Seneca, Summer and other musings...

Hello to All,

It always amazes me how time can fly by and stand still at the same time.  Neal and I have been spending some of our most recent weekends seeing friends and family.  Most notable was our nephew Cooper achieving Eagle Scout status at the ripe age of 14.  Some of you may know that Cooper was born on the same day I had a pretty horrific accident at the old Essex Three Day and broke my neck and back, so often times I try and "forget" Coopers birthday.

Our Nephew, Eagle Scout Cooper Shumway

However as I was saying sometimes it seems like yesterday and other times lifetimes ago.  I am very proud of Cooper for his achievement and also looking forward to an achievement of our own of taking our first homebred Who's A Star Advanced.

Finding, educating, and keeping a horse sound and healthy through the trials and tribulations of going up the grades is always a challenge.  Sometimes it seems you are right on the edge of a breakthrough and then something happens, and you are back to square one.  I am not one to count my chickens yet but I am excited about jumping the blue numbers again shortly and actually looked at the Advanced dressage test today, wow there is a lot to do...

We are in the process of trying to get Tag's mother, Faith, pregnant yet again, and we are ever hopeful to get her pregnant and to have an embryo transfer foal by her as well.  It does not seem like it was 10 years ago that we started this whole process but as I said before time stands still and flies by at the same time.

Our current foal, Grover, had a fever this weekend and instead of leaving on vacation Neal and I spent Sunday worrying over him and his low white blood cell count...this morning Neal turned to me and said "really you want two from Faith next year..."  to which I reminded him, that she and we, are getting older and she does produce really nice horses.

Which leads me to Seneca, Faith's three children of riding age were all there.  Who's A Star was 3rd after galloping quietly around with some time in the Intermediate, his sister R. Star was 2nd with me in the Preliminaries and Star Dazzler, our 2nd homebred, who we sold to the Case Family was there as well, and had it not been for a silly runby on cross country he would have won his division as well...
http://www.csquarefarm.com/seneca-valley-pony-club-horse-trials-poolesville-md-june-16-2012/

I hope you and your families, both horse and human, are enjoying the Summer and what has happened in the past and what is planned for the future.

All the best,

Courtney

A lot of thanks...

Good evening,

Almost 5 months ago on January 6th, our first homebred Who's A Star had colic surgery, and today he hit another milestone on the road to recovery.  I have a lot of people to thank including his surgeon Dr Suzanne Stewart, my primary practice Unionville Equine, especially Dr Chris Foster, my Aiken contacts and numerous people at NC State and UGA equine hospitals and most importantly my husband Neal.

All of these people have played special roles in taking care of Tag and letting him continue to recover...I know we are not out of the woods yet and will keep an eye on him like a hawk but what a day today was and it makes the sleepless nights and worry all worth it.

Tag and Hope got to go together to Plantation Field for Tag's first complete outing for 2012.  Hope put in a good test with some glitches but good enough for second behind her big brother, but Tag was outstanding and I came close to breaking into the teens with a 21.4 great fun....

Who's a Star at the Foundation - Steve Berkowitz Photo

Then it was off to jump.  Now I will tell you Denis Glaccum, the organizer of Plantation designs show jumping courses that appear deceptively easy but still there are rails usually all over...today was no different.  Both Hope and Tag jumped great and clear...on cross country Hope ran first and clocked around, and I thought only had 2 seconds of time but I must have pressed my watch wrong, and ended up with 10 seconds of time and stayed in second.

R Star Jumping Out of the Water - Steve Berkowitz Photo

Tag was just foot perfect though and jumped liked the seasoned pro he is, and was clear and inside the time!

So a first and a second with our two homebreds...thank you to all that helped care for my boy, a life with horses is often difficult but the days like today make you smile and remember why you do what you do....

A complete summary and video of both horses in all three phases is up on our website: http://www.csquarefarm.com/plantation-field-horse-trials-unionville-pa-june-9-10-2012/

Hope you and all of your connections are well and happy,

Courtney