DAD wrap up!

Wyatt in the Caracol Jewelry booth

 This will be pretty short and sweet as there are chores waiting for me outside. Mom and I went up for the Freestyle night at Dressage At Devon and had a lovely time. We did a bit of browsing in the stores and saw Gypsy Mare Studios work - just lovely! There were several photos of our horses - only snapped a quick shot of Wyatt (who had been so amazing earlier in the day) and continued on to Skylands Saddlery...which I'll get to in a totally separate post in the future.

The moon rising in the east

The moon over the Gold Ring from our seats

The Dixon Oval

So, it was a lovely evening. Thank you to our friends who shared their box with us - we really appreciate being able to have such lovely seating and a great view of both the warm up and the Dixon Oval.

From a (past and hopefully future) competitors standpoint, the flow of the horse traffic of this year's DAD was a vast improvement. Thank you to the organizers to making the breed show safer with "horse only" paths that were fenced off! Thank you to those who made the improved footing possible. Devon will always be special to me and it will be very exciting to show there in the future! <3 nbsp="nbsp" p="p">

Thank you to all of the sponsors for their support of a fabulous show. Thank you to the vendors, boxholders, competitors and staff that make DAD such a success. :)

FINALLY!!!! (whew!)

So the BIG revisions are well started on the website!!! I have the stallion pages still to go and then some riding horse photos to add to individual pages...but it is the SALES PAGES that have gotten the biggest overhaul!!

CHECK it out!! What do you guys think? Does it work better???

I knew scrolling so much was getting to be a real pain in the neck but the idea of highlighting and deleting so many hours of hard work was off-putting to say the least!!! 8-o

So some feedback on the changes would be much appreciated! If you all say it's terrible - I'm ok with it and can revert back to the old system. If you all like it - that's awesome!!! It's much less labor intensive this way - only 1 page per horse to update, instead of 2-4!!! :)

11,300 FANS, some schooling photos, a few changes on the website!

Maybe I should start labeling these sort of posts as "Catching Up" or "Weekly Wrap Up" or something...any suggestions?

The Farm Page continues to blossom and gain fans around the globe. Jordan leads the way with several dozen new fans coming to us from the Middle East. France, Argentina, and a few Western European countries also contribute a few more each week. Thank you all for the support, the comments and the LIKES! We really appreciate the time that you take to include our farm in your daily interest list! THANK YOU!!!

Here are a few snapshots of some of the schooling this week -

We also had our AWR/NASPR Inspection on Saturday. Congratulations to all the participants! Here are a few snap shots from the day - 

There will be a major change on the Sales Page of our website later this week. Please check back as it affects the pricing of several of our offerings. 

And as a slightly different offering, I'm going to link to some articles and images that are giving me inspiration to persevere through this latest setback with my leg. It could be worse, right?

A super Eurodressage article about working with someone else's horse and making something of it. 

This is a Moth Mullein flower that grows next to the upper stallion paddock. 

We've had some stormy clouds roll through from time to time! Who can resist getting the camera out?

Not much more needs to be said, right? Here is a big inspiration to get better ASAP! 

And for all those who wonder why Charlotte wears a helmet...here you go!

This Preying Mantis is one of several that is inhabiting the bushes near the tackroom. We need to prune them back (they're overtaking the entire space) but there are dozens of these charming insects living there. Later in the fall that project will happen!! These guys deserve to have a safe haven!

We've had a break in the heat and humidity, so the sunrises are lovely again! :) Nothing better to start a day out the right way but having a glorious bit of bright sky as an omen of good things to come! Speaking of starting the day, I've enjoyed going back in the Voices of the Chronicle of the Horse and reading the blogs that are there. Catherine's pieces are particularly interesting (perhaps it's the double Aries thing), but this one is one of the best I've read thus far...I too have my morning rituals and preferred way of going about doing the various things that make up the day here on the farm. 

So Happy Riding! 

Farm photos, musings, a bit of this and that...

I'll start with a few images of the Master of All He Surveys - Oreo

Then we'll move on to the silly riding mares that thought nothing of a chilly afternoon and had a bit of a swim -

We have had quite a bit of rain over the past few weeks, so they had been restricted to small(er) paddocks and on the worst of days - just some time in the indoor arena...so perhaps that explains the gusto they put into getting wet? Silly girls!

Stubben N.A. was also kind enough to send the ever-so-awesome certified saddle fitter Keith Brooks to the farm for a few hours this week! Keith did a number of fittings - both dressage and jumping saddles for clients and everyone was quite pleased with how the time was spent, the knowledge they gained and how the horses improved!

Lastly, please enjoy some images of the paper mill ruins on the east of our property (hence the watermark in Watermark Farm) -