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Above: Picture of the Month is first time Longacres student, Valerie, jumping Tux over the Castle Jump on August 1^st. Valerie has been at Longacres just five days and is already showing real progress, witnessed by the very good form of horse & rider in this picture. (Get those toes in!) We have a large album of pictures from last July's shows at this link, all oversize with many interesting shots. Check it out.

 

 

2013 Schedule Now Posted

Follow the link on our home page to the 2013 rates & schedules. Deposits for 2013 sessions are now being taken. Go to the Rates & Schedule page for 2013 enrollment guidelines.

  

What You'll Find in this Blog:

Hello, and welcome to Longacres! If you're a newcomer to Longacres and are just visiting for the first time to learn about our summer riding programs, you may find this Blog a bit boring. At this time of year, most of what we post is news sent in by our students, and quite a bit of personal news about us and life on the farm at Longacres. It's only interesting to people who already know Longacres.

 

This Blog is a Key Part of our Customer Service During the Summer!

But if you come to Longacres next season, you will find this Blog VERY INTERESTING and very useful during the summer. We post daily news updates and daily photo albums as a way of letting all your family and friends at home know what you're doing with the horses every day that you're here. Click this link to jump to a time period in the middle of last summer, on July 10th. As you read, scroll upwards, since each day's post is above the day before. You'll see what the Blog is like while we're in session and going to horse shows every week. At Longacres we pride ourselves on very good, personalized customer service and communication. Check the link to get a sample! (Our daily hits are more than ten times higher during the summer!)

 

Improvements & Accomplishments in 2011

 

Without doubt, the most popular new addition to our Longacres facilities for 2011 was the remodeling of the old barn and the addition of the new turnout paddock there so we could offer overnight trail rides with hayloft slumber parties in each of our sessions. Every bunk had one of these special nights with the horses at least once during their stay. We will definitely continue this new tradition for 2012 and beyond.

 

 

- Tom & Meghan Kranz

 

FREE HORSE LOAN PROGRAM FOR 2012 - 2013! - click here

Download Horse Loan poster at this link

 

 

Summer Blog – Below are all the Blog posts from the spring, summer, and through September 14, 2012.

 

During the winter we post daily updates on “Tom’s Blog” at this link

On the Road!

We’re pulling out for our annual fall adventure and visiting trip in an hour. Joel is moving in to keep a close eye on everything at Longacres. Thanks, Joel, and thanks for the great job closing up and putting things away.

 

Check the “Traveling Blog” While we are Away

We will be updating regularly on Tom’s personal Blog at this link while we travel. Check there for Longacres news over the winter months. We hope the RV doesn’t let us down often, but that’s part of the adventure.

 

Thursday, Sept. 13^th, 4PM Update:

Some Horse Video’s

Check this link for a clip taken an hour ago of Horatio being ridden by a college girl from UB who is thinking of taking him for the winter. For someone who has only ridden a few times this summer, she did a very nice job. We have the regular jumps put away but we did some of the log jumps and set one up to about 3’3”. Horatio was great, of course!

 

Check this link for a video I took last night of the horses just being horses and eating in pasture. Boring unless you are really missing Longacres hroses.

 

Diesel MIGHT have a home. A barn near Rochester, NY that gives therapeutic riding lessons wants a “sturdy, quiet horse” for some of their riders. Diesel sure is sturdy!!!! They are thinking it over.

 

Packing

We are almost done with work closing Longacres for the season and we’re about ready to head west for our adventure. There’s the little issue of how much to pack. I am the kind of person who can leave on a trip with what is on my back and a credit card in my pocket. Meghan, not exactly the same. You guys know her and her check lists and thorough double checks of EVERYTHING she does! Packing is an ordeal for her. We plan to pull out our driveway for leg one of the trip at 6PM tomorrow night. Meghan will likely be up until 2 in the morning tonight and up again at 6AM tomorrow to get her packing done to her satisfaction!

 

Thursday, September 13^th, 7AM Update:

Expense Money Refunds

Many thanks to Taylor for coming over last night and burning the midnight oil with Meghan to finish up the accounting for your horse show and expense money accounts. Meghan just has to write the checks and put the account information in the mail today and we will be on our schedule to get it done by the 15^th as promised. We owe you guys about $2500 in refunds of unspent money (almost $900 to one family). You owe us a total of about a thousand, mostly from people who knew they had special expenses like shipping saddles home, special purchases here, like if you needed new boots or something, or if we had to take you to the clinic. No surprises and about average compared to last year.

 

Closing Up

Longacres is almost completely put to bed for the winter. Everything is put away and the shutters are now up over the dining hall windows. The falling leaves of autumn are beginning to blanket the trails that had been bare all summer from thousands of feet stomping back and forth between the barn and the dining hall. Longacres looks very different! Check this link for a few pictures I took last night.

 

With most of the fall closeing up work done we are getting packed and ready to leave on our annual fall adventure trip during which we stop and see some of you during our travels. First stop will be Chicago where we will see Kaitlin, Sarah, and maybe Carrie.

 

Wednesday, September 12^th, 11AM Update:

Some Good Horse News

We heard from Ursula that Jazz has settled in and is doing really well.

 

Hi Tom and Meghan!

 

How are you? I just wanted to let you know how FANTASTIC Jazz has been! She has adjusted really, really well and seems to like it here :) I have been riding her 4 times a week (lessoning and jumping once, hacking 3 times). We have been working on going straight after jumps and getting good distances. I am hoping to take her to a few shows this fall! Hope everything is great up at Longacres!

 

-Ursula

Neeko went to a little show and did well. Boo is loving Long Island, NY! Tee is happy in Canada. And maybe the best news is that our wonderful Lincoln who just had his best summer ever at shows, is improving from the abscess he got on a hoof two days before the end of camp. Lincoln was beginning to worry us, even though the farrier and two vets all thought he had an abscess that would pop and drain and then he would be fine. But it took longer than expected and we were beginning to worry. Very good news that he is getting better. Maypine Stables says that he has been a sweet heart to handle.

 

The stable that has Ladd says, “He is adorable – a bit of a country mouse in the city – someone already wants to buy him. (He’s not for sale!)

 

Monday, September 10^th, 1PM Update:

Great Early Fall Day!

It’s a fine, cool early fall day here at Longacres. We just finished caring for the horses and are cleaning up and headed to the Roycroft for lunch on the porch. The fine day is punctuated by the occasional post-flu hacking cough, but hey, we’re feeling pretty good. We actually have a prospect coming at 6 who is interested in leasing Horatio for the winter. The girl is a UB college student who rides intercollegiate and has shown before.

 

Joel is doing a great job helping close up the farm and we may be ready to leave on our driving trip at the end of this week. We might see YOU during our travels!

 

The 2013 Diamond Jubilee guest list is growing. Former #1 rider Meghan Duthie just wrote in that she plans to take part!

Hey Tom and Meghan!

Hope you guys are feeling better after your spat with the flu!  I would love to be part of the jubilee activities next year, maybe even a “guest” appearance in the derby ;)? If that’s a bit of a stretch, perhaps a little jumper lesson from the man who taught me how to be a fierce competitor and gave this scrappy kid some riding opportunities that I will forever cherish.  If you need some extra hands for anything else let me know.  Looks like its going to be a good time!  

 

Looking forward to it,

Meghan Duthie

 

Saturday, September 8^th, 1PM Update:

Welcome Back, Anderson!!!

We are excited to be able to welcome Anderson W. from Florida as Longacres 2013 student #4. It’s fitting that Anderson is the 4^th rider to sign up for 2013, as she is returning to us for her 4^th season in a row! Anderson is one of our best riders, having her own ponies at home and showing nearly every week year round. Wise and mature beyond her years, Anderson is one of our leaders and we are proud to have her setting an example of the kind of person we like to have representing us year round as a Longacres person. Can’t wait for next summer, Anderson! Anderson will be with us in June for sure and we are trying to figure a way to get her back here for Derby Week and Diamond Jubilee week in August, but it conflicts with the annual Pony Finals event in Kentucky, so there are scheduling issues.

 

Horatio Video!

Horatio was feeling GOOD this morning in pasture. It is the first cool day in a while, which makes horses feel “up” to begin with and we were overdue for feeding time. Without further comment, click here for fun video of this athletic horse!

 

Here’s a link to another video I took while Meghan and I were doing horse care chores this morning. Meghan is much better from her flu, and I am glad to have her back doing horse care chores – I have been handling them myself for most of the week. We even did some chain saw work this morning cutting a tree that came down on the pasture fence during yesterday’s thunder storms.

 

“Hello” to Ashley!

I just had a nice talk with Tanya, Ashley’s mom. Ashley is a friend of Dale P. near New York City. Ashley has met Ginger, who is being leased for the off season by Dale, and she has been all through our website. Thanks, Dale, for recommending Longacres to a friend! We are off to a good start with 2013 enrollments thanks to the good word of mouth from this season. If two people thinking seriously of the July 7 to 21^st session next summer enroll, we will be almost half full for that session.

 

Friday, Sept. 7^th, 9PM Update:

Video!

If you’re missing images of our horses, check this link for a video clip I took tonight while Meghan and I were just relaxing and enjoying the late summer sundown. We’re both beginning to recover from our bouts with the flu this past week, and it’s nice to be able to enjoy some of the beauty of Longacres again.

 

Our little “flu race” is turning out to be a draw. Both of us took almost exactly four days from the time we began to feel crummy until we were able to function pretty well again. A couple of nasty days in there! It’s taking a few more days of not being quite 100%, but we are enjoying life again.

 

Joel, Tim, and Joyce have done a really nice job of helping clean up and close up, and things are looking organized around here. We still need to put the winter shutters up on the dining hall windows, and we’re putting that off for a while, since things start to look really lonely around here when everything is boarded up tight!

 

We heard from Joy & Dave that the Scarlata family will all be attending the 75^th Anniversary party next summer and their names are going on the list.

 

Thursday, September 6^th, 11AM Update:

The flu is still wafting through our house. I’m getting better every day, but am still only about 80%. Meghan is miserable but maybe past the very worst. She didn’t help herself by working doing our taxes through the very worst of it. (Which she finished yesterday, balancing our cash flow accounts against the bank deposit records to the penny for the year!) I am putting my foot down now though and forbidding more office work today. (Meghan’s Train video )

 

Second Reminder

We had a little lesson on the need to double check certain things this week. Several weeks ago we talked and agreed to fast track one of the spending money refunds for someone who had a big balance coming in their refund, so they would not have to wait until we did all our detailed accounting. Meghan sat down and went over the expenses they had here and noted the amount of a refund. She put those notes on Taylor’s desk with other bills that Taylor was going to pay. Later that night Meghan signed those checks and Taylor put them in envelopes and mailed them. Here’s where the glitch occurred. Meghan spent a good bit of time finding records and making notes on the expense money refund. All that was left was writing the check and Taylor was about to do that – in Meghan’s mind it was done – but it never was and Meghan didn’t notice that particular check missing when she signed a pile of them later. So she jumped to the conclusion that she had taken care of it.

 

We know better. We work hard at Longacres to separate “solid facts” from information that maybe needs to be verified one more level. So this is where I got involved and passed on as “fact” something that was not correct. I was casually writing to the family involved about something else entirely and I turned to ask Meghan if the refund had been sent. She told me it had the previous week (which she was convinced had happened). So I wrote, “Hope your expense refund arrived this week.” They wrote back reminder #1, “Not yet, but we’ll look out for it in the mail.” No big deal.

 

Then two weeks or more later I get reminder #2 from the family in the most understanding and polite way possible saying that they never did get that check. I ask Meghan again if she is sure it was mailed and she was certain. (Alas, that fatal assumption that after she wrote the notes on her desk, that the check was in the pile she actually signed.) There was also the disconnect that I was the one out front corresponding and promising the old promise, “The check’s in the mail”, though I was not the one who actually had done the work. So after this second reminder I finally went down to our office and said, “Show me the check register.” Well, no such check was ever written. Oops!

 

I don’t mean to be dumping on Meghan or office help – these mistakes happen. (Well, maybe the fact that Meghan is sick in bed and won’t see this right away!?) The point is that we take it to heart when we do make a mistake like this – it is not like us and we are glad to offer up a “mea culpa”. Coming clean in public makes us that much less likely to do the same thing again. It was not an important thing – just a delay – but it was me saying something that was not true.

 

Moral of the story: If you guys are expecting something from us, send us a gentle reminder. Then if you STILL don’t get it from us send us another “gentle reminder”, but do it soon – that will certainly prompt one of us to say, “Show me the check register!” Perfect, we ain’t!

 

Brother Will

My brother and I lead very different lives and he has not been to Longacres for years. I was pleased to hear this morning that he plans to attend the Diamond Jubilee next summer!

 

Wednesday, September 5^th, Noon Update:

Drought Over?

Finally we got a real gully washer of a thunderstorm here at Longacres yesterday, courtesy of the remains of Isaac. And more rain is expected over the weekend. The pond level came up two inches yesterday after falling most of the summer to a record low water level. Never in my life here at Longacres – all 67 years of it – have I seen conditions as dry as this summer. We were fortunate not to have many problems with dry and cracked hooves or sore feet from the hard ground. But Meghan and her staff worked very hard to rotate the work among the horses and to give preventative hoof care. It worked. Several times we had to move the water intake in the pond to have water for the horses, but the pond held up, just barely. There are places around the farm with springs coming out of hill sides that are NEVER dry – they were dry this summer!

 

But if we start getting typical September rains, things should slowly get back to normal. Already the big show field is beginning to look green again. Another interesting weather related thing is that the odd and dry summer appears to be causing a very early autumn foliage change. Leaves are falling all around Longacres and fall colors are everywhere, two or three weeks early. At this rate, when we return to Longacres from our fall trip in October, all the leaves may be gone!

 

I have a couple of LA video’s today. One of the horses in pasture at this link, and one of the dining hall ready to close up at this link.

 

Meghan finally got 11 hours of sleep last night and feels “a little better”, but is still suffering from Flu. She’s already at work again on accounting, while I do her usual outdoor and barn chores.

 

Longacres 2013 Diamond Jubilee 75th Anniversary Party

We’ll be mentioning next summer’s Diamond Jubilee Party (pretentious, but cool, name for a 75^th anniversary) often during the coming 11 months. Longacres was founded by my great grandfather and his two daughters in 1939. George Longaker was a grandfatherly figurehead in the early days, kind of like I am now. He lived in a little tent on the hill near the present dining hall during the summer while his daughters, first my great aunt Laura Longaker Adams, and then my grandmother, Jacqueline Longaker Kranz actually ran the camp. Aunt Laura married early to a non-camp loving but otherwise great husband, and left the active management of the camp during the early days in the 1940’s. But she stayed involved as a frequent visitor and Longacres booster all her life. She mentored Meghan during Meghan’s earliest days at Longacres and was like an unofficial “granny” to Meghan. Rather fitting that the “book ends” Longacres managers, our first and current, were close friends at the end of Aunt Laura’s life!

 

My grandmother, Jacqueline Kranz, was the director of Longacres from the early 1940’s until the late 1970’s, a span of about 35 years. My aunt Neale Haley was her right hand for most of that time and was instrumental in making Longacres primarily a horse camp from the early days. During my grandmother’s time with the reins of the camp, my brother Will, cousins Doug & Kim and cousin Larry all spent many summers at the camp riding horses, doing chores, helping build cabins and trails and making contributions. So did my uncles, Robin and Stuart for a time. During those summers, Longacres was both a great place for extended family to vacation in the summers, and a source of summer job money for some in our generation. And for me, it became a life’s work.

 

I (Tom Kranz), managed the teenage part of the camp while my grandmother and aunt Neale managed the junior camp for a time during the 1970’s. I shared in the management as I learned (sometimes hard lessons, sometimes not well learned for many years!) during the early 1970’s and I was running the whole camp myself by the late 70’s. My tenure as director of Longacres ran, then, from the mid to late 70’s until very recently, when my “somewhat younger” wife, Meghan, took over most of the day to day running of the Longacres that exists today.

 

We will be celebrating this Diamond Jubilee 75^th Party the week of August 5^th to 11^th next summer, especially from Thursday the 8^th through Sunday, the 11^th. We plan extra staff to help us host a number of visitors returning to take part in the celebration and parties. Regular riding camp students here that session should have minimal impact on their preparations for the Derby Horse event here and for the Erie County Fair the following week. Our regular campers will be welcome to take part in many of the special events, though some will be very adult party events! We will host open bars for adults at many of the events the latter part of the week.

 

We plan three days of special horse jumping events during that time, including our 45^th Jumper Derby on Saturday, a “Six Bars” event, possibly at night under lights, and a third Short Course Jumper event.

 

We plan to have a nearby farm bring over extra horses and offer visitors the chance to take trail rides around the property without stealing away the horses needed by our regular students that week. (Let us know if you are interested in reserving riding time.)

 

There will be “Longacres History Walks” during which I will share memories like the one about the forest fire that three little boys couldn’t put out “on their own”. Many of the old timers returning will have their own memories to share.

 

We will have catered parties for Jubilee guests at the camp dining hall, at the horse show events, at the Main House where Tom & Meghan live, and likely a formal dinner at the Roycroft Inn in East Aurora for interested friends of Longacres during the last four days of the Jubilee. We welcome old friends of Longacres to organize their own little reunion groups from out of the past, just like you would at an old school class reunion.

 

We really don’t know what to expect from this event, but there will surely be some good parties! Already a number of people with strong ties to Longacres history have said they hope to come or DEFINITELY are coming! Anyone will be welcome to just “show up”, but we’d like to have a heads up message if you are planning to come. Those on our official guest list will have first choice at Jubilee events limited in attendance, like the sit down dinner at the Roycroft.

 

A few Longacres cabins will be available for rent for the week if you want atmosphere, but area B&B’s and the Roycroft and Hampton Inns will be more comfortable.

 

There could be as few as 20 or 30 old timers here for most of the event week, or there could be dozens. There will be hundreds for the Main Event of the Jumper Derby and Awards party Saturday night. Following is our early list of guests planning to attend and their “era” at Longacres. I am sure that I am forgetting some of you, but beginning today, I will keep the guest list updated as people write in and remind me that they want to take part. I will add to the list as I find the emails I know I am forgetting

Sharon Waters – past ten years

Bonnie Duncan – past 20 years

Bill Stetz (uncle Billy!) – past 22 years

Kellie, Dayton, Kay, and David Hunn – past ten years

Helmstadter family from Toronto (we hope) – 1970’s and 1980’s

Darci Bell – 1970’s

Rita Celestino Usher – 1970’s

Patti Sherman – 1970’s

Andi Ferry – 1970’s

Barbara Exum – counselor here in 1962 (most seniority so far planning to come!)

Will Kranz – 1960’s and early 70’s era

 

Tuesday, September 4^th, 10PM Update:

Pictures

I know we haven’t given you many pictures this past week as Meghan and I work to close up the farm for the winter and take a few breaks ourselves. But I collected a few that I took and a few that some of you have sent in and posted them at this link. Enjoy a little “fix” of Longacres images! There’s one near the end I took this morning showing the big field completely stripped of jumps. Longacres is almost closed up for the season (though we STILL HAVE HORSES that need winter homes!)

 

We do actually enjoy having the horses here in September. Diesel, Hoho, and Little John are all great to handle and it is fun to feed them every day and watch them move in the pasture. But eventually we have to close up completely – our water at the barn is not designed to be kept on all winter. So we will have some hard decisions to make if we can’t find three more winter homes.

 

The “Flu Derby”

We’re trying to make the best of a crummy situation and have a little fun seeing which of us gets over the flu quicker. I first felt sick about noon on Friday and I was back to being at least “functional”, if not cured, by this morning. Call it a shade under four days. Meghan first felt sick at dinner Monday night. So she has to be “functional” again sometime Friday to beat me. Of course, there is a wide range of what constitutes being “functional” while you have the flu! I was really flat on my back out of commission most of the time at State Fair. Meghan looks and sounds awful today and I fed the horses and went to the grocery store for her. But she did sit at her computer and desk and attack her accounting jobs for most of the day. I don’t see how she is doing it.

 

I do know one of Meghan’s incentives to keep working. She really enjoyed our trip to the State Fair in the RV over the weekend, and it was just a taste of what is to come. Meghan loves our fall RV trips around the country when we get to see the amazing sights of the American west while visiting many of you guys who keep in touch with us at Longacres year round. And we can leave on that trip as soon as all the closing up work is done.

 

Tuesday, Sept. 4^th, 8AM Update:

Yep – Meghan has it

Meghan was still feeling pretty good last night, but knew she was coming down with the flu I had over the weekend. Sure enough, she was knocked for a loop overnight and has no voice this morning, among other symptoms. I’m not back at full strength myself yet, but I am well enough to care for the horses and other chores. Meghan is attacking the end of fiscal year accounting that must be done this week. Not sure if she’ll be able to do accounting if during the coming few days she feels like I did over the weekend! But it must be done to get our taxes in without penalty the following week.

 

After the accounting week for taxes, we do an accounting week for your horse show and other expenses. We think we will be caught up and send you all statements of account and refunds of unused expense money by about the 15^th of the month. Everyone for the first half of the summer should already have their’s. The majority of you get small refunds, unless you had special expenses like UPS charges for shipping saddles or other stuff home, or if your family came to a Pasquale’s, etc.

 

Keep in touch if you have questions about the 2013 schedule. A steady stream of early enrollments seems to be flowing. We will give warning here if any sessions begin to fill, though that is not close to happening yet. Keep in mind that as a balance to the tuition increase for most sessions, we have actually reduced tuition for our first June week and final August week. Those sessions conflict with many school schedules and often do not fill completely, so we did not increase tuition for them. Also there are not regular shows those weeks, so there is a big savings in overall cost.

 

Jumps Put to Bed

Joel, Joyce, and Tim worked all day Labor Day putting jumps away in the barn. The riding fields are completely stripped now. I will post a picture later – you would not recognize the big show field with no jumps! Excellent work by Colleen, Beta, Joel, Joyce, Tim, and other helpers getting Longacres cleaned up and closed up for the winter!

 

HORSE HOMES NEEDED!

Horatio, Diesel, and Little John still have no homes for the winter. Nice horses that can earn their way for a lesson barn or for someone who needs a horse to lease. We are in an interesting horse economy. I think I read a New York Times article a week ago about the glut of horses on the market because of the cost of keeping them. There are parts of the country where horses are being dropped off at county parks and abandoned. No wonder it is hard to find homes for our horses. On the other hand, it did make it easy for us to borrow some nice horses to add to our herd this summer. It cuts both ways.

 

 

 

Monday, September 3^rd, 10PM Update:

One of us Really Enjoyed State Fair –

      One of Us is About to Pay for It!

We both like the State Fair in Syracuse every fall. Meghan, especially, since it is the first chance she gets after the riding camp season to really relax and be anonymous in a crowd with no responsibilities. So when I began to come down with flu like symptoms on Friday morning, I knew that I was going to have to suck it up to give Meghan her escape on one of her favorite weekends of the year. Meghan offered to cancel our plans and skip the fair this year, but I told her I would go and just spend extra time resting in the RV while she toured the fair if I didn’t feel tip-top.

 

Well, I sure didn’t feel “tip-top”! I had wicked congestion and sore throat Friday night and Saturday, and nasty flu on Saturday night up through this morning. Twice I went out of the RV to spend time at the fair with Meghan, but both times I lasted less than an hour and had to hobble back and go to bed. Meghan enjoys her alone time during the non-camp months, so once I convinced her that I would be OK sleeping and resting, she was able to really enjoy her time on the fairgrounds. She spent hours at the horse show arena practicing her judging abilities for the six-horse draft hitches, the Morgans, and Percherons under saddle and in tandem. And, of course, she spent time in the goat barn! I am amazed that Longacres does not have goats after all the time Meghan has spent in goat barns at fairs!

 

Anyway, I survived my flu bout with three quite sick days, but I am feeling a lot better tonight. Which means that it is now Meghan’s turn. I was hoping that she would be spared, but she seems to be getting my symptoms tonight. And when Meghan gets sick, which isn’t often, she gets sick. Her flu’s usually last longer than mine and hit her harder – and I wouldn’t wish that on anyone. Keep your fingers crossed for her at home that she doesn’t get the full blown Meghan version of the flu this time.

 

Hey, Anderson!

We got a message from Anderson’s mom today that they are preparing her 2013 enrollment – apparently if her mom doesn’t get it mailed off right away, “Anderson is going to mount Spirit Tuesday AM and re-enact the Pony Express all the way to Buffalo!” to get her enrollment in. One of the questions Anderson and her mom are asking is if there is any way that she can come for just a week next summer for the Jubilee 75^th Anniversary and the Derby. Because others have asked the same thing, I will note here that it just won’t be possible to take regular camp riders for that one week – it just would not be fair to the girls here for the August session next year if former LA people came in for just that one week and we had to share the horses with them for the Derby. It is hard enough to find the right horses for our regular August students to ride in the Derby and the Fair every year! BUT - - - we are thinking about ways that friends of Longacres can visit during the 75^th Longacres Birthday party and the Derby, but not as regular camp riders. Stay tuned.   

 

Saturday, 3PM Update:

Leaving for State Fair

Meghan and I are getting ready to drive down to Syracuse to the State Fair for a day and a half. She has been moving jumps all morning and I’ve been fighting the flu and doing electrical work on the RV, so we are both ready for a break. Joel, Tim, and Mark are still moving jumps – the field should be stripped very soon!

 

Likely new 2013 student, Kelly T from Virginia, joined our Blue Moon party last night. She sent us a picture of her on Star when she visited here two weeks ago.

 

Joel will be here while we are gone and we will get emails and text’s, but not phone messages while we are gone. In emergency with a horse, text Meghan or email Longacres.

 

Saturday, September 1^st, 9AM Update:

Early Enrollments Confirmed!

Longacres welcomes Paige from Texas as Longacres 2013 student #1, Zoe from Texas as Longacres 2013 student #2, and Sarah from New York as Longacres 2013 student #3. All three were first time students here this year and are returning for their second season. We’re glad to formally confirm those enrollments now on September 1^st, our first day of official 2013 enrollment! We hear that more are on their way.

 

Linda Chancler, a Longacres rider from many years ago and a VERY regular reader of the Blog, joined us late last night from about as far west as you can get in Washington state watching the Blue Moon on a clear night in the Pacific northwest!

 

Meghan, Joel, and Tim are down at the barn now putting the big jumps away. They should finish the Castle, Sunburst, and Butterfly jumps this morning.

 

Meghan and I hope to make a day and a half trip to State Fair just as tourists (and we’ll take a look at the horse show) later today if our health holds out. I seem to have a little flu brewing and I hope Meghan doesn’t catch it!

 

Friday, August 31^st, 11:50 PM Update:

Moon Party

Bethany was the first to respond to the “Moon Party” write in. She texted Meghan just a few minutes after 9, saying that she had gone to the highest and quietest spot on her college campus to share the moon with us and the other Longacres people checking the Blue Moon. She was quickly followed by Isabella and by former LA student Jess Nash. Anyone else watch the moon tonight? Meghan and I were hurrying out of the mall to check out the moon and we were two minutes late. We watched it from about 9:02 to 9:20 and again a little later.

 

Glad I was able to enjoy a great moon – the earlier part of my day was rough – more electrical work on the RV, including fun crawling around underneath it fishing wires through the frame. I managed to skin a knuckle, get a few bruises on the back of my hands, and earn a couple of Tylenol before dinner.

 

Friday, August 31^st, 2PM Update:

Odds ‘n Ends

The Texas horse van arrived at Kellie’s farm a couple of hours ago with Coal, Ebony, and Tux. And an hour later, Tee arrived in Toronto to spend the winter with Kaylyn. Don’t forget that Horatio, Diesel, and Little John still need winter free lease homes – spread the word! (Although we’re kind of having fun taking care of them this week when you guys are all gone.) Helps keep us from feeling too lonely!

 

Lost and Found:

 

= = = =

Sarah Fields mom writes: Hi Meghan,

 

Just thought to check which pants Sarah did bring home, and it's the Tuff Rider,

 

so she is missing a pair of tan Devon Aire Ladies All-Pro Hipster Breeches.

 

Check and see if anyone out there might have accidentally taken home the wrong breeches.

= = = =

Here’s a Lost and Found from Sophie:

I may have left some black iPod speakers and possibly a pair of brown Topsider shoes at camp. I know at least the iPod speakers are clearly labeled with my name. Sorry for the inconvenience!

= = = = =

Blue Moon:

Whatever that is exactly, we are going to have one tonight. Try to go outside exactly at 9PM eastern time and we can all be looking at the moon at the same time. Email in and tell us if you are part of the “Moon Watchers Club”.

 

Say something nice today to someone you care about. Life is precious.

 

Thursday, 9PM Update:

Sharing the Moon

On a melancholy day here at Longacres, we have enjoyed a beautiful moment, and perhaps that is very fitting on a day when we mourn the loss of a friend. The nearly full moon tonight is especially beautiful in very clear air and Meghan and I enjoyed a half hour on the show field at the barn looking through a telescope at the exquisite details visible on this evening. We often share full moons long distance with Kelly in Texas and we texted her as we watched. Sure enough, she was out and watching the same moon we were seeing. We plan to be out and looking at the moon again tomorrow night, Friday, at 9PM eastern time. Any of you who are under clear skies, please take a look and drop us a note to let us know you shared the moment with us.

 

Thursday, August 30^th, 1PM Update:

I had planned another update or two today chit chatting about little things at Longacres. But none of that seems significant now.

 

We were notified this morning of a death in the immediate family of one of our good friends and customers. There is nothing we can do right now but share in the loss of a good friend. And let the family know that our door is open if a time in the woods with horses would be of any help. Peace.

 

Thursday, August 30^th, 9AM Update:

Horse Population

Our horse population here at Longacres is going up and down. After the Texas group and Mae left yesterday we were down to three horses – Horatio, Little John and Tee. But Diesel is coming back later today and we’ll be back up to four. Late tonight or early tomorrow, Tee leaves for Canada and we’ll be back to three. Don’t forget us – spread the word that you know where someone could free lease a great TB gelding, or a gentle giant! We must close down the barn completely in four weeks.

 

Joyce and Tim got the dining hall pretty well closed down yesterday. Joel finished rebuilding the hot water heating shack out behind the dining hall that needed a new roof and other repairs. Colleen and Beta got the cabins well cleaned out before they left. Things are looking pretty good!

 

Lost & Found

We have six bags of lost clothing and towels and stuff up at the office. If you are missing something valuable, please let us know soon and we’ll take a look. Speak now or forever hold your piece! After a week or two we’ll donate what’s left to Good Will and turn the towels into barn towels.

 

Wednesday, 6PM Update:

Often when we take a walk through the trails at this time of year right after we close the farm for the fall, we feel lonely and a bit depressed from the ‘empty nest” syndrome. It does feel lonely without any of you here and perhaps just around the next corner in the trail.

 

But late this afternoon after Meghan sent Mae off with the Fullers, we had some free time and I invited Meghan for a good old fashioned walk in the woods. We took the trail from the office back through the woods and along the steep ravines down to the dining hall area, then back the main trail to the barn where we fed and played with Horatio, Little John, and Tee. Then we walked off the regular trails through the deep woods back to the house. Check this link for some pictures. We did not feel lonely – we were busy marveling at the beauty of this piece of land that we call “Longacres”!

 

Wednesday, August 29^th, 2PM Update:

Energy Today!

