Hello,
I am late to blog as I have been trying to catch up on everything. We had a good outing with the horses at Fair Hill, both Decorated and R Star were very good in the Prelims on Friday and Saturday with R Star being second after dressage, and then having 1 time fault to fall to 3rd behind Decorated who jumped a clean round and moved up to second.
On Sunday, I was trying a new bridle on Hope, a hackamore and just did not have her attention early on and had a silly runout at the second when she was caught looking at the 2nd training fence on the way to the Prelim fence...oh well...she jumped all the hard stuff well and I have to remember she has just been eventing a year and this is her second Prelim.
Decorated was fantastic and roared to a double clean and a 2nd place finish...someone needs to snatch him up quick as I am having way too much fun!
The training horses were also good as Ballinlaugh Ice jumped a double clear to finish 7th and her stablemate Lazer Lavender had one show jump down to finish just out of the ribbons.
Nevaeh who had another good dressage and show jump did not run cross country as it was pouring rain and the footing had deteriorated and we decided to save her for another day.
The big news though is that Rock Star delivered a beautiful colt on Sunday at 1:30 AM. Grove of Stars or Grover, is big and healthy and bouncing around. It has been a while since we have had a colt and he is reminding us daily that they are a little different than little fillies!
We hope you enjoy his video, there will be more to come...http://www.csquarefarm.com/grove-of-stars/
Good luck to all of our friends at Rolex this weekend, stay safe,
Courtney
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Plantation Field
Hello to All,
We had a busy weekend at Plantation with me competing 5, and my student Gillian Cowley coming down to compete her Gabriella.
I was super pleased with all of the horses in the dressage, R Star was starting in her first Prelim and scored a sub 25 test to lead the way against some lovely horses. I then had two sale horses in the Training. One, Persia June, had a good test however there is still room for improvement as we are continuing to work on straightness.
Decorated was a star and put in a lovely steady test, to tie for the lead. Then it was on to my Novice horses, first, What it Takes, the super duper pony. He put in an active, energetic test to finish 4th out of 20, and then Dare to Dream's Sport finished out the flat with a quality test as well.
Gillian also put in another good test to win her division on the flat. So we were feeling pretty good going into show jumping with 3 in the lead and one in 4th and the other two with competitive scores.
Show jumping just did not work out the way I had hoped. I am not sure if it was the ground, which is terribly hard for lack of rain, the siting of the show jumping, the course, or me but for whatever reason, I could not get a clear round on some really good jumping horses. Hope, Decorated, Gabby, and Tic Tac had one each at different fences, and Persia had two and Sport three...back to the drawing board for me!
Sunday dawned bright and warm, and Hope started off first cross country and was just angry and a bit unrideable. Turns out the new bit we had for her was bruising her mouth. I must admit that I would not have been surprised if she decided not to go at times, but she showed me a lot of chutzpah by continuing to try, and we will try another bridle this weekend...She finished with some time and ended up 3rd for the weekend...looks like she wants to join her brother Tag competing!
Speaking of Tag, real quickly, he is back in work and starts flatting this week...so exciting. I was grinning ear to ear yesterday having my first canter on him since January 6th!
Back to the event, Persia was the first horse on the Training course, and Denis Glaccum had set up some challenges, and both she and Decorated, who both jumped clean rounds got a huge compliment from Neal when he said "they both look like I would have fun riding them around..." Decorated ended 4th and Persia 11th.
Gabby and Gillian also continued their streak, with a clean go, and another win...she is hoping to move up to Prelim soon, we will see; there needs to be a bit more consistency to some of their work first!
What It Takes and Sport finished out our day on Sunday. What it Takes was great fun and had me chuckling as we traveled around the course. Sport showed his greeness at the first by having a stop, although it was not caused by the fence, but rather by him staring at the spectators and cars at the top of the field by the first fence. He has not been out for a month and he just showed it, but by the 4th fence he was jumping better than ever. The pony ended up 6th and Sport out of the ribbons.
Video of many of the rides is on our website summary of the event.
We are headed to Fair Hill this weekend, and still waiting on DJ to foal, so if Neal and I look like zombies you will know why...
Hope to see all of you soon,
Courtney
We had a busy weekend at Plantation with me competing 5, and my student Gillian Cowley coming down to compete her Gabriella.
I was super pleased with all of the horses in the dressage, R Star was starting in her first Prelim and scored a sub 25 test to lead the way against some lovely horses. I then had two sale horses in the Training. One, Persia June, had a good test however there is still room for improvement as we are continuing to work on straightness.
Decorated was a star and put in a lovely steady test, to tie for the lead. Then it was on to my Novice horses, first, What it Takes, the super duper pony. He put in an active, energetic test to finish 4th out of 20, and then Dare to Dream's Sport finished out the flat with a quality test as well.
Gillian also put in another good test to win her division on the flat. So we were feeling pretty good going into show jumping with 3 in the lead and one in 4th and the other two with competitive scores.
Show jumping just did not work out the way I had hoped. I am not sure if it was the ground, which is terribly hard for lack of rain, the siting of the show jumping, the course, or me but for whatever reason, I could not get a clear round on some really good jumping horses. Hope, Decorated, Gabby, and Tic Tac had one each at different fences, and Persia had two and Sport three...back to the drawing board for me!
