Groundhog Day 2013

Hello to All,

It seems sometimes days in Aiken are like Groundhog Day in the movie Groundhog Day.

We have the same major cast of characters more or less, and new ones come in in the form of owners and clients.

Now I don't know about you, but I really like the idea of the movie Groundhog Day.  Every day you get to wake up and make this day just a bit better, a bit kinder...

We had an awesome Groundhog Day yesterday.  Tatum Stam and I started the day at 4:30 am to get the Training Level horses fed and over to Sporting Days Farm for the event with Tatum's dressage at 7:30...she and Catch Me if U Can (Chase) had a good test, but they still have to work to improve a few things.  However Chase and her were tremendous in their jumping phases, and other than one moment that we will redo on our next Groundhog Day on Wednesday at the next horse trials (Full Gallop), she showed how much her riding has grown in the time she has been with us.

Vegas was next up with me. This was our Groundhog Day, after as my farrier so eloquently put it, "I had purchased some real estate," coming off him last week.  Vegas tried his hardest and received his best dressage score yet of 22 and jumped a double clean to finish 2nd, outstanding.

Next I rode Beau Voyageur. He as well put in a very good dressage test to finish that phase on a 29.  He jumped a clean show jumping, and then we decided to not go cross country and save him for another day.

A quick trip home was made to drop off Tatum and the morning's competition horses and to pick up Michaela Holcomb, who had been tending to the barn in our absence, the Begineer Novice horses: Michaela's horse Cloud Nine (Leo) and sale horse Thurman Richardson (Ambrose).

Ambrose started the afternoon off,competing in his first recognized horse trials, and he showed the way, finishing first in dressage on a 28.  He continued his winning ways and finished 1st.  He is an outstanding small horse and pictures can be seen on our website, csquarefarm.com

To finish our day, Michaela, showed the results of her and Leo's ever-improving training, with a great dressage test and two clean jumping rounds to finish 4th in her division.  Must have been from all the hard work she put in during the week...

Michaela Holcomb thinking,
"Wow, she wasn't kidding when
 she said we were getting a lot of hay!"

So we packed up our trailer, finished up at the barn and headed home....a Groundhog Day to remember.

Hope yours was too...

All the best,

Courtney