On Our Way

Good morning to All,

We are up feeding this morning, to get on our way to Aiken.  It will be quite an adventure as we have to stop every few hours to feed Tag his Equine Senior, since he still is on no hay.  In hour 7 we also will take him for a graze...talk about high maintenance, but he is so worth it.

His staples have come out of his belly and his incision looks great.  Another two weeks and he can go out again....yippee, we will all be happy for him then.

The rest of the horses are looking forward to some lovely turnout in Aiken as we have been inundated with wet weather at home and so turnout has been limited.

Hope, Nev and Vegas are all getting ready for their debuts next weekend and everyone will get some time jumping cross country.  The first cross country school can always be a bit exciting and with 16 horses in work in Aiken I am sure there will be some good comedy to report.

Hope all of you are doing well, look forward to talking to you soon, and feel free to call me on my mobile as I will be driving probably for the next 12 hours...looking forward to seeing you there.

Courtney

Winter has arrived

Hello,

As many of you know we have been blessed by a very mild Winter in the Mid Atlantic and last night we got our first real snow.  It is pretty but it does not make it easy...

Neal, my wonderful husband, has been picking up my slack since I had a fall earlier in the week and today I finally was able to be more helpful than not, so I am glad for that.  The timing of the snow forced us inside to work on the less exciting but just as important side of the business, taxes, and other miscelaneous paperwork.

This week has been great one for business as one of our favorite horses Older and Wiser has been leased to a student of Erin Sylvester, Olivia Saber to teach her the ropes of eventing and competing and Quick Pick lived up to his name as the first person to see him, Leslie Favre and her daughter Madeleine, quickly picked him up.

We wish the best for both families and look forward to hearing about all the adventures.

We are looking forward to heading down to Aiken next weekend and to seeing all of our friends and clients down there and to get the horses out and about.  It should be a fantastic Winter season.

Talk soon,

Courtney

Comings, Goings and An Update

Hello To All,

I had promised to do this more religiously so at the end of week 1 of 2012 I am  writing...better late than never.

We have had a whirlwind around here getting ready, me having a cold, and a root canal, and selling and leasing some horses.  2011 was a great year for us, selling or leasing 49 horses for our clients.  We look forward to helping more clients both selling and purchasing this year and making good matches...

We are also looking for a big competition year, we had hoped to start Tag out at Advanced in February but that will need to wait until Summer, more on this later.  Hope, Nevaeh and Vegas are all going great and I plan on moving all up to Prelim in the Winter/Spring seasons.  They all seem to be enjoying the work and the exercises and I look forward to seeing how things progress with them.

Nevaeh - Ready for Prelim

We also have a full barn of sale horses now, with 3rd level dressage horses and event horses through Prelim and some really nice young prospects so let me know if you have a need.

On an unfortunate note, Tag had to have colic surgery on Friday.  He was uncomfortable and it was deemed necessary to go in and see what was wrong.  Luckily not much, and he had his colon rearranged and is headed home tomorrow.  So he will be enjoying some quiet time with me on the end of a rope leading and grazing him.  He should be back in full swing by April.  I am very glad to have him healthy and happy and can't wait to see his head looking at me over his stall door soon.

This will delay our start in Aiken to the beginning of February as Tag will need to be comfortable to travel.  I want to thank Dr Chris Foster and everyone at UPenn's New Bolton Center for their outstanding work.

So here is to wishing the good weather in Pennsylvania continues.

I hope everyone else is well and their horses are looking great.  I look forward to seeing everyone soon.

See you soon,
Courtney and the crew

Thanksgiving...

Hello Everyone,

Hope you are up enjoying a beautiful day with family and friends...

As I was lying in bed this morning I started to think about what I am thankful for...it goes without saying my wonderful husband, friends, family, animals, and clients.

I am also thankful for the choice and freedom people have given me that I do not even know.  Recently I was reading about girls in the Middle East with no opportunity for an education, Egyptian women who are groped and terrorized on a regular basis on their way to work and other matters in which people do not have the ability to choose their actions.

This got me to thinking about how fortunate we are in the country to have access to an education, health and the choice to make our lives what we want through hard work, character and integrity.

I am thankful to those men and women who everyday put their lives on the line, who graciously and selflessly give their time, body and service to this country.  I am also thankful to their families.  I cannot imagine having my loved ones a world away, in dangers way on a regular basis.  Or for that matter to be in the same town and be policewomen or firemen and saving lives and keeping order in a sometime chaotic world.

