Click this link to go to our site map.

Jump to Latest News Blog – click here

 

 

Above: Claudia on Zanee in the July 17^th show at Longacres. Nice form! We have a large album of pictures from that show at this link, all oversize with many interesting shots. Check it out as the “Album of the Month”!

 

 

 

Friday, July 30^th, 9PM Update:

Sorry for no updates earlier today. We work none stop pretty much the day before a horse show and there wasn’t time to take pictures of the girls riding. I did work with several of the riders during the day, showing jumper video to Bethany and Carly, and working with Katie and “Georgia” in the evening between horse show setup jobs. Meghan did nothing but horse show work, though she did pick up cookie cakes for each cabin to have a bunk party for good luck the night before the show.

 

Check this link. I did take a few pictures of the lovely jump courses all set up for tomorrow’s show, and some of the girls are riding out on the courses learning the patterns for their events tomorrow.

 

Probably no more updates until tomorrow evening after the show.

 

Thursday, July 29^th, 7PM Update:

Good spirits at dinner tonight are on display in this short video. Everyone was taking part in dinner talk, with Anderson the center of much attention! Meghan had her camera at the barn before dinner, and I expect a few more pictures to be posted at this link latter tonight. Weather is great! Cool and sunny all afternoon and more of the same expected the next two days.

 

Thursday, July 29^th, 5PM Update:

We had a good second day of this session. Check this link for some pictures from last night and today. We started off with me teaching more than an hour as Meghan video taped the lesson. We watched the video after lunch with lots of slow motion. Elsa was the star, since she almost fell off Ginger in the morning and made an amazing save to stay on the horse. We played her “save” in slow motion several times to great cheers from all of us watching the video! Elsa was a very good sport about it. And just to make sure she didn’t feel like she was the only one to come close to taking a tumble, I played the old Longacres “bloopers” tape showing a lot of falls set to music over the years. The girls left for their afternoon lesson in high spirits.

 

Everyone is already riding out on the big show field, since the Derby is in just two weeks and we need to begin practicing right away. I helped Carly teach Morven, Anderson, and Staci as they all jumped the special Pulverman jump this afternoon.

 

Meghan, Taylor, Beta, and I worked for quite a while setting the jumps for the Saturday horse show and trimming grass. BULLITEN: We hope to have the big water jump set up for the show and will give bonus time if anyone can jump it. We do not have a horse/rider combo here at Longacres ready to try it, but if the Donan’s come, at least Aaron Donan plans to give it a go! We’ll all be watching and cheering him on if he shows up.

 

Wednesday, July 28^th, 7PM Update:

Thunder!

We had a good day of riding, with most girls on 4 times already. But a strong thunderstorm just hit, and it looks like our evening ride tonight will be washed out. We can deal with it – we need the rain for our turf and the footing for the show on Saturday. And the forecast for the rest of the week, including Saturday’s show, is excellent, with temperatures in the 70’s.

 

We had a group talk after dinner about doing a better job properly mounting, and Alexa will be doing a demonstration tonight in the barn while it rains so that everyone will be well prepared for tomorrow, when we will be very particular about proper basic mounting skills. I told the girls after dinner that it is a compliment to them that we feel they as a group are good enough riders to do the basics right. We plan to set the tone for good horsemanship right from the start this session, even if it ruffles a few feathers the first few days. The first lesson this morning did a wonderful job getting their horses listening properly during warmup and keeping them alert during the lesson.

 

I am going to have a tough time getting the first desert after dinner this session. I thought I was first in line for the cake and I even had my hands around the cake dish. But Anderson snuck her hand in there and grabbed the spatula used to serve the cake. Everyone thought that she was going to get the first piece of cake, with good help from Petra and Alexa – UNTIL I reached under the portion of cake she thought she had and popped it up in the air, whisking it onto MY plate! Score one victory for Tom in “desert wars”, but I am not confident that I can repeat very often with this group!

 

Wednesday, July 28^th, 5PM Update:

All Safely Here:

Alexandra, our final arrival, is now here and on a horse.

 

Training Session Album:

Check this link for some nice pictures of counselor Bethany training one of her personal horses, Holly. I don’t quite know what you call it when Bethany and I work together with a horse. Sometimes it’s just me as a spectator, sometimes a joint training venture. We think alike in working with horses and I like to watch her work. Today was almost like a real lesson, since Bethany let me set the agenda for Holly, and I spent a bit of time having Bethany brief me on everything she’s already done training the horse. Then we worked for about an hour stretching the envelope a little for both the horse and for Bethany. It was fun, and they did great! As you’ll see from the pictures. Because it takes a toll on the horses, we can’t have all our students jumping the heights that Bethany does when she trains, but there is good trickle down benefit for all our riders when one or two are able to do quite advanced training work. It also keeps my head in the game, as it were. And with the talent of the riders this session, many of them will be doing advanced training over the coming month.

 

We Need To Improve our Mounting Skills!

But that advanced training will not come easy, and there are no short cuts to good riding. One of the foundation building blocks of a good ride, is the simple process of mounting properly. I sat for ten minutes this afternoon and watched a disappointing variety of incorrect and sloppy mounting efforts. It will take a long time to mount the lessons tomorrow, because it will be done right. Some will be getting on their horse, and then getting right off again to try harder for a proper mount five times or more. The riders this session are good enough to do it right. We’ll teach them how, then insist that they get on gently, and with perfect control of their horse.

 

Horses are often difficult to mount because they are accustomed to sloppy riders plopping down harshly on their backs and then letting them walk away before the rider is fully in control. It’s one of those chicken or egg things; bad rider efforts at mounting make the horse behave badly; a bad horse is hard to mount gently. We’ll try to improve horses and riders tomorrow and the rest of this session.

 

Wednesday, July 28^th, 2PM Update:

Everyone has arrived safely and been on at least two horses this morning, except for Alexandra, who arrives by plane late today. We have a very good group of riders this session, which is a good thing, since we face two very challenging horse shows; the Longacres Jumper Derby and the Erie County Fair show. We will be training them hard with demanding lessons for the next few days. By that time, we’ll know who is here mostly to have fun doing five hours of riding, and who is here to really work on their show skills. We’ll adjust our lesson plan accordingly for the best interest of each student. Our counselors will also be training hard. They are part of our show team, especially during second session now!

 

Check this link for pictures of everyone riding this morning. Check this link for one of the lessons doing the Castle jump; it is HD video from one of the new iPhones. Not bad for cell phone video!

 

More news later today. I put captions on all the pictures this morning and oversized them in the album.

 

Tueday, July 27^th, 9:30 PM Update:

Arrivals:

Kellie and Elsa have arrived safely from the airport. “Poker” has also arrived safely, just a half hour ago getting off one of the biggest horse vans ever to come on the Longacres show grounds! It was a huge semi tractor-trailer, just for Poker. We’re taking good care of him for you tonight, Petra. (Check this link for a picture of Poker’s horse van.)

 

We’ll see everyone else at 9AM tomorrow. No earlier, please – we’ve got things to get ready first thing in the morning. I know most of you are at hotels here in East Aurora just chomping at the bit to get to Longacres early in the morning! But be patient just a few minutes longer. Maybe I’ll see one or two of you at Tim Horton’s donut shop when I have my morning breakfast from 7:30 to 8:30 for my last peace and quiet of the mid-session break!

- Tom

 

Tuesday, July 27^th, 9AM Update:

One More Day of Rest

I’m headed out to do some more mowing to prepare for the next session, while Meghan sleeps until noon one more day. The girls say I’m doing a pretty good job of “being Meghan” checking on them and taking them to town as needed during the break. But Meghan will be back at work this afternoon and this evening triple checking on arrival times and writing out the final schedule for the first day of the new session tomorrow.

 

Kellie and Elsa fly in tonight from Texas and California, getting to Longacres very late. Everyone else arrives bright and early tomorrow. Several will be here in East Aurora at the Hampton or the Roycroft Inn overnight – if you see someone with a young teenage daughter at one of the Inns, ask if they’re coming to Longacres. Petra, Anderson, Morven, and Katie should all be in town tonight.

 

Meghan and the girls will be busy early this afternoon with a routine vet call to have Rabies shots for the horses and some routine tests. We also have to be here later to meet Petra’s horse, Poker, who is arriving on a huge truck from Florida.

 

Here we go again! Lots of riding and the big summer shows this session!

 

Monday, July 26^th, 8PM Updsate:

Me having some fun dragging the sand ring at this link. How I relax.

 

Monday, July 26^th, 8AM Update:

Catching some very nice

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz’s

 

Sunday night, late

Finally, a cold front and great sleeping weather here at Longacres! I am trying hard to keep Meghan resting, but it is a battle! Some of you have her cell phone number and are texting her, while I try to intercept her emails! She was thrilled when she got the text from Claudia about her first time stay at Longacres. Thank you, Claudia! Meghan smiled from ear to ear during dinner when your text came in. And, yes, Martha, we did see the wonderful moon on the way home tonight!

 

We do have the arrival info for Kellie and Elsa, and Taylor is picking you both up.

 

On the way home from Laundry in town, the girls told me I was doing a pretty good job being Meghan. I checked to make sure seat belts were in use, and when I overheard the girls talking about needing a new battery for one of the smoke detectors, I pulled into the office driveway and within 60 seconds of hearing about it, they had a new battery. The girls told me I was even quicker than Meghan on this one! They said that if Meghan had heard about the need for a battery, first the old battery would have appeared on the desk at the barn with a post-it note, and the next morning ,a new battery would have magically appeared. I was faster!

 

Sunday, July 25^th, 2PM Update:

They’re All Gone!

We said “see ya’” to the last of our departing riders about 1 this afternoon, with quite a few tears being shed both by the girls leaving and by the counselors staying behind. We’ll miss all of you!

 

The three CIT’s who will be working with the counselors for the rest of the summer training to be future Longacres staff are all here now. Laura, Ofelia, and Winky are here, and they, along with the counselors and Lydia, are having a final ride this hour before the horses are given total rest for the next two and a half days.

 

Meghan has finally crashed! She didn’t even make it to the shower she’d planned before taking a long nap today. She collapsed on her bed fully clothed and barely had energy left to pull a blanket over herself. The counselors and I are going to do our best to keep her from working and organizing and doing everything “a Meghan” normally does to keep Longacres running, until she’s taken full advantage of the three day mid-term break.

 

I’ll be resting also, but it is Meghan, who kills herself with 17 to sometimes 20 hour work days week after week in the summer, who really needs this break to be herself for the second session. So I’ll try to cover for her for the next few days.

 

E-mail me at the Longacres email and I’ll at least respond and acknowledge that we got your message or I’ll try to answer your questions. Most important, if you are planning to have us arrange an airport pickup Wednesday (or Tuesday night), put that info in an email to us. And if you’re arriving by car, email and let me know about when you think you’ll arrive. Meghan has most of this info well organized, but when she “comes out of hibernation” Tuesday night, I would like to have all the latest arrival info for second session confirmed for her.

 

Second important thing that’s going on is arrangements for winter horse leases. I know Meghan is trying to make final arrangements with all of you taking Longacres horses for the winter (TEN of our students this year!). If you’re waiting for information, either call me or email, or wait until Meghan goes back to work Tuesday night.

 

We have several UPS packages to go out tomorrow, and I think I have that under control. If you want to help me, email and remind me what needs to be shipped, and I’ll work on it tomorrow.

 

Carly, Bethany, and Alexa will be taking turns caring for the horses the next three days with help from the second session CIT’s and Lydia (who arranged to stay over break just for the fun of it!). The horses should be rested and ready to perform for our second session students when they come in Wednesday. Our first show is just three days later here at Longacres, and it sounds like it will be a big show, with many of the more active show stables in our region planning to be here. Long range weather looks to be sunny and temps in the low 80’s. Not a bad week!

 

Drisana from first session is planning to return to Longacres for the week of the Derby as an intern helping Meghan prepare for this big show. Micayla might also come help for a few days. We’re already getting excited about the big event on August 14^th!

 

Sunday, July 25^th, 7AM Update:

Thanks for a Great July Session!

We wake up this morning prepared to say “see ya’ again soon” to a great group of girls who have been with us for the past two weeks, and some of them for a full month. We’ve shared some fine riding moments and lots of fun. We hope to see many of you again next year!

 

After this session’s students leave later this morning, Longacres will settle into hibernation for three days of the mid-term break. Meghan will sleep LONG hours! But we’re already looking forward to seeing many returning friends and to meeting three first time students who are joining us for the month of August. We will have Longacres all cleaned up and the horses well rested when we open for the next term on Wednesday morning.

 

I’ll post a few updates over the break, but it will hopefully be a quiet time with a well earned chance for all of us on the staff to rest and recuperate.

 

Torrential rain has fallen over much of western New York the past few days, but not here at Longacres. We’ve been sheltered by the “lake effect bubble” as the more stable air coming off Lake Erie has kept us quite dry while the heavy storms have passed close to our north and south. As I write this morning, radar shows a heavy squall line from the cold front passing just five miles to our south and continuing to move southeast. I actually wish we had got more rain for our ground. In anticipation of severe thunderstorms, we laid all the jumps in the big show field down on the ground last night so they wouldn’t be damaged by strong wind. Turns out all that work was unnecessary; now we’ve got to put all the jumps up again!

 

Saturday, July 24^th, Horse Show Update:

Check this link and this link for lots of pictures from the show today. More news later, but everyone rode well, and I think everyone has good ribbons to prove it!

 

MANY THANKS to David and Noreen Laks and all their wonderful staff for putting on a fine horse show, as they always do! We had a great time and we can’t wait to host them at Longacres next weekend. The weather held off – rain about an hour after the show ended!

 

Saturday, July 24^th, 6:30 AM Update:

As you can see from the video’s posted last night, the girls are in very good spirits! And it looks like the rain will hold off at least through most of the show. But it is a hot, sticky day and torrential rains may come later in the day. Not my idea of a fun day for a horse show, but we are about to leave and make the best of it. Pictures and a report coming later tonight. I think we will see some of you parents at the show and for dinner at AIR CONDITIONED Pasquale’s tonight!

 

Friday, July 23^rd, 9PM Update:

Looking Better for the Show!

Check this link and this link for two video’s of the girls fooling around in front of the barn after loading the trailer with their stuff for the horse show. And the folks over at Quakerfield Stables must have lived right this week, because we now have a fighting chance of good weather for most of the show. Severe thunder storms were expected for today and tomorrow, and indeed there were many that rolled through western New York today, but they missed Longacres and Quakerfield just a few miles down the road. It now appears likely that we may get a little overnight rain, but will have a dry slot from early in the morning until about three or four tomorrow afternoon. Just enough for the show!

 

It’s hard to believe that this is the last day of the session! We’ve really enjoyed this group and in fact nearly all of our 2010 students so far. But we will welcome the mid-session break from Sunday to Wednesday! And we’re really looking forward to the August session with so many returning students from the past. It is going to be like old friends month, with just three first time students to give us a little fresh blood.

 

Friday, July 23^rd, 5PM Update:

The “Ruby Project”

 

First, check this link for some pictures from this afternoon, when some of the girls who had never jumped a bank got a chance to do it. The rest spent a long double hour lesson jumping in the sand rings and finally going to the big show field for some last day of the session jumps.

 

But the special effort this afternoon was to complete “The Ruby Project”. Sometime last week, we were talking about this being Ruby’s 4^th year at Longacres and how she has ridden most of the horses on the farm over that time. And since Ruby has been riding pretty well this year, we decided to make it a goal to get Ruby to ride every single horse on the farm before the end of the session. Some other girls are also close, but we’re concentrating on making our smallest rider the one to be sure to ride every horse. It helps that Ruby is a very soft rider and she makes excitable horses calm. Bethany frequently has Ruby ride her private Champion jumper horse, Joc-A-Bee, because Joc is very happy with little Ruby in the saddle. Today Bethany let Ruby ride her other jumper, Holly, under close supervision. We also got Ruby on Bristol last night, again with a counselor close at hand. And this afternoon, as I write this, Ruby is getting on the last two horses she has never ridden, Sha-Bang and Chesney. It’s quite an accomplishment for a small rider!

 

 

Friday, July 23^rd, noon Update:

Show News

                  Thankful for the Sand Ring!

                              A Good Training Session

Show news:

The Quakerfield Horse Show is on tomorrow morning at 9AM, rain or shine. Plan “A” is we don’t get too much more rain and everything runs outside as planned. Plan “B” is that one of the rings gets moved to the indoor arena. Plan “C” in case of torrential downpour, is to cut out some of the classes and move the whole show to the indoor and go with the flow and have fun. So, Longacres parents coming from a distance, bring your rain gear, but there will be a show tomorrow.

 

The Sand Ring is Maturing

Careful readers may remember me talking earlier in the season about our expanded sand ring. The new sand on the expanded part of the ring was a little too soft and deep, and the horses changed their movement a little as they went from the old part of the ring to the new. But we have been dragging the ring frequently all summer, and the old and new sand are mixing a bit with the clay underneath. The sand ring is just about perfect right now. I wish I could keep it exactly as it is now permanently. Which we’ll try to do, but maintaining a good sand ring is a constant process of grading, adding a little new sand now and then, and watching for any rocks that may work their way up through the sand (very few rocks in ours because we prepared the site carefully!). Anyway, with very wet ground after overnight rain, the footing was excellent in the sand ring this morning. Which was a good thing because - - -

 

A Brody Training Session

I have planned for a while to have Bethany ride Brody, a very talented and athletic, but sometimes stubborn horse. We had time at the end of the first lesson today, so I had Bethany get on Brody while the rest of the girls had planned to go down to the barn and change to their next horse. But no one wanted to leave, and it turned out to be a very educational session for them to watch. We did some high jumping, and the footing in our wet sand ring was perfect.

 

We’ve been preaching to this group of riders for two weeks how important it is to properly warm up and train your horse before a serious ride or lesson. How important it is to take the time to establish the “building blocks” of the ride. To make sure that the horse is respecting you doing the simple things like a working walk and an extended to collected trot transition before you even think about any jumping. And when I ask Bethany to work a horse, that’s exactly what we do. We don’t just assume that because Bethany is a strong and talented rider, she can hop on any horse and it magically will perform perfectly. We go through all those boring little building blocks. Bethany worked Brody at a walk, carefully making him listen and do simple transitions. We spent many minutes before the first jump. An example was that when we started cantering Brody in the wet ring he would break his stride from the canter over a puddle at one corner of the ring. Not acceptable. We made sure he was on the bit and respectful and that he would canter through that puddle without breaking stride before we did any jumping.

 

While Bethany worked the horse and I only occasionally gave her a suggestion or she asked me for an opinion, I stood on the side of the ring with the other girls trying to point out things Bethany was doing that were exactly like the things we’re trying to teach all out riders to do on their horses before they ask them to jump and do difficult exercises. Some of this is subtle stuff, and I know some of the girls were sitting impatiently waiting for the fun stuff (I had set some of the jumps pretty high!). But some students were interested and I think I got through to a few. I know I enjoyed watching the training session.

 

Finally we had Brody doing Cross rail jumps patiently and exactly as he was asked. I began raising one vertical a hole at a time, with Bethany sometimes trotting in and sometimes coming to the jump at a collected canter. Brody behaved perfectly, even when that jump got QUITE high. He made it look easy. And only then at the end of our schooling session did we ask Brody to canter through a small course including a triple combination with one stride between jumps. He did everything asked of him. A good demonstration of what we believe about horse training at Longacres. I hope the connection between watching a very experienced rider school a horse first doing very fundamental exercises and only then over high jumps, and the warm up work we ask our students to do every time they ride was apparent to some of our girls. I think it was.

 

Sorry there are no pictures. I didn’t have my camera since I wasn’t sure Brody would be available that hour.

 

 

Thursday, July 22^nd, 10PM Update:

Welcome Back, Sha-Bang!

A quick stop at our “Meet the Horses” page will introduce you to “Sha-Bang”, one of our more successful jumpers over the past five or six years. Regular readers will know that Sha-Bang got a small leg injury in pasture here at Longacres a year ago in May. He was never shown last summer as we rested him and gave him only light exercise the full 2009 season. A local rider named Tara took Sha-Bang home to her farm for the winter and spent countless hours rehabilitating him and giving him more than a year of rest from heavy work. We chose to leave him with Tara for a good part of this summer to see if the extra months of rest helped. Tonight he arrived back at Longacres. See pictures at this link of riding this evening and of Sha-Bang’s arrival. He looks gorgeous, has the same kind personality as always, and jogs sound right now. We will be slowly giving him some work and evaluating his soundness. Keep your fingers crossed that this fine horse can go back to doing at least modest work.

 

Check this link for a few iPhone pictures of the girls climbing all over Sha-Bang as he grazed on the lawn next to the barn!

 

Weather:

Although the forecast for the show on Saturday is still not good, it has improved slightly since earlier today. The big problem with the show will be wet ground from expected heavy rain tomorrow. We’ll just have to wait and see how things develop. Stay tuned for better show info tomorrow evening after 8PM.

 

Thursday, July 22^nd, 2Pm Update:

Nice Job on the Big Jumping Course!

Everyone got to jump the long Cross Country course on the big show field today, and we had some fine riding. Everyone was paying attention and every horse did well. There were a few refusals here and there, but everyone got their horses to finish and many did it with no faults. We took video of everyone, which we will watch tomorrow when we expect we’ll have some rain breaks. We also have LOTS of pictures at this link and at this link.

 

The girls will have their phones at the mall later this afternoon, probably from about 4 to 6:30 when we’re taking a little R & R on the cook’s night off. We’ll be back at Longacres in time for a late evening ride.

 

We’re watching the weather closely for the Saturday forecast and we’ll be consulting with Quakerfield tomorrow to see what the options are in case they get very wet, which is likely Friday night. Check here with us tomorrow before driving a great distance just for the horse show.

 

Welcome back Bethany, who is here after recovering quickly from a bug of some kind.

 

Wednesday, July 21^st, 11PM Update:

Camp as it Should be

And the Great Longacres History Hike of 2010!

(Tom cried)

It has been a fine day here at Longacres. Lots of good riding, but more important, really good spirits and lots of fun. We pitched a curve ball by taking the girls on a surprise midday trip to Kone King after lunch, rather than the usual evening trip. Then at dinner some of the girls were pestering me with questions about the history of Longacres, so I told them I’d take them around the farm sometime and show them where some old cabins and other places were in the woods. Well, they said “sometime” was not good enough, and could I please do it right after dinner? Then everyone wanted to come and even when we offered to have a riding lesson for those who weren’t interested, every last person chose to tromp around the farm with me and hear stories from the history of Longacres.

 

Well, we went everyplace, and I mean EVERYPLACE! I am amazed that I had the stamina, but I held up pretty well. We must have hiked three miles, including up and down steep ravines, through thickets of thorn bushes, and across creeks. We found the foundations and other remnants of many of the old cabins long since torn down. We explored the old director’s cabin where my grandparents lived and we all took turns climbing up in the hayloft of the “Old Junior Barn”. We heard the story of the summer when Brownie was sick and was isolated in the old barn. We found the remains of the 40 year old boys camp unit in the middle of a thicket of thorn bushes. We even found the remains of the old “Gunner Boys Cabin” that was burned down after my grandmother bought the land it was on from the family. And we peeked under the Carriage Hosue foundations where “the woman” is supposed to sleep at night!

 

And we think we found the place where my great grandfather, George Longaker, had his summer tent back in 1939 to 1955. That’s when the tears started unexpectedly flowing for me. I explained to the girls that they were “good tears” brought on by so many memories of long ago coming back all at once as we toured parts of the farm I hadn’t seen for years in some cases. Later I told Taylor, who was walking near me for most of the tour and especially interested, that the tears were also in recognition of the fact that all of us do really go from dust to dust in time. It was quite symbolic for me that I had this good memory of my great grandfather at Longacres, but there is no longer any sign of his tent platform on the hillside near the dining hall, beyond a slightly leveled spot on the hillside.

 

After the History Hike, I found old maps of Longacres, copies of the “How to Teach Group Riding” book written by my aunt with old pictures of Longacres, and old Longacres brochures from 40 and 50 years ago. I showed the girls pictures of some of the places they had found buried in brush during our hike.

 

Spirits were great when we finished the hike, and the girls were happy doing horse care. Meghan found them right after horse care all setting up buckets and brooms on the lawn in front of the barn and pretending they were horses running and jumping and laughing. Then it was time for a smores party around a camp fire and more stories of old times and scary things. A promise from me to unlock Dark Stranger cabin tomorrow so they can see inside and read the story of the Tall Dark Stranger!

 

Tomorrow’s feature is everyone riding the long Cross Country course on the big show field. But it will be hard to beat the spirit of good fun we all shared tonight!

 

Bethany is at home for a couple of days with a bad sore throat. Hope you feel better, Bethany – we miss you! Natasha sent you a new picture of crayons. (Hi Beta!)

 

Wednesday, July 21^st, 11AM Update:

Nice to Have Conscientious People!

Alexa and Carly were a little late getting their lessons mounted this morning because there were some changes in horse assignments. No biggy. What is a biggy to me, is that they both felt badly and were apologetic about being late. It is really nice to have staff who care about getting things right. (Bethany was on her day off.) Good job, girls! (be on time next time!)

 

We’re doing more practice on the fancy outside course jumps today and we will be letting everyone do the long 21 jump X-Country course during one of tomorrow’s lessons. We’ll video tape everyone and have a good session reviewing that tape before the horse show on the weekend.

 

Rainy Show?

Speaking of the horse show, the weather report is pretty iffy. About 50% chance of rain, and that rain could be heavy. We’ll have a better handle on the timing of the rain by Friday, so we won’t panic yet. But it’s something to keep in mind for you parents traveling to the show from a distance. There is always the possibility of having to cancel the show, or that they would postpone it, and our girls would have gone home by the time it is rescheduled. Check with us before you make a long trip just for the show on Saturday.

 

In the meantime, we have a decent day today with only scattered showers, and a truly grand mid-summer day for riding tomorrow!

 

Honoring Good Horsemanship

We have lots of eager riders this session. They are all a good group to teach. But because this is a younger group than in some sessions, attention spans are sometimes shorter. One of the fundamentals of the Longacres system of horsemanship is that riding is a series of building blocks. We begin a ride with a solid warm-up, paying attention to good transitions, independent riding (not just following another horse), and solid awake working walks and working trots. Have your horse ready and responsive for the rest of the exercises in your lesson. It is hard work to do a proper warmup. It is hard work for any rider and asking a lot for 11 and 12 year olds. We’ve spoken about this attention to detail several times this session, including a long talk the first day of the session.

 

This morning I was at the riding area watching the girls mount and begin their warmup. Sydney and Micayla were outstanding. They were in their own zones, really getting attention from their horses. After watching for a while, I called all the riders in, complimented the group as a whole for being good students, reminded them of the importance of the solid warmup as a foundation of a good lesson, and then singled out Sydney and Micayla for their outstanding attention to detail.

 

At the end of the lesson, I took Sydney and Micayla aside and let them jump extra jumps that were higher than everyone else did. Hard work deserves rewards.

 

There is always a possible downside in singling anyone in a group out for special praise. Read the Blog from the other day when we had to reassure one girl that it was no putdown to her when we asked two girls who were especially responsible to help lead mid day horse care. As a point of interest, the two girls who were put in charge during the counselor meeting the other day were Sydney and Micayla, same two who were so excellent in their riding today.

 

But I think I made my point today without being critical of anyone individually, that there really is a benefit to putting hard work and effort into your riding. I noted with pleasure that a couple of the girls who are serious students here most of the time, but who were not at their best during this morning’s warmup, were working especially hard during the rest of the lesson. They will be properly commended.

 

Check this link for a few pictures from yesterday afternoon in the big show field and this link later after lunch for some pictures from this morning.

 

Tuesday, July 20^th, 9PM Update:

Stephanie and Claudia had a well mannered diner table conversation about the order of the jumps on the cross country course, trying to see who could remember the full course fastest. Check it out here!

 

I’m about to deliver cookie dough and chocolate milk for a surprise cabin party. All is going very well. Can’t wait to see all our good friends for second session in August very soon!

 

Tuesday, July 20^th, 3PM Update:

Two Good Days!

We’re feeling very good about this week. Other than the brief “drowned rats” rain yesterday morning, we’re having good luck with the weather so far. None of the rain forecast for today came, and tomorrow & Thursday show only scattered showers in the forecast.

 

But weather is the least of our good news. Everyone this week seems to be getting along great with the counselors, with each other, and with Meghan and I. Oh, there’s a little squabble or “knock it off” here and there, but generally very good morale. Meghan and I are pretty well caught up on “big picture” stuff so we’ve been able to put in good time at being camp directors and working directly with the girls. I taught myself both yesterday and all morning this morning. I set up a big gymnastic jumping exercise (check this link for pictures), and I changed all the distance after the smaller strided horses did it so that it would work out well for the more long strided horses. One thing that pleases us is that all of our students and staff were able to do this advanced exercise and only two riders had to change onto a horse that did it with another rider. That’s a good string of school horses!

 

(You may wonder, “What the Heck?”, as you look at today’s pictures and see me down on the ground bowing to Taylor on Diesel! Well, the grid jump exercise is very demanding on the horses. Taylor had been assigned to Diesel before the girls knew we were doing this special lesson. I told her that I would not hold it against her if she couldn’t make him do the gymnastic, but that he could do it if she really pushed, and that if she succeeded, I would indeed get down on the ground and bow to her. She succeeded, and the rest is no photo history!)

 

Meghan and I met with the ABC’s (Alexa, oh, you know!) yesterday before lunch for a good detailed discussion of what each student is working on with their riding, and the best exercises to let them each move to the next level. We came up with some useful ideas and also talked about how everyone was getting along in the bunks and how well each student was contributing at the barn. The news on those fronts was very good. We commend all the girls who are students this session. It was a great meeting and put all of us on the staff on the same page.

 

A “Glitch” That I Took Too Hard

It’s funny how even a tiny little glitch can dampen a great mood (for me). Yesterday and today have gone wonderfully. The farm looks great, the horses are in fine shape, and the kids are happy. But when Meghan briefed me last night on one very minor problem, I took it harder than I had any reason to. During the staff meeting before lunch yesterday we put our lone CIT for this session, Sydney, and the oldest student, Micayla, in charge of managing the mid day horse care while the staff met. It was meant to be an honor and a chance for those two excellent students to have some experience supervising. And they did a great job!

 

Later in the evening, Meghan told me that one of the other girls had hurt feelings that she wasn’t chosen to be one of the leaders during that mid day horse care session. It was no real problem. Meghan just had to take time to talk to the girl and explain why we casually chose two excellent students to do a job. Nobody else on the farm besides the counselor who passed on the heads up was or is even aware of the small problem and it is now a thing of the past. But I lost sleep last night thinking about it. I guess I’m pretty tired myself after almost eight weeks of camp session and I had worked especially hard yesterday to make things perfect. I was just bummed that everything wasn’t perfect for everyone after all.

 

We are a little tired, but we’re pulling extra hard for the final four days of this session and THEN: We get to SLEEP! Mid Season BREAK!!!!!!!

 

 

Monday, July 19^th, 11PM Update:

Here’s a link to a quick video of Ruby & friends feeding Brownie nice green grass with unexpected results!

