Aiken, weather and catching up...

Hello to All,

Hopefully your weather has been as beautiful as ours here....it has almost been I dare say HOT!

Neal who is still in PA says the grass is greening up and the daffodils are coming up.

On the business side, we have been busy showing horses and have two new horses in to sell: Roussy who is by the magnificent dressage stallion Rousseau, and What it Takes, aka Tic Tac, who is the pony everyone should have in their life.

Tic Tac

We head home next Saturday and it will be good for all of us.  Plus we get to go on foal watch for DJ's baby by Coconut Grove!

Some of you also may have seen ads we are looking for more help.  We are.  Laura and I had been discussing the need to add another fulltime person and so we are advertising for that position.  Laura has also decided to pursue her relationship with her longtime Australian boyfriend by moving down under.  She has been a gem, and we will miss her but she is not gone quite yet so we are hoping she can help train her replacement.

The horses are going well and we are taking 6 horses to Pine Top this weekend.  Vegas will do his second prelim; he has been working on his focus, unfortunately I think it is something time and experience will need to help with. Hope will do the Prelim/ Training; Nev is in the Training; Sport will do the Novice; and then I have two new rides: Ballinaugh Ice, an imported Irish mare in the Training and Columbus who is owned by the Gibbons family and is also in  Training.  Columbus'  regular rider, Molly is coming to join us for Spring break for two weeks; she'll do Morven with Columbus.  It will be an early morning and a long weekend, come and see us if you are there...

Now I need to head out the door for another beautiful day!

Keep smiling, all the best,
Courtney

Tons of Fun!

Hi,

This weekend brought a fun time at Sporting Days Horse Trials.  Hope, Nevaeh, and Vegas started us out on a very soggy Saturday.  As most of you know the Southeast had horrible storms over the weekend and although we were wet we were spared most of the damage, our thoughts are with those who were not so lucky.

Vegas started things off competing in his first Preliminary, and he was super, although a little distracted in the show jumping.  This will come, and he gave me a great ride cross country over some difficult combinations, one was a double of angled hedges and the other was a pretty stiff coffin.

Preliminary Cross Country at Sporting Days

Nev put in a super dressage test earning a 24 over some very fancy horses.  With the interest in her as a sales horse, and we felt that we should save her for another day, although it is hard to do that being in 1st....

Hope was not to be outdone (at least not by much), and she also put in a lovely dressage test. Unfortunately, I made her pull a rail at the second fence in stadium, but other than that she was foot perfect, still ending up 2nd.

Kim Russell flew down from PA to ride her mare, I'm Perfect (Diamond), who has been spending the winter with us in Aiken.  They had one of their best dressage tests, tying for second and then adding a single rail and a little time on XC to finish 9th.

Sunday brought Sport and Lazer Lavender out...what fun those two were!

Sport as some of you may know has been a little overwhelmed with warmups, but today he was quiet and easy, a real pleasure.  He also stayed this way in the ring and tried super hard and came home with a 6th place finish out of 19 in his first recognized novice.  As I said last time a sure sign of wonderful things to come.

The real eye catcher of the weekend was Lazer Lavender though, and she gathered many fans.  Lavender, a Connemara cross, has come to us from Texas, and I have to say she makes me laugh and giggle; she is so much fun to ride.

Lavender - Pony! Pony!

We will have pictures later this week of all of the horses as the wonderful photographers of GRCPhoto were here.

We also want to congratulate some clients of  C Square that did well at Sporting Days, including Erin Renfroe and Porter Creek, 4th in Training Horse; Barbara Brown and Patmos Bentley, 3rd in Beginner Novice Rider; Sarah Blum and Grey Street, 5th in Novice Rider; and Anna Fogerty and Dunlavin Fox, 2nd in Junior Open Novice.

Talk to everyone soon,

Courtney

What a week!

A great week in Aiken.  We went to Pine Top with my crew and the horses were wonderful.  R Star led  onto the cross country in her first recognized Training.  They ran the cross country at 470 meters per minute and I did not rush her and she came in 5 seconds late which earned her a 3rd place.  I was thrilled, another beautiful baby by Heavenly Star, going out and doing her job!

Nevaeh was not to be outdone and in a very competitive division she ended up 5th after a 3rd place at Sporting Days.  She is just jumping great and has matured into  a lovely horse.

Our 3rd horse Vegas Run is continuing to show promise and he put into a competitive dressage test and had a rail in show jumping and some time cross country and was a lot of fun.

The sale horses continue to progress and we are getting three more in this week from Texas, one a connemara cross who goes training, an Irish mare that has gone Prelim and a great prospect.  Oh and we sold a couple, both to Kentucky, one to Hannah Williams and Kelly Taylor, great success to both of them.

We hope your week is going swimmingly as well and if you are in town please come by and say hello....we are off to Paradise this weekend and Gillian and her Dad are coming down along with Neal...a great weekend to be sure....

Talk soon,

Courtney

Our Week In Aiken

The week in Aiken has gone by fast.  Our not so great month of January continued with the hopeful easy trip to Aiken nothing but that as Tag coliced again on the way down.  We were 2.5 hours from NC State at that point and determined that was our best option.

The staff was great and Dr Edwards and her crew are wonderful people and vets.  Tag had multiple treatments of tubing with fluids and IV fluids, and lots of walking...Laura, my wonderful groom, had headed down with our commercial shipper with 6 horses and arrived there safely, unfortunately by herself, and got those horses settled Saturday evening at Jumping Branch Farm.  Bridget Hutchens, who was helping us for the trip, Neal, and I spent Saturday night in Raleigh with Tag and the other 5 horses.

Sunday morning, Tag was much better, and it was determined he could leave...that's when we noticed our flat tire...yet another challenge.  The vets suggested that we stop every 2 hours for the rest of our trip and give Tag a walk, so he got to meet some interesting people and check out some hotels...here he is at Howard Johnsons...

Tag Grazing at Howard Johnson in Lumberton, NC

The horses started work on Monday and Tuesday and, as were expected, wild!  Most of them spent some time on  the lunge so I would not get bucked off, although I did hit the ground once, ouch!

All of the horses have been good, and the weather has been spectacular.

Laura riding Nevaeh and ponying Vegas

We've started showing horses for sale as well and met with Emily, Missy, and Kelly this weekend, and are hopeful we can find them a quality mount.

Also we went to our first event, taking Nevaeh and Vegas to Sporting Days.  Nevaeh was very good except for one playful moment in the canter, and she jumped a double clear to finish a good 3rd in a very competitive division.  Vegas found himself a bit distracted and cried during his test, but did keep his head down and was 6th in dressage...he continued being a bit distracted in the jumping phases and had a rail in show jumping; however he jumped clean around his first recognized training cross country with just a little time to finish 8th.

We also were able to see lots of our friends and old horses at the event and are proud to post some of their results: Erin Renfroe and Porter Creek, 1st in Novice , Kerry Bosman and Mango Bay 8th in the Open Preliminary, Tiffany Cunningham and Samson, 5th in the Open Training, Marci Greene and Mr Parks 6th in Training, Laurie Bigelow and Tullamore, aka Crack On Connie, winners in the Beginner Novice.  Wow, what a great day!

We look forward to seeing more old friends and catching you up on all or activities..stay well and remember its February....yippee!!

All the best,
Courtney

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