Spring Bay is this weekend!! Hooray!!! How exciting is that??
Entries are now open for Greater Dayton HT (held in May in Dayton OH) and May Daze HT (held in May at KHP). This year, Greater Dayton is offering Beginner Novice through Preliminary, as well as the addition of Starter.
Anyone heading for Greater Dayton? If anyone has an extra trailer slot, I'd love to snatch it for gas money. It's a great event!
Anyone heading for MayDaze?
How exciting!
Nemo, Hopper, and I will be heading to North Carolina this week for The Fork CIC***. Hooray!
Megan will be available for lessons on Monday March 31 for this week... Please let me know if you need anything, otherwise normal lesson schedules (and preparation for Spring Bay) will resume next week.
Stay tuned!
What a great day and a great start to the home season! While today was cold and blustery, the windy 49 degree sunny weather was far preferrable to cold rain, so I'd say we lucked out! SO much good news to report!
Ali Zeitlin and Alex had a great day in the Preliminary CT. I didn't get the opportunity to see their dressage score, but Ali reported having a good test, and they jumped with just one rail. A brilliant result! They finished in 5th place in a field of very, very nice horses (including two advanced horses and one horse sired by an advanced horse). Well done!!!!
Ashley Sager, one of our new working students, had a great day. She rode The Sandpiper in the Novice CT after only having ridden him for a week... She did a great job, and had the most beautiful show jump round ever for double clear. They were remarkably rhythmical and their ride flowed wonderfully, even with nice flying changes! The Novice divisions were BIG, and they finished a very competitive 7th place! Ashley also catchrode at BN and had a great day, finishing with 37 in dressage and a 0/0 round for 5th place in BN!!
Roofie was a star today! She really learned to love the dressage, and she allowed me to sit her whole test and ride her like an adult rather than a thoroughbred. She was very, very good... And I think the judge may have agreed.... They rewarded her hard work with a 27.5!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She was a bit tired in show jumping and had just one rail. Roofie would have been 2nd, but her rail dropped her to 4th. Still a wonderful, wonderful day for her, as her final score was a 31.5! This is only Roofie's third event, so I think we'll see big things to come of her in the future.
Another of our new working students, Belinda McCredie, did her first Combined Test today... She did a brilliant job at BN with Cricket, and jumped double clean in SJ. They had a really lovely round, and made the course look very professional and very smooth. I think they share the winning the "Best Turnout Award" this weekend!
Kathryn and Ben played as Dressage Queens today.... :) I am afraid I don't have any actual results to report for them, but Kat said that Ben was good and they accomplished alot... Which is why we all brave the March weather!
Relish is an amazing horse... He went to his first show today, and acted as though he's a twenty year old schoolmaster. And he's 5! He was super sensible and steady-eddy throughout the whole day, and insisted on packing me around in case I needed any guidance... Hahahaha... What a fun horse. He was really, really good in dressage, but in my hurry to watch the girls I forgot my dressage whip... While he was excellent, I think the extra impulsion of just carring the 'go button' would have helped him tremendously, and I know he can easily shave quite a few points off that score with more impulsion. Even so, he scored a 35 in dressage! I'd say that's a valiant attempt for your first event! He continued his fabulous ways by clean with just one time fault, and finished THIRD!
Mike and Spud did a great job today... They were great over most of the BN course, but it was still a little early in the year for them, but they'll be back on top in the next outing. I never cease to be impressed by the sportsmanship and support displayed by their whole family. And what great photos Mike took today! Check out Snapfish for more on that. And as for their new outfit, I would nominate them as co-winners of the "Best Turnout Award" this weekend!!
Samantha Musante, another new working student, had a stellar day. She rode The Aristocrat in the huge division of Novice. Samantha rode brilliantly today and produced a gorgeous, double clean show jumping round on Vaughn.... Well done! Then she continued her success in Novice by scoring a 36 in dressage on her own Angels are Lucky. Lucky also produced a double clear (and absolutely gorgeous, spot on) round to place a very successful 8th finishing on 36 points.... Now that's a tough division!
Basil was amazing today... He is our 5yo Oldenburg/TB cross gelding, and was started under saddle this winter via the amazing talents of Emily Plant, Jessi Kale, and Samantha Musante. Basil made his horse show debut today and was really brilliant.... No screaming and squirming like typical babies, but rather he dug right into his new job and loved every minute of it! He was excellent in dressage (though green), and scored a very respectable 43.5 in dressage for his first time off the farm. (Including 7 for gaits). Then he proceeded to jump double clean in show jumping! He's going to be a fabulous hunter, or eventer, or jumper prospect.
Nemo was a really good boy. The strategy with Randy was always to run him Advanced and then Prelim and then Advanced, in order to keep his confidence up and make him feel invincible. I always found that to be really successful, so we're going to apply that same tactic to Nemo... I rode him today in the Preliminary CT to spike his confidence for The Fork HT next weekend. He was excellent... He was placed 2nd after dressage with a 38 in dressage, and jumped double clean. He finished 2nd! I think all of the hard work in Aiken really paid off... All three of my guys finished in the 20's and 30's in dressage, with a total of just one rail. After dressage, they were 2nd, 2nd, and 3rd.
Emily and Tom were amazing as always! They stuck with pure dressage today, as I believe they are working on their Quarter Horse merits. Tom was brilliant today, earning a 1st, a 2nd, and a 3rd! His winning test was scored a 78%, which is simply astounding and awe inspiring. WELL DONE!
A very successful day for both our horses and the students! Congratulations to all!!!
Team CEO wishes to introduce its newest acquisition, "La Dolce Vita!"
"Dolce," as we are calling him for a barn name, is a 4yo 16.2h steel gray Thoroughbred gelding. He is from the same bloodline as the farm's namesake horse, "Chief Executive Officer," who was a champion Preliminary level event horse and year end award winner. This same bloodline also produced one of the event horses who competed in the Atlanta Olympics!
We are extremely excited for Dolce to make his debut into the eventing world! As he is very young, he is going to visit Hidden Hollow Farm in Ashland Kentucky for a few months to grow and fatten up! (And learn from the experts on water and ditches and banks!)