 

Monday, July 19^th, 11AM Update

Drowned Rats!

That’s what the girls looked like a few minutes ago after getting caught out in a heavy burst of unexpected rain. The forecast had been for scattered very light sprinkles this morning, and we had been getting just that for the first 2/3rds of the 10AM ride. A few drops were falling while I helped teach all the girls for that lesson, and suddenly we heard that tell tale sound of heavy rain falling in the still air on the trees and getting CLOSER! Before we could even think about riding down to the barn, everyone was soaked. The previous showers had ended in like 30 seconds, so the girls just kept riding for a minute or two before we realized this was going to be serious rain. I checked the radar on my iPhone and found that the cold front coming through this morning had organized into a narrow band of much heavier rain than the weather men had expected. But it was a very narrow band, and the sun is out again already as I write this update. They are getting on now for the second ride of the morning and Meghan is heading down to take pictures.

 

As mentioned in this morning’s update, we’re conferencing with all the girls in today’s lessons and working out individually tailored training plans for the rest of this session. I talked with most of the girls myself at 10AM, and the counselors are following up. For most of this sessions riders, better extension and collection of the horse at a walk, trot, and canter is the most important thing that needs work. Many riders were letting their horses run out of gas at the end of the show when the horses were a little tired and the riders more than a little tired. Training in extension and collection is a good way to help that situation! We really worked on that this morning.

 

We’ll have some new pictures posted at this link around lunchtime.

 

I also have several fun video links. Heres a link to a video of Lydia being “lunged” by Taylor. Just watch – it needs no explanation!

 

Here’s a link to a video of the horses just munching hay in pasture and enjoying their day off Sunday evening. Nothing happens, but it does give you a feel for the atmosphere on Sunday nights.

 

Here’s a link to a video clip showing the proper way to turn a horse loose in pasture. Well, almost the proper way. Sydney should have slightly more completely turned the horse back so it faced her completely before she let go and stepped back to be out of range of a high spirited buck/kick. This is an important safety issue and we drill it all the time.

 

Here’s a link to a clip of the girls right after the sudden cloud burst this morning as they cheerfully rode back to the barn to get on for the second ride of the day. They were soaked and it was still raining, but they had just sung “Row, row, row your boat”, and were singing another song while I took the video. Good kids!

 

Monday, July 19^th, 8AM Update:

Final Week of the Session

Today begins the final week of both this two week session and of the 4 week July session. We plan lots of fun for the grand climax, with bigger jumps, more long courses, perhaps a surprise instructor, “special portrait jump” pictures of everyone, and much more! Weather looks decent. We had rain overnight last night as expected, and after a hot past two weeks, it will be sweater riding weather today. Yippee! We should get in at least half a day of riding tomorrow, with rain likely in the afternoon. Great weather Wednesday and Thursday, with some chance of rain again Friday. Not bad. Just enough rain to keep our ground soft and the grass green.

 

If you haven’t already, do check the pictures from the show posted at this link late last night. Many of them are very good. (Thanks Deb, for voting for the “Coming at ya’” picture as your favorite.)

 

Staff will be meeting today and we’ll be talking with each student about personalized goals for each rider for the week to work on the thing that will most help improve each rider during their final week. We’ve seen good improvement across the board this session, and we want to stretch that progress to the next level this final week.

 

Sunday, July 18, 10PM Update:

Hi all,

I collected 59 of the best of the horse show pictures at this link, oversize with captions. Enjoy!

 

It was a quiet day at Longacres, with laundry and town day, and then relaxed informal time after dinner and long showers. Seemed like the girls were in great spirits when I checked on them about 8PM on their way to an early bedtime.

 

Meghan and I also got to relax a bit with a dinner out with our good friend, Uncle Billy. We’re all looking forward to a well rested start to the week tomorrow morning. We’re expecting rain overnight, but decent weather tomorrow.

 

Sunday, July 18^th, 7AM Update:

More Show Results

Jill won a trophy in English Pleasure on Diesel. The judge told us later, “I wanted to pick the horse I would put my grandmother on for a safe ride. That Belgian was it!” Sophie was Reserve Champion Special Baby Hunter on Neek-o and Claudia was Champion on Tux. Micayla was Champion in Low & Slow Hunter on Brody. Katie was Pony Hunter Champion. Jill was Reserve Champion in Hacks on Star. Kati was Reserve Champion on Justin in Beginenr flat classes. Ruby also got two 3rds in those classes. Sydney got a 3^rd with Opportunity Knocks in X-rails. Taylor was CHAMPION on BRISTOL in the flat classes in the small ring! Olivia was Reserve in a division with Whitley. Ruby won ribbons in all the Pony Hunter classes. Lydia got 3^rd, 4^th, and 5^th on Jazz in the Low & Slow classes, with one very good round over fences. Sophie was Champion in Baby Hunter on Neek-o! Sydney got a bunch of ribbons on a very “Willful” Boo in eq. over fences and Low & Slow Hunter. Sydney also rode Lincoln to ribbons.Stephanie had two 1sts, a 2^nd, and a bunch of other ribbons on Star. Olivia had a bunch of 2^nd’s and 3^rd’s on Merlin.

 

Lydia, Sophie, Claudia, Carly, and Stephanie, all showed on the more difficult outside show field, winning a bunch of ribbons. Dunham Sport Horse Stables owned that field yesterday, winning most of the blues, and we salute our good friends from that stable for their success on our home field! They came in and “put it to us”! Their main jumper riders, Alyssa and Courtney are very good, and getting better. Nice girls, too! Bethany won the first jumper class she went in at the higher height on her own horse, Joc-A-Bee. Joc slipped taking off for a jump in his second class and knocked a jump. Bethany gave him a breather with a confidence building slower ride the next class. Bethany also put in good rounds on Whitley, but she is not going for speed yet, since her goal is to train him so he is better for our younger riders when they show him.

 

One More Thing!

Before I stop talking about yesterday’s show, I want to report that Meghan told me last night, “The counselors did an outstanding job of having the girls ready and prepared for their classes on time and coaching them. The best ever!” This is a bigger accomplishment than you might think. We run two rings at once, with a dozen girls riding in all kinds of classes and most of them riding more than one horse. It can be a zoo! Fine work by the “ABC’s” - Alexa, Bethany, and Carly!

 

Weather for the Coming Week

It looks like not a washout by any means, but scattered showers and storms off and on for much of the week, which we do need to keep our ground soft and the dust down. At the beginning of the week, most of the rain should fall overnight tonight – it doesn’t get much better than that! All in all a cooler week than last with just enough rain. Slight chance of rain for the Quakerfield horse show, but that’s a long way off and we’ll worry about it when the time comes.

 

Saturday, July 17^th, 6PM Update:

A Good Show Day!

Lots of ribbons and successful riding by Longacres girls today. We’ll post some results later this evening or tomorrow. There will be zillions of show pictures posted at this link and this link and this link, too later tonight. We took almost 700 pictures today! Don’t worry, we will delete many of them!

 

The show had more hunters on the outside course than some recent shows, but still a light turnout in those divisions. Meghan’s inside ring was swamped all day and ran until just a little while ago. We had a good turnout of jumpers, and congratulate Alyssa Willibey from Dunham’s for winning the Puddle Jumper Championship and lots of other stuff. She is tough! Bethany won a class in Schooling jumper on Joc-A-Bee and rode Whitley for the training experience in three classes, making him look better each time out. Carly was a star on Brody on the outside course, and Micayla was great on him in the small ring!

 

We’re headed for dinner soon and have lots of video tape to watch tonight and tomorrow.

 

Losing a Student – Vacancy Next Week

We are sorry to report that our one 17 year old student is leaving a week before the end of her session. She expected more older students near her age, and has other things about Longacres that didn’t meet her expectations. We wish we could make every last one of our customers completely happy, but sometimes we fall short. We try to learn each time and improve the briefings we give new families before they sign up so that they won’t choose Longacres if it’s not right for them. Each time someone goes home early we add something to our screening talks based on what they didn’t like about us. This means there is a vacancy at Longacres next week if anyone who was turned away because we were full is interested in coming on short notice. Give us a call if you’d like to come next week to fill the vacancy.

 

The good news is that everyone else is having a grand time and doing great in their riding. We hope most of this session’s riders will join the nearly 70% of Longacres students who return each year.

 

Friday, July 16^th, 7PM Update:

Show Prep Day!

Hi everyone,

It’s a rare day that we have no Blog posting until this late in the day. We’ve been swamped with watching the girls ride and getting the show grounds prepped for tomorrow. The weather report has actually improved slightly this afternoon, with now only 20% chance of rain tomorrow and later in the day. Good deal! Wish we had gotten a little more rain here last night to soften the ground. We did get an hour of light rain this morning early and it is just enough to green up the grass a bit and to have kept the dust down for us today in lessons. I’m afraid not enough to guarantee a dust free show tomorrow.

 

The girls are cleaning their saddles and prepping themselves for the show as I write, with a few doing some last minute horse training.

 

The big event today was a guest instructor showing the girls all about side saddle showing and the outfit you ride in at formal show events like Ladies Side Saddle. Stephanie got to be our “model”, getting all dressed up in the formal outfit. Stephanie was hilarious making all kinds of faces as each new article of apparel was added to her outfit and as she was forced to pose for all of us. Pictures at this link later tonight! Thanks for being a mostly good sport, Stephanie!

 

Probably no more updates until late tomorrow night after the show. The girls will all be here at the house in an hour and a half to watch slow motion video of them jumping yesterday as part of preparation for tomorrow’s show.

 

Thursday, July 15^th, 2PM Update:

Informal video

Check this link for a short video clip of fun chatter at lunch today and this link for another. Nothing important said, but the girls were all having fun and taking part. The girls who were most quiet at the beginning of the week are really loosening up and taking part.

 

Thursday, July 15^th, 10AM Update:

Details of Quantum’s Accident

If you are so inclined, you can go to this link for a short description of exactly what happened when Quantum broke his leg two weeks ago. It will not be an unpleasantly graphic description, but will include details of how it happened and the nature of the fatal injury. Don’t look if this would bother you. After last night’s ceremony and this article for final closure, we will truly put the Quantum accident behind us, other than a brief statement along with the special Quantum Awards at the Jumper Derby August 14^th.

 

Thursday, July 15^th, 7AM Update:

A Few Weather Issues

Meghan reported a fully “bonded group” happily goofing off while doing a late evening horse care last night after the Memorial Ride. Their spirits were excellent. Lots of running around the field and having fun. We did not check on bedtime curfew, preferring to let them have a good time and showers even if it got them to bed late. The weather may give them some extra rest and down time over the next two days.

 

Weather

Today will be very warm and humid. It should be OK for the morning lessons, and we may try to squeeze an extra quiet trail ride in right after lunch, but the late afternoon looks to be very hot. Fortunately, we already had a field trip to the mall scheduled for late today, and it comes at a good time. The only fly in the ointment is that a good bit of rain is expected Friday morning. Normally, we might well cancel the mall trip today if tomorrow’s riding time is threatened to be cut short by rain. But the great heat this afternoon tips the scale in favor of the mall trip. We’ll do the best we can to ride between rain showers tomorrow. (We do really need the rain.)

 

Saturday Show

Yesterday’s forecast looked wonderful for our show on Saturday. They have backed off that a bit, and now call for 30% chance of Saturday afternoon rain. We should still be able to run the show OK, but might be looking at a rain delay or two during the later classes. Remember, that jumpers go first now at Longacres shows, beginning at 9:45 AM.

 

The girls should be at the mall with their phones from about 5:30 to 8 PM.

 

Wednesday, Midnight
Check this link for a video clip of Stephanie doing “The Bobert Dance”!

 

Wednesday, July 14^th, 10PM Update:

Thanks to the girls for their wonderful participation in the Jumper Hill Ceremony and to our out of camp guests. It was an emotional and inspiring event.

Some picture at this link. More tomorrow.

 

Wednesday, 3PM Update:

Check this link for a nothing very special little video clip of the girls at lunch today. It’s getting so easy to upload stuff to YouTube that we’ll begin offering more video on the Blog. This one is of them showing me a picture they took of me while I was talking at lunch.

 

Wednesday, 11AM Update:

I spent most of the first riding hour down with the girls, where I took rapid fire stop action picture series of all of them. They’re posted at this album after deleting a few of the extra frames. Each girl got to discuss her form over fences with me right after jumping.

 

It was supposed to be sunny all day today and quite warm, but lingering cloud cover and even a few light sprinkles has kept the temperature below 80 and made for quite comfortable riding. We’ll take it as a bonus. Sun is supposed to come out this afternoon (it just peeked through for a moment!), then sunny and very warm tomorrow. Friday is now looking very rainy until late afternoon. Perfect to prepare our ground and footing for the Saturday show, but we’ll likely lose a couple of hours of lesson time. But it’s been a good week in that respect.

 

Wednesday, July 14^th, 7AM Update:

Jumper Hill Ceremony Tonight

A few good friends of Longacres will be joining this session’s students for a traditional “Jumper Hill” ceremony at 7:30 this evening. Read the story above and join us if you’re nearby.

 

Check this link for a few more pictures Meghan took last night.

 

We’re happy that we got in all five hours of riding yesterday, in spite of a rainy forecast. But we now really need some rain, with the rings getting pretty dusty. There’s another chance of rain Thursday night and Friday, which would be good right before the horse show. It did rain hard very close to us yesterday, but all we got were a few tiny drops around lunchtime.

 

Meghan spent most of the evening down with the girls last night, first monitoring their evening lesson, and then the horse care session. She saw me right after horse turn out and said, “Spirits couldn’t be better, across the board.” Many sessions it takes a couple of days for the group to bond, and this session it was three days. It’s still a little early to be sure with everyone, but it looks like another good group for the next week and a half.

 

Tuesday, July 13^th, 5:30 PM Update:

Check this link for some more pictures of one of the jumping lessons. Meghan didn’t get everybody, since some were out on a trail with Bethany. Also check this link for a picture of Ruby riding Bethany’s own horse, Joc-A-Bee, the 2009 Jumper Horse of the Year. Quite an honor! (Ruby told Bethany, “Hey, I’ll ride Joc in the schooling jumpers this weekend!”)

 

I was later than I intended to watch the afternoon lesson. I took a ten minute break after lunch to fly one of my model airplanes up on galloping field. It got too far away from me and crashed in the neighbor’s woods L I did find it after 45 minutes of walking the woods and fields near where I last saw it diving into the trees. It is not even hurt too badly, since it landed in very tall grass.

 

Tuesday, 2PM Update:

OK, This Counts as “playing”, but you’ll like it

Since I splurged and got myself the iPhone 4 last night (Thank you Meghan J J J), I’m fooling around today taking video and uploading it to YouTube. You can find the latest submissions at our YouTube page (Megfun). Or check out Jill playing with Bubble Wrap from her care package at this link. Or check this link for a YouTube of everyone saying “Hi mom”, and “Hi” to two other people, one of them fictitious, all at once!

 

Here is the link to the pictures from Meghan’s camera this morning. I’ve got another update coming in a few minutes about my day so far.

 

Tuesday, July 13^th, 11AM Update:

Check this link for a few camera phone pictures from my iPhone this morning. Meghan will have more at this link from a real camera in an hour or so. (Actually, I just splurged and got myself one of the new iPhone 4’s, and the camera is really pretty decent.)

 

I spent the whole hour with the girls, working a little with all three groups along with the ABC’s. Common issues for the first and second day of a new group at Longacres. Sloppy mounting the horses and taking gentle but definite control right at the start. Lazy working walks, which translates into less than perfect more difficult exercises. And just in general attention to the little things. Many girls are not challenged at home the way we challenge our riders at Longacres to pay attention to the fundamentals and details.

 

Mind you there are good riders this session, and I gave many compliments during that first hour this morning. And we’ll have a good discussion at lunch about the building blocks of a good ride beginning with a good mount at the beginning of the lesson and a good walk away from the mounting block. I am beginning to see which riders will be content to just have a good time on their horses and enjoy five hours of riding and which ones are more serious students who will want to be pushed. Either is ok with us, and we’ll work to tailor each girl’s Longacres experience to what she wants to get out of her stay here. We’ll be talking with each rider privately about that later today.

 

We’re off to a good start this session and the girls all seem to be getting along with one another well.

 

PS: Weather Report; so far the forecast showers and thunderstorms for today are staying well to our north in Ontario. We do expect some rain between now and tomorrow morning, but we’re getting in a full riding schedule so far. Tomorrow’s weather looks excellent, and pretty good the rest of the week, though warm on Thursday and Friday.

 

Tuesday, July 13^th, 7AM Update:

Odds ‘n Ends

Problem: Phone rings just before 7AM – uh oh, that usually means a problem! This time it is a counselor at the barn saying, “There is a RACOON in Neek-o’s stall and we’re all looking right at him and he is just standing there shaking. What should we do!?!” Solution: Quietly have everyone walk to the front of the barn, gently open the stall door, and walk away so he can retreat.

 

Problem: Lydia is very good at “stare down contests” at the dining room table. You know, when you lock eyes and whoever looks away first loses? Well, she challenged me last night, and I had a wildly popular tactic for victory! I began with the usual blank stare back at her, then put on my most fierce looking face like she was in deep trouble. That didn’t phase Lydia a bit. She sits kitty corner across the big table from me, so I slowly stood up while keeping my fierce stare on, and like a spider stalking its prey in slow motion, I began to one arm and one leg at a time climb up right on the dining room table and in slow motion stalk across the table towards Lydia. Mind you, all the food was still on the table, so it was quite a sight to the rest of the at first stunned campers! Lydia held her ground and her “stare” until the last minute when I was leaning right over her dinner plate staring down at her and she dissolved in giggles. Ruby was in hysterics. I am proud to report that I spilled no lemonade pitchers and didn’t stick my foot in the spaghetti sauce dish!

 

Problem: Ruby always takes a couple of days to feel comfortable when she’s at Longacres over a session change over, so we’re paying special attention to goofing with her. Solution: At dinner last night Meghan and I crouched down on our side of the table right across from Ruby so that we could get “Ruby’s eye” views of how the world looks (she is short). We had to bounce in our seats to see over all the pitchers and stuff on the table to look at everyone. Ruby thought we were pretty goofy, but she was laughing with us.

 

Problem: Not enough horses. Mind you, we own more horses right now that we have in fifteen or twenty years. Tom doesn’t think we need more horses, especially since the herd this year is very healthy and sound and we have fewer horses on limited duty than in recent years. But Meghan is trying to upgrade the herd both in talent and in youth and variety. Solution: We have had Bristol here on trial for over a month and she is VERY comfortable and popular, and already has a likely home for the winter with Laura and Sharon. Right before the show last weekend, we formally purchased Bristol and she is now officially a Longacres horse!

 

Problem: For some reason, the link to the Hasty Hills show pictures failed. I don’t know if I accidentally deleted the album, or what. Solution: Upload the album again this morning; hope it works now, Heather! Try this link.

 

Monday, July 12^th, 10AM Update:

Lookin’ Good!

Meghan and I both fell asleep while pictures were being loaded on the computer last night! They are now at this link. Lots of smiles from new students and from those staying over from the last session, especially RUBY!!!!

 

Meghan should have more new student pictures after lunch at this link.

 

The ABC’s

That would be our instructors, Alexa, Bethany, and Carly! We are very pleased with the way they are handling their jobs and working with the girls as this session kicks off. Alexa has now taken the reins from former head instructor, Katie. We thank Katie for taking a month and a half off of her “big girl – real world” jobs to help us get the 2010 season off on the right foot. Her adult guidance has been invaluable! Thanks, Katie. But her presence has also put the other instructors a bit in her shadow, and we find them thriving now that they are responsible for everything without Katie. Meghan is working closely with the ABC’s having little “30 second Popper” meetings with them during the course of the day. We like the chemistry between these girls.

 

Don’t miss the Tribute to Quantum Party Wednesday night if you live in the area!

 

Sunday, July 11^th, 7PM Update:

New Group Getting Acquainted

Everyone has arrived now, with Stephanie & Claudia the last to get here. And it was a little quiet at dinner, with lots of new faces, and Ruby & Lydia & Sophie missing their good friends from the last session. But everyone hung out around the dinner table after eating, and then we all gathered around the collage of pictures that Micayla put together as a tribute to Quantum. Meghan and I tried to answer everyone’s questions about who all the riders were. And that led to me telling a funny story about the last time I competed in jumpers and the video we have of me almost falling off (But I Won!!). The girls were all laughing together when we finished making fun of old Tom. And there was animated chatter as they walked down the stairs to the showers and then on towards the barn for safety talks and horse care procedure talks tonight before a very early bedtime. All our staff and the girls staying over from last session were up very late last night, so they are eager for the rest. Some of the new session students have also been up for many hours traveling. Olivia got on her flight from the west coast at 11PM last night and hasn’t slept since! (Well, one hour during our after lunch rest period. She is making jokes about it, but she looks ready to really sleep tonight.)

 

We have a full day of five hours of riding planned for tomorrow.

 

Check this link for a couple of funny pictures, and this link in an hour or two for lots of pictures from today.

 

Sunday, July 11^th, 3PM Update:

Almost all here.

Quantum Tribute Scheduled for Wednesday evening, 7:30 PM at Longacres.

 

Natasha and Lauren were the final students from this past session to leave just a few minutes ago. It was a great session and we thank everyone who was here the past two weeks. Ruby, Sophie, and Lydia stay on with the next group.

 

And almost all that group has arrived. Only Claudia and Stephanie are still to arrive and they’re due any minute. Some pictures will soon be posted at this link.

 

Quantum Tribute:

We plan an open to the public tribute to Quantum, kind of an evening social get together, next to Jumper Hill here at Longacresd at 7:30 PM on Wednesday, weather permitting. It may be just our own students from this session, but it is open to the public and you are welcome to come just yourself, or bring your horse.

 

Jumper Hill is a low bank jump on one of our fields where our greatest jumping horses from the past are buried, including China Heart, Yorke Springs, Tip-off, Peppermint Patti, and now Quantum. During “Jumper Hill Ceremonies”, our riders one at a time jump that bank jump and ride across Jumper Hill as they pay tribute in their hearts to the great horses there, and to all great horses that have come and gone in their own lives. I usually give a little talk about the history of the fine horses buried their.

 

We welcome guests to bring their own horses and take part in the mounted ride over the hill. It will be a gentle riding experience.

 

Give us a phone call or an email to let us know if you are coming, and if you are bringing a horse or coming on foot. We’ll post directions. There is good trailer parking on the field there. Hope a few friends of Longacres and of Quantum can make it.

 

- Tom

PS – We are opening a small fund to pay for a special Quantum Trophy to go to the winner of next month’s Jumper Derby, and donations of anything else appropritate for a basket of goodies for the winning horse & rider. Let us know if you’d like to make a contribution of cash or of stuff for the basket of goodies in Quantum’s memory. This idea comes from former Longacres rider (and one of next week’s horse show judges), Nancy Donolan. Good thought, Nancy!

 

Saturday night, July 10^th, 1AM:

The Lesser of Two Evils

The most attractive of two tough choices tonight will result in some very tired students and staff tomorrow. We really would have liked to have at least our counselors bright eyed and well rested to greet our new students tomorrow. But we also wanted to let everyone from this session have a good long last chance to bond together, to go out for the traditional Pasquale’s dinner; to Kone King; and to watch all of today’s horse show video’s. We chose the latter and the girls all did have a great time together, but we only got the last group to the cabins a little after midnight. It was a very long day!

 

The counselors are going to have to “man up” tomorrow and paint on enthusiastic faces when you next session students arrive. We will be slightly modifying our usual first day schedule to permit a very early bedtime. Which is probably not a bad idea for everyone, since most of our new students will have been traveling for many hours and could also benefit from a good night’s rest tomorrow night. This way we can all start the new session off first thing Monday morning well rested and ready for action. We will get everyone but the latest arrivals on horses for an evaluation ride tomorrow late morning and afternoon.

 

The Horse Show

Yes, we did have a great show at Hasty Hills today. We took over 500 pictures and we’ll post some of them at this link later tonight or first thing in the morning. The girls got to see all the pictures playing on a laptop during dinner at Pasquale’s. I think pretty much everyone got ribbons. Bethany and Whitley were Puddle Jumper Champions. Cassie and Merlin tied for Reserve Champion in Low & Slow Hunters. More results tomorrow.

 

Here’s a short report from Sophie:

Hasty Hills Show Story

 

            We had all been anticipating Hasty Hills for awhile; we really weren’t quite sure what to expect. We had made some, well, interesting decisions about which horses we were going to bring. Whitley (who had been particularly difficult in the past few shined with Bethany recently) could have gone either way. Even the more consistent horses like Brody and Lincoln still were questionable about how their performance might go.

 

            But as we pulled up to the manicured fields and bustling trailer grounds we knew that this show would be a good one for the team. After an interesting Warm-up for a few of the hunters all the horses went surprisingly well, despite the difficult and spooky jumps (including a couple of random trees with a hay bale in the middle and some brush on top as a fence.) Each rider handled their horses like pros, navigating them around the complicated courses with ease. We may not have the blue ribbons to prove it but the hunter division was a plus.

 

                                    But as we entered the jumper ring the whole dynamic of the show changed. Longacres clearly knew what division we owned as we took home blue after blue. Notable performances were by Whitley, who now discovered his new calling, going quickly but in control, and Brody, who for once didn’t start spinning like a mad man as soon as he slightly strayed from the group. They not only felt good about their rounds but they were also quite decorated as well. We all left the show satisfied with our performances. Exhausted from the heat we trudged into the motor home and ambled home.

 

- Sophie L.

 

Friday night, July 9^th, 8:30 PM:

Show Tomorrow

There aren’t likely to be updates until late Saturday night, since we’ll be leaving for the Hasty Hills show early in the morning and it is likely to run late. We’ll be seeing some of you parents at the show since it’s the last day of this session. And remember, it is traditional for parents in the area to join us for dinner at Pasquale’s after the show if it doesn’t run too late.

 

The show is at hasty Hills Farm, Java, NY. From East Aruroa, take rte #20A east for a couple of miles, then turn right on NY #78 and go about 14 miles through Strykersville and Java and watch for Pit Road on the right (the right!), across from Beaver Hollow conference center. Alternatively, go to their website which is linked from the Longacres hrose shows page on our opening page.

 

Parents visited tonight and found the girls in fine spirits; all the people involved in the little tiff earlier are made up with one another and happy.

 

I gave the whole group a talk tonight on the Longacres philosophy of riding, which is “building blocks”. One little step at a time and make sure you build on a success before going too far, too fast. It was related to the “A Beautiful Thing” blog posting two days ago. Read that if you want an idea of what we talked about tonight. It is important to me that no matter how much a student improves their riding here, they leave us with an understanding of what we believe about horse and rider training.

 

Check this link for a few informals taken in the soggy sand ring tonight after the rain stopped. Sorry we don’t have pictures of everyone today. Meghan was running around like crazy preparing for the show and dealing with a couple of issues.

 

I’ll post next tomorrow night late after the show. Wish us luck.

 

Friday, July 9^th, 3PM Update:

Decent stables in Fiarfield County, Connecticut? Darien – New Canaan?

One of our students is interested in taking a horse home and looking for a place to board near New Canaan. If any of our readers are familiar with stables in that area, let us know. Family knows it will not be cheap, but looking for something a little less than Ox Ridge!

 

Heat is Breaking, Finally!

We’ve had a soaking rain the past hour and a half, which we badly needed for our turf and our footing in the rings and on the trails. Our grounds should green up nicely by Sunday when new students come in. We are on schedule for having the rain pass through before tomorrow’s show.

 

Friday, 2PM Update:

Things are looking up already

I don’t know details yet. Usually when Meghan gets stuck with a stinky job like refereeing little disputes, I go look for an equally unpleasant job to occupy my time so that I’ll feel like I’m “doing my share”. For the past hour I’ve been out in the rain trimming the office driveway with the weed whacker. Not fun, but still better than getting between feuding teenage girls!

 

When I came back in the house to get out of my wet clothes I called down to Meghan at the barn and asked if she needed reinforcements. She told me, “No, got it covered!” And she sounded cheerful, so I think today’s little moment is pretty well taken care of. I’ll report if it’s not.

 

The root of the problem is likely the fact that the barn was getting a little sloppy this week and the girls were getting to be late more often for lessons and meals, which made it hard for us to plan the special events to deal with the heat. Meghan got onto the counselors a bit about holding to the schedule better. We hoped they could deal with it gently with the kids. Probably we made a mistake and we should have had a whole camp meeting so that Meghan and I could have explained ourselves why being on time is so important when we’re trying to get them good riding lessons under difficult conditions. Anyway, all’s well that ends - - - at least I hope so.

 

Friday, July 9^th, 1PM Update

Good People Bickering because they are Exhausted

That about sums it up. I don’t have all the details, and I plan to leave the fun of sorting it out to Meghan (who’s also trying to get everything set for the big changeover this weekend). In a nutshell, three of our very best teenage students who are also possible future counselors apparently refused to get out of bed when their counselor woke them up for horsecare this morning, and were fifteen minutes late. Which started a series of less than perfect communications and cooperative efforts this morning, including the three sulking on the barn porch while everyone else worked before lunch. That they may have been asked to do things in a less than perfectly diplomatic way is also something Meghan will be exploring – there’s probably blame to go around.

 

Meghan will now have a series of her usually successful sit-downs to try to make peace and return spirits to the high point that they were at just 13 hours ago last night. The real deal, obviously, is that it has been a brutal week with emotional events and the oppressive heat since Monday. The temperature is falling along with rain drops as I write, so we’ll try to get everyone well rested this afternoon and hope for a good natured finish to the session tomorrow at the show.

 

These are not hard problems to deal with, since we have really good people here as students and counselors and a little talk should ease the hurt feelings. It’s just a bad time for poor Meghan to have to drop everything and deal with it.

 

Friday, 10:30 PM:

A large band of rain showers passed just five or ten miles to our northwest during the past hour. I’m glad that we’ll get in our second morning lesson without problems, but we badly need the rain forecast for this afternoon. We’re pretty sure to get it.

 

Friday, July 9^th, 9:30 AM Update:

Check this link for an interesting collection of rapid fire stop action pictures I took of Heather, Lauren, and Sophie this morning, along with comments on their positions. It was Sophie, Cassie, Bethany, and Alexa who asked that I do this today, especially for Sophie who is just learning a proper jumping position and is really eager to learn and to see herself. We do this kind of exercise for many of our sessions at Longacres. I took the pictures and immediately showed the riders right on the field, then let them try again and compare their positions after trying to make corrections.

 

I looked in on two of the three lessons this morning. Didn’t have time to get to Bethany’s. I spent the most time in Alexa’s lesson taking the pictures at the above link. Katie had Caroline and Drisana jumping while I watched. Drisana was riding Jazz, one of her favorites, and did probably the best line of fences I’ve seen this horse do since we got her, and certainly the best job Drisana has has done! Really nice to see this kind of progress setting in at the end of Drisana’s session. Good job, girl! Caroline had Chesney going soft as a children’s hunter over fences. She is an awesomely soft and reassuring rider for all the difficult horses. Very impressive for only 12 years old!!!! Chesney frustrates me to no end. Just the other day he was aweful out on the show field, completely unnerved and upset. I was ready to send him to an auction. Then this morning with Caroline, in the inside ring where is is often at his best, he’s just wonderful and at the end of the lesson I had Caroline take him over much bigger jumps than normal, and he was still calm as can be. Maybe very warm temps this week have helped, but Caroline has a way with excitable horses. If only Chesney could be like this all the time, he would be one of our most valuable horses and potentially a great jumper horse.

