I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry! The boy yelled as the vets came to assess the calf. “ I swear I didn’t mean to,” he cried. I didn’t mean to kill her, he thought. When his parents asked him what happened all he said was “I was mad and wanted somewhere to sulk, so I tried to climb up the old rotten shed, I was so furious that I didn’t even consider the calf down inside the shed” he said. And to think I had started the day off so well by having my favourite cereal for breaky, he thought.

The family were very poor, and the only kid, a 6 year old boy, didn’t appreciate not being able to get anything he wanted. One day he found a sweet shop and was determined to get at least 5c worth of chocolate, but he was denied the money by his parents. He was so angry. He stormed out of the shop, ran 25kms back to his house to rade the families biscuit jar, which consisted of 1 and a half chocolate biscuits, then bolted out to an old rotten shed. 

The boy tried to climb up the old historic shed, little did he know the newly born calf, which the boys mum had helped calf earlier that day, was inside the shed sleeping. When the boy tried to climb the shed it creaked and swayed from side to side. The swaying and creaking of the shed didn’t bother the boy, but it did bother the calf. The calf had only been able to walk for a few hours, but the calf wanted to get out. He attempted to jump over the locked gate, trying again and again to clear the steel bars. 

“We can’t do anything about it kid, I’m sorry” the vet had said, after looking at the calves deformed leg.

“It’s all my fault” the boy moaned. Before running back over to the shed where he saw his parents angrily walking over.

On the 13th of December my horses Alphie and I are going to a show. We usually go with Leanne to shows but she can’t make it so Mum is going to borrow their float and go by ourselves. The show has showing and jumping but I am only doing the jumping, Alphie and I are jumping 80cm and 90cm. The jumping has 8 hunter jumps like pellets (the pellets in the 90cm round are set at 1.05cm) in the course and it also has show jumps. I am quite nervous because Leanne isn’t coming to help and Alphie, and I haven’t done a 90cm round before. The show is like a derby and they have 20 jumps in a course but every clear round gets a ribbon. We haven’t done a show for a while because we are only allowed to go to local shows but there haven’t been many, so it will be good to have a go at another show. Alphie and I are going to get a lession with Leanne this weekend before the show so I get more confident.

Descriptive writing – Coaststeering

We climb along rocks on an early spring day. Waves crashing up against the rocks smothered in barnacles and tiny blue mussels. Thick, slippery looking seaweed waving in the sea. I find it hard not to laugh as people trip over walking down the very steep cliff edge. We have been dressed in tight wetsuits, bulky life jackets and helmets of all sorts of colors. The sun is out but there is a freezing breeze blowing. Salty water keeps blowing up onto my face, the saltiness burnes my cuts, cut by the sharp barnacles. Everyone finds it hard to stay on their feet, as we all follow the instructor along the rocky faces to find the perfect rocks to jump off. The instructor tells us about how the sea used to be an old volcano, and tells us all about mussels, and how green lipped ones only grow in New Zealand. As well as showing us a plastic looking thing which he later tells us that it was a shark’s egg. He then gives us a choice of whether we want to learn about some sea animals, jump off some rocks, or swim across to an island. We all chose to swim over to an island. We swim over there then we get pulled up by the instructor, he takes us around the island before jumping off and heading back. 

Term 3 has been a great term for me learning wise. I feel I have improved lots in my maths, writing and reading. In maths I have learnt lots,about geometry. I have also been going really good in my hundreds club I am now on 3 mins and if I get 1 more 100 then I am on 2 mins. I have been also been doing well in my textbook work for maths. We had our pre test for geometry and I feel that I went really good. I think that I have also improved heaps in writing. We finished writing our explanation reports about the digestive system, I got and early 5. In reading I think I have been going great to, since I have been doing good in my reading comprehension work. Duntroon Destroyers (my basketball team) have been going very well the basketball season, we made the finals and are having the game tomorrow, our team is undefeated.  This was one of the score of one of our basketball games (we won).

Mum would have to be my hero. My Mum is really caring and loving. What I love about her is her organization, she is always really prepared. Sometimes I will be running late from something and she would have the horses fed and covered, sometimes I will forget something, say my basket ball singlet and she would have got it. Mum is also very thought full, she is always thinking of others before herself, by giving over her share of pudding, her time and stopping what she is doing to come and help if needed. Mum is also a really great cook!!! Dad say that I wont realize how good Mums cooking is until I go to Boarding school. Mum is usually on my side in arguments, like when dad says we wont need another saddle when Mum and I are saying we do. Mum is really understanding, if me or one of my siblings get in trouble at school or something, then she won`t care that much.

Last Friday, my fellow year 8s and 7s went down to Dunedin to go curling and skating. We havent done this before we normally go on a ski camp but there was no snow up on the mountains so we had to do something else. I did enjoy it but I like skiing better. Mum drove me and my friends to Dunedin it was a funny car ride, there was lots of laughing.  We had dominos pizza for lunch it was yummy. I found the ice skating hard but fun and the curling was good too.

Alphie has been great lately. I rode him over the hill to have a lesson with Leanne and then I rode him back. He was AMAZING in the lesson he was better the amazing, I cant even think of a word to explain how awesome he was. We jumped a 95 oxer he was terrific, Alphie needs help to pick where to take off from when the jumps get higher, so Leanne was helping me to find where to jump from, so I can help Alphie. We are going to a show on Sunday, it is the last one of the series, we are jumping 65cm, 70cm, 80cm we are going to jump 90 or 95 at our next show after this one. We were suppose to go to the Oamaru Winter Woollies last Sunday but it got cancelled because of Covid-19.

Last week me and the rest of the year 7&8 went to OIS for tech. This term I was in food. I really liked food since the food we made was great and there wasnt much paper work. On Tuesday we made cucumber quiche but there was no cucumber so I put corn in they were great!! We also made a cake in a cup since we had so much time afterwards. On Monday  we made potato fritters they tasted good but they were a bit plain. I took some home for Mum and Dad they said they were good. On Wednesday we made cakes mine had honey, raspberry and walnuts. On Thursday (which was the last day) we made sushi which is my FAVORITE food. Mine turned out really good I was quite surprised since everyone else couldn`t roll their sushi very well.  I quite enjoined food since we didnt have to do much paper work but we did have to watch really long videos, which I didnt like that much.

Alphie has been going great. Alphie is my new horse by the way. We went really well at our last show, we got 1st and 2 4th. We are going to another show this weekend, if it isn’t cancelled because of Covid-19. We are jumping our normal heights (65 cm, 70 cm, and 80 cm). Hopefully in another 2 weeks time we will do the Oamaru Winter Woollies and jump 95cm. Leanne helped Alphie and I do some 95cm jumps at home. Alphie will be coming to stay with my other 2 horses soon, after Marty takes his shoes off, then trim his hooves, then put his shoes back on.

In the weekend Alphie (my new horse) and I went to our second show. This show was at the North Otago Pony Club. Alphie and I had gone to a show the weekend before this show was called the Winter Woollies we jumped 65 and 75 at this show. But this time, Alphie and I jumped 65,70,80,90.  Alphie and I got 1st in the 65, 4th in the 70, 4th in the 80, we late entered into the 90, but we crashed into 2 jumps so we didn`t get any placings. We still went really well though. My Aunty, came to watch since Mum, Dad, Rosa and Seth were in Dunedin playing soccer.

The showjumping was 2 phase, which is where you jump say 1- 10 jumps, if you jump clear withen the time allowed then you carry on going over the next 10- 15 jumps  which is called the second phase or jump off!!