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