 

Looking at the weather radar, rain is now very close. It is supposed to hold off until noon, but it will be a close call before then. Looks like perhaps the rain is following the Lake, and with this morning’s wind direction, just might miss us until later on.

 

If the rain holds off, we’ll have another lesson this morning, then show prep and riding theory discussions early this afternoon.

 

Friday, July 9^th, 7AM Update:

Heat Wave to Break this Afternoon

One more morning of getting up early. We should get in our normal riding ration this morning, then heavy rain this afternoon, hopefully ending in time for a long evening ride. The weather should be great at the show tomorrow! We’ll be seeing some of you there.

 

More on the problem of heat rash/riders rash. Here’s a note sent in by Petra who lives in Florida:

 

Oh, a couple of things work on heat/riding rash. We get that in Florida all the time. Baby powder before and after a ride helps. Also any fungus fighting lotion like lotrimin(athletes foot lotion) helps. (be warned lotion may sting). 

~Petra

 

We will add that riders who are most physically fit are least likely to run into this kind of problem.

 

We’ve got show preparations to make this afternoon and we’ll be sitting down together to review what we’ve learned this session and talk about the big picture issues of learning to ride and train horses.

 

Thursday, July 8^th, 11PM Update:

The girls had a really fun camp fire and smores party tonight, with scary stories galore. Thanks to Cassie for contributing her own scary story! Tom told about the ghost of “the woman” in the bottom of the carriage house.

 

We’re getting up early one more morning, but a little later than we did today. The heat wave finally breaks tomorrow, with possible heavy rain late morning – early afternoon. We should be able to ride again later in the day. Then we have great weather expected for the show on Saturday. And, by the way, if you haven’t heard, the jumpers will show on Saturday afternoon. No show at Hasty Hills on Friday for jumpers.

 

The story about Bethany training Whitley, in the 2PM Update is equally a story about the whole Longacres philosophy of riding. I try to impart to all Longacres students the understanding that good riding is a series of building blocks beginning with the way you take your horse out of his stall and the way you handle him, groom him, tack him up, and the way you mount him, and then the way you work him at a walk before doing more advanced work. Patience is the key to getting the most out of a horse. That’s what I saw Bethany do this afternoon with Whitley. We talk about this all the time at Longacres. We’ll talk about it again before this group goes home this weekend, and we’ll begin next session with the same discussion. There’s nothing tricky about the Longacres riding system. Just simple basics done well before trying to ride advanced jumping courses. “Working walk” before you run, in other words!

 

Check this link for one picture of Bethany on Whitley this afternoon.

 

For the second time this summer, a Longacres student came down with “five hours a day of riding” disease. It’s no joke. In hot weather if you ride as much as we do here, it is easy to develop various forms of heat rash around the thighs that can in some cases require antibiotics and extensive rest. Both this case and one in June appeared just a day before the end of the students session, so relatively little riding was lost. The best treatment is prevention. Take an hour off if you find redness or the beginning of a rash on your thighs, especially if you find yourself sweating and not drying quickly. Parents have already been consulted, so it is not YOUR student if you don’t know already.

 

 

Thursday, July 8^th, 2PM Update:

A Thing of Beauty

I can’t think of a better way to describe the demonstration of fine horsemanship I just witnessed. After the pond riding this morning and the horse turnout, I asked Bethany to get on Whitley so that I could take a good in depth look at his potential. Now that Quantum is gone, it’s natural that I spend time wondering where the “next great jumper” will turn up. And maybe that horse is already sitting in one of our stalls someplace in the barn.

 

Whitley was purchased early this spring to be the quiet hunter and equitation horse. That’s what he’d done with his previous owners and he was certainly graceful and poised when Meghan and I looked at him before purchase. But he’s gotten quick and hard to ride lately here at Longacres. I haven’t paid too much attention, since I knew he would need time to adjust to many different riders in our program. But I was a little worried that he would be too hot for many of our riders to handle.

 

Today was the day to find out what kind of capabilities this horse has. I spoke with Bethany while she was mounting up and told her that I wanted to see a good, smart warmup, lots of transitions and extension and collection, careful attention to control and steering, and then work into lead changes and keeping him quiet jumping. That’s the last thing I said for the next 30 minutes. Bethany thinks almost exactly the way I do about horse training. I see something that I might tell another rider to do if they were on the horse, and the next moment Bethany does exactly that thing. Watching Bethany school a horse is very easy for a coach – ya’ just sit and watch fine riding!

 

Hundreds of people around western New York know that Bethany is a very successful jumper rider who wins most of the time. She is admired for that. She is also known as a competitor with outstanding good sportsmanship, which is a big part of the reason we hired her at Longacres this summer. What many people may not know, is that she rides for hours every day year round, and a lot of those hours are on green horses. One of the things that seems to really fulfill her is patiently working with a horse until she eases it into the next level of performance. She reminds me of Tovah Abrams, a long time Longacres #1 rider and the girl who helped train Quantum and Merlin a number of years ago. Like Bethany, Tovah could just walk, trot, and do basic dressage on a green or problem horse for hours without getting bored.

 

Which brings me back to today. Whitley has shown a difficult side the past couple of weeks. He has not taken well to the wide variety of riders we’ve put on his back. Some horses do. Some don’t. Whitley has become nervous about the variety of riders and when he gets nervous, he gets quick and that makes many riders nervous and tense, which makes him worse.

 

But that’s not the kind of rider who got on him today. Bethany worked patiently for a good 20 minutes at a walk (Working walk!), trot, basic transitions, backing up, proper bending. Just lovely to watch. And the horse softened and trusted his rider, and listened. By the time Bethany first cantered, the horse was like putty in her hands. She did a bunch of transitions from the canter, changes of direction, etc. Finally I said, “Let’s see what kind of lead change he has now.” Because Whitley has not been giving the nice full flying changes he had when we got him recently. Bethany cantered a couple of circles to collect and extend the horse. She asked for a left lead to right lead change and for a second I thought he didn’t do it because it was so instant and subtle, but there he was on the other lead. Half way around the ring, and just as perfect changing right rein to left lead. Ready for a Medal class!

 

We did a little jump course in the sand ring, and he was quiet as you could ask. He did make his only mistake of the afternoon then, putting two strides in a one stride in and out, but he was so quiet it was to be expected. Bethany came right back and did the one stride when I raised the jumps a little. (By the way, did I mention Whitley was all alone for this, but didn’t seem to care a bit that all the other horses were out in pasture. He was paying attention to his rider.

 

Then it was up to the front show ring, where we popped around over a two foot course, Whitley just as calm as could be. Finally I put al ine of fences up to about 2’9” coming in and about a 3’ at the end of the line, and we rode a mild jumper turn before the first fence in the line and then down over both fences. Again, perfect striding and quiet horse. He did touch both rails lightly, but we hadn’t asked him to jump that height since we bought him a couple of months ago. So I raised the jumps in the line a little, and he went down one last time absolutely perfectly, clearing the higher jump at the end of the line with room to spare.

 

All this was just me and Bethany and Whitley. I kind of wish the other kids had been there to watch and see the fine riding and training. On the other hand, I rather liked that it was a private demonstration with just the horse & rider & me. It was a great pleasure. Now we have to work out how we can let more riders work with Whitley while keeping him this well disciplined and trusting of his riders. And - - - well, who knows what else we might do with Whitley, but if we decide to give it a try, watch out!

 

Thursday, July 8^th, noon Update:

Hottest Day of the Heat Wave so far

But the girls and horses are pretty cool from their ride in the pond. Check this link for pictures. The rest of the day we’ll be keeping cool before another long evening ride or two tonight. The girls will be out and have their cell phones between 3 and 6PM. No more riding until then except that Bethany and I are going to school Whitley for just a few minutes to evaluate a couple of possibilities.

 

The album shows some of the girls in the early morning lesson (they look tired still!), the hunt course jumps, and the pond riding.

 

Thursday, July 8^th, 8AM Update:

Easing Back to a Schedule & Neatness

The girls have been through a lot this week, between the accident last Saturday, the brutal heat, and a constantly changing schedule. It’s a tribute to them, the counselors (and to us!) that they have been full of laughter, fun, and good spirits most of the time this week as we constantly tweeked the schedule to make sure the girls didn’t over heat and that they got enough rest. And that there were enough interesting and challenging things to keep them excited.

 

But there has been a bit of a downside. We have worked so hard to cater to their good spirits that we have been more lax than we like enforcing cleanliness around the barn and attention to being on time getting mounted for lessons. We are beginning today to return our attention to that kind of detail. By the time Carly arrives on Saturday to take Katie’s place as our third instructor, we expect the barn and the lesson schedule to meet our standards.

 

An example came just an hour ago this morning. The girls had been late getting mounted for the morning lesson a couple of times this week. Meghan asked the counselors last night specifically to have everyone mounted by 7:15 this morning so we’d have plenty of time for a good lesson and a trail ride to jump the old hunt course fences out in the woods. Because of the record of tardiness the past few days, I went down to the barn to help spread good cheer at 7:15, but nobody was on a horse yet. It took fifteen minutes before they were all on, and that fifteen minutes meant only a little bit of jumping in the lesson I helped Bethany teach. If they’d been on time, they could have done some nice exercises over higher jumps. There is fault to go around, a bit with the girls who could have groomed and tacked up faster, a bit more with the instructors who very much should have done a better job watching the clock and giving closer supervision, and including Meghan and I, who now will have to be at the barn at 6:30 tomorrow morning to make sure the schedule is met.

 

I’d like to emphasize that all the girls are being cooperative and cheerful. It’s just that the balance between running a tight ship that’s on time, neat, and well organized, and making sure that everyone’s treated gently during a difficult week has tipped a little too far to the gentle side. Now we’ll “gently” try to move back to the center of that balance.

 

Wednesday, July 7^th, 11PM Update:

The girls got well rested today and were in good moods doing evening horse care. They did get in two riding lessons after dinner for a total of about 3 ½ hours today. We have one more hot day before the heat wave breaks with showers and thunderstorms Friday afternoon. We’ll be up early again tomorrow morning for a cool lesson, then we’ll take the horses in the pond late morning after breakfast. Then mall trip and an early dinner and more lessons in the evening.

 

Hasty Hills Show Might be Saturday Only

Check with Hasty Hills or on our website tomorrow night for a final decision. The weather for hasty Hills on Saturday looks magnificent, with low humidity and highs in the upper 70’s!!! But it is likely to rain on Friday afternoon. Good chance jumpers will go Saturday, but that decision has NOT been made yet for sure. Stay tuned.

 

Wednesday, July 7^th, 1:30 PM Update:

Check this link for a ton of pictures of the Pegasus Cabin (younger girls) being supervised by Cassie at the creek. They had fun! The older girls are sleeping during the mid day heat. We should all meet up at the house soon for video watching of the show yesterday.

 

Winter Horse Leases:

We will be finalizing winter horse leases beginning next week, July 12th. Many of you have expressed interest in leasing one or more of our horses beginning at the end of August. Please make sure you are confirmed on Meghan’s list and that she is saving a horse for you. You’ll need to get the lease agreements signed by the end of this month, and that sometimes takes time for sending documents back and forth. Please give Meghan a call or send an email this week if you are still interested in a winter horse lease, even if you think Meghan knows already.

 

Wednesday, Noon Update:

Check this link for some morning pictures of some of us. Everyone had an extra long early morning ride, finished horse care, and are now either in the creek enjoying being cool & wet, or sleeping. It will be a very relaxed day with horse show video in air conditioning, then we’ll get another long ride or two in after dinner when the sun is going down. We should still get in three to three and a half hours of riding even under a strict Plan “B”. More later.

 

(I spoke with Cassie after she got VERY wet in the pictures, and I found out she has not skipped a single ride all this session, even the hot ones. She is one of just a few, I think. That’s a horse lover for you!

 

Wednesday, July 7^th, 8AM Update:

Chilling Out Today

It’s supposed to be even hotter today, but our Plan “B” seems to be working and we’re determined to get everyone cool and well rested today. The girls got up very early this morning and put in an hour and a half of riding before the sun heated things up. They’ll be getting off soon, doing barn chores, then breakfast, and then catching up on sleep, rest, playing in the swimming hole at the creek, and just having fun. We’ll be watching video of yesterday’s show this afternoon, maybe doing a mini-Kone King trip, and then an early dinner. We plan at least another hour and a half of riding, maybe two full hours tonight between dinner and dark.

 

Check this link for more pictures from last night, INCLUDING Heather this time!

 

Thanks for the Kind Words and Feelings

Thanks to the hundreds of former Longacres students and friends of Longacres sending in messages of good will. We haven’t had time to respond to all of you, but we’re grateful. Check the photo albums – we and the girls are doing well and remembering Quantum, grateful that he gave us nine wonderful years. That’s a good, long show career. So many of you writing in are expressing my own feelings that harsh and tragic as his accident was, we went out with style at his best. I am at peace with that. Thank you all.

 

I will post a link sometime soon to a more detailed description of Quantum’s accident. It will not be graphic, but I have reviewed video now, and can describe for those interested (and only those who click on a link), what happened, or more accurately, what did not happen. It was an unexplainable sudden failure of a major bone.)

 

Tuesday, July 6^th, 10PM Update:

Check this link for many pictures of happy riders. Thanks to Quakerfield Stables for bringing two trailer loads of horses to make it a real show, but it was mostly us, and the girls all won ribbons. (Meghan wants Cassie’s family to know that she got ribbons, too, but she was too tired to go get them for Meghan to take a picture. We think we got pictures of everyone else with ribbons, and there are pictures of Cassie riding.)

 

More news coming later. I’ve got to run to catch the pizza party at the barn!

 

Tuesday, July 6^th, 9:30 AM:

Remember, second half of our horse show begins at 5PM. Public and outside competitors are welcome. Rings are open for schooling from 3:30 on, but it will be hot until five!

 

The girls were about a half hour late tacking up this morning for the early morning ride. I considered a little “encouragement to be ontime” talk, but decided that on a hot day with the show tonight, a “go with the flow” approach was more appropriate. I went in and had my breakfast and newspaper and came back near the end of the lesson. I spent quite a bit of time with the girls as they were cooling out their horses and doing chores. I took several aside and talked about specific riding issues. Spirits remain good and the girls are really looking forward to seeing the horse show video’s in the air conditioned video room this afternoon before the show.

 

They were also VERY excited when I announced at dinner last night that we will have a “pond day” taking the horses in the water, on Wednesday or Thursday when it is even hotter than today.

 

Tuesday, July 6^th, 7:30 AM:

Here are a few pictures of last night’s cabin party and Bethany’s return to Longacres.

 

Tuesday, July 6^th, 6AM Update:

Oops!

I was starting last night to upload all Meghan’s pictures of cheerful Longacres riders that she took yesterday and I fell asleep fully clothed, out like a light and down for the count. I just put the pictures up early this morning at this link. Enjoy.

 

Monday, July 5^th, 11PM Update:

Welcome Back Bethany!

Meghan already had a surprise cabin party planned for tonight and we were on our way into town to get cookie dough and chocolate milk (traditions for Longacres cabin parties) when a little birdy told us that Bethany was coming back to Longacres late tonight, catching a ride with Katie returning from her day off. So we were all down in Esseress Cabin with all the girls chomping their cookie dough treat, and in walks Bethany with a big smile on her face and looking ready for anything at Longacres. She looks great for someone who’s been through what she has in the past three days. She got pretty banged up in the accident Saturday, but she sure isn’t letting it show. We are really glad to have her back. The girls all gathered around her when she walked in the cabin and are making her feel right “at home” again. One tough girl! We will all be part of her support network as she eases back into her roll as instructor and trainer at Longacres this summer.

 

In case any of you at home are wondering about the spirits and morale of the girls, do check out Meghan’s big photo album from today at this link. LOTS of huge smiles and laughter! There will surely be somber moments for all of us as we are reminded of Quantum over the coming weeks and months. But we at Longacres have truly managed to begin thinking of him as one of our great jumpers of the past, and having good feelings about his great moments at Longacres. It allows us to go on doing what we all love doing at Longacres, and I think today’s pictures show that things are coming along very well. Bethany’s quick return to her job at Longacres is one of the final pieces in our recovery from the tragic accident over the weekend.

 

Monday, July 5^th, 8:30PM Update:

Good Gosh!

Meghan handed me her camera down at the barn a few minutes ago and there was something funny about the way she said, “I’m not quite through culling out the bad pictures – you might have to delete a few.” She has had the camera through the gymkhana this morning, various activities around the barn, and evening ride tonight. But I was shocked to get up to the house and find that she’s taken 315 pictures today! So it will take a little while to cull through them and pick maybe 50 for our evening album at this link. Try us later tonight.

 

Meghan is throwing a surprise cabin party for the girls later tonight with cookie cake and one other surprise. Everyone will like it.

 

My big project this afternoon was working with a hired excavator and dump truck and my tractor to move the huge manure pile behind the barn. It was getting so it was hard to find a place to dump your wheelbarrow when you were mucking stalls. Now that will not be a problem and I have a lifetime supply of well rotted manure for landscaping in a more convenient location!

 

Five Hours in Spite of the Heat!

Longacres did offer five hours of riding today. Many girls sat out one or more rides because of the heat, but we made the schedule work. A good lesson early this morning, a mounted games hour, a relaxed afternoon ride, and two hours tonight after an early dinner. It was actually cool and pleasant during the final ride of the evening.

 

Horse Show, Tuesday, 5PM

We are running the classes that we did not get to do on Saturday at our open make up show tomorrow (Tuesday) at 5PM. The public and other stables are invited. Quakerfield, at least, is coming.

 

Monday, July 5^th, 1PM Update:

Hey Bethany – Check this link for some pictures taken of your horses this morning, happily turned out and having a couple of days of good rest.

 

The rest of you check this link in maybe 20 minutes for pictures Meghan took of the mounted games she ran this morning. Some hilarious moments! I wish we had been taking video so we could have showed you the “out takes”!

 

Also, the first link with Bethany’s horses shows how I mowed down some pricker bushes and weeds that maybe somehow were causing a couple of horses trouble. But I did everything I could to stir up any bees or wasps, and saw none. Really can’t figure what cuased Anna and Bristol to get inflamed hind legs within two days of each other, but it is suspicious that the scrapes and swelling look the same on both horses.

 

Monday, July 5^th, 11AM Update:

A good morning ride

It was beginning to get pretty warm by the end of our early morning lesson, but it was not bad for most of it, so I think it worked out well getting up early to beat the heat. I went down at the start of the ride and had planned to just take some video of the girls to watch later up at the air conditioned video room. But I got involved and helped Heather teach her group. We ended up jumping an oxer a little bigger than they do in most of their lessons, and working on good corners and approaches to jumps. We have lots of good pictures from this morning at this link. I hope to personally teach the girls in the other lesson this evening. I had fun. I taught Heather, Cassie, Leslie, Lauren, Sophie, and Rachel. I will try to teach the others later.

 

Meghan is at the barn now running a Gymkhana (mounted games). Then all horses will get hosed down to cool them off before going out to pasture for a few hours. Then a nice rest for the kids, a quiet trail ride, and more riding in the evening when it cools down a little. More pictures later.

 

Get Better Soon Bethany!

Bethany, who was riding Quantum when we had the accident on Saturday and took quite a tumble, is home resting. As of now she is planning to return soon to teach at Longacres and we can’t wait. We miss her. But she has a doctor’s appointment today for a checkup and we are very glad she’s getting a break and rest after such a hard experience. I know she will be pleased when she gets “home” to Longacres to hear how many of you at home have sent in best wishes to her, as well as to Quantum’s memory. Keep the nice comments coming.

 

And another problem, Just so Meghan Doesn’t Get Bored!

As if we didn’t have enough on our plate the past few days, we have a mystery horse issue out in the mares’ pasture in the orchard. First Anna came in a few days ago with a mild scrape on one of her hind legs and the leg all swollen and appearing infected. She is being treated with antibiotics. Then yesterday Bristol, who is in the same pasture at night, came in with a nearly identical condition. Hind leg with very minor scrape but big swelling. The counselors checked the pasture last night to see if they could see anything that might be causing this and Meghan and I are about to take a careful look together this morning. I’m taking the big tractor out there to cut down any small brush or thorn bushes that might be toxic if a horse scraped them. I am also very suspicious that it could be bee or wasp stings, though there is no sign of that kind of bite on the two horses legs. It is really a tough thing to figure out. So we’ll spend time in the hot sign this afternoon trimming brush and looking for bee’s nests, etc. If another horse gets this condition, we’ll have to evacuate this pasture until we find out what’s going on. A mystery. But at least it will keep Meghan from getting bored during a “slow week”. Ha ha!

 

Monday, July 5^th, 8AM Update:

Dealing with the Heat Wave

Fortunately, we are still going to be five to ten degrees cooler than most of you who live on the east coast or further south of us. But it is going to be hot and we’re adjusting our riding schedule to ride mostly early in the morning and late in the evening, as described yesterday here. Today and tomorrow we benefit from a southwest wind which brings cooler air off of lake Erie and we should stay just below 90 degrees. Wind becomes more from the south on Wednesday which will allow us to break 90 like the rest of you. Lots of sitting in the creek during the hottest part of the day. Maybe even an air conditioned movie theater on Wednesday! We’ll keep the updates coming.

 

Sunday, July 4^th, 9PM Update:

A Parent’s Message

We have received lovely emails and phone calls and visits from many parents and friends of Longacres since the accident that took Quantum’s life at the show yesterday. Too many to post or acknowledge publicly here and some very personal. With his consent, I would like to quote Lydia’s dad, John. He was here during the show and the accident and we are deeply moved by the following message he sent us today. He expresses eloquently sentiments we’re proud that others have also communicated.

 

“Dear Tom and Meghan,

I just got home from a long drive back to the east end of Long Island, much of the trip I was thinking about the loss of your wonderful friend and I wanted to once again send my condolences. Horses are truly the greatest of creatures and I know Quantum was particularly special....as exemplified by the calm and courageous way he stood waiting for help and probably worrying about his rider.

Tom, your words about him were so calmly spoken and so true....just the perfect thing to say at the time and I'm sure were a great help to the shocked onlookers and especially the kids, which I know was your intent. It is, as you said, a wonderful thing that your special horse ended his life doing what he most loved doing.

May the same be true for the 6.7 billion of us.....you guys on your horses or exploring on your snowmobiles and me either on a horse or maybe sailing......

   Thanks to both of you for your magical camp, what it means to my daughter and the effect you both have on her. The tragic events of Saturday, as unfortunate as they are, is another example of that.

   You taught all of us in the way you lovingly and respectfully dealt with the end of his life.

  My best to you both

  John Starke   (Lydia's Dad )”

 

When bad things happen, you can’t help at least briefly wondering whether you still want to be in this business. It’s letters like John’s that keep us plugging along. Everyone here at Longacres is well, and getting to bed very early tonight to be ready for that cool early morning ride tomorrow.

 

 

 

Sunday, July 4^th, 8PM Update:

Sneaker Creeking

Horses are mostly what we do at Longacres, but not everything we do. Especially in hot weather, the big creek beckons. After dinner tonight the girls all donned their oldest cloths or bathing suits and headed down to the creek and the old swimming hole to cool off. Check this link for some blurry cell phone pictures of the girls in the water!

 

And cooling off is what we’re most worried about the next few days. The Buffalo office of the weather service has a definition of “heat wave” for our area that includes certain combinations of heat over 90 degrees and certain humidity for several days in a row. We are likely to break 90 Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, the first time in three years that we’ve had back to back 90 degree days here in western New York.

 

We have a Plan “B” for the riding schedule during very hot weather. We will be getting up before 7AM tomorrow, bringing the horses in from pasture, and immediately riding from 7:45 to 9:00. Then we’ll feed, go to breakfast, come back and do barn chores, then have an optional ride late morning depending on how hot it gets. We’ll take a long mid-day rest, then a quiet trail ride in the woods in the heat of the afternoon. We’ll have an early dinner, then begin two periods of riding late in the evening when it cools off and ride until dark.

 

We’ll see how that schedule works tomorrow and watch the weather reports for the next two days. If necessary, we can get up even earlier in the morning and ride a couple of early morning rides, and rest longer during the heat of the day. I do believe we’ll be seeing more “sneaker creeking” like in today’s pictures over the next three days! Meghan also has a mounted games session planned for later tomorrow morning with WATER involved!

 

That’s the plan for the hot weather.

 

Thanks to Leslie Ann McCulloch, one of the true champions of Longacres Blog readers for caring enough to drive an hour and a half this morning after she read yesterday’s news to share memories with us in person. It meant a lot to us, Leslie!

 

We are hearing from many old friends of Quantum, some who we hear from only maybe once a year or less. It makes us feel good that so many people care. The girls here are in fine spirits and dealing well with recent events. So are we. I sound like a broken record, but we are choosing to remember all the great times and celebrate the memory of a great horse, rather than mope in grief.

 

Sunday, July 4^th, Noon Update:

The girls are doing well this morning working cheerfully (mostly – haha!) on their Sunday morning cleanup of the barn and their cabins. We’ll be taking them to town soon for their “Town Day” doing their laundry and wasting money on junk food. They will have their phones and you can expect to talk with them between maybe 1 and 3 or 4. They were in good spirits last night at dinner, Kone King, and the fireworks.

 

I am pretty stoic about dealing with bad situations and people often think of me as cold in situations, but it’s just my way of helping to keep everyone on an even keel during an emergency. I finally did shed a couple of tears for Quantum this morning after we dug his grave and laid him in the hole. I picked a few wild flowers and scattered them on Quantum before we filled in the grave. A few tears at that moment. He is now sleeping peacefully on “Jumper Hill” with the other greatest jumpers in Longacres long history, China Heart, Yorke Springs, Tip-Off, Peppermint Patti, and now Quantum Leap. I think we’ll do one of our occasional “Jumper Hill” ceremonies this week as a remembrance.

 

Meghan and I certainly miss this great horse, but we also feel that it would be hard to have scripted a more appropriate end to this horse’s great show career. He was at the peak of his abilities still, with his best show year ever last season and a promising start to the 2010 year with Bethany riding him with great success in the first few shows this summer. But he was 18 years old. Yes, I would have loved to have him for a couple more years if he held up. But I would not have wanted to watch him decline and endure increasingly common health and soundness problems, as so often happens with great show horses.

 

And we will never forget that Quantum died surrounded by professional trainers we’ve known for years and who all came together to help make his last minutes as comfortable as possible. Yesterday’s loss was greatly eased by the help from Katie on our staff, and from Noreen Laks, Peter Anderson, Aaron & Charity Donan, Virgil Dunham, David Kendrick, RoseAnn Deni, all the staff at Quakerfield, Lindsey Cornell & the Hunter’s Ridge folks, and Bonnie Duncan at Pet Pyx. Thank you all so much. Click this link to see Bonnie’s tribute photo showing Bethany S on Quantum in a breathtaking photoshop picture.

 

Sunday, July 4^th, 8AM Update:

The jumper riders did not get ribbons presented yesterday because of the accident. Check the horse show news page for a full list of results. We have your ribbons and can send them or you can get them at the next show.

 

Bonnie, the Pet Pyx photographer sent us a stunning photo tribute to Quantum which we will post later this morning. Fine work, Bonnie – THANK YOU!

 

Saturday, July 3rd, midnight Update: Show pictures at this link

Scroll down if you haven’t read the very sad news of the day. But the midnight update is much more upbeat. When bad things have happened at Longacres over the years, we usually find it best to keep everyone busy. Which is why we went ahead with the planned outing tonight to dinner and the fireworks. The girls were in excellent spirits. Respectful of Quantum’s memory, to be sure, but good spirits and morale, none the less. Perhaps their camaraderie was even enhanced by the great loss in the afternoon. Sometimes a shared painful experience bonds a group more tightly than before. Talk was good and cheerful at dinner, and more so at Kone King. On the way home from the fireworks? They slept! And they will sleep in tomorrow, the horses traditional day of rest.

 

Horse Show Tuesday night, 5PM to 9PM?

Few were in the mood to continue the horse show after Quantum’s accident this afternoon, and we shut down with quite a few classes left to go. Check tomorrow night for a final announcement, but we are tentatively planning to finish the cancelled classes from the show on Tuesday evening when the hot afternoon temperatures are beginning to cool down. It will be an Open STSS show, a continuation of today’s show. Our girls are excited about it and we welcome anyone else who can make it. No additional grounds fee or Series fee for those who paid it today. Check the website tomorrow night.

 

Bethany, we all hope you’re feeling better. Everyone misses you!

 

 

 

 

Quantum Leap

1992 – 2010

 

 

 

First let me report that all our riders are OK and safe, but this is not the story I wanted to be writing about today’s horse show at Longacres. Quantum landed wrong coming down from a jump on the road line during a jumper class and broke his right front leg. It was obvious immediately that it was a fatal injury and we called the area vets. As it happened a close friend, a horse vet who lives on our grounds in a rental cottage, was the closest and she came and put this great horse to sleep. It took over 30 minutes for the vet to arrive. This great horse, bold and tough to the end, stood on three legs during that time, occasionally trying to use the broken leg, but never panicking or thrashing in any way.

 

All the professional horsemen and women at the show banded together and helped make Quantum as comfortable as possible while we waited for the vet to arrive. It was a touching show of support, and I thank all of you who helped from the bottom of my heart. Meghan and I are deeply grateful.

 

Bethany was riding and having a great day winning two classes on her own horse, Joc-A-Bee, and looking great on Quantum right up until that fateful jump. She fell hard when he stumbled and was taken by ambulance for a checkup. I’m pleased to report that she has no serious injuries and was already released from the emergency room. She is back at the farm now, but will robably need a few days to herself. She loved this horse as much as her own, and it will be hard for her. We at Longacres are all here for Bethany and will deal with this together, just as we dealt with the joy of winning together.

 

This was also difficult for the rest of our riders, and we will be meeting together as a group and individually as needed. It is a teachable moment, as they say. There is always risk in active sports, risk to horses as well as riders. We can be thankful that in this case the rider appears to be OK.

 

As for me personally, yes, there is a deep empty spot in my gut. This horse provided me and hundreds of others at Longacres with great experiences over the years. It is a profound loss. But I am already planning the Party to Honor Quantum – the horse “wake”, if you will. I prefer to feel grateful for the privilege of having the chance to work with an amazing horse for almost ten years here at Longacres. That’s a long career for a show jumper.

 

Parents:

Some of you have spoken with your girls already, and the rest will have their phones perhaps tonight, and definitely tomorrow afternoon during “Town Day” when they do their laundry. Talk to them about death and loss. Let them know how I feel – grateful to have experienced an amazing horse.

 

Call me or Meghan if you like tonight.

 

Tom Kranz

 

PS: Saturday, July 3^rd, 6PM Update:

Kids are resilient department

The Quantum tragedy is very fresh in our minds, but when we announced to the girls that we would be going out to dinner as planned, and then a surprise trip to the East Aurora July 3^rd fireworks, there were squeals of excitement and eager chatter. The best way to deal with a traumatic event for kids is to stay busy. We’ll be very active tonight!

