It truly takes a village!

In raising and training our own horses, it truly takes a village to bring them along. This post will be rather 'photo heavy' but hopefully our pride in the horses' progress shines through!

From the technicians at Select Breeders who do their highly specialized work, to the top nothch veterinarian - Dr. Sarah Sprague of Equine Reproduction Services, to the best baby horse (and competition horse) farrier Ken Cummins of Whispering Pines, Inc., to Roddy Strang of Sport Horse Training, Inc. who does all our young horse starting, our loyal and most awesome working students - Sara & Melissa, to Anne, Ellie and Bill for the personal sacrafices and the guys who help us unload the hay each summer, the neighbors who pitch in in a pinch, to the staff at True Prospect and all those behind the scenes folks who I am forgetting as well as just the general goodwill that makes even the most trying day a pleasure - THANK YOU. It truly does take a village to bring all the ingredients together in making a fine riding horse with the talent to draw the eye of top professionals...and we are blessed in having so many fine youngsters coming along.

This afternoon Anne and Ellie took Avebury and 2 young horses over to True Prospect to visit Ryan Wood. True gratitude has to be sent out by the bucket load to Roddy Strang and his staff at Sport Horse Training, Inc,. in Kirkwood PA - as he has done the best job starting our youngsters for ages. His fabulous training really shone through in the second youngster - Wall Street WF who had his first trip to True Prospect and first ride with Ryan...and he was just super - brave, forward and steady! Here are some photos of "Hansel" -

Don William WF hasn't seen Ryan since mid April when he shipped home from Aiken, so it was lovely to see him go...he is just getting stronger and, well, better - not that there was that much room for improvement but every ride is a nice leap forward in his training progress and Ryan was pleased. So the work will continue as we try to keep laying a solid foundation with Liam and advance his training as fast as he wants to progress.

And last but not least is Avebury WF. *sigh* What an awesome awesome horse he is - thanks to all the folks mentioned above! He had a super school with Ryan and I'll let the photos speak for how happy he is! :)

So our sincere gratitude goes out to everyone who makes our job possible! We can't do what we love so very much without your help and smiling faces, so thank you so much for everything! :)

Whodini WF (Waldaire x Abracadabra WF) 2007 Gelding 15.3 hands

So we went over and shot some video (link pending) of Whodini WF! Ryan has been doing a super job with him - there are lots of things going on at True Prospect right now with plenty of top level riders, horses and trainers!

So here's our youngster -

Video is UP! And my apologies - the camera will not sync with the MacBook Pro, so there is a long roundabout method of converting the video and the quality suffered. I will be able to clean it up in a day or so and should be able to burn DVD's if anyone is interested.

If you would like to schedule an appointment to see Whodini or to arrange a test ride, please just contact us. Thank you!

Kentucky Equine Research is having a Foal Photo Contest on Facebook!

If you go to the link above, scroll down for this image and LIKE it!

Thanks so much!!!

Big update...

So it's a very sad day here on the farm. We said goodbye to one of our most special horses - Lily (aka Achtung Again WF). She was born in June 1991 and like all the Again and Again offspring was a pure delight from Day 1 as a riding horse. She trained up the levels easily and campaigned through 4th Level test 3. Lily was a used as a lesson horse (easiest to sit trot and most comfortable canter EVER) and then retired to the breeding shed in her mid-teens.

In 2006 she had her first foal - Waterlily WF by Waldaire who is pictured above (chestnut). Like a typical Waldaire foal - Millie is very, very similar to her mother. So in having her - we do have a bit of Lily to keep her memory alive. :)

In 2007 she produced her second filly - Daylily WF by Dressage Royal (black). Stella is an interesting blend of her mother and DR...we are bringing her along slowly and she should be showing by mid summer.

In the spring of 2008 Lily had a terrible dystocia while trying to deliver another Dressage Royal foal. Sadly, we opted to let the black colt go and through the heroic efforts of Dr. Sarah Sprague, her husband and a few of our neighbors - we saved Lily. She recovered steadily and rejoined our riding horses after a year and a half. Last fall she went to Madeira School in McLean, VA and was a barn favorite for several months. Over the winter, she began to decline and returned home to us. So with heavy hearts we said good bye to our friend Lily earlier today.

Day in and day out - Lily was sweet natured, kind and forgiving of her riders. She was one of the rare horses that does everything she possibly can to please her rider. We look forward to bringing her daughters (and someday), their offspring along undersaddle.
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Proofs are up from Plantation's Dressage - http://conklinphotographic.com/p513036914

Have a look through and let us know which one(s) are your favorites!

