Do the Dew

Bono does the Dew! You can’t go out in the pasture with a Mountain Dew without Bono insisting you share it with him.

Congratulations to Ann on the purchase of Lucy!

Congratulations to Ann Rapoza of Chepachet, Rhode Island on the purchase of the Irish Draught Sport Horse mare, Mountain Legion (Lucy). Lucy is by the RID stallion Mountain Pearl. Mountain Pearl has now gone back to stand at stud in Ireland so Lucy was one of the last Pearl foals born in the US. Ann is very familiar with Mountain Pearl offspring and their excellent temperaments. This is a wonderful match of human and horse! Ann fell in love with Lucy the first time she met her when she came to visit & stay with Candy in December.


Lucy arrived in Rhode Island Wednesday morning. As you can see from the picture Lucy is not so sure she wants to get off the trailer. She has never seen snow before. I am sure she is thinking this isn’t Texas!

 
It sure didn’t take her long to settle in and make friends.

Ann plans on using Lucy as an all around horse. They will be doing dressage & jumping. Ann loves to participate in hunter paces and of course trail riding, and would love to take her camping some day as well.

Fritz cleans up!

Congratulations to Kathy Pittman and First Class Image on winning at Regionals and Sport Horse Nationals! Fritz has had a stellar year on the show circuit. First Class Image is by the Five star Oldenburg stallion Frohwind (Woodridge Farm), and out of our Oldenburg approved Arabian mare Flash Ofan Image. Fritz, along with his full brothers Frankie & Faxx, have proved that this is a winning combination!

First Class Image show record:


Green Country Arabian Classic Tulsa, OK 5/9/09 - 5/10/09
First place HA/AA Geldings 2 and under
Reserve Champion Sport Horse Geldings In Hand Open
First Place HA/AA Sport Horse Geldings In Hand Amateur to Handle (ATH)

Region 9 Sport Horse Championships Waco, Texas July, 2009
First Place HA/AA 2 yr old Sport Horse Geldings In Hand Jackpot

H/A A/A Sport Horse National Championship Show Lexington, KY 9/22/09 - 9/27/09
National Top Ten 2 yr. old Sport Horse Geldings In Hand Jackpot

Tulsa State Fair Arabian/ Half-Arabian Show 10/1/09- 10/02/09
First Place HA/AA Sport Horse Geldings In Hand 2 and Under
Champion HA/AA Sport Horse Geldings Open
First Place HA/AA Sport Horse Geldings Amateur to Handle (ATH)

Candy is out of commission!

Candy broke her foot 2 weeks ago and her Doctors still haven’t decided if she needs surgery. Until then she has to take care to stay off her foot to keep the bone from displacing. She is back to work at the Vet School, but is confined to a desk job. Anything to get out of the house, she was going stir crazy! Training of the youngsters has been put on hold for now.

Congrats to Carla & Matt!

Congratulation to Carla & Matt Gudorf on the purchase of Chocolate Delight. CD is a Dutch Warmblood gelding by Iron Spring Farm’s Sir Sinclair, out of a Fairplay mare. They have been so impressed with his temperament, and that he is just so easy to work with. Carla said he gets brushed every morning and he thinks he is royalty already! She said that, of course, she plans on treating him that way. Carla trains with the USDF Gold medalist Lyndon Rife. CD will be her next upper level dressage prospect.  We hope the two of them go far together.

Piney Creek Horse Campout

Candy and I have always wanted to take the horses camping, and the weekend of October 3rd was the weekend our dreams came true. Candy organized a weekend retreat for women & their horses!

Neither one of us wanted to tether our mares all night at the campsite, so we both hauled panels to make pens. Candy some had some brackets welded on her trailer so she could attach the panels to the side. Everyone was jealous they want a set on their trailers too!

We arrived at the Piney Creek Horse Camp around 11a and set up camp really fast so we could hit the trails. There are 54 miles of horse trails in the Davey Crockett National Forest. The woods were so beautiful, and we saw lots of deer. We had ridden 2 hours when the weather started to turn south; when we checked our map we realized we weren’t even half way along the orange trail. That’s when we made the decision to turn back. As soon as we did it started raining on us. For the most part, the forest kept the rain off us, but we still looked like drowned rats when we got back to camp. All in all we spent about four hours trail riding with some pretty amazing scenery and covered approximately 12 miles.

At the horse camp there was a small pavilion, which we had all to ourselves seeing as we were the only ones to brave the weather. Candy brought old smokey and we had hamburgers for dinner. Sheila brought out her fire pit so we could warm ourselves by the fire, and of course, make s’mores. We had our bible lesson & spent the rest of the evening enjoying good company.

When it came time to hit the sack Candy hung her hammock from the pavilion rafters, but Marissa had to help her in that night & Heidi had to unzip her & let her out in the morning!

I was the only one that actually set up a tent, in the rain I might add. I guess some of my husband’s boy scout training rubbed off on me because I managed to set it up without it leaking. It was nice to fall asleep to the sound of the rain on my tent.
Sunday we were up bright and early for breakfast & bible study. We had planned a second trail ride for Sunday, but after checking the weather radar and finding a huge storm heading our way we decided to break camp and head for home.

Best Teacher Award

Candy just won the Award for the Best Teacher at the Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine. It is National Veterinary Tecnician Week and all the Veterinary students at the College vote in each category for the technician of their choice.