 

 

Friday, July 2^nd, 11PM Update:

Great Spirits for the Show Tomorrow!

If I had just a little more energy left in my aching body, I’d have taken a video of the girls doing show prep at the barn and posted it on YouTube. Until a half hour ago they were all working together cleaning saddles & bridles, grooming horses, eating cookie cake and junk food and laughing and joking. And some admitting they were excited but very nervous! It sounds like it might be a pretty big show, especially in the jumper ring. We’ve had calls and are expecting 20 or more horses just in the jumper division.

 

My aching body is slowly recovering on two Tylenol after helping Meghan all day preparing the course and the show grounds. Joel, her wonderful maintenance guy, is away on vacation this week, and I have a new appreciation of all that he does preparing for horse shows. But I managed to fill in for him and the show grounds are well weed trimmed, the grass mowed, the jumps in good shape, and all the sound system stuff set to go.

 

Every girl had good practices today and they are in good spirits partly because they have good reason to believe that they’ll do well in the show. Win or lose tomorrow, the girls also had a great time jumping long courses and higher jumps than earlier in the week. Our practices for this show were FUN!

 

Wish us luck tomorrow. We’ll have some pictures to post after our traditional dinner in town following the show! Also a guest story on the show written by Sophie!

 

Friday, July 2^nd, 1PM Update:

Remember, Jumpers begin at 9:45 for tomorrow’s show. Small ring and hunters begin at 11AM.

 

Good Riders & Some Good training this Week!

The horse show practice ride this morning went VERY well, and that’s not always the case. We did a lot of difficult things this morning, including jumping the Pulverman, the bank, and the log jump line. These are difficult things, and some of our intermediate riders were doing the tough jumps. Rachel, Lauren, and Cassie did especially well working directly with me on the hard cross country jumps. Bethany, our star jumper rider instructor, worked with Natasha, Drisana, and Heather and some other riders learning the jumper courses.

 

Sorry, no pictures from this morning’s session. All of us were on the field with the girls helping as they did the most difficult riding of this session. Sometimes there are refusals and tearful disappointments on this day before the show training session, but everyone had success after success. I just came from lunch where everyone was chattingly excitedly about the show.

 

The jumper classes look like they’ll be very competitive. We have stall reservations from an adult jumper rider in the area, a call from Kendrick Show Stables that they are bringing jumpers, and Dunhams always show up with Alyssa and Courtney. It will be competitive and exciting. Longacres will have at least seven horses going in jumper classes.

 

More news later today and we will take some pictures.

 

Friday, July 2nd, 9AM Update:

Odds ‘n Ends:

It looks like another gorgeous day for riding at Longacres, with temps in the 70’s, and most wearing sweatshirts this morning. We’ll enjoy it while we can, since very warm to hot weather is due beginning Sunday. The worst will be a couple of days, Monday and Tuesday. When it’s 90 or above, we have a “plan B” under which we get up early and ride from 7 to 9, then take a morning siesta, work with the horses to keep them cool, giving them baths (and getting very wet ourselves, which is fun in the hot weather!), take a quiet trail ride in the woods during the hottest part of the day, and then have lessons from after dinner until dark. No rain at all in the forecast until at least the middle of next week. We’ll welcome it by then.

 

Our girls are doing show practice this morning after helping us set up the jump courses on the show field after breakfast. We’ll be doing lots of the jumps on the big show field, so they’ll be having FUN. More show horse practice this afternoon and this evening. We expect our girls to all win ribbons, maybe lots of them. The show is likely to be fairly small because of the 4^th of July weekend and conflicting activities. There should be enough outside stables so that we’ll have to work to earn blue ribbons, but it will be a friendly show with a relaxed time schedule. Maybe we’ll have our resident guest writer, Sophie, write a story about the show tomorrow night.

 

We’ll post some pictures at this link later today – not sure when. There won’t be too many, because we’re pretty busy setting up for the show.

 

Thursday, 1PM Update:

Lots of Fun Stuff!

We continued to do some bigger jumping exercises in the second ride this morning. Two of the high points of the morning were provided by Caroline. FIRST, she managed to get on Diesel from the ground!!! Honest! She lowered the left stirrup to the longest hole and managed to climb up. There was a huge cheer from everyone in the front ring with her, and we heard it all the way at the sand ring and figured out what she’s done. THEN, Caroline took Diesel over a regular line of good sized show jumps and he picked up his feet and jumped wonderfully for her. He is definitely one of Caroline’s favorite horses and I think he knows that and tries extra hard for her! (Hey, Petra, we’re looking forward to you riding Diesel when you come in August, but you have a kindred spirit here now who also really likes the Might One!)

 

Heather did a great job of calming down Chesney in the sand ring and we put a jump up pretty high for him. The height made no difference – he was just as calm over a bigger jump, once Heather got him quiet in the first place. Natasha got Lincoln to do proper striding in a line and pick up his feet like a show horse. Lauren did a good job on Neek-o in that ride, Drisana was very good on Zanee; Lydia was on Brody, who was very quiet for her and got the right striding every time. Great job, Lydia!

 

In the other ring, Sophie was singled out by instructor Katie to ride Katie’s private horse, Abby. Sophie was very quiet and Katie really likes how she rides her horse. Quite an honor for Sophie to be picked out by Katie. I’ve already mentioned Caroline and her fine ride on Diesel (I’m partial!); Leslie was on Zeus and he got to do a line of X-rail jumps. He’s new to jumping and we have to be careful how much we ask of him, so it was a nice achievement for Leslie on her own horse. Rachel rode both Merlin and Whitley today and likes them both. She may show both on Saturday in different classes. Cassie was especially good in the first lesson when I was helping Alexa teach that group. She had good pace and was careful with the distances. Ruby looked great over the jumps in that lesson, but was a little wiggly trying to keep Tux going straight!

 

All of this was over bigger jumps than we’ve been using the first part of this week. Good job, girls!

 

Thursday, 12:30 PM

Did You try to call?

Someone left a message on our answering machine this morning that was garbled; we don’t know who or the last two digits of the phone number. Please call again and we’ll be glad to return your call!

 

Spending Money Refunds:

Thanks much for the patience of all the students who came during the June weeks. We are finally caught up on tabulating expense and show money and we’re mailing out refunds or statements to everyone who was here in June. We should be much quicker for the rest of the summer now that Taylor is up to date on her barn jobs and all caught up on entering expenses on the computer. Thanks again for the patience of our arly birds!

 

Thursday, July 1^st, Noon Update:

Check this link for some pictures of the girls jumping a little bigger than they did early in the week. We had some good smiles during these exercises! We’re trying to balance giving the girls a little more excitement in these show prep lessons, but not wearing the horses down too much before the show. Nobody jumped higher than I felt was safe (I was there for most of the bigger jumping, which was going on first in Alexa’s lesson, then in Katie’s. I missed a bit of Katie’s, where they had quite an interesting long course to challenge them, because Alexa and I were working together for quite a while with the girls in her lesson in the sand ring.

 

We’re having super duper long lessons this morning, since the afternoon is devoted to showers and our mall trip and movie. The girls are only just now getting on their second ride horses, so our total hours of riding today will not be that much less than normal, even with the field trip.

 

Thursday, July 1^st, 9AM Update:

Good Spirits at Breakfast!

Very cheerful girls this morning after getting to sleep at a reasonable hour last night well filled with ice cream from Kone King! And it helps that we announced that after 3 days of practice, they will be jumping a bit higher in today’s lessons to prepare for the show on Saturday. It also helped that they will be getting cleaned up later this afternoon and going to “THE MALL” and some of them may get to see “THAT MOVIE!” (Edward & friends, ya’ know!) A girl who has been slightly homesick was positively radiant at the possible chance to see Edward. I just hope tickets aren’t sold out for the movie.

 

We also announced that after giving them part of this first week jumping lower jumps to be sure they are safe, we will be jumping a bit higher during most of the lessons next week and we’ll be fully using most of the new horses that we’ve been evaluating only with the strongest riders this week. We are very pleased with Bristol who is turning out to be an unexpectedly useful mare. Better than we had hoped. Anna, the Russian Arab, has been used by Bethany and Heather for two days and more riders will be on her this week. She is very green at jumping but predictable and safe for advanced intermediates and up. Only Bethany is riding Georgia so far, but she has been good and we will expand the number of riders qualified for this pretty horse beginning tomorrow.

 

Thanks to “The Cops”!

We have a good local police force. After the girls getting scared seeing a local boy walking in the woods the night before, we asked that our East Aurora police make a couple of drive throughs of the camp roads last night just to reassure the girls that they were safe. Thanks to one of the officers who not only drove in to the barn, but took the time to get out of his car and walk the trails to the cabins, knock on the cabin door and introduce himself to the girls there making sure they knew they were being watched over. I went down to the cabins myself to check a little before midnight. I was pleased that all the girls were sound asleep by that time – not a sign of life from either cabin! Even the older girls were sound asleep. Dead silence except for the frogs in the pond.

 

Wednesday, 10:30 PM Update:

Spirits were very high at Kone King and in the RV on the way home. And the girls were hilarious on their way from the barn to the cabins. After the so called “prowler scare” last night, some of the girls had armed themselves with Star Wars “Light Sabers”, where they got them, I don’t know. They were laughing and squeeling as they headed through the trail to the cabins and to showers. Just as Meghan and I headed up to the house, our East Aurora police had a patrol car driving back to the barn for a routine check, which they have promised to do several times during the night.

 

We have one of the younger girls a bit homesick, and we are already in contact with the parents about it. Other than that, things couldn’t be better right now. One more picture album at this link.

 

Our horse show is now only three days away! Lots of work to do!

 

Wednesday, June 30^th, 8PM Update:

Things are going well

The two girls who were disciplined this morning are working hard and being cheerful and cooperative. I am pleased and I hope it lasts. All the older girls are in fine spirits and enjoying riding interesting horses. Meghan’s new horses, both the ones she purchased and the ones here on lease or trial are all working out very well. This is the most interesting new group of horses we’ve had at Longacres in a long time. It makes for a happy group of riders.

 

We do have one new student in the younger group not completely happy here, though she had a good night tonight riding her favorite horse for the first time. We are in touch with the parents, so it is not a mystery student! (Our policy in generally is not to write about any of our routine problems until the parent in question has been notified, so that the rest of you don’t have to worry.)

 

Some people ask me, “Why on earth do you write publicly about things going wrong or discipline issues?”

 

It is just the way we do things at Longacres. We are very proud of what we do here, and we feel it is consistent with our commitment to full disclosure to let you at home know when we have problems and what we try to do to make them right. Not everything is perfect here, and not every last student goes away satisfied. We are gratified that the great majority of our students do like the program and that we have a strong return rate each year. With the exception of the one new student who may yet come around, we’re really pleased with how this session is going and with the high spirits. In fact we’re especially pleased with how the girls who had a poor attitude this morning have pulled themselves together and tried hard since then! Way to go!

 

There will be one more set of pictures posted here late tonight.

 

Wednesday, June 30^th, 6PM Update:

Trails and ring work this afternoon, pics at this link quick right before dinner, and maybe Kone King after evening ride?

 

Wednesday, June 30^th, noon Update:

Round Two

I wrote late last night that Meghan thought she made an adequate impression on the younger girls cabin to make sure that they would fully cooperate when the counselors gave them direction. I was wrong. At least I was two fifths wrong! Two of the younger girls were again disrespectful this morning to counselors who made reasonable requests of them concerning horse care procedures. Maybe it was further testing of limits, maybe a continuation of their attitude from last night when they resisted going to bed by curfew time. At any rate, it earned them a loss of their morning rides, long talks at the office with Meghan (and briefly with the not-so-nice grandpa Tom), talks with their parents on the phone, and extra horse care jobs.

 

Parents, this has all been dealt with, so if you have not heard from us this morning, it is NOT YOUR KID!

 

This is annoying, because we really like the two kids involved. That’s the only reason they’re getting an opportunity for three strikes and you’re out. Normally at Longacres it’s two strikes and out for behavior issues. It’s a clear case of 11 and 12 going on 17 and confusing unfettered, laissez faire freedom with being grown up. Both girls were given the option of going home and they both very much want to stay.

 

On the Good News Side:

All of the older girls, and the rest of the younger girls are doing great and enjoyed a fine morning of riding in perfect temperatures. Check this link for some pictures Meghan took last night and this morning. The pictures will be posted right after lunch, so the link might not work for a bit.

 

Bethany’s Training Session

Bethany was hired by us this year partly to be an instructor, but also because she is a very strong competitive rider and horse trainer. Last night I asked her to be the first one to ride and jump Anna, the new Russian Arab mare that we have on loan for the summer. This is a sweet horse that’s not bad to ride on the flat, but has had only erratic jumping experience. Anna’s owners want to see what a Longacres “send your horse to camp” experience can do for their horse. We hadn’t planned for this to be a formal training demonstration, but Bethany got to the jumping part of the exercise just near the end of evening ride when everyone was cooling their horse down, so all of a sudden everyone was lined up around the sand ring watching Bethany work the horse.

 

Bethany began with a variety of flat work which was pretty uneventful. Then she took Anna over a very low X-rail, which the Arab jumped very big, not knowing quite what to do with a jump. Bethany brought the horse around again after reassuring her. Anna trotted towards the jump and at the last minute, tried to duck out to the right and twirl away from the jump. The horse was in for a big surprise. I don’t know if she’s ever been ridden by someone with Bethany’s solid seat and hands and determination! Before the horse could realize what was happening, Bethany had her head hauled back in front of the jump and the horse was standing still, looking very surprised that she wasn’t getting away with anything. Bethany then gently pressed her forward and made her jump the tiny X-rail from a standstill. She took Anna around again and the horse jumped, but way too big; Bethany reassured her after the jump. The next jump was another refusal, but Anna almost instantly knew she wasn’t getting away with it and willingly jumped from a stand still. The following three jumps were each smoother and better than the one before, with Bethany petting and reassuring the horse after each jump. We quit for the evening after getting two quite nice quiet jumps in a row. Bethany right way told me, “This horse is a fast learner!” And that’s a big part of why we hired Bethany S. to be on the 2010 Longacres staff.

 

Wednesday, June 30, 7AM Update:

Fine Riding Weather (and NOT a prowler)

Temperature is a chilly 53 degrees out right now and we’re only expecting a high of 66 today. Great for riding!

 

NOT a Prowler

After the younger girls were packed off to bed last night by Meghan we got a call from the counselors that one of the older girls had seen a “man/boy” on the trail near the barn. We checked the whole camp and saw nobody, but her description is close to describing a 14 year old boy who lives next door to the barn and who sometimes cuts through the camp during our off season to get to a friends house. We’ll talk to him today to remind him that the camp is now in session and it is off limits to him until the fall, especially at night. This incident does not concern us beyond the fact that it gets the girls’ imaginations going, and suddenly every raccoon or deer stepping on a branch in the woods at night sounds like a prowler to them. Anyway, we’ll add some extra evening patrols of the grounds to our long “to do” list. (The girl who saw “the prowler” last night was also out of her cabin after curfew getting something she had left at the barn. Curfew will be strict for all ages tonight.)

 

 

Tuesday, June 29^th, 10PM Update:

The Fine Line Between Exuberance and Misbehavior

The girls had a great day today with high spirits during the afternoon lessons and even more good humor during mounted games after dinner. When they finished horse care they even played at being horses running around over the jumps like little girls. Laughter and good spirits from everyone. Perhaps all that fun got too much adrenaline flowing, because a few minutes ago Meghan got a call from the staff that the younger girls were being rowdy and not being cooperative about getting to bed at curfew. We hate to squash good spirits, but we have zero tolerance for disrespect of counselors. Meghan is headed down to the cabin area. The girls are in for a surprise. Meghan is so cheerful and good natured that it is a shock to the girls if they ever get to see Meghan’s disciplinarian side.

 

I’ll know more soon (I try to stay out of discipline issues, because I have an old fashioned concept of respect for elders, and my response to this kind of thing has occasionally been unfairly harsh! PLUS, now that Meghan handles discipline, I am much more popular than I used to be. Kind of the nice grandpa roll.) It’s not uncommon for girls to test a few limits during the first few days of each season. From what I know now, there is no really bad behavior going on, just a bunch of nice girls having a great time and REALLY not ready to go to bed yet (they think!). The counselors were trying to get them to bed diplomatically without spoiling the good mood. They called Meghan for advice. So Meghan went down acting as though she was on a routine cabin check, so that if necessary, she will be the bad guy and not the counselors.

 

(Meghan just returned. Everything went exactly as I guessed it would. Problem solved, and Meghan thinks she made an adequate impression to insure that counselors won’t have to ask more than once to get cooperation.)

 

No need for parents to call and ask about your kid – it really was a case of that very fine line between really great spirits and improperly out of control fun being crossed. We’re comfortable with the resolution and the girls seem to understand why rules need to be followed.

 

Ah, camp!

 

Tuesday, June 29^th, 6PM Update:

Caroline Gets “some air”

Check this link for another batch of pictures. I think we got everyone this afternoon, but don’t get upset if I missed someone; Meghan wasn’t there and she’s the organized one that keeps track of such things.

 

Coolest picture is Caroline on Brody. I asked her how she liked him when she was riding him in a lesson in the small ring with one of the counselors. She answered, “He’s all right.” Well, I decided to try to convince her that he is more than “all right”.

 

We took the whole lesson out to the big field and let everyone jump the Butterfly (see the pictures). I knew Caroline had experience doing some bigger jumps, so I watched her over the lower heights. I liked what I saw so I jacked up the Butterfly to a decent height jump and let Caroline take Brody over. Then I asked her again how she likes Brody. I got a big smile and a “Yes, I like him!” response. We do that from time to time at Longacres when the horse and the rider look to be in synch and the conditions are right.

 

Tuesday, June 29, 5PM Update:

Check this link. We’re beginning to jump the big fences on the outside show field. Some of the girls were out on a trail ride this hour, but I took pictures on the field of the girls who were riding in the ring. Everyone will get to do these jumps over the coming few days.

 

Meghan and I also had a good meeting with Alexa, Katie, and Bethany after lunch discussing the riding status of each of the girls this session and how they’re getting along. The meeting was pretty much all good news and positive reports, and I like that. A few things to keep an eye out for. We try to meet every few days to share observations on everyone’s progress between the staff members.

 

Tuesday, June 29^th, noon Update:

Great Riding Day!

Just wonderful horse riding weather, with bright sun, a cool breeze, and temperatures in only the 60’s! And it will be much like this until late in the week when it gets warm again, but likely dry for the whole holiday weekend.

 

Check this link for a few pictures from this morning. The girls did mostly single jump exercises their first two days, but are beginning to work lines and parts of courses today. You should get some pictures of some of them jumping on the big show field this afternoon. Other good news is that Quantum is back at work after several small injuries the past ten days, and new horses Bristol and Georgia who have just been getting ground work, will be ridden this afternoon and soon join the rotation.

 

Tuesday, June 29^th, 10AM Update:

C I T-T’s (Natasha’s good term!)

Longacres places great importance on our CIT program. Counselors in Training, if you’re not up on camp terminology. Promising girls are given the chance to take on occasional extra responsibilities and do a little teaching for a year or two when they are teenage campers. We do this to help build a pool of potential counselors for the future who know the ins and outs of Longacres. Leslie and Heather are “official” CIT’s this session. But we have great depth in our group of responsible teenagers this two weeks. We were kidding at breakfast this morning that Drisana and Natasha will both get opportunities this week to do some CIT stuff. Natasha quickly chimed in, “We’ll be CITT’s!” We all laughed, but the term will stick.

 

We’re lucky because we have a good group of returning students from this same session last year. We wrote about last year’s early July group and at the time told many of you that the group here last summer from June 28^th to July 12^th was perhaps the finest group of girls we’ve ever had who were nearly all first time Longacres students. They just clicked together and with us, and we will never forget that group. Which is why we’re so happy to have the nucleus of that group from 2009 all back together at Longacres, now as experienced Longacres students. Heather, Leslie, Drisana, Natasha, Ruby, and Lydia all provide a great example to our first time students for this session and they’re all a great help to the counselors since they know the routines and our expectations. The older girls, Heather, Leslie, Drisana, and Natasha could probably run the camp themselves, and now and then during a counselor meeting or when there is a problem being taken care of, they do. Fine group of girls! Great “CITT’s”!

 

Tuesday, June 29^th, 7AM Update:

Oops!

I know, I know, no pictures yesterday. My bad. Meghan took a good bunch all day and handed me the camera during our video watching session last night. It had been a long active first full day of the session, and we were more than a little tired. None the less, I connected the camera to my computer and lay back just for a second to rest my eyes while the pictures loaded. I was out like a light in seconds! Meghan says I didn’t move – down for the full count.

 

So here are yesterday’s pictures at this link. Sorry to have failed last night. We’re adjusting the lesson schedule by a few minutes each hour today so that all of us, campers and staff, can get a good rest period in after lunch! The girls are in good spirits, but if we’re as tired as we were after the first two days, I’m sure the girls will be getting tired also. Proactive, ya know!

 

 Monday, June 28th, 6PM Update:

The rain was close by but we were dry this afternoon for both lessons after the deluge before lunch. We jumped in the sand ring this afternoon and got a lot of video, which we will be watching tonight. More later, plus pictures!

 

Monday, June 28^th, Noon Update:

Tough Chicks, “Ridin’ in the Rain!”

Chance of scattered showers and rain today, it said, and it’s “scattering” right over us at the moment! The girls got in a great first lesson this morning and about half of their second morning ride before the rain hit. At first it was a gentle drizzle, and when I left the barn 20 minutes ago they were still riding. Tough chicks! And I spoke with Meghan a few minutes ago while she was working at the barn, and the girls were still up top in harder rain. Tough Chicks! It’s coming down hard now and I hope they’re inside the barn, soaking wet as they all must be by now.

 

Weather is still supposed to clear later this afternoon with the sun out, so we should get in nearly a full ration of riding today and after dinner. Weather still looks very good for riding for most of the rest of the week.

 

I was working on my tractor around the barn this morning and I was able to sit and watch all the girls riding in both lessons. I’m getting a good handle on the strong and weak points of each rider and I’ll be sitting down with Meghan and the counselors tonight or tomorrow to talk about specific exercises that will most help each rider. They’re a good group of horsewomen, some very good. But there’s always things to improve. We’re already seeing girls bond with favorite horses and we think we’re finding some good combinations for the first show on Saturday.

 

Heather M. and Lauren F. got “gold stars” for mounting their horses especially gently for the second morning lesson. I was sitting in my tractor a couple of hundred feet away watching closely to see how careful each rider would be when they didn’t think I was personally watching them. Sneaky, I know. I do a lot of riding observations from the seat of my tractor!

 

Sunday, June 27^th, 11PM Update:

Here’s Why . . . . .

We work very long hours every year putting together the special program that is Longacres. Would you like to know why we keep doing it season after season?

 

Here is the reason why, written eloquently by first time Longacres rider, Sophie L.

 

= = =

 

“Sophie’s First Day at Longacres”

by Sophie L.

 

I really didn’t know what to expect when I signed up for Longacres. The idea of riding five hours a day, like most of the other campers, was what attracted me. My life would become total horse paradise. Just the thought gave me chills. Little did I know that it would be all that and more.

 

When we pulled into the camp driveway the first thing we saw was the beautiful jumping field by the entrance. All the jumps were freshly painted and were just calling my name. I spotted the castle jump immediately wondering when I was going to get to jump it. I had never really had the chance to jump a course with such extravagant jumps as that.

 

We then proceeded to enter the barn, a long row of horses on crossties stretched down the aisle. I couldn’t believe that even though I had just arrived I was already getting to ride. The next five horses that I rode were some of the best I have ever mounted. They were each different, from trust-worthy Bobert, to cute and spunky Ebony.

 

After a long day of horse care and quite a few hours of riding we were all ready to hit our cabin. I know that my dreams will be of the great rides and memories yet to come.

 

= = = =

 

Meghan had tears on her cheeks when she brought Sophie’s article up for me to post here. I’m a little misty eyed myself as I write. Thank you, Sophie!

 

 

 

Sunday, June 27^th, 8:30 PM Update:

Beginning to “Bond”

That’s always what we watch for when a new group arrives for a session. Are they all talking? Are they laughing and joking, especially at meals? Sometimes it takes three or four days, sometimes just a day or two. I’d say after just coming from our late dinner at the dining hall that this group is on track for a quick adjustment to Longacres. Everyone was taking part in the horse talk at dinner and there was lots of, “So what’s your last name?”, or “Where are you from?” Plenty of smiles. And we have two distinct age groups and the girls in each group seem compatible, with everyone appearing to have found someone to buddy up with already.

 

As I write this, there’s thunder and the rain’s beginning to fall, so the weather forecasts seem to be right on. Of course we’d prefer to have a glorious sunset on our first night of camp, but the girls all seemed very pleased that the rain held off until we got in all our planned riding for the first day and they liked hearing that after a few lingering morning showers, tomorrow is expected to be a fine riding day! (WOW! There was just an LONG rolling series of thunder claps out my window!) Mid week is expected to bring an unseasonably cold couple of days – perfect for riding!

 

Remember that we will still be posting one more album of pictures tonight a little later on when Meghan returns from the barn and horse care talks.

 

 

Sunday, 6PM Update:

We’re All Here!

Leslie and “Zeus” pulled in with their horse trailer from Pennsylvania about an hour ago, and the taxi from the airport just arrived with Katie & new student Rachel. We’re all here now and except for the late arrivals, everyone has been on multiple horses today. Rachel will get on for a short ride right after dinner as a proper introduction to Longacres. All the girls will have some chill time to take a horse out on the lawn grazing and just relax after dinner.

 

Tomorrow morning we’ll start off with all the safety talks and demonstrations and then get going for a full day of riding.

 

Weather report calls for heavy thunderstorms overnight tonight, but rapid clearing tomorrow morning and through the afternoon. We like rain at night! (I just checked the radar and sure enough, powerful storms are passing about 40 miles south of us – “stay away, storms!”

 

The first set of pictures from today is now posted at this link. I’ll post them over again in a couple of hours with captions so you at home can start learning who’s who this session.

 

Sunday, 4PM Update:

We have one CIT (Leslie) and one student (Rachel) still to arrive, then we’ll all be here taking care of the horses and riding together the next two weeks. We’re off to a good start. Sophie told me a few minutes ago that she’s ridden four different horses already today! We’ve got one more ride scheduled for about 5PM, then a late dinner and a relaxed late horsecare with safety and horse care procedure talks after dinner.

 

Check this link very soon for a set of pictures from this morning’s ride and video session, and check this link for more pictures later tonight.

 

Sunday, June 27^th, Opening Day With Lights After All!

Below is a very appropriate message from former counselor, Shelly, who is reading our Blog in London:

 

Hey guys!

 

I read about how you did well at the show yesterday! That's great and exciting! I want to give Meghan a mental hug and tell her everything is going to be alright, which I'm sure she knows and is tired of hearing, but she hasn't heard me say it yet. So Meghan, it'll be alright, it just means everyone is going to go to bed a little bit earlier tonight! Including the little hiccup, I want to wish the both of you the BEST OPENING DAY EVER!!! 

 

Love,

Shelly

 

Lights are Back On

And as luck would have it, the lights came back on themselves just before the electrician arrived to check them out. Which is too bad, because an intermittent electrical problem is harder to find than a total failure. But we know what it is probably and can easily fix it if it happens again. (worn fuse holder)

 

Most Have Arrived

Lauren is a stay-over from last week, and returning students Heather, Natasha, Drisana, Ruby, and Lydia have all arrived. Returning student Leslie is on her way with her horse and due in an hour or two. New students Sophie, Cassie, and Caroline have arrived, and new student Rachel will be here from the airport with Katie at about 4:30.

 

Everyone who’s here has been on at least two horses and will ride more later this afternoon. Meghan is taking pictures now that will be posted in a couple of hours. We like what we see of our new riders, and the girls returning from last year all seem to have advanced over the winter with their lessons at home. Looks like we’ll have a good, solid show team for the next two weeks. (Sophie, Lydia, and Ruby are staying the full month of July.)

 

Sunday, June 27^th, 7AM Update:

Opening Day in the Dark!

Meghan works so hard to have everything as perfect as she can make it that I feel sorry for her when something comes out of left field to disrupt an important day, even mildly. She went down to the barn to see that everything was going smoothly this morning, and no one was there! Turns out the electric lines to the cabins in the woods had a bad connection overnight and there is no electricity in the cabins this morning, which means NO ALARM CLOCKS! Everyone got an extra little bit of sleep this morning!

 

Our maintenance guys are off on Sunday, so if it’s not a simple repair that old man Tom can handle, we might open for the session without electricity in the cabins for a day. For years, half of the camp lived in tents with no electricity in the old days, but this isn’t the old days, so Meghan is fretting. She has a call in to our emergency maintenance guy. Stay tuned!

 

(Everything else is wonderful!)

 

Saturday, June 26^th, 6PM Update:

Check this link for a bunch of pictures from the Northfield show today. We won lots of good ribbons. It was a smaller show, like all the Series shows so far this year. But good competition in all our classes, so the ribbons were well earned! We’ll try to post some details later tonight. In the meantime, it’s horse care time and dinner time for us.

 

Saturday, June 26^th, 6AM Update:

Ready for the Show, but no Quantum L

Rotten luck with Quantum for two weeks in a row. As we wrote a couple of days ago, he’s been injured in three different ways over the past ten days. His swollen ankle kept him out of last week’s show, but he was sound THE DAY AFTER the show last week! Maybe he could have jumped, but we weren’t about to push him and maybe have him hurt worse.

 

This week he got the big goose egg on his head, probably from being careless in his stall. Sure enough, it was much better by yesterday. Very tempting to show him today and keep within spitting distance of Alyssa & Rusty for jumper points. But he has had no work all week, and I just wouldn’t feel right sending him out to jump fast. Bummer.

 

Everyone else is ready to go. We’re leaving for the show in half an hour with eight horses. Hope we have lots of good experiences to report tonight!

 

Friday evening, 7PM Update:

Regular Riding Camp Sessions About to Begin!

We’ve certainly had a good time getting to know so many riders for the one week June clinics this year, and Jessica from Colorado for five weeks since the middle of May! But we’re eager to move on to the next phase of our summer season with riders coming Sunday and staying for at least two weeks (several of them for the full month of July). The continuity lets us get to know each rider better and to see more progress during their stay with us. And this year many will be returning students, the majority for more than two years at Longacres.

 

When Are You Arriving?

Actually we know the arrival time for many of you, but not all. Unless you have emailed Meghan in the past two days, please give us a call or drop us an email to confirm your arrival time and let us know if you are getting here on your own or if you need a ride from the airport. Mostly we know this stuff, but Meghan is still trying to reach two families, and I told her I’d throw an announcement up here on the Blog.

 

We are really proud of the younger riders who have been here this week. At ten, eleven, and twelve, Dana, Lauren, and Alexis have really been good students. The two least experienced, Dana and Alexis have jumped, cantered, jumped REAL vertical jumps, and today went out and jumped the Cross Country course jumps at the old hunt course. There will be some great pictures at this link later this evening!