For the first week or two after we close every year, Meghan and I take turns being completely exhausted. You’d think we would both be tired all the time after a summer like we put in at Longacres, but it seems to come in waves. Yesterday I just couldn’t get very much into an electrical repair project, and I felt exhausted and depressed about my lack of energy. Meghan rescued me and reminded me that although I am pretty good at electrical work, about the only thing I hate more than being an electrician is being a plumber! SO I knocked off for the rest of the day. But today was a good day for me. We ran errands together early in the morning and then I hit the fields with Beta’s help, taking down all the jump rails and stacking and sorting them by color to save time later for Meghan and her crew of men who will take the jumps into the barn with trucks. I still felt good after two hours of that, so after saying “so long” to Beta who finished her summer job with us today, I went back to work taking jump cups and jump pins down, moving all the evergreen brush off the field, and stacking the dressage letters. Check this link for pictures of what Beta and I accomplished today.

 

Do You Have one of Our Horses? Be Patient!

I am sure Meghan has briefed all of you who are free leasing one of our horses, but here is an important reminder to those of you who have just taken delivery of one of the horses or are about to. PLEASE READ! Even if you think you know the horse you are leasing inside out after spending part of your summer here at Longacres riding that horse, remember that horses are creatures of habit and they can be VERY different in new surroundings until they get used to your barn.

 

Do not be surprised if a horse that was very calm and sensible at Longacres is nervous and jumpy when it is first getting used to a new stable. It can take two weeks or more for a horse to adjust to new surroundings. The actual facilities like the turn out paddocks, pastures, indoor arenas, and stalls will all be new and scary to many horses. So will all the new scary horses. It takes time for a horse to settle in when it is uprooted from a place like Longacres where they know the other horses and know their stall and stable mates. There are things you can do to help, with the advise and approval of your barn manager or instructor if you are boarding. Take the horse for walks all around the property on a lead rope. We call this our introductory “nature walks”; we try to introduce new horses or returning horses that have been away from Longacres to anything unusual that could spook them when we start riding. Take this time to be safe and get your horse used to its new surroundings.

 

Also, remember the “building blocks” to a good ride that you were taught at Longacres. Never are those building blocks and wise warm-ups more important than when you are working to get a horse accustomed to new surroundings. Handle the horse carefully and gently in the stall, while grooming, while tacking up, while mounting, and then do the step by step warm up that we teach you at Longacres. Do tons of circles, figure eights, halts, backs, working walks (WORKING WALKS, remember the most underrated gait in riding!), do lots of simple extension and collection at a walk and at a trot, and be patient. The fun stuff, the jumping and fast stuff will come, but please wait until your horse is used to its new winter home! I am sure that some of you are eager to show your friends and barn staff how talented your Longacres horse can be, but don’t go trying to jump four feet this week! If you have questions, feel free to call us.

 

Wednesday, August 29^th, 7AM Update:

Horses Everywhere

Much of our time yesterday and again today is being spent keeping in touch with horse van drivers and updating those of you who will be getting Longacres horses for lease over the winter. Feel free to call us if Meghan hasn’t called you. Yesterday morning we drove to Niagara Falls to have the federal vet stamp the international health papers Tee needs to go to Canada tomorrow to be with Kaylyn. Frank dropped Ginger off late yesterday afternoon in Westchester County (greater NYC, hi Dale!), then fearlessly attacked New York City rush hour traffic to drop Boo in Long Island (hi Toni) and head back across New York City again to get to New Jersey to drop off Bristol for Sharon. Well – his GPS somehow routed him off the freeways into Manhatten city streets with the big horse trailer. Fun, wow! This put him hours behind his planned schedule and he arrived at Sharon’s stable for Bristol late into the night, when he had originally thought he would be in Virginia with Jazz. So he hunkered down in the parking lot of Sharon’s stable for a few hours of sleep before heading on to Virginia with Jazz early this morning. Meanwhile we are keeping in touch with the Canadian truckers who are scheduled to pick up Tee here tomorrow to go to Toronto. AND we are frequently checking the progress of the long distance van on its way to us to pick up Coal, Ebony, and Tux to take them to Texas to be with Kellie. And arranging to go get Diesel who will not be staying at Peter Anderson’s after all and return him to Longacres until he finds another home. AND staying on the phone with the people responding the the free lease ads we have running online to find homes for Diesel, Horatio, and Little John.

 

So we are yesterday, today, and tomorrow arranging horse vanning to Ontario, New York City, Long Island, New Jersey, Virginia, and Texas. And you thought we would be relaxing after you all left over the weekend?!? Well, yes for an hour or two here and there, if you count going out to dinner with Meghan and listening to her tapping away texting with stables wondering where the horse van is!

 

Tuesday, August 28^th, 2PM Update:

Bye Colleen!

Only Beta, Meghan, and I are now left at Longacres. Horses are also almost gone - - with one BIG exception! Colleen just drove out the drive a few minutes ago heading home with her brother sharing the driving. We wish you a smooth trip, Colleen – nobody worked harder than you this summer (well, maybe Meghan).

 

Frank left early in the morning delivering Whitley to his new permanent home, and Boo, Jazz, Bristol, and Ginger to their winter homes with Longacres riders. Yes, horses are leaving Longacres – that one BIG exception? Unfortunately, Diesel leaned on a few fences that weren’t electrified over at Peter Anderson’s Farm, and he is no longer welcome there. So he is heading home to Longacres and is in search of another winter home with stronger fences and good electric fence. That now leaves Little John, Horatio, and Diesel without homes for the winter.

 

We are hard at work closing the barn and tearing down jumps today and the rest of the week.

 

Canteen & Show Expense Money:

Everyone from the first half of the summer should have had their refunds of unused expense money arrive by now. Let us know if you have not received a statement of account for spending money. We are still working on accounts for August session riders and it may be another week or two before everything is organized and checks or statements go out in the mail. Let us know if you do not get yours by September 15^th.

 

We have many other projects underway, but hope to finish up and take some time off by Sept. 15^th. Here’s hoping, at least!

 

Monday, August 27^th , 5PM Update:

We have had a few naps and got up late a few times since we closed on Saturda for the season. But there is still lots of work to do. Beta and Colleen worked hard all day stripping stalls and cleaning up the barn. Beta stripped the show field of all the silk flowers. Check this video link.

 

I worked several hours at the show field myself this morning taking down all the flags, sorting the haybales and the evergreen brush, and moving stuff around. Also check this video link.

 

The Right Place for Whitley!

We bought Whitley three summers ago. He was the most expensive horse we’ve ever bought for Longacres, and he showed his stuff many times. He is a talented and athletic horse. But he is not easy to ride and not at all easy to ride well. He did best when he was ridden by Ofelia, a camper here for several years and a Junior Counselor last year. Ofelia also took Whitley home for the winter over the 2010 to 2011 season. Last summer she was one of the top scores in the High Derby on Whitley and placed well in a high hunter class at the Erie County Fair and went clean in the team jumping. She understood Whitley and he performed well for her.

 

But we decided over last winter that Whitley is too sensitive and too difficult to ride to make a great horse for Longacres. And he is not always 100% sound – he can be lame after shoeing (though not this summer), and he had a tendon pull a year ago that took almost three months to heal. We think he is a horse that will do his best with a private owner and one rider most of the time that he is used to.

 

We advertised him for sale all of last spring and all summer.

 

We at Longacres are very pleased to be able to report that Ofelia and her mom, Martha, have purchased Whitley from Longacres today and that as of this afternoon, they are the owners of this sensitive but extremely talented horse. Congratulations to Ofelia, Martha, and especially to Whitley. He is leaving Longacres tomorrow morning with Frank to spend the next part of his life where he belongs – with Ofelia.

 

Sunday, August 26^th, 9AM Update:

A Restful Day

Meghan and I enjoyed a late dinner out last night at Cheesecake Factory. I had a beer and Meghan a glass of wine, which we never do during the summer when we will be driving the girls! We found ourselves constantly checking the time out of habit – is it time to meet the girls at the end of the mall for the ride back to Longacres? – should we be getting back in time for evening ride? But, of course, it just DIDN’T MATTER!! That is the biggest change in our lives between camp time and the rest of the year. Time slows down and deadlines almost disappear. Today at Longacres will be very casual, with only 12 horses in the pasture to feed, and a half day off for both Beta and Colleen. They will have work to do closing up the barn and stripping stalls to make room for jump storage. But no deadlines and no pressure. Meghan and I are about to head out for a long breakfast and reading session.

 

Tomorrow will be back to work, with horses leaving each day early this week and a crew starting to put the jumps away. And Meghan has an appointment tomorrow morning to spend an hour on the phone with Sari’s mom in Georgia talking about Longacres for 2013 – organizing next summer’s sessions has already begun!

 

Whitley

There are still many details to be arranged and it might fall through, but we have tentatively reached an agreement for Ofelia and her mom to buy Whitley. She is the rider who knows him best and it will be a great after Longacres home for him if the arrangements are finalized this week. We hope it works out.

 

Horatio & Little John

Still no winter home prospects for Horatio and Little John, but we are getting answers to our online ads every day and hope something will turn up. Do spread the word at you home stable that you know where a great horse can be leased!

 

(Hello to Ryan, who continues to send MANY messages in the off season!)

 

Saturday, August 25^th, Noon Update:

Final Ride of 2012

I just got back from the barn where I helped Katherine, Jamie, and Beta with the final ride of the 2012 season. Katherine was riding Jazz and she jumped three times over X-rails, and I helped Jamie and Beta take Star and Tux over a wide jump, jumping in pairs for a little change of pace. Jamie has now ridden every horse in the Longacres barn, except Lincoln who came up with a foot abscess this week. Check this video link for the clips of Katherine, Jamie, and Beta this hour.

 

There will likely be a little riding by Beta and Colleen between jobs closing the barn this week, but this ride this morning was our last until next June by a student at Longacres. TO show you how much I felt like I would be missing you girls, I even asked Jamie and Beta to tell me about their pairs jumping accomplishment “in the accent” – that was going out of my way for them!!!!

 

Empty Nest

And this begins a little season of depression, at least for me. One of you parents asked me earlier this summer if we had an “empty nest syndrome” when camp closes for the season. For me, the answer is decidedly, “Yes”. It’s funny, because you would think that Meghan would be the one who gets depressed about all the girls being gone. But it’s more me. Oh, Meghan does miss the girls very much, since she is the one nursing them when they are sick and solving their little and big problems. She feels very close to many of you. But she is exhausted by this time of year and she will mostly sleep the coming three days. She will be too tired to be depressed about the empty loneliness that hits Longacres during the first couple of weeks after we close up in August! It’s certainly not like she’s “glad you are all gone” – but she is very glad to be able to sleep and read a book during breakfast instead of checking the riding lists. And though you would never know it by the way she runs Longacres, Meghan is at heart a very private person who likes alone time.

 

I am the opposite. I have always been an organizer and entertainer and socializer by nature. Now that Meghan does most of the management of Longacres, it frees me up to do the things I really enjoy like watching you all ride and telling Meghan if I think someone should be trying Jazz or Horatio or giving advice on setting up courses for the next horse show. I know that I don’t spend much time actually teaching each of you, but I do watch you every day, and behind the scenes I am more involved than you may know in deciding who you will ride and how much you will be pushed and held to high standards. So when the season ends and finally there is nobody here to jump Horatio high, and nobody that I can talk to Meghan about and say, “She really has potential – let’s put her on harder horses!”, and nobody even using irritating accents at dinner, I am the one who gets depressed by this “empty nest syndrome”.

 

Barbara Exum

Most years, right after the last student leaves, I take a long walk through the farm all by myself thinking of the just completed season and how it fits in with memories of all the seasons at Longacres that have gone before. Jamie and Katherine were just leaving at lunchtime and I was getting ready to take that lonely, but refreshing walk - - and a car drove in the driveway. It was Barbara Exum, a lady that runs the riding program at a summer camp in North Carolina. She had written two days ago and asked to visit today and take a walk around Longacres for old time’s sake. For you see, Barbara was a counselor at Longacres in 1961 and 1962. I had not remembered her name, but I remembered her well when she showed me her copy of our 1963 brochure today with her teenage pictures in it. She joined me for a history walk all around the farm as we shared old memories. We are essentially the same age and both remembered many mutual friends from the Longacres of the 1960’s. Barbara is already making plans to join us for the Diamond Jubilee 75^th Anniversary party next August and she will be a big part of our history walks that weekend. Barbara sharing all those memories helped take my mind off the “empty nest” for two hours. It was a great visit, and at the perfect time, Barbara. See you next August for the Jubilee!!!!!

 

Saturday, August 25^th, 10AM Update:

Closing Up

We had our final campfire and Smore’s party last night and Mikayla and Alexis left last night. Carrie is now on her way to the airport with Danielle. Jamie and Katherine are enjoying Longacres right to the very end, having two morning rides with Beta. But by lunchtime, we will be down to just Beta, Colleen, Meghan, and I to care for a dwindling number of horses and close up the barn. Already it seems lonely!

 

And the herd of horses will melt away quickly. Avalon, Banjo, Brody, and Maggie left two days early for Findlay College in Ohio. Another load of horses heads to Ohio today for Maypine Stables (Zanee, Ladd, and Lincoln). We are feeling a little better about Lincoln, who is never lame, but went dead lame two days ago. The vet and Joel, the farrier, both looked at him the first day he was lame and thought it was a bruise or an abscess. Joel looked at him again this morning and found a dark spot that was tender to his pinchers on the sole of his foot and he is pretty sure it is an abscess that has to work it’s way to the surface. Maypine has agreed to take him even though he is very lame right now and take care of him. If we are wrong and it is something more serious, we will send Frank to bring him back, but we are pretty sure he will start to be better in a few days.

 

Diesel leaves and goes to Peter Anderson’s barn in about an hour from now. Then Rocky, Neek-o, and Merlin leave later this morning. We will have about a dozen horses here for a couple of days, Sunday and Monday, and then a big group leave again for Long Island, NY and New Jersey and Virginia (Boo, Bristol, and Jazz). Tee is headed to Canada after complicated health certificate arrangements and she will be with Kaylyn near Toronto. By the middle of the week we will have only Horatio, Little John, and Whitley in the pasture. They are all pleasant horses to handle and care for, so we rather look forward to their company until we find homes and a final buyer for Whitley. It still amazes me that an appropriate home for perhaps our best jumper, Horatio, has not turned up. Pass the word. If your stable needs a very willing jumper that is a joy to handle, or if you know a good rider who would like to lease Horatio, HE NEEDS A GOOD HOME!!!!! Little John is also tricky to place, since he is so big, even though he is very gentle to handle.

 

A Talk About Hick Talk

I will take a few lines here to revisit the “Country Bumpkin accent” topic I wrote about yesterday. It’s not a very important topic, but the way I feel about it says something about our way of doing things at Longacres. (If you missed it, read yesterday’s update and watch the YouTube video of the girls talking goofy. I will grant that they are quite good at it and it is funny – for a few minutes.)

 

One of the best things about Longacres is that we encourage girls of all ages, especially teenagers, to let down their hair and just be joyful here with their friends and all the horses. There’s nothing better than watching a couple of fifteen year olds arm in arm with a 12 year old, pretending to be horses cantering away from the dining hall after dinner to their evening ride. And a wildly goofy group of girls laughing and joking at dinner is a healthy, happy group that will work hard on their riding and horse care. So to that end, the 2012 fake accent fad at Longacres has been a healthy and fun thing.

 

But we also try to teach some life lessons here. One of those is learning what kind of behavior is appropriate with your friends around the barn and in the cabins and if some of that behavior becomes less appropriate around adults. Or if something (like the accents) might be very funny for a little while, but not so funny if it goes on day after day and hour after hour. That’s a growing up lesson that people learn by experiencing life.

 

Because I don’t want to be the wet blanket that dampens the girls’ enthusiasm and joy, I have been careful not to step on the accent fad hard. But it definitely wore out it’s welcome for me over this past week. I made some gentle comments and jokes about how even Meghan was picking some of it up and how hard it would be on me if “the accent” stuck around after the girls leave! At dinner out last night I softly asked that it be left at the restaurant door for the evening. Some persisted, so I quietly left them alone to enjoy their meal.

 

But I had a long talk with the girls at the campfire about the topic. I guess I did most of the talking, but they listened respectfully and agreed with some of my points. We talked about comedy and the importance of timing and of knowing when something funny had past it’s peak of enjoyment and that there is a time to drop a topic and move on to something else. We talked about how it is hard when you are growing up to separate things that are appropriate talk among young friends, but maybe not appropriate around adults. We talked about having respect for the fact that old guys like me might be bothered by too much of a good natured goofy habit. And we talked about the fact that things like using a mocking hillbilly accent are maybe a teeny bit politically incorrect. And how living a perfectly politically correct life is maybe unrealistic, but it is something we should think about. If I made even two or three people stop and think for a moment last night (and I think I did), then I achieved something. And I achieved it without raising my voice or scolding anyone in particular. AND, the rest of the campfire, with some laughter and joking, was blessedly free of “the accent”!

 

Friday, August 24^th, 5PM Update:

Final Lesson of 2012

Well, almost. Most of the girls have to leave tonight or early tomorrow, but Katherine and the counselors will be here until after noon tomorrow and Katherine will get another lesson, MAYBE on Jazz, her new favorite horse! Anyway, we just had everyone do a few nice jumps on the last regular 2012 lesson this afternoon, and you can see them at this link.

 

Also check out Whitley on video at this link. And Whitley’s eyes at this link.

 

And the girls displaying their annoying country accents at this link before the fun show!

 

Friday, 4PM Update:

Hello to Sari & Kelly

Our first two serious inquiries from new students for 2013 are Sari from Georgia and Kelly from Virginia. Kelly and her family visited Longacres last weekend and I just had a nice talk with Sari’s mom this afternoon. If they decide to choose Longacres for 2013, they would join three girls from this season who have already signed up for next summer. Not quite finished with 2012 and we’re already working on 2013!

 

Friday, 3PM Update:

A Great Fun Show!

Grand Champion of the show was “Medusa riding Snake Like Magic” (Jamie & Ebony). Our other wild competitors were “Cross-over Kid on Merlinator” (Alexis on Merlin); King Size (thanks Joyce) riding Bite Size (Beta on Ladd); CareBear on Shenanigans (Carrie and Tux); Kit Kat on Trip Pony (Katherine and Neek-o); Coal-Leen on C-squared (Colleen on Coal); All Natural on Twinkle Twinkle Little Star (Mikayla on Star). They did barrel racing, pole bending, round the world, pairs tandem hunter, partner lead line pole bending, and pairs free-style pleasure.

 

Reserve Champion was King Size Beta! Tandem Hutners were won by Beta and our complete beginner this week, Mikayla!!!! Original costume was won by Carrie (great accent!) Colleen was runner up with her balloon theme. Katherine was extremely consistent, with four seconds and other ribbons!

 

Check this link for LOTS of pictures, just like a big show at Longacres!

 

Gregory, Eugene, and Country Bumpkin Chic – Hope we’ve heard the last of it!

This has been the summer of acquired phony accents and dialects. It all started when a number of the girls caught “the plague” sore throats during the August session and because they had hoarse voices, some, especially Eva and Emily, put on “voices” they called Eugene and Gregory. Whether it was an extension of that or something brand new, the girls from this Lazy Days session have taken up “country bumpkin” speech – heavily southern and back woods in style. As in real life, people tend to quickly pick up accents if they live in an environment 24-7. By the end of this week you could not find a sentence with good grammar and diction at Longacres no matter where you walked. For your sake at home, I hope the accents die when the girls leave Longacres tomorrow – they have not been my favorite part of the summer. But as our regular readers and friends of Longacres know, Meghan and I pick our battles. We insist on hard work and courteous behavior and a clean barn. If we get that, I guess we can tolerate obnoxious fake accents! But if they show up again next year, I might just go on strike for decent grammar and speech!

 

Friday, 11AM Update:

Bulliten from Ringside!

After two events (pole bending and barrel racing), Jamie has a first and a third, Colleen won the Barrel racing, and 10 year old Katherine is giving a strong performance with a 2nd in pole bending and a 4th in barrels. More to come!

 

Friday, August 24^th, 10AM Update:

Last Day & Fun Show

Check this link for pictures of the girls getting ready for today’s fun show late last night. As you can see, they are having fun decorating their horse show numbers and planning minor “costumes” appropriate for a fun horse show. They are getting ready right now, and we are heading down to the barn to be cheerleaders and help run the events. They don’t know it yet, but we have a twist to throw in for the various timed events like pole bending. The girls will get a score in seconds for the time it takes them to finish each timed event. Then we will ADD their age to their score, giving a slight advantage to the younger girls. Should be interesting!

 

Bad Luck

Just when things are going great, something sometimes crops up to throw a wrench into the works. Lincoln has been sound as a dollar all summer long. He is a sturdy horse with a great health history. He was supposed to leave for Maypine Stables in Ohio with Zanee and Ladd tomorrow. But yesterday a foreleg was swollen and he is very tender on one foot. The vet and farrier think it is not serious, but a bruise or abscess that will be fine in a week. But we can’t send him 300 miles away in his present condition, so the whole trip will have to wait an indefinite period until his situation is clear. Aaaaaaargh! (AND, I just crashed my model helicopter L )

 

Thursday, August 23^rd, 9PM Update

One More Day

One more and the 2012 season will be history. We will have a month of work after that closing up and taking care of paperwork, but we will have our own schedule and time to relax – if we can remember how! This week, Meghan and I are both running on empty. Meghan a lot more than I, but we have both rationed out the last drop of energy in our tanks so that we will be able to do a good job for the girls tomorrow with the fun show, bid them a cheerful adieu, and then crash and sleep on Sunday. We have held ourselves together just long enough. We are not the only things at Longacres that have just barely made it to the end of the season. It seems like our equipment is in on the calendar. The electric fence gate snapped this afternoon and when I took the tractor out to mow a little for the weekend, the PTO coupling broke apart. Not a big deal, but one more thing. Longacres is ready for a quiet off season!

 

Bought A Horse!

“Tee” is no longer a consignment horse at Longacres for sale. We are buying her and she will be spending the winter with Kaylyn in Canada if everything goes the way it is planned. Congrats to Kaylyn on making the arrangements and having a nice horse to ride over the winter and to send back to Longacres next summer.

 

THURSDAY, 5PM UPDATE:

More Pictures

Check this link for a bunch more pictures of this morning’s guest instructor lessons and of the hunt course ride this afternoon.

 

More late afternoon pics at this link.

 

Thursday, August 23^rd, 2PM Update:

Psssst! Another “Leak”

We’re still a week away from officially confirming the first 2013 enrollments, but unofficially, I can tell you that another registration came in and Sarah F. from Lancaster, PA will be Longacres 2013 student #3. She was another big Boo lover, as well as other Longacres horses. Keep those enrollments coming!

 

This morning’s clinics with Kate Webster and Susan Schum went very well. All the riders were excited. Micayla cantered for the first time. Beta really liked her clinic with Kate. These guest clinics are always fun and we use them as a chance to reward our hard working counselors because they get taught also.

 

It’s hard to believe that we have just a day and a half more of the Longacres 2012 season and then all the horses leave and Longacres becomes a beautiful, but very lonely place for nine months. We are already getting ready to close up shop, though that process will take a while. We sent out five horses today, the four that go to Findlay College and Digger went home with Susan after the clinic this morning. Meghan and I will rest Sunday after a lot of horses and all the girls leave Saturday. Early next week we actually will take some time to ourselves in between work sessions closing up the farm. We have several gift certificates for meals at East Aurora restaurants (thank you very much!) and we plan to use them with great joy this coming week.

 

This afternoon we all go over to the old hunt course for some jumps out on the trails. Then tomorrow morning we have the fun show and games and a last chance to try horses we haven’t ridden much or favorite horses. We might have a smore’s campfire tomorrow night, then we have a final Saturday morning ride and everyone goes home! Horses too!

 

(STILL NEED a home for Horatio and for Little John, though we have a possibility. Still nobody to buy Whitley, though we have an inquiry from a western rider who would use him as a trail horse. How many of you know that Whitley originally was a western horse??

 

(Hi Kaitlin – keep those email messages coming – they make us smile!)

 

Wednesday, Aug. 22^nd, 9PM Update:

Another Guest Clinic

Two actually. Kate Webster will teach the more advanced girls and Susan Schum will teach the beginners tomorrow morning in guest lessons. Thanks to Kate and Susan for giving us their time! Check this link for more pictures taken this afternoon.

 

Short update tonight. I am beat. I did not act my age this afternoon and got in trouble with Meghan for crawling around under the new RV pulling new control wires all through the frame and wiring tunnels. Not fun, and I am crashing with a couple of Tylenol now. I will be out like a light ten minutes after posting this update, IF I remember to post the update!

 

We are hearing from more old friends of Longacres who plan to attend the 75^th Anniversary party next August. Tonight I heard from Rita (Celestino), Andi (Ferry), and Peachy (Sherman) that they plan to come – they represent – well, a long time ago! When we were all young!

 

Wednesday, August 22^nd, 5PM Update:

A Good Day for Carrie

And it came at a good time! Carrie had bad luck with some of her horses yesterday and just wasn’t clicking on having the right pace to her fences with Horatio or with Little John. We talked about it and it was a case of trying to be too analytical about the jumping and not feeling for the right speed.

 

But all that was behind her today. She was riding great and really had Jazz listening. With a little help (from me!) she nailed a perfect flying change in the sand ring and then we went out to the field where Carrie on Jazz and Jamie on Horatio did some higher jumping which turned out well. Beta also jumped in the field quite well on Ebony, after a little “discussion” with the horse! But Carrie’s big achievement today was jumping the Liverpool with Jazz. She took three tries, but then Jazz went right over a couple of times, looking great. Good job, Carrie!

 

We also had a trip to Kone King after lunch and then watched the video that Meghan took yesterday. This was a good day all around.

 

Wednesday, August 22^nd, 11AM Update:

Great Hayloft party!

The hayloft party is always one of the highlights of each camp session, and last night’s was especially good. You at home can enjoy it along with me at this link (pictures of afternoon ride first). I was pretty whupped last night and went to bed while Meghan did the party, so I missed it until seeing the pictures of everyone laughing and smiling this morning.

 

We should have more riding pictures for you later today. In the meantime, Meghan is nearly overwhelmed with work making arrangements for all the horses to go out this coming weekend and next Tuesday. If you have not had a call about hroses returned, try again or email us. We are doing everything we can to arrange interstate and perhaps even international shipping, to contact truckers, and answer questions from stable owners about our horses.

 

Horatio, Little John, Whitley Ned Homes

Whitley is being sold for the best offer, so we do not need a lease home for him, but he will make someone a good horse. Pass the word that we still do not have a buyer.

 

Horatio, amazingly, also does not have a home. Funny that perhaps our most talented horse is still without a home, but the right family has not turned up who is in a position to adopt him for the winter. Pass the word about Horatio and Little John, both still without homes. They will be living outside in the Longacres pasture for a while. Nice for them, at least until mid October!

 

Tuesday, 10PM Update:

2013 Girls

We do not formally confirm 2013 enrollments for another ten days, BUT – psssst – I have another rumor to leak. Rumor has it that Zoe, from the second two weeks in July this year, will be confirmed as Longacres 2013 student #2, joining Paige as the first to officially enroll for next summer. And because it is not a regular enrollment, I can also tell you that Sydney H. currently from Japan, has asked to be on next year’s staff as a Junior Counselor, the first formal staff application for 2013. Sydney would be great, and we only have to work out if she can come for a part of the summer where we need help. Next year would be Sydney’s 8^th at Longacres, so she is well prepared for a job here. It’s just a matter of working out the dates and details. There are rumors of other 2013 reservations coming soon – we should have several to officially announce on September 1^st!

 

Travel Itinerary For Winter Visits from Longacres

Because all of you out there are like family to us, we try to visit some of you during the off season. Our plans are beginning to take shape. We likely (subject to change) hope to be in the Chicago area for a visit around the middle of September, Seattle at the beginning of October, Arizona in late November, Texas in early January, Florida (Hi, Anderson!) in late January, and a Longacres East Coast reunion near Washington DC in late April.

 

Tuesday, August 21^st, 1PM Update:

Bigger Jumping

I got back late from running errands this morning, just in time to help Carrie and Jamie jump Horatio and Jazz over the road line and some bigger jumps. Check this link for some pictures. They will have another chance to do this later in the week. We don’t have pictures of Alexis, Katherine, and Beta yet this morning because Meghan was taking HD video of them until I got home. They will have a good time seeing their video clips later on. Check back for more pictures later today. Tonight is the overnight trail ride and hayloft slumber party night!!!

 

Monday, August 20^th, 8PM Update:

Check this link for lots of pictures Meghan took this afternoon during Bethany’s Guest instructor clinic. Thanks Bethany! It was great to kick off this year’s Lazy Days week with a guest teacher who is one of the great riders in Longacres history. The weather looks just great all week – not too hot, and no rain in sight. As has been the case all summer, we could use some rain, but it will be a pleasant week for riders. We have lots of parties planned, the sleep over at the old barn, and more. I taught the younger girls some more cantering exercises tonight and had the older girls get off their horses and walk some lines to practice their theory of striding.

 

Monday, August 20^th, 1PM Update:

First Day of Lazy Days Week

We got off to a slow start today. Lazy Days is supposed to be a little slow and relaxed, with a sleep in every morning and horse care after breakfast. But we have been very spoiled the past 3 ½ weeks having lots of strong teenagers as students. For most of August we flew through horse care chores. Colleen and Beta had almost forgotten what it was like to take care of the barn with a smaller number of riders and smaller people! So horse care ran long. We will make adjustments to get things done and still have plenty of time to ride.

 

Once we did get mounted we had a great morning lesson. I helped out teaching everyone for part of the morning myself. I taught Beta, Jamie, and Carrie more about walking courses and about striding between jumps. And I enjoyed helping Alexis and Katherine to canter and jump on their first morning. Check this link for a few jumping pictures of everyone. And this link later this afternoon for lots more pictures from Meghan’s camera. (Meghan’s pictures are posted now – Katherine is on Star; Alexis is on Neek-o; Jamie is on Tux; Carrie is on Banjo; and Beta is on Ladd. )

 

Sunday, August 19^th, 9PM Update:

Meghan’s Day at the Fair

Meghan did sleep in for a while this morning, but nothing like what she will next week at this time! What she did do all day for relaxation was go to the fair. You wouldn’t think that would be her choice since she has spent much of the last week organizing things at the fair. But it really makes perfect sense. Meghan has always loved fairs and when she goes just as Meghan and not as owner and director of Longacres and responsible for nobody, well, she can really relax. AND, she is anonymous! Maybe that’s the most appealing thing about her last day at the fair. She went over in early afternoon, came back to pick me up and take me over to spend a few hours with her (my limit), then brought me home and is likely headed back to the fair for a last late night stroll. She already looks rejuvenated. Ready for another week at Longacres beginning tomorrow morning!

 

Eva

We miss all of the girls from this past session and from earlier in the summer, each in different ways. Some for your sense of humor, some for your helpfulness, some for your kindness, some for your bond with a particular horse that means something to us (Elena & Sydney and Lincoln!!), some for the way you got “special wishes”, some for making unusual progress, and some just for the way you laugh (or the way you whoop!). But it was particularly hard for me personally to see Eva go this afternoon. This 13 year old boisterous, sometimes rowdy, hard working, sometimes bossy but always well meaning, generous, cheerleader for others, talented bundle of energy has really put her mark on Longacres. Even last year at 12, when she returned for an extra session later in the summer and had only been here two days, we wrote in the Blog that Longacres had been “Eva-ized”. Whatever you might say about Eva, you certainly know when she’s here!

