Show Photos from FCDA Schooling Show, April 2012

The next weekend, we loaded up a bunch of students to attend FCDA's Schooling show, and again Linda came armed with a camera.  Here's the fruits of her labors.

Thanks Linda for all of the great shots. Too bad you didn't catch the one of Chris and Joe leaping from the ring... but then, it wouldn't be as funny without her yelling "Oh #it!"

Chris and Joe, fully recovered from the unplanned leap from the dressage ring.

Alexa and Ockie

Joyce and Pikasso

Jess and Moe

Liz just chillin'

Liz again, this time with Rocky

Kelsey and Pee Wee

Paige and Maggie

Show photos from Morven Park, April 2012

I'm still behind a bit, but thought I'd steal a few minutes to post photos from our first two shows. These are from Morven Park, April 2012 show. Secret was also along, but Linda didn't send me photos of her this time. She was fantastic, she is already qualified for Regionals.  Not a bad start to the show season!

Rebecca brought James, and I took my Morgan pony, Mandy for her first outing. We met tons of friends at the show, and of course had a great time.

This is Ensign's Stately Mandolyn, my Morgan pony, at her first show. She is SUPER.

Check out that hind leg! How fancy is that??

Mandy again. Ok, I'll quit now, but I so rarely I get to be the proud horse-mom :-).

James and Rebecca kicked butt at their first 1st level outing.

They really have come a long way. March 2011 was her first dressage lesson.  James has proved to be as amazing a dressage horse as he was a hunter. What an athlete.

And so it Begins

The slow time of year apparently is over. Not that it was all that slow this year…

We usually start our show season in May, but this winter has been unseasonably warm, and the horses have been schooling so well, we decided to attend VADA/NOVA’s spring show at Morven Park held over Easter weekend.

As usual, the weather made an impact on the scores. It was WINDY, and that wind had a cold edge to it. Secret was her usual stellar self on day one, but the wind had emptied her gas tank for day two. Mandy was really, really overwhelmed by the big warmbloods and cold wind, so my rock-star pony didn’t show very well.  Rebecca’s mount, James, seems to love cold, windy days—he was awesome, becoming the high-score SFD rider at this show with a 69.355 in First 3 on Sunday.  We brought home enough ribbons and stories to make the trip well worth it.

March and April we crammed in a whirlwind of clinics, hosting Phoebe DeVoe with OVCTA, attending Acadia Farm’s clinic with Lendon Gray, Hawk Hollow’s clinic with Catharine Haddad-Staller, and our usual trips down to Hasslers. With all of this consistent help, the horses are going great. 

And it continues—this weekend a bunch of students are competing at FCDA’s schooling show at Journey’s End, which is just around the corner. The next two weekends have JJ Tate and Linda Zang both hosted locally.  Then there’s our Training Demonstration this Saturday, on creating a plan for your horse’s workouts.

So, hence the short, just-the-facts blog.  Hopefully I’ll have some time in the next week or so do write more. Until then, happy riding.