 

Show Preparations:

The girls are having another quick ride tonight and then packing for the show tomorrow. We’ll be leaving early in the morning for this one! We’ll be away for most of the day, hoping for good weather in the afternoon when they think some pesky thunder storms may kick up. But we will be back at the farm by dinner time and we will be up late making final preparations for regular camp. We have eleven new bodies arriving on Sunday! Feel free to call us right up until midnight Saturday night if you have any questions.

 

Thursday evening, June 24^th, 9PM Update:

“Oh my goodness! Oh my GOODNESS! This night just keeps getting better and better!”

- Lauren’s words after Meghan told the girls there will be a surprise smores party and campfire back here at the farm after the evening out. The girls did have a good time getting cleaned up and going back to civilization after being at horse camp for most of the week. And they had junk food at the mall. But they seem very eager for smores around the campfire tonight. Especially Lauren!

 

Thursday, 5PM Update:

Problems are Resolving Themselves

The vet just finished with Quantum, and we feel optimistic. As is often the case, the bleeding leg cut was not as serious as it first appeared. The goose egg on his head also appears to be just that – a nasty bump on the head, perhaps from the horse getting startled in his stall and like a klutz, banging his own head on the stall door. We’re treating the big swelling as a possible infection to be conservative and the vet thinks it should be better in three or four days. (no show for you this weekend, Quantum!)

 

A replacement freezer should be here by tomorrow afternoon; in the meantime, we run back and forth from the main house to the dining hall with frozen stuff.

 

The clinics went well this afternoon, and the sun is out again drying up the ground.

 

And so it goes.

 

Thursday, June 24^th, 3PM Update:

When it Rains, it Pours – both literally and figuratively!

Many of you are regular readers of this blog because you can vicariously join us in running the Longacres horse farm as we go through good days and less good. This day is turning into quite an adventure.

 

We’re lucking out OK on the weather, with just scattered showers here at Longacres, though there was a torrential downpour just three miles away right after lunch. But we are dealing with multiple other issues right now, and it is almost funny how when one thing goes wrong, it will be complicated by several other things happening at the worst possible time.

 

I reported earlier that Quantum has a bump on his head. It’s still swollen this afternoon, so we called the vet an hour ago to come over and take a look. Not fifteen minutes later, Katie called from the barn to say that Quantum managed to cut his front leg just above the knee while he was resting in pasture, so now the vet call is an emergency (not a mortal wound, but needs quick attention, we think.) This seems to be totally unrelated to his lower leg sprain from last weekend, and the bump on his head. Just pure rotten luck. And this all for a horse that is usually indestructible. Go figure.

 

Oh, yeah – the bad timing? Just as Meghan is handling the emergency vet call, today’s guest clinic is beginning at exactly the same time. And that’s not all; 30 minutes ago there was an urgent call from the OTHER end of the farm telling us that the freezer in the kitchen just quit and we have to move all the frozen food to the house until we get in a new freezer tomorrow!

 

When it rains, it pours, indeed!

 

Thursday, June 24^th, Show news:

Northfield Farms show is on for this Saturday morning beginning at 9AM. Jumpers will follow the hunters in the big ring.

 

Longacres Prize List Change:

ALL Longacres shows for the rest of the season will begin on the outside course with Jumpers going first at 9:45 AM. Hunters to follow not before 11AM with a short schooling break for hunters.

 

Thanks to Tim Nunn & “The Bar-B-Que” food stand for becoming a repeat Summer Series Awards Sponsor. I think we now need six more sponsors to have the Season Championship Awards sponsored for all divisions this year. We host the Season Championship Awards party along with the Annual Jumper Derby on August 14^th at Longacres. It is quite a party, and if you sponsor a Division, we invite you or your daughter to help present the Championship trophies. $150 is the cost of a division sponsorship.

 

Thursday, June 24^th, 11AM Update:

Horses – AAAAARGH!

We’re generally having very good luck with our horses this season. Most are staying sound and healthy and the new ones are working out well. But we have our issues, and wouldn’t you know that some of those issues have been with Quantum, one of our best jumpers and a keystone of our program. First he hurt an ankle right before the show last weekend and we had to let him sit the show out and fall behind on points for the Series. Wouldn’t you know that he’d show up fully recovered the morning AFTER the show! He has always been a strong horse and a fast healer. I hope he still is, because just after he was put back to training work this week, he hit his head on something and has a cut and a big goose egg right on the top of his head and wants no part of being bridled or touched there! This injury should heal quickly, but maybe not in time for him to show at Northfield this weekend. Horses! AAAARGH!

 

Jazz continues to be a promising horse and a willing jumper. But she has hit kind of a wall or “speed bump” in her training. She is only 6 and has not had a lot of experience. She is getting a little lazy and not moving up and extending as well as she should when given leg pressure. We had Jessica, who rides her the most, and the staff hold a little “Jazz Training” meeting the other day to discuss training ideas and riding guidelines for this particular horse. We are very pleased with her over-all progress, but we need to monitor young horses carefully so they don’t get bad habits.

 

I wrote a week or two ago about how well most of our horses are doing this year. Meghan wanted me to mention Bobert and Ginger, along with the other horses I discussed specifically. Bobert is one of our old geldings and we have been considering retiring him at the middle or end of this season. We may still, but he is doing really well this summer so far, and is very popular with our less experienced riders. We will probably send him out to a winter home near the end of July since we have mostly quite good riders coming in August and will have less need of our beginner horses then. Bobert will have earned a rest by then! He is a good guy!

 

Ginger is doing really well. She had an injury last fall and she was babied by her winter rider, Staci. Staci did a fine job bringing her back to work. We are being sensible about not overworking Ginger, but she has so far been completely sound and a willing ride. Pretty much her old self. And she has been pretty well tempered, so long as we are careful handling her on the ground, which we are.

 

Thursday Morning Lessons

I had a good time this morning spending some time in the ring with instructor Alexa, and our two beginner riders, Alexis and Dana. I talked with them about various exercises to help them learn diagonals and to get better balance at the trot. Both of these girls are getting to know us and are very relaxed talking about riding ideas. Good students. I also spent time in the other ring watching Katie teach the older girls and Lauren, who usually rides with the teenagers since she is a pretty good rider for age 12. I had Lauren adjust her stirrups a little, and I told her about some position issues with her lower leg and feet. I always check out the pictures every night, and sometimes I see things in the pictures that we don’t pick up in lessons during the day. I mention things to Meghan or the instructors and sometimes to the students, themselves, as I did with Lauren this morning. It’s a facet of the Longacres lesson program that is done mostly behind the scenes that you might not know about.

 

Sand Ring Joy

We use our expanded sand ring a lot even in good weather. It is especially valuable when the ground gets soaked as it finally is after heavy rains yesterday and overnight. We were able to give the more advanced group full jumping exercises this morning even while we were getting a little fresh drizzle on top of all the recent rain. We should get in all our lessons today except for the after dinner ride. This is the cook’s night off and we’re headed out for a festive dinner in the evening.

 

The sun is starting to poke through as I write this update, and the weather will get better by the hour, with maybe a passing shower later this afternoon. Great day in store tomorrow!

 

Wednesday, June 23^rd, 10PM Update:

Check this link for more pictures from the afternoon and the Lindsey Cornell guest clinic. There are some nice jumping pictures! And Dana and Alexis both cantered and jumped multiple times today. They are really progressing!

 

We got another pounding of heavy rain, but it was right after dinner and didn’t affect our riding much. It cleared up and we could have ridden after dinner, but the girls did some horse lectures and games in the barn instead. More overnight rain tonight late (we like night time rain!), and it may linger in the morning, but we should get in most of our scheduled riding tomorrow. And Friday is looking great. It’s hard to believe that Dana and Alexis will be leaving us in just a couple of days. These one week June sessions are tough when we have people we really enjoy teaching and have to say “goodbye” to so soon! Alexis and Dana certainly fit that description.

 

(Hey, Andrew – I got the bigger helicopter yesterday – and mildly crashed it already! Steep learning curve!)

 

Wednesday, June 23^rd, 10AM Update:

Butterfly Pics?

Later today, we’re planning to put our fancy Butterfly jump away out of the sun until the next show, but first we want all the girls from this session to have a chance to jump it. Even the less experienced younger riders! So later this morning when the sun is higher in the sky, I’ll get some pictures and post them at this link around lunchtime. Check back!

 

Noon: Pictures are now posted. Everyone jumped, including Dana and Alexis who both jumped multiple times today. They did a great job! Look at some of the pictures right after each of them did their first jump at Longacres and got “high fives” from Katie who was teaching them.

 

I had a good time giving Lauren a short private lesson on improving her jumping position. She is a good rider who needs a little coaching on technique and should greatly improve during the three weeks she’ll be with us this summer. She’s good enough already to try most of the exercises we do here, and is at a good point in her riding to take full advantage of Longacres.

 

(Nice weather today, and it appears that our luck may hold, with heavy rain coming overnight tonight after we get in another full day of riding.)

 

Tuesday, June 22, 10PM Update:

We did finally get a real deluge of rain here right at the start of our guest instructor clinic this afternoon. The girls did get all mounted up and about five minutes of riding. They went down during the rain and had a lecture and discussion instead. They did ride again briefly in the afternoon and another full lesson after dinner, so all in all not a bad day. Check this link for pics from this afternoon and evening. Tonight the girls came up to the house after horse care and we watched the video’s we took yesterday. We’ve seen lots of improvement in just two days!

 

We had two long rest periods earlier today and it showed tonight with the girls in high spirits with lots of laughing and joking together after getting good rest.

 

Tuesday, Noon Update:

I’m not one to dump on “the weatherman” when the forecast turns out not to be completely accurate because I’ve been a student of weather and an occasional weather reporter myself. I consider my self one of them. But now and then we do have to wipe egg off our faces. The 100% chance of rain and heavy rain warnings issued for today are so far a bit off the mark. We did get that light shower early that barely wet the ground, but the sun is shining brightly at Longacres again now. I hope it holds for the afternoon when we plan to ride more. Heavy rain did fall nearby, but our good luck held.

 

Tuesday, 10AM Update:

Our plan for dealing with the weather worked fine, and the girls got in a good long early morning lesson. Light rain passed over as we expected. Everyone is at breakfast now and we hope to ride again soon. Most heavier rain passed by to our north and south, as so often happens at Longacres with our location right off the end of Lake Erie. We do expect more rain later, but at least we’ve had some lesson time already and today will not be a washout. We do plan required naps for everyone after lunch to catch up on rest, especially for the younger riders.

 

Check this link for pictures of the girls riding this morning.

 

Tuesday, June 22, 8AM Update:

Watchin’ the Weather

We do a lot of weather monitoring, including reading the NOAA forecast discussion page that the weathermen write for each other with all the technical background information. Since it looks like our luck is finally running out and rain will fall much of the day, we got up early and the girls are already mounted for an 8AM ride. Radar shows a narrow band of showers coming through for only about 15 minutes, so we will just ride into the barn when that hits and be ready to go right back out when we’ll have most of another hour rain free.

 

Then the girls will have a late breakfast and go back to bed for much needed rest. We took a lot of video of the girls riding yesterday in anticipation of the rain today. After they get a good morning nap, we’ll all gather at the house to watch them on video in slow motion and let all the girls see what they look like on their favorite horses from yesterday.

 

We’re hoping that the bulk of the rain will have passed by late afternoon and we’ll ride several hours this evening, possibly changing dinner time to fit. That’s the plan for the day.

 

(I won’t lie to you, they did look tired when I was with them at the barn a few minutes ago! They rode their hearts out yesterday and a first day at Longacres is tiring enough without having to get up for an early morning ride, especially for ten and 12 year olds. We will let them sleep as long as they like once the rain hits later this morning.)

 

Monday, June 21^st, 10PM Update:

Odds ‘n Ends of a Good Day!

This is going to be quite a different kind of session than last week’s. “The kids” from last week, Kellie, Katie, and Jessica, are now the “adults” and our three new young riders become “the kids”. Topsy – Turvy!

 

There were nice things about having a group of adults during last week’s clinic, with adult conversation and interesting discussions about riding and the horses and people’s home lives and careers. But nothing can compare to the excitement and enthusiasm of young girls who love horses. (Well, maybe Sarah last week matched the enthusiasm level, but then she made herself almost a kid for the week!) When I was talking with Lauren, Dana, and Alexis at dinner, one of my favorite moments came when I asked Dana how many different horses she rode on her first day here – she was stumped – she had to stop and count and wasn’t sure whether it was five or six different horses.

 

Dana’s favorite horse so far is Ginger. Ginger is sometimes difficult to saddle and bridle and we have special protocols for handling her, always with a staff member present. But she’s a great ride. Some riders are intimidated by Ginger, since we are so careful handling her on the ground, but not Dana. She just went to work and enjoyed the great ride this large pony gives! Good job, Dana.

 

Alexis likes Brownie best so far, and it’s easy to understand since this is one of Longacres greatest all time ponies. Lauren likes Merlin and fits him very well. Lauren is getting right to work jumping on her first day, and Merlin was just right for her. (That’s why Merlin has his own Fan Club, the “ILMFC” - I Love Merlin Fan Club.)

 

By the way, THANK YOU WINKY for giving Merlin such a great home this past winter! I think he may be in the best shape of his life. I’ve written before how he and Tux sometimes gallop and buck around the pasture showing off for one another – he is a huge athlete! And yet uiet and reliable in lessons and wonderful in the show ring, both hunters and jumpers.

 

Bulliten for Sharon: Jessica reports that Chesney was AWESOME this afternoon! Willing to jump, but quiet and controllable all the time. Good job with him over the winter! We’re going to be experimenting with asking a little more of him this week before Jessica goes home.

 

Busted!

Yes, that would be me. Sometimes while Meghan is doing all the work I sneak off for a few minutes by myself and fly one of my radio control model airplanes on the big field around the corner. Conditions were just right this morning after breakfast, so I took fifteen minutes and was having a good time flying before going back to the barn to give tours of Longacres to the new families. But Dana and her family “busted me” for being a slacker as they drove out to Longacres from town this morning. They were driving out Mill Road and saw this guy parked on the side of the road and it looked to Dana’s parents like he was flying a kite. But no, Dana noticed he was flying a model plane, and then she said, “Mom and Dad, that’s Tom – I recognize him from his picture on the website and I remember he wrote that his hobby is model planes!” So when I got back to Longacres, I couldn’t get away with telling anyone I was late because I’d been working – NOT!

 

New Horse News:

This is “Bristol’s” second day at Longacres. We haven’t ridden her yet, but are letting her settle in and get pampered. Alexa has been lunging her and we gave her a medicated bath for a small patch of fungus on her chest. She is already looking better and is behaving well. We’ll get on her tomorrow or Wednesday. Georgia has been behaving better since she had a little bucking fit with Katie on her first day. She was put in basic training and ground work for a couple of days. I watched Jessica lunging her by the barn tonight – she sure is a nice moving horse! Very classy.

 

Weather Report:

Looks like a lot of rain tomorrow, but we will try to ride between rain showers or late in the evening. The good news is that the rain is coming earlier than expected and Wednesday’s forecast is now much better than we thought this morning. Some more rain on Thursday, but not a complete washout, and Friday and the show day Saturday look great. We shouldn’t complain. We have been very lucky with weather so far this season, with most of the rain falling at night. We’ve yet to lose a full day of riding, even though it’s been a wetter than normal June. We’ll try to keep that record going tomorrow!

 

More pictures from Meghan’s camera today at this link, including late evening shots of the new horses getting lunged.

 

Finally:

Meghan just came in from the barn where she stayed late helping the new girls learn the ropes of evening horse care. Meghan told me, “Spirits down at the barn tonight were beyond wonderful! Everyone is bonding very well.” Looking forward to a good week!

 

Monday, June 21^st, noon Update:

First day of the session pictures at this link already!

 

We are extremely pleased with our first impressions of the new students that came in this morning. Younger riders are almost always enthusiastic and eager students. This group certainly is! Dana, Alexis, and Lauren are all 12 or under, are all solid enough riders to immediately do beginning jumping and trail rides, and are all at a very trainable stage in their riding. They are nice girls who are eager to learn the system at the Longacres barn and to get to know our horses. We’re hoping to have each of them on five or six different horses by the end of today.

 

Alexis has quite a bit of western riding experience, but is just starting English and jumping. Dana has the basics down, but not as much formal training as some of our usual students, so she is soaking it up like a sponge. Lauren is the most experienced of the new girls, but also at an early stage in her jumping training, and very eager to learn. This week is going to be fun!

 

Sunday, June 20^th, 11AM Update:

Day of Rest

Well, partly! We did all get to sleep in on this morning after the show and day of rest for the horses. And it will be a relaxing day. But lots is still happening, with “Giant Ginger” arriving and being evaluated, “Georgia” getting some ground work, and regular season Head Instructor, Alexa, arriving in a few hours to begin taking over from Katie for the rest of the summer. There are some fun surprises planned for Alexa, plus lots of work catching up on how all the new horses are.

 

Meghan and I might actually get a little time off together this evening to say “hello” to each other. Most of the summer, we rarely spend much time working on the same project at the same time. We’ll probably have dinner out with our good friend, Uncle Billy.

 

Great Jumper Divisions!

The jumper classes were light on entries the first two shows of the season, but that really changed here at Longacres yesterday with 12 in the Puddle Jumper division and 9 in the higher Schooling Jumper division. It was really fun, and very competitive. Alyssa Willibey and “We Bit of Rust” continue to rule in the Puddle Jumpers with two wins yesterday and pulling out a big lead towards Jumper Horse of the Year. Our own Bethany S. won 2 out of three of the Schooling Jumper classes, to continue her own impressive performance in this year’s jumper division. Bethany has now won 7 out of the 10 jumper classes she’s entered riding with Longacres this season, between riding Quantum and her own horses. You guys interested in jumpers this summer will enjoy getting coaching and instruction from Bethany when she begins working at Longacres as an instructor next Saturday and for the rest of the summer. Bethany will be Alexa’s right hand for most of the summer, and Bethany then takes over as head instructor for Lazy Days week in August.

 

Saturday, June 19^th, 5PM Update:

Exhausted!

But a really fun show with lots of good performances. The small show ring had horses all day, like always. We had very few hunters on the outside course, but wow, were there a lot of jumpers. Jumpers began early and were going all day. We thought we were done with jumpers by mid afternoon, then the Donan’s pulled in with five jumpers to do lots of classes! Fun! Our instructor, Bethany, was Champion in the big jumper division with her own horse, Joc-a-bee. We’ll post pictures later at this link, and more show results. All parts of the Castle jump have now been jumped – Eron Donan jumped the high wall!

 

We were lucky with weather in a Summer Series show for the 3^rd week in a row. It was great show weather in the morning. About 1PM, we had a ten minute shower and then about 20 minutes of drizzle. But it just wet down the rings. It dried up quickly after, and we had great footing all afternoon with the sun out again. Pretty wonderful. Thank you, mother nature!

 

Delia did a great job with her classes in the small show ring and then took Merlin in Jumper classes on the outside course and was great with him. Nice job at the show today, Delia!! Our adult students also rode jumpers, and both Sarah and Jenny had fine rounds and won ribbons.

 

Colorado Katie rode in the most classes and scored many ribbons. She did a great training ride on Boo and got him going relaxed on the outside course. She was also excellent showing Lincoln over X-rails. Kelly was a big winner. Jessica showed Jazz and got her around the big outside course, but we need to get Jazz to accept leg aids better – that will be one of our big projects for next week, with Alexa’s help when she gets here tomorrow.

 

Delia Pictures:

Check this link for pictures of Delia and Merlin on the outside course!

 

Saturday, June 19^th, 8:30 AM Update:

Weather is great at Longacres right now, but some thunder storms are likely by early afternoon. The show will run as long as possible, even if we have to take a break for a passing shower or thunder storm. Pictures and a story to come late this evening! Wish us luck with the weather!

 

Friday, Midnight Update:

Show weather looking better

Forecasters are now calling for only 20% chance of rain until evening tomorrow, so things are looking up for the show. We will let all jumper riders who are here in the morning do their courses beginning at 9:30. The judges cards will remain open and the classes will not be pinned until at least noon, giving everyone with jumpers who comes after the official 11AM start time a chance to ride. After the early jumper rides, there will be at least 15 minutes of hunter schooling on the outside course before we begin warmup hunter, after 11AM. The inside ring will start at 11AM as scheduled.

 

Friday, 9PM Update:

The Castle Has Been Jumped!

Jessica and Jazz do the Deed!

Jessica has been here for nearly five weeks, riding every horse in the barn since mid May. She earned the right to be the first one to jump the Castle! Check this link for pictures of Jessica and others jumping the Castle tonight. Meghan wants you to know that it is NOT DONE!! The flags and various other decorations are not up yet. But it is pretty cool. Some other pictures of the Old Hunt course also in the album.

 

Friday, June 18^th, 8AM Update:

Jumper Classes to Begin at 9:30AM Saturday – Spread the Word

To beat the rain (and heat!), which is likely to come in early afternoon, we will open the cards on the jumper classes at 9:30AM. Judges cards will remain open so that anyone not getting this info will still be able to ride if they come later. Spread the word.

 

Because of the early jumper start, schooling for hunters on the outside course will not be available for most of the morning. There will be a ten minute hunter schooling break before warm-up hunter class begins at approximately 11AM.

 

Friday, 10AM:

Nice weather today for final show preparations! Meghan and her crew are busy trimming around jumps and putting last minute touches on the castle (flags & such!). Our students will be riding full courses today, in the small show ring this morning and on the outside course this afternoon and evening. More later. Off I go to test the sound system!

 

Thursday, June 17, 9PM Update:

Up It Goes!

The Castle Jump, that is! It will be in use for our show this weekend. There are a few trim pieces that won’t have the finish coats of paint, but Joel and Meghan and the girls are moving it up from the barn to the show field while I write this update. It is BIG! It takes about six truck loads to move it all.

 

We’ll post pictures of the outside course including the new Castle Jump tomorrow night after everything is set and decorated with flowers. Meghan is jumping with excitement watching each piece moved onto the field!

 

Check this link for some more pictures from today, including Delia and her “Longacres big sisters” and the Peter Anderson clinic.

 

Thursday, June 17^th, 6PM Update:

Mixed Age Groups

We often have a variety of ages here during our June one week Clinics. This week our students range in age from barely 12 year old Delia, through three teenagers, and including three 20 something adults. I am pleased to report that the “mix” is working out to be an example of the best that is the Longacres “all ages love horses equally” philosophy. That’s partly due to the maturity and great sense of humor that is shown by 12 year old Delia, and partly a result of the three 20 somethings, especially Erin and Sarah, adopting Delia for the week. Sarah and Delia are dressing up in matching outfits and hair-do’s to ride in a special tandem hunter class at the show on Saturday. We are very pleased. Check this link in an hour or so for some pictures, including young Delia with her fellow horse loving Longacres adults!

 

Thursday, 11AM Update:

Happy Birthday Sharon W!!!!!

(And from what I remember of your last email to us, you deserve to be pampered today so you can make it through a rather strenuous weekend coming up?)

 

Thursday, 10AM Update:

Quantum’s initial vet examination was promising. There is an external bruise just above a hoof and swelling and tenderness in that area. With some medication and stall rest we’re hopeful to see a good improvement in a couple of days. If not, we’ll revisit with more elaborate testing.

 

Our human relationships also seem to be on an even keel after last night’s dust up. Some discipline will be applied in consultation with a parent, but everyone is getting along this morning.

 

And our attention turns back to preparing for the Saturday show. Keep up with Show news at this link.

 

Thursday, June 17^th, 8AM Update:

Not a Good Night

This blog and Longacres policy in general is based on giving our friends and customers as honest a portrayal of life at Longacres as possible, while respecting the privacy of the people here. That means reporting not just the rosy wonderful things that we hope make up the majority of our life here.

 

Last night, Quantum apparently injured his right front ankle while out in pasture. He came in quite lame and swollen. The vet is here now this morning. Keep your fingers crossed that this fine horse will be OK.

 

Also last night, not long after everyone returned from a very cheerful evening out together, there was an altercation between two students. It is being dealt with in close consultation with the parents involved.

 

Oh yeah, and we’re getting ready to host a major horse show here in 48 hours. Not exactly the best time to have other problems. And life goes on.

 

Wednesday evening Update, 10PM

One more album of pictures at this link. Many of us were getting a little tired after 3 days of riding all day long. But we went out to dinner tonight on the cook’s night off and everyone was very cheerful in the RV on the drive home. It was just what the doctor ordered to freshen everyone’s spirits! The weather today turned out to be very nice for riding after all. We did have two rain storms, but both were during times when we weren’t scheduled to ride. Very good luck with the timing of rain for us so far this summer.

 

Wednesday, June 16^th, Noon Update:

Not a bad day, all things considered

We were primed for a 100% chance of rain weather report today and were thinking of having to take naps and wait it out most of the day. Indeed, a line of heavy thunderstorms rolled through on schedule about 7AM. But the upstream radar looked good, so we got up and did horsecare anyway so we’d be ready if the weather improved. Sure enough the sun actually poked out when they mounted up for a 10AM ride. The footing in the sand rings was good and it wasn’t even bad on the grass. Everyone had a fine ride. Another band of heavy showers just rolled through after 11 while everyone was in the barn getting ready for the second lesson. It is already tapering off and we should get in the second morning ride in a few minutes, though we’ll have to mostly ride in the sand ring because of the now very wet footing. Weather for this afternoon will be unsettled, but at the worst, we’ll already have gotten in a good portion of our scheduled riding with great conditions coming the next two days. We’ll take it.

 

Good News on Early Season Horse Behavior

(NOTE: As I am writing, the sun just came out again!) Anyway, back to horse news. All three of the new horses Meghan purchased this spring are being useful and interesting. Jazz is a young, green jumping prospect, but reliable and a fun ride. Jessica LOVES her! Whitley is just what he was supposed to be. An experienced hunter and equitation horse. Just does his thing and is safe and reliable. He was off briefly during his first week, but quickly was sound again and seems fine. Neek-o is a real favorite and very eager to please! He had some kind of shoulder bruise that put him “off” for about a week, but he seems fine now and is earning his keep. So all three of Meghan’s new purchases are really working out so far.

 

Almost as good news is how well some of our returning horses are doing, especially the ones who were new to us last summer and still green. It helps that many of them went home for the winter with Longacres students who gave them great care and training. Lincoln was with Debra and Sydney H. all winter and they put many hours into his flatwork and schooling. It is really paying off. He is doing wonderfully and is much quieter and easier to handle this year. Sometimes when I see him doing a jumping exercise I have to ask myself where this well mannered thoroughbred came from. He still has flashes of eagerness now and then, but is a world better than he was last summer. Very useful horse for us!

 

Chesney was a special winter project for adult student Sharon W. - Sharon worked tirelessly to give Chesney better ground manners and make him more patient over small fences. Like Lincoln, Chesney is a different horse this year. These two horses are good examples of what we do at Longacres to build our string of horses. We find many horses with great promise that we often find way out in the country where they’ve had several years off or have been outgrown by a young rider. We buy them with a few rough esges and we do not mind putting a year or two into improving them with their time at Longacres and with good riders during the winter. We end up with horses worth several times over what we paid for them.

 

Horatio also spent the winter with Longacres riders Sharon and Laura W. Horatio was never really lame, but he had a weird reaction to the canter on one lead or the other during much of the winter. We were prepared for the possibility that he might not work out in the Longacres program any longer. He has been an immensely talented horse for us over several years, but has now and then had mystery minor lameness or possible back issues. But with light work, he is doing very well so far this season. We’re still evaluating what we can ask of him, but he runs and gallops and bucks with joy in the pasture and we see no reason why he can’t do some jumper shows this summer, where he excels.

 

Two more veteran Longacres horses that concerned us a bit with their behavior last season are Boo and Brody. Both were unpredictably stubborn last season. Both have great talent when they are good, especially Brody, who can jump 3’9” to 4’ with ease and is good in both the hunter and jumper ring. But both of them were naughty and unreliable over jumps last season. We even posted online that Boo was for sale after hearing that his winter home also had trouble, especially with a younger rider.

 

But here at Longacres this spring, BOTH Boo and Brody are being on their best behavior. Boo is “off the market” for now. He is jumping willingly and not even cutting corners in the ring badly. Yes, he still counter-bends a bit, especially to the left, but he is being very useful and lots of people request to ride him. And Brody – wow, is he being on good behavior. Thanks to Quakerfield Stables that keeps Brody every winter and uses him almost exclusively for walk-trot beginner lessons. A very relaxing winter for Brody! He has come back to us mentally refreshed and very willing.

 

So right there, I’ve described three completely new additions to the Longacres herd and three more that were problematic last summer and excellent so far this season. And there are more new horses coming in soon and we’re evaluating others being sent here for training or for sale. (Don’t ask about “Georgia’s” first day! We should have given her a day or two more to settle in before working her, as we did this morning. Let’s just say she “has energy”.)

 

Check this link for more pictures from this morning!

 

Show News:

For the latest in Summer Series horse show news, go to this link and bookmark it for your use during this summer’s show season!

 

Tuesday, June 15^th, 11PM Update:

Check this link for a bunch more pics, including another new horse we took in to offer for sale. “Georgia” (Sweet Georgia Brown) is a ten year old Dutch Warm Blood mare, is well started over fences, and has done a little showing. We’ll have her here for a while adding to her training and getting her in the show ring for the owners.

 

Thanks to Cathy for another great guest lesson today. Everyone enjoyed it!

 

Weather is not looking good for tomorrow. We’ll ride between showers when we can. Many, especially the adults, are a little sore from all the riding by this time in the week, and not too upset about the idea of a lighter riding schedule tomorrow! Good riding weather returns for Thursday and Friday.

 

Tuesday, June 15^th, 11AM Update:

Out on the Big Field!

On our second day of riding this session, we got out on the big show field, everyone jumped the Pulverman/Sunken Road jump several times, and then we had a free jump over the big field jumps. Check this link for some nice pictures! We’re looking forward to another guest instructor this afternoon (Kathy J.). We hope to also get some of our riders out on the far side of the farm to the old hunt course jumps later today.

 

Rain coming tonight and for at least the first part of tomorrow, but we hope it will clear early. Thursday and Friday look like great weather still. Saturday for our Longacres June show looks hot and humid with possible thunder storms (40% chance). What can you do?

 

We have people working every day this week to finish painting the new Castle Jump. We expect to have it in use at the show this weekend even if it needs a few more finishing touches. We might not have “Nessie” the sea monster painted yet; maybe that will be a new wrinkle to add at our next show!

 

Monday, June 14^th, 8PM Update:

Check this link for a whole bunch more pictures Meghan took this afternoon in our guest lesson. Good friend of Longacres, Leslie Anne, stopped by and donated a guest lesson. She was doing it just for fun, but it was every bit as good as most of the Pro Clinics we host at Longacres! Stands to reason, because Leslie has been doing this horse show thing for a long time and has had lots of great training herself, which she passed on to our riders today. Thanks MUCH, Leslie!!!!!!!!

 

As you’ll see from all today’s pictures, everyone has found horses they seem to like, and the group is getting along well. We have students this week from just 12 to 29 years old, and they’re all working with the horses and doing the barn work as a team. Age disappears at Longacres! Not surprising that Delia is giving big hugs to every horse she rides, but the 20 somethings are also full of horse lover stuff.