 

When I designated Eva as Longacres #1 rider a few weeks ago, she became the youngest person ever to hold that honorary title here. And it has given me great pleasure to spend time coming up with new challenges and goals for her to work on, and just to watch her ride. It has been one of the things that makes me eager to get up in the morning and go to the barn. The past two days have given another impressive demonstration of those talents. After most of the other girls had left yesterday, I set aside time to carefully take some horse jumping pictures that we can use on the website over the winter. We planned to jump pretty high, depending on how Eva was riding. As usual, that was pretty good, so I eventually let her jump 3’9” and four feet a few times. She had never jumped this high, and she was a little loose in the saddle and her legs were swinging back a little more than they should. But she looked safe. When she finished, I made a few comments. She also had a chance on an iPhone to see the pictures we took of her. And whether she did it consciously or not, somehow between the time she rode last night and the time I gave her another chance this morning, her muscles communicated with her mind and they said to one another, “Four feet. Oh, so that’s how it’s done. OK – bring it on!”

 

Meghan and I were not technically perfect in our exposures and focus when we took the jumping pictures yesterday. But we had Eva for a few extra hours this morning, so she got a second chance to do some big jumping. In one day, she absorbed what she had to do to be with the horse and confident over big jumps. She did 8 or 9 of them this morning and nailed every one of them, with the horse just exactly right taking the jump and her form and position pretty darn good every time. For some people it takes years to move up from having the experience and competence at 3’ to the point where you can safely and reliably jump four feet. Eva needed one day. Being a part of that progress means a lot to an old horse trainer. There was a tremor in my voice and maybe the beginning of a tear in my eye when I said “goodbye” to her this afternoon. She has been a good thing for Longacres and for me.

 

Sunday, August 19^th, Noon Update:

A few more Pictures

We got some nice promotional pictures for the website yesterday, but they weren’t perfect. So in between power naps and relaxing after the August regular session today, we decided to try a few more. They came out well – check this link!

 

Back to sleep now, to get ready for a good Lazy Days week.

 

Sunday, August 19^th:

Zzzzzzzzz-zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz - - - - -

 

Saturday, August 18^th, 5PM Update:

We Miss You!

We have about 18 hours to relax and then we start again with a fun Lazy Days group. But the regular season is pretty much over and we are feeling lonely. We’ve heard from a few of you who are home and missing camp. Keep in touch – it will help us adjust to being alone at Longacres soon!

 

Eva is the last to leave and she did a little jumping this afternoon – at this link.

 

Saturday, August 18^th, Noon Update:

Goodbye Emily (and Everyone!)

I’m traditional – I still say “goodbye”, but Meghan much prefers “until next time”! So that’s what she said to Emily just a few minutes ago when she was the last of the day to pull out for home. All the other girls are on their way home, some leaving at 6:30 in the morning with Danielle for the airport (well, 6:40 – Elena was frantically finding all of her stuff). From this session only the counselors are still here, plus Carrie who is staying for Lazy Days, and Eva – well wouldn’t you know Eva would be the last to go. She is staying over until tomorrow.

 

We enjoyed showing possible 2013 student, Kelly, around this morning and letting her ride. Check out this video of me showing Kelly and her family a “not so clean” Longacres cabin. Colleen calls it the transitionary phase of cabin cleanliness.

 

We will post a few pictures later today at this link. Then probably nothing tomorrow while we rest! More pictures to come on Monday when Katherine and the other Lazy Days students will be here! Hi, Katherine!!!!

 

Friday, August 17^th, 9PM Update:

Showing Kelly Around

Kelly from Virginia is visiting this evening and helping with horse care. She is thinking of coming next year. It has been a great final night of camp, with some casual riding and jumping and a long session just hanging out on the big field and talking horses and friendships. What a fine group of girls. It will be a late night, but it’s worth it.

 

Check this link and this link for a couple of casual video’s of the girls together on their last night of this session. After they finish caring for the horses they are all coming to the house to watch the rest of the Fair video’s. Then there will be a LITTLE time for sleep and the first group will head to the airport at 6:30AM. There will be a flurry of “until next times” over the next few hours and most will be gone by noon. Eva will be the last to go on Sunday afternoon, as the new group comes in for the Lazy Days clinic week. Bethany Scarlata will be our first guest instructor on Monday.

 

More news tomorrow!

 

Friday, August 17^th, 5PM Update:

Reining Clinic – Thank You, Frank!

Frank is the horse hauling guy who trucks all our horses to the shows and all over the country after camp. For his own enjoyment, he is into reining competitions where western horses spin and slide. He took time out of his busy schedule today to bring a couple of his good reining competition horses over to Longacres, give us a demonstration, and let Eva and Emily have a little reining duel! Check this link for some pictures of all the girls riding and jumping this morning and of the reining clinic this afternoon.

 

Then this link, this link (Frank’s Demo), this link (Emily), and this link (Eva) for video of the reining.

 

Friday, 1PM Update:

Finished a “bigger than usual” jumping session this morning, with everyone getting on the “big” horses. Fun! The girls all voted to pass up a pond riding session so they could have more time getting on all their favorite horses one last time. Maybe the fact that it is a very cool day had something to do with that! They are down in the office right now watching almost three hours of video from the fair – we will watch half now and half this evening. At 4PM, Frank is bringing his western reining horse over to do a clinic in that discipline – it will be a real change of pace. Eva and Emily will get to be guiea pigs after he demonstrates. Then more riding and packing late tonight! Then “until next time” early tomorrow morning – sadness!

 

Bethany is coming to teach Monday!!!!

 

Friday, August 17^th, 9AM Update:

Welcome Kelly

Kelly is a new student considering Longacres for 2013. She and her family are making a long trip this weekend to visit us and see if we are a good fit. We look forward to showing you around tomorrow morning, Kelly!

 

Last Day

The girls had a fine time cruising around the fairgrounds and spending money last night. We gave them the option of sleeping in late or getting up for a full morning of riding this morning, and at the moment I’m not sure who chose to sleep in. We’re planning a quiet day today, with a session riding horses into the pond, a chance to ride your favorite horse one more time, and a chance to get on horses you may never have ridden this session. Somehow, we will try to fit in watching video taken at the fair = maybe one session after lunch and one this evening. It was supposed to be a rainy day and there were showers early this morning, but it looks like most of the rain has already passed through. Some pictures will be posted later today.

 

Something New

Who says we never do anything but ride at Longacres? Check this video link for a clip of Elena learning a new farm skill!

 

Thursday, August 16^th, 1PM Update:

Near The End

The fair is sort of the grand finale of the Longacres season every year. We do look forward to a relaxing and fun week during Lazy Days starting Monday morning, but today is the end of the big excitement and the fair is what we work towards the entire second session. I won’t give a detailed summary here, since you all at home will be seeing your children in two days. But following are some tidbits.

 

We won fifty ribbons this year, and we have won a hundred or more in several recent years. But those years were during the height of the recession and entries at the fair and many other shows were down. Truth be told, some of those hundred ribbons in the past two years have been in small classes where we would win just by entering. Not so this year. The fair had a record number of entries this year including most of the big show stables in western New York. We EARNED our fifty ribbons this year!

 

Not Many Blues

We were pleased to be at least in the ribbons and improving our riding every day. But we were not winning a ton of classes. I think the only firsts were Valerie on Zanee and Elena on Lincoln. But a funny thing happened during the three days of the show – we started to be pretty darn consistent and earning at least some ribbons in most classes. When the dust settled earlier this morning on the third day of the show, those consistant 2nds and 3rds added up – and Eva on Horatio was suddenly Champion of the higher jumper division we entered and Valerie was Champion of Beginner Jumpers on Zanee. And Elena was Champion of Special Beginner Hunters. And our team jumping crew of Valerie, Ursula, Emily, and Eva, as you heard yesterday, won second place out of eight teams, and darn near knocked off a powerful Hasty Hills Farm team. 2012 was after all a pretty solid horse show for us. Congrats to our 2012 August session girls for being a great team!

 

Some of the real hero’s weren’t even the ribbon winners. Alexandra is a good example – she had lots of trouble with her horses in the jumper ring the first two days, with refusals and rough rounds. But she got better each time. We let her try Jazz in one of the higher jumper events on the last day, sicne she had shown improvement each day. She did not win. But she put in the best performance of her rides at the fair and helped Jazz gain confidance. It was largely due to good, solid riding by Alexandra and Ursual slowly getting Jazz better each ride, that Eva could jump the horse over high jumps and win a 5^th place during the final event of the show. Good job Alexandra and good for the other riders in the lower events who had trouble the first day but got better each day.

 

We will post lots of pictures at this link and this link in an hour or so.

More group pictures at this link.

 

Wednesday, August 15^th, 9PM Update:

We took lots of pictures today.

 

Check this link for some from Meghan’s camera and this link for lots more from mine.

 

There were many great moments today. One of the best was Elena winning the Beginner Hunter championship on Lincoln. Meghan rescued this horse four years ago and has been working especially hard to put him in shape and train him. What a great moment! (Are you proud, Deb and Sydney?)

 

Our Team jumpers were not all looking so good yesterday and we seriously considered not entering the team event. But I should not have worried. Valerie on Zanee, Ursula on Jazz, Emily on Merlin, and Eva on Horatio were amazing. They rode against 7 other teams of four riders each and almost won the whole shooting match, finishing second to a team with a professional rider and very experienced supporting riders, in the timed jump-off. Our best team effort since we won it outright three years ago.

 

Other riders won lots of stuff, 39 ribbons in all. There were still some failures and disappointments, but most showed marked improvement the second day of the show and likely will do better tomorrow. There have been some disappointments from some who thought they should keep trying hard events when we felt they were unsafe or not doing well by their horses. Only a couple had to be told outright, “no”. Most made sensible decisions on their own to change to safer events. Ultimately, safety is our first concern. We also had to do some juggling to keep everyone riding in some more suitable events if we changed them off horses that were misbehaving. It is a puzzle to make it all work, and Meghan had to dip deep into her bag of tricks and go to plan “B’ AND even plan “C”. Most riders were content with the end result and with what they will try tomorrow.

 

Surprise!

Kellie showed up unexpectedly, flying in from Texas for three days of the fair. She might ride tomorrow morning.

Enjoy the pictures! We are tired and getting to bed very early tonight, as are most of the kids.

 

PS – The fried dough is REALLY good this year!

 

Wednesday, August 15^th, 6:45 AM Update:

Second Day Hopes

During the next hour we’re heading over to the fair hoping that our stronger riders will have another good day and that the girls with horses that struggled yesterday will have some much better rides on this second day of the show. The weather looks better, for a start. And we are remembering that last year, with an even less experienced group of riders, we were awful the first day, and by the third day of the show we were cruising and everyone had settled down and shown huge improvement.

 

Sleep

Everyone was tired yesterday. Even with a day of rest after the exciting Derby Saturday at Longacres, they were a little run down again after the hours of packing up and shipping to the fair and all the late evening practice at the fair on Monday. Part of it is the fact that Meghan works so hard to have everything perfectly organized that she sometimes lets “sleep” slip to a lower priority. Yesterday as I looked at some of the kids and the counselors, I decreed that EVERYONE (even Meghan!) would get a solid 7 hours of sleep last night, even if some horse care stuff didn’t get done or if we missed a horse show class. Seven hours isn’t a lot of sleep, but it’s more than many of us got the night before.

 

Remember, I will be posting some ringside updates on my personal Blog again today.

 

And here is the live link to Eva’s Gambler’s Choice round yesterday.

 

Tuesday, August 14^th, 9:30PM Update:

Hope You Enjoyed the Live Ringside Reports from the Fair

We’ll plan on doing that again tomorrow, so remember to go to my personal Blog linked at the top of this page if you want that news.

 

Eva ALMOST!

Eva put in a wonderful ride on Horatio in the featured $1500 Gambler’s Choice class tonight. Until the final horse, her score was best. Another good jumper rider, who happens to be former Longacres camper, Andrea Bennett, finally beat Eva’s score by 20 points, 1350 to 1330. Andrea’s ride was perfect, but a little slower than ours. Horatio pulled down one rail half way through the course – that rail stays up, we woulda won! But there are no woulda’s in horse shows. Andrea won fair and square. Many of the girls, especially Sydney, said it was the most exciting horse show moment they had been part of ever. Sure was exciting for me!

 

Valerie

Valerie DID win a class, finishing with the fastest time out of about seventeen 2’9” jumpers. Other girls won ribbons – look at our pictures from today and you will see them all in our stable area.

 

Disappointment

The day was not without frustration. This was a big show with scary jumps. As if that wasn’t enough, it rained hard for a good part of the afternoon and we had to ride on in the mud and wet. A big show like this only stops when lightning is nearby – which it was, big time, during Eva’s earlier afternoon ride on Ginger. Eva was half way around her course when one of those almost on top of us thunder claps shattered the quiet of the horse show. Everyone jumped out of their skins. Eva thought it was funny – finished her course laughing!

 

Anyway, many of our girls who were trying events that were at the limits of their personal abilities and the abilities of their horses had some big problems with horses refusing at the first jump sometimes. It was nerves in the riders heads, nerves in the horses’ heads, and simply bad conditions at the show because of all the rain coming down. Frustrating for the girls. It could have been worse – Meghan assigned classes yesterday and a number of our girls were disappoinrted that we did not let them jump in higher and more difficult events. Turns out that we made the right decisions. We may back off even more tomorrow morning for the second day of the show for safety and to let the girls have a better chance of a good performance. Then we might jump higher again on Thursday. We’ll see. Safey first. Most were back in good spirits by tonight.

 

Lincoln

Elena and Lincoln were WONDERFUL!!!!!!! Lincoln is one of Meghan’s favorite horses because she found him in terrible condition, saw something in him, and nursed him back to health and supervised his training over a three year period. Thanks to great riding by Sydney H. and Elena, Lincoln has really, really improved this summer and did all his lead changes, got his striding, and just looked like the thoroughbred hunter he now is in today’s show. Fine job, Elena! They won 2^nd out of 17 horses or more in their class. We got a duplicate ribbon from the fair so Elena can keep hers while Meghan displays a copy here at Longacres permanently!

 

Pictures from Meghan at this link.

Pictures from my camera at this link.

 

We will TRY, if we have computer processing time before bed, to post a video of Eva and Horatio at this link late tonight.

 

Tuesday, August 14^th, 9AM Update:

Live Updates from the Fair

I will try to post some iPhone based updates right from ringside later today at this link on my personal Blog. Check it out.

 

The first of our girls goes in the ring in a few minutes. I am running errands and will be there soon to help Meghan and our counselors.

 

Monday, August 13, 11PM Update:

A Big Show!

The turnout at the horse show at the fair is big this year – bigger than in several years. There are 27 horses in the first Beginner Jumper class alone! We have several riders in that class and they will have to ride hard to even place in the ribbons.

 

But they did ride hard tonight practicing after working very hard setting up our stable area. Check the pictures at this link for work time and the results of their efforts. Their attitude is good – positive but respectful of the tough competition. We will be showing against more and better horses than we have seen all summer at our other shows. It will be a good test of our work and training. I would not be surprised if this week is similar to last year’s fair, when we did very poorly the first day and a half and then settled down and had terrific results the final day. Whether also looks pretty iffy tomorrow and better the next two days of the show.

 

I will try to post more pictures from Meghan’s camera at this link late tonight, but cannot promise that I won’t fall asleep before she gets back from the fair.

 

Monday, 1:40 PM Update:

Guessing Game for Parents

I joked about doing this with the girls, but it sounds like fun. E-mail me if you think one of the girls who left her britches at the laundramat overnight was YOUR kid! Bonus points if you have a creative explanation or reason for your guess. Hint: One of the culprits was a bit embarrassed that it was them; one laughed and said, “My dad will KNOW it was me!” And one had no idea her britches were even missing until she saw them in the pile I put on the barn porch table!

 

Monday, August 13^th, Noon Update:

Wish Us Luck at the Fair!

The first load of horses and riders leaves for the fair in about an hour. We have four trailer loads (16 horses) going over during the afternoon. We will be setting up our stalls and our decorated tack room, then beginning to do some practice riding at the fair show rings this evening.

 

Our girls all rode this morning for a long practice ride, but only a little jumping. Mostly they practiced good control and shortening and lengthening exercises. They will jump a little at the fair tonight, but mostly will just get the horses used to all the sights and sounds of a big fair.

 

It is a BIG County Fair, one of the biggest in the United States and bigger than all but a few State fairs, with just over 1,000,000 spectators over the course of 12 days. Almost 100,000 on each day with good weather. It is plenty exciting just to be there.

 

Meghan and I are running back and forth arranging the transportation, assigning the final event assignments, and handling the always unexpected events that seem to pop up just when you have no time to spare! We have one girl with a nuisance personal medical issue who needs a ride to the clinic this morning. We have no time, but did arrange a ride and a chaperone through Joyce. Then Meghan and I were in town running errands during breakfast when we got a frantic call that TWO of our normally most responsible girls had forgottan to get their expensive riding pants out of the dryer when they were doing laundry yesterday. So we turned the truck around and whipped over to the laundramat, where lo and behold, two dryers still had expensive riding clothes in them after sitting there 16 hours. Meghan and I did not grow up rich, so it always amazes us how casually some of our students take care of their belongings. But we rescued this stuff.

 

Just to keep us on our toes a little extra, Meghan’s nearly new truck wouldn’t start last night after dinner. It was one of those mystery failures with no electricity whatsoever. I gave it a jump start, and it was fine and we could not reproduce the fault. It would really mess us up if the truck failed again today, so we took it to our mechanic first thing this morning and begged an immediate check up. They could find nothing wrong, so we are just driving it and keeping our fingers crossed.

 

The girls are all very excited! So are we. Fair week is exhausting, but always one of our favorite weeks of the year!

 

More news to come tonight late.

 

Sunday, August 12^th, Noon Update:

A Good Week

As you read in the previous couple of posts, the Derby turned out more than OK! Our star of the day was Sophie on Merlin, and it was well deserved because Sophie just seemed to attract bad luck all week, with one after another of her favorite horses going lame briefly and her having to try one of her other favorites. Merlin was one of her last choices – she likes Merlin well enough, but has ridden him before and considers him almost “boring”. Meghan had to insist that she include Merlin as one of her Derby horses so that she would at least have one “decent” ride. Well, it sure turned out to be more than “just decent”!!!!!!

 

Sydney was our first star of the day, winning a first place and the first Championships Cooler of the day on Ladd in the first morning Derby. She was quickly followed by Carrie winning a first and a Cooler on Horatio. Carrie has an amazing record on Horatio this summer, after showing him during July, going back home to Chicago and then returning for this second session when we had an unexpected vacancy. Carrie also got a 5^th on Banjo.Another great performance was by Ursula on Jazz. Ursula plans to take Jazz home for the winter and she showed us a taste of how she will work with Jazz at home. She put in one of the best Jazz rides over the long Derby course that anyone has done all year (or ever!). Jazz is maturing at just the right time for this good rider who just seems to be a good fit for Jazz in so many ways! One of Meghan’s favorite performances at the Derby was Elena on Lincoln. Lincoln is another horse that just has gotten better and better all summer. He had Sydney H. to ride him during July and now Elena during August. Both girls are solid talented riders who have shaped Lincoln as he begins to regularly get his lead changes and really become a solid show horse. Nice job to both girls!

 

Although Alexandra had a good tumble off Ebony in the higher Derbies, she was riding her well before the crash. She rode her old favorite, Neek-o, in a lower section and got a second place on him. She was disappointed that we did not allow her to ride Jazz after her fall, but she had bumped her head and it was just not prudent to let her on a horse right away again just minutes after a possible head injury. In fact we took her to the clinic where she was checked out and released back to Longacres right away. Ariela got a 4^th on Merlin and a 5^th on Star in the lower sections, with good solid riding. What an improvement she has made this month! Speaking of improvement, Ingrid got a 5^th in beginner derby on Star and a 3^rd with Ginger. Good solid improvement during her stay at Longacres. Kaylyn had tough luck right near the end of her course with Boo after she had a wonderful first 25 jumps! Boo ducked out and she fell off. Got back on and finished. Kaylyn is another candidate for most improved rider this session. Emily rode Tux (fell off honorably while getting him tuned up for Sophie who had a good round later on him!) Emily likes hard horses – OK, Emily, but this hard? Fell off two out of three of your horses? LOL LOL Emily did some fine riding, and like Kaylyn was perfect for 25 jumps on her favorite horse, Bristol, then fell in the road line. The hardest horse she rode, just for fun, was Whitley and she did the best on him, winning a ribbon in the highest height section. Eva was in the thick of the fight, and went down going for the gusto. She had one unlucky rail down with both Horatio and Ginger. She was best on the unpredictable Brody, going clear in the first round, and faster than anyone, as Eva often is, in the jump-off until one turn too tight and a refusal. Good, solid riding, but leaving the blue ribbons for others on this particular day. A good thing for some of our other fine riders, and maybe a good thing for Eva in the big picture. Valerie did excellent riding on Avalon, but had a refusal and won only a 7^th place ribbon. Some solid riding, though, getting her set for the fair. She had bad luck and never quite got in the groove with her beloved Zanee, having refusals in the hghest section.

 

So, 18 or 19 horses attempted this difficult course, many with great results and rewarding experiences. Forty one “trips” for the day for our girls. Many said it was the best day of the year for them. Sydney said, “I wish EVERY day could be Derby day!” So this morning I asked if they all had a good time yesterday. There was a chorus of yea’s and agreement. So I asked, “Do you think we should just savor the great day and enjoy riding here at Longacres next week, and cancel the Erie County Fair show?”

 

“NO WAY! NO!!!! Don’t even think of it, Tom!” I guess we are going to the fair. Tomorrow!

 

The girls will have their phones from about 1 until 4 today.

 

Another Statistic:

From time to time we’ll give our readers little tidbits of information documenting improvements at Longacres over the past half dozen years. Here’s another. We have been producing a Jumper Derby for more than 40 consecutive years now, but in the early years it was simple jumps and improvised obstacles with logs and hay bales and no fancy Butterfly jumps. We have built many very fancy jumps over the past ten years, and even three and four years ago, we scavenged every jump out of every ring putting all our jumps together on the big field for the Derby. But we have built ever more jumps in the past three years. As of this morning, there is the best, most complete Derby course we’ve ever offered set up on our big field. But there are still simple rideable jump courses on the Hilltop, in the sand ring, and in the small show ring. We will be able to keep the big course up all next week just so we can look at it every time we drive in or out of the driveway on our way to and from the fair, and we will still have jumps available for the beginning of Lazy Days week on the 19^th in those other rings. That’s a LOT of jumps. And we will be building more for the 75^th Anniversary of Longacres next summer.

 

A Home for Horatio?

We need homes for a couple of horses, including Little John, Neek-o, and Horatio. (Whitley will be sold). Horatio is the most surprising one to find still without a home. He is arguably our most talented jumper, winning two different Derby events in three years and many other jumper classes this summer. And he is the best trained and quietest he has ever been this year. But he has no home yet. Ruby considered taking him for the winter, but her family plans will not allow it. Sydney also was a possibility, but it will not work out this year for her family. Both those girls would have been perfect riders for Horatio. So if you have any ideas, please get in touch with us. He will probably have to go to a stable as a lesson horse, and he will be a good one, but we would very much prefer that he have a quiet home with a Longacres rider or good friend of Longacres. Spread the word.

 

Sunday, 9 AM

Some Awards presentation pics now posted at this link.

 

Sunday, August 12^th, 8AM Update:

Everyone else is still sleeping and resting. And I’m glad to report that all Alexandra’s X-rays and tests were negative and she is back at Longacres. But I am up so I have:

 

A Statistic to Report

Until as recently as five or six years ago, we had to make a point of sharing the best horses so that everyone could do a difficult event like the Derby. We still do share, but not so that we have enough horses – more so that people have a variety of horses for multiple rides. Longacres has always had several very nice jumping horses, but to offer five hours a day of riding, we once had to have what we called “filler horses” – horses that were nice enough to learn on, but not really suitable for horse shows. And for a big show like the Erie County Fair, we would take eight or nine horses to the show and share them.

 

Things have changed over the past five or six years as Meghan has added a lot of depth to our herd. Here is the statistic:

 

Our girls rode nineteen different horses around the Derby course yesterday. And Tee had a tender muscle or she would have gone – and there were a couple of others that could have. AND - - - the girls on their wish list for the Erie County Fair which begins Tuesday requested 20 different horses to ride!!!!!!! Because the fair is expensive, we are taking only fifteen or sixteen of those horses, but if needed, we have plenty of backup.

 

That is a lot of nice horses for one farm to have! That costs money. One of many reasons why we are more expensive than we were five years ago.

 

Good Luck with Weather!

Our good luck with weather continues, at least so far. Late in last week chances of heavy rain yesterday were 80 to 90%. All we got were a few sprinkles all day and evening. Weather was cool and perfect for riding the Derby, though it was heavily overcast part of the time, which hurt our photography a bit. Still – great good fortune considering the forecast! The coming week now looks unsettled with some rain expected off and on, but I’ll believe it when I see it. We are still in drought conditions and need more rain.

 

Saturday, August 11^th, 10PM Update:

It’s Sophie!!!!!!

Sophie L. from Connecticut riding Merlin was the big winner in tonight’s Derby. She won the 2’6” section outright with a clear first round and a fast clear jump off. The format for the night called for the Championship Cooler and the “betting favorite” in the Calcutta to be the horse with the best score between the two high sections, and Sophie’s ride was faster than the adults who were in the high section jump off. Sophie won the Champion Cooler, the Champion Trophy, and the lady who bet on Sophie to win with a $30 bet walked away with $1000!!!!

 

Great ride, Sophie!

 

More details to come tomorrow – we are all exhausted now, and the night is not over for Meghan and I. Alexandra fell during her ride, landed mostly on her shoulder and the back of her helmet, which stayed on, but she is at the clinic for a precautionary check up. She was up and walking and chatting and joking with us, but had just enough discomfort in her head so that we took her for a checkup. I drove her over, Colleen is staying with her at the clinic, and Meghan will hopefully soon go pick her up.

 

We took a ton of pictures. Try this link for mine, this link for Meghan’s (later tonight after the clinic run), and maybe this link for additional pics.

 

Saturday, August 11^th, 3PM Update:

Derby Winners!

The first three Derby events have been run and we are in intermission now waiting for the bigger classes after 5:30 PM. Sydney Coddington won the Beginner Derby on Ladd and gets a Championship Cooler! The higher Puddle Jumper Derby was won by Carrie White on Horatio. Good riding, Carrie & Sydney!!!!! Full results to come late tonight! Paige Kumanis from Newstead Equestrian Center won the third Derby event.

 

Friday, August 10^th, 9PM Update:

Busy Beavers

All around Longacres, people are working putting the finishing touches on the Derby preparations. Nearly all the girls have been volunteering to decorate jumps, prepare awards presentations, organize trophies and much more. I hooked up sound systems, moved the three RV’s into position, mowed last minute grass, filled the water jumps, moved machinery out from under the porch where the awards will be presented, and more. Meghan went to bed at 4AM this morning and was up working at 5:30AM – I kid you not. She has promised to “catch up” and get at least five hours sleep tonight. She will sleep in Sunday morning! Beta and Carrie are downstairs right now putting together all the score charts and entry forms. Kaylyn and Ariela are out on the steps making bouquets for the class winners. Joel is out in the dark somewhere moving trash cans and putting up shelters. Meghan and Fosto are moving tables from the dining hall to the barn for the awards party. And the horses are being pampered by the rest of our crew. Everyone is tired and will sleep well tonight, but I am very pleased as I watch the work to see how much pride everyone is taking in this big project!!!!

 

Tomorrow’s Schedule

The first two events, open only to Longacres riders, begin at 11:00 AM. They should be done by about 12:30. The third event, Puddle Jumpers at 2’3”, open to outsiders and our riders will begin not before 1PM, and not too much later.

 

There will be a practice schooling break after that Puddle Jumper event and ending at 4PM so we can set the evening course. The party will begin at 5:15PM and we will have a fun Calcutta Auction where you or you and friends in a “syndicate” can bid or bet on which horse you think will win. The money bid goes into a jackpot and whoever won the bidding on the eventual winning horse gets the pot.

 

The first horse in the 2’6” Derby goes at about 5:45 to 6PM. That class will run until about 6:40 PM, then while the jumps are being raised we will hold another Calcutta Auction for the next group of horses in the 2’9” team jumping event. That event will begin at about 7PM and should run until about 7:45 PM. At this point we have no entries in the 3’ section.

 

The Summer Series Awards will be presented not before 8PM and possibly as late as 9PM. Most likely about 8:30.

 

The weather forecast keeps changing, but some rain is possible late afternoon or during our evening show. We will carry on if it is safe.

 

Hope this info helps you plan.

 

 

 

Friday afternoon Update – 5PM:

Check this link for some hot out of the camera pictures of a few of the girls relaxing and letting their horses get used to all the decorations on the Derby jump course.

 

Here’s a video link of some relaxed, fun practice this morning.

 

Friday, August 10^th, 3PM Update:

Here Comes 2013!

Nice coincidence. At 1PM, I write an update telling how I announced to the girls that today is in a way the final regular day of the 2012 season. (see below) Half an hour later, Meghan picks up the mail and calls to tell me that the 2013 season is under way, with the arrival of our first enrollment check. We don’t officially confirm 2013 enrollments until September 1^st, but I can tell you unofficially that on Sept. 1^st we will be proud to announce Paige H. from the July session this year returning as Longacres 2013 student #1 on our roster. Great to have you back, Paige! (ssssh – it’s not “official” for two and a half more weeks.) Thanks to Paige’s family for also contributing an Awards Party sponsorship for this weekend. That’s a nice way to kind of be a bridge from 2012 to 2013. Remember that next year, 2013, will be Longacres 75^th birthday party, the Diamond Jubilee of my great grandfather and his two daughters founding Longacres in 1939. Stories of old times will be told all summer, but the real celebration will be for three or four days over this same August weekend in 2013, a year from today.

 

Friday, August 10^th, 1PM Update:

Last Day of “Regular Camp”

I got a gasp of dismay as a response when I called the girls all over to me while they were riding this morning and told them that today is the last “regular camp” day of 2012! It is most decidedly not the final day of fun and excitement. But the last day with a regular summer schedule. Tomorrow is the Derby, Sunday a day off for the horses and packing for the fair, Monday a training session in the morning, but then packing up and moving to the fair, Monday night riding at the fair, Tuesday and Wednesday full showing days at the fair, Thursday more showing in the morning, then packing up and coming home, showers, then FUN NIGHT at the fair! Next Friday is not a regular day, with pond riding in the morning and the chance to get on all your favorite horses and some you may never have ridden. Then HOME on Saturday!

 

Next week after that is the special Lazy Days week schedule which is great, but different. So they are enjoying their “final regular day” today! The weather is holding and we got in both morning rides in good conditions.

 

Friday, August 10^th, 7AM Update:

Rain Holding off a Little Longer

The 100% chance of rain today looks like it won’t get here until after we’ve had at least part of our morning riding, which is good! I am not worried about getting more actual Derby jumping practice – the girls rode great yesterday, and as I told them, I wish I could have frozen them just as they were yesterday and thawed them out tomorrow. But I’m glad they will have some chance to ride and stay sharp today. The weather report for tomorrow has also improved slightly and now looks to be mostly dry, with only scattered showers. All should go off on schedule, with perhaps some rain during the Awards Party at 8PM, which will be held in our barn like last year.

