Good luck, Tom!

Our summer vacation has been quiet and uneventful. The horses have enjoyed a little down time and riders have enjoyed a little traveling. Tom, on the other hand, has been training hard...on his bike! Next Saturday, August 29th, Tom will be competing in the UCI Masters Mountain Biking World Championship in Pra Loup, France. He leaves Monday evening for France with his girlfriend, Clare. They will be continuing on to Italy after the race. Everyone is very jealous of his big trip but wishes him good luck, safe travels, and a great finish! (Above: Tom heads out for more long miles on his road bike)

Tom will return September 6th and then things start to gear up for the fall season. Our plans include Marlborough, Morven Park, Waredaca, and, our favorite, Rubicon! When Tom returns, he'll be returning to his exciting new ride that he is taking over from college bound Brianne. Tom will be riding Brianne's horse, Rhys, and so far is very impressed with Rhys's athleticism, scope, and talent. They will spend the fall getting to know each other, and hopefully come out next spring at preliminary.

We are looking forward to a break in the heat and the chance to get back out and compete! While others continue to show and run their horses this time of year, our stanard procedure is to let the horses rest a bit and avoid the events in the deep heat of summer. Our horses always come out refreshed and ready to go in the fall with this program.

In our excitement for the fall season, we also have some sadness. One our barn cats passed away this week. Harley has been with Amanda since he was a tiny kitten and has been with Faircroft for almost 7 years. He was a big, funny character and was a far better paper weight and supervisor than mouser, but he was much loved nonetheless. His absence is felt by everyone and he will be missed greatly (Right: Harley doing what he did best- sleeping.)

We wish everyone the best in the remainder of the year and hope you stay cool in the last days of summer!

First Event for a New Eventer!

Saturday Jackie debuted at her first horse trial (second competition ever), with her fabulous pony, Bomber. Once again, we enjoyed the fantastic facilities at Loch Moy Farm in nearby Adamstown, home of the Maryland Horse Trials.

The weather was outright fickle on Saturday, going back and forth between rainy and stormy to hot and sunny. While we got poured on all morning, the sky finally cleared up for good while Jackie and Bomber were warming up for dressage. (Left: Bomber is not so sure what he got himself into)

Jackie, who has been working very hard on her dressage, rode a lovely test. Her show jumping was also very good. The best part of the day, though, was cross country, where she cantered around confidently. She had one small problem, when she momentarily lost her way, didn't quite get straight to the fence and ran past it. Otherwise, her round was great, and, proving she is truly an event rider, exclaimed after crossing the finish, "I want to do it again!" (Right: Amanda walks show jumping with Jackie and her sister, Lexi)

We are sure she and Bomber will be joining the "big guys" at the recognized events soon!

Well done, Jackie and Bomber!

Seneca- (Mostly) Fun in the Mud

The week leading up to Seneca was wet and stormy, causing the organizers to cancel both the preliminary and intermediate divisions. With good reason! When we arrived on Saturday with Vernon for the training, we found the beautiful course at Bittersweet Field muddy and wet. They had already removed fences from the course, and removed a few more as the day went on. It was a beautiful day, though, and the majority of the footing was quite good.

Vernon put in a nice dressage test that was scored rather harshly, but found jumping out of the deep footing in show jumping unnerving. Amanda decided to call it a day, choosing to save her young horse's confidence for another day. It is never easy to withdrawal, especially when a nice cross country course awaits you, but we always rather err on the side of caution, especially with young horses like Vernon.

On Sunday, the footing was much better and our three beginner novice pairs all put in fantastic dressage tests. Kendall and Cass won the dressage in their division with a 28.4, while Julia and Indi were just a couple of places behind in third. Alfie and Curran were well up the order, as well, in a competitive open division.

Show jumping also went very well, with the girls both jumping lovely, smooth clear rounds, and Curran and Alfie having one rail. The organizers did a great job with the footing in show jumping by tamping down divets and moving jumps to keep horses from jumping out of churned up footing.

Cross country went mostly well, although everyone had silly stops caused by rider errors. However, everyone finished the day happy, proud of their horses, and excited for the next event!

No pictures, this time. Amanda forgot the camera.

Spike, where's the rest of your flysheet?

This is how we found Spike this morning when we went to bring him in.

This is the remnants of his new flysheet. It was put on him for the first time last night. Hope it was a good party, Spike!

Amazingly, a few minutes later, this is exactly how we found Alfie, too! his flysheet was a week old.