 

Monday, noon Update:

Pictures Already!

Check this link for pictures from this morning’s first two rides. Yes, they are a little wet! But the rain has pretty much ended and the afternoon looks like the sun may even poke through. They are at the barn getting on for the third ride now (second set of new horses after trading horses in the first hour.)

 

Check this link for a smaller album of some of the best pictures with names and comments so you’ll get to know this session’s riders.

 

Monday, June 14^th, 10AM Update:

A Few Sprinkles

Week three at Longacres is off to a grey and drizzly beginning, but conditions are expected to improve beginning in the next couple of hours. There’s a 20% chance of scattered light showers today, some of which are coming down on us as I write. But radar shows most will be out of here very quickly. Weather for the week is expected to be sunny Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday, with rain expected overnight Tuesday night and the first part of Wednesday – we’ll keep our fingers crossed that the “overnight” part is when most of it comes!

 

We’ve got three students here this week for the very first time, and Sarah who was a camper here ten years ago. The rest are returning from last year and know the ropes.

 

We’ll have some pictures by the middle of the day and I’m heading to the barn after I post this update to take some video of everyone’s basic position for us to watch this evening. More later. Our youngest student, Delia, is here for the first time and seems to be fitting right in.

 

Sunday, June 13^th, Noon Update:

Thanks to Alessia for sending us her colored rendition of a Longacres map. Check it out! Nice job, and if anyone else is interested, please try your hand and send us your best effort. We’ll take the best one and make it the official Longacres map!

 

Saturday, June 12^th, 10 PM Update:

Jessica Does well on Jazz; Quantum not Such a Successful Day

We took just two jumpers to the show at Hasty Hills today. Jessica has been riding Jazz for weeks and entered the mare in the small jumper division. It was Jazz’s first time and she looked great. Jessica did a good job taking it easy on the turns and making it a good experience for the horse. She was in the ribbons every time, though did not win since we were planning to go easy on the horse because she is inexperienced. Great job, Jessica!

 

Bethany and Quantum have been hard to beat the past month, but we had glitches in each of the first two classes today. A rail down in the first round (first fence!) in the first class, and a run out in the jump-off in the second class. We did get second place in that class, which helps for championship points. Bethany and Quantum really clicked in her final class and looked great, but unfortunately, the other horses in the division did not do the final class, so our blue ribbon was a little hollow! We did full video analysis with Bethany after the show and we know what we need to correct. And we will by the Longacres show next week, where we expect lots of jumpers!

 

We did get our butts kicked today by Alyssa Willibey and “We Bit of Rust”. We were leading Alyssa by 2 points for the season championship at the start of the day, and she is leading us by two or three points now. It’s going to be a fun challenge over the summer!

 

Check this link for lots of pictures from the show today. There are MANY of Summer Series riders not from Longacres.

Check this link for bigger versions of some of the best pictures.

 

Ready for our New Students!

Joel did a great job moving jumps and trimming grass today and things look really great around the barn for our new arrivals tomorrow! We were afraid we would not be able to do all the trimming, because of rain in the forecast today, but their was barely a drop all day. Nice job, Joel!!!!

 

Saturday, June 12^th, 8AM Update:

Farm Life #273

You know you live in the country when: Meghan was getting dressed in her closet to go into town last night and opened the attic door and was face to face with a big raccoon, not two feet away on a shelf. He didn’t seem upset – just sat and looked at her! She gently closed the door. We banged around the walls and didn’t see him again – still not sure how he’s getting into the house?

 

Friday, June 11, 10 PM Update:

Weird weather this month, but lucky for us – We’ll take it!

After only the first ten days, June is already the 12th wettest June in 140 years of weather records in our area. And yet we have not lost a day of riding to weather yet. Almost all the rain has fallen at night. I hope our good luck keeps up! We’ve sure got green grass and soft footing. Glad we expanded our sand ring this year.

 

Check this link for some nice pictures from the Lindsey Cornell guest clinic today.

 

Scattered showers are in the forecast for tomorrow at the show, but most of the day will be rain free. We should be OK.

 

A big new crew arrives Sunday afternoon for next week’s clinics. Several returning students and a couple of first timers at Longacres. The farm looks good for you new arrivals, though it will be touch and go getting everything under the fence lines weed wacked with possible wet weather tomorrow. I did most of my mowing this afternoon and evening.

 

Friday, June 11^th, noon Update:

Another lovely riding day. We’re getting ready for the Lindsey Cornell guest clinic this afternoon and then just a couple of us going to the Hasty Hills show between sessions tomorrow.

 

Weather looks a little dicey over the weekend, but cool and pleasant for much of next week when we have a lot of students.

 

Thursday, June 10^th, 11PM Update:

Smores party! – Alessia, we Missed You for it!!

Meghan organized a nice bonfire and smores party tonight after we went out for dinner. We did miss you, Alessia – hope you’re back sometime so we can enjoy smores with YOU! Hope you’re feeling better.

 

Check this link for pictures from around the camp fire. Really exciting entertainment, with stories about the history of Longacres, the Troll living under one of the bridges, the crazy man who camps in the old abandoned cabin, trying to recite “Jabberwocky”, Tom showing off his memory tricks to spew out the value of Pi to fifty decimal places, and even more excitement!! (A wee bit of exaggeration in some of the camp fire horror stories.) The best story was the “Real Reason” Meghan has been having trouble with her foot surgery completely healing – something about the surgeon being horrified by the latest X-rays which seem to show a Velociraptor like claw slowly beginning to form inside Meghan’s foot where she has mutated!! Great fun was had when Tom showed how Meghan will hop to the attack when her giant claw has fully formed and protruded from her foot. You only “think” that big protective boot Meghan often wears is for her surgery healing; little do you all know that it is a sheath for her Velociraptor claw!!!!!!!!!

 

A good camp fire. The smores were good, too.

 

Thursday, June 10^th, 11AM Update:

Check this morning’s pics at this link. We said “goodbye” to Alessia a half hour ago, who left a day early because of a personal health issue that made it uncomfortable to ride. Alessia did a great job the past two weeks and really improved her riding! (watch out for caution tape, Alessia!!)

 

Alessia wasn’t the only rider who was sore and out of the saddle yesterday at Longacres. We’re glad to see Peyton riding again this morning. Pictures at the link.

 

We’re enjoying the peace and quiet of just a few riders at Longacres this week and lots of private & semi private lessons. That will all change next week and for the rest of the summer when we’re near full for two weeks and then full to capacity for the rest of the summer! Of course, “full to capacity” at Longacres is only nine students at a time, but we will be much busier than we’ve been the past few days. We do rather like our small enrollment adult week and then a quiet “Week Two” to get all the horses in shape and the barn operating smoothly. But we’re ready now – Bring It On!!

 

Pssst! - Kellie, a package arrived for you today.

 

Personal Note:

Regular readers know that some of Tom’s favorite “big boys toys” are radio control model airplanes. I have fun relaxing flying on days when there’s not much wind. But my eyesite is a little worse this year than in the past couple of years, and I find I crash my planes a little more often. So I’ve found a new “flying toy” - helicopters! They are challenging, but you can fly them keeping them close in to you, so my weaker eyes can still clearly see what’s going on with the controls. And the little one I got yesterday to try them out can fly indoors. I did smash into things a couple of times learning last night, but I’m getting pretty good and had several successful flights after breakfast this morning. Just call me “Peter Pan” – I never plan to really grow up!

 

Wednesday, June 9^th, 9 PM Update:

Not a Bad Day, After all!

It did rain for a while this morning, but it was dry for the time we were at Niagara Falls and the girls got in another ride at Longacres after dinner. (Peyton sat out with a tender knee and Alessia sat out with sore legs, but the riding was good.) Check this link for a few Niagara Falls pictures from today’s trip.

 

Weather looks good for tomorrow and excellent for Friday when we have another guest clinic instructor.

 

I just got back from the barn where Uncle Billy, Meghan, and I spent a good part of an hour watching “the boys” playing and cavorting in the main pasture. “The boys” are the more outgoing and playful gang of geldings. The quiet ones that just want to eat their hay and not get picked on (Brownie, Boo, and Justin) live in the little pasture between “the boys” and the mares out in the orchard.

 

But “the boys” were in rare form tonight! It was a cool night and the ground was drying up, and the guys were running and bucking and playing halter tug of war. Nine of them were out tonight, and it was just beautiful to watch in the cool evening air. Diesel, Quantum, Lincoln, Merlin, Tux, Brody, Horatio, Chesney, and Rocky were all out and all of them but Rocky were in a good mood. They would race, rear and challenge each other, and pretend to kick out at each other. But it was all playing. In nearly an hour watching, we didn’t see one kick or bite land on another horse. It was obvious they weren’t trying to hurt each other, but were just feeling good and showing off. Horses are really something to watch under conditions like this!

 

I’ve also enjoyed the great beauty of the Longacres bridle paths the past two days when I’ve spent quite a bit of time in the woods trimming pricker bushes and low hanging branches. Alessia and Peyton, especially, have enjoyed some trail rides. I wish everyone did, since the Longacres trails and bridle paths in the woods and meadows are nearly as special as our show fields and rings. Years ago we used to just pick our way through the woods and follow beaten paths through hay fields. But now we spend a lot of time and effort grooming and trimming every mile of the trails. There are a few mud holes here and there in wet weather, but we ad several new culvert drain pipes and more gravel to wet spots every year. Especially at this time of year when all the shrubs and wild flowers are blooming, the Longacres trail system is a great place to ride. (Or even to work, as I’ve been doing yesterday and today.)

 

I know that some of you guys prefer to spend most of your time in training rings practicing flat work and jumping. But try to enjoy the trails we assign you; they are a great experience.

 

 

Wednesday, June 9^th, 11AM:

How Much Riding is Too Much Riding?

Especially when it’s cold and rainy! After hours and hours of riding the past few weeks, even Jessica was ready to “blow off” any riding today in unsettled weather. Meghan and I kept offering and encouraging opportunities to get in at least a little riding today before we head into town to dry off. Finally Katie and Jessica did decide to ride, and they are on now. We will be bailing out soon for a field trip to Niagara Falls. The weather should begin to improve late today, and I’m hoping the girls will get in another ride after dinner. Their choice. The next two days look better, and it is promising for the show on Saturday at Hasty Hills, with just a chance of scattered showers.

 

Wednesday, June 9^th, 8AM Update:

Check this link for pictures from the guest clinic yesterday and the visit with “Molly the Pony” last night. Katie plans to be in the therapeutic riding business and she was very interested in the Molly the Pony meeting. Molly’s “boss” was great to the Longacres crew!

 

Our great luck with weather the past two weeks (rain always at night) has run out. It’s a grey, dreary day at Longacres. We plan to get in at least one ride this morning in the drizzle, then head out on a field trip to show Alessia Niagara Falls. It’s wet there, anyway!

 

The rain should taper off late today and we hope to ride again late this afternoon and this evening. Weather gradually improving the rest of the week.

 

Tuesday, June 8^th Update:

Hasty Hills Show this Saturday, June 12^th. Prize list Link

Hope to see everyone at Hasty Hills show this Saturday. Check the above link for their prize list.

 

Go to this link for Summer Series Show News and bookmark the page. That’s where you’ll find the latest news for all shows in western new York in our series for this season!

 

Another great weather day today at Longacres, and we’re taking full advantage, since it looks like some unsettled weather and some rain the next few days. We’ll make the best of it!

 

(Jessica was riding Katie’s private horse, Abby, this morning! NOW she has really ridden every horse in our barn!

 

Monday, 7PM Update:

Check this link for some pictures taken at our afternoon video clinic. I worked with the girls over jumps a bit and took a lot of video which we’ll be watching later this evening. After evening horse care. AND after a trip to Kone King!

 

We also had a visit from Frank the reining horse champion and horse trainer to work with Alessia’s horse which has been a little difficult about mounting this week. He was fine for Frank, but still a little difficult for Alessia. Alessia is enjoying all the Longacres horses plenty, though!

 

 

 

Monday, June 7^th, 8AM Update:

Lovely Cool Riding Weather

After a long period of mid summer like heat, we’re beginning this week with a couple of days of great riding weather. Sunny today and tomorrow with temps in the mid sixty’s. It doesn’t get any better than that for riding!

 

Molly the Pony is not coming to Longacres after all, but going to a friend’s farm nearby after an unusual “it’s a small world” meeting on the highway. “Molly” was an hour and a half away from arriving at Longacres when they stopped at a rest area and struck up a conversation with people in another horse trailer at the same parking area. Turns out that other trailer was good friends of Longacres, Debbie Puffer and family. Many of you know her son Casey and his sister who have both shown at Longacres many times. Casey has twice been to Lazy Days week. Anyway, the “Molly” people hit it off with the Puffer family, who offered to be an option for them to stay. We talked on the phone, and the Puffers have more stalls available, so Molly is going there instead of coming here where we’d have to turn some horses out to make room. We may go visit Molly today or tomorrow.

 

Sunday, June 6^th, 1PM Update:

Welcome Peyton, and getting some REST!

It was great to see Peyton last night. She’s joining us this week after a year away from Longacres. Really great to have her back for this relaxed mid June week.

 

We all slept in very late this morning after an active first week of the 2010 season and an exciting horse show. It felt very strange, but wonderful, to be sleeping late in the morning. The girls are all in town doing their laundry and some shopping now.

 

Have you ever heard of “Molly the Pony”? Her owner heard of us somehow and if all goes according to plan, the pony, a companion pony, companion sheep dog, etc, all will arrive for a two night visit to Longacres later today. We’ll post pictures if it all happens. If you’re curious, go to mollythepony.com.

 

Not much more news expected until tomorrow when we are all rested up!

 

Saturday, June 5^th, 10PM Update:

A Great Horse Show!

Anne Catherine had to leave early this morning for her drive home, but everyone else went to the horse show and did well. (Hope you made it home safely, Anne Catherine!)

 

Sharon did a great job keeping Chesney quiet for her early flat classes and got several red ribbons. Alessia rode Star to TWO Reserve Championships in two divisions! Pij is UNDEFEATED! She won two classes on Merlin, then had to leave a little early, retiring from the show undefeated! Good job, Pij! (We miss you already!)

 

Jessica is really falling for Jazz – she rode her over fences in several classes and Jazz was wonderful for her. The horse stopped one time when she got to a weird spot, but was about as good as we could have hoped for her first show with us. Trainers were coming up to me all day asking, “Who’s that horse, Tom?” Jazz just has “the look”.

 

Bethany did a great job on both Quantum and her own horse, Holly. There were two competitive jumper classes. By that, I mean there were two with a lot of good horses, and two with just a couple of horses. Looking at it the worst way, we were one for one. In the first class, Quantum just barely knocked a rail and did not make the jump-off, so we were last L

 

In the other big class, Quantum was first and Bethany was also second on her own horse. She also won the other two small classes on Quantum, so if you wanted to brag, you could say, “We won three out of four.” But one out of the two competitive classes is more accurate. Bethany and Quantum are looking hard to beat.

 

Check this link for LOTS of pictures to be posted later tonight.

 

We all just got back from dinner at Pasquale’s restaurant after the show. More to come tomorrow. We have a very relaxing week coming up with just a few students before the camp gets very full for the rest of the summer beginning on June 13^th!

 

Saturday, June 5^th, 8AM Update:

Not much time for an update this morning. We’re leaving in three minutes for the horse show at Newstead. More news tonight! Our luck with the weather seems to be continuing – it rained overnight for the third time this week and we now have only a 30% chance of rain at the show!

 

Check this link for some pics from last night, including Jessica riding Brownie, so she has now ridden EVERY horse in the barn!

 

Friday, June 4^th, 1PM Update:

Derby Course Day

It’s becoming a little tradition at Longacres that on the final day of Adult Week we set the jumps on the outside course down to a low height and set a fairly tricky course for everyone to ride. Check this link for one set of pictures from this morning. Nice riding by everyone! There will be more pictures at this link from Meghan’s camera in a different location after lunch. Our riders felt pretty important, with a ground crew of five of us taking pictures, video, and coaching and helping!

 

Thursday, June 3^rd, 10PM Update:

Here’s a Longacres “Welcome” to Steve (Mr. Pij!) and a Longacres “Hello” to Dana H. from Pennsylvania

Steve is Pij’s husband and is joining her for the final day and a half of Adult Week. Steve’s ridden just a few times, but as the husband of a true horse lover and horse owner, he wants to pick up a few Longacres pointers. He joined us at dinner tonight right from the airport. Everyone was very merry, but he gave it right back to them all! There’s a nice picture in tonight’s album of Steve giving Pij a smootch hello.

 

Dana H. is a ten year old from Pennsylvania who is seriously considering signing up for one of our last spots during the final week of June. We hope you decide to take the “Longacres plunge”, Dana!

 

Check the picture from this afternoon’s clinic at this link. Peter Anderson always does a great job as a guest instructor when he comes to Longacres, and this week was no exception. Thanks, Peter! We also had fun trash talking a bit about our respective “secret weapons” for Jumper Competition this summer. Peter told us to watch out because he has a new “secret weapon” in his barn to go after us in the jumper ring. (For years, we’ve had a friendly rivalry with Peter and his barn in jumpers.)

 

We told Peter, “Back at ‘ya! We’ve got a couple of secret new weapons of our own for jumper competition this summer. One of them is named “Jazz”, and the other goes by the initials “B.S.”, but there is no BS to this secret weapon’s performance in the jumper ring!

 

Thursday, June 3^rd, 11AM Update:

Busy day at the barn today, with lots of interesting things to learn. The vet has been here most of the morning on routine thngs like rabies shots, floating teeth, etc. We’re trying to straighten out a private horse that is being bad about mounting. And Peter Anderson is coming this afternoon for a clinic. The sun is peeping in and out, with a few showers perhaps in the afternoon forecast, but so far cool, pleasant riding weather after last night’s rain. It’s been a good week, weatherwise!

 

 

Great weather is still in the forecast for tomorrow, and then a little iffy on the rain chance for the show Saturday morning. Keep your fingers crossed for us.

 

Meghan reports that there was very good conversation during “girls night out” last night. She had a good time. We’ll have more sociability tonight since we’re all going “out” to dinner. We get to meet Pij’s husband tonight, who is flying in to join her for the final two days of the adult week and will be riding with us tomorrow.

 

Finally, an Important Google Milestone!

Longacres relies heavily on Google searches to recruit new students. We do well in general with people searching with various terms for places like ours. We “own” the search term “riding camp” or “riding camps”. Type it in. We come up #1 in the world. Anything related, like “equestrian riding camp”, etc, works well also.

 

But the most popular search term for places like us is “horse camps”. For years, try as we might to tweek the website, we were way down on page 17 or something if you searched for “horse camps”. Might as well have been invisible. But recently something changed, and we now show up about #6 on the first page of Google search results for “horse camps”. This is very welcome news for Longacres!

 

More later.

 

Wednesday, Late Night:

Girls Night Out!

The “under 21” crew stayed at the farm and are having a surprise party delivered to the cabin by Taylor. The “over the hill” crew went to town with Meghan for a “girls night out”, a tradition at Adult Week every spring! Meghan promises to make them behave and get them home early.

 

As mentioned in the post below, it has been a GOOD day at Longacres. Just after I posted below, I went to dinner where everyone was thanking Meghan for setting up the Lindsey Cornell clinic and talking excitedly about all the things that happened today. Alessia said, “This has been an excellent day!” And Jessica’s quote was, “It’s been a wonderful day in horse-land!”

 

Our luck with the weather continues. We had a few scattered drops of rain during evening ride, but kept to our schedule. Everyone had just finished evening horse care and the last horse was settling in out at pasture when the skies opened up and a deluge came down. But it only lasted about 20 minutes. Just enough to properly water the grass and flower beds! Tomorrow looks to be mostly dry, and Friday wonderful. Some chance of scattered showers on the horse show on Saturday, but even that sounds not bad.

 

During evening ride Shelly lead a trail with Alessia and Pij, first trail ride of the season. I was glad they got out, since I put in MANY hours grooming the bridle paths through the woods and they haven’t been used as much as I’d wish. (Thank you for enjoying my trails, Alessia & Pij!!!)

 

Jessica gave Quantum a good work-out at a trot on the big show field to condition him, and Katie was teaching Sharon and Anne Catherine in the ring.

 

Wednesday, June 2^nd, 6PM Update:

Many Triumphs!

The third day into a new session is usually pretty good. Riders are getting used to our horses and the teaching and practice time are starting to show results. Alessia did a fine job in the clinic riding a whole course at a trot, and then nicely cantering the final jump. Pij rode Merlin over the very first whole course of jumps she’s done in her life, and all at a nice canter. Lookin’ good, Pij!

 

Anne Catherine and Whitley also did an excellent round over fences in the Lindsey Cornell clinic. And Sharon – WELL! Sharon’s year round project is getting Chesney to go quietly over fences. She took him around a whole course in the clinic after Lindsey urged her to give it a try. She did such a good job calming Chesney that Tom shouted out, “Look at that DUD of a horse!” Counselors Katie and Shelly also both rode with Lindsey in the guest lesson.

 

Oh, you say I didn’t mention Jessica? Well, just check this link for the photo’s from today and go to the very end. THAT’s what Jessica accomplished today on Jazz! I do LIKE that horse!

 

So, in the picture album you’ll see pictures from Tom’s morning discussion of course design and riding courses, pictures from all the girls riding with Lindsey, and then the picture of Jazz soaring over the first decent size oxer we’ve asked her to do. The horse has scope!

 

“Diesel Day”

That was almost the title of this update. The girls have only been riding my favorite big boy on the flat and over ground poles this week. They seemed to think that a 2200 pound horse couldn’t jump. So this morning while Jessica was quietly riding him around the sand ring, I told her, “Hey, trot him into this ground rail and canter him the three strides to that verticle.” She laughed.

 

Then she asked, “Are you SERIOUS?”

 

“Of course!”, I answered. Jessica very nervously approached the line of jumps, and up and over my favorite “big boy” went, graceful as any hunter in the barn! (Well, almost!) Half an hour later in the show ring, I had Jessica take Diesel around the whole course of eight fences and he didn’t touch one of them. Jessica told me, “I have a whole new respect for this horse!” Indeed!

 

Wednesday, June 2^nd, 8AM Update:

Happy Birthday, Morven!

Can’t wait to see you later this summer!

 

More Good Luck with Weather?

We hope! Strong thunderstorms and rain are expected here, but not until late this afternoon or into tonight, so riding will be good to go today with our first guest instructor, Lindsey Cornell. Just as on Monday night, rain should fall over night tonight, then much of tomorrow will be rain free and the sun returns for a grand Friday.

 

Horse Shows!

The Summer Series show season begins this weekend, with the season opener at new member stable, Newstead Equestrian Center. Slight chance of rain, but it should not be a washout and we look forward to attending this show, and then additional Summer Series shows every week through the beginning of August. Hasty Hills next week, and our first Longacres show of the season here on June 19^th.

 

Tuesday, 12:30:

Check this link for Meghan’s pictures of the morning ride.

 

8PM:

Check this link for some pictures of this evening’s ride. The “high point” of Alessia’s Longacres stay so far was getting on Diesel tonight!

 

(The low point of our day was having a water pipe broken at the dining hall during cleaning, and tying up Joel for the whole night fixing itL )

 

Tuesday, June 1^st, 11AM Update:

Right on schedule, the sun is coming out as I write! Weather looks great for most of the rest of the week, except for some possible showers on Thursday. We’ll take it.

 

We could have ridden at 10 and waited to watch yesterday’s video this evening, but all the gals voted to come up to the house and see themselves on video and in slow motion right away this morning. We just got done doing that and everyone is now down at the barn tacking up. Spirits are high, with some good natured teasing back and forth as we watched various triumphs and goofs on video.

 

An “Empty Feeling”

After I spent the hour with everyone commenting on their video rides and they had left for the barn, I felt an odd feeling. It took me a few moments to realize that I have absolutely NOTHING to do for the next hour or two! Everything is neat and trimmed; there’s nothing for me to do with the tractor; the lessons are going well and until I do a planned photo clinic with the girls this afternoon, I’m not needed at the barn. In a few minutes the website will be up to date. I can just read a magazine or run an errand. I might even work on one of my model planes. It’s been many weeks since I’ve been able to just kick back and relax like this. It feels weird!

 

Tuesday, June 1^st, 8AM Update:

Thank You!

That’s a “thank you” to Mother Nature for the great timing on the rain event overnight. We got much needed steady rain all night, and the timing couldn’t have been better. Rain didn’t start until we were all turning in around midnight and the trailing edge of the showers is just approaching us now. The rain should be done by 10AM when our first ride is scheduled, and the sun should be out for the day shortly after that. We made it through the first weather event of the week with flying colors! Round #2 will arrive Wednesday night – Thursday, when a hard to predict frontal system will be passing close by. But by then we’ll have had fine riding weather for the first three days of the week.

 

Monday, May 31^st, 7PM Update:

Thanks to “lake shadow” ( cool breeze off Lake Erie), we’ve had no rain today, when it has hit hard not far away. Many of the students are getting on their sixth horse today for the after dinner ride. (Alessia and Pij are catching up since they came in late this morning.)

 

Dinner was boisterous, with some old friends getting reacquainted and other new people hitting it off well. Lots of laughter, and then an interesting serious discussion about the good, useful things about “Voldemort” as well as the not so good aspects. Lots of good points were made.

 

We should have more pictures at this link later tonight. Everyone is going to sleep well after all the riding and horse care work today, and there should be a soothing patter of rain on the cabin roofs. None yet, but it is coming nearly for sure in a few hours. It’s still supposed to clear by mid day tomorrow so we’ll get in our full ration of Tuesday riding even if we have to ride a couple of hours after dinner.

 

Monday, 12:30 PM Update:

Pij and Alessia have both arrived. Pij is taking up “Star” for her first ride, and Alessia will probably ride her own horse, “Rolex”, for her first session. Sharon, Anne Catherine, and Jessica are getting on their third horses of the day now, and we’ll be getting video of everyone this hour before lunch. First pictures to come at this link after lunch.

 

Monday, May 31^st, 10 AM Update:

Under Way!

The Longacres 2010 season is officially under way under sunny skies with a promising weather report for the first half of the week! The rain forecast for this afternoon is now expected to hold off until the end of the day. We do expect heavy rain overnight, which our grounds badly need. Rain will taper off Tuesday morning and we expect sunny skies again by noon Tuesday. We may sleep in tomorrow morning if it’s still raining, and just ride more late in the day after it clears. I see no reason that we can’t get a full ration of riding both today and tomorrow. Wednesday looks like a grand summer day. Late in the week we may pick up a few more showers, but the long range reports are leaning towards the end of week cold front stalling just north of us and giving us plenty of rain free riding time Thursday and Friday.

 

The early birds are getting ready to mount for the first ride as I write this. I’m off on my way to the airport to pick up Alessia, and Pij is due by car anytime. We’ll have a formal lesson and video tape session after they get here. Pictures to come by early afternoon.

 

Sunday, late evening:

“Hi Pij!” See you in the morning!

Three of our adult week students arrived early and two more, Pij and Alessia, are coming in tomorrow morning. We just got home from dinner in town with the early birds and staff.

 

More Than You Maybe Want to Know About Setting Jumps?

I’ve got a few late pictures at this link. I took them while we were setting up the “road line” of jumps, which we like to have looking just right. And “just right”, means just right. There are several ways to set up lines of jumps suitable for a horse show or serious training. A) The wrong way. There are some trainers and stables that have no clue of proper striding and spacing for lines of jumps. B) The “good enough” way. A good trainer or experienced rider can walk off a line if they’ve trained themselves to walk courses. They can set up a line of two or more fences so that they appear to be well in alignment, and are close enough to be ridden with the expected striding. I’m pretty good at this after a lifetime of setting up horse shows and training jumpers. If I “walk a line” to set it up, it will work just fine and it will be “close” to the spacing I plan. Close, but not perfect. I walked a line and set two poles as we were starting to set up the line in the pictures. I wanted the two poles marking where the jumps should be set up to be 96’ apart. After I walked the distance, I measured with a 100’ tape measure – turned out to be 95’. I am not always that good, but I’m not bad. Still, I would never trust even my own paces to set up a line in a horse show. C) The RIGHT way to set up a line: begins with measuring out the desired spacing with a tape measure as step #1, 96’ in the case of the seven stride line we were setting up today. But that’s just the beginning of getting it “right”. Step #2 is to measure the distance off the rail or edge of the arena that the two jumps will be set, assuming you want them parallel with the edge of the arena. In one of the pictures, you’ll see an extra jump rail set next to the rail we are measuring in the background. We used that rail to make sure that both jumps being set are exactly the same distance from the arena edge. Even a foot difference off of parallel is enough for your eye to see that something isn’t quite right. Finally we come to step # 3, checking that two fences in a line are truly parallel AND centered on one another. You can measure how far apart in a line two jumps might be until you’re blue in the face, but they might still not be centered on one another. In geometry (very useful in course design), you want to be able to draw a rectangle described by the two jumps in the line at two ends of the rectangle, and lines connecting down the left side of both jumps, and another line connecting the right side of the jumps. All four corners of the rectangle should be 90 degrees. It is very easy to set two jumps, measure a distance (like our 96’ today) between the jumps, but if you drew a plan looking down on the two jumps and connected them together with lines at the edges, you might have a parallelogram and not a rectangle, if you follow what I mean.

 

The only proper way to be sure your two jumps are aligned and centered on one another is to measure diagonally between the corners of the two jumps, as shown in the pictures. You have to measure these diagonals and then keep adjusting the poles until the distance between the two diagonals is identical, offering a geometric “proof” that you have a rectangle and not a parallelogram. Look at the pictures, and you’ll get it. Do we go through all this trouble every time we set jumps at Longacres? No, but we do for shows.

 

Horsies Playing Rough – Beautiful, but Scary!

The horses were very quiet much of the day, since it was pretty warm. But just as we pulled into the barn after dinner, it had cooled off a lot, and some of the horses were feeling pretty frisky. VERY frisky! Merlin and Tux were going around and around the pasture at a flat out gallop, leaping and bucking as though they were trying to prove which one was the wildest dude in the pasture, which maybe was exactly what they were doing. Maybe once each lap they’d kick out and instigate one of more of the other horses to get involved, but most of the others were content just to eat their hay. Merlin, especially, looked like he was getting five feet in the air and twisting nearly sideways while he was airborne. It was gorgeous to watch, but our hearts were in our throats for fear that one of the horses might slip and get seriously hurt. After watching a few laps, we threw in some fresh hay and told them to calm down. It is really unbelievable what an athletic horse can do when he’s just free and loose and having a good time!

 

Sunday, May 30^th, 8AM Update:

Happy Birthdays to former LA student Andrea B. and to Jill M!

We’re going to have another active day here at Longacres enjoying the results of all our work this spring. We’ll have lots of riders today, with visits from Winky, Sydney, and Deb H. joining Shelly and Jessica in the saddle. The only work left to do today is setting up the three road line jumps after we touch up the grass one final time. We’ll have pictures again later today after our visitors ride, for sure.