 

Awards:

To see if you will be getting any season Championship awards, go to this link. The top five in each Summer Series section get awards. In the case of Longacres riders who may have shared horses during the course of the summer, Meghan will designate a rider to receive an award won by one of our horses, and whoever won the most points on that horse during the summer will get to keep the trophy.

 

Erie County Fair Update:

The grand Finale of the Longacres season is the three day show at the Fair next week. We will be trucking our horses and supplies over to the fairgrounds on Monday afternoon and beginning to show on Tuesday morning. The previously very good weather forecast for next week now looks unsettled. The show will certainly go on as scheduled, but we will be sure to take rain ponchos.

 

We will have new stalls this year at the fair. For many years it has been our tradition to take stalls in old barn #15 right across from the show ring. They weren’t the nicest, but they were the most convenient and they had a wholesome “county fair” feel to them. That will change this year. Barn #15 was torn down over the winter and replaced with more modern facilities. Personally, I will miss the atmosphere and tradition of the old wood barn, but it will be nice for the girls to have newer stalls.

 

45^th Year at the Fair!

The Erie County Fair is a long and strong tradition for Longacres. Other stables come and go at the fair, but Longacres is there every year. We have far and away the longest string of consecutive participations at the fair’s Hunter – Jumper horse show, with this season being our 45^th consecutive year at the show. We entered a jumper at that very first show in the 1960’s – two of them, in fact. One was named “Whistle” and the other “Snickers”. We were in way over our heads back then and did not know much, but Whistle won a ribbon against very fancy horses. Since then, we have learned a good bit! Many of our girls will win ribbons next week. If Eva doesn’t win at least one jumper class, I will eat - - - well, something yucky!

 

Thursday, August 9^th, 10PM Update:

“Getting Left” – Why Some Riders Aren’t Ready for Higher Jumps

We should probably have a series of articles like tonight’s someplace on our website as a FAQ for parents and others. In the meantime, I’ll make a few comments here. Meghan and I have a chance to talk over dinner once a week on Mall night, and we spoke a good bit about this tonight.

 

When a rider jumps a horse, they must fold forward at just the right time while the horse’s front legs leave the ground and the horse drops out from under the riders behind. Note the terms “fold forward” and “horse drops out from under the behind”. This is the best description of proper jumping form. Beginners tend to “stand up” out of the saddle as a horse jumps, trying hard to time that standing motion. If not done just right, a rider trying to time “standing up” over the jump will flop all over the horse. A rider who reacts to the horse’s jump and “folds” as the horse jumps, has a better chance of moving in concert with the horse and not flopping back and getting “left behind”. Subtle but important difference.

 

Put more simply, a rider tries to move with their horse over the jump so that their weight is smoothly lifted off the saddle as the horse leaves the ground and then their weight is smoothly settled back in the saddle as the horse lands on the other side of the jump. A rider who is moving “with” their horse over a jump can easily move their hands ahead to a position on or along the horse’s neck over the jump so that they do not lose their balance and yank on the horse’s bit and mouth over the jump. A rider’s hands should soften on the reins over the jump and very gently reassert control as the horse lands on the other side of the jump.

 

When things do not go well over a jump, the rider is often “left behind”. This can happen when a rider tries to time standing up in the stirrups over the jump, stands too soon, and in reaction flops back and bangs their weight down on the horses back. This hurts the horse. Or a rider can be unprepared for a jump and never fold forward at all and all their weight will flop hard onto the horse’s back as it jumps. In either case, if a rider is “left behind”, they often snatch at the reins or use the reins as a handle and jerk the horse hard in the mouth.

 

If a rider is left behind over a jump, the result is painful for the horse. Horses ridden frequently by bad riders quickly go sour and begin to either refuse to jump all together, or they learn to be defensive when a rider jumps them and slow way down and pop over the jump to avoid getting hurt. My choice of the words “bad rider” is harsh. What I should say is that a horse ridden by an inexperienced rider may develop those bad qualities very understandably. As trainers of some inexperienced riders, how do we teach people not to get “left behind”? In a word, patiently. You teach a rider to properly fold over a jump and not too get left and yank on the reins by repeatedly jumping small jumps and carefully holding onto the horse’s mane and/or bracing against the neck over those small jumps until the motion and timing become automatic and natural. This takes time. For some it takes only a week or a little more of our intense riding program. For others it can take much longer. We only have a few weeks with a rider at Longacres even in our longest sessions. Our program is an aggressive balance between looking out for the welfare and proper training of our horses and trying to push our students to advance as far as possible in the time we are given with them.

 

A rider “getting left” over very small jumps is still reasonably safe, even if they are not doing the horse’s training any good. A rider “getting left” over bigger jumps is at considerable risk for their own safety and can really hurt the horse. We would not have an issue over this, if the only girls “getting left” were timid beginners. But being a physically strong, athletic, and a brave rider does not guarantee good safe form. We have some athletic eager riders with lots of guts who badly want to try big jumps, but who are still getting left behind often and who may not be falling off, but they are surely hurting the horse they are jumping.

 

I hope this little write up helps some of you at home to understand why we restrain some fairly athletic riders who wish they were regularly jumping higher. We try hard to balance the safety of each rider, the opportunity for each rider to learn and gain more experience, the EGO of each rider, and the welfare of our horses. It’s like juggling and keeping three balls in the air at the same time. You may notice that I mentioned four items in the previous sentence – something has to give, and if one of those items must be compromised, ego is usually what has to give way. Food for thought.

 

Thursday, August 9^th, 3PM Update:

Some Good Riding

We had a very good Derby practice this morning with everyone riding the short jump off course. Everyone did very well at their level. I wish we could just freeze dry all the horses and riders in exactly the way they were jumping this morning and then thaw them out to ride on Saturday. In a way, I might get my wish. Tomorrow is supposed to be very rainy, and we might not get much riding in, even tough as these girls are and eager to ride in normal drizzle. But I think they are ready for Saturday, right now!

 

Meghan has been juggling final horse and jumping height assignments to keep each rider as safe as possible and each horse at it’s most appropriate use. Everyone will get to ride their first choice horse, though not all as high as they might like. But we came close to pleasing everyone.

 

We did hand out the Erie County Fair info at lunch and some of the girls pretended that they had not heard about it. Sydney asked me a question to make me feel good! (see article below on waste paper!)

 

Thanks to Carrie for helping me cut and sort brush for jump decorating. I snuck in a little chain saw work while Meghan was busy with other things. It’s hard for me to sit back and watch things done that I used to do all the time. I like my chain saws! It looks like Joel and Meghan and helpers will be decorating the jumps in the rain tomorrow. Maybe I’ll go back to being an old man too frail to help while it’s raining tomorrow!

 

Thursday, August 9^th, 7AM Update:

Waste Paper

Most of you know that we are very transparent here on the Longacres Blog about our problems and little frustrations. If there is an issue that affects the girls, we usually write about it promptly. I’m glad to say that this morning’s update story had no affect at all on the girls. But if you’d like a little morning chuckle at my expense, read on!

 

I went to bed early last night, so I was awake at 5AM thinking about the events of the coming week. We have been engrossed in planning for the Derby here Saturday and only in the back of our minds making general plans for the big show at the fair next week. Golly, we have all of a day and a half to get ready after we finish the Derby and Awards party Saturday night. No problem. But when I woke up this morning, I thought that I would be a hero and get a big start on the preparations for the horse show at the fair. I went on line and read all the class lists and entry forms for the Fair show. I downloaded and printed out the entry forms, the Jumper Class lists, the Hunter class lists, and the time schedule. I spent about an hour and a half downloading and printing. During the printing, I was planning how I would hand out the information to the girls at breakfast. Some of my favorite moments at Longacres are the times I get to brief the girls on exciting events and answer their questions. While the fair info was printing, I rehearsed the little joke I might make about “planning for the fair before we even ride the Derby”. I planned in my mind which end of the breakfast table I would drop the jumper rules and which end would get the hunter rules and the time schedule. I imagined the excitement and the grabbing for one of the two copies of each class list. This was going to be one of my rewarding moments at Longacres, especially with this very good group of riders.

 

Then the paper ran out in the printer tray just as the final few pages of 35 were printing out. I woke Meghan up and asked her where the extra paper was. She came in and brought paper for the printer so I could finish. She took one look at the printer and said, “Oh, Beta and I printed all this stuff last night. It’s all taken care of.” Oh, well. Waste paper.

 

Wednesday, Aug. 8, 5PM Update:

Weather Report

Steady rain is in the forecast for Friday and Friday night. That’s not such a bad thing – we still need rain badly and after the very heavy training schedule this week, I won’t object if the girls have some time off Friday before a wild final 8 days of camp. Weather will slowly improve Saturday and hopefully we will be able to run the afternoon and evening events with decent footing. Worst case, the first two Saturday events are for Longacres girls only, and we could do them Sunday when the sun will be out again. But they will be more exciting with people here from outside on Saturday.

 

We have a great forecast for the first two days of the big Erie County Fair show on Monday through Wednesday. Sunny days with cool for this time of year temps!

 

Wednesday, August 8^th, 3PM Update:

The Computer Ate a File

I lost this morning’s update to a glitch during an update. There wasn’t much beyond this link to a big file of pictures from this morning and this video link to a clip of Eva and Sydney goofing around at lunch demonstrating their special “Longacres hand shake”! Enjoy.

 

Tuesday, August 7^th, 9PM Update:

A Few Video’s

We did not have time to take pictures today with all the work setting up the jumps and training the girls and horses for the Derby. I did take two video clips, just for fun.

 

Check this link for a clip of the girls riding in pairs after only ten minutes practice. Just having some fun tonight.

 

Check this link for a clip of them goofing around posing in an “Eva Special” mounted fashion show!

 

Tuesday, August 7^th, 4PM Update:

Welcome Back Ursula & Carrie

I just picked Ursula and Carrie up from the airport. Ursula had a death in the family and went home for two days – sorry for your loss, Ursula. Carrie flew in from Chicago to take the rest of Curry’s spot. Carrie will be volunteering some help getting ready for the Derby and the Fair, riding some, and then riding full time during Lazy Days. Carrie has been a student and an assistant counselor here in previous visits and we are very pleased that she could join us for the final couple of weeks of the season. She is a hard working, deserving young lady.

 

Derby Prep Work

Wow! It is a lot of work getting ready for a special event like the Derby! Every jump on the farm is being moved, often several times to get the course just right. This is a very difficult jumping course, with something like 32 jumps as part of the course. The girls are holding hard practices in the morning, learning and practicing the course in segments. We will have a dress rehearsal at the end of the week (between rain showers – weather does not look the best). I was supposed to be supervising this morning and helping Meghan and her helpers put jumps in the right places. I overdid it a little yesterday moving jump stands. Meghan tries to protect me from myself. It seems like every time I try to move something, one of Meghan’s helpers runs over and says, “Here, Tom, let me move that for you.” I appreciate Meghan’s concern for the old man. She is right that my heavy jump moving days are behind me. And last night my legs had stiffened up and I had shin pains. So I was walking with my cane and trying to be careful this morning, but gosh, if there are people waiting to jump the jumps, I just can’t seem to keep my hands off the jumps and poles as we change things around. So Meghan was a little mad at me for exerting myself too much again this morning.

 

That’s why she was pleased to send me off to the airport to pick up Ursula and Carrie – it forced me to sit down for an hour and a half.

 

The girls are having much more relaxing rides training in the field and taking trail rides in the afternoon, to keep the Derby in perspective. We’re trying to keep everyone from getting too stressed out about the Derby.

 

Derby Entries

Outside riders, call to confirm your Derby Entries. We should have space for all horses that we know about. We are limiting the entries to 25 horses for the evening event and we know of about 14 now. Call to tell us how many horses you plan to bring so we can plan.

 

Monday, August 6^th, 5PM Update:

2013 Session Dates & Tuition Now Posted

Follow the links to 2013 Rates & Schedules. As we have been indicating for some weeks, next year’s tuition is significantly increased, and is now posted.

 

We need to pay for increased payroll costs, including a full time summer adult assistant for Meghan next year so she can spend even more time directly with the kids and talking with you at home, while still getting just a few hours a night of sleep. We need to pay for decent liability insurance, which has been inadequate in recent years. We have greatly improved the quality of our string of horses and of our jumps and riding facilities since the last price increase. And we need to take a few thousand dollars a year more out of the business to pay for my model helicopters! Even the 20% tuition increase will barely cover these items, and we have many other costs increasing beyond the rate of inflation. We hope that most of our customers are pleased with our program and will be able to pay the new tuition rate.

 

Early 2013 Enrollments!

We have been told that our first few 2013 enrollment checks are in the mail. We are excited and should be able to tell you in a few days who the official 2013 Longacres Student #1 will be! We do not formally confirm 2013 enrollments until September 1^st, but we’ll “leak” the first few reservations to you readers.

 

Thanks, Bethany!

Our former #1 rider and instructor for two years, Bethany, visited today and taught guest lessons. She shed a few tears when she left for home of “Longacres homesickness”. It was great to have you here, Bethany. She is returning for Derby Day this weekend.

 

Winter Horse Homes

We are down to just four or five horses left that need winter lease homes. Diesel is always an oddball and hard to place, though we always find someone. There is a family in Houston, Texas that is strongly considering him. Horatio has no home at all and we badly need one with a soft rider! Ginger might have a home, but not sure yet. We have no home for Little John. And we are selling Whitley for the best offer. He needs a private owner rather than a camp environment. Pass the word if you know someone who might want one of these fine horses for the winter off season.

 

Overnight Ride

On a lovely cool night, one of the bunks is taking the overnight trail and hayloft slumber party. Earlier this afternoon, Meghan and I took hay and their bedrolls to the old barn.

 

Pictures

Pictures will be scarce this week as we work overtime getting ready for the Jumper Derby and making arrangements for the big three day show next week. There’s a lot to get done this week! We will sneak in a few pictures here and there, but hope you enjoy the more than 200 that we posted on Sunday night. There will be hundreds next weekend from the Derby and hundreds more during the Fair next week.

 

Sunday, August 5^th, 5PM Update:

Sometimes We Deserve a Pat on the Back

A series of severe thunderstorms passed through this afternoon with power outages and many downed tree limbs. But we were not caught out trying to ride jumper courses – we were safe in an indoor arena finishing up the flat classes of the show. Lucky?

 

No. Careful planning. There was a solid weather forecast for several days calling for the mid day arrival of a strong cold front. We looked at the show schedule and Meghan talked with the Skibbereen people and arranged to have the show start an hour early and begin with the jumpers where footing is so important. What a good decision! We got in everyone’s important jumper riding practice and everyone rode very, very well. We learned a lot. By the time that the storms began to come through we were done with most of the outdoors jumping and just moved the flat classes inside during the storms. Plus, we finished an hour or more earlier than usual. We will have an early Pasquale’s dinner and early to bed.

 

Many girls did well at the show. Our least experienced rider, Ingrid, did a jumper class at a higher height than she expected. We talked to her about it and told her she could wait until next week, but she wanted to try and she did a fine job. Then she won TONS of ribbons in the indoor classes later in the day. Ariela was also excellent on Merlin jumping. I really like Elena’s work on Lincoln, and Emily had a near perfect ride on the difficult Bristol. Alexandra showed Jazz in higher jumping classes, as did Ursula. Kaylyn also had a good round on Boo in jumpers. Sophie and Valerie were working to adapt to and train the horses they will show in the Derby and at the Fair and both had impressive rides. Sydney was good on Ladd over fences and looked terrific on Bristol in the flat classes! Hope I didn’t forget anyone.

 

Oh, yeah – then there was Eva. Earlier this week Eva was nominated for the honorary talent based title of Longacres #1 rider in recognition of her riding ability and her work ethic. Today Longacres horses and riders entered five jumper classes. Eva won four of them. She is the real deal.

 

Lots of show pictures at this link.

 

Saturday, August 4^th, 8PM Update:

Derby Judging Jury

We’re proud to announce that we have a great judging and scoring panel for the Derby, all young women who have years of experience at Longacres and with events like the Derby. Micayla M, Laura “Fosto”, and Sydney H. are coming next Saturday to officiate – it will be fun!

 

Winter Horse Leases

All of a sudden, quite a number of 2012 Longacres students are interested in taking a Longacres horse home for the winter. We are working hard to finalize these arrangements, so try hard to keep current in your calls to and from us about these arrangements. And many thanks to those of you planning to provide a home for one or more of our Longacres four legged friends!

 

Derby Party Sponsors (Hey you Summer Series Families!!)

As usual, we are about $1000 to $1500 short on sponsor money to sponsor the Derby Party and Season Champion Awards with one week to go before the event. Last year many horse show series competitors and friends kicked in during the final week and we made the budget (or close enough – Longacres always ends up making up a little of the deficit!) If just 7 or 8 people can afford to make the $150 donation that covers one of the Championship Trophy sets or one of the Season Champion coolers, we will make it. Even fifty bucks helps a lot. Thanks to Bill Stetz for his generous donation just yesterday to the “Beverage fund” for the Awards party!

 

Weather for Derby Week!

It will be stormy for part of the horse show tomorrow and we are starting early to try to beat the worst of the rain. After that cold front comes through, most of the coming week will be great, cooler, sunny riding weather. It’s too far out to be sure of the weather for the Derby, itself, next Saturday – some chance of showers then. We’ll keep our fingers crossed. But great weather for our practices this week!

 

Saturday, August 4^th, Noon Update:

Welcome Fosto & Sydney H!

Fosto and Sydney are both returning next weekend for the Derby. It will be great to see them and they will join the judging team at the scorer’s table. Let us know if anyone else is coming to visit. (Hey, Katherine, after Meghan texted you guys this morning, we wanted to send out an invite for you and your family to come enjoy the Derby, since you are only about three + hours away.)

 

On this 90+ degree day, the last of the current heat wave, it is the horses’s day of rest. Usually that is Sunday, but this week’s show is tomorrow on Sunday, so we are flopping the normal weekend schedule. This afternoon is “town day”, so the girls will have their phones from 1 until 4.

 

Fine Group of Girls!

Meaning no disrespect to previous August session groups, there are more girls who we have come to know and really like personally in this group than we have had in a long time. The August session is always good that way, since the students are here longer and we get to know them better. We will miss these girls personally when they leave in two weeks and a day from now. The four brand new girls have fit in very well and are already a part of the group. Just a very good session, in spite of “the plague” and it’s round of sore throats and runny noses. It seems like we have about two at a time who don’t look so good, even though they are all riding and taking part in everything. Meghan is playing nurse and keeping in touch with parents. Hopefully the last will have the bug and be over it by the coming Derby weekend. (Emily was bragging just yesterday that she hadn’t been sick a day, but she came down with it last night. She was mad!

 

Friday, Aug. 3^rd, 5PM Update:

Check this link for lots of pictures Meghan took on the hunt course jumps. Very hot here, 93 is the hottest day of the year for us. Tomorrow is the horse’s day of rest this week because of the Sunday show. Cold front comes through on Sunday, then cool good riding weather next week.

 

Scholarships

Money has been made available to us by a donor to offer “pay what you can” sessions during a couple of the final weeks of this season. Inquire if money has been an issue in allowing you to have a taste of Longacres this month. Several people have already written with discount requests and we will see what we can work out. We have been sold out for most of this season and we, along with our donor, would be pleased to be able to “pay it forward”.

 

Friday, August 3^rd, 3PM Update:

Good Pictures

I took some nice pictures of many of the girls jumping this morning. Check this link.

 

I enjoyed giving Sydney a private lesson this morning on Ladd and then some more help when she rode Horatio. Good job, Sydney!

 

We are working on finalizing winter horse homes for our horses. We have just a few left if all arrangements we are planning go through. Get in touch with us if you are considering leasing a Longacres horse. We need to firm up all the possible plans.

 

Sunday Horse Show Bulliten:

It looks like heavy rain Sunday afternoon for the horse show at Skibbereen. The show is now planned to start early at 8AM, with Puddle Jumpers going first, to beat the rain. Spread the word to all jumper riders.

 

This link for the Skibbereen website and directions.

 

This link for the Skibbereen show list.

 

Friday, August 3^rd, 8AM Update:

Camp Fire

Check this link for some pictures taken at the s’mores campfire party last night. I told lots of horse stories, including the history of most of our all time great horses and our top series of talented #1 riders over the years. And announced that Eva is now formally the latest in a long line of those talented Longacres top riders. No big deal, but a well earned honor for you, Eva. Bethany and I knew a year ago that this time would come!

 

Thursday, Aug. 2, 4PM Update:

Check this link for some pictures Meghan took just an hour ago. Lots of good riding.

 

The girls will have their phones on Mall Day from about 5:30 to 9 this evening. (Yeah, you’re “busted”, Eva!)

 

Thursday, August 2^nd, 11AM Update:

Derby Prep

Special preparations for the 44th annual Longacres Jumper Derby began today with special private lessons from me for Ariela and Ingrid. I began teaching them the course and letting them practice over the natural log jumps that they don’t have much experience with. They both did great over the log jumps. Merlin spooked a little and Ingrid slid off him but got right back on and jumped him over the logs.

 

Tomorrow everyone will watch some video of last year’s jumper Derby and we’ll begin preparations in earnest. Meghan and I stopped in town this morning during our daily “errand time” and she bought fifty bucks worth of paint brushes. Typical annual preparation for the jump touch up before the Derby event.

 

Whitley a Little Off

Whitley has been wonderful this summer. He has a history of being a little off now and then, but has been sound as a dollar for us this season. But he was a little tender in his hind end this morning. We’ll keep his friends at home updated on how he is doing.

 

 

 

Wednesday, August 1^st, 9PM Update:

Games & Good Times

This group has been here a week, and they are good friends now - everyone is getting along great! Even the girl who went home early was good friends with the other girls and popular. Most of our sessions this summer have had good chemistry, but this is one of the best. After a full day of training, a mounted games Gymkhana after dinner, and then hrose care work, they got together and did Yoga at the barn. I have some video clips showing them just being kids and having fun.

 

Goofy at Dinner

Running to the Barn after dinner

Mounted Games 1

Mounted Games 2

Mounted Games 3

 

Great News on Horse Show Assignments!

Everyone is starting to find a few special horses that they click with. Sometimes we have problems with too many people wanting the same horses, so we decided to get an early start on planning who will ride each horse in the Derby event and in the Erie County Fair show. We asked each girl today to give us their first four choices in order of preference so we could see how much of a problem we are going to have arranging shared horses and compromises.

 

Guess what?

We see no reason why EVERYONE can’t ride both their first and second choices in both the Derby and at the Fair Show. The girls made wise and realistic choices. Everyone should be able to handle the horses they chose and everyone chose differently. Several horses will need to be shared, but usually only with one other person, and there are multiple events at both the Derby and the Fair, so there should be no problem making everyone happy. IF, that is, no horse goes lame or has an issue between now and the time of the two big shows. But even if we do, there are plenty of backups. It looks like a good show session with few disappointments in store! (Now everyone just has to ride well!)

 

Wednesday, August 1^st, 1PM Update:

Check this link for some pictures of the girls playing in the rain yesterday and more of riding this morning, including some bigger jumps by Ursula, Alexandra, Eva, and Emily. More and more girls will be doing more challenging riding in the coming week as they get in shape and we get to know what they can do this session.

 

Tuesday, July 31^st, 11:30 PM

Great Hayloft Party!

Meghan took some pictures during a very fun hayloft slumber party and overnight trail ride. Check this link.

 

Also check this link for pictures I took this morning of the girls jumping the Sunken Road jump on the field.

 

Tuesday, July 31^st, 7PM Update:

Goodbye to Curry

One of our most popular new students, Curry, had some unexpected health issues her second day and was whisked off to the clinic for a checkup. Although she was cleared to come back and she rode in the horse show, she was uncomfortable and is likely to be for a little while. Her mom came up to spend a day with her and consult. Curry has decided to leave early. We miss you already, Curry!

 

This opens a spot in our previously sold out August session, beginning right now, and running through August 18^th. If any readers out there would like to take Curry’s spot, call right away. We will break up the session and take you for even just one or two of the open weeks, in case you were here earlier in the summer and would like to come back for a quick Longacres fix. You could come in right away this week, or come on August 5^th or 6^th and stay through the Derby on the 11^th, or come on the 12^th and stay through the Erie County Fair. There is also space still in Lazy Days week, August 20 to 25^th. Combine any of those weeks for a one, two, three, or nearly four week stay.

 

Tuesday, July 31, 5PM Update:

Rain!

Finally, the first serious rain in nearly two months! It poured buckets for half an hour, but it was just enough to make puddles - it will help our turf but not much more. But the pond did not rise at all – we will need more rain while the ground is still damp to create the run off that would begin to renew the pond water level. We might get some more tonight, but nothing definite. We will take what we got, though – it is something.

 

The Plague

Every camp has their own name for it, and we call it “the Plague” – and the term covers any minor, but annoying contagious illness in a camp. We live packed close together and infectious stuff spreads easily. We now have eight who have caught “the bug”, if you count me. I felt crummy from about 4PM on yesterday but feel pretty good again 24 hours later. Others are going through it very quickly, too. Some are in their second or third day. Nobody seems to get really debilitated – everyone has been riding, though a few have taken hours off to rest. It is just an annoying sore throat or stuffy feeling with some (me) also feeling headache. We are glad it is not worse and that it seems to pass quickly. But it’s annoying. I don’t doubt that most of us will have had it by the end of the week. We will give gold stars to those with strong enough immune systems not to get it at all!

 

Tuesday, July 31, 3PM Update:

Vet Apprentice

Ariela is interested in really making a career of horses and wants to consider vet school. So we have set her up this afternoon to work closely with our vet who will be here for an hour and a half or more doing health examinations for interstate horse vanning, and inoculations required by the big show at the end of the summer. It’s a nice opportunity for a serious student.

 

Tuesday, July 31^st, 8AM Update:

Check this link for a few pictures Meghan took last night late. They are dark, but everyone was having fun.

 

Thanks, But No Thanks

For the little “gift” someone brought to Longacres with them. A little 24 to 36 hour sore throat bug has been going around the past few days. Nasty sore throat, but the good news is that it seems to go through most victims quickly with a short recovery time. Two students, two counselors, now Meghan, and perhaps myself have all felt it over the first five days of this session. Most have kept right on riding and working, so it is an annoyance rather than a real problem. Still - - -.

 

Monday, July 30^th, 4PM Update:

2013 Dates Now Scheduled

Follow the links to our Rate & Schedule page. We have now set the dates for 2013 sessions, though tuition rate is still under review. Regular readers have already been given a “heads up” that we may be forced to raise tuition nearly 20% if we are to continue to offer the riding program and service that you have come to expect at Longacres. Tuition rates for 2013 will be confirmed in early September after a meeting with our accountants. All we can tell you now is that the increase will be more than 10% and perhaps closer to 20%.

 

Diamond Jubilee 75^th Anniversary

The Longacres 75^th Birthday Party and reunion will be held August 9th through 11^th, 2013, with some guests joining us for the full week before.

 

Monday, July 30^th, 1PM Update:

A Good Morning!

Check this link for some oversized pictures I took of all the girls this morning. Many are of one lesson that I helped teach for the full hour. I don’t always do this, but I had a good time. There are fewer of the other lesson, which I did photograph, but did not spend as much time with – I will next time. Check especially the final picture in the album of Ursula jumping Jazz over a good sized jump left over from the highest jumper class in the weekend show.

 

The girls seem cheerful and well rested even after the late night under the moon last night. The sleep in and late horse care this morning certainly helped.

 

Sunday, June 29^th, 11:30 PM Update:

Great Moonlight Ride – Maybe One of the Best Ever!

Everyone cantered and jumped in the moonlight, and we had one of our best ever 2 minutes of silence to make a wish at the end of the second shift of riders. (Every time I write that we jumped in the moonlight, some parent panics, so I quickly add here that the jumping is under very controlled conditions!) We will sleep late tomorrow and then have one morning ride so we don’t get too tired out.

 

Possible Vacancy

I hope we don’t have a vacancy, but one of our most popular new students is having a health issue and, though we are all hoping that it is temporary, there is a chance that she will not be able to continue her stay for the rest of the session. Let us know if you are interested in filling the possible vacancy. Any money paid in for the spot goes to the family holding the reservation now if they must cancel. This session includes the big Derby Show here on August 11^th, and the Erie County Fair three day show. Longacres has been sold out for all regular sessions for a few months, so this is an unexpected opportunity (IF it opens up at all).

 

Sunday, July 29^th, Noon Update:

Town Day

The girls are about to be taken to town where they will do their laundry and waste some spending money on junk food and stuff from Rite-Aid. It is “fun”, I am told! Check this video link from last night, taken during the Kone King stop. Ingrid had a laughing attack while eating ice cream, which was entertaining to her friends. There was other bantering going on – the video will give you an idea of the general level of good cheer.

 

We plan to watch video of the horse show after dinner this evening, then stay up late to go on a moonlight ride on the big field. To make up for the late night, we will sleep in late tomorrow morning and have one less morning ride than normal. I let the girls vote on this and they all chose the moonlight ride.

 

The girls will have their phones from about 12:30 to 4:00.

 

Saturday, July 28^th, 7PM Update:

Great Show!

We just finished the show at 6:31PM – a great day of showing and our Longacres luck with horse show weather continues! We had clouds and sun all day after a 20 minute late start this morning. We had literally just a few sprinkles about 4PM, but the weather held. All our girls rode well and won ribbons, and there was tough competition from other stables in our Summer Series. We’ll try to post some of our results later.

 

Check this link for MANY more pictures taken by Meghan in her show ring in addition to the 180 or so I posted from the jumper ring earlier!

 

Saturday, July 28^th, 2PM Update:

Another Fine Show Day!

I sure didn’t think so when I got up this morning. It was pouring rain in the morning and forecast to rain until mid afternoon. But just about the scheduled starting time of the show at 9:45, the rain stopped and the sun began to poke out much earlier than the forecasts had predicted. Yeah! I felt that the ground on the big field was too slippery for safe jumper riding for our girls who have just been here three days, so I quickly set a jumper course in the sand ring and we held the first Puddle Jumper class there – and it WAS puddle jumping! Eva won that class (more was to come!)

 

By the end of that first event, the ground on our big show field was already well along in the draining and drying process, so we took a break and practiced a few jumps on the field. Everyone felt the footing was good, so we wen back to plan “A” and ran the rest of the show over the big course as planned. Not one horse had a serious slip of any kind and everyone rode very well. We have some strong riders this session. Elena on Ebony, Ursula on Merlin, and Valerie on Avalon were especially strong, but everyone rode well. The star of the day was Eva, a second year Longacres student and a gifted rider. Eva won two out of three of the Puddle Jumper events and took Champion and was also Champion in the higher Schooling Jumper division on Horatio, with a 1^st, 2^nd, and a 3^rd, I think. A good day for a talented young rider!

 

Another great story from the morning’s show events was the success of Ariela on Star in the small show ring. Ariela has little open horse show experience and Meghan tells me that she had an outstanding first show at Longacres, winning two trophies and riding very well. Good job, Ariela! (Ariela comes to us for the first time this summer from North Carolina.)

 

Check this link for a large number of pictures from the jumper ring, including some of Spruce Meadows riders. Meghan will have lots more pictures from her ring at this link later this afternoon. We expect the show to run until about 5PM and we will be at dinner from about 6:30 to 8:30 and the girls will have phones at that time.

 

Saturday, July 28^th, 7AM Update:

Wet Horse Show Day

This will be one of those “go with the flow” days. It is very wet after some overnight rain, but not raining right this minute. We do expect more rain and will be running horse show classes in between rain showers. Worst case, we will finish some classes tomorrow when it is going to be much nicer weather.

