Aiken Recap and Morven

Hello to All,

As usual Aiken was a whirlwind and I was surprising how quickly it passed.

Many goals were accomplished including having me compete Tag at the Advanced level, with runs at Pine Top and Poplar.  He is a wonderful horse, and terrific partner, and everyday I am thankful to be able to ride him!

R Star is starting back to work after her surgery and should be back on the scene in May.  Her full sister Rock Star, aka DJ, made her debut this Winter, and we still have work to do but she shows the same athletic ability and tenacity as all of the other Stars did at that age; so I am super excited about her too.

Unfortunately Vegas had a minor injury, and I think will now become Neal's new partner, which is great as we have been half-heartedly looking for a horse for Neal, and he and Vegas get along wonderfully.  It will be great watching Neal and Vegas forge a partnership this Summer.

The biggest turnaround from last year to this one though has been Sport.  He has been a challenge for me, as last year he was quite shy in warmups, and now he has won twice at the beginner novice level, including Sporting Days and just this weekend at Morven and was fourth at Pine Top.  He will move up to Novice at Plantation and we are excited to see how Sport continues to progress.

The Dare to Dream group of owners who own Sport have also recently purchased another horse, Cooley Vancouver.  He is a special 4 year old who I found in Ireland, and I have great hope for him.  We look forward to making this group of owners proud!  He arrives at the end of this week and will look forward to competing probably in the Summer.

Many of you also probably remember the picture of Michaela with the truckload of hay, well she and Tatum really also stepped up to the plate.  Tatum Stam came out and had multiple good outings at Training including two 6ths and a 5th place finish, and Michaela Holcomb went from beginner novice at the start of Aiken to her first Training at Morven yesterday, along the way she also picked up multiple rosettes.

We also sold multiple horses in Aiken, all told we have placed 9 horses into new homes this year and have a barnful of new horses here in Pennsylvania.  Our clients came from Kentucky, California, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and points in between.  We hope for only the best for the new matches and look forward to hearing about their new careers.

Two new students joined us in Aiken for their Spring Break from the Ethel Walker School: Haley Glofka and Charlotte Gardiner.  Haley brought her leased horse, Outstanding Rhythm, and she completed 3 novices with a well earned 3rd place at Poplar Farm.  We look forward to having Haley back in the Summer as a working student and having her move up to Training!

Charlotte came with Coletrane, who she purchased through us last year and what a splash she made. Doing three competitions and coming 3rd once and winning twice!  They are an exciting pair and we will look forward to watching them.

We are on foal watch now at the farm eagerly awaiting Believe In The Stars foal, and I head to The Fork this week with Tag.

Fingers crossed for everyone, have a great Spring,

Courtney

Aiken coming and goings....

Hello to All,

It has been a while since I last wrote and it has been a whirlwind...it is always an interesting time here, and this year is no different.

A week ago I was able to compete in my first Advanced in several years.  It was very special as it was on my wonderful homebred Who's A Star.  To think 11 years ago when we bred his mother,  we would get here is pretty amazing.  All breeders hope to have it all work out, and things go in different ways as the babies grow up; so it is all the more rewarding to get him to that level.

Easy and fun were the words for that weekend....Tag skipped around the advanced and even had a piece on EventingNation.com.

Between Pine Top and Sporting Days this past weekend, we showed horses and sold a couple including Lady in Red, who was sold to Rachel Remmers to continue her growth as a rider.  We are super excited for her.  We also sold Song of Songs to Camille Stewart and her family to allow her to reach for her goals.  Song of Songs is a beautiful 9 year old TB mare with experience to the Intermediate level.  We would like to express our thanks to Nicole Parkin for all of her hard work.

We also got to see our farrier, Butch Groves, who made his annual journey to Aiken to shoe our horses.  Butch is wonderfully light hearted; so he is always a refreshing breath of air.

And Mamie Duff visited with us with her friend Martha.  Mamie is considering a move and made a tour of horsey towns.  It was great to see both of them.

After our busy week, and a great dinner at Rose Hill Estate on Friday, with Mamie, Martha, working students Michaela and Tatum, Tatum's Mom, Laura, who was down for the weekend to watch her daughter ride,  Kim Russell, who was down for the weekend to compete, Butch, Cormac and Anna, our wonderful riders, and our new students Haley Glofka and Charlotte Gardiner, we headed to Sporting Days in Aiken.

The Gang at Sporting Days

Joannah, Carolyn and Mary, the organizer and secretaries of Sporting Days did a great job getting the venue prepared, and we always love competing there.

We had three horses go on Saturday with Kim Russell's two horses doing well, but finishing outside of the ribbons.  Tatum Stam and Catch Me if U Can put it all together again and finished with a double clear jumping performance and in 6th place at Training.  This is a pair to watch!

On Sunday we had 6 horses in the trailer...our two new students Haley Glofka and Charlotte Gardiner came and rode their horses along with working student, Michaela. They were all very good with Charlotte ending up 3rd and Michalea 4th in the novices.

Then it was off to me.  I started on Tough Love, aka Diego, and he was very good in the dressage and finished with a double clear for 6th place.

Sport came to Sporting Days for his first competition of 2013.  As some of you are aware, he has been a bit of a challenge in warmups in the past.  He did not put a foot wrong this weekend and was outstanding. He won the dressage and never looked back finishing in first.

I also competed our homebred Rock Star (DJ) in what was her first event ever.  She showed some good signs of being remarkable as well,  but she needs some work...however, she is very similar to all of her siblings so we can look forward to a new star.

I hope all of you are well, videos and pictures of Sporting Days will be up later this week....Talk soon,

Courtney