 

Noon Update:

I asked Meghan how she felt about our preparations for this season last night, and she thinks we’re the best prepared for opening day that we’ve ever been in the fifteen years she’s been at Longacres. Why? Meghan says she owes it partly to her foot surgery earlier this spring. Because she knew she couldn’t be superwoman and do everything herself, she planned better on scheduling and using helpers. We’ll take it. Meghan is actually planning on a “pre-season nap” this afternoon to rest up for our first students coming this evening!

 

Sydney and Debra are here and have ridden two sets of horses already today!

 

5PM Update:

Check this link for some afternoon pictures from today. We had lots of visitors, with Winky, Sydney, and Deb joining Jessica and Shelly riding. Andrea B. stopped by on her birthday today to visit and told us good stories and showed pictures of how well Cali is doing as a jumper out on the PHA circuit. Way to go, Andrea!

 

Sharon and Anne Catherine have both safely arrived for adult week and we’re all headed out to dinner together in an hour. More later.

 

Saturday, May 29^th, 10PM Update:

We’re Ready for YOU!

We are. After dinner we had everything on our pre-season “to do” lists checked off. We resorted to busy work or little extra finishing touches. Jessica gave the horses some extra hay, Shelly took a bareback ride on her own pony; I grabbed a pair of pruning shears and went for an ATV ride on the trails just having fun trimming back stray pricker bush branches. Meghan deserted us and went to Target to pick up some fresh new shower mats for the wash room. Tomorrow we’re actually going to have time to rest before our first guests arrive in the evening and Monday morning.

 

We’ll have time to rest, but we probably won’t. Even when the work lists are done, there’s always something more that needs doing around a horse farm. While she picks up the shower mats tonight, Meghan is having Office Max print 400 copies of the Summer Series horse show newsletter. We are already a week or so late getting it mailed, so tomorrow will probably be fold, staple, and stamp day for the newsletter. We’ll post the link to it tomorrow. The first show of the summer season is next week, and we plan to go!

 

Check this link for a few pictures from today. I think Meghan has more coming later. Mine show some of the horses in pasture late this afternoon and a coule of shots of me sharpening the big mower blades so it will cut extra smooth tomorrow morning for the final trim before we open for the season. (Speaking of cutting grass, if you meet maintenance guru Joel during the next few weeks and shake hands with him, he is NOT trying to play some trick on you with a buzzer in his palm. It’s just his hands still shaking after running a heavy duty weed wacker for 12 straight hours today!)

 

We’re really looking forward to seeing Sharon and Anne Catherine again tomorrow night, and to meeting Pij and Alessia. Should be a fun week!

 

Saturday, May 29^th, 11AM Update:

“Rolex” looks great!

New student Alessia’s private horse, Rolex, arrived late last night and settled right into our barn. He’s a very calm, gentlemanly horse – HANDSOME, too! Check out this link for a few pictures from this morning around the farm, including some of Rolex. Alessia vanned him all the way from Florida for her two weeks with us, and he looks like he is worth it.

 

We’re really ready to open for the season right now, but we’re doing more little trimming and straightening up today and tomorrow morning. Also continuing to work the horses. We hope to have everything perfect by lunchtime tomorrow and then just relax for the afternoon so we’re cheerful and ready for our new students this week!

 

Weather Report:

We do follow weather closely! (I once was a weather man for the cruising fleet in the northern Bahamas, so I’ve always been a student of forecasting.) Bottom line here at Longacres is that we’re too dry and need rain. We’re probably going to get a little. The details of the forecast for this week are pretty good if they hold up. Great weather today and tomorrow to finish our opening weekend work. Nice on Monday morning when our adult students start, but clouding up and possible rain late in the day. We’ll work introducing all the new horses and going over barn rules if it rains late in the day, and hope to ride anyway in between showers.

 

The most rain is likely to fall overnight Monday night and end by mid morning Tuesday, which would be great timing. Weather looks very good for much of Tuesday, then wonderful and in the 70’s for Wednesday and Thursday. 40% chance of showers in the long term forecast for Friday, but that’s a long way out to worry about. The perfect summer riding season includes rain at night every four or five days. We could be off to a good start this week!

 

Friday, May 28^th, 10PM Update:

Words of Wisdom

“Also , when we do the warm-up we make it as complex as possible - lot of circles, serpentines, gait changes, walking or trotting over cross-rails - this seems to engage his brain in a way that doesn't allow the worries to flood in.”

 

The above is part of a report from the rider of one of our horses returning from winter lease. The message came in today and it’s interesting timing, since we’re having a staff meeting over the weekend reviewing changes in our lesson plans for the 2010 season. One of my top priorities for this year is that our instructors make warm-up time at the beginning of lessons much more thought provoking for both horse and rider than it has often been in the past.

 

Too often, a warm-up period is just treated as “dead time” – a boring stint you have to go through before you get to the interesting part of the ride. Most of you long time readers of the Longacres Blog know that we believe the foundation of a good ride includes a number of “building blocks” used to build trust, respect, and communication between horse and rider. Those “building blocks” include properly taking your horse out of his stall; demanding that he respect you and proving to him that he can trust you while grooming and tacking up; maintaining good control as you lead your horse to the mounting area; and one of the most important, properly and gently mounting while maintaining FULL control. Then the warm-up session should include everything implied by the “words of wisdom” from the winter horse home rider quoted at the top of the page!

 

Each and every one of the “building blocks” in the above paragraph is an important part of the foundation of a successful ride. If you create one of those building blocks carelessly, or leave one out, there is a crack in your foundation. There will be less respect and two way communication between you and your mount for the day.

 

One of the really nice things about working to do a careful job of putting together the building blocks and foundation of a good ride is that you don’t have to be a particularly accomplished rider to do these basics competently. You just have to be careful, patient, and willing to do some of the steps over again two, three, or even ten times until you and the horse get them right.

 

If we at Longacres can give our 2010 students a good understanding of the foundation steps in getting ready for a ride and having a good “warm-up” session, we’ll have given you something of lasting value. Read those “Words of Wisdom” one more time. You’ll be hearing them stated in different ways many times over while you’re at Longacres. We were even talking at dinner tonight trying to come up with a catchy name for our 2010 “warm-up sessions”. Something like “spaghetti warm-ups” or “pretzel warm-ups” to get across the idea that every rider in a warm-up should keep her horse paying attention only to her rider, and should be constantly bending, changing pace, and going through various kinds of transitions. Your horse should know that it’s being “ridden” during the warm-up session, not taking you for a “ride”. We often do our warm-up sessions in the “Hill Top” riding area near where we mount. Every summer, a well defined track is beaten in the grass where one horse follows the others during “lazy, mindless rider warm-up” time. Not this summer. I will be a happy man in August if I can look at the “Hill Top” riding area and see the almost two million or so hoof beats from the season spread evenly over every inch of that arena, with no single bare packed track, proving that thinking riders making their horses go where they are asked in an imaginative routine have spent the summer working here.

 

(For Bonus Credit: Do the math and explain your own estimate of how many hoof beats fall on our warm-up area during the course of the summer.)

 

 

Friday, May 28^th, 6PM Update:

More coming later. It’s been a really busy day putting the finishing touches on everything. All the jumps are up except the three along the road which will go up on Sunday after a final mowing. People are planting flowers, both real and silk, all over.

 

Whitley is much better today, but Neek-o is still off – we do think he got kicked in pasture, even though there is no mark on him.

 

All our horses are now back from winter lease, and they all look great.

 

Meghan and I took an ATV ride around every inch of the farm and all the trails this afternoon, just to enjoy how nicely everything is looking. (It takes a LONG time to cover every inch of Longacres, even on an ATV!)

 

More news and pictures later tonight. ( Some of Meghan’s afternoon pics around the barn and the “crew” working at this link now.)

 

Jessica is riding a LOT! She’s been on many times already today and is planning to try to get on three more horses after dinner!

 

Thursday, May 27^th, 4PM Update:

Jumps are Going Up!

Meghan has a crew of eight people down at the show fields setting jumps this afternoon. Check this link for a few pictures. It is hot, heavy work and yes, that is new worker Katie W. smiling as she carries jump poles! A good worker.

(I just got a call from Meghan’s cell, and she says the “crew” is being phenomenal!! The jumps are just flyin’ up!)

 

Random Thoughts

Photography – YES, we take a lot of pictures at Longacres. Over 30,000 in the past two summers. I was recently asked what kind of cameras we use here and for a recommendation of a “good” camera for horse pictures. Most experienced photographers would agree that “the Best camera” is the camera you happen to have with you when you need it. So unless you really plan to carry a backpack with expensive cameras, an assortment of lens and other accessories around all the time, you may find that like me, you end up not infrequently using iPhone pictures. At least that’s in my pocket all the time. And with good light and a subject not moving much, you can get some nice shots. There are a couple of pictures of beds of wild flowers along the trails that I took with my iPhone in today’s album.

 

Once you do have some kind of camera with you ready when it’s needed, probably the most important thing is to be very familiar with whatever camera you’re using. Meghan almost always uses a 7 or 8 year old Sony digital. It was a top of the line Sony consumer camera when it came out (Sony 717), but it is ancient now. But Meghan is very, very used to it and she’s learned to time the shutter lag and very often nail jumping pictures perfectly. She much prefers it to my more modern DSLR, and it works for her.

 

Popular camera companies are coming out with better and more user friendly pocket digital cameras all the time and some of them are pretty good at action shots. But if you’re serious about action sports photography, you’re probably going to want a digital reflex camera (DSLR). The higher end Canon and Nikon lines are very popular with pro photographers, and you can’t go wrong with their stuff. I had a lot of good Nikon equipment back in my film camera days, but a bunch of it was stolen one time, so I got into Minolta film cameras. Eventually they were discontinued and then bought out by Sony to begin the Sony Alpha line of DSLR’s. I went in that direction since I had a little Minolta stuff that would work with the Sony’s, and I’ve always had good luck with Sony electronics, especially their video cameras which we use a lot of at Longacres.

 

I have a Sony 700a camera and a couple of good lens setups, including a 70-200 f2.8 that I use for many of the show ring pictures. Owning a horse camp is a very nice excuse for a photographer to accumulate good stuff.

 

Murphy’s Law – the Mechanical Kind:

Anything that can go wrong eventually will, and probably at the most inconvenient possible moment – you know the old saying. You know that I mow grass for several hours every day and that I plan to be in the tractor probably a good part of the weekend to have all the riding areas looking sharp for opening day. Wouldn’t you know, but the big commercial mower sprung a leak on the main oil seal yesterday. I really should get it into the tractor repair shop for an overhaul, but we just can’t be without it the next few days. So far, I’m getting by stopping and adding oil every hour or two. It seems to be holding up and not getting much worse in the past day. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

 

Murphy’s Law – the Horse Kind:

We take it for granted at a farm like Longacres that horses will have issues, hopefully not too serious over the summer. But it is surely an example of Murphy’s Law that we would have problems with two horses this morning and that they would be two of our three most promising new horses at Longacres for the first time! Whitley was scheduled for new shoes from the farrier this week, and sure enough, he threw one in pasture last night. It came off twisted and he is a little gimpy this morning. We find no real harm, but he was probably bruised when the shoe came off. Hopefully he’ll be all better in a day or two. Neek-o was the other victim, this time a mystery problem. He seems to be a very tough pony. He’s been full of energy the whole time we’ve had him. And he just showed up a little off this morning, we think a sore shoulder. Again, we see no good reason for him to be off, and hope he just got bumped in pasture or something and that he’ll be good with a day or two of rest. Horses!

 

Thursday, May 27^th, 10AM Update:

4 More Days!

The big show field was freshly mowed last night in preparation for setting up the jumps today through Saturday. Our signature “Road Line” will be mowed a final time Sunday morning before those three jumps go up so it will be really fresh looking for our new arriving students. I’m heading down to the barn after posting this update to show the crew where to set the jumps for the first week. They’ll be moved every week to put them on fresh turf. We’ll be jumping a little bit on the big outside course every day this coming week, and the feature at the end of the week will be jumping a long, Derby like course in the field.

 

I have to mow the small show ring one more time before the jumps go up there this afternoon.

 

Check this link for a number of pictures we took yesterday of Quantum, Boo, Brownie, and Rocky returning from their winter lease homes. They’re all in great shape. Merlin came in very late last night looking WONDERFUL – thanks, Winky!

 

We have several friends of Longacres coming on the weekend to help exercise horses. Give us a call if any more of you can make it. Pre-season riding like this is one of the few “freebies” you get out of Longacres! Keep us in mind for next year if you might like a whole week of pre-season exercise riding. You can come for half price and spend the week. Jessica L. has been here from Colorado this week getting in LOTS of riding and being a big help to us.

 

We’re in good shape on getting all our facilities in shape for the season opening in four days. Today we begin the cooks serving practice meals to our “guinea pigs” from the barn crew. We need to make sure all the kitchen procedures are going smoothly.

 

Wednesday, May 26, 10PM Update:

I turned in early tonight, so I won’t know for sure until morning, but I think Jessica and Shelly had a moonlight ride on the show field tonight. I hope they did it, since it is one of those really lovely still moonlit nights. We only get in a couple of these rides a summer, since we have to have a nearly full moon and clear skies. We’ve got both tonight!

 

Lots of good things happened around the farm today. Five more horses came back from their winter leases, and they all look great. Jessica and Shelly seemed like they were in especially good moods today. They’ve gotten to know each other in the few days Jess has been here, and Jessica is getting more used to all the riding time. She was beat at the end of the day yesterday! Six or seven rides a day is a LOT of riding!

 

Meghan has worked through a number of part time helpers the past month and has kept just the best of them for this final push to oen the farm for the season. We had dinner together tonight and we both commented on how it seems so much nicer to be killing ourselves with hard work this month when we’ve got such great people working with us. It feels like we’re all on a team and that everybody working here now cares very much that the jobs don’t just get done, but that they get done right. I wish we could afford to keep this whole crew on all summer. Actually, many of the people working full time now will be working part time all summer. Some around the farm daily and others helping at horse shows.

 

It helps that we know most of the people working for us right now pretty well. Sayer and Taylor are neighbors and have worked for us at this time of the season for years while they were teenagers, and they’re getting all grown up now. Joel is a veteran at Longacres, and Katie is another young neighborhood teen who just started for us, and who is doing a really good job. And, of course, Katie counselor, Shelly, and Jessica are invaluable. Others help when they’re available, but the ones I just mentioned are being really wonderful this week! (Dee is about to start her other summer job, but what a worker while she helped us open things up!)

 

Wednesday, May 26^th, 10AM Update:

Things are Looking Good!

Indeed, they are, which gives me a bit of a breather today. The only jobs for me today on Meghan’s planner are going out and picking up flats of flowers for landscaping the entrances and next to the barn, and then checking the spacing on some of the jumps which will be set up this afternoon. My pre-season responsibilities are mostly for the grounds and trails. Everything is freshly mowed as of today and ready for the final trimming this weekend right before you guys come for adult week on Sunday and Monday. We’ll have things looking tip-top for you!

 

Meghan’s responsibilities (for EVERYTHING else!) are all on schedule, as well, but she definitely does not have any “breathers” built into her schedule the next few days. She has a big crew of part time workers on and all of them have jobs scheduled by the hour for the next three or four days.

 

All this scheduling of jobs to get the farm ready to open has put me to thinking a little this week as I spend time in my tractor mowing and trimming. Thinking about Longacres history and the way we’ve changed over the years. And it’s been quite a few years, with this summer marking our 72^nd season in the same family. Longacres regulars know that as a baby, my cradle was in Pixie-Oakwood cabin, which is still in use today as a guest cottage.

 

Longacres has been a horse oriented summer camp from the very beginning in 1939 when we borrowed three horses from a local horse trader and led them a mile down the road to ride for the day on our athletic field and then led them back at the end of the day. The next year, in 1940 (before the Second World War!), we built a short fence down the middle of a field and kept three or four horses overnight, tying them to that fence during the night.

 

Longacres grew in size over the years, and we kept getting more horses. By the early 1970’s we were one of the largest riding camps in the country and we were definitely known as a “riding camp”. At our peak in size, we had 150 students, nearly 70 on the staff, and more than 80 horses. But big is not necessarily better. I’ll never forget the excitement of running a very big camp program with all those horses. But over the 20 years between 1970 and 1990, we several times chose to make big cuts in our enrollment while we improved the riding program. By 1990, you would recognize the Longacres riding program as similar to the one we offer today. We had a very small enrollment of true horse lovers who wanted to do nothing but ride and take care of horses. And we offered an advanced riding program and frequent horse shows. I was proud of what we were doing and the shows we sponsored. But we were still a “summer camp like” operation. Although I think we did a remarkable job of simulating a year round show stable environment, we did it all very quickly during one week before our summer season opened.

 

We could have taken more time and had horses here for more than a week before the farm opened for the summer at the end of June, but it was our tradition, passed down from my great aunt and my grandmother, to plan all our preparations for a week before the season. All our horses were leased out (as they are today), and they were due back right before we opened. Counselors came in a week early and all helped paint jumps, clean the barn, make sure all the horse tack fit, and try to ride each horse just a little to make sure they were OK. It was a whirlwind of a week. And part of what we told new students back then was, “We’re not a year round stable. If you come during the first two weeks of the summer, you’ll have some feisty horses to ride, and we’ll still be getting the kinks out of our operation.” Some students really liked being here during the first two weeks of July when the horses were very fresh and full of it. Some preferred to come in August when everything was running smoothly after a month of operation.

 

Which brings me full circle to the beginning of today’s article about all the preparations we’ve been making for the season and about Meghan’s work list in her planner. Gradually over the time that Meghan was been doing more and more of the management of Longacres, we’ve done more and more pre-season preparations. No more whirlwind of activity for one week before we opened for an eight week traditional summer camp season. We now run four weeks of June camp “pre-season” weeks and clinics, when none existed just fifteen years ago. We begin preparations for the summer at the end of March and our horses begin coming back a month before Adult Week. A job like Shelly’s was unheard of at Longacres until more recently. Shelly is paid to ride 6 or 7 times a day schooling and conditioning horses, something that we let our first week students do pretty much on the fly until ten or fifteen years ago.

 

As recently as seven or eight years ago, we ran only one pre-season week, a mother-daughter week right at the end of June. Families we knew used to come for that week at half price and spend much of the week helping paint jumps, plant flowers, and even clean cabins. (I actually rather enjoyed the atmosphere of those semi-volunteer weeks, since everyone there was pitching in with enthusiasm and it was fun.) Now, Meghan has a large crew of part time and seasonal workers paid by the hour to clean cobwebs out of the barn, paint jumps, plant flowers, and all the other little things needed to prepare the farm for the season. When we open for adult week next Monday morning, Longacres will be better painted, trimmed, cleaned, and the horses will be better adjusted and prepared than we ever were in the old days on our official season opening day at the end of June. And there will be four weeks to go before “regular camp” opens on June 27^th. By that time at the end of June, we won’t be opening a summer camp barn at the last minute. We’ll be opening the July sessions with a fully operating show barn that will be as organized as most year round show stables. That’s quite a change from the “good old days” when we were more of a traditional summer camp opening quickly at the last minute.

 

We thank our students coming for each of the four weeks in June this year. Longacres is ready for you. But you are all an important part of the process of getting the horses and the farm operating smoothly for the 2010 summer season. Can’t wait to see some of you in a few days!

 

Tuesday, May 25^th Update:

We took some more pictures this afternoon which will be posted here in an hour or two. It feels almost like the season has started this afternoon, with four riders mounted. Counselor Katie, counselor Shelly, Jessica the early bird student, and Griffy, the local alumni are all riding right now. Meghan has a big crew of workers on today transporting jumps from the painting area up to the show fields and painting more.

 

The castle jump is being all primed today so we can start putting the final colors on during the rest of the week. The only trouble with building more grand jumps like the castle is that soon we’re going to have to build an additional barn just to store the jumps in the winter! Our present barn is now 2/3 full of nothing but jumps during the off season. Meghan also plans to hire a couple of part time workers to come in regularly and help move jumps around the show field so the grass doesn’t get killed completely where the big jumps sit. So many little things to worry about in managing a farm.

 

Regular readers know that one of the things we don’t particularly like about “Voldemort” is that so much communication there is trivial and one line comments. We do really enjoy getting long emails from friends of Longacres, and with her permission, I’m posting below a really well written and interesting message from new Longacres rider, Sophie L. Sophie is coming for the month of July and she’s considering taking a Longacres horse home for the winter. We encourage people interested in leasing our horses to let us know as much as possible about what they’re looking for. That’s what Sophie’s writing about in the following message. We loved her description. (I especially liked her description of the “perfect horse” living on some clouds with the unicorns – great writing!)

 

“Hi Meghan!

 

            I'm looking for a pretty safe horse. Quiet over jumps. Something I might be able to do some showing with at home. A bit more on the slow side would be nice. I would prefer the horse to be pretty consistent, too, for showing. Also, I'm pretty petit. Just now hitting maybe 5' as a 13 year old so I might want either a large pony of a small horse. 

            I can handle pretty much anything for ground manners. (I leased one horse who wouldn't let you lead him at all, tack him up, or sometimes even step within a four foot radius of him.) But, come to think of it, I wouldn't really want a horse who will decide to jump on and kick me at random moments, but I doubt that is much of an issue.                 I'm not hugely into horses who rush to a dangerous point where its almost impossible to stop them unless you run them into a fence... but there aren't many horses that I wouldn't fall in love with for any bad traits, whether it be ground manners or riding behavior. I even have a tendency to fall in love with the worst horses, so you never know! I know this criteria probably narrows it down to the perfect horse who lives on some cloud with the unicorns, so you don't have to find a horse that fits all this... I''ll pretty much take anyone and it would be nice if they posses any one of these traits.

            I've found that I have much more fun riding the less expensive, yet more valuable horses from my previous camp, then i've had riding the show ponies at my barn (who are often more problematic, and outrageously expensive!) so this seemed like a great opportunity since i've always wanted to take one of the horses home from my old camp. It's a possibility now! 

            Longacres is just about all I can think about right now (even though I should be studying for finals!). I am SO excited! 34 days! Almost a month away!

 

-Sophie L.”

 

Monday, May 24^th Update:

Anyone else want an album of pictures posted on the rotating pictures? I put the all Kellie album up as a joke when she prodded me to change the pictures after almost two months. But I kind of like the idea of personal albums. Who wants to see a collection of pictures of YOU on horses at Longacres?

 

We had another busy day, since we have students coming next weekend! I spent much of the day working on the office driveway. The job is finally finished and it looks very good. Check some pics at this link.

 

I did take time out from tractor work to help Jessica school Jazz and Neek-o over fences. We worked on getting striding for short lines with small jumps. Both horses are getting the idea very well.

 

Gary the jump builder delivered the final truck load of Castle Parts today and he spent an hour setting it all up down next to the barn. Parts of the Castle are higher than the eves on the barn roof! Still no pictures, since Meghan wants to get some of it painted before we start showing you panorama views of the whole thing.

 

We might go to Kone King tonight if anyone has any energy left. The girls did a LOT of riding today and it is getting summer warm, so it is tiring.

 

And with clear weather this week and a nearly full moon, they might do a moonlight ride. There may still be a near full moon next Monday when the adult week students are here, so we’ll see if they want a night ride also.

 

I think Meghan took a bunch of horse pictures today, and when I see her, I’ll load them at this link later on.

 

PS – Meghan wants it known that she was only four minutes late for our dinner – movie date Sunday afternoon, and rather than the four hours together that she had in her planner, we actually got to be together relaxing for five hours and twenty minutes!!!!!

 

Sunday, 11PM Update:

I did enjoy a nice dinner with Meghan after the movie. We saw parts of “Ocean”, but both of us fell asleep for some of it and we took turns waking each other up! That’s part of the cost of our summer work schedule.

 

Shelly and Jessica got in a lot of riding today. Jessica admitted that she was tired by the end of the day with all that riding. But she stayed cheerful.

 

The farm is beginning to look REALLY good, if I do say so myself! We will have everything trimmed to perfection when the adult week students arrive on Sunday and Monday. We’re also very pleased with the condition of all the horses coming back from their winter leases. Even Bobert, who we had planned to retire before the end of this summer, is looking better than we expected, and we may keep him one more year. Brownie is now as old as the hills, but he won all kinds of ribbons for his young rider in a show last week, so who knows how long he’ll still be working. We will at least treat him with lots of TLC and a light schedule.

 

I am quite excited by the progress Gary, the jump guy, is making on the castle jump. Meghan won’t let me post pictures of all the pieces since they are not painted yet, and she thinks you might be disappointed. She did give me permission to post some small pictures of details of the castle. Check this link. The little door opens on one wall of the castle, and all 2010 Longacres students are going to be able to sign their names inside the door and permanently be part of the Longacres Castle!

 

Sunday, May 23^rd, 2PM Update:

It’s been a very busy day so far, so you’ll have to wait until tonight for a more detailed update. But the good news is that Star and Lincoln came back from their winter home this afternoon looking GREAT! Wait until you see the pictures of Lincoln at the end of the album at this link!!

 

More pictures and news coming this evening. Jessica’s lost luggage arrived this morning. So far none of the rain forecast for today – it’s been a bright, sunny day.

 

PS – The Castle Jump is going to be AWESOME!!!!!

 

PPS – I actually got work-a-holic Meghan to agree to budget four hours in her planner to go to a movie and dinner with me this afternoon and relax. BUT, she was supposed to be ready to leave right NOW, and she is still out on the farm working, so I’ll believe it when I see it.

 

Saturday, May 22^nd, 9PM Update:

Jessica is here safely!

We just went out to dinner at Pasquale’s with Jessica, Shelly, Meghan, and I for the first of many Saturday night Pasquale’s dinners this summer, and probably the smallest. Sometimes when parents are here for a show, we have as many as 25 or more people! Jessica will sleep well tonight – she got up at 4AM to fly half way across the country with several flight delays. But she’ll be on horses tomorrow (lots of them!), and that should make up for the long trip.

 

Check this link for a couple of pictures of Jessica with Shelly and Meghan. Plus a couple of bonus pictures of Tom’s various drainage and landscaping projects. Come on, you know you really want to keep up with all those jobs!

 

Saturday, May 22^nd, 1PM Update:

Happy Birthday to Petra!

Our first official 2010 student, Jessica, is arriving from Colorado in about three hours for “pre-pre-season riding week. Jessica is planning to be a counselor in Training this summer, and she’ll get a good start this week. Shelly is really pleased that she’ll have someone to share the riding with this week, since we’re getting horses in every day. Hope you’re in shape to ride lots, Jessica! You should get in a lot of hours this week.

 

Check a few early pictures from this morning at this link. We’re having a bit of a grey day with some off and on rain, but by tomorrow afternoon it will be clearing up and Jessica and Shelly will have sunny, summery weather all week long for lots of horse training. My pictures include one of a favorite flowering shrub out in the woods. The pink flowers in front of white blossoms from some other trees brighten my day when I drive by going to and from the office. There’s also a picture of me organizing my tools a bit – nice that we are caught up enough on work so that I can take time off to put up racks for some of my tools that had been living in piles in boxes!

 

Two more pictures show that the barn is becoming a very active place with lots of cars and a horse van parked at the top of the hill as people come and go bringing horses and working on projects. Check out the pasture, which is rapidly filling up.

 

And there is another album of pictures from Meghan’s camera at this link, including a picture of Ebony, who looks quite good and behaved well in her training session yesterday, and of Zanee, who just arrived from South Carolina looking wonderful! Thanks, Natasha!

 

Friday, May 21^st, 6:30 PM Update:

Looks like Meghan has solved the gas problem; she uses more diplomacy than I am able to muster for this kind of challenge! A foreman is on his way out to turn the gas back on tonight. Supposedly.

 

On a happier note, Shelly was on her day off as of 5PM. She will be up at the house soon with access to her email and “Valdemort” account. She has worked and ridden hard all week. Try to hook up with her or email or “Wall” her tonight. See if you can get her to admit that she’s TIRED! After riding 7 times most days, she should be, though she says she’s enjoying it! Not a bad job for a horse lover, huh?

 

Friday, May 21^st, 6Pm Update:

Colossal Incompetence! – a Rant

You can skip this if you’re not interested in all the little behind the scenes stuff we go through to run a horse camp. But we are steamed at the gas company (NA Fuel) that supplies the natural gas for our hot water and cooking. Regular readers may remember a related story on our blog from about this time last spring when we had a small gas leak on the line supplying the dining hall and we had to do a major service update, rather than just fix the leak. We didn’t like that at the time, but when they were done with the work, we thought that was the end of it. Not so!

 

Turns out the gas company construction department did not communicate well with the meter department. They had our gas turned on, but the office thought it was off. In the fall when I called to have the gas turned off for the winter, they told me it was “already turned off”. I tried to tell them they were wrong, but never argue with a clerk in front of computer screen. Fast forward to this spring when we called to tell them we were ready for summer gas service again. Guess what? The gas company has now charged Tom with “theft” of $257.00 worth of gas because of their error. If we weren’t so busy right now, it would be funny.

 

The matter should be resolved over the weekend and in the meantime Shelly and Jessica can shower at the main house. Hopefully, Tom won’t have to serve time for gas theft! Longacres has been a customer of this company for seventy-two years and they think I’d try to steal $257 of gas. Amazing.

 

Friday, 3PM Update:

Happy Birthday, Ofelia!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!! J

Wish you were HERE on your birthday to ride 7 times during the day, like Shelly is! Have a good celebration with your family.

 

It is feeling more and more like we’re open for the 2010 season. Counselor/Camp Manager Katie pulled in this afternoon with her own horse, Abby. Pictures at this link. And UPS delivered a package that looks like a saddle for Jessica from Colorado, who is arriving tomorrow afternoon for five weeks of riding.

 

Friday, Noon Update:

- - But He was Good Today!

As bad as he was yesterday, Tux was that good today. And that’s why we bring our horses back to Longacres early and have a strong rider like Shelly to work them and school them before all our students arrive for the season. Tux was down right bad yesterday, especially when we separated him from the other horses. But we turned him out with Diesel in pasture last night and they ran around some. Today Shelly began by working hi right next to the barn where he could hear Ebony. He was good there. So I walked with Shelly and Tux up to the sand ring and led him part way so he would not feel alone. Then Shelly and I worked him at a walk and trot and then walking first and finally trotting over ground poles. No problems at all. He was lazy, if anything!

 

So we set up X-rail and low verticle jumps. Tux trotted over them all and was so quiet that we had to canter him into the verticle before he finally jumped instead of just trotting over. He was an angel. (Of course, we did whisper to him at the beginning of the ride that there would be serious consequences if he was bad again!) Check some Tux pics at this link.

 

And for you guys on Valdemort trying to choose a name for Giant Ginger, here are a few pictures of that new horse.

 

Friday May 21^st Update:

Bad Tux!

Most of our horses are calming down and behaving very well during their spring conditioning and training rides. Not tux. He was really awful yesterday, doing everything you could imagine a naughty horse doing to avoid going up to be ridden by himself away from the other horses and from his friend Ebony. I am confident that he will be better when he is ridden with other horses. It was really a herd bound behavior. But we don’t like it when horses misbehave. We are working on him.

 

We’ll also busy checking bits and ordering some new ones so we have appropriate tack for all the horses that we’re working.