 

Check this link for a few more pictures from yesterday.

 

Friday, July 27^th, 9PM Update:

Horse Show on as Scheduled, Rain or Shine

The weather forecast is not great for first thing in the morning, but will improve as the day goes on. We will run the show as close as we can to the planned schedule with jumpers beginning at 9:45 AM and the other ring beginning at 11AM. We will suspend the show during heavier rain and start again when the rain stops.

 

Friday, July 27, 5PM Update:

GREAT News!

Curry has been diagnosed as having a simple digestion issue, likely due to the big change in her routine over the past few days. She will be back at Longacres for dinner and should be able to ride tomorrow. When in doubt, check it out, is our motto for health issues. Her symptoms mimicked much more serious health issues.

 

I did take a few pictures since my last update, but not of everyone. Curry was otherwise occupied and some of the girls were out on a trail ride. Check this link.

 

Friday, July 27^th, 4PM Update:

One of Those Days

If only there were three of Meghan and, perhaps, two of me. We started the day off planning what could be done if the weather is better or worse than forecast. So far it has been better – check. We discussed the staff – student incident from last night – check. Brief talks with all involved last night, but to be continued – check. Watched them all during the day and things seem much better – check. Began finishing about ten different projects related to running the horse show tomorrow – check. Inquired about an enormous water bill that just can’t be right and found the earliest Water Authority meter reading check would not be until August 14^th – set that up – check. Meghan did office work from her truck while watching the girls ride this morning, as often is the case – check. I did some work with Eva, who is jumping in the higher events tomorrow – fun check! I talked with all the girls at lunch about the jumper courses and how they will deal with a one stride in and out combination with different size horses – check. Meghan worked with Sara in the office to get all the paperwork for the horse show and all the camper snacks in place – check.

 

Think that was enough to have on our plates for one day? Nope. Curry told Meghan at lunch that she was having abdominal pains, and Curry is not a complainer. Meghan consulted with parents and drove off to the Clinic with Curry who is still there undergoing extensive testing. This appears not to be horse related in any direct way. We all send Curry our best wishes. (Curry told Meghan that she “hopes it is something really serious so she won’t feel foolish for complaining, but she hopes it is something really simple so that she can still show Jazz tomorrow” – good girl!) So Meghan us likely to be at the hospital for a number of hours longer and she is doing her office work while she waits with Curry – Meghan ALWAYS carries her work with her! – check. Meghan is by telephone supervising Joel and Tim who are setting up the jumps properly for the horse show – check. She is in touch with Sara about horse show preparations – check. Meghan is giving me orders back here in the office about how many horse show newsletters to print – check. I am doing this update, while printing things for the show – check. I have to set up the PA systems for the show later with Joel – check. Still need to go to the printer to pick up course diagram packets – check. Then all the usual Firday night before a show stuff – Triple Check.

 

Another day at Longacres, with our very best wishes for Curry to find that she was being silly, but we are concerned.

 

PS – Now you know why there have been no pictures today!

 

Friday, July 27, 11AM Update:

 

The issue we wrote about this morning seems to be under control. It involved one new student and two of our most experienced returning students and seems to have been a question of a staff person trying very hard to follow my instructiosn to the letter and a couple of students crossing the line between fooling around and being serious in a way that was interpreted as more serious than was intended. Still having “talks”. Ah, the fun of running a camp for teenage girls! All will be well.

 

Friday, July 27^th, 8AM Update:

Odds ‘n Ends

We’re still in the process of building a good team of riders for the coming session. Mostly we are very encouraged. Spirits were high right after dinner last night as I watched teenage girls pretending that they were horses and “cantering” in pairs towards the barn after we ate. There was lots of laughter and kidding around as we watched video of Ursula making an unplanned dismount off Ebony during our first session yesterday. (She is fine – a few scrapes on two fingers.)

 

We have been working hard to set the standards we will expect in our training here. Sometimes it takes first time Longacres students a few days to buy in to our expectations that a rider is always sitting up on their horse, always paying attention to how they are lined up during a discussion or waiting their turn, and always paying close attention to where they are steering their horse. Many have never been asked for this level of effort in riding lessons before coming to Longacres. Most of the girls are liking the challenge and rising to it. Nearly all of our more advanced horses were ridden yesterday afternoon. We are doing more interesting things every day and there is a horse show here tomorrow.

 

We pleased with the enthusiasm and effort of nearly all the girls. But we had a report from one of the staff last night that they had an incident of disrespect and refusal to cooperate while they were trying to teach a serious lesson during evening ride. Meghan and I talked and chose to sleep on it. We “leaked” the information that we would deal with this issue today, so we expect that whoever it was has had some time to think about it. We intentionally did not ask who was involved last night so we would not prejudge. I hope this incident turns out to be a minor case of teenage girls being teenage girls. But we do not tolerate disrespect of or inattention to staff in a sport where we are dealing with 1000 pound animals.

 

Those of you who are regular readers know that we are very transparent on this Blog about discussing problems, as well as good news. This problem will be nipped in the bud.

 

Horses – Aaargh!

Zanee has sensitive skin and has allergic reactions from time to time. When the horses came in from pasture this morning she had some pretty good hives on her body. We don’t know if it was something in pasture or an unapproved fly spray someone used yesterday. The horse will be fine, but might have to miss the show tomorrow and she is in the running for season Champion in Puddle Jumpers. Horses!

 

Thursday, 11:30 PM Update:

A Little Rain!

We’ve had a steady rain for about a half hour, perfect getting it in the middle of the night! For those of you interested in weather, following is a little quote from the Buffalo area NOAA forecast discussion tonight:

.CLIMATE...

THE 0.31 INCHES OF RAIN THAT FELL AT THE BUFFALO AIRPORT AFTER

MIDNIGHT...AND BEFORE 7 AM LST THIS MORNING MARKS THE FIRST TIME IN

43 DAYS THAT A TENTH OF AN INCH OF RAINFALL HAS FALLEN AT THE

BUFFALO AIRPORT. THE LAST TENTH OF AN INCH OR GREATER RAINFALL AT

BUFFALO WAS ON JUNE 12TH (0.25"). THIS IS THE SECOND LONGEST

STRETCH OF DAYS ON RECORD IN BUFFALO WITHOUT A TENTH OF AN INCH OF

PRECIPITATION...ONLY EXCEEDED BY A 47 DAY STRETCH BACK IN THE LATE

SUMMER OF 1876.

As I write, the rain has tapered off, but my satellite TV signal is cutting out, indicating that heavy rain is close by. Bring it on!

 

Thursday, June 26^th, 8PM Update:

A Lucky Day

We had a forecast for 80% chance of rain with strong thunderstorms for today. We did get a few light showers, but we didn’t lose one minute of riding time. All afternoon it was cloudy, but never rained. Nearby, 30 miles to our north there was a damaging severe storm and from 20 miles to our south, all the way to the Pennsylvania line, there was a huge line of powerful thunderstorms. But not here at Longacres under the well known lake effect bubble at our end of Lake Erie. The drought goes on for us. We got enough rain to just begin to green up some of our grass. There is still a good chance of more rain between now and Saturday afternoon. I hope we get some for our pond, but I hope it does not come exactly when we are trying to run the show on Saturday!

 

Check this link for a few pictures I took of the girls tonight on the riding fields. Colleen had a fun exercise with her students doing a simple obstacle course. I pulled out my stop watch and we had some fun timing the exercise. Sydney on Jazz had the fastest time and we declared them Champs, with a tie for second between Curry and Ursula. We let Ursula and Curry try once again to break the tie, and with the extra practice, Ursula was smoking fast!

 

Thursday, Noon Update:

Still No Missed Lessons

We’re making the best of an off and on day. The girls still haven’t missed a lesson. They had a few quick looks at the sun and then a brief shower during the 11 o’clock. I am not taking many pictures myself and Meghan has been hovering at the lesson field in her truck, but mostly busy on the phone this morning, so no pictures from her. But here are three more I managed to snap at the end of the last lesson at this link.

 

I watched about half the 11AM lesson – Alexandra gets my “gold star” for an especially determined and well ridden round on Ebony. We are working hard the first three days to teach this group how important it is to stay in control and pay attention 100% of each ride. The Longacres “way” does not come naturally to everyone. We had a staff meeting last night discussing the attention to detail we want to teach. We had the three CIT’s sit in on the meeting and take part so they could hopefully pass useful things on to the other students.

 

Thursday, the 26^th, 11AM Update:

So Far, OK

It’s a mostly grey day with off and on showers so far. The girls got their full ten AM lesson in, only getting slightly damp – mostly a few sprinkles in the middle of the lesson. The 11AM lesson looks like it will be wetter – they will get on and give it a try, but may have to take a break until the next lull in the rain comes along nearer lunchtime. I will have a few pictures at this link soon – I did not get pics of everyone this morning because of the off and on rain. For about half of the group I did take rapid fire ten frames a second pictures which we will analyze when we look at video later today. Here is a sample of one of the rapid fire picture sequences.

 

Thursday, July 26^th, 8AM Update:

Some Rain

We did have some rain overnight, but not nearly what was forecast. More is coming, but very light so far this morning. We should be able to get in a good part of our riding schedule on this second full day of the session. We still need a long, heavy soaking rain to put much of a dent in the drought.

 

Horse Show

As of now, we do plan to run our horse show on Saturday as planned, but keep checking back here in case of a postponement due to weather. If there is going to be any change, the most likely would be a late start, perhaps after lunch and then running the show until dark during improving afternoon weather. There is a slight chance that we would postpone until Sunday, but not very likely.

 

Wednesday, July 25^th, 7PM Update:

Everyone is Here and a Good Dinner!

Eva, Elena, Alexandra, and Ursula all arrived safely and rode this afternoon. Everyone is at the barn right now for evening ride, getting in every minute we can before the rain arrives later tonight. We do need rain badly, but we’re sorry that it appears we will get a bunch of it all at once over the next two days. But we’ll make the best of it.

 

The afternoon pictures are now posted at this link. And check this video link for a clip I took at dinner tonight.

 

Wednesday, 2:30 PM Update:

Good Interaction at Lunch

Not surprisingly, many of the girls, especially the first timers, were a little tense during their first ride with us this morning. How does everyone else ride? How do I look to them? They were checking one another out. So I thought it might take a day or two for everyone to get acquainted and bond as a group. But they were animatedly talking horse talk at lunch, with the new girls in the thick of the conversation. Thanks to Sydney, who sat at the end of the table with several new girls and was very welcoming during lunch chat! The final four arrivals are in route and should be on time for the 3PM ride. That would be Eva, Elena, Alexandra, and Ursula. Pictures of all of them should be posted at this link by 6PM at the latest.

 

Wednesday, July 25^th, 1PM Update:

Safe Arrivals, So Far

Everyone coming by private car is safely here. The airport has been a bit of a mess today with delayed flights, but things are getting sorted out. Ingrid, Ariela, Sydney, Valerie, Sophie, Curry, and Kaylyn are all here and have each ridden multiple horses. Check this link for some pictures. Joyce is at the airport and has picked up Alexandra and Ursula. They are waiting at the private aircraft terminal for Eva and Elena. When those four arrive back at Longacres, everyone will be accounted for! The late arrivals will all ride twice this afternoon and again tonight.

 

We took video of everyone already and will be reviewing it in slow motion tomorrow during one of the expected rain delays.

 

We are reasonably gently introducing the new students to the Longacres expectation that you mount properly and that you make sure your horse is alert and performing well even at a walk. And that you sit up and pay attention all the time while you are on a horse. It takes a few reminders sometimes. But most will soon get it. All the riders I’ve watched so far can at least do basic jumping already, and some are quite talented.

 

Check this video link for a clip of some of the girls heading to the bunks first thing this morning to claim a bed!

 

Tuesday Night, 10PM Update:

August Session Just Hours Away

We’ve enjoyed our break the past two days, but it’s time to get back to riding, training, and showing horses! Second session students will be riding all day tomorrow. We’ll be taking lots of pictures and video so that if we miss an hour or two of riding during the expected (and welcome) rain on Thursday, we’ll have lots of video to review in slow motion.

 

Farm is Looking Good!

Meghan and I enjoy taking a slow drive all around the farm just before sunset to appreciate the beauty of the farm and the forest and to check and see if anything needs work still. We do that almost every night during the spring while we are preparing Longacres for the summer season. But for the past month we have just been too busy to indulge ourselves in this 20 minute pleasure. Tonight we took the time and we really enjoyed it. The weather was great and the sun was filtering through the trees in the woods just right. Joel had just about finished trimming and mowing and the two quick rainfalls we’ve had recently are just beginning to put a little green back in our nearly brown lawns and fields. Longacres is looking pretty good for your arrival tomorrow morning!

 

We hope to get to bed early so we’re well rested to greet you all tomorrow, but Meghan is busy right now emailing and texting some of you about your arrival plans.

 

See you all tomorrow!

 

Tuesday, 5PM Update:

Homework!

Yikes! That sounds like school! Well, I do have an assignment for those of you arriving tomorrow. Go to this link and read the article we wrote early in the season about our idea of a good warm up and control exercise to start each of your rides. It is really what Longacres is all about. And read the old article about the “mindless rider track”. We will be discussing these things at length in your first few days here.

 

Tuesday, July 24, 1PM Update:

Hey, “New Kids!”

This is a message especially for the four of you coming to Longacres for the first time tomorrow. It would be natural for you to be a little nervous coming to Longacres for the first time as one of the four “new kids”, with seven other girls here returning from previous years.

 

Well, don’t worry about it. For one thing, you are all horse lovers and have lots in common. For another thing, we tend to discourage snooty people from signing up at Longacres in the first place. We think you are going to like all the new horse friends you meet here. And for one more thing, the seven “old timers” actually don’t all know one another at all. They came for different sessions last summer and most of those seven know perhaps two or three other returning students, but they will be just like you, learning new names and getting to know new people (AND new horses!).

 

Can’t wait to meet you all tomorrow morning and get the process going! Just a few hours left of our intercession break to relax.

 

Tuesday, July 24^th, 8AM Update:

When Do You Arrive?

Meghan has a list of everyone’s arrival plans and times which she thinks is accurate and up to date. HOWEVER – it never hurts to send us one final e-mail the day before the start of your session (that would be today!), confirming your travel plans.

 

Are you arriving by car? If so about when?

 

By plane? Are we picking you up or do you have your own ride to Longacres? Flight info?

 

Again, we think we have everyone’s plans on Meghan’s list and the above final confirmation is optional, especially if you just spoke to Meghan yesterday or today – but it’s still not a bad idea.

 

The weather for the first day of the next session is expected to be perfect for riding. We will hit the ground running and you can plan to ride all day tomorrow. We’ll do most of our orientation meetings on Thursday, when it may rain and we might have to change our schedule to get in the most possible riding between rain showers. We do not expect complete rain outs Thursday or Friday, but rain is expected off and on. Sorry to have it maybe rain on your first few days here, but I won’t lie – we will be doing cartwheels of joy if the drought breaks. It has been hideously dry here the past month!

 

Monday, July 23^rd, 2PM Update:

A Typical Mid-Session Break Day

Nothing to do but rest up for the second half of the summer – well, not quite.

 

Meghan and I did go out to dinner with Uncle Billy last night and Meghan had a glass of wine and I a couple of beers. First time all summer, so we were relaxed after. We got to bed at a reasonable hour and Meghan slept in until 10:30 or so. I brought her morning tea from Tim Horton’s. She had a good relaxing start to the day.

 

I got up at a normal time, flew my model helicopter for a while and then checked on the girls doing horse care at the barn. The water pump had failed due to falling water level in the pond, so I got that working again for them and then took the tractor and tools down and fixed it better so it should not run dry for a few more weeks, even in the worst case drought.

 

Then we checked and found that high winds are still likely this afternoon, so Meghan and I took a half hour and put all the jumps down on their sides so they wouldn’t be damaged in a high wind event. It was extra work, but might save the jumps from damage. We’ll put them up again right before you all arrive for second session.

 

We MIGHT be past the worst of the drought. We are not out of the woods yet, but we may be looking back at the worst of it. We had a thunder storm pass through last night. It moved through quickly and didn’t leave much extra rain in our streams and the pond, but it was enough, along with what we had Friday, to maybe let the grass show a tiny bit of green when our next session riders arrive Wednesday. And there is a good chance of serious rain at the end of the week. Maybe even enough to interfere with our riding schedule for a couple of days, but we will gladly deal with that if it ends the drought and puts some water back in our pond!

 

Hopefully there will be no more surprises today and Meghan and I can go for a drive and stop for another snack out on the town.

 

Emily, Winky, and Beta were exercising the young horses this morning. Tee and Mae were really good! You guys from second session will like working with them. Winky goes home today, but Emily and Beta will be busy training the young horses tomorrow again. Then Colleen returns from her two day mid-term break, and it will be almost time to get things going again.

 

August Session thoughts

The August session will be interesting. We hope it will be a smash success, and it should be. But it could also be challenging.

 

Seven of the August session students are returning from shorter sessions or the same session last summer. Many of you know each other or have heard about each other. You should be good friends. You are a year older and more mature than you were last year. You have another year of riding under your belts. Four more August session riders will be here for the first time. Some, like Curry, have visited and we have had a chance to get to know you and we think you will fit in perfectly. A couple of you first timers are completely new to Longacres, but it sounds like you have riding experience comparable to most of the other girls. It is a recipe for a great group and a good session.

 

BUT - - - most of you are teens, a year older than last year, and that much more sure of yourselves. That can be great, or it can cause issues. Many of you are quite good riders. You are going to have to share the more exciting horses. You are going to have to grin when someone else is riding YOUR favorite horse! You are going to be happy if you look at the “glass as half full”, not as “half empty”. For the past month, only one or two girls each session have even been qualified to ride Horatio, Jazz, or Bristol. This coming session, perhaps half a dozen or more of you will have that skill level. All of you will get a chance to try those top horses, but you can’t all show them every week.

 

We have 27 interesting horses in the barn, some made show horses, and some very young and in training. There will be unlimited interesting riding opportunities for everyone, unless you get very picky or very jealous of one another. Meghan and I will do what we can to keep that from happening, but we need you each to arrive on Wednesday with a good attitude and flexible expectations.

 

I exchanged messages with Sophie a few days ago. Sophie will be here this next session for her third year, took one of our horses home for the 2010 – 2011 winter, and will be one of our CIT leaders for the month. She wrote to me telling me about some of the exciting horses she has had a chance to ride this past winter. I replied to her, telling her I looked forward to working with her, but reminding her how important it is to have realistic expectations. How nobody at Longacres can be on a tip-top show horse every hour, jumping three feet every hour.

 

Here’s what Sophie wrote back to me:

       That's one of the things that I love about Longacres, bringing up horses that aren't the fancy warmbloods that many of the girls in my area ride. It also makes for a more well-rounded, effective rider :) One of the things about Longacres that draws me back each year,  despite the fact that I ride with a pretty "big name" trainer these days, is being given the opportunity and responsibility to work with a young or inexperienced horse on my own terms. That's what makes me feel accomplished as rider, rather than jumping higher. It's nice and all that the horse I ride in my lessons used to be a grand prix horse, but i'd rather train my own grand prix horse! :)

 

       It looks like you guys have a nice string of new and sale horses this year! I have a few on my list that i'm excited to try out.

 

       I forgot to mention in my last e-mail - this year i'll be driving up with Valerie and her mom.

 

Sophie

 

That is exactly the attitude that I hope all of you girls coming on Wednesday bring with you. You will each get to ride some nice horses and to show and have tons of fun. I hope you are each also looking forward to learning something from every single horse in the barn and looking forward to helping train the new horses.

 

All this happens in just about 35 hours from now!

- Tom & Meghan

 

Sunday, July 22^nd, 1PM Update:

“Until Next Time”

Meghan always says, “It’s not goodbye, it’s Until Next time”. And that’s what we’ve said to each of the most recent session’s students as they packed up and left this morning, most promising to return for the 2013 season. We can’t wait to see you all again, either during a winter get together or next summer. This has been another great 2012 Longacres session!

 

We are also proud to announce that Beta (Katy Belz), who was scheduled to leave us after this session, has signed on as a senior counselor for the next month to replace Stephanie who hurt her shoulder and cannot continue. Beta has three years of experience at Longacres and has done a grand job working here the past five weeks. We feel good about the rest of the summer. Farley Bridgeman, a good professional trainer who often gives clinics here, has also agreed to give some guest lessons and be on call to help support our staff during the coming month.

 

You will get only little updates over the coming three days during our mid summer break. We’ll have a big welcome update as the next session begins on Wednesday.

 

Now for that rest!

 

Saturday, July 21^st, 4:30 PM Update:

Longacres riders are doing very well against tough competition. Our total entries are down just slightly from the first two shows, since we have another show next week and some are coming then instead. Check this link for pictures from this morning’s jumper field. Meghan’s ring is still going strong right now – we should finish by 6PM. More pictures will be posted from her ring at this link later tonight – before dinner if it is not too rushed!

 

Saturday, July 21^st, 6AM Update:

Last Day

We’ve had some of our favorite students here the past two weeks, as well as some great new young girls who might keep returning to Longacres for years to come. It has been a good session and we are hoping to finish it off today with a good show experience for everyone here at Longacres. Then a celebration at dinner tonight before this group says farewell tomorrow morning.

 

Then a 3 day break for much needed rest before the excitement of the long session begins on Wednesday.

 

Did I say “rest”? Well, that was the plan. We had a new staff member here the past three days getting orientation training so she could start her job in earnest tomorrow, taking care of the horses over the three day break while everyone else was off. But she had a fall from a horse yesterday and it does not look like she can continue here. The report I have is that there is no broken bone, but severe enough shoulder bruising and sprain that she will be in a sling and unable to participate in physical work for several weeks. I guess that Meghan and I will be doing a lot of horse care this week! So much for a total rest. But actually, in a way that will be a break for us – no mental stress – just carrying hay bales and grain buckets.

 

We have already talked with Beta about taking over Stephanie’s job for the rest of the summer. We should know soon whether she can rearrange her schedule. Beta is in her third year at Longacres, keeps one of our horses over the winter, and has just finished six weeks of being an intern instructor with us, doing it in grand fashion. She is our first choice to fill the staff vacancy, and we hope it works out. Any other former staff who might be interested, let us know. Even if Beta takes the job, we would welcome former staff for short visits to do guest instruction and give the staff here a day or two of rest.

 

Paige & Sunfire

Paige is president of the Sunfire Fan Club, and Meghan took a bunch of pictures of her having a special lead line experience with this pretty young horse at this link. A few other pictures from last night, as well.

 

Friday, July 20^th, 9PM Update:

We have been in touch with Stephanie at the hospital and early indication is that her shoulder is not broken, but she has not had the official doctor’s verdict. But broken or not, it HURTS! We hope that she will recover enough fast enough to continue in her job, but just in case - - -

 

- - - - If Stephanie cannot continue to do her job, is there a former Longacres counselor out there who would like a quick four week fix of Longacres? It’s an exciting month, as you all know. The Derby, the three day show at the Fair, and two regular shows. Fire off an email if you could fill in in case Stephanie cannot continue.

 

Show Looks Great!

Even though we are in the middle of a drought, we could not have had today’s rain come at a better time. The ground is softened, the dust will not be a problem, the footing is good. The dust got washed off the grass and jumps. Things down at the show grounds are not as green and pretty as usual, but they are not bad. Should be a great show!

 

Pasquale’s Tomorrow Night

Lots of parents are in the area, so we should have a big group for dinner after the horse show. Be sure to say “hello” to Meghan and I at the show, though we will be pretty busy until late afternoon!

 

Friday, 5PM Update:

All the Kids are OK

We had an ambulance call this afternoon when our new adult counselor, Stephanie, fell off her horse and hurt her shoulder. We hope the injury is simple and that she is back quickly from her trip to the ER. We repeat – all the children are fine.

 

Friday, July 20^th, 2PM Update:

Finally!

We’ve had an intermittent series of rain showers all morning, some during lunch a little heavier. It won’t make a dent in our drought, but it WILL soften the ground, keep the dust down, and provide us with near perfect conditions for our horse show tomorrow!!!!! Thank you, Mother nature! The timing could not be better. Temperatures for the show will hover around 80 with clouds in the morning giving away to sunshine. Just perfect horse show weather!

 

Meghan and Rob are down on the show field now carrying jumps around in the rain – we’ll take it!

 

We did some more fun jumping this morning and although the light was not great in the overcast, I got some nice pictures. Check this link. I got all the girls together first thing this morning and we had a talk about “bigger jumping” and about disappointment. Basically what I put in this Blog the other day. Life is not perfectly equal for everyone – deal with it as adults. Everyone agreed that it was better to have a few disappointments than to all be forced to do the least difficult thing so everyone could do exactly the same.

 

Then I went out and did a few more bigger jumps, to test their ability to put in practice what we discussed! See the pictures.

 

Friday, July 20^th, 8AM Update:

One More Day

It’s a cooler day today and the ground will be dust free for a little while after last night’s occasional rain showers. No relief at all to the drought, but at least a nicer riding day for the final day of this session before tomorrow’s horse show. We’ll be doing some fun things and giving people a chance to get on their favorite horses one more time before the show. We will be seeing many of you parents who are in the area either tonight after 7 if you stop by to watch the evening ride (you’re welcome), or tomorrow for the show and dinner at Pasquale’s.

 

I have a new post up on my personal Blog. Meghan discourages me from making any kind of political statement on this Blog, and she is certainly right. In a service business one should be apolitical. But senior citizens have earned the right to speak their minds, and I do now and then. Don’t go to my Blog and read it if you are an NRA member. My thoughts are with the people in Colorado who suffered through yet another gun massacre. When will - - - -ah, I am not supposed to say anything here. But I did post in my personal Blog.

 

Thursday, July 19^th, 11:30 PM Update:

Progress on Points & “Meet the Horses”

Very late at night is about the only time we really have to accomplish “routine” office stuff. When do we sleep? Don’t ask!

 

I did most of the points for the Summer Series earlier today and Meghan is finishing the X-rails points which are tricky and her specialty. We should have the points standings sorted and posted by 1AM. I have also made progress today on revising our “Meet the Horses” page. I updated Tee, and Mae’s listings tonight and have just a few more to do over the weekend.

 

Welcome to the UB Riding Team

The University of Buffalo’s Equestrian Team captain left us a message earlier today looking for horses for their intercollegiate team to practice on this fall. We’ll see if there’s anything that would work out. Friends of Longacres, keep helping us pass the word that some grea horses need good homes over this coming winter season.

 

Thursday, July 19^th, 10PM Update:

More of Not Much

It rained off and on the whole time we were at the mall, so we hoped the farm would be wet. But we got home an hour ago and it was still dry under the trees. We may get enough more light showers overnight to help keep the dust down at the horse show, but I bet not a drop makes it into the ground or into the pond.

 

The girls had fun at the mall. We did hear a few grumblings of resentment among girls who jumped different heights during our “slightly bigger jumping” opportunities the past two days. Read the “Big Jumping” write up on the website – we offer not always equal opportunities for each rider to try their best on the particular horse they happen to be on a few times a summer. Safety rules. Girls have to learn to deal with differences in skills and security, and there is always some disappointment. But almost always a safe day – they go together. The alternative is to have everyone do exactly the same thing and cater to the lowest skill level. That’s not what we do.

 

Tomorrow is the last day of this session before the show. We should have some more fun opportunities and good training.

 

Thanks to Isabella’s dad, John, we have two air horns in the cabins as emergency signals. Good idea!

 

The girls bought the usual girl mall things – trinkets, food, and good stuff to eat. I bought a set of power screw driver bits and an extra battery for my model helicopter. Life is good!

 

Thursday, 3PM:

Rain??

Radar shows badly – no, make that desperately needed rain to be within spitting distance of us. But as so often happens, much of it seems to be passing just to our south along the lake breeze boundary. Keep your fingers crossed for us to at least get a little!

 

 

Grrrrrr!

Kaitlin’s mom just emailed from Chicago that they had an hour long downpour! We are jealously watching that on radar – the stream of heavy rain is all the way across the great lakes from Chicago, then on shore all around us, but NOT right here at Longacres yet! Maybe soon? The pond has dropped another inch this week – no emergency yet, but it won’t last forever.

 

Thursday Afternoon Update:

Nice Pictures

Check this link for the latest pictures taken this morning of the girls jumping their favorite jumps a little higher than usual. We may do a few more tomorrow morning.

 

Thursday, 10AM Update:

Summer Series Points

Several hours of very valuable time will be taken up today tabulating and posting the point standings for the Summer Horse Show Series. Why do we spend this time and why don’t we hire someone else to do what is basically data entry? Well, the Summer Series is a cornerstone of the riding and showing program here at Longacres. Riders come to us from all over the country and the world for the chance to ride five hours a day and then go in a suitable real open horse show every weekend.

 

For many years Longacres has taken the lead in organizing and maintaining the western New York Summer Series of shows. Sometimes to the great annoyance of other stables in the area who say, “Why do you guys get to call the shots and say who can have a show on certain dates?” Well, we call the shots and make decisions on show dates because we must and because we can. We must because our program would not exist in it’s current format without suitable shows every week, one here and one away each two weeks. Without control of the Series, we would often have no suitable show on the alternate weeks when we do not run one here. We CAN control the Series because of the simple economic fact that in this year of 2012 we are taking fourteen horses to every away show. There will always be stables willing to work with us and cooperate with us if we can guarantee them fourteen of our own entries plus all the entries from other barns following the Series if they run a horse show at their barn on dates we suggest and using the Series rules we have developed. We already have a waiting lsit of stables that want to host one of our shows in 2013.

 

Why don’t we get someone else to tabulate the points every week? It seems simple, but is actually very tricky. Even we make mistakes which must be corrected after someone calls in to tell us about an error. Horses often use different numbers at different shows. Different show secretaries often spell names wrong. Our rules for points for X-rails classes are complex. Whoever does the points must be careful and they must be familiar with all the regulars who take part in the shows. It takes a lot of our time at an extraordinarily busy time of year, but it is vitally important to us. That’s why we do it.

 

Thursday, July 19^th, 7AM Update:

Mall Trip this Afternoon

The girls will have their phones from about 5 to 9PM tonight, so expect calls or you can try to contact them. Meghan did take some pictures at the campfire, too late for me to post. They are now at this link.

 

Ryan is the Champ!

The Champ of writing emails to us after her session this summer, that is. We love hearing from you guys after you go home at the end of your session or before you arrive. We had great messages recently from Valerie and Sophie, who will be our CIT’s beginning next week. But the champ this summer for writing the most messages is Ryan from Texas. Ryan writes just the way she talks – fast and frequently! Even though we don’t answer every time, Ryan, they do get read.

 

Lazy Days Week

If any girls who have attended camp here this summer are interested in an extra week, we still have four spots left in Lazy Days week, August 20 to 25^th. It usually fills with girls who have been here earlier in the summer and decide to return for one more week before school starts. Katherine has already signed up to return and Kellie from Texas is trying to arrange it. Anyone else?

 

Meet the Horses

I am finally making some progress on updating the “Meet the Horses” page. It is complicated HTML coding to replace new pictures without overwriting the old ones. I would be better off with a different webpage program, but starting over would take far too much time to do in the summer! I will struggle on. I have most of the new short video links up now and I got the new pictures posted for Coal and Avalon last night. I’ll do a few more today, though I have to spend a lot of time on Summer Series show points.

