Foaling Contest!!

Our last foal of 2010 should be arriving in the next few days! S/he will be out of our proven broodmare Sabrina WF (South American Way x Able Spirit by Abundance) and by our senior stallion Waldaire! We are offering a $25 Gift Certificate (applicable to lessons or breedings) if you guess the color, markings and gender!


Please email your best guess to ellie@watermark-farm.net


Sabrina's previous foals...

Waredaca Horse Trials

Our As You Wish WF & Avebury WF put in a super day at the Waredaca Horse Trials on Saturday! Ryan Wood did a superb job piloting 'Dillon' around the challenging Cross Country and Show Jumping courses!!! And Ellie & 'Kitty' seem to have improved their focusing abilities with an 8th place finish in their division of Training! Dillon did SJ & XC while Kitty was doing dressage so there are fewer photos of him from this outing...but you'll get the idea! :)

Thanks to Anne for all her coaching & training with the horses, as well as grooming on the day for Kitty! And thanks to the staff at Phillip & Evie's True Prospect Farm for presenting Dillon spotlessly (again)! Thanks to Ryan for the great riding and coaching over the past few months! Huge thanks also go out to our CMT Hoppy Stearns who has done such good body work on Ellie, Kitty & Dillon...that's another one of the reasons they are all improving as the season goes on - gotta get the kinks out and that's where her know-how comes into play! (so everyone might get the impression that it really does 'take a village' to get the horses & riders fit to compete!)

And most especially thank you's go out the staff, volunteers, organizers and sponsors at Waredaca - our fun day would not have been possible without your support system...thank you!

Published again!

Watermark Farm founder and USEF S judge Anne Rawle ran a Judges Training meeting in April at NBC. The most recent DVCTA Newsletter featured a nice article about the session and some of the highlights!

Congratulations Anne!!!

If there were a way to hyperlink to the PDF file, I would but...it is a secured, members only PDF. :(

Weekend Wrap Up

First and foremost, huge congratulations (and thanks) go out to Ryan Wood and the rest of the gang at True Prospect for the wonderful work they have done with our stallion Avebury WF! He placed 5th in his division of Open Training at Fair Hill Horse Trials over the weekend - finishing on his dressage score with a superb show jumping round and brilliant cross country. Both courses were technical and well ridden by Ryan!

































































Ellie and As You Wish WF had a tough bit of bad luck with a sprung shoe in the midst of their show jumping round forcing a withdrawal. *sigh* On the good side, the mare is fine and will go out again in a few weeks.



Additional thanks go out to the volunteers, organizers and staff at Fair Hill for making such a lovely weekend for us all! :) We couldn't have this much fun without your assistance, so many thanks for all your hard work!!!

The weather gods have smiled on us as of late and we had several beautiful days of perfect mid-70's, a few puffy clouds and a light breeze! It was perfect riding weather!!!

So with the lovely weather, there were lots of lessons and horses working on Sunday...

If you're free this weekend -

Fair Hill Horse Trials is looking for volunteers and a bit desperate for help on both days.

On Saturday you might be able to see Avebury do his dressage bright and early at 8:16! Or his show jumping at 12:40! Or even see his happy face as he gallops by closer to 1 PM!! Or As You Wish doing her dressage at 12:50. Or gleefully jumping her stadium at 3:30!! But hold on to your hat...she'll be flying by and jumping cross country with gusto at quarter to 4!!!!

So if you do have part of a day that is free, please contact the folks down at Fair Hill. We all appreciate it more than you know. Thank you very much!

Do you have extra time this summer?

If you are looking to have an intense learning experience this summer and fill your days with HORSE from beginning to end, we might have something that interests you!

Watermark Farm has several Working Student positions open for the summer and fall of 2010. We are looking for fun loving, responsible and hard working people to help groom, handle youngstock, clean tack and do some light riding. Opportunities include instruction from FEI dressage, jumper & 4* eventing trainers and FEI schoolmasters to ride. Some showing can be included. All applicants will need to interview in person and provide references. Terms negotiable. Must be 18+. A 2 week trial is mandatory. For long distance travelers - housing and a stall can be arranged. Smokers need not apply.

Just imagine...a morning with some barn chores (bring in/turnout about 5 horses), some grooming, some riding, a quick lunch, then some tack to clean and then lessons with some of the top riders in the country to liven up the afternoon! Then a bit more barnwork and then the day is done!!! :) What could be better???

Some news from New Zealand

As some of you may know, we are the US Agents for Dressage Royal and are very excited about our oldest foals - Don William & Daylily who will be starting undersaddle shortly. It is an honor to be able to offer this world class stallion to other breeders and through our association with Dressage Royal, Ellie corresponds with another breeder down in New Zealand - Sally Bank of North Park Equestrian who owns Doringcourt (a licensed son of Dressage Royal). Her daughter Andrea competes this fine horse and they have had a lovely breeding & show season.

Here is the latest note and some photographs -

Hi Ellie

Hope you are all well and enjoying your new foals this year.

We are going into winter here in New Zealand but have been very fortunate with having a wonderful summer,
Autumn and now winter is still very mild and dry.

I thought I would touch base with you to let you know how things are going with our lovely boy Doringcourt.
We had a great first official breeding season this year with him and are really looking forward to seeing his
foals on the ground starting to be born November onwards.

His first three foals are lovely from last season and we were lucky enough to get a beautiful colt
who we have named NPE Delrico. I've attached some photos of him 5 days and 11 weeks. He is a lovely
deep bay now with two white socks. Sorry about the white eyes @ 11 weeks, I took the photos late evening with flash.

Doringcourt had a fabulous season at Medium Level winning the FEI World Challenge (Elementary level).
Andrea and Doringcourt were selected to ride for Team NZ which was out of six countries. NZ
won overall and Andrea and Doringcourt came first in their section out of 6 countries.
She also won Champion Medium Level @ Waitemata Dressage Champships and NZ Horse of the Year Medium
Champion.

Wishing you a successful season with all your horses and I hope you have a lovely summer.

Kind Regards
Sally Bank
North Park Equestrian








So it goes without saying Watermark Farm is thrilled to hear of Andrea & Doringcourt's triumphs down south and wish the entire North Park Equestrian team success and happiness in their off season! Congratulations NPE!!!

Inspection Registration Reminder!

Last reminder to send your registration information into the AWR Office by the 11th to avoid the expediting fees that will accumulate!

Wizard WF schooling photos

Our young stallion is progressing beautifully in his daily training! Wizard will celebrate his fourth birthday later this month and we are mapping out his undersaddle competition debut!

Updated baby photos from 5/8/10

We are still in the throes of the baby name debate and just days away from the deadline (5/11), so if anyone brainstorms and has a brilliant idea, please share! :)

In any case, here are some photos of Bailey & Izzy from yesterday afternoon...