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.

Faxxsimile at Arabian Regionals

Cyndi Craig sent us an update on Faxxsimile. In 2009 Faxx was Reserve Champion Sporthorse Under Saddle ATR out of 15 horses. This was the largest class at the Regional Championships. This was only the second time for him to compete in a group class. Faxx was Top 5 in the Sporthorse Under Saddle Open Class, with 11 entries. He also got a Reserve Champion in Open Dressage Training Level. Faxx is just 6 points away from earning his Legion of Supreme Honor (+/). Cyndi says he is a wonderful horse and that no one can believe that he is just 4! Congratulations to them both.

Bono in Training!

Bono has now moved to College Station for Candy to start his training. This past weekend marked a new chapter in Bono’s life, he has now started working for his supper! We have been waiting for Bono to mature physically before starting him under saddle, he is still growing so we will take it easy on him. Candy is very impressed with his mind. His first working sessions have gone beautifully. He accepted a saddle pad and a surcingle without batting an eye. All he did was look around at the surcingle once it was tightened and smell it. He went to work in the round pen like it was old hat for him.