Happy Holidays!!!!

First off, Hope everyone had an excellent Christmas and is going to have a wonderful New Year! Things have been pretty quiet at the farm lately. Seems like the weather has been steadily working against us. Rain, Rain, Rain.....we are under water. We had to reschedule the "Fix-A-Test" to January 30th because of all the rain. Which we were disapointed about for sure, but we know it will be great then. There have been some changes with the horses on the farm. Butterscotch went home to his family to retire. He was starting to have trouble seeing, which sadly is a common problem with appys. But we have gotten 2 new additions to the "line up." Shorty has joined the crew. He recently retired from steeplechasing, and is quite a goof ball to be around. He isn't doing much, but we are hoping to encorporate him into the program a little bit. And, we are so excited to have Sam join us. We have known Sam for years and years and he is a perfect addition to the program. Along with Sam, his owner Kim has also joined the crew at FOFF, so if you see her around be sure to say hello.
We have big plans and changes for the farm in 2010. So look out. We are very excited for 2010 and know it is going to be a great year for all of our students. Everyone is working so hard at their riding and I can't wait to see it all unfold over the year. See ya next year! ;) Briana

A weekend full of horseshows!

So apparently I am a little behind on updating this. I guess that is what happens when life gets in the way. Novemeber 21st and 22nd were full of horse shows. On Saturday, Jessy and I took Sutter and Moose to Antares Dressage. Jessy had 2 great rides on Sutter, who she had only ridden for a few weeks, getting a 3rd place and a 5th place. The judge loved Sutter, and it was great for me to see him back in the ring enjoying himself. He still has the same tricks up his sleeve he used to pull with me, only at least he has toned them down a bit. Jessy is learning so much from him and I am really excited to see what  happens with them in the future. Moose was a very good boy too. It was his first time out since before Hailey was born (In Feburary). It's been a while I know, but we took things back a few steps to sort out some training issues. I'm so glad we did because he was great. He had a little bit of a "Moose Moment" before we went in the ring, but he managed to pull it together and win his class with a 67%, Good boy!

Jessy and Sutter

Briana and Moose

On Sunday, Susan and I loaded up both trailers and went in opposite directions. She took Albert Earl to the schooling horse trial at CHP. Overall she was very pleased with him. He has come so far and I can't wait to see what he does in the future. I headed to MacNair's in Raleigh with Jessy on Clover, Alfre on William, and Casey on GingerSnap. These guys made me so proud that day. They all rode fantastic. First up was Alfre in the CT. This was her first time jumping William at a show and I thought it went great. She rode smart and put in a solid dressage test and a clean jumping round to finnish her division in 5th. Then Jessy rode Clover in Intro Test B. She finished in 3rd place and put in the best test I've ever seen her do on him. She is getting so much more comfortable in the ring and it is really paying off. She is now having to push him forward during the test instead of always trying to slow him down! Last was Casey, this was only her 3rd ride on GingerSnap, but they make quite a team together. It was also her first dressage test ever. She rode so great and finnished in 4th place. All in all it was a great weekend.

Alfre and William

Jessy and Clover

Casey and GingerSnap

We have our fix-a-test this weekend, hopefully the weather will hold off. We have gotten so much rain that we really need it to not rain this week so that everything can dry out some. Fingers crossed. Hopefully it will be a good show, we are pretty close right now to being full. Entrys close tomorrow. Everyone around here has been working very hard to get ready for this. I can't wait to see all their hard work pay off.
Happy Holidays!!
Briana