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Speaking of favorites...here's a chance to help Ellie win a Photo contest on FaceBook!

From the KER page - Kentucky Equine Research
Share your foal photos for a chance to win a prize! Post your favorite foal picture by Thursday at noon (Eastern U.S.). Then get your friends to come vote before Friday at 4 p.m. The photo with the most votes will win a great prize!

So check out the foal albums HERE and email Ellie@watermark-farm.net and let her know what your favorite is! The most liked photo will be the one that is submitted to the KER Contest! If you don't do FaceBook - just browse through the farm website and let Ellie know...99.9999% of the photos are hers! :)

Thank you all so much!

A bit of a tease...

Our Whodini WF (Waldaire x Abracadabra WF) is 2007 gelding has been undersaddle for about 7 weeks now and rave reviews are coming back about him! Our young horse starter Roddy Strang has had the highest praise for 'Dini' from the get go! He stands just shy of 15.3 and still has a bit of growing to do. But the highlight of this little powerhouse is his movement! He is a full brother to our super young stallion Wizard WF(2006) and to Wakanda WF(2005). They are all quite similar in type and build - this fellow just happens to be the fanciest mover!

We will have some new footage of 'Dini' undersaddle with Ryan Wood in the irons at True Prospect later this week as well as lots of photographs to share with everyone. Ryan is already quite excited to jump him tomorrow and was quite complimentary about how fabulous his trot is.

It's always good to hear good things back about the youngsters! (especially when it is from two accomplished horsemen with so many rides under their belts!)

Here are some photos of our little guy when he was much smaller and younger...enjoy! And check back Thursday or Friday for some new photos!

Here is a video from his foal inspection.

And one from about 16 months of age.

Thanks to Roddy Strang of Sporthorse Training Inc. for all his hard work - the good solid foundation he gives the youngsters really shines through! Thanks to Ryan and the rest of the staff at True Prospect for taking care of our little fellow and advancing his education! :)

Avebury and Plantation Field Horse Trials

First of all, we have to thank all the hard workers and helpers that make an event possible. Organizers, staff, volunteers, judges, scribes, ring crew, officials - a standing ovation for running a good competition and making the right call when the conditions got to be so much less than ideal.

The second round of profuse thanks go out to the staff at Phillip and Evie Dutton's True Prospect Farm and Ryan Wood for doing such a lovely job presenting our stallion! He is always groomed to the nines with perfect braids and just sparkles like a star! :) Thanks to Ryan for doing such a fantastic job riding in the torrential downpour and driving winds...

The third round of thanks goes out to Charish Campbell for shooting the videos of Avebury's dressage and show jumping! :) And for posting them so quickly on You Tube for us to enjoy!
Dressage
Show Jumping

There are some proofs from AKDragoo available for viewing here.

The current plan is for Avebury to go Preliminary again at MCTA in a few weeks, so we will make the trek to MD and have photos and videos to share with everyone shortly.

Avebury times for Plantation Field Horse Trials!

Avebury is competing at one of our local venues this weekend - Plantation Field!

Here are his times - PH Sat 08:40 am Sun 09:16 am Sat 10:16 am

Come on out! We'd love to see everybody!

Another Waldaire baby is growing up!

Here is Peg Lederer's beautiful homebred mare With Eloquence (x B'Eloquence by Beste Gold)! She went to her first show at Prince Georges Equestrian Center and was a lady throughout the day.

Congratulations to Peg and all of Ellie's connections!

Whoops! I have been neglecting the blog!

So some apologies to everyone who follows the blog - we got a bit busy in the past few weeks and I've neglected keeping the blog up to speed...

Avebury rocked Southern Pines cross country course and put in a solid dressage test. He got a bit distracted in SJ, so there was a rail but here are the proofs from his outing. Ryan said the course was quite difficult and Dillon was 'foot perfect'. His next outing is at Plantation Horse Trials in the middle of April.

On the breeding front - SBS has moved its headquarters to Chesapeake City MD! There are some photos up of the nifty new facility - if you have a chance - check out their website or Facebook Page.




Speaking of breeding - our 2 mares who are in foal for 2011 are getting closer to their respective due dates!
Here is Abracadabra WF napping in the sun. She is carrying an Avebury foal.

And Wallstreet Rose WF is carrying a Wizard foal. She was very busily ensuring good nutrition for her baby, so this is the only shot we got of Gretta. :)

Avebury went over to True Prospect Farm (Phillip & Evie Dutton's farm in PA) today for a school with Ryan. Here are some snap shots from the iPhone as I forgot to pack the camera...