jump this high!

Photo by Margie Kuiper

Two very happy riders and two slightly bored ponies after the 6 bar.

(Photo by Margie Kuiper)

Belinda Smith on Kapeta Spellbound (Joey to his friends)

Victorian Inter-schools Equestrian Championships

The championships were held at the State Equestrian Centre, Werribee, during the second week of the School holidays.  They were enthusiastically supported with over 100 school teams, composite teams and individual riders.  We were particularly thrilled and proud to watch the Jumping competitions presentations and to see three Kapeta ponies featuring in the overall placings. When you realize that each class had 30 - 50 competitors strutting their stuff, the great success of these ponies is fantastic.  Kapeta Regent was third overall in the 110cm overall placings (after 2 competitions - one jumping and one equation) and was therefore in the Victorian team to compete in the Australian Championships in the September holidays.  Kapeta Kip was first in the 100cm overall placings and is also in the Victorian team.  Kapeta Abracadabra placed 6th overall in the 75cm class and missed out on a place in the State team, but performed extremely well against many great competitors.  Regent and Abracadabra are part-bred New Forest Ponies, by Kapeta Faro out of thoroughbred mares, and Kapeta Kip is a pure-bred New Forest Pony by Forestway Royal Ascot (Imp) out of Pahake Roulette.

CONGRATULATIONS GIRLS AND PONIES!!!

Thankfully, the most anticipated event of the year did arrive, even with Equine Influenza still in Australia and NSW. On the Thursday before the event, we journeyed with Mr. Kip to Dorothy's place in Gisborne for the night before heading to Camperdown th next morning to compete in our dressage at 1 O'clock. Surprisingly, it wasn't that hot and Kippy did a great test to finish in 8th place for the end of the day out of a very competitiive field. The rest of the afternoon was spent socialising with our good friends Karen and Ally, and Ally and I walking the course for our prelim the next morning. It was pretty big, especially afetr 3 months of from this level of comnpetition and things weren't mad emuch better as I saw a ditch over a metre wide and a huge brush fence jumping down hill. There was  ione more bogie fence left on the course, which was an apex but I walked the course about 5 times and worked out my lines and tactics, talked on the phone to my Coach Janelle for about 45 minutes and was then Psyched enough for the next morning. Unfortunately, Mum and I had forgotten ther sleeping bags and My pillow so it was just aswell Kippy hadf one so many rugs for us to curl up under. Despite this, we werew stil, freezing for the rest of the night. We awoke  early in the morning to go and walk the course yet again and walk out our line of tactics for the ride. at 8:30 we started to get ready and made our way down to the practice jump area and Kippy was flying over everything he was pointed at. It's really quite amusing when your jumping a 14.1hh pony over 90-100cm X-C fences with ease and all these people are having a hard time with their $10000 warmbloods struggling to get them to walk in a straight line, and then Kippy comes through in his little jippity canter and springs over everything. at 9:34 we headed out on course and Kippy cleared everything brilliantly, only having a little slip up at the down hill brush fence because Kippy decided not to brush it and to clear the whole thing at once, landing him about 2 metres away from the base of the fence and me loosing my reins and nearly colliding with a 3 start sunken road!!!! Anyway, Kippy jumped the ditch with out a battert of his eyelids and did the same for the rest odf the course. We reckon that they officials had either measured the course wrong or put the wrong time on it, because one rider out of 62 other prelim riders was under the time by 0.8 of a second and the rest were at least 30 seconds over, of course, us two not being the fastest we got slammed with time penalties and dropped down to 19th. The second night was just as cold as the 1st, so cold that I woke up crying from freezing in bed. The Showjumpng didn't seem like it was up to normal Prelim Height but I still had to push Kippy for his striding in the double which he got, but only just after we jumped the A element too big and nearly landed in the middle of the B element. We had finished our forst ever 3DE and hadn't obtained any Jumping penalties at all. I was so proud of my little superstar who finished in  a very credible 17th position.

Not the best moment on course.....The Brush Fence.....But Clear!!       Showjumping............Clear too!

More pics coming soon from Derek Oleary!!!!!!

The horse community, naturally, had started to get fed up with the spring racing carnival going ahead, whilst we had to stay at home in "Lockdown" biding our time until we could compete again. For this reason, and many more, the EFA Victorian branch decided to hold a horse Trials on the 27-28th of october, with level's from training 4 to 1 *. I took my 2 boys Kippy, and Wally down, with Kippy in the intro, instead of the prelim this time because he was so unfit! Wally was entered in the training 4. on the 1st day of scorching hot competition (literally) Wally came out on top of his test to be standing in 1st place, leading by a fair margin. Kippy, in the Intro B, had his work cut out for him, competing against 39 other horses, BIG horses. Nevertheless, Kippy too, performed a pearler to claim 4th place after Dressage. Wally, that afternoon, did his usual cruise around the SJ course in his usual style to be clear and still leading at the end of the day. Kippy also showed his style in the Intro SJ, which seemed tiny after prelim, to very unfortunately pull one rail. Although, other riders in the division made various mistakes, to put Kippy up in 3rd. The next day of competition, was just as hot as the last, but Wally flew around the XC with ease, to very unfortunately have 20 penalties for a very tiny prop at fence 11. Kippy, strutted his stuff, going clear, fast, and stylish around the course to finish with a double clear. At the vet check, I asked the girl winning how she had gone and she said that she had glanced off at the roll top and ditch coming out of the tree's. so, as far as we knew, we were at least 2nd. It so happened that the girl who was coming second, infront of me, was parked right next to us, so we asked her too, how she had done? Well, she said she had gone clear and most certainly undertime, and then we said to her if she had gone too fast and had watched her watch. She said she hadn't ridden with a watch, and that she had ripped around in no time. Unfortunately, she wasn't aware that if you go too fast in EFA, you get penalised as much as if you were going too slow. So we Journeyed up to the indoor to wait for the scores, mum could hardly bring herself to look at the board, which 15 mins later read that Kippy and I had won! by the tiniest of margins. we raced back to the float to get ready for the presentations, and Mum threw me onto Kippy's back to ride up to the Indoor, bareback. She said I should have a go at Bare back riding, as Kippy went quite well with no saddle! We walked into the indoor, and everyone turned around, looked at Kippy, and started saying to eachother "It's a PONY!" "Yeah, and a kid!" Kippy was presented with his rug and rosette, and then I had to make a speech, thanking Mum, Kippy, the sponsors, friends and the EFA  for running it because, God knows, WE NEEDED IT!