Fall Fun Day

Yesterday we had our "Fall Fun Day" at the farm and what a fun day it was indeed!!! I never could have imagined there would be so many children at the farm all at once. It was such a fun sight to watch all the kids playing together. We are really fortunate to have such an awesome group of children and parents as a part of FOFF. I think it is a pretty safe bet to say that everyone had a good time! The kids were so excited to ride and everyone was getting in line again and again to play the games. They participated in an apple bobbing race, a pair's ribbon race, and ride-a-buck. I think it is safe to say our students are off to a great start in their riding because we couldn't get them to loose their dollars....no matter how hard we tried!!! The weather couldn't have been better for the day, which was such a welcomed reprive after all the rain we had this week. For a while, I thought we were going to float away! Thanks so much to all the parents and other students who jumped in and helped us make sure things went smoothly. We couldn't have done it without you!!!! Here are a few of the pictures:

Logan during the egg and spoon race

Group 2 during the "On Foot" egg and spoon race

Emily bobbing for apples

Maddy headed for home with her apple

Emma during the egg and spoon race

Ally racing her dad, Matt

Joe inspecting his apple

Ally, Maddy, Casey, Emily, and Isabelle show off their dollars

Isabelle and Clover during the egg and spoon race

Thanks to Kelly for taking such awesome pictures for us!!!!!

On a different note: Our Fix-A-Test now has a date! It will be Decemeber 12th and the judge is Rebecca Blikslager "L". There is an entry form on the website (http://www.fleetoffootfarm.com/) This is going to be alot of fun and an amazing learning experience for everyone who participates. We are so excited to do this and look forward to offering it on a more regular basis with a variety of different judges in the future. We hope to see you there!!!

We will update next week after our crazy weekend of horseshows. On Saturday Susan is taking AlbertEarl to CHP for a schooling horse trial while Jessy and I take Moose and Sutter to Antares Dressage Show. Then, on Sunday we are taking a full load to MacNair's up in Raleigh. Jessy is showing Clover, Susan is showing Tank (It will be his first horse show!), Alfre is showing William in her first combined test on him, and Casey is showing GingerSnap in her very first dressage show, and I will be taking Twix to hangout for the experience. Whew....my head is spinning just thinking about that! It's going to be a busy busy busy weekend, but should be lots of fun. I'm excited to see everyone's hard work pay off!!!

Welcome, and lots of happenings :-)

          First of all, Welcome to our blog. Susan and I were discussing the other day about how we have so much going on with the students right now that we are running out of room on the website to get everything in there and give it the space that it deserves. So, we decided to start a blog to keep up with everything more and here it is....TADA. :-)
         Last Saturday we took 2 horses to Antares Dressage Show. Alfre rode William in her first horse show with him. They did a fantastic job and I was so proud of them. She rode really well, and looked fantastic. She was the only junior in both of her very large classes and was unfortunately just out of the ribbons in both classes, but it was a great starting place for her and him. I'm confident they will be a team to beat in the very near future. I took Twix and let him hang out at the show some. Just to get some experience and see how he was going to be for the students. He was so relaxed and chilled, like he has done it all his life. I'm excited to see how this little horse progresses with the students. And of course there was Maple, our graded "steaks" winning racehorse who was at the show as well. :-)          

(Jessy, Twix, and Maple....the racehorse)

(Alfre and Wily Nily)

            In other happenings, Michelle has completed the introductory course, and is really getting more confident in her riding. Tatum, Logan, Erin, and Isabelle have almost finnished their introductory courses as well.

           On November 14th, 2009 we are having a "Fun Day" at the farm for all the kids. We are going to eat pizza add snacks, as well as play horse mounted games for fun prizes, and give the kids a chance to play together on the playground. All the kids are invited to participate and are encouraged to bring a friend with them. It is going to be a fun day for everyone. If your interested in possibly signing your children up for riding lessons feel free to bring them out for a day of fun with other kids and the horses.

          We have lots of other fun things on the calendar as well. We are going to a dressage show at Antares Dressage again on November 20th, as well as a Dressage and Combined Test at MacNair's in Raleigh on November 21st. Also, plans are in the works for a Dressage Fix-A-Test to be held at the farm, hopefully sometime in December. Check back soon for updates on that as soon as we know them.

                                                                                      Happy Riding,

                                                                                                 Briana