 

Personally, my jobs today are mostly out in the woods on the trails. I’ve got trimming to do and drainage pipes to install.

 

Meghan’s working on dining hall and kitchen stuff. We took the winter shutters off all the dining hall windows last night and it looks much more like camp is ready to open!

 

More this afternoon. We’ve got to go down to the barn and work with the farrier right now.

 

Keep up the work on finding a name for the “Giant Ginger”. Go to Valdemort, “that social networking site that shall not be named”, and join the Longacres people busily discussing possible names for the new horse! They have come up with several ideas already.

 

Check this link for some new Jazz jumping pics from last night’s training session. More very good progress and a little bigger jump than earlier in the week.

 

Thursday, May 20^th, 5PM Update:

New Horse – a “Giant Ginger”!

Meghan just got home from signing the contract on another new horse for Longacres this summer, and GUESS WHAT?!?!? We’re going to ask you guys who hang out on Valdemort to pick a name for her! Her barn name is Pearl, and she’s a warm blood cross, we’re told. We have not measured her ourselves yet, but she is supposed to be over 16 hands, and she does really look like a “Giant Ginger”, same all chestnut coloring as Ginger pony. We’ve seen her ridden by an average intermediate rider and she seems kind and forgiving. She should be a horse that a lot of people can ride. She’s a 13 year old mare. We understand that Micayla rode this horse in lessons a few times in her old stable, so she might be able to tell you guys something about her.

 

SO get together on that wonderful social networking site, “Valdemort”, and try to come up with a good name for this next new Longacres horse. Meghan says, “This one’s for you guys to name.” Meghan has enjoyed naming the first horses she bought this year, but she’s glad to share the fun. We’ll post a few pictures soon. Today’s Jazz video at this link now.

 

Thursday, May 20^th, 1PM Update:

Gravel

There are many measures of how well a farm is maintained. One of them is to check and see how much money the farm spends every season dumping gravel on the ground where it will disappear quickly and the results will only be noticed by a trained eye. By that measure, we do a pretty good job at Longacres. I must admit that I am a little extreme in my distaste for ruts and potholes on farm roads. We could get by with spending less money on roads and horse trails. But I enjoy the work and enjoy the results. Meghan tells me I have “an unlimited budget” for gravel for roads and landscaping. She better be careful making offers like that, since I could easily blow through $20,000 or $30,000 in a month if someone gave me a blank check for road and trail repair. Meghan will be sending back new horses to pay for my gravel if she keeps that offer open!

 

New Horses

Speaking of new horses, Jazz is doing well. Shelly made great progress calming her down the first two days she was here, and Bethany gave the horse a really good training session last night. In just two days we got her to stop “over-jumping”, and she’s much more relaxed. I took a video of Shelly riding Jazz this morning which I will post in a couple of hours after it finishes coding on the computer at this link.

 

Thursday, May 20^th Update:

Tux and Ebony arrived from Texas at 12:40 AM looking alert and glad to be off the trailer after the long trip. They’ll get mostly a day of rest today, except for a short ride to make sure they don’t have any aches or pains from the long ride. We’ll get some pictures for you sometime today. The truckers were friends of Kellie’s trainer in Texas, and we really liked them. We’ll be giving out their name for very long distance trucking in the future for trips longer than our regular trucker, Frank, might want to take.

 

The Plague Strikes Again:

Amanda and Meghan both seem to have caught the bug going around that I had a week ago. Amanda got sick right after I did and should be recovering in plenty of time for our final push to open next week. Meghan really just got sick yesterday. If you’re guessing that Meghan is pretty much ignoring being sick and barging straight ahead with all her work, you’d be right! I will try to make her cut back her hours a bit the next few days, but I’m not too optimistic. Still, she should have time to make a full recovery by the time we open at the end of next week. Just tough to be weakened right when we have the most urgent work to do around the farm. I’m glad I was the first to get sick – I feel pretty good again now! Trouble is I get tired faster than all the younger staff even when I’m at 100%!!

 

(Happy birthday to Renee from adult week last year, if you happen to read this Renee!)

 

The Crash!

No, not a horse crash – a radio control model plane crash. And it was a new experience for me. Not crashing – I do that often. But usually it’s from me starting to think I’m pretty good and doing tricks close to the ground or flying inverted. This time it was the attack of the black flies. I was happily flying my plane on the big field around the corner before breakfast yesterday when out of nowhere, a swarm of black flies attacked! The first couple were just an annoyance. But you need both hands to run the radio control for my airplane, so the only way I could brush off the flies was to shrug my shoulder and try to rub the flies off that way. I was OK for a moment, and then about five of the little critters flew in under my glasses and got in my eyes. I tried to steer the plane with one hand while I defended myself with the other, but by the time I got the bugs out of my eyes I had just time to look clearly at the plane spiraling into the ground and hear the solid “whump” as it crashed. L I’ll be able to glue it back together and I do have a spare plane. But I was bummed.

 

(BY the way, my spring “get back in shape diet” is going quite well, thank you very much. Getting the flu bug last week was a help! I’ve lost almost 8 pounds of the ten that were my target by the time we open next week. It will be close, but I think I’m going to make it.)

 

Wednesday, May 19^th, 11PM Update:

Ponies in One Hour!

Students in 11 Days!

The 2010 season at Longacres is getting very close now and it seems like we have deadlines a couple of times a day. One of them is coming in about an hour, when we have to go down to the barn at midnight to meet the van with Tux and Ebony arriving from Texas. Shelly will get to start her training day just a little later than normal tomorrow morning! The van drivers have done a good job staying in touch with us as they drove 1400 miles from Kellie’s farm in Texas. We hope the ponies will arrive in good shape. We’ll post pictures of them tomorrow morning, Kellie.

 

We have another album of pictures to post at this link from today. Some from Tom’s camera and some from Meghan’s. Meghan is showing off all the STUFF that she bought today to stock the barn for horse care for the summer. I don’t want to know how much she spent! It does make a pretty picture all spread out on the barn porch before being put away in the tack room and feed room. We have a lot coming together as we prepare for students and the official start of the 2010 season in 11 days!

 

There are also pictures showing many of the jumps spread out after being washed and painted. Pictures of all the grass riding areas looking very good, and of the sand ring in full use now.

 

There are also pictures of Bethany riding Jazz. She did a really great job with the horse and had her going very quietly by the end of her ride. (You would have loved to watch, Sharon!) Jazz wasn’t even over-jumping her fences (mostly, that is – you’ll find one where Bethany got left big time – even the very best riders get caught once in a while, especially on green horses.) It helped that Shelly had already worked with the horse twice today, both relaxing short sessions in the sand ring. We’ll probably do a video of Jazz tomorrow.

 

Bethany also rode Neek-o and it was the first time Meghan has had a chance to take a break and watch this horse go since he has been at Longacres. Meghan thinks Neek-o is well on his way to being exactly what she hoped he would be at Longacres – a cross between a Merlin and a Star! That would be very useful, indeed!

 

Uncle Billy visited this evening and spent time grazing Diesel and Whitley on the fresh spring grass. Then we all met up in town at Kone King on the way home.

 

Finally, there is a cute picture of the hard working Shelly just hanging out bareback on her horse, Jenna! One of Shelly’s very favorite things!

 

Wednesday, May 19^th Update:

More Jazz

The horse was much better than yesterday being tacked up in the barn. I worked together with Shelly to make her stand like a good girl at the mounting block. She was never bad, but not quite perfect. We got on and off several times and spent a lot of time making her walk up to the “purple” mounting block and just stand there while we handled her. A horse this big and strong must learn good manners.

 

She was just a little nervous starting out in the sand ring, but better than yesterday. Just about where we want her after only two days at Longacres. And when we let her work a little, she got better and better. First time we asked Jazz to canter, she picked up the wrong lead on the rail about four strides from the end of the ring. After just two strides she realized it was going to be a right turn and she popped off a perfect flying change all by herself. That’s a nice start to a day of training! We did mostly walk trot transitions and ground pole work. But near the end of our session we trotted her over a small X-rail twice, then worked her back at a walk and trot for five minutes, then cantered the X-rail two more times. I will let the pictures at this link speak for themselves! The horse is bold and willing and has a huge stride. She over-jumps huge, like many good horses without much jumping experience. A MUCH better fault than crashing through jumps or wanting to stop. The X-rail was maybe one foot high. Jazz was clearing three feet effortlessly.

 

It is too early to be sure that we can safely handle a horse like this in our program, but at her worst, Jazz has not been malicious. Just nervous about a new place, and very big and strong! We will be deciding in two more days if we should keep her. She has so much promise that it will be hard to send her back – but we want to be smart about what we can reasonably expect to do with her. And it is way too early to tell if this will just be a fun, willing horse good for taller riders in jumping lessons and some hunter classes; OR - - - well, I think maybe I have that glint in my eye that an old Show Jumper trainer gets when he thinks, “Maybe this horse could - - - -.” We’ll see. Bethany is coming down this evening to get on her and give me her opinion. I am at least a month away from really asking this horse to “show me her stuff”, if we do buy her. But I think this horse might really be able to jump &^%$#@ feet!

 

Advanced Horsemanship Quiz:

Look at the second to last picture in this morning’s album of Jazz pictures. Why do I know that the horse is on the right lead, when at first glance, a novice horseman might think the horse was on the left lead?

 

Tuesday, May 18^th, evening:

Horses!

Just when you think maybe you have one of them figured out, they’ll surprise you. Actually, I do think we have a good idea of where Jazz is at in her process of getting used to Longacres. But there were a few surprises today, both good and bad.

 

She started nervous for her first ride at Longacres, especially since it was up top away from her new friends at the barn and on a rainy day. But Shelly got her lunged and calmed down and did a good job riding her quietly. Jazz got better and better during the ride. So the afternoon session would be even easier, right? Wrong!

 

Jazz had been nervous about mounting blocks (even purple ones!) each time Shelly had tried to get on that way. Shelly got on after a bunch of side stepping for the afternoon ride, but Jazz wouldn’t hold still while Shelly tried to adjust her stirrup after mounting. So Shelly called Joel over, who was conveniently working nearby, and asked him to hold the horse to calm her while she got her stirrup right. Didn’t work. Jazz hopped a couple of times and as Joel held on tight, the bridle broke. Jazz started to trot off with no bridle, and Shelly hopped off. End of afternoon mounted session, though Shelly did a little ground work after.

 

Then before dinner Shelly gave Jazz another ground training session and she was calm and cooperative again, but Shelly told me the horse still didn’t like to stand still in cross ties while she was being tacked up. So after dinner I went in the barn with Shelly to see for myself how the horse was behaving and to see if I had any useful ideas.

 

Wouldn’t you know it? When I was there, the horse could do no wrong! I closed the barn door so that the horse would feel more confined and to see if that helped keep her calm while we worked with her on cross ties. She behaved well when I lead her to the front ties, but did look very intently at her reflection in the barn door windows. But she did not step backwards or misbehave in ANY way. I ran my hands all over her, pushed her around a little, made her take a step forward. Nothing bothered her. So I brought out one of the scary mounting steps. The horse didn’t flinch. I stepped up so I was looking down at the horse. Nothing – no reaction. I leaned onto the horse from the top of the mounting block. I stepped up and down and up and down, intentionally bumping into the horse.. No problem! Shelly said the horse had moved around every time she tacked her up. So we brought out a pad first. Put it on, took it off, put it on again. Nothing. Brought out a saddle. Put it gently on her back – no problem. Took it off and on a couple of times, while standing up on the scary mounting block – no reaction. Acted like a Klutz on purpose and dropped the saddle on the horse’s back and shook it around. No reaction at all – the horse was acting bomb proof! I had Shelly get on a mounting block on the off side of the horse while I fooled around on a mounting block on the near side of the horse. I COULD NOT make the horse misbehave! I even picked up the mounting stool and intentionally rubbed it all over the horse, pushed it in her face, tried to feed it to her, and banged it gently into her legs.

 

Go figure. Maybe the horse just decided it was time to relax at Longacres. Maybe my idea of closing the barn door was useful. Maybe it was the fact that it was night and she was just sleepy. Maybe she sensed that the “mighty Tom” should not be trifled with! Who knows? I’m happy that the horse was so well behaved tonight and I hope it holds over until the morning ride tomorrow.

 

Horses!

 

Tuesday morning, May 18^th Update:

Happy Birthday, Diana!!!!

More on Jazz

Shelly handled the horse last night and lunged and then rode her lightly this morning. She was a little excited when she first explored Longacres, but we like what we see so far. We were happy this morning to see her slowly calm down getting used to our spaces. We just lunged, then walked and trotter her and worker her over ground poles in the sand ring. Shelly may canter her and do some more cavaletti work this afternoon, then some light jumping tomorrow morning, if her progress continues. We’re in no hurry.

 

Former Longacres rider and website watcher, Nancy D. from New Jersey, wrote me this morning commenting on Jazz that she is a “REALLY nice horse”. Here’s my response to Nancy:

 

Yes, we are hopeful that we're on to something.  There are a couple of minor conformation issues we're evaluating.  She got kicked in her front teeth in pasture when she was very young and they are a little odd, but she seems to eat just fine, so?  And her ankles behind have a lot of angle to them - but if she is as sturdy as she looks, that could be a good thing for jumping.  She was justifiably excited coming up to the top ring from the barn by herself first time out here this morning, but calmed quickly.

 

What I like most, you can see from this link we posted a few weeks ago - she REALLY takes care of herself over even the tiny jumps they used to show her to us.  She over-jumps in a good way.

 

And she showed that same attention to her feet this morning when we just trotted her over ground rails - she is very aware of her feet and obstacles - a great trait for jumping horses!

 

She is the same kind of cross that Yorke Springs was.  (Yorke was one of Tom’s show jumpers back when he was riding, and Nancy rode and showed him.) And she has the size to jump big timber, if that's the path we choose for her.  Stay tuned!

 

Pictures from today coming later this afternoon. Meghan is out on a road trip checking out yet another promising new horse for us that has eventing and jumping experience. You guys coming to Longacres this summer are going to have a LOT of NICE horses to play with!!!!!!!!!!

 

Monday, midnight Update:

Meghan is still working

I try to get her to sleep a little at this time of year, but it’s a struggle! But I guess it’s better that she’s a bit of a work-a-holic than the opposite. She did have fun for a good part of her work day, greeting Jazz and welcoming this very impressive and interesting jumping prospect to Longacres. Check this link for some pictures – PRETTY horse!

 

Monday, May 17^th, 11AM Update:

Horses at their Best!

If you didn’t go to the video link that shows Diesel, Whitley, and Neek-o playing in pasture last night, be sure to check here today. There are few sights in the horse world more beautiful than healthy, happy horses playing and showing off in a lush green spring pasture! (The pasture stuff is about 20 seconds into the video.) I confess that I watched it over 8 or 10 times last night myself. It’s what we do all the work for here – to put ourselves in position to enjoy moments like that. I wish we could set aside a special pasture area that we would use only now and then so the grass would stay tall and thick. And we’d have to set aside some of the prettiest horses and not ride them, so they’d be full of energy and spunk, like Diesel and his buddies were yesterday. Then as a special visual treat a couple of times a week we’d turn a few of these horses out in our special green pasture just to watch them run and play. Too bad we can’t have everything! But it is pretty nice that we can have sights like this now and then. Enjoy the video’s!

 

Hard Working Shelly

Shelly was busy setting up ground poles and small X-rail jumps this morning so she can start schooling the new horses over simple exercises this afternoon. She’s off getting some employment paperwork filled out this morning, but will be riding all afternoon. (Thanks again to Micayla for helping us ride the horses yesterday! If anyone else from the area wants to stop in and ride with Shelly over the next two weeks, just give us a call. We need to put some muscle on the new guys, and on our horses returning from winter homes.)

 

Jazz After All

Jazz is supposed to arrive this afternoon. You haven’t heard us mention this possible new Longacres horse for a few weeks, since there were complications arranging the trial period, and we never buy horses at this price range without trying them out. But we’ve worked out a compromise plan and if all goes as planned, we’ll be trying this promising new horse beginning tonight for the rest of the week. Pictures to come.

 

“Painting the Picture”

Meghan and I and all our crew put in long hours every spring trying to create a beautiful setting for you to come and ride. It’s a lot like painting a picture. We start with a farm closed up tight for the winter with everything put away, and slowly we open up, fix up, paint up, and MOW up until Longacres is as close as we can make it to a horse lovers dream. We know we can never really be like the grand old horse farms of the billionaires where EVERYTHING is perfect all the time. But we work hard to create an image that will almost fool you into feeling like you’re at that kind of place. Some of our happiest memories are from moments when some of you have noticed the results of all the hard work and made comments like the family from new Hampshire that told us, “Everything is so manicured!” Or the mother who flew in from out west to visit her daughters and told us after her Longacres tour, “It’s like a movie set.”

 

The trick is that not “everything” is so manicured, and certainly not “all the time”. The billionaires have full time estate management teams of a dozen or more doing nothing but mow, paint, and trim to keep things looking just right all the time. At Longacres, we have myself, Joel part time, and a few other part timers when we are most busy working to get things as near to perfection as we can on certain days of the year, and then try to keep up as best we can in between.

 

If you want to see Longacres looking it’s very, very best, try visiting on May 30^th and 31^st, when we open officially for the 2010 season for adult week. All the projects we have going this month are aimed to finish simultaneously that weekend so we’ll make the best first impression possible on opening day. From then on, it’s daily upkeep, but not always perfect trimming under the fences and in the corners until the next “public display moments”; we try to trim everything up for each of the five horse show dates here during the summer, and for the most popular new session opening days. You may not even notice the difference if you come on one of those “first impression” days, or if you stop by for a visit during the middle of a week or late in a session. But I can tell the difference.

 

Painting jumps every spring and before big shows is one of our biggest jobs. On May 31^st, they will look VERY good! Building interesting new jumps every year is part of the Longacres trademark. We don’t always have the new jumps fully painted and decorated by the end of May, but we try and we might make it this year – it will be close! The Castle will definitely be done, but it is going to take a lot of painting time.

 

It takes more than a month to properly mow and trim the grass over every inch of the farm. I wish we could somehow freeze the grass at the end of April after it all turns green and stop it’s growth. Then snap our fingers and let it start growing again right before we open for the season, so we could mow and trim it all once carefully right before our students arrive. But grass doesn’t work that way. It grows like crazy during April and May and if I don’t mow it often, there will be heavy clumps of long dead grass all over our fields when I try to catch up on mowing later. And once you get behind on mowing, it takes weeks to get rid of all those grass clumps. But we are on schedule this year. I think our turf looks as good as it’s ever been! I’m mowing most fields every three or four days, and we’ll be going to a full court press Friday and Saturday before the Adult Week students arrive, with a double mowing of all riding areas and careful trimming under all the fences and around all the jumps.

 

With luck, all that trimming will get done just as Meghan’s crew finishes painting and setting up the jumps and getting the horses in shape. It’s lots like painting a picture – a picture of a horse lover’s dream.

 

PS – You know you are a farmer if: at the end of a long day you find a couple of scrapes on your knuckles or a small cut on your shin and you feel a sprained muscle in one wrist, and you have to ask yourself, “Oops – how did I do that? I can’t even remember when that happened.”

 

Sunday, May 16^th 5PM Update:

Micayla is attending Longacres as a student for the first time this year during the second July session. She is the first student to ride a horse at Longacres during the 2010 season! Check this link for some pictures of Micayla and Shelly riding together. More coming later! (11PM – More pictures at this link.

 

(The following video links will be active early Monday morning, showing the girls riding and the horses cavorting in pasture tonight.

 

Video from May 16^th here

More from May 16 here

 

Sunday, Noon Update:

Feelin’ Better!

I felt pretty sick just two days ago; in fact I was knocked flat by the little bug I caught. But thankfully, it was a very fast moving thing and I was much better within 36 hours. I didn’t care if I lived or died Thursday night, but by Friday afternoon I was out working on the tractor and carrying tools around the farm. Anyway, thans to those of you who sent me “get well” messages – they worked!

 

Check this link for a few pictures I took yesterday afternoon of a dandelion near the office door getting ready to go to seed. Who says nuisance plants can’t be beautiful? This one was. Sometimes it’s the little everyday things in nature that give us great beauty if you get down and look closely.

 

Meghan and Shelly are on their way to town right now to do grocery shopping for the week and then Shelly will be riding Diesel home from his winter farm across the street. New 2010 student Micayla will be here later this afternoon to help Shelly and get on a horse. We should have good horse pictures for you later this afternoon.

 

Sunday, May 16^th Update:

Meghan and I were up late organizing some things in the office last night and we’re taking a rare late start to our day while Shelly gets acquainted with Neek-o and Whitley. But we’ll have lots of pictures later today of Shelly working with the horses. She should be riding all afternoon, and we’re expecting a visit with Micayla, also. More in a few hours!

 

Saturday, May 15^th 4:30 PM Update:

Shelly and “Jenna” Arrive in 5 Minutes!

Arrival pictures to come soon!

6:40 PM Update: Shelly and Jenna look great. Click this link for some pictures of Shelly’s arrival at Longacres. Pictures of Jenna and Shelly riding coming tomorrow.

 

Friday, May 14, 3PM Update:

Homework:

Meghan is down at the barn right now meeting with Gary, the jump building guy, to review progress on the new “Castle Jump”. Some of you guys at home who are clever with internet searches may be able to help us with a little online research. We plan to put a variety of small flags and pennants on the castle to give it a festive, medieval appearance. We’ve found a few things ourselves, but nothing that gets it just right. So we’re looking for a source of flags and narrow pennants or streamers from as small as 6” or 8” to perhaps 2 feet long. Let us know if you can find a source for this kind of thing.

 

And while you’re having fun searching, see if you can find someplace that sells round, wood jump poles that are an over length 16 feet long. Most jump poles are 12’ long, but Grand Prix jumps are often 16’ and we need six or eight poles that length for one of our new jumps. We found one source, but it is in Texas, and shipping would be a lot to get here. If it helps you in searching, most round jump poles come from paper mills where they shave Lodge Pole and other pines to make paper pulp. What’s left over in the middle of the log is then sold for various uses, including jump poles. I think the paper mills call them “spins”.

 

Friday, May 14^th Update:

Feelin’ Better

Fortunately, my creeping crud illness appears to have been mostly a 24 hour bug. I felt like I didn’t care if I lived or died last night, but I was strong enough this morning to (slowly) walk up and down the hills near the dining hall turning on water pressure and hot water so Shelly would have conveniences when she arrives to stay tomorrow evening. Meghan is not sick, but did go to her foot surgeon yesterday for one of her final check-ups. He continues to be pleased with her recovery and Meghan is up and around now, walking when needed, and driving to do errands. Her foot still gets tender if she’s standing for more than a couple of hours, but she feels ready to do whatever needs to be done at Longacres in two weeks (well, maybe not carrying heavy jumps!)

 

Happy Birthday Sydney H and Sarah H. (no relations) – we hope both of you have something special happen on your birthdays!

 

It’s MUCH warmer at Longacres today than it’s been for the past week. Must be in honor of Shelly arriving tomorrow! We’re having more horses come in over the weekend and early next week and we plan to keep Shelly in the saddle schooling horses most of her first week here!

 

Thursday, May 13 Update:

Sparse Updates today and tomorrow:

Your webmaster here at Longacres has got the “plague” with a combo sinus infection – flu like little deal, hopefully of short duration and low rate of infection. Hoping not infectious so that Meghan, the more indispensable of us, is not put out of commission. Worst case, the timing is pretty good since there is time for both of us to be a little sick and still get well in time for our first customers in two weeks!

 

But I’ll be making only short updates until I feel a little more perky. L

 

Wednesday, 3PM Update:

No “KA-BOOM!”

I successfully got the hot water heater lit with no explosion using plan “C”. Instead of the two methods I describe below, I used a propane torch to heat the safety thermal couple enough so the main burner valve would open, release the rest of the trapped air, and light the burner with a fairly safe “poof”. All is well.

 

For those of you who share my special interest in weather, here is a quote from the NOAA forecast discussion on Climate today:

 

BUFFALO...ON THE OTHER HAND...FELL ONLY TO 33 LAST WEEK WITH NO FREEZE AND HAD

NO MEASURABLE SNOW DURING THIS PERIOD. THIS KEEPS THE 2009-2010

WINTER SEASON RECORD INTACT AS THE SHORTEST SNOW SEASON FOR

MEASURABLE SNOW (DEC 1-FEB 28)...AND ALSO KEPT THE RECORD EARLIEST DATE

FOR THE LAST FREEZE IN A SEASON (MAR 31) IN 132 YEARS OF RECORD.

(ONLY 1878 WAS EARLIER AT MAR 30). NORMAL LAST FREEZE IN BUFFALO IS

APRIL 27.

 

Wednesday, May 12^th Update:

Today we deleted about ¾ of this Latest News file and Blog posts. The complete file for the past year since summer of 2009 can be found in our archives at this link. The file was getting cumbersome and slow to load on slow internet connections.

 

For Horse Interest News, skip the Risky Business Post and scroll down to “Welcome Shelly”

 

Risky Business! (Farm Life #223)

Much of our annual spring maintenance work is pretty boring. We rake leaves out of drainage ditches, paint jump poles, mow grass (and mow and mow and mow), plant flowers, saddle soap bridles, clip up water buckets, and on and on. But we do have some more challenging problems – “sporty” maintenance work, if you will.

 

Chain saw work and lighting balky hot water heaters at the end of very long gas supply lines are two of this weeks challenges. Chain saws are potentially dangerous every time you start them up. And anything involving natural gas; well, think “BP oil disaster”.

 

Chain Saws

Meghan discourages me from “sporty” chain saw work at my age, and I know she’s right to be concerned. I do know what I’m doing after a lifetime of tree work and other chain saw jobs. But that same lifetime of work has slowed me, and I’m not as agile at dodging deadfalls or balancing on a ladder or tractor bucket with a potentially lethal saw. The trouble is, I really enjoy chain saws. You know, man – machine – power. Cutting down an old tree or cleaning up one that’s fallen in a wind storm is rewarding work. You start the job with a mess or dangerous tree, and moments later you’ve made big changes – you’ve accomplished something. It’s a bit like the satisfaction I get from mowing grass, but more dramatic. Immediate reward for your work.

 

Meghan still tolerates me cutting up trees on the ground. Especially when I use the smaller “old man’s saw”. I get to use the real saw more rarely. The Stihl 041 Farm Boss that can make short work of a 30” log or someone’s thigh. And it’s rare that I do the “sporty” chain saw work these days. The jobs that require working out of the tractor lift bucket.

 

I’ll still drop a big tree if it’s healthy wood and clear of other trees where it could hang up or broken branches could kick back. In fact, in the old days I used to put a stake in the ground 30 or 40 feet from the base of the tree and try to drive it into the ground with the trunk as the tree fell. You can be surprisingly accurate by notching and wedging the tree carefully as you make your cuts.

 

But we’ve got a big dead tree along the main horse trail that has to come down this week. There are vines hanging from the top branches and dead limbs that are bound to hang up in neighboring trees as the big one falls. Whoever is running the saw during the final cut will have to be ready to sprint 20 yards when he hears the first “CRACK” of the tree starting to fall. “Sprinting” is not something you would often associate with Tom, in spite of the gazelle like grace I exhibited in the video of me jogging Sha-Bang yesterday! A “sporty” chain saw job – sounds like it will be Joel and not me on that one.

 

In my youth I did lots of saw work with saws in the air. I can remember one time in particular when we had to cut a big branch damaged in a storm off one of the huge old Oak trees near the dining hall. We put a long step ladder up the tree and tied it off with a safety line. One of the guys working for me asked nervously, “You want me to go up there Mr. Kranz?”

 

It was the perfect moment to use one of those statements you save up for just the right time, and I answered him, “No, a captain never sends his men where he fears to tread himself.” Some 30 or more years later now, this “captain” would be quite content to send his men up the tree. But, of course, it’s not quite that simple anymore. Most temporary worker agencies won’t let any of their workers do anything more than six feet off the ground, if they allow the use of power tools at all. And OSHA certainly wouldn’t approve of the way we used to tie off ladders to the trunk and lean out with a saw to cut off a branch in the old days. No, now you pretty much have to hire a specialist and a bucket truck to do that kind of work. (Unless it is very close to the ground and Meghan is away for the afternoon looking at a horse!)

 

Air in the Hot Water Heater line – BOOM!

The other “sporty” maintenance job scheduled for today is lighting the hot water heater in the shower building. It’s an ordinary gas hot water heater like the one you may have at home in your basement. Normally there is nothing challenging or dangerous about lighting water heaters. The manufacturers have good safety devices built into the controllers. But the one in our shower house is at the end of a long run of large diameter gas supply line running down the hill through the woods. When it is turned off over the winter, air slowly displaces the gas in much of the line. When you light a water heater normally, only a tiny amount of gas comes out the pilot light burner while you light the flame. Once it is lit and the safety thermal couple heats up, you turn on the main burner and you’re good to go.

 

But with a winter’s accumulation of air in a long gas line, a LOT of air has to come out that pilot light burner before gas gets there and it lights. Workers in the past have spent hours lighting this heater the conventional way, waiting for all the air to come out that pilot light burner.

 

There are short cuts. They are not OSHA approved, and fall into the “sporty” maintenance category. They involve cracking open a pipe coupling in the gas line next to the hot water heater and venting the air until gas starts to come out. There are two ways to determine when you’re getting gas and not just air. One is by smell – you can smell when natural gas starts to come, but it is gradual and you can build up some gas before you’re sure. The other is to hold a flame next to the fitting as you vent the air and you will get puffs of flame as the gas starts to come. But you better be wearing good gloves and be ready to close the fitting quickly while it’s puffing flames. Both methods include a slight chance of “BOOM”. Do NOT do this at home!

 

Of course we could call a plumbing contractor to light the heater and get a bill for a couple of hundred dollars. But a small business like ours would not last long if we called in contractors for every little problem. (See how much fun you have to look forward to if you end up with your own professional stable operation some day, girls?)

 

Welcome Shelly – Visitors Welcome Sunday

Instructor Shelly is arriving with her horse to stay Saturday night, so the barn will really be open from then on. Micayla, Junior, Griffin, and other riders who live not too far are welcome to come and join Shelly Sunday afternoon when we begin working with the horses. Give us a call if you’re interested. The following weekend, May 22 and 23^rd, or Memorial Day weekend, May 29 and 30^th we’ll be glad to have some of you come stay over Saturday night and do some riding. Jessica from Colorado is coming for the last week in May to spend a whole week with us riding and exercising the horses as most of them come in that week from their winter homes. Anyone off of school that week and interested in lots of riding in a casual environment conditioning the horses at a reduced tuition, give us a call.

 

We have two more dreary wet days in store for us this week, but it looks as though fine sunny weather will welcome Shelly this weekend, along with any of you who stop by to visit and help.

 

 

Tuesday, May 11^th Update

The Vexing Saga of Sha-Bang

Vexing –

vex  (vks)

tr.v. vexed, vex·ing, vex·es

1. To annoy, as with petty importunities; bother. See Synonyms at annoy.

2. To cause perplexity in; puzzle.

3. To bring distress or suffering to; plague or afflict.

4. To debate or discuss (a question, for example) at length.

5. To toss about or shake up.