More loot for Sara & Kitty! :)

Kitty rockin' her Level 3 Clean Sweep Champion ribbon!

That's right! Kitty and Sara were 3 for 3 double clear rounds today in the Level 3 Jumpers! 

Every so often...

Every so often the light is just right and there is a great photo op to start the day!

My inner artist (the one with the fancy education and degree to back up any grand thoughts) thought this was a better than average shot -

"Crepuscular" 

In a gallery setting, I would call it Crepuscular to draw attention to the light. Here at home, it's Avebury is Ready for the Day! Not nearly as hoity-toity and identifies the horse in the image...but the light was awesome yesterday!!! :) 

Thanks to all our clinic attendees and participants! It was a pleasure to work with you all! 

Are you feeling the Winter training blues?

Are you not looking forward to training your horse(s) this winter? Is your footing going to freeze and become unsafe with rain/snow/sleet? Why not consider our WF Club Membership? It will allow you access to our insulated indoor ring with improved footing and new lights so that you and your horse are toasty warm and able to make progress all through the winter season!

- Unlimited Arena use by appointment between 11AM-7PM (so as to avoid lesson conflicts)

- Indoor arena has new improved footing and lights and receives daily maintenance

- Club members save $10 per lesson with WF instructors

- Waiver and Coggins must be on file

- $300 per month for Family Membership

- $250 per month for Single Rider Membership

Contact info@watermark-farm.net for more information

Big Thanks going out for an awesome clinic!

Beautiful Hilltop Farm

I'll just start with a big shout out of THANK YOU to Hilltop Farm and their staff for allowing Catherine to have a(nother) clinic at their fabulous facility! It's such a privilege to work with a trainer/rider/coach of her caliber and to have the opportunity to do so in such a fabulous environment is priceless!!

The Big Boss aka CHS arrives in style!

Catherine arrived in her wonderful Theault Morpheus horse box! It's just a wonderful vehicle - handy, compact and so safe for the horses! What a sweet ride!

I can't be the only one who's excited to see Catherine's Horse Box!

A day of wonderful lessons started not long after! Most of the riders did a fair amount of canter work - pirouettes, changes and becoming better at setting the horses up for success in the learning process. Everyone left the arena more confident and happy with their path towards future success. I, for one, am ecstatic as several horses presented some of the training conundrums I've encountered and there are now new tools for the toolbox of helping them to understand what is being asked of them more clearly.

Wyatt being fabulous!

 So that's my clinic report! I'll fill my students in on some of the more technical aspects when you all are here for lessons! :) Thank you Hilltop! Thank you Catherine!

Working on a better connection in the canter

Setting up another pirouette under Catherine's watchful eyes

Big Congratulations are in order!

Let's give a big "YAY!!" for Sara G.'s success at Plantation Field yesterday! Sara was one of our dedicated working students several years ago and has gone one to become a teacher. She still rides quite and wanted to squeeze in an event before the season wrapped up here in PA for the winter. Since Kitty loves to event, it seemed like a grand idea to let them go have some fun together!

They knocked out a 35 in Dressage (with a rider error), had a single rail in Show Jumping (small rub at the last fence) and then rocked around the stiff Cross Country course. Sara said the first few fences might have been at Advanced speed but then Kitty settled beautifully and was just a blast to ride - banks, ditches, water - no problem!!

So if you see Sara out and about foxhunting with River Hills or at any of the local shows, please give her a big Congratulations as this was her second cross country outing, first dressage test and second show jumping adventure with Kitty! It was a real treat to have such an experienced rider take our girl out and about!!

Thanks for the great riding Sara!!

A Little Bit Sideways...

I'll be honest - the website is getting away from me. It is an ever starving beast that needs to be fed - every - single - day. So with that in mind, it is getting some much needed attention and each sales horse's page is being updated and changed. Dramatically. I am waffling a bit on a few last details of the layout but as soon as I can firm up concept to reality, it is a done deal. No more scrolling. No more endless pages of images. No more 50,000 images per horse. So perhaps this paragraph is an apology for the changes that are going on...

Speaking of changes - we will be offering a Training Day on Saturday November 16th from 9AM-3PM. We will be going over our training system for young horses through Grand Prix. I promise there will be a ton of flying changes shown throughout the day - how to teach singles, simple, counting...you name it, we will be happy share our knowledge with the public. Limited stabling available by request for the day. Lessons will be $75 for a 45 minute session. Auditors $20, please bring a chair and dress for the weather.

And now for the "fun" part of the blog I was looking forward to typing...
You all know that I will rave about how awesome life has been to me - I grew up on a farm, have really supportive family and nice horses to ride...well, my appreciation for all of that has been intensified in the past few years as another generation is coming on line as riding horses. I've grown up riding sons and daughters and brothers and sisters of previous horses, so there is a strong element of "family" in my background as a rider, not just as a lucky person living on the farm. (in a nutshell)

For example, I had an awesome ride on Daisy (aka Dream Girl) yesterday. She's a full sister to Liam
(Don William) and out of the same mare as Wyatt. Wyatt is out of Savannah who is a daughter to Prissy (aka Able Spirit). Daisy is a livelier, more elastic version of Prissy with a better engine and not so broad in the saddle position! There are some other conformation improvements but the same feeling is there from the rider's perspective. There has always been an element of "star quality" with this family...they are special and they know it! That high regard of "Self" has been one of the best qualities to come down from Prissy and Daisy has it in spades!



There's a bit of what made us love the big bay mare so much...she was a really strong competition horse with an extremely prolific show career and fabulous mental focus. Her descendants are giving us every indication of being as good, if not better, than she was. The bigger the audience, the better she would perform!

But that's just one of the superstars that we're working with at the moment - there are many, many more that are intriguing as there are some that are more like Again and Again, Abundance, Adamant, Dekor, Atreo, Waldaire, Alacazam...which is a very good reason to scoot away from the computer and get to the barn to RIDE! So bear with me while the website gets the revisions finished. It should be done as soon as I finish clipping the riding horses! Hopefully!

~Happy Riding!~

Three Days Left! Show news!

So I'll start with the big news - Congratulations are in order for Sara & Kitty (aka As You Wish)! They rocked the Level 3 Jumpers at Fox Crossing on Sunday!! Clean rounds, fast jump offs, no rails...just what an experienced team likes to do!

On the deadline front - time finalize your frozen purchases! The Frosty Inventory Sale ends 11/1/13, so there is not much time left to save $$$!

The wave of videos begins!

That's right - we're going to see if there is a way to max out what a You Tube Channel can support! Keep a close eye on our Facebook Page for the latest uploads or subscribe to our Channel - then you won't miss out on the latest additions of our Sales Horses videos!

Speaking of Sales Horses, the website is about to have a major overhaul. So keep your eye on that as well for the new format and layout as there are big changes afoot!

First up is As You Wish's cross country school over at Fox Crossing the other day with Sara G. in the irons. She'll be out and about at some local competitions - so stop by and say "Hi!" to the bay mare in pink!

Then there is our Dream Girl with Melissa having a "hunter" school on a brisk morning. 

Some schooling photos and reminder about our Frosty Sale - just 10 days left!

First - if you want to save a bundle on some frozen semen - check out our Frosty Sale that runs through the 31st of this month!
http://ellie-watermarkfarmhappenings.blogspot.com/2013/10/frosty-inventory-sale.html
Second - enjoy some snapshots of the horses schooling! :)

Happy Sara & Kitty