 

Everyone here gets to have a nice picture taken over their favorite jump this morning. We’ll post some at lunchtime.

 

Wednesday, July 18^th, 11 PM Update:

Camp Fire

We just finished a campfire with s’mores (smores?), ghost stories, and horse stories. Good marshmallows & chocolate, too! Check this video link to get an idea of what it was like.

 

Two More Days

It’s hard to believe that we are more than half way through the 2012 season! We have two more days of this session and then the horse show. Then a three day mid-season break, which we AND the horses will be very ready for. Lots of rest time! We will miss this group of girls, as we have the other groups that have made 2012 a very good year so far. And we look forward to welcoming back old friends returning for the longer August session, as well as several first timers. August sounds very promising. Meghan took pictures of the camp fire which will be posted at this link soon.

 

Wednesday, 7PM Update:

Zoe’s Gives us Names

I don’t know how she got started, but Zoe gave us all “names” tonight. We each had a “barn name” and a “show name”, as is customary for horses. Mine are Acorn and Squirrel. Enjoy this video link showing Zoe and the girls in action at dinner.

 

Wednesday, July 18^th, 5PM Update:

Busy Day

We are trying to keep up with correspondence from families coming in next Wednesday for the August session, we’re making arrangements for the girls from this session to wind down their stay and leave, we’re starting to organize the jumps and courses for the Saturday horse show, and we’re doing what we always do every day. Busy. I saw Meghan from a distance several times today with a camera in her hand, so I bet we will have pictures at this link after dinner.

 

I just got done with three hours of tractor work mowing grass that wasn’t there. I felt really, really silly going around and around the fields with mostly just stunted low brown grass. But there were a few weeds growing higher and the fields did look a tiny bit better after the mowing. And my tractor needed the workout after sitting idle most of the past month.

 

Good Things Have a Co$t

And we hope you agree that Longacres is a “Good Thing”. Meghan and I have put everything into doing the best job possible this year at Longacres. We have spared no expense as we replace, repair, and paint jumps. As we add new horses and arrange useful training horse projects. And as we put together a staff with more depth and more perks than anytime in recent years. (this week we have five counselors for nine girls, along with two counselors in training! We don’t have that many staff all the time, but as part of our new plan of having more fresh well rested staff come in periodically during the summer to spell or reinforce girls who have worked here for one month or more, we have Stephanie and Emily here training for the next session before Michelle leaves next week at the end of her stay.)

 

All these things cost money. You know where this is going! We are beginning to hear from people who want to sign up for the 2013 season. We are accepting deposits now to get you on the priority list, though we do not confirm enrollments for next season until September 1^st. There will be a price increase – a significant one. Tuition for 2013 will be at least 10% greater and possibly as much as 20%. We will not know until we do some careful accounting at the end of next month to see exactly how much our various improvements have cost us.

 

With that in mind, you may send in a deposit for 2013 which will be 100% refundable if it turns out that our price increase turns out to be too much for your camp budget. Sorry to be the bearer of this news, but we like the direction that Longacres has taken over the past half dozen years as Meghan has taken over the day to day operation of the business, and we don’t want to have to cut back on any expenses just to be able to offer a less expensive product.

 

Tuesday, July 17^th, 11PM Update:

Overnight trail & Hayloft Party

Check this link for pictures of the overnight ride.

This link for a few more late pictures.

 

Tuesday, 5PM Update:

Meet the Horses

I am working on the update to the “Meet the Horses” page and I am posting changes as I make them. It is a work in progress, but you are welcome to check me as I go. I now have about six copies of the “Chexsie” listing posted at the end of the page. Over the next day or so I will be changing each one to show the proper new horses. I have also posted links to many of the little new video’s we’ve taken this week next to the description of each horse. Enjoy viewing them.

 

Tuesday, 4PM Update

Welcome Stephanie

Stephanie Sansone is a 22 year old graduate of the Morrisville College Equine program. As part of the Longacres plan of having fresh bodies join the staff periodically during the summer, she was hired last winter to help run the program for the second half of the summer. Her real duties begin next Wednesday with the arrival of our August session students, but she got here today for an extensive orientation period to learn our system and our horses. (She is a Blog reader, so she knows LOT’s already). Welcome, Stephanie!

 

Horse Shows

Some of you have written to tell us you have trouble finding horse show information on the website. There is a link to Show Info on our home page, but for your convenience, here it is again.

 

Meghan and the girls are having lessons this afternoon, but at the same time showing off horses to Maypine Stables from ohio. They took Mave, Zanee, and Ginger last winter on lease and are interested in horses for the coming winter.

 

Heat Wave Almost over

The cold front is due tonight and the rest of the week looks cooler and less humid. It is hot this afternoon, but we have strong winds which are taking the edge off the heat.

 

 

Tuesday, 11AM Update:

Awake Now & Ready for FUN in the Pond!!

The girls had a lot more pep in the ride after breakfast after a good meal and more time to wake up. I watched them all ride again while Meghan took more pictures. Then I gave the more experienced riders a talk about how to learn to feel your leads without looking – a difficult achievement, but one that some of our better riders are ready to attempt.

 

Pond Stuff

Then it was on to the pond and we did manage to get everyone in the water on a horse. But some only once and others more. Most of the horses would just as soon not go into the scary looking pond, so it is a test that separates the “women from the girls” to see who has the gumption to make their horse or pony go in. Emily was the star in that department. I asked her if Brody was going to give her a battle, and she responded, “Not this girl or this horse!” And she was right. We have good students and some very graceful riders this session, but many of them or little or slightly built. Not the brute strength needed to really win a test of wills with a 1000 pound horse! So there was some disappointment from some who were not strong enough and could only get one of their horses into the water. That is part of learning. Today was a dose of humility for some.

 

There will be great pictures at this link later in the afternoon.

 

And video clips at

This link

This link

This link

This link

This link

and this link.

 

A Real Lady

How do I know a real lady when I see one? Sydney was doing battle with Avalon trying to get him to walk into the pond. He twisted to one side and before she knew it, Sydney and Avalon were in a pricker bush patch – she wearing shorts! She said, “Ow! That hurts!” And twisted up her lips to maybe say more. I could see the pain, so I shouted to Sydney, “Go ahead. Say the words! Go for it!” Well, the best Sydney could muster was a loud, “Frig it!” THAT, boys and girls, is the sign of a true lady! Well done mom! Good child rearing. I talked with the other girls while we were hosing down the horses and most agreed that if they had my blessing in such a stressful situation, they would have used more colorful language! Not that I am encouraging profanity, parents. But every once in a while there is a situation where colorful language is excusable, if not appropriate. Stuck in a pricker bush on a horse in shorts is certainly one of those times!

 

Tuesday, July 17^th, 8AM Update:

Cool but Tired

I just finished watching the 7AM Plan “B” lesson and giving a quick talk about whether it is better or not to try to “ask” for a lead over a jump (usually not at this level of rider training). It was blessedly cool that early in the morning, but not many riders were 100% awake and bouncy yet. We even had an unexpected light sprinkle of rain just as the lesson was ending.

 

We were all a little tired from getting up extra early, but there will now be a chance for a long break during the heat of the mid day without losing much riding time. The cool front comes through overnight tonight and the rest of the week will be cooler and much less humid. We’ll get to bed early tonight (except for the group on the overnight trail ride), and be ready to go and better rested tomorrow morning in the good riding weather.

 

Meghan did take some pictures, which are at this link. I labeled them for those of you at home still trying to learn horse names and names of riders here this session.

 

Tuesday, July 17^th, 2:30AM Update:

Up chasing the %#$@*!! deer away from the few flowers in my garden that they haven’t already eaten over the past week! I think it’s a lost cause for this season. The very mild winter this past year has caused the already too great a deer population in our area to skyrocket. Deer often have twins at this time of year. This summer there are not one, but TWO sets of triplet fawns living within 700 feet of the main house here at Longacres. Triplets are not common in this part of the country.

 

Other wildlife is also very plentiful this season. Red fox are all over the place. If I drive in the office driveway late, I can count on seeing one or two fox bounding into the brush!

 

Monday, July 16^th, 10PM Update:

Great Gymkhana Pictures!

Check this link for pics of the girls having the time of their lives at the mounted games tonight! The girls and counselors did most of the planning, with Meghan staying in the background. It was terrific!

 

Very early start tomorrow to beat the heat with a 7AM lesson, then a long mid day nap after pond riding.

 

Meet the Horses Update

I did work much of the afternoon on the updated “Meet the Horses” page. I will post it right after I make this update. There is more work to be done on new pictures tomorrow, but I have the organization figured out and made a number of changes. I am ready to post links to the “Meet the Horse” little video’s. Things should be pretty well done by tomorrow night. To see the first changes, go to our home page and follow the links to “Welcome to Longacres Tour” and the “Meet the Horses” links.

 

Monday, July 16^th, 1PM Update:

Catching Up

We’re catching up on some pictures and video today. The youngest girls did not have video taken of them at the show because both rings were going at once and the camera was in the other ring for their part of the day. Meghan didn’t like missing them so she set up an exercise and video’d them this morning. They will see their video in slow motion tomorrow during the Very Hot Day siesta! I took a few more video clips of horses for the new “Meet the Horses” updated page, which I will be working on this afternoon. I also talked with almost all the girls while they were riding this morning, made some suggestions, and asked how they were doing. Kaitlin made three “wishes” to complete her stay this session and one was jumping the bank. Her wish was my command and I helped her and three others in her lesson do the bank jump. Kaitlin also got to do a pretty big jump the next hour on Horatio while Toni joined her on Jazz.

 

Sarah was very good on Ebony the first hour, but had the bad luck to get on a slightly lame Zanee the next hour and just walked for that lesson. But she was very good on Ebony! Isabella was good on Avalon, working on the proper striding and getting it done the final try. I gave Toni some exercises to do this week with Boo to make him better in his corners.

 

Morning pictures of the bank jump, the big jumping by Horatio & Jazz, and some other riders are at this link.

 

Sunday, 10 PM Update:

Isabella, the Gymnast!

I was putting camera equipment away during Isabella’s last ride at the show, and nobody told me that she had an “unplanned dismount”! But the video camera does not lie, and when we watched video tonight, I got to see her fall – over and over and over again, in super slow motion! Isabella was a great good sport and laughed the loudest of all of us. Always embarrassing when you try to go over a jump while your horse is going around the outside of it! She did do one thing very, very well during the fall. She held on tight as can be to the reins as she fell to the ground and her butt swung around and hit the jump. NOT her head! It sounds so simple – if you are going down hold on for dear life to the reins or the mane of the horse, or both. That will flip you around so that your head does not hit the ground or jump first. Your butt is designed to land first. Or worst case you have a leg or ankle injury. But protect your head from hitting something first by hanging on while you fall. Isabella’s video showed in HD detail how well that works. (And it was funny!)

 

Sunday, July 15^th, 5PM Update:

Changing Technology, Chapter 14

OK, I don’t know if it is exactly chapter #14, but it seems we old timers keep having to adjust to tech changes. And to think that I was one of the pioneers in the use of “PC’s” to small business. Decades ago I actually used a Radio Shack TRS-80 Model I, modified to print lower case letters, to send out promotional personalized letters and do accounting. But I have fallen behind. I did sign up for one of those dopey Twitter accounts, but after sending out two tweets I just couldn’t see the point. We do keep a Facebook Page for Longacres Riding Camp, but rarely check Facebook messages. This website is about the limit of our tech adjustment!

 

But the point of this story is the prevalence of iPhones and similar smart phones with young students. Some have had them for a few years now, but whether they have their own brand new ones, or hand me downs from other family members who moved up to newer versions, more than half now have them. What is interesting is that up through last summer it was a big deal if I could race home from a show and load all the pictures onto a laptop, then bring the laptop to Pasquale’s and show all the pictures during dinner. I often also would put those pictures up on the website for parents at home.

 

Now, I barely pull the RV out of our driveway headed for dinner with the group, when I start to hear ooh’s and aah’s and squeals of delight as the girls pull the website up on the phones and show each other the day’s pictures. Then during dinner five or six iPhones are constantly in use looking through different parts of the big photo albums and the girls are excitedly reaching across the table to show each other different pictures. They could care less about seeing bigger versions of the pictures on a laptop or iPad!

 

Last night Meghan and I were at a table with the younger girls who generally were minus iPhone, and they did enjoy the bigger pics on my iPad. But the other table never even asked to see the iPad. A fast changing world!

 

Dinner is late tonight to accommodate our late sleep in and later Town Day. We will watch video from the horse show after dinner and then try to get everyone to bed early. Then a full day of riding tomorrow and a special day with a very early start and pond riding on Tuesday to take account of very hot weather expected.

 

Weather

Ground is already almost completely dry as though we had no rain today. Fifty percent chance of more rain Tuesday night. (Valerie, thanks for your wishes for rain on our account!)

 

Sunday, Noon Update

The Drought Continues L

We’ve had just enough shower activity this morning to tease us and we expect enough more nuisance rain to get the girls a little wet as they walk around on Town Day this afternoon. The grass is wet and we might have enough rain on the sand ring to keep the dust down tomorrow. But it is still dry under the biggest trees and not a drop of what we’ve seen this morning will make it down to our water table or run off into the pond. Barely better than nothing. A line of thunder storms with very heavy rain is passing well to our south as I write. There is still a small chance of significant rain later this afternoon - - - oh, well.

 

We should have a great day of riding tomorrow and then on the very hot Tuesday I expect we’ll be doing pond riding – perfect day for that!

 

Winter Horse Home & “Meet the Horses” Day

We will be planning tomorrow’s lessons around taking more video and current pictures of the horses so that we can do a major update of the “Meet the Horses” page on the website. I will try to finish that tomorrow night. Check on me and see if I made it. We need this information current so that stables and individuals interested in leasing our horses for the off season from September through next May can have current information on all the horses.

 

Remember, you can be a big help by passing the word that Longacres has a great string of horses, all of which get leased out over the winter.

 

Sunday, July 15^th, 7AM Update:

Weather Chat

I am up paying attention to the weather. I have always been interested in meteorology even beyond our very practical need for weather information in our business. Some of our long term friends know that I was for a couple of years one of the weathermen for the Cruising fleet in the northern Bahamas when we kept a boat there. Anyway, I am up while I could be sleeping late. I already drove down to the barn to take a measurement on the exact water level in our pond so I would know how it responds to any rain we get today. (The water level is ½” below the screw I put in the dock to mark the level two days ago when I wrote about the drought.) We are getting very light sprinkles as I write. It is still dry under the trees. Heavier rain is still likely during the morning, but I will believe it when I see it.

 

Sleep

Meghan is sound asleep. She has no trouble taking advantage of her rare opportunities to sleep in. And she was robbed of a precious hour and a half last night by our “prowler scare”. She walked the girls to the showers after the excitement had died down and stayed around the cabins until everyone was quiet.

 

More Weather

Back to the weather. With likely rain for part of today and possible rain on Tuesday night, we may have some relief from the drought, but it could pass us by as it often does. Stay tuned! Most of this week will be lovely riding weather, except for Tuesday, which looks to be a scorcher. We will go to our plan “B” with a very early morning ride and a long rest in the middle of the day. The latter part of the week looks to be cooler and less humid. Weather for our Saturday horse show here at Longacres is forecast to be warm but not so hot and humid as recent weather. If the long range forecast holds up it should be quite pleasant.

 

Praise

Praise for EA Police officer D. Waldron. The officer who responded to our incident last night was wonderful with the girls. He was reassuring to them and joked with them to put them at ease. It didn’t hurt that he was young and good looking, according to Meghan! He was also extremely cooperative with us and flexible about whether we wanted to press trespassing charges against the poor neighbors who had gotten lost on the ATV. And he was nice to them. He could not have handled the whole situation any better. Police work the way it should be.

 

More Weather

Steadier showers now – it is at least wet under the trees! Maybe there is hope. The girls will enjoy their sleep in with a patter of rain on the cabin roofs in the woods. Nothing much more relaxing than that!

 

Saturday, July 14^th, 11PM Update:

Stories & Adventures at Summer Camp

Part One: Dale & Her Gang – Twelve year old Dale has pretty much taken over the role of ringleader and entertainer to us all. We have mentioned her talents as a story teller and comedian before, but tonight she had the entire group in stitches at Pasquale’s after dinner. Check this video link for our reactions as Dale showed us various “mouse faces”. You don’t see why that would be so funny? Well, maybe it is one of those “you just had to be there” things, but the video will show you the high spirits and good humor of all the girls! Watch the video closely – Dale literally had many of the girls in tears of laughter! And consider that the girls got up at 5 AM this morning to get ready for the show. They will crash tonight, I am sure, and take advantage of the late sleep in tomorrow morning and a day of rest. They will have phones from about 1 to 4 PM during Town Day.

 

Part Two: The Cops come to the rescue! I said that the girls would crash and fall asleep very soon. Maybe not immediately though, because of another very unexpected adrenaline rush. After we dropped the girls off at the barn from dinner Meghan and I returned to the house to drop in bed ourselves and sleep for ten or 11 hours. NOT! As we reached our front steps, Meghan’s phone rang and it was the counselors saying that there were strange men in the woods and they were scared. Usually this kind of report is a false alarm caused by the girls hearing party noise from some neighbor in the still night air, or a neighbor taking a walk along the river and the girls jumping to a scary conclusion. But we always respond immediately to any such report. We drove quickly to the barn and Meghan ran in towards the cabins from one direction while I drove around to the dining hall entrance and went in from that direction, just in case there really was someone in the woods and they tried to get out the other entrance.

 

Well, there was someone, and they were not hard to find. Indeed, just as the counselors had reported, there were two men on a big all terrain vehicle stuck fast in the old swimming pond swamp. Meghan immediately called the police – standard procedure. We call for backup help and ask questions afterwards. While waiting for the police (quick response – just about four minutes), I did ask questions. Turns out the “trespassers” were not young punks on the prowl for trouble, but two middle age business men, one of whom owns the million dollar horse farm across the river from us. He had offered to take his friend home a half mile up the river by driving the ATV up the nearly dry riverbed. They had got turned around and misjudged how far they were up the river when they turned out of the river on one of our river access paths. They drove up the hill towards the horse barn and realized they had made a very wrong turn when they got to the old pond bridge. Don’t ask me how they fell into the pond turning around to try to get back to the river, but they did.

 

By the time the cops arrived, we were sharing stories of mutual friends. I had not met my neighbor before since he fairly recently purchased the farm across the river, but we knew of each other. The nice police officer first checked in on the girls in their bunks so they knew everything was OK and under control. He then took ID’s, but we all agreed it was an innocent mistake and I agreed to pull their very stuck ATV out with my tractor tomorrow morning. Meghan called the counselors to come down and meet our new neighbor so they could tell the girls they had actually met “the boogey man”, and he was not so scary after all!

 

I am embarrassed to have called the cops on an affluent and respected neighbor. But I had no choice. We acted as we always act in case of even a slight chance of a threat. My neighbor was also very embarrassed. Should have been. Your kids are fine. They have a good story to tell.

= = = =

We’ll miss you, Keana. Keana is cutting her stay a week short because she very much misses her own horse at home. She’s been a great person to have at Longacres, a good student, and has taken part in everything. She has no complaints about being here, except that her horse isn’t with her. As most of you know from reading the part of our website that asks, “Is Longacres right for you?”, one of the most common reasons for a student not wanting to be here is if they do have their own horse at home. Often it makes them miserable here. Keana has been far from miserable, and we’ve really enjoyed having her. Give your horse a huge hug from all of us when you get home tomorrow afternoon, Keana!

 

Some Show Results:

Most of you will hear first hand tomorrow about all the success your girls had at the show. Here are some of the winnings:

Kaitlyn:

Low and slow: 2nd and 3rd over fences

Class 41: 4th

Pony division: 6th o/f

Zoe:

Class 31- 6

Class 32- 6

Class 33- 2

Walk/trot: 1, 2, 3, reserve

Paige: 2nd in leadline, 2nd, 3rd, and 6th in walk trot, doesn't remember what she got in walk/trot cavalettis (I think a 6 and a 5)

Ruby: 

4th in warm-up

6, 6 in pony hunters

5th in flat for low and slow

1st and 3rd in eq over fences 

Isabella:

3 6ths in hack

3rd in low and slow warm up

1rst, 4th in low and slow

6th in low and slow under saddle

2nd, 3rd in equitation

3 in equation under saddle

 

Sydney:

3rd and 2nd in puddles on jazz 

4th in schooling jumpers also on jazz

5th for warm up hunter on Lincoln 

4th, 4th, 3rd in baby hunter also on Lincoln 

 

Toni

4th, 5th and 6th in hack division on zanee also had a few nice jumper rounds on boo

 

Keana

1st, 2nd, 5th in puddle jumpers and relieved a grand champion for the division on ginger 

 

Sarah 

2nd and 6th in puddle jumpers on Zanee 

5th and 4th on ebony in the pony division 

2nd, 2nd, 1st on jazz in special baby hunters and revived a grand champion for the division 

 

Ruby:

Class 10- 6th place

Class 11- 6th place 

Isabella:

class 38- 6th place 

Toni:

Class 38- 6th place

Lena:

Class 24a- 3

Class 25a- 1

Class 26a- 1

Class 34- 6

Class 35- 2

Class 36- 4

Class 37-3

Dale:

Class 24b- 3

Class 25b- 2

Class 26b- 1

Class 30- 3

Class 34- 3

Class 35- 3

Class 36- 3

Class 37- 5

Zoe:

Class 31- 6

Class 32- 6

Class 33- 2

 

I could have missed some results. We asked the counselors to write the above down and email them to us.

 

Good Night!!!!

 

Saturday, July 14^th, 8PM Update:

Great Show Day!

Thanks to Newstead Equestrian Center for putting on a great show today. Attendance, with four different nearby horse shows today, was almost as good as last time. We only finished at 7PM after a 9AM start! Longacres girls won many ribbons and several Championships and Reserves. Spirits were good. Check this link and this link for over 350 pictures! More news later – time for Pasquale’s and Kone King now!

 

Friday, July 13^th, 9PM Update:

Newstead Summer Series Show Tomorrow (Saturday)

Check this link for the Newstead Equestrian Center website and directions. We leave for the show from Longacres at 7:30 AM. The show starts at 9 in the jumper ring and at 11 for the other events. Most of our girls will be in the earlier and later events.

 

There will be no updates tomorrow until very late in the evening because of the show.

 

I do have some pictures I took this evening at this link when I watched everyone pratice a jump course for the show and made some suggestions.

 

Friday, July 13^th, 4PM Update:

Rain So Close, But - - -

Badly needed heavy rain is just four or five miles to our southeast. There is still a chance we’ll get some, but it is moving northeast past us. Our special weather situation along the edge of most Lake Erie breezes often keeps the thunder storms a few miles away. Darn!

 

I just spent time at the barn doing jumper turns and a few higher jumps with Keana, Sydney, and Sarah. Sydney and Sarah were riding our strong jumpers, Jazz and Horatio. Keana was doing well on Ginger, so I let her jump a little higher than she has here so far this week. We were not so interested in how high, but in how accurately and if the jumping approaches were on the correct lead.

 

I also chatted with Kaitlin and Isabella at the end of their lesson.

 

I still expect Meghan to have some pictures at this link, but she has not given me any yet this afternoon. She is very busy preparing lists and schedules for the horse show tomorrow.

 

Friday, July 13^th, 1PM Update:

The kids are doing fine this morning. Meghan and I checked in on the first morning lesson and I watched some of them jump and talked with them about the striding in the line I had them do. I worked with Sydney, Toni, Sarah, and Ruby in Michelle’s lesson. I watched everyone else, but didn’t teach them personally. I also checked on the water level in the pond and marked the dock so I can keep track of how fast the water level is falling (or rising if we get some rain!)

 

I Am in a Great Mood!

Partly, of course, because the girls seem happy and to be riding well. But mostly because I just had a doctor’s visit that I have been procrastinating on making. I’ve had a few spots appear on my scalp that worried me a bit and I thought at the very least I would get a biopsy at the specialist today. Not so! They took one look and said, “No way is that malignant – here, we’ll freeze them with nitrogen and in a week you’ll be good as new.” I sure like skin cancer scares that turn out like that! So until the next time that I try to match the kids (Hi, Anderson!) jumping over a bench and sprain my ankle for a month, I will be a healthy boy. (PS – Meghan doesn’t like me posting personal health things on this Blog but, hey, we are all family.)

 

Tomorrow’s horse show sounds like fun and we are hoping for good success for our Longacres riders. Meghan and I will post some riding pictures at this link later this afternoon, and then hundreds more from the show late tomorrow night!

 

Thursday, July 12^th, 10PM Update:

A Record Breaking Drought (for us, anyway)

We just got back from taking the girls for their night out at the mall. They were in good spirits coming home after having their phones and a chance to talk with you all at home. Let us know if there is anything you think we should hear about.

 

Record Drought

I don’t know where we stand in the official weather records for western New York as far as the lack of rain goes, but I can tell you one thing that is impacting us. We have had the pond near the barn for 38 years and have pumped water for the horses from it all those years. It is fed by deep springs and the water level has never dropped in all that time. It continuously trickles out the overflow no matter how much we pump for the horses.

 

But today the pump started sucking air and we investigated and found the pond had dropped three or four inches, uncovering the water intake. This never happened in the previous 38 years! We lowered the water intake and got the water pump going again, but I don’t know how long we will have water if we are using more than the pond is producing. Worst case we will have to put a strong pump in the big river (so long as THAT doesn’t go dry!). There is some chance of rain for Saturday through Tuesday – wish us luck!

 

Thursday, July 12, 2PM Update:

Dale the Entertainer!

Dale’s good humor and ready smile are infectious to begin with, and she comes up with some hilarious comments. She was one of the leaders of the entertainment at the overnight the other day. Today she provided us with some extra special unintended entertainment. We never like it when someone has an almost accident at Longacres, but Dale is Dale, and count on her to turn a close call into an entertainment event of the day!

 

I took series of fifteen or so rapid fire pictures of everyone jumping this morning. Some were better than others. Dale’s pony, Ladd, gave her a little trouble and refused the jump at first, but then he did it and she wasn’t quite ready for him and at the end of the jump she lost her balance and ended up clutching Ladd around the neck to stay on. She did it with style and a laugh, as usual.

 

So - - - - we are at lunch and one by one I called each girl up to look at her pictures on the iPad and make comments about their position approaching and over the jump. Each person came up alone and had a little privacy as I made suggestions.

 

Then it was Dale’s turn! She came up to my end of the lunch table like everyone else, but then there was a commotion as EVERYONE else scurried up and gathered around looking over Dale and I’s shoulders as I went through the pictures of Dale’s jump and miraculous “save”. Check the album at this link. Everyone, including Dale, was rolling with laughter!

 

Thursday, Noon Update:

More Pictures

Check this link for another batch of pictures. We also welcome Clover Ridge Stables and their five riders visiting to practice over our jumps today. We welcome outside riders to school over the Longacres jumps.

 

Spirits looked good this morning with a lot of jumping over the special big field jumps. This is a good group of riders getting along well together. We are keeping an eye on one of the younger girls who has seemed tired and one of the older girls, also ready for this afternoon’s rest and missing home just a little. Neither of them homesick in the usual sense, just ready for a break and some extra rest. We’ve contacted both parents, so if you have not had an email or text from us, no issues for you.

 

Thursday, July 12^th, 11AM Update:

Pictures, Pictures

Meghan is struggling to adjust to using one of my cameras, but she took over 60 pictures already this morning, posted at this link. As mentioned the other day, we are jumping more out on the big show field. Many pictures are there, including one of Dale “almost” slipping off, but doing a good save!

 

I also took rapid fire 1o frame a second pictures to show everyone their jumping form on the iPad at lunch.

 

Off now to get an insurance card for the farm truck and maybe pick up plates for it. Busy, busy.

 

Thursday, July 12^th, 6:30 AM Update:

Last night’s picture link now should work. Meghan woke me up to post the pictures after I had fallen asleep last night and I inserted the link but fell back asleep before I clicked the upload button. Sleep is precious here at Longacres during the summer!

 

Today is our shortened day, with full morning lessons, but then the girls have their weekly chance to get clean and dressed up for the mall trip and dinner out on the cook’s night off. They will have their cell phones from about five to 9PM, so they might be calling you or you can phone them during those hours.

 

Newstead Horse Show

This weekend’s Summer Series horse show is at Newstead Equestrian Center. Check the link for their address and directions if you plan to attend.

 

We are up very early this morning so that Meghan can catch up on office work, specifically the spending money and horse show expense statements, which we have fallen behind on. Every time Meghan has tried to sit down during normal hours the past two weeks, something comes up that needs “immediate attention”. She is double checking expenses and horse show fees and then Sara can total them and send either refunds or bills to those of you who have finished your stays at Longacres.

 

Lazy Days?

Speaking of “finishing your stay” at Longacres, if you have gone home and are having withdrawal symptoms, there are still four spots left in Lazy Days from August 20^th to 25^th. Every year some of you return for that final week to have a little bonus Longacres at the end of the summer. So far Katherine from one of our June weeks is planning to return and we just heard that Kellie from Texas is considering it also. Beta has been working as a counselor all summer, but she will be here for Lazy Days as a full time rider – she has well earned it! Good job, Beta, and THANKS for everything you have done for Longacres this summer!

 

Wednesday, July 11^th, 10PM Update:

Busy Day

Meghan had a lot of office work today, so I did some of the hovering for her around the horses. I taught a semi-private lesson to Keana and Isabella in the show ring, stressing jumping position, control, and leads. I watched all the other girls ride and gave some specific suggestions to some of them. I talked with several of the girls and asked them about the first three or four things they had their horses do when they first mounted. We talked about the first three things you plan are your first three “chess moves” when beginning your ride.

 

I was at lunch enjoying the first hand stories about last night’s slumber party in the hayloft. It was, according to Meghan, the best overnight trail ride yet in the two years that we have been doing this kind of ride. Dale is quite the comedian, and was in top form last night!

 

Meghan and I had to juggle some vehicles around today between the farm and our mechanic in town. Maintenance, maintenance, maintenance! I met Meghan late in the afternoon with my tractor at the old barn to help her retrieve the girls sleeping bags and stuff. I also monitored a trail ride, watching unseen as they cantered on the powerline trails and again on galloping field. They were generally behaving in a safe manor, but we need to fine tune a few safety procedures. It is an enormous temptation for the older girls and the counselors to go a little faster than Meghan and I might like out on trails – especially when they “think” we cannot see what they are doing. I will gently let them know that I can see the important parts of the trails from the deck of my house.

 

Check this link for some pictures Meghan took this evening.

 

Sony 717 Camera

Meghan has used what is now practically an antique digital camera for more than ten years. It is a Sony 717, which was quite a high end camera in its time, but is now nearly obsolete. But not for Meghan. She is so used to it that it is like an extension of her eyes. Or at least it was. In fact she has had two of them, the first of which we bought new. That one wore out and I found another in excellent condition on eBay. That one lasted two years and failed yesterday. Meghan is devastated! She prefers not to just use a more modern camera, but to find yet another used Sony 717.

 

Does anyone out there have one in the back of your closet that you would like to sell to Meghan? There must be many of them out there sitting around after their owners got something newer with more pixels. We would gladly pay a couple hundred bucks, which is the going rate on eBay for one that is working. I almost think I spoke with one of our customers who had one, but I can’t remember who. Meghan asked me to tell you to cut her some slack on picture quality the next few days as she gets used to using one of my cameras!

 

Helicopter Fixed!

