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

Fair Hill and teaching an old dog new rules...

Hello to All,

We were off to Fair Hill this weekend with 3 horses...suppose to be more but Fleet was vetted and sold to Emily Moynihan of Massachusetts and so he is on his way to MA as we speak!

Persia June started off in the trainings and did her best test to date, scoring a 30.5, a really good test that I was pleased with.  She jumped a double clean and moved up to 7th overall in a very competitive division and I was super pleased with her.

Persia June on Cross Country - Steve Berkowitz Photo

The Stars came out on Sunday, with Who's A Star doing a combined test at Prelim.  He had a lovely test to finish tied for first on a 24.6 and jumped clean in show jumping...well or so I thought...

So, a note to all of you, it has become habit now I have been told for the jump judge in show jumping to say the time taken on course and it is up to the competitor to know what the optimum is on show jumping so you know if you had time faults...I did not realize this and so when they said I had jumped clean I assumed it was jump and time....bad thing to make an assumption...

Anyway I went in on Hope and did not try to quicken my pace or cut my turns and long story short, I had time faults on both of them, which could have been avoided, which dropped her from 2nd to 5th overall....I hate when I make preventable mistakes!

But there were other highlights like having my homebred boy and girl both compete in the upper levels together...it was sort of funny, as many of you know the "children" all tend to have tall long ears and at one point I was sitting on Hope thinking I was on Tag because of the ears...

Another highpoint was getting a 9 from Brian Ross, I always love riding in front of Brian as he uses the range of scores and will give you a high score if you deserve one and the reverse!

I also want to say the work done on the courses and the footing was superb!  The course had some new and interesting changes and I know Frank Stafford spent a lot of time vibrating on his tractor to get that course footing so good...my deep appreciation!

I hope everyone else had a good weekend, we also had another good weekend of results around the country with horses that we have sold: Kelly Beaver and Sempre Fino finishing 2nd in the Prelims at Fair Hill, Guinness St James and Danny Warrington, finishing 6th in the Prelims at Fair Hill, and Caroline Martin and Classic Touch finishing 6th in the Open Intermediates.  In the Pacific Northwest, Katrinia Bradley and Scout finished 3rd in the Training at the NWEC May Classic and in Oklahoma, Laura Szeremi and Argento finished 6th in Prelims, last but not least in Vermont, Tiffany Cunningham and Samson were 2nd in the Prelims at Hitching Post.

Congrats to all, see you all soon,

Courtney

An exciting few days...6 horses, none lower than 3rd!

Hello everyone,

Our weekend started on Thursday with Tag and I making our return to a competitive environment.  We volunteered to do the test ride at Jersey Fresh for the CCI** and enjoyed it tremendously.  Tag also seemed to weather the trailer ride well so that is all great news.  Look for him to hopefully start competing in June.

Who's a Star (Tag) at Jersey Fresh CCI

Then it was off to Plantation Field...The recognized event was on Saturday and Decorated rocked it, winning the dressage and never looking back winning his Preliminary division.  He is one heck of a horse and is the most fun to play with!

R Star (Hope) on Cross Country - Steve Berkowitz Photo

R Star was also super and while Benita Strini got an 18 in the dressage (who does that ...an 18, awesome!) to win this Preliminary division, Hope finished 2nd with a solid effort.  She had an uncharacteristic 2 rails down but tried hard and more importantly was awesome cross country with a new bit...I think this one may just work!

One of our sales horses, Larry also went and did a very good job in all three phases to finish 3rd in Beginner Novice, at what was only his second horse trials.

Larry on Cross Country - Steve Berkowitz Photo

In between all of this we trailered home and showed some horses, so it was a busy Saturday.

Sunday was Plantation Day again....but the starter trials, which run over the same courses.  Persia June went Training and put her best test in to date jumping a double clear to finish on her dressage score in 2nd place.  Then we had a pair of chestnuts in the novices, both sale horses.  Fleet Du Maison put in an excellent dressage test with a score of 24.4 and added just one rail to win his division. Rhetabenz also put in a good dressage test and jumped a double clear to finish 3rd.  Both of these horses showed class and tolerance and would be great fun for a junior or amateur to learn to event!

We also had some great results around the country with horses sold by C Square Farm...and students...