Rubicon- Some Days Just Aren't Your Days

You learn quickly enough in the sport of eventing that some days are great and some days just need to be forgotten. Unfortunately, our Rubicon weekend could stand to be forgotten!

The week didn't start out great when Vernon pulled a shoe, did some damage to his foot, and was foot sore until Thursday. After some debating, it was decided that it was better to regret not taking him than regret taking him. So, Vernon got left behind on Sunday morning.

Zeke and Alfie were both ready and able, and their owner and rider Curran was looking forward to getting back out on Zeke (who missed most of the spring season with a broken jaw) and riding his young horse for the first time. Things started out well enough with Zeke, who did an ok dressage test. Curran and Zeke put in probably their best show jumping round to date, jumping clean in sticky, slick footing. Everyone was high on Zeke's remarkable show jumping performance, but sadly, it didn't last. Rider error ended in elimination. Zeke and Curran made the long walk of shame back to the trailer.

Alfie was up next and in between some very naughty shenanigans, did a stellar dressage test! Yay, Alfie! Show jumping went back and forth between brilliant and naughty, but ended well with a few jump penalties and some time. Unfortunately, Alfie didn't want to play once down at cross country, and made his opinion known loud and clear when he deposited Curran on the ground in front of the first fence. The walk of shame was walked once again.

Thankfully, Curran has an eternally positive outlook, as well as a wicked sense of humor, so while the day certainly did not go at all as planned, he was able to find bright spots. Zeke, who is notoriously hard to show jump, just about jumped out of his skin. And Alfie proved that he is very capable and gave his "dad" his best dressage score to date.

The icing on the cake was a driver side tire on the trailer shredding about five miles from the barn on the return trip Sunday afternoon. Thankfully, we know the road very well, and were able to limp the rig down the road another half mile to a wider shoulder and long straight away. Having the tools to get the job done helped make the job go quickly and smoothly, and we were back on the road in short order. Needless to say, everyone was very glad to be home on Sunday afternoon.

And while the weekend was forgettable, we are excited at what seems to be a new and improved Sundown! Sundown had gone away for a couple of months, for the purpose of finding him a new job and hopefully getting him sold. Well, he couldn't quite settle in the new job and the market being bad sent him back home. He has been doing great flat work at home, and on Monday afternoon quietly hacked out with a large group of horses without any thought to some of his old antics and meltdowns. Something about his time away from home seems to have given him a new outlook on life. We're very excited to see if maybe we finally have the horse we saw in him two and a half years ago!

Next up, Seneca!

May Days

Please forgive the delay in getting a new blog entry. We get so busy around the barn that it can be hard to find time to eat, let alone blog!

May has been a fun, low key kind of month. Vernon Tiger and Amanda kicked it off with Vernon's move up to training at MCTA! What a beautiful, fun, big, galloping course! As we knew he would, Vernon cruised around happily and well with in himself. If anything, it was easier for he AND Amanda- training speed is apparently Vernon's easy cruising speed and he and Amanda had no reason to argue about the pace. Work is needed on the dressage, though he was a good boy, performing obediently and accurately, just not brilliant, and his pilot needs to work on her show jumping skills!

On the 17th, Julia and Indi, Kendall and Cass, Jackie and Bomber (pictured right), and Brianne and Rhys all went to the combined test at Loch Moy Farm, home of the fabulous Maryland Horse Trials (www.themarylandhorsetrials.com - we are SO lucky to have such a fantastic venue nearby, and one that offers so many different oppurtunities!). It was a great day, though unseasonably chilly and windy. Jackie rode her "been there, done that" pony, Bomber, in her first show ever. Sticking to her plan to try hard and have fun paid off- Jackie WON!!! We are very proud of her and her fun little pony. Julia and Kendall with their horses both finished second in their divisions, and Brianne, while choosing to just do unjudged show jumping rounds, rode well, learned a few things, and had a great time. It was a fabulous day and we are very proud of all our riders.

The following weekend, Nancy rode her fabulous new little mare, Layla, in their first dressage show together. It was a good, low key outing, lots was learned and fun was had! We can't thank Stephen Bradley enough for convincing us that this little chestnut thoroughbred mare (everything Nancy did NOT want) would be perfect for Nancy. He was right! The little redhead is fabulous.