My model helicopter has been out of commission for almost a week, but I repaired it this afternoon and after dinner went to a friend’s house who helped me with the fine tuning. I can fly again tomorrow – and crash again soon as I practice trick inverted flying.

 

Wednesday, July 11^th, 7AM Update:

Weather – Glass Half Full or Half Empty?

Well, I can’t deny that it’s pleasant not to be wallowing in the mud around the pasture gate. And it’s good to be able to use the tractor easily in the low normally wet spots moving the manure pile. And we are not losing as many horse shoes that sometimes get sucked off when horses move through muddy spots or wet spots on the horse trails. And our lessons are never rained out or delayed.

 

There are no wet spots. Not anywhere. Yes, there are good things about that.

 

But we are now in real draught conditions. Our lovely grass turf has gone dormant. It’s turning a desert brown color and I have not had to mow in weeks. We pretty much abandoned our excellent sand ring yesterday until we get some rain. It is just too dusty when more than one horse is moving in that ring. We set most of our jumps up in the adjacent normally green grass areas. The footing on the dry brown grass is actually softer than some parts of the sand ring.

 

We also set most of the jumps on the big grass show field down to schooling and lesson heights and we are going to begin today using the big field for many of our lessons. Normally we ration the amount of riding time we do on the big field so that the turf will look it’s best during horse shows. But the turf is toast now anyway, and the best footing for the horses is probably now that big show field where even brown grass is still pretty thick and soft for the horses’ feet. And not dusty.

 

The draught has a real impact on us at Longacres, but I cannot imagine being a produce or corn farmer in this dry spell. I feel for them. Local hay production was actually pretty good through first cutting since none of the hay got rained on when they cut, dried, and bailed . But the hay fields are now dormant just like our riding turf, so hay prices are likely to rise for the rest of the summer.

 

Do some rain dances at home with us in mind. We sure could use several days of steady, soaking rain. But only scattered showers are in the forecast for this weekend, and even if the wettest of the various forecasts comes true, it will not be enough to really break the draught.

 

But the sunny skies are pretty. And few lessons have been rained out this season!

 

Tuesday, July 10^th, 11:30 PM Update:

Wild hayloft!

Meghan just returned from the Hayloft slumber party and reports that it was one of the best ever. Lots of enthusiastic younger kids, including “Zoe unleashed”! Zoe has been mostly quiet the first two days, but not tonight! There was dancing, songs, lots of jokes and a fine level of fun and excitement. Enjoy some pictures at this link.

 

Tuesday, July 10^th, 9PM Update:

Lunch Chatter

You might enjoy seeing the girls having a relaxed good time together at lunch today. Check this link for general chatter and this link for Dale having a giggling fit with Keana and Toni very much enjoying it! Zoe and Paige were pretty quiet during this video, but Zoe started telling us a story right after I shut off the video.

 

Meghan is with the girls at the old barn for the hayloft slumber party right now. I just got back from spending half an hour at the barn working with Michelle to teach a jumping lesson in the small show ring. We had Kaitlin on Horatio, Sarah on Mave, Toni on Banjo, Sydney on Whitley, Isabella on Diesel, and Keana on Jazz. The rest of the girls were on the overnight trail ride. We got in some good jumping and I was able to make useful suggestions for everyone.

 

Meghan and I did sneak out for a hamburger in town tonight just to have a few minutes to ourselves. It’s been a busy two days!

 

There will likely be more pictures at this link later tonight.

 

Tuesday, July 10, 2PM Update:

Not My Morning to Show off Competent Behavior

First I get a flood of emails saying that the Butterfly pictures link shows an error. I sometimes do forget to upload a picture file after posting a link, but it turns out that it was a simple typo and I misnamed the picture album file. It should work now. Strike one.

 

Strike Two

Strike two was more impressive, especially because I rather pride myself as a good large equipment operator. After the Kone King outing I was pulling in with the RV and drove off the driveway onto the dressage ring and passed under the speaker wires for the horse shows. I’ve driven through there in the RV before. I heard a scratching sound and saw the wire bounce in my mirrors. Then Sydney who was sitting next to me in the passenger seat looking out the window said, “Uh,oh!”

 

Want Some Strong Wire?

By the time I saw the wire bouncing I knew it was too late to save the wire. If it had snagged on the air conditioner or satellite dish on top of the RV, the wire would snap and I’d have to splice it. Not. That telephone wire must be STRONG! It did not break, but snapped off both 4” by 4” posts holding up the speaker systems. Quite impressive, really. Strike Two against me for the day. I think I will take a nap and stay out of trouble for the next few hours.

 

The Bright Side

Hard to find in this case, but if I really look, I guess I am pleased that I snapped off both posts above a splice joint where a larger post is set in the ground. We (meaning Joel) don’t have to dig new holes, but can unbolt the snapped top half of the poles and bolt on replacements. AND – tada – the speakers on one of the posts had malfunctioned for Saturday’s show and Joel and I were going to have to work high in the tractor bucket to test the speakers and find out what was wrong. All four speakers are now readily accessible for testing!

 

 

Tuesday, July 10^th, 1PM Update:

Butterfly Pictures!

Check this link for pictures of everyone doing the colorful Butterfly jump. Now we’ll be putting it in the shade on the edge of the show field for a week until it is time to practice for the next Longacres horse show. We got some nice pictures and let the girls jump a line of two jumps out in the field, some of them a little bigger. Sydney jumped Jazz over the higher jumps set up for last Saturday’s horse show.

 

Tuesday, July 10^th, 10AM Update:

Atta Girl, Emily!

Emily has been a student and then a CIT at Longacres for five years. She arrived at the end of last week to spend the rest of the summer with us as a junior counselor. We specifically took her for this two week session as an “extra” relief counselor, with the plan that she would have very light duties and responsibilities these coming two weeks so that she would be very fresh for the second half of the summer. All she is supposed to do now if here and there substitution for the other counselors so they can have a little time off here and there.

 

But Emily is charging right in and taking responsibility wonderfully. This morning’s schedule was a little changed so that the young girls who missed their showers last night could get them in after breakfast, which results in a slightly late start for the 10AM riding lesson. Emily just texted Meghan with a wonderfully detailed update on who is going to be ready at what time and that everything is done early preparing for tonight’s overnight trail ride. Nice job, Emily!

 

Jump Moving

After we return from the Kone King trip at lunchtime, we’re all getting together to moce some jumps around and set up more jumping exercises that will be appropriate for the riders we have this week. We’ll be doing basic control exercises and just a little more jumping today than yesterday. We’ll be doing a lot more jumping tomorrow.

 

PS – I have time budgeted today to work on fixing my crashed model helicopter. That is always good for my peace of mind. I also took ten minutes before breakfast to just stand outside the front door and spray water on my plants in the office doorway garden. Also good for the soul! But right this minute, I am headed down to the barn to take pictures of YOUR kids so YOU will have peace of mind!

 

Tuesday, July 10^th, 8AM Update:

Cabin Parties

Meghan had a good time with the kids in the bunks last night delivering goodies. She had a balancing act, though. She had to act festive and happy for the kids while being disappointed in several staff failings. Little things like forgetting to give a horse wormer, forgetting to make sure the youngest girls got to the shower room to clean up and brush their teeth, and being late for cabin curfew. Some staff handle detail well, and others get thrown out of their rhythm every time a new group comes in. That’s why Meghan hovers and double checks most everything! Every person on our staff has outstanding qualities and is trying hard in their own way. It is just frustrating for Meghan, who is very detail and check list oriented, when (more than one of) her staff don’t double check their lists and schedules. It is usually little things, but the little things add up and consume unnecessary time when we have to correct them and do them over.

 

I know that many of you at home appreciate the candor in our Blog. We will continue always to share with you our trials as well as our many successes.

 

Monday, July 9^th, 9PM Update:

All is Well

Meghan is just finishing up at the barn and called to tell me that the girls were happy and working hard at horse care after evening ride. We have been drilling them hard all afternoon and in the evening on basic horsemanship. We need improvement in basics from most of this group before doing more advanced jumping later in the week. I saw improvement in attentiveness and control just between this morning and this evening.

 

Check this link for a few pics I took earlier.

Check this link for a bunch more pictures from Meghan.

 

Meghan is about to head back down to the bunks after the girls finish showering with a surprise cookie dough treat. Tomorrow features our first trip to Kone King and the first group doing an overnight trail ride to the old barn hayloft. The fun begins.

 

Monday, July 9^th, 2PM Update:

“Victims” All Seem Well

All three of our fall-off victims from this morning (see below) were at lunch smiling and in good spirits. So I think they will live.

 

One of our regular readers and good friend from the horse world, Uncle Billy, read what happened and wrote in this story:

 

“Ah, horses and “monsters”! Monsters have gotten me twice this year.

An unforeseen monster in the indoor led to a wicked sideways move putting me on the ground.

A woodchuck got me on the second fall. Even though I was aware I was in woodchuck alley, the high grass kept the critter invisible until we were right on top of it!

A quick backwards move put me on the ground as we were both startled.

We do tend to take it for granted that nothing will disturb our horsie ride until its too late.

 

My best one ever was coming back from a trail ride and I saw all this horsie commotion in the two pastures I had to pass. Two horses were running towards me and I thought they were in the pasture.

NOT, they broke lose and were running free between the pastures and heading towards me & Rocketman. I was hoping they would go in a different direction, NOT!

They came directly at us. I was on a narrow driveway so there wasn’t any place to go.

I didn’t know if I should stay on or jump off, but figured I was probably safer on my horse. The horses passed on both sides of us. Rocky took it well and I thought it was over. But they turned around and came flying by us again.

By now Rocky was really getting excited, but I kept him from bolting. It took awhile to calm him down, but we survived it.

That was probably the scariest moment I’ve ever had on a horse.

Buffalo Billy”

 

At first I joked with the girls at lunch to see if everyone was in a good mood and recovered from the morning’s excitement, but after I got smiles and good response, I got serious and reminded them all how important it is to be vigilant while riding and constantly in contact with your horse. I told them that a careless rider is about 4 times more likely to get dumped by a startled horse than a rider who is in touch with and paying attention to her horse. Teachable moment.

 

Society Ladies, Racoons, Guy with Guns, Oh My!

As if I haven’t had enough excitement already for one day, or for a whole camp session for that matter, more thrills came along just a few minutes ago. I was driving back to the office from the dining hall and I see a car parked in the entrance to galloping field, just off the road on our land. The hatchback is open and I see a Have-a-Heart trap in the back and a well dressed lady walking around to the back of the car. Turns out that she is from the next town closer to the city in an affluent neighborhood and that she trapped a baby raccoon that was damaging her house. Instead of calling animal control and a wildlife rehabilitator, she decides to drive out in “the country” and let the critter go. Which you are not, technically, supposed to do.

 

I pretty quickly get a handle on this part of the situation and start explaining that I don’t want her problem released on a kid’s camp where this too young to fend for itself baby will just get in trouble or die. I am trying to deal with this calmly, when out of my woods steps a guy with a gun! Eventually it turns out that he is the high class lady’s son, planning to protect her with the gun if the raccoon “attacks” when they let it go on some poor unsuspecting country landowner’s property. But man-with-gun not well identifying himself in the woods on a children’s camp triggers the 911 reflex in me, so it became a police matter. Two cars respond, the first making a wrong turn and having trouble finding us. Second cop car with my friend Lt. Wolfe shows up.

 

By the time they find us, society lady and I are joking about the whole thing and I am ready to put in good words for her to the cops and try to help refer her to the wild life rehab farm just down the road. The cops get even more creative and give her directions to a nearby County Park. All ends well, society lady gives me a big hug, and goes home, I am sure to tell her family and friends a good story about the scary old man in the country that blew her in to the police!

 

Monday, July 9^th, 11AM Update:

Dang Deer – And Horses are Herd Animals

Everyone seems fine, but I have to report that we had as many minor horse accidents in the first hour of this camp session as we had in two full weeks the previous session. Although it is convenient in understanding how horses behave that they are herd animals, that herd behavior can also contribute to accidents.

 

It appears that a deer moved in the woods closer to the sand ring than usual this morning. I was standing right there on the side of the ring and I did not hear it, but Colleen did as she was standing in the ring. Star, probably our safest and most docile horse, spooked and took four or five quick steps towards the center of the ring, causing the rider to lose her balance and take a tumble. Spooked horses can cause a chain reaction if each rider is not right there and fully controlling their horse. Tux used the other horse’s spook as an excuse to twist around just a step or so, but that caused his rider to also land on the ground. We thought that episode was over, but five minutes later, Ladd spooked in the very same spot and another rider landed on the ground. A spooked horse tends to put other horses in the area on high alert for danger, so additional reactions are more likely after one horse has misbehaved. Herd behavior.

 

The first rider was shaken up and walked down to the barn with Meghan to have an ice pack and calm down. She seemed much better after five minutes and should be back on soon, maybe this hour. (NOTE: Yes, she did ride this hour.) Both of the other riders hopped right back on and finished their rides, though one may have a sprained finger and is having an ice pack on it this hour. All three rider’s parents have had emails go out and we have spoken with one on the phone, so if you have no email, it is not your kid. Won’t mention names here to avoid embarrassment!

 

Teachable Moment

We always look to learn something from any accident, however minor. We struggle at the beginning of each session to remind and teach our riders how important it is to have full control of their horse and be alert every minute they are on a horse. It is ever so tempting to let your reins go loose and relax while you are waiting your turn to do something “fun and exciting”. Well, beware, or your inattention to your horse might give you more “fun and excitement” than you bargained for! We hope this morning’s tumbles will help make this group of riders properly vigilant.

 

What else could we do?

The horses were properly assigned. Each rider was on one of our safest horses. Tux was the most spirited of those involved, and he was being ridden by a girl with her own horse at home and good skills. With hindsight, and with the horses a little riled up from the two episodes, we took all the younger girls out of the sand ring for the rest of the morning, but the horses spend more time in the sand ring than anyplace else and usually feel very secure there. Maybe we’ll have the instructor in that ring throw rocks into the woods before each lesson to discourage loitering deer. But mostly we will be stressing the importance of always being vigilant, always being in full control and knowing that a horse can be startled unexpectedly at any time.

 

No more falls this week, please!

 

Pictures:

Although our picture taking was disrupted by this morning’s incidents, we should have some pictures at this link at lunch time.

 

Sunday, July 8^th, 9PM Update:

Happy Riders

We are off to a good start. The pictures at this link are now posted, and they show lots of smiling and happy girls playing with horses at the barn. This was a light riding day, since it is the horses’ day off after a show. Everyone got to ride two horses as an introduction and so we could get an idea of skill levels. The picture album shows only Keana and Dale on horses, since they were the ones who arrived late while Meghan had her camera out. We will get pics of everyone else on horses tomorrow morning.

 

We did get nice pictures of everyone playing with tux and Ladd, braiding manes and tails, and pretending to be horses and having a high jumping contest. Nice action pictures showing horse lovers having a good time!

 

We have about half girls who have been here before and half new girls this session. Everyone is getting along well, but naturally the old timers were excited to see their friends from last summer and they hung around together a lot at first and at lunch. At dinner we assigned seating alternating new students and returning girls around the table so we could get to know each other quickly. After dinner many of the old timers did walk together to the barn, but Sydney held back and walked with the new girls (thank you, Sydney!). The pictures show that they are all enjoying having fun together as a group and all taking part. The group will gell together in a day or two.

 

Sunday, July 8^th, 5PM Update:

Greetings from Eva

We just got the following message from Eva who was here two weeks ago and is returning again for the August session:

Hi Tom and Meghan,

                            I come back to camp in 16 days! So exciting:) I can't wait to come back. Also I just wanted to say that the picture of Emily riding Jazz in leadline litteraly made my life's best moments list! I think that the meet the horses video are a really good idea. Please tell Ginger, Jazz, Horatio, Bristol, Whitley,Tee, Colleen, Mommy Sara, and the vampire moth in Eseres that I say Hello to them too. And I miss them all (except the vampire moth). I'm riding A-LOT at home and have a big show coming up this weekend. I'm really excited but I'm more excited for August session. See you guys soon. 

                                                                                   -Baby Beaver,Diva,Eva

 

Can’t wait for you to return, Eva!

 

Check this video link for a “Hello” from our new session students. A good chance for those of you at home to see who is here this week. I am still waiting for some informals from Meghan’s camera, but try the link below after dinner.

 

Sunday, July 8^th, 3PM Update:

Everyone is Here

All scheduled July 8th arrivals are here and settling in. All but the last two to get here have been on two horses already for their introductory rides. I believe that Dale and Keana were the last two to arrive and they will ride with Emily right after lunch. Then the rest of the afternoon will be taken up by a couple of safety talks, some horse care demonstrations, and a long chance to take a favorite horse out on the grass and graze and play with the horses. We may have a “trotting on a lead line” race for fun! The girls will have some relaxing time to get settled in and well rested from their long days of travel. Then it will be diving right into a full day of five hours of riding tomorrow. Weather is expected to be cool and sunny tomorrow – a nearly perfect day for horses! (Wish we did have some rain to keep the dust down and soften the ground, but none is expected for a week or more L

 

We do not have pictures yet, since we were busy settling in the girls and talking with parents. We should have informal pictures at this link after lunch.

 

Deb rode Lincoln!

 

Sunday, July 8^th, 7AM Update:

Sad “Until Next Time’s”, and Excited “Hello’s”

This is an unusual change over weekend when all but one student leave and only that one (Sarah) will be here with an all new group for the coming two weeks. Usually several are in longer sessions and stay over.

 

We had 33 people including lots of families at dinner last night. It was very festive and Meghan and I enjoyed the chance to get better acquainted with lots of families. It was a good time.

 

We are already very much missing those like Anderson and Katie who had to leave early last night. And it will be hard to see the good kids we have had here the past few weeks leave this morning. Keep in touch and don’t forget to read the Blog. And REMEMBER – if you need one more little taste of Longacres this summer, we have four spots left in the one week “Lazy Days of August” week on August 20^th to 25^th. Come back and see your horse friends one more time if you are not busy on other family vacations that week!

 

Welcome Back!!

We had many first time students this past session, but more than half will be returning veterans of Longacres today. We can’t wait to see Ruby, Lena, kaitlin, Sarah, Isabella, and – and – (Meghan where are you? I am drawing a blank and know I am missing two!) To be corrected later. Anyway, we’re excited to meet our returning girls and meet the new students for this session.

 

It was a great horse show yesterday, with a record for this year 78 horses at the show. Lots of good rides by our students (though you still need to work harder on getting your leads).

 

Time for me to head to the barn and see if anyone needs help.

 

Saturday, July 7^th, 5PM Update:

Another Good Show

I don’t yet know how many horses we had, but it was a lot! We had 18 in Puddle Jumpers and Meghan’s smaller show ring was crowded all day. We just finished the outside course a little while ago and Meghan’s ring is still going strong at 5PM. We expect to be at Pasquale’s for dinner at about 7:30. Anderson and Carrie were excellent in the jumper ring and everyone else had many great rides. We’ll try to give you some results in a late night post.

 

I will post the first set of pictures from the jumper ring at this link soon. Bethany was here training her student, Jaimie, on Joc-a-bee. We talked her into showing Whitley in a jumper class for old time’s sake – she was one of three horses all with 54 second times in the jump-off – separated by 6 tenths of a second!

 

Pictures from Meghan’s camera at ring II will be at this link a little later.

 

Friday, July 6^th, 4PM Update:

A Popular and Unexpected Visit!

Lexi’s parents got in early this afternoon and stopped out to say “hello”. Better yet, they brought VERY tasty brownies! They got devoured during the mounted games this afternoon. Thanks, guys!

 

Archived

We have chopped off a huge part of this Blog dating back to last year so the file isn’t so big. The old big file will be available in our archives.

 

Friday, July 6^th, 6PM Update:

Dinner Saturday Evening

We will have many parents in the area on Saturday visiting the horse show, arriving to pick up their kids from this session and arriving to drop off for the next session.

 

Traditionally, we have a big group dinner at Pasquale’s restaurant in town after the horse show Saturday night. We are never sure how late the show will run, but usually it is over about 6PM and we leave for dinner about 7PM. Check with us by phone tomorrow or stop out at the show in the afternoon. You are all invited to meet us at Pasquale’s. We get several big tables and it is a good chance to meet and soak up some Longacres atmosphere.

 

Friday, July 6^th, 1PM Update:

Arrivals & Departures

Meghan’s “right hand girl” at everything, Sarah, is off sick for a day or two. It could not have come at a worse time with the horse show preparations and the big group departing and another arriving Sunday! But we do not choose when we get sick.

 

Joyce, our caterer, is filling in for many of Sarah’s functions, including meeting arriving families on Sunday morning.

 

YOU CAN HELP us stay on top of all the arrivals and departures by sending us an email today or tomorrow reminding us of your arrival and departure plans. We have most of that information, but a last minute confirmation from you will help, especially with Sarah out sick. Just tell us if you are arriving by private car on your own and about what time, or the same for your departure. Or if you are needing airport pickup or drop off. Again – we think we know most of this but some check lists are not yet made because we are short handed.

 

THANKS!!!

 

This morning’s pictures now at this link.

 

Friday, July 6^th, 11AM Update:

Plan “B”

We are on our plan “B” hot weather riding schedule today. With temperatures over 90, the girls got up very early and had a 7:40 AM ride, then a quick breakfast and a 10 AM. Now they are off taking care of the horses and having a long mid day siesta during the hottest part of the day. We’ll have some casual and fun mounted games at 4, then a late afternoon and a more intense evening ride when it is a little cooler.

 

We also took video’s of many of the horses doing a mini course during the morning rides. These video’s will soon be linked to our “Meet the Horses” page on the website. Thanks to all the girls who helped with this project!

 

There will be pictures from Meghan at this link soon. I don’t have all the links yet, but if you know how to navigate to the Megfun Youtube page, you can see some of the Meet the Horses video’s.

 

Thursday, July 5^th, 11PM Update:

“Hanging by their Tails!”

It was amazing that mall security didn’t track Meghan and I down while the girls were whooping and singing and having a grand time all over the Galleria! They were noisy and having a ball. Ask to see some of the pictures and video’s they took of each other when they get home. But they survived (or I should say the Mall survived them) without getting busted.

 

As soon as we got home we lighted a bonfire and roasted marshmallows and made S’mores. And told stories. I began by telling the true story of how we bought and trained Merlin and about the famous time he broke loose on a night trail ride and ran through the woods and gullies and, and - - -well you will have to get me to tell YOU that story sometime.

 

But I was just the warmup act of story telling. The star of the night by far was Gabby telling the story of an unnamed person at Longacres with many strange experiences, including dead mice hanging by their tails from the rafters in the cabins (screams), mice’s left eyeballs stuck to the outside of the cabin (groans), and many other details of strange happenings at Longacres. And at the very end of the story, Gabby revealed that person with all the spooky experiences to be none other than our Ale!!!! Laughter and applause for one of the best Longacres campfire stories ever. Grand job, Gabby! Gabby had help from Alexa putting the story together, and it was going to be a two person story telling team, but Gabby was on a roll!

 

Some pictures of the campfire at this link.

 

A long video of the campfire at this link.

 

One more day of this session – good kids – we will miss them!

 

Thursday, July 5^th 3PM Update:

The “Ryan 90”

To say that Ryan was enthusiastic about Longacres on the internet for 6 months before she came would be an understatement of epic proportions. Ryan corresponded and chatted with every Longacres person she could find online. Of the dozens of emails and text’s she sent to us, the one that most struck me was when she told me that she wanted to do something “that no one has ever done before at Longacres”. I like that kind of thinking. So I thought a bit and came up with an idea – an idea that I told nobody, but I did write back to Ryan and said that I had something for her and it was called “The Ryan 90”.

 

What, you ask? Well, Longacres is a bit over 90 acres – about 94.5 to be exact. It is criss crossed with horse trails and riding fields. Lots of riders have seen most of those trails during the course of their stays at Longacres. But nobody has ever ridden every inch of the Longacres trails all at one time. Not until today, that is!

 

I took Carrie along on Ebony as a safety riding “buddy”, and Ryan on Tux. Both young strong horses suitable for a strenuous ride. Me? I rode my trusty Honda ATV.

 

A half hour after lunch we started, with me usually leading a hundred yards ahead on the ATV, sometimes with Ryan following me and sometimes with Ebony in the lead. We took the Creekside loop trails first – all of them including the little cut-off back to the barn. Then it was up the hll to the regular riding fields where Carrie and Ryan jumped one jump in each of the official riding areas including Hilltop, Sand Ring, Avenues, dressage ring, small show ring and the big show field.

 

Quick, on to the trails where we went first down behind Pegasus and Esseress across the little creek, then made the full ridge lin loop around Dark Stranger, back across to the Power line trails where we covered every inch, some of it twice when we had to loop back and forth. We got Maple Grove loop and all the rest before crossing the little creek and heading on towards Galloping Field. There the girls jumped up the old “Stairway to Heaven” triple natural jump where the old logs have rotted away but the steps are still there. Then around the Cantering Lane and other little trails and then they jumped up across the Jumper Hill bank where China Heart, York Springs, Tip-Off, Peppermint Patty, and Quantum are all buried in a place of honor.

 

Then across another gully and stream to the little old barn where we have the overnights and up to the old hunt course where they jumped all the jumps before heading back and making a way through the maze of trails near the old barn. Phew! Almost done, now back across the gullies and back to the horse barn. I had Carrie take two little detours so that at least for today, only Ryan H. has done every single riding ring and trail in all of Longacres history. I hope they took VERY good care of those two ponies after the ride!

 

Can everyone else do this? Nope – not this year. It would take too much time and be tough on the horses. Some things you just have to take a shot and ask for and sometimes you get a wish!

 

Thursday, 2PM Update:

Thinking About Fall Already!

Sometime next week we’ll pass the half way point in the 2012 Longacres season. We are already well past the halfway point for our own efforts, which are intense for March, April, and May. So with half the season still to go we have to begin thinking about the “end game”.

 

Winter Horse Homes

One of the big projects the second half of our summer is arranging winter homes for all the horses, since we lease all of them out and close down the barn in the winter. It takes many hours and we are always looking for new places that can take good care of our horses in our off season. That’s where YOU all come in! You can do us a big favor by sending us the email address of any stable you can think of, and especially if you ride there and think well of how they care for their horses.

 

Read the Horse Loan information on this website and pass it along to anyone who might be interested. You will be doing Longacres a HUGE favor if you find even one home for one of our horses!

 

Almost the End of Session!

We have just one more day and then the horse show on Saturday. We are going over our list of the “Fun Stuff we do at Longacres” to make sure we didn’t forget anything. We are cramming to get the cabin plaques finished today and tomorrow. We’re having the Smores camp fire tonight. We’ll get just about everything done, but it is not bad that this great group of girls will leave wishing they had just a little more time here.

 

Thursday, July 5^th, Noon Update:

Congrats to Gabby!

Gabby is a first time student and CIT at Longacres this year. She’s been a fine student, worked hard, and is always cheerful. I’ve let her ride Jazz a few times and this morning I thought the time was right, so she stayed after the lesson with Carrie and I and I had her jump Jazz a good height. Then I moved it up to 3’3”, which is a big girl’s jump. Gabby stayed with her over the jump, though it was just a little shaky. It set a personal best for Gabby and I’m proud of her guts and determination! Good job. (Sorry, no pictures. I was working the jump and keeping a close eye on Gabby and the horse.)

 

Thursday, July 5^th, 8AM Update:

More Pictures

Meghan did not get back from the hayloft slumber party with her camera until after I was asleep, so I posted those pictures at this link this morning. Enjoy.

 

Looks like a warm but decent day for riding today and a scorcher tomorrow. We may ride Plan “B” tomorrow with a very early ride and then a siesta during the hottest part of the day. Still looks like some scattered thunder storms during our show Saturday, but a little cooler and not a total washout. The show will be run rain or shine. Bring your pop up shelters!

 

Sarah from Chicago is the “advanced guard” for the girls coming in Sunday. I asked for any updates she might want to send to her friends arriving for second session, and she said, “Kaitlin is going to like Avalon!”

 

Wednesday, July 4^th, 11PM Update:

Odds-n-Ends

One of the bunks is on the overnight trail and hayloft slumber party. Meghan is headed there right now to give them an ice cream treat. Meghan and I took Carrie with us an hour ago to the top of a nearby hill on Mill Road where we pulled over and for 30 minutes watched nearly 20 different fireworks displays we could see going off all over western NY. Carrie is ending her session with us this weekend, and we will miss her – this was a nice way to give her a “send off with a bang”!

 

Once again, desperately needed rain has eluded us. Thunder storms passed nearby but we got nothing more than scattered sprinkles. The next best chance of rain is on our horse show day this Saturday. Even then, it is only 40% chance of rain and we will run the show rain or shine. A big cool front comes through that day and temperatures will be much more comfortable from Saturday all through next week. Riding will be wonderful for the beginning of the next session, especially if we get a good thunder storm passing through during our show to settle the dust and soften the footing for the horses.

 

I have one more video at this link that I took of the horses and the girls on the overnight trail a couple of hours ago this evening.

 

Coincidence – What a Small World

One of our new students arriving for the next session is Toni M. She is visiting a relative in western Canada this week and they got to talking about the riding camp Toni is attending the next two weeks. Guess what? Her Aunt Leslie was a camper at Longacres nearly fifty years ago and was BEST FRIENDS with my cousin, Kim!

 

Wednesday, July 4^th, 1PM Updae:

The Fun Stuff!

We have just three more days in this camp session, and we are piling on the “fun stuff”! We did some “big jumping” (see the website index for an explanation) this morning with some great pictures posted at this link. Then during the second hour we did pond riding. The girls AND the horses were great and we had one of the best pond rides ever. Check this link for pictures from my camera. This link for more pictures from Meghan to be posted after lunch. And the following video links. I’m not sure which girls are in each video, so you will have to watch them all. I think one of the pond YouTubes is a duplicate.

 

I am also posting some video taken on the little old hunt course out on the trails last night.

 

Pond 1

Pond 2

Pond 3

Pond 4

Pond 5

Pond 6

Hunt Course 1

Hunt Course 2 (Ale!)

Hunt Course 3 – all Ale

Hunt Course 4 (group hunt ride)

 

 

 

Wednesday, 4^th of July, 9AM Update:

Pond Riding!

Expect some interesting pictures and big smiles around lunch time. We have pond riding scheduled for 11AM. Very photogenic activity. Also, the link I posted last night for the old hunt course jumping is now active here.

 

Tuesday, July 3^rd, 11PM Update:

Good Luck

The weather gods smiled on us as far as having our fireworks experience went. After evening horse care the sun came out and there was a gorgeous blood red sunset on our way into town. We did have ten or fifteen minutes of sprinkles right before the fireworks, but they barely wet the ground and stopped just as the first shells went up. It was an impressive show for a small town! The girls were all ooohing and aaahing.

 

We are still really hoping for a soaking rain, but most of it appears to have passed just to our south. We should be so lucky on Saturday when there is a 40% chance of rain during our horse show!

 

There may be some pictures at this link late tonight. I have not talked to Meghan much today so I’m not sure if she was picture taking.

 

Tuesday, 2:30 PM

Good News – The afternoon rides should go off on schedule

Bad news – the rain that was threatening dissipated with barely a few drops falling here – we REALLY need some rain, which is still likely to come this evening.