I am thankful that we are allowed the ability to live our lives as we like, to be educated, and to be gracious and thankful on a regular basis, enjoy your Turkey or Tofurkey and enjoy your choices!

Happy Thanksgiving.

Courtney

Ireland...Horse Sales and Aiken

Hello All,

The trip to Ireland was beautiful and motivating!

We were able to see a good group of horses, including some really wonderful CCI*, CCI**, and CCI*** horses if anyone is looking.

I am having one horse vetted for me once he recovers from a head cold!  Darn colds!

I will let you know more when he passes.  I am also working diligently on getting a group of owners together for another one I saw that I am excited about.

Since coming home things have been very busy showing multiple horses to multiple clients.  November and December tend to be some of our busiest times so I am excited about meeting the new people coming in and hopefully finding them soulmates!

In addition we are starting to prepare for Aiken.  We are headed to Jumping Branch this year and we are all excited about that.

We have one position open for a  working student so if you are interested let me know as I can be flexible with benefits and times if you are the right person!

I hope to hear from many of you as the Holidays draw near, as always feel free to call, email or stop by the farm, we always enjoy hearing about everyones plans and activities...

Talk soon,
Courtney

St Augustines...

Hello to All,

We headed to St Augustine today for the unrecognized event there and the cross country was up to snuff...All of my horses were good, with dressage scores from 27-34 and all show jumping clean.

On cross country again they were all good however poor Nev misread the in to the water the first time and Vegas jumped great although he was naughty in between the fences at one point and so we had to discuss that a bit...and well my constellation of competition "Stars" is getting better all the time.  R Star did her first training today after many missed starts for weather and she won.

We also took Chocolate Martini who was meant to do his first training a while ago as well but again with the weather delays, and he was a delight.  He had a double clear and jumped around like an old pro.  He was looked at by some trainers so we are hoping he will find his person soon.  If you know of anyone looking for a safe and fun novice/training packer for $15,000 let me know.

Neal should have videos up in the next few days.

I am headed off to go to Ireland...excited to see about a few quality horses...

Hope to catch up with you all soon,

Courtney

Ps Here are some pics from GRCphoto.com of the biggest star to date...Who's A Star!

 

Catching up...

Hello everyone,

I have not written on my blog for sometime, my apologies.

To catch everyone up, I started Fair Hill with a bang with Who's A Star finishing in 2nd place after dressage.  He was attentive and active in his work, and his test was very good.  The canter still needs some lift and expression and the trot work was wonderful...still working on those darn turn on the haunches though.

Cross country day was beautiful, although the going was heavy after several days of rain, it was Fair Hill after all!

He was very good overall, however he jumped into the doubles of angled brushes well and then he just was short in his step to get across the distance and instead of taking 1 stride took 1 and 1/2 and bounced off the second element.

At this point there was still much work to do and he was fabulous on the way home.

Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning he was quite full of himself and acted as if the cross country had taken nothing out of him which was great.

He jumped a super show jumping course only marred when he shied from the warmup arena in the triple and had the first oxer down behind.

My overall goal for Fair Hill was to ride like I knew how and to not leave anything on the table.  There are times I know as a rider that I can look back at a cross country round, or dressage test and tell you everything that happened and this was one of those weekends.

Although it would have been nice to have won the whole thing, I am proud of the work that Tag and I did, disappointed by the placing but not the work.

The girls, Hope and Nev, did the young horse classes at Fair Hill as well and they were both good performing as well up to their abilities.  Hope ended up 4th overall, the same placing as her brother Tag when he was a 4 year old so hopefully that bodes well for her future.

We have one last event on Sunday at St Augustines with Nev, Hope, Vegas and Chocolate Martini and then I am headed to Ireland to look for a new partner.

This year has been a developmental year for me, lots of good, and lots of work...I enjoyed the process of being considered for the Pan American Team and my search in Ireland is going to work towards that end.

I have heard of a strong prospect for the World Championships in Fontainebleu in 2014 and am trying to work to put together a group of up to 10 owners for this.  If you are interested let me know...it will be quite a ride.

I want to work on putting the goose bumps I feel when I hear the national anthem to good work with an eventual podium placing in a major international competition and realize I cannot do it alone.

I hope all of you and yours are doing well and are now enjoying the beautiful Fall weather after our Halloween snow!

Talk to you soon, and let me know if you are interested in being part of the Ireland group...

All the best,
Courtney