At King Oak Horse Trials
Dale Eddy and Guypowder Valley, winners at Training
Erin Renfroe and Porter Creek, winners at Training
Jessica Blum and River Rock, 2nd in Novice
Sarah Blum and Grey Street, 4th in Novice
Gretchen Creesy and Tigerlily, 4th in Beginner Novice


At Plantation Field Recognized
Liza Frazier and Providence's Maxwell, winners at Training
Kim Russell and Allia, 6th in Beginner Novice

At Plantation Filed Starter
Dailee Fagnant and Stolen Goods, winner at Novice
Michelle Bull and Masquerade Party, 4th at beginner Novice

Congratulations to everyone and to all of my owners, talk soon, and most importantly Happy Mothers Day to my wonderful mother, my sister and all of our friends and clients, I hope you had a great day!

Courtney

Fair Hill and a BABY BOY!

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

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 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

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.

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

Pine Top...

Good morning to all,

6 Horses, 2 early mornings make 3 tired women!

We had a great weekend with all 6 horses at Pine Top, Vegas went again at Prelim and shows steady improvement in dressage, show jumping he stills finds distracting and cross country he was a good boy, although I need a different bit and more work on the flat!  It has been a  long time since I have had a horse that wants to gallop low and it makes me think I am going a whole lot faster than I am.  You can see that on the video on our website,  http://www.csquarefarm.com/pine-top-farm-horse-trials-thomson-ga-march-17-18-2012/ . He ended up 6th though so not a bad weekend.

Vegas
All Photos in this post are from Mark Walter Lehner - Hoofclix.com

R Star finally came home with the blue this weekend.  She has been knocking on the door for a while finishing 3rd at her first training here at Pine Top, while being in the lead, and having a rail at Sporting Days to keep her from first.  So it was nice to finish off our Aiken trip with a wonderful go.  She was super in the dressage, receiving 2 9's and a comment of "absolutely stunning."  I told Neal, to tell her Mother, Faith, our super broodmare, that she continues to make the best babies.  Anyway she jumped an up to snuff show jumping super well only marred by her rider who put her a bit too deep to an oxer and cross country she went around like a Star!  She will make the move up to Prelim probably in April.

R Star

Ballinaugh Ice was my next ride and she is a new ride and a sale horse.  She was outstanding, and put in a good dressage test. I think she could still knock off a few points and she even got relaxed enough to get floppy ears a couple of times.  She then went and jumped a double clean in show jumping and cross country to finish 5th.

Ballinglaugh Ice

Columbus was up next and he belongs to the Gibbons Family.  We had sold Columbus to daughter Molly to take novice and training and Molly is visiting for the next 2 weeks.  Columbus is a big guy, a draft cross, so connecting him is hard work, especially with the heat however he came to work and got a 27 in the dressage, my best score for the weekend, putting him 2nd.  An unfortunate rail dropped him to 6th but a clean and fast cross country put him back up to 4th.  Molly will be with us through Morven so watch out!

Columbus

Neveah finished the training rides for me.  She was a trooper, and while Columbus dressage ring was running late, Nev's was not so she only had a 15 minute warmup.  Still she was a good girl, and I felt good about the test.  I have been working with Kim Severson and she watched most of our test and said she looked really good so I was disappointed with the score unfortunately dressage is subjective.  She also jumped well, having one down in show jumping when I overrode into a combination that had been riding long for me all day, and then cross country she was amazing.  The head of the ground jury came up to me afterwards and said I was the best through the one piece of the cross country he watched.   That is always nice to hear.

Nevaeh

The last ride of the day was little Sport.  He continues to improve but overall he was a bit distracted in all of his warmups this weekend.  This is something we will continue to work on.  He put in a good business like dressage test, although he did call out at one point.  Both Laura, who was videoing and I thought oh please....we hope this doesn't continue, but he settled down and was better.  In show jumping he jumped a clean round and I was surprised yesterday looking at scores to see he had 3 times faults.  On cross country he was a good boy and had a little time. They ran the novices at 400 meters per minute and that is still a little fast for him so we had a good confidence building go and finished out of the ribbons.

Sport

We head home next Saturday and look forward to reconnecting with our Pennsylvania friends.

Hope you all are well,  all the best,

Courtney