New baby photos!

Just some updated photos of our little girl at 36 hours!












She's unfolding nicely and hopefully tomorrow it will be sunny and I can get some better/brighter images for us all to enjoy! :)

As You Wish WF (Kitty) Has a Cross Country Day!

Sally (www.sallycousins.com) took a group schooling in the early afternoon at Fair Hill and had a lovely school on Kitty while she was coaching a group of students!

























It was a lovely afternoon with a very nice breeze and lots of friendly faces! We saw lots of old friends and made some new ones as well! For those of you who have asked, Kitty does all her training and competing in a stainless full cheek french link snaffle.









Here is the bank jump...



















The water complex photos didn't turn out quite as well as I had hoped...but Kitty could have cared less about that! She was a star through the whole complex!




















It was very nice to watch Sally encourage her students and help them to have a positive outing over so many different types of obstacles. We got to see another Adamant offspring in Ellie Luther's Giver - he is a 17.2 coal black fellow who had a great afternoon with his young rider!




















There is a lot of video footage that needs to be edited (along with Oz, Wyatt and some of the others) - which will all happen on the next free day here on the farm!





















So after a nice afternoon in the sun, it was time to go back to the trailers!

Filly photos...and we need name suggestions!

Ok, we took the little lady out for her first adventure today! She is very independent and seemed to like 'leaving' better than staying with her poor mother (who was frantic)!


So send some name suggestions our way!!!








The rules -

Must start with D
Nothing too frufru or snooty
Show name does not have to be the same as her barn name

Our first foal is here!

Savannah WF (South American Way xx x Able Spirit WF by Abundance/Today I'm Trying xx) delivered a beautiful Dressage Royal filly just after 1:30 AM this morning!

More photos and information to follow as the day advances a bit more!!! :)

Fair Hill Schooling Show

Wow! It was a roaster type of day today with summer like temperatures, some humidity and blazing sunlight...quite different from yesterday when I actually had Toe Heaters in my barn shoes while we were finishing up the shoeing! Today was definitely warm with the thermometer in the truck reading 89* as well pulled out of the show grounds at 4:30 PM.







Wyatt WF and Atreo WF went down to the Delaware Pony Club run schooling show at Fair Hill today. My undying gratitude goes out to poor Mom who slogged back and forth from the parking area with whomever I wasn't riding on the end of the lead shank in all this surprising heat. This is my reminder for everyone who is hoping to attend a really well run & super organized schooling show with ideal footing & good warm-up...there is one more on May 25th - check out www.delawareponyclub.org for more information!!! And go SHOW!!!!




Wyatt had a very nice warm up (I am so proud of him) even after a loose event horse stormed right past him on the way back to the trailers! We then showed in front of Suzanne Hassler in the First 3. He was a bit fussy in the bridle but much more relaxed about the whole showing experience than on his first outing a few weeks ago. We got a 64% with lots of 7's and an 8 on our second lengthening trot!!!! (what a good boy!!!) I was so proud of him for settling right down and going to work so nicely - he is really going to be a BIG show horse someday and Susanne's feedback echoes what Mom and say about the little guy with her comments about 'Keep up the good work' and how he 'will be lovely as you continue to strengthen his topline and ability to find self-carriage'. So with all those nice things about the young man, we earned a red rosette and Wyatt gets some extra pats for being such a wonderful horse.






The second test was not quite as successful and it is entirely my fault. Mom and I parked the boys under a nice shady tree and I hoofed it back to the trailer to get some drinks for us and forgot to pick up the test book. *sigh*


So I borrowed a diagram book (hadn't seen one of those before) and skimmed over the test and vowed to do my best. With my haphazard attempt to 'remember' First 4 and then the heat...well, I did not do my lovely boy justice in the second test of the day. Poor Wyatt suffered from my lack of decision making and was a bit too erratic to equal his good work in the first test, so we placed second again and got some stern comments about the ride from the other judge.






So the lot of us hoofed it back to the truck again and got more drinks and then Tray got tacked up to have a go at schooling through the PSG. He was very, very good and the day ended up being very pleasant after we added some 'rounds' in the warm up after wrapping up the PSG. Last weekend left him a bit rattled, so Paula and the rest of the Pony Club organizers have my undying thanks for allowing me to use the facility at the end of the day. :) Patrick (www.videobypatrick.com) was there and I chose to not have the first test taped (of course it was the _good_ ride) and then splurged for the second ride...whoops! But regardless of how the ride turned out, I am still very proud of my boy for forgiving me for my lack of focus on this hot day.

On the baby front here at the farm - a few of our girls are beginning to show signs that we should have some new additions in a few more days! Spring is an exciting time of year - that is for sure!

BABY pictures!!!!!

Here is the Little Giant's Waldaire colt - William Wallace LG -


He certainly is stamped by both of his parents! Barbara has told me he is very good natured and an easy going type of colt. Their oldest Wally gelding is an '06 out of the TB mare, Aly Alice, named Willow LG and he is going off to be started in the very near future. :)










Charna Watts sent photos of her new filly (3 days in the images) and I am so excited to see her in the 'flesh' even though she is all the way down in TX!








This lovely lady is out of Charna's much loved Zorn(SWE) daughter...what a bright future she has!!!










Congratulations to everyone on their babies... :)

Good thoughts needed for a friend...

Our good friend (and dedicated student) Karyn's horse John had colic surgery earlier this week, so we all need to think good thoughts in their direction for the next few weeks. They had been working so hard on their Second level tests prior to this catastrophe, what a shame!!

Get well soon John!

Aaack!