Sunday dawned bright and warm, and Hope started off first cross country and was just angry and a bit unrideable. Turns out the new bit we had for her was bruising her mouth. I must admit that I would not have been surprised if she decided not to go at times, but she showed me a lot of chutzpah by continuing to try, and we will try another bridle this weekend...She finished with some time and ended up 3rd for the weekend...looks like she wants to join her brother Tag competing!
Speaking of Tag, real quickly, he is back in work and starts flatting this week...so exciting. I was grinning ear to ear yesterday having my first canter on him since January 6th!
Back to the event, Persia was the first horse on the Training course, and Denis Glaccum had set up some challenges, and both she and Decorated, who both jumped clean rounds got a huge compliment from Neal when he said "they both look like I would have fun riding them around..." Decorated ended 4th and Persia 11th.
Gabby and Gillian also continued their streak, with a clean go, and another win...she is hoping to move up to Prelim soon, we will see; there needs to be a bit more consistency to some of their work first!
 |
| What It Takes on XC - Steve Berkowitz Photo |
What It Takes and Sport finished out our day on Sunday. What it Takes was great fun and had me chuckling as we traveled around the course. Sport showed his greeness at the first by having a stop, although it was not caused by the fence, but rather by him staring at the spectators and cars at the top of the field by the first fence. He has not been out for a month and he just showed it, but by the 4th fence he was jumping better than ever. The pony ended up 6th and Sport out of the ribbons.
Video of many of the rides is on our website summary of the event.
We are headed to Fair Hill this weekend, and still waiting on DJ to foal, so if Neal and I look like zombies you will know why...
Hope to see all of you soon,
Courtney
Sunday, April 1, 2012
A great day at Morven
Hello to All,
After arriving home from Aiken last Saturday, we set about to getting unpacked and catching up with things around the farm...one of those "things" is Hope's full sister Rock Star aka DJ who is 10 months and a week pregnant. I am sure it is a big foal, and she has had a hard time with her first pregnancy, and so we got to go see our friends at New Bolton on Wednesday night after she was particularly uncomfortable. They assured us nothing major is going on, just an uncomfortable Mommy to be. So we will be watching and walking...and not sleeping...anyone who said breeding is easy has never done it...a total challenge, just asked sleep deprived Neal and me!
We headed down to Morven on Friday with 5 for me to ride and and Gillian Cowley and her mare, Gabby. Gillian had been staying with us for her Spring break and has been riding great.
We settled in and found our way to our hotel to be up and at it early with Hope's 7:54 am ride time. After doing all 5 in dressage, Laura, and our groom for the day, Lauren, had them ready to go to show jumping. Everyone showed me some work to do in the dressage except for Nevaeh who was wonderful and confirmed her low score at Sporting Days was no fluke!
I thought I was going to go 5 clear in show jumping, but unfortunately decided to press Neveah down a 6 stride line to get too close to the in and out and have it down. Everyone else jumped great and it was off to cross country.
While waiting for her turn at cross country, Persia did not seem quite right and we opted to not run her cross country. All the others jumped great, but I had some time on Icy. I can't tell you where, as she was on all the same minute markers as the others, but I must have eased up at the finish.
Hoped ended up winning her division and Nev was less than a point from winning in her division of 30 and finished 3rd, Decorated was 10th in the same division and Icy, 13th.
Gillian also won her division with three good phases, two of which she did with her Mom's help! Go Page!
All in all it was a great weekend and we are looking forward to Plantation and Fair Hill in a few weeks time.
Photos and videos will be up soon, and please let us know if you need any horses; we have a great crew of them right now.
Courtney and Neal
After arriving home from Aiken last Saturday, we set about to getting unpacked and catching up with things around the farm...one of those "things" is Hope's full sister Rock Star aka DJ who is 10 months and a week pregnant. I am sure it is a big foal, and she has had a hard time with her first pregnancy, and so we got to go see our friends at New Bolton on Wednesday night after she was particularly uncomfortable. They assured us nothing major is going on, just an uncomfortable Mommy to be. So we will be watching and walking...and not sleeping...anyone who said breeding is easy has never done it...a total challenge, just asked sleep deprived Neal and me!
We headed down to Morven on Friday with 5 for me to ride and and Gillian Cowley and her mare, Gabby. Gillian had been staying with us for her Spring break and has been riding great.
 |
| Hope, Gabby, and Nevaeh (L-R) on their Way to Morven Park |
We settled in and found our way to our hotel to be up and at it early with Hope's 7:54 am ride time. After doing all 5 in dressage, Laura, and our groom for the day, Lauren, had them ready to go to show jumping. Everyone showed me some work to do in the dressage except for Nevaeh who was wonderful and confirmed her low score at Sporting Days was no fluke!
I thought I was going to go 5 clear in show jumping, but unfortunately decided to press Neveah down a 6 stride line to get too close to the in and out and have it down. Everyone else jumped great and it was off to cross country.
While waiting for her turn at cross country, Persia did not seem quite right and we opted to not run her cross country. All the others jumped great, but I had some time on Icy. I can't tell you where, as she was on all the same minute markers as the others, but I must have eased up at the finish.
Hoped ended up winning her division and Nev was less than a point from winning in her division of 30 and finished 3rd, Decorated was 10th in the same division and Icy, 13th.
Gillian also won her division with three good phases, two of which she did with her Mom's help! Go Page!
All in all it was a great weekend and we are looking forward to Plantation and Fair Hill in a few weeks time.
Photos and videos will be up soon, and please let us know if you need any horses; we have a great crew of them right now.
Courtney and Neal
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