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| Becky and Arriba |
What a wild month May has been! Trips to Virginia eventing and horse shopping, dressage show in Cincinnati, combined tests, and Silva Martin in for a clinic; I don't think we could pack in much more! Lets start with the good:
The Combined Test at South Farm on Mother's Day was a big success, with Kim McConnell and Middleburg did their first dressage tests garnering a 68 (!!!!!), winning their first class, and coming second in the 2nd class. Tracy Baker and her mare Cant Tallya were fourth in the BBN division, and showed some real improvement in the rideability of this horse. The star of the day though was Becky Salinger's Arriba (aka Ted) who won his BN division on a 26.7!!! Congratulations ladies!
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| Kim and Middy |
The Silva Martin Clinic was a success, with everyone coming away from it in a great place. Her quiet classical system is always positive for both horses and riders, helping to bump them to the next level in their work. Hopefully we will start having her come to Cleveland on a more regular basis.
We had a mediocre show in Cinci...Goodman was a good boy, with a few mistakes in each class (some mine). It was a good first time outside, and I know he can do better, so we are looking forward to Grand Haven in a couple weeks and hopefully rock out some scores. Lidcombe had a bit of a "baby" weekend, and showed that he was really excited to be outside at a horse show. This is a lovely horse that the judges really like, and I am sure he will have it together for Grand Haven.
The Event at Morven Park in Va was a bust. Zigzag was winning the division with a 28 and after jumping through the entire stadium course decided that he was done at the last triple combination. I guess its back to the drawing board. Then on the eve of leaving for the Plantation Field event he colicked, and was sick for four straight days requiring two rounds of fluids and tubing. This from the horse who has never been sick a day in his life! The good news is that we started lightly riding him two days ago, and he seems to be on the mend. Hopefully he will be back up and running for the Boyd clinic and the Event at South Farm. Jessica Hart's little mare Zophie was also supposed to go to Plantation, but had a muscle strain so she was also a scratch.
I had a great time at Pati Peirucci's looking at dressage horses with Cathy Christopher and we found one each at Pati's and Charlotte Bayleys, but had to walk away from both horses due to problems in the vetting. So, we are off to Silva's and Courtney Cooper's in Pa next week, and hopefully third time is a charm.
The Ugly:
ok, there is no ugly... It just seemed appropriate!
We have lots of upcoming events to look forward to, like the Boyd Martin Clinic June 28th and 29th, the Grand Haven Dressage Show, The South Farm Horse Trial, some shopping trips, and a few charitable events at the farm. I am also looking forward to a few new young horses that will be hopefully joining the ranks in our event program, one being Haven from my long time friend and client Beth Lose.
No matter how much that gray cloud tries to rain on us, we will keep looking up and counting the blessings that we get to work with these amazing animals and people everyday. What could be better?
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| Tracy Baker, Quinn, Dave and Tallya |