This is my 'official' announcement -

I dropped my cell phone yesterday and watched it scatter into many pieces never to be seen as a whole phone again. :(

So if you need to reach me - call Mom or the farm number (leave a number on the machine!!!) and I will call you back ASAP.

The replacement phone should be here tomorrow, so all is not lost forever, just for a day or so longer.

Show News, Baby News, A fabulous dinner, Ebay listings...it's all here!

I'm still thinking about the lovely, delicious, savory, sweet, exquisite dinner we had at Chris & David's house last night...mmmmmmm. It was a great way to celebrate the Greek Easter but WOW!!! the food was amazing! Their house is beautiful and everything about the evening was perfect! It is always fun to meet the 'other half' of the friends we make through the horse side of our lives and expand the 'family'. We all shared funny stories about farm life with Carrie, Larry, Chris and David... :) There is nothing quite like a good tale that is enhanced by scrumptious food and good company!

A good summation of the meal would be best paraphrased by Homer Simpson- 'Mmmmmmmm!'




Mom and I made the trek down towards Cape May bright and early yesterday morning with Atreo and had another go with the PSG at Fidler Run Farm in Woodbine, NJ.

We unfortunately had to scoot right after I finished the test and I will update when I know my placing.




It was a treat to see some old friends and congratulations go out to Jennifer Allen on her precise execution of the Grand Prix Special! What a piaffe & passage her boy has!!! :)

Since we scooted out of the grounds shortly after we cooled Tray out, we did not get to say 'hi' to Sara Schmitt who was showing our old buddy - Willy (Worth The Wait) for his proud owner Susan...what a bummer that was as Willy rocked through the Fourth 2 & 3 with scores well over 65%!!!! Congratulations all around to Team Willy!!!!! Hopefully some photos will come through but more importantly - well done Willy!!!!! :)





On the baby news front -



Our mares are beginning to creep closer to their foaling dates but to wet your whistle - this is Doringcourt's first foal "Domino". He was born in Australia out of "Puzzle" by Rotspon...

Congratulations go out to his proud owners and we will keep you all updated with the news of 'Roy', his owners Sally & Ron and Andrea - who is the talented rider who rides this magnificent fellow!

I received a lovely email from the MacKnew family down in MD and they have named their Waldaire colt William Wallace LG...and there were some very cute photos which the computer will NOT allow me to download, save and then upload to the blog. It is very frustrating but please take my word for it - he is a sturdy fellow with good bone, long, correct legs and as soon as the computer sorts out the issue, I'll pop some photos of Will up so we can all see him. :)

Charna Watts down in TX welcomed a Waldaire filly from her lovely mare Queue yesterday! There were no surprises in terms of color but this is what she has to say about her latest addition at Magic Carpet Show Horses in Powederly, TX (http://www.magicarpetshowhorses.com/) - "big, long legged, tons of bone, but very feminine - dishy face, star, strip, 3 high whites. i'm very pleased. she's very calm and seems like an old soul. mom is doing well." and "she's gorgeous. lovely angles, beautiful muscling - strong - she was bouncing around even before she'd found any breakfast! one of the earliest i've ever seen get to her feet." I couldn't be happier for Charna and she said she'd fire off some photos ASAP...so my pledge continues - as soon as I get them, they'll be added here!

On a totally separate note, I am about to list a bunch of items on Ebay. We have done a bit of spring cleaning in the tack room & various closets here on the farm in an effort to re-home lots of useful things like shaped, show quality girths, dressage & jumping saddles (they're just extra and in nearly-new condition) and a bunch of show jackets in both Dressage and Hunter styles. If you would like an emailed list of items & sizes, just pop me a note and then we can save on the listing fees and other charges. Paypal is accepted for all of these items.

Interesting tidbits...

I thought I'd just add some of the news of the week prior to the show tomorrow at Fidler Run Farm.

The AWR/NASPR has gone to a an online format for their newsletter in a Go Green system change!! In doing so, it is also easier to connect to a larger audience beyond the membership. http://www.warmbloodnews.com is the link which will be updated with Classifieds, Bragging Rights, Show Results and Inspection information! So check out WWW.WARMBLOODNEWS.COM when you have a minute.

I am corresponding with the delightful owners of Doringcourt (Dressage Royal x Gazelle by Glueckpilz) in New Zealand.
They are just so nice and updates on his show results in New Zealand will be added as soon as I get them! One of the nicest parts of this new friendship is that the foaling season in the Southern Hemisphere is opposite of ours (April/May/June vs. October/November/December), so there should be lots of baby photos for us to look at year round! :) (what could be better than baby pictures???)

We just finished our spring/summer pasture rotation yesterday! Our yearlings have been sent out to the biggest pastures to enjoy running up and down hill like all young horses should. They also are making friends with their extended family of cousins, siblings and 'Aunties' with little fuss or drama. Their individual personalities really do shine through though...Daisy marches into a new setting and announces her arrival - I'm Daisy! Joy is more subdued and shy, hiding behind Daisy with big eyes and then cautiously approaching what might be DANGER! LOL She is too funny after coming up to whatever was scary, she trots off with so much suspension my jaw hits the earth. The boys are out in the bachelor group of geldings and Derek just trots around showing off his big gaits - the only hang up was that big brother Whodini can out-trot him...so a big trot was not a useful 'escape' gait! Puck was befuddled that his relatives were so pushy and BIG! - which is truly amusing as he is a large yearling who is going to be a big horse someday! :) Pictures to follow in a day or so, along with Oz's video from his last ride at Roddy's.

There are quite a few bits of 'Big News' that I am going to hang onto for a bit longer...but keep checking back!