The month is winding down, and we are gearing up for a very busy June. Rubicon is next week, with Vernon, Zeke, and Alfie all going. This is one of our favorite events and is considered a "can't miss." Following Rubicon is our "home" event, Seneca Valley (a whopping 10 minutes from home!). Quite the crowd will be in attendance there, with Vernon and Zeke at training, Alfie hopefully at novice, and Indi and Cass at beginner novice. After that, on the 20th, we will be climbing the mountain again for the unrecognized horse trials at Loch Moy, were Jackie will be trying her hand at her first horse trial, as well as the newest Faircroft memebers, Anna and Mocha. Tom is also planning on the taking the newly home Sundown for a go at the training course. And to finish off the month, Surefire, with Zeke (training), Cass, Indi (both at beginner novice), Rhys (novice), and Sundown (preliminary). We will all be looking forward to the lazy days of July by the end of it all!!

New Year, New Start

The New Year is here (bringing along with it unusually cold temperatures for Maryland), and with the New Year comes talk of plans, goals, and schedules. No matter how many times we say we won't make plans, we still do it, knowing that something will come along and change them. It can be rough, but that's ok, no one ever said dealing with horses, especially horses at the competitive level, would be easy.

So, now that the holidays are over, the horses' winter vacations are finished, and all the humans are home from their travels (Tom and Clare traveled to Egypt! How cool!), we are settling into a rhythm of long hacks, dressage schools, and gymnastics. The horses are refreshed and raring to go after well deserved vacations, and more than a few of the humans are happy to be back on their favorite horses (even if it means dealing with cold weather induced shenanigans!). We have a barn full of exciting horses, new and old, which makes the start of the 2009 eventing season even more greatly anticipated.

Here's our exciting roster:

• Sundown- "Dunny" is Tom's NZ horse that we imported almost 2 years ago. Dunny is the first "made" horse Tom has ever ridden, which has proven to be a challenge. Riding a horse someone else has brought up the levels can often be like trying to talk to someone speaking a foreign language. Instead of jumping around big tracks and going to three days, as we planned (there's that nasty little word), Tom has spent the last two years trying to translate his language to Dunny's. Finally, between paitence and perseverance and some management changes, things are falling into place. We are cautiously optomistic that Tom and Dunny will finally get out and compete.
• Vernon Tiger- Vernon was supposed to be a sale horse. We found him in late 2007 as a three year old, and thought he was the right type to bring up a bit and sell on. Again, things don't always go as planned! Last year as a four year, Vernon proved to be a classy little guy. Also, when tried by potential buyers, would fail to show his class (we joked that he didn't want to leave. Apparently, it was true). Then the economy started to take a nose dive, and no one was shopping. And finally it became pretty apparent that he and barn manager Amanda were a good match. So, he's sticking around, and will be moving up to Training level this spring. That's it. He's too young to make too many plans with. We'll just play it by ear!
• Idealized- How much do we love "Zeke"? Zeke raked his owner, Curran and everyone else at Faircroft through the coals the last couple of years. Lameness issue after lameness issue without an end in sight. We were sure at times we were close to having to retire one of our favorite horses at a fairly young age. But last spring we finally sorted him out and he and Curran attempted their first few training level events together. He reminded us all why we love him to pieces (despite his usual silliness and the occasional nipping and grumping). He and Curran will continue you at training level this year, with two goals in mind: a move up to prelim if all is well and the Waredaca Training Three Day Event!
• Alfie- Curran has also aquired a "little" brother for Zeke (at 17h, Alfie towers over 16.1h Zeke...so, maybe he's not THAT little). He's very green but very talented and athletic. No real plans for him other than just seeing what he can do. Tom will take him out a few times in the spring, then hand the reins over to Curran. This guy is super cool, so should be a really fun one watch develop.
• Classic Courage- Poor Julia has had a tough time with horses over the last couple of years. Between horses that just didn't work out and horses that decided to just not be sound, her eventing career has been hit and miss, to say the least. However, Tom changed all of that when he went on a hunch and encouraged Julia to purchase Indi. What a great hunch! He is proving to be her perfect partner and we are all very excited to see Julia on a horse that is good at all three phases, has been there, done that and has more than a few t-shirts, and is a charmer to boot! With Indi's help, Julia might finally get to break out of her "one event every other year" cycle.

So there's a quick run down of some of our exciting critters. There's more, of course, and the others make us smile and look toward the future just as much as these five do. How lucky are we to have a barn full of such fantastic horses!?

Happy New Year everyone! Stay warm and kick on.