 

Tuesday, July 3^rd, 2PM Update:

So Far, So Good

We got in all our morning lessons with no rain and the girls rode well. Anderson and Carrie did some advanced jumping work on angling jumper fences out in the big show field. Anderson rode Horatio and Carrie was on Jazz. I wish I had some pictures, but I was teaching them and Meghan was busy with office work for the show. I watched Ryan do some independent work training Coal – he was very quiet for her. Dana was excellent keeping Lincoln smooth and soft. Lexi was in the small show ring with Beta and did a very smooth jumping line while I watched. Alexa was on Digger, who is still in training – she, too, was very soft in her riding and made this sensitive horse go smoothly. I watched everyone ride this morning, but those are the horse – rider combinations that stood out.

 

As I write this after lunch, thunderstorms are close by on radar. We badly need the rain, so I am rooting for them to hit us, but it will be close. A real squall line that came inland off Lake Erie is breaking up over land. We’re getting very gusty wind right now at the edges of one of the storms, but no rain yet. Upstream radar shows broken bands of rain, so I think we will get most of our afternoon rides in as scheduled. The fireworks scheduled for tonight? Not looking good.

 

Horse Show Points

I just finished tabulating points for the jumper divisions from this weekend’s show and they will be posted on the show news page in less than an hour. The hunter points will follow this evening.

 

Care Packages

Only one arrived yesterday and I teased the girls at lunch that nobody loved them! By coincidence, about five care packages came today so lunch was a cheery affair. As proven in this video clip taken 20 minutes ago.

 

Tuesday, July 3rd, 8AM Update:

We’ll Make the Best of It

The weather does not look the best for the next few days, but not a total washout and bearable heat. The good news is for those of you arriving Sunday for the next session. Our heat wave looks like it will break on Saturday night and we should have very pleasant weather to start the next session.

 

And the rain coming is likely to be mainly overnight tonight, so we should get in most of our lessons today and much of tomorrow’s after perhaps a wet early morning. Then it is just heat to deal with and mostly just under 90, not the sweltering heat that much of the country is experiencing. The other fly in the ointment is that our horse show Saturday might get rained on. We will go rain or shine, ducking rain showers or thunder storms.

 

The weather also does not look good for our traditional trip to town for July 3^rd fireworks tonight. We’ll see how the day progresses, but perhaps we will do a plan “B” and see 4^th of July fireworks in the town next door tomorrow night instead.

 

If any of our lessons do get rained out, we have a standing request from Anderson to watch the video from last year’s Derby and the video of Winky getting “saved” in the pond!

 

Monday, July 2^nd, 11:30 PM Update:

Moonlight Ride

We had one of the all time best moonlight rides tonight – two of them. The weather is going to get iffy the next couple of nights, so we did two groups under the nearly full moon. Everyone got to trot in groups, canter individually, and everyone got to jump. (Don’t panic, parents – we do the jumping under very carefully controlled conditions with the horses trotting to a white jump with the moon at their backs. For the horses it is almost as bright as day.) Both groups ended their night rides with two minutes of silence facing the moon and making a wish. Tradition has it that if there is complete silence during those two minutes, the wishes will come true. Check this link for some pictures Meghan took this afternoon, pictures of Sarah & Jazz, and a picture of the horse made to be photographed with flash and moonlight, our Merlin.

 

Monday, July 2^nd, 2PM Update:

Good Spirits Again

The girls were at their cheerful best at lunch. I spent time with all of them during lessons this morning, and we are concentrating on what were some weak points in the horse show. Check this link for pictures from my camera this morning. Check this link for a few more pictures from Tom, including one of Ale jumping at a canter a decent size verticle. We continue to be VERY proud of Ale’s progress from a never ever rider to what she can do now in just two weeks of intensive Longacres riding. Check this link a little later for pictures from Meghan’s camera if I can ever catch her to unload the pictures.

 

We had a couple of staff meetings and the air is cleared over the hiccup this morning. Everyone understands that the changes Meghan made were in everyone’s best interest and not a put down of any one person on the staff. We have extra staff this week and are trying to make the staff jobs easier and spread the responsibilities. We may have further help coming in a little later in the summer. Mandi, last year’s head instructor, is potentially available and we have made her an offer.

 

Monday, July 2^nd, 10AM Update:

Aaargh

Just when things are going great on a beautiful morning, you have ego issues. We have extra staff here this week to make things easier for all the staff. Meghan posted a new responsibilities list this morning that spread the work load around among more staff, both to lighten the load and to give training to some of our junior staff for the future. Oops! It is instead perceived as taking away responsibility and we have an unhappy staffer. So now instead of taking pictures and monitoring lessons on a fine morning, Meghan will be conferencing and trying to deal with this new issue. I will fill in monitoring lessons and taking pictures for you guys at home.

 

Monday, July 2^nd, 8AM Update:

Off Topic

First, I’ll quickly give you good news from the horse barn. Meghan was there early giving Carrie a ride from the house and she spent the first part of horse care circulating and taking part. She reports that the girls have recovered their energy after the long horse show on the weekend and are in good spirits as they get ready for a day of riding and a night of riding in the moonlight. All is well at Longacres this Monday morning, but that’s not my “off topic” post.

 

Inverted

Indulge me as I report a small personal triumph on July 2^nd, 2012. Some of you know that one of my favorite hobbies is flying radio controlled model helicopters. The hard kind – the collective pitch, just like the real ones kind. Not the, what we in the hobby derisively refer to as “mall copters” kind! At my age it is slower learning than for younger people who grew up in the video game age. I have been at it for over two years, with long slow progress for most of that time just learning to take off and land again with good control. Many crashes and discouraged periods when I wondered if I would ever get it.

 

But recently, thanks to advise from a friend and the extensive use of a computer flight simulator, I have made faster progress and can now fly around and do some simple tricks like flips in the air. But one of the holy grails for many guys in this hobby is flying inverted (upside down). This morning for the first time I did it in a sustained and controlled way!!!!!! I have held inverted before for a second here and there while flipping, but this time was for real and solidly under control. It is one of those hard earned personal successes that is good for self esteem. Yippee!

 

Now back to paying attention to your children and helping some of them achieve that same feeling on a horse.

 

Sunday, July 1^st, 10PM Update:

Getting Our Pep Back

It took a while, but the girls are getting their pep and enthusiasm back after the long show day. It wasn’t really until the pizza party for dinner tonight that everyone began laughing and joking again. And there was lots of animated chatter while we watched the horse show video’s. We tried to get everyone down to bed as soon as their own video was shown, so Meghan drove several groups back as they finished. The weather looks good tomorrow, with a cooler day. But much of the rest of the week will be pretty warm, near 90. Five days out it looks like a slight chance of rain and warm for our horse show. We can’t complain – we had perfect horse show weather a week ago! Law of averages kicks in.

 

We took no pictures today, so far as I know. We’ll have a bunch of them tomorrow.

 

While the girls were doing their laundry, Meghan and I went to a movie. Pretty funny. Not the movie, the idea of us trying to watch a movie during the summer when we are pretty tired most of the time. We both fell asleep at least once during the previews, and again a few times during the movie. We tended to sleep during different parts, so we were able to tell each other what happened afterwards!

 

Sunday, July 1^st, 1PM Update:

Welcome Sarah!

We have a special one person change over this weekend, which is normally not a break between two sessions. But Sarah K. from Chicago wanted to come an extra week before her two week session and we were able to find the other Sarah who has been here for two weeks to take half of a regular session. It was great that it worked out for everyone. We already miss Sarah #1, but we’re excited to have Sarah #2 return for her second year at Longacres. I met her coming in the barn driveway with a huge smile on her face! She will be here a week before the rest of her July 8^th to 22^nd bunk mates join her, so she will be able to get to know the new horses and be a big help to us during next week’s change when almost everyone leaves and is replaced by a new crew.

 

The girls are heading out for Town Day to do their laundry and shopping in about one hour. They will have phones between 2:30 and 4:30 or five. We let them sleep in extra late this morning, not getting up until 11AM, but many of them still look very tired from yesterday’s very long show. All of today is relaxed, with no riding. We hope they will be well rested by tomorrow for the new week.

 

Saturday, June 30^th, Midnight Update:

A Long, but Great Day!

It’s late. Most of you have had a quick call from your kids. They will have their phones again from about 2 to 4 PM tomorrow for town day. We’re headed for bed after a very long but rewarding day at the show. Heavy thunder outside – no rain yet, but we are hoping to get some desparately needed rain, but it may pass just to our south.

 

Show pictures at this link for Tom’s camera and this link for Meghan’s camera. NOTE: Between us, Meghan and I took 420 pictures today. We have cut the albums down to about 300 we will post tonight!

 

Late sleep in tomorrow morning to get everyone rested up.

 

Many great achievements today, but among the notable are Ryan and Boo being Reserve Champ Puddle Jumper out of 16 entries. Carry and Horatio Reserve Champ Schooling Jumper. Gabby a Champion. Carrie wins one of the higher schooling jumper classes on Horatio! Many other good wins to be announced tomorrow!

 

Check this video link for a clip taken at Kone King less than an hour ago. Good cheer!

 

PS – 12:20 AM – Strong thunder storm scores direct hit on Longacres with 20 minutes of badly needed rain – not enough to break the drought, but enough to green the grass a bit and soften the ground for the horses.

 

Friday, June 29, 9PM Update:

Show Prep

The girls are all cleaning their equipment and packing for the show. We leave bright and early tomorrow morning for what we hope will be a rewarding day at the Newstead show. There will be no further updates until late tomorrow night after the show. We should have lots of pictures from the show.

 

Check this video link for a clip I took of some of the younger girls right after lunch. They were having a grand time!

 

Spirits are high before the show. There were lots of questions when I gave a showing talk right after dinner. We have one of our younger girls who was cranky tonight after being scolded for several very minor things. Mostly a tired girl who needs a good night’s sleep. Mom already notified, so it is not your girl if you haven’t heard.

 

Friday, June 29^th, 3PM Update:

A Teachable Moment

That’s what we call an accident or incident that gives us an (unwanted) opportunity to learn something useful from an otherwise difficult life experience. As I suspected but have since confirmed, the accident that sent Carrie to the emergency room for a checkup this morning was preventable and should not have happened. Carrie was leading Mave in from pasture when the horse turned and bolted back towards the pasture. Carrie, being Carrie and not a quitter, did not immediately let go and was dragged and a hoof clipped her head.

 

Mave is one of three horses (also Jazz and Ebony) that are on an “always lead with a chain lead” list. (Chain leads go over the nose and make headstrong horses much more tractable.) Carrie knew that. So did the 20 year old staff member managing the pasture gate this morning. Both girls are usually among our very best at responsible behavior, good judgement, and good horsemanship. That they would both choose to disregard a carefully implemented written safety rule to “save time” is regrettable. That is our teachable moment for today. We have had multiple meetings of both the girls and the staff to stress once again the importance of following all of our many safety guidelines. Carrie and Shelly are good people who we value. We forgive them this serious mistake. We are grateful that Carrie is going to be all right. And grateful that a younger child was not hurt.

 

Friday, June 29^th, Noon Update:

NICE Horsemanship, Anderson!

Anderson from Florida is in her third season at Longacres. She was always one of the “little kids”, just because she was young and petite. But she has always had her own horses – two ponies right now – at home in Florida and she shows regularly at Wellington in West Palm Beach. She is a very good rider. Because of her size, she usually rides smaller horses here, but she wanted to try Jazz and I was all for it when Meghan asked me. I watched her ride briefly this morning and then took her and Jazz up to the show ring where Alexa and Gabby were practicing. I gave Anderson a course and asked her to push for a long four stride in one line and then hold and add six strides in two other normally five stride lines. Anderson put in a great ride, getting all Jazz’s leads, but just missing the pushing four. I gave her a more complex course with two roll back turns. Anderson put in a near flawless ride, getting all her striding, all the leads, and cutting one rollback just a little tight, but nailing it none the less. I gave her my highest compliment – my “That was GOOD horsemanship!” compliment. Anderson will be showing Jazz tomorrow! Good riding makes me happy. Excellent riding makes me very happy!

 

Friday, June 29^th, 11AM Update:

A Trip to the Emergency Room & Safety Thoughts

First the good news – Carrie appears to be in good spirits and not seriously injured. But we had a bit of a scare. Carrie is a junior counselor, our strongest rider, and a solid fit horse woman. She was leading a horse in from pasture during morning horse care when it broke free and she got a bump on her head which quickly resulted in a swollen spot. You don’t fool around with that kind of injury, so Meghan immediately took her to the emergency room where we lucked into a very caring and thorough ER doctor. Carrie got a thorough checkup, a long consultation between the doctor and Carrie’s mom on the phone, and is being released to return to Longacres. She might even be able to ride in the show, but not today as we monitor her.

 

Accidents around horses do happen. It is our job to try to create safe conditions that avoid them, though. And when accidents do happen it is our job to review what happened and learn from it. The very first thing on my mind after this morning’s accident is that it is our third small accident in one week and the first that could have been serious. As I told the girls at breakfast, 3 accidents in a week is 2.999999 too many.

 

Significant is the fact that two out of the three accidents took place on the ground handling horses, and not while riding. Ground accidents around horses are actually far more common than you might expect relative to riding accidents. This week Ella did fall off a horse while jumping. Fortunately, just a bruise and she sat out one lesson and is back doing full riding. Sarah was tightening a girth and the horse got mad at the discomfort and turned his head and nipped her on the back. And Carrie was leading a strong horse this morning that got out of hand, details still sketchy to me (we take care of Carrie first and ask questions after).

 

I spoke to all the girls at breakfast asking for redoubled attention to safety, to spacing between horses, and to paying attention while they are riding or handling horses. I spoke to all the counselors and told them that besides the obvious attention to safety issues I wanted each of them to find one moment in every lesson today to act in an EVEN MORE safe way than they were already. Then I monitored the first morning lesson while Meghan was still at the ER. I was pleased with what I saw.

 

Hindsight

Yes, it would be great if we had the benefit of hindsight before an accident happened rather than after. Because there is almost always something you could have done differently to avoid an accident. But it is very difficult to know just where to draw the line with any horse activity. There are riding camps that don’t allow jumping. We have chosen to continue jumping. There are riding stables that do not allow kids to handle horses at all for safety reasons. At Longacres we think the handling of the horses is half the experience. Looking quickly at our experience this week, here’s what I see.

 

Ella fell off when a spirited horse jumped with more energy than expected, Ella got left back on the horse, causing the horse to throw a buck and Ella to lose her balance and fall. The quick lesson is, “Don’t let students ride spirited horses while jumping, etc.” But Ella has been riding very well, working very hard, and likes spirited horses and a challenge. With hindsight I wish she had not been jumping “Tee”. But I might let her again – she’s a nice rider trying hard to improve and advance. This issue of how to assign horses is one of our most important responsibilities and we are always striving for the right balance between safety and allowing a certain amount of challenge to the rider. Sometimes we don’t get it just right.

 

Sarah was simply adjusting her saddle. With hindsight, it would have been good if she had kept a closer eye on the horse while tightening the girth – they usually give you a little warning if they are uncomfortable. But she wasn’t doing anything different than all the rest of our girls do five times a day. With hindsight you might have a rule that a counselor be holding each horse while a student adjusts the tack. That would have stopped this biting accident from happening. We already do have that rule in place for Ginger who has known issues with being tacked up. Two people do it and it is safe. But Lincoln (I think he is the villainous biter!) has no history of that. What to do? Staff monitoring every saddling would triple the time preparing for a lesson.

 

In Carrie’s situation this morning, the horse in question was known to sometimes get strong coming in from pasture. Carrie was a logical choice to bring this horse in. She is junior staff and one of our physically strongest people at Longacres. I need more details, but I suspect there are things to be learned from her accident this morning. We will.

 

Safety is on our minds every moment of the day and we have dreams about safety and accidents. If the time comes when we abandon this business, it will likely be over a safety issue or an accident. It makes you sick to the stomach to get an early morning call that someone is hurt. But no accident ever happens at Longacres because “nobody is worried about being safe.” Why do you guys think my hair is not just grey, but snow white?!?

 

Ale Update!

On a much happier note, check this video link taken an hour ago this morning of Ale in her twelth day of riding EVER. She came to Longacres 12 days ago for this session never having ridden a horse. Now she is cantering small jumps. Amazing!

 

Friday, June 29^th, 1:55 AM Update:

Meghan just finished figuring out and writing down who rides what horses in which classes for Saturday’s horse show. Finally time for bed!!

 

Thursday, June 28^th, 4PM Update:

Night Out

The girls will have their cell phones from about 5PM on until 9:30 PM while we are at the mall for dinner, shopping, and maybe a movie. We had strenuous riding exercises this morning and will again for show practices tomorrow before heading to the Newstead show on Saturday.

 

We are trying to get caught up returning calls and emails from some of you. We think we are almost up to date. If you have messages, it is best to use email if you want to reach me quickly – I live off old fashioned email. If you want to reach Meghan quickly, she prefers text messages or a phone call with a voicemail to her cell phone, 716-380-6088. Neither of us ever look at Facebook messages – we only use Facebook to make announcements sometimes.

 

These tough, active riders are picking up a few battlescars with all the riding and activity around the horses. Ella is improving quickly from the bruise when she fell yesterday. Sarah got bit on the back by a horse and her small cut and bruise are also healing well. Meghan is holding a lunchtime “show me your wound” session to keep an eye on the healing process for the casualties!

 

Meghan let the girls vote on whether to have an after lunch ride today or have extra time to shower and get dressed up for our field trip. They unanimously voted for the extra free time! They are getting lots of riding and are looking forward to the time off. Last week’s girls voted for the extra ride, but they were here only for one week – this session everyone is here for a longer time span, so taking an hour off riding is less significant.

 

Thursday, June 28^th, Noon Update:

Various

I will post more pictures from Meghan taken at the overnight at this link later this morning, along with pictures of one group on the old hunt course this morning.

 

Check this video link for a long clip I took of the horses at the old barn pasture last night – watch in HD if you can.

 

I’m about to head down to the barn to set up a long grid of multiple jumps for everyone to do later this morning. (Update – Everyone had fun with the grid, but it was a difficult exercise that challenged some riders to assert their control over their horse. Nearly everyone got through it, but it took several tries. We were not satisfied “just to get through it” – the idea was to plan how many strides each horse would get between jumps, then go out and succeeed at the plan. Anderson, Carrie, and Ryan were particularly successful!

 

Guess who did the full grid, just like all the more advanced students? Ale!!!!! And she cantered the last two jumps in the line. You should have seen her smile! I did not catch it on camera.

 

Here’s the video link for Anderson doing the grid jump exercise on Horatio.

 

The girls will be in town late this afternoon and this evening with their phones, probably from about 5 to 8PM.

 

Wednesday, June 27^th, 9PM Update:

A Rollicking Good Time!

This morning we had a serious video clinic with tape of everyone and slow motion analysis. This evening, the girls simply kicked back and had a good old fashioned happy time with horses. Half were out on the overnight trail to the old barn with a hayloft slumber party. Rumor has it that Meghan might pay a late night visit with goodies! I always hope that the girls on these special trail rides will appreciate the beauty of the late evening sunlight on the tree tops and the sight of the horses munching grass in the annex pasture at the old barn. But they were much more interested in the fact that Star is “in season” and searching for a boyfriend. There were lots of squeals and giggles from the girls as they watched the horses “flirt” from their perch in the hayloft. Meghan has a few pictures posted at this link, and will likely take more late tonight.

 

The other half of the girls were playing mounted games at the main barn and having a rollicking good time shouting and cheering each other on and trash talking. It was as happy as I have seen them. Lexi was on our gentle giant, Diesel, the Belgian draft horse. I labeled all the photo’s in tonight’s album, which I don’t always have time to do. Enjoy it here at this link.

 

Dinner was delicious tonight and the girls were in excellent spirits around the table. HUNGRY from a hard day of riding, and it was hard to hear while the girls were all calling out pass this or pass that!

 

Ella who fell this morning seems fine. She took the next riding hour off but rode the second afternoon ride and told me at dinner that she was feeling better already.

 

Wednesday, June 27^th, 3PM Update:

Points are Posted

The point standings for the Summer Series are now posted on the horse shows page. Following are the two leading horses and riders for the Horse of the Year Award, 2012

Butterfly Kisses, Alison Howard – 35 points

Yahoo, Isabelle Hillestad – 29 points

 

The leading Jumper Horses are:

Ain’t Mis Behavin’ Emma Rehrauer - 19

Montage with Erin Cox – 17

 

Here at Longacres, we had visitors from Peter Anderson’s stable who came to school their horses over our nice jumps. Thanks for coming, Peter. We also had a video Clinic. I video’d the girls during the morning and they all walked up to the house after lunch to watch themselves in hi def and slow motion. It was a useful experience.

 

There is an overnight trail ride and Hayloft slumber party tonight for the girls in Esseress bunk.

 

Ella took a hard tumble when she lost her balance over a jump with Tee and that caused a couple of bucks. Ella was right up on her feet after the fall and is laughing and joking about it. We’re keeping an eye on her but she seems fine (small bruise on her hip). She was wearing a safety vest which was a good idea.

 

Spirits are high with lots of joking and banter between riders of all ages.

 

Carrie and Jazz jumped a pretty big oxer jump – see this morning’s pictures. Before her fall off Tee, Ella did some nice riding on Ladd and got to jump the Light House jump multiple times for good pictures since she missed the Butterfly jump yesterday.

 

Some of today’s pictures at this link. More later tonight at this link.

 

Tuesday, June 26^th, 11PM Update:

A Rare Relaxing Evening

We are very pleased with our staff and with the current group of students. Enough so that Meghan and I went out to dinner together for the first time in weeks, if you don’t count our time with the kids at the mall on Thursday nights! Meghan even enjoyed a glass of wine. But Longacres never seems to run itself completely without Meghan, even for three hours. She responded to three text messages while on the way and at dinner asking for advice or information from staff. But we did not have to race home to take care of any problems, so we counted it as a nice break for us.

 

I wish every evening ended perfectly. But we have high standards for ourselves and I often find some way to distress myself just when I’m feeling really good about Longacres. During my late evening movements I stumbled upon two different fire hazards. One was a collection of cell phones charging next to a pile of loose papers in our office. Perfect kindling to help start a bigger fire if a cell phone charger malfunctioned. After that I thought I’d check on a potential fire hazard sometimes present at the barn. Sure enough, loose hay and cobwebs next to an electric water pump at the back of the barn, which is supposed to be cleaned out regularly. I am fussy about fire hazards. If you have been on the welcome to Longacres tour after dropping your kids off here, you have likely heard me tell the story about the major fire that almost burned down the dining hall 35 years ago. I have never got that awful night out of my head and that’s what makes me such a stickler for careful fire prevention measures.

 

We relocated the cell phone charging spot to a stone floor in the rock garden, and I will see to it that the area around the pump at the barn is better cleaned tomorrow.

 

Tomorrow will be video day. We had planned it for today, but we got busy taking all those rapid fire pictures.

 

Health Inspection

We had a visit from our county health inspector this morning. The kitchen and dining hall passed with flying colors – zero defects or negatives. Thanks to Joyce, Tim, Meghan, and Sara who all are responsible for the excellent cleanliness in the kitchen and dining hall!!!

 

Tuesday, June 26^th, Noon Update:

Butterfly Pictures

We jumped the Butterfly Jump this morning, everyone except Ella, that is. She was on Diesel, who is known sometimes to step on a delicate jump rail and bust it! Ella will get a chance to have a good picture taken on the Light House later on another horse. For everyone else, the pictures are at this link – some I was off a little on the timing – some are wonderful!

 

Rapid Fire

This was my morning for photography. After taking the Butterfly Jump pictures, I took a set of a dozen rapid fire pictures of each girl going over a jump so that we can analyze their jumping position in stop action at lunch.

 

Video Link of Ryan entertaining us with an original “Tux Song” after dinner last night with help from Dana and Ella!

 

Video Link for an Ale Update – jumping small X-rails on her own after 8 days of riding at Longacres.

 

Monday, June 25^th, 9PM Update:

LOTS of Smiles!

This group was already fooling around together and joking at dinner yesterday. It is even better today and tonight. Some are bouncing off the walls, and even those who seemed happy and well adjusted the first day but a little reserved, are laughing and smiling much of the time. Check this link for the proof, with informal pictures taken during evening ride.

 

One of our new girls who was taking part in everything and responding well, but not fully relaxed and smiling, started cracking wide smiles and joining in the fun at dinner and during evening ride. Another younger girl who had a small behavior issue come up (taken care of between us and the parents and now smiling again – if you have not talked to us, it is not your daughter!) was taking full part in the fun again by tonight.

 

Carrie schooled Jazz over some bigger jumps on the outside field this morning (see this morning’s pictures). Ryan performed “The Tux Song” with help from Dana and Ella at dinner.

All is well at the start of the June 24^th session at Longacres.

 

Monday, 5PM Update:

More pictures at this link. Good ones of Emily and Ryan jumping – nice to see the younger girls looking good!

 

Monday, 3PM Update:

Pleasant Surprise

We have a number of 11 and 12 year olds this session, many of them new to Longacres. It is the only session this summer with more first time students than returning students. Because of that we were concerned that there would be a heavy load on our beginner horses and that we would have a hard time getting the physical heavy horse care work done. We actually added extra staff for this two week session to be sure we could do things well. But we need not have worried. Most of the young students this session are tall for their age and very fit. And they are very decent riders! We are having no problems with riding assignments and we are finishing horse care sessions early. Good job, girls.

 

Although nearly all the girls this session are solid walk, trot, canter students with decent jumping positions, many are not used to the level of attention to detail that we stress at Longacres. There is plenty for all of them to learn here. Especially things like making straight approaches to the jumps, riding carefully in your corners, and having good control of the horse at all times. We expect all to show big improvement over their two weeks with us!

 

Monday, June 25^th, 11AM Update:

We Miss You Eva!

Meghan spent the morning at the airport putting Eva on a plane for home after her unexpected extra week here filling a cancellation vacancy. Eva was her usual vigorous self, and made her mark with fun filled Beaverism’s. Oh, yeah – she can ride, too. Eva and Ginger were Reserve Champions at the show in the Puddle Jumper division with 28 entries, winning a 1^st and a 2^nd. We can’t wait to have you back in August, Eva!

 

With Meghan at the airport, I took over Meghan’s usual role of “hovering” between the lesson rings at the barn during morning ride to watch the progress and keep everything flowing smoothly. Colleen and Winky had the lessons mounted early – good job! I watched all the girls ride and made suggestions for some of them. I was able to get Ale to canter again by herself on Neek-o. We did flat work and just a little basic jumping this morning to work the girls into our routine. Pretty much everyone has good basic riding skills, but several need just plain riding time to get their balance and control a little better. They should be a lot better by the first show at the end of this week.

 

Summer Series Horse Shows Report

Just an update after the first two shows of the Summer Series. Entries are WAY up over last year. We had about 53 horses at the season opener at Spruce Meadow Farm. Then we had 73 horses at our Longacres show, one of the best we’ve had. Occasionally we top 100 horses at our shows, but more often it is around 60. Seventy three is VERY good for us! The Puddle Jumper division is the hot one this year with 24 entries at Spruce Meadows and 28 here at Longacres. Can’t wait to see everyone again at Newstead Equestrian Center this coming Saturday, the 30^th. Points should be tabulated by tomorrow night (Tuesday) and posted on the Show News page.

 

Pictures

Meghan is taking pictures at the second morning lesson as I write and they will be posted at this link after lunch.

 

Monday, June 25^th, 1:15 AM Late night Update:

Thanks!

To whoever did the rain dance for me this evening. It POURED rain for over an hour, exactly what we needed and at exactly the right time in the middle of the night. With now soft ground and no dust and cool temperatures, we now have perfect riding conditions through Thursday, at least.

 

Sunday, 9PM Update:

Bonding Well at Dinner

I think that this is the quickest we have seen a new group settle in and start laughing and bonding at dinner in a while. Check this video link for a clip I took at dinner that shows everyone taking part in discussions around the table. Everyone. Be prepared to “pick up your computer and hold it on its side” – I was trying to be sneaky taking the video and I think my iPhone decided the video was meant to be in an odd orientation. But you will get the idea.

 

As far as we know, everyone is adjusting very well. We have one girl who has told a parent that she thinks she should be doing higher and more exciting jumps – we feel she is doing exactly what is safe. Other than that everyone else, including all the girls who came in today seem to be doing fine. Most of the new girls rode four different horses today and the full schedule starts tomorrow.

 

We NEED RAIN!

The forecast at one time in the past 24 hours was 70% chance of showers and thunder storms. We have had nothing but two light sprinkles that barely wet our dust so far and it does not look like rain is headed our way. We need some, so if you know any rain dances or rain spells, do one for us! The bright side is uninterrupted lessons, but we need the rain for the grass and the dust.

 

Meghan should have pictures for me a little later and they will be at this link.

 

Sunday, June 24^th, 2PM Update:

All our new students have arrived and been on their first two horses. We’re doing all sorts of orientation talks and demonstrations to set the safety standards everyone must follow for the next two weeks.

 

Goodbye Until Next Time to Heather!

Heather has been a great counselor and instructor and we are sorry that we only hired her for the first 5 weeks of our season. We wish we could have her for the rest of the summer, but she has another commitment and shedding tears at leaving, she pulled out an hour ago to head to her next job. She will always be welcome back at Longacres! Check this video link for a clip of the girls trying to tie her up so that she couldn’t leave!

 

Sunday, June 24^th, 8AM Update:

Welcome New Students!

Six of you will be arriving between 10 and noon or so today for the start of the Longacres 2012 regular camp season. We are sold out from now until Lazy Days week at the end of August, when we still have four spots open.

 

Many thanks to the great students who have been with us for the past three weeks of special June clinic weeks. They have gone well and we’ve had a good time providing you with your short term horse fixes!

 

Today will be a normal Sunday opening day, with some riding for new students in the afternoon. Expect several short rides so that our new girls can get to know many different horses. Don’t expect any big jumps the first day or two. We will be concentrating on good control and basics as you get to know our horses and we get to know you. Most of you will have ridden a couple of different horses by tonight, and a number more tomorrow. Welcome!

 

Saturday, June 23^rd, 11:30 PM Update:

The girls just finished watching all the horse show video and are on their way to bed. (Some left early and got to bed at a more reasonable hour!) We’re trying a little experiment and having all the girls write short emails to me listing the ribbons they earned in the show today. They will be copied and pasted in below: (Maybe the best “Win” was Eva on Ginger winning a first and a second and reserve championship in the Puddle Jumper division with 28 horses in each of the classes!)

 

Katherine - Ladd 1st walk trot, 1st walk trot pleasure, 2nd walk trot caveletti, also rode neeko in cross rails and did well for her first jumping classes

Ale - Star-3rd 4th and another

Neek-O -3rd 2nd 3rd.

Eva - Baby Beaver received 1st and 2nd in jumpers on Ginger and was reserve champion������❕

Currently she wants to go to sleep��

Ella - Hi this is Ella using Emilys phone. I got a

 

-Emily��

Emily - I got a 1,2,2,3,3,4

 

-Emily��

Some of the girls had gone to bed by the time we tried this email results idea.

 

 

Saturday, June 23^rd, 5PM Update:

Wow! What a Turn Out!

We had an all time record 28 horses just in the Puddle Jumper division this morning! It’s now 5:30 PM and both rings are still running down at the show. I am on a break to upload pictures to take to dinner tonight and post here on the Blog.

 

Kellie Cried (what’s new?)

Kellie has been with us seven summers or so and left this morning for home with tears running down her cheeks – as she usually does when leaving Longacres. We miss you very much, Kellie!

 

Check this link for pictures on the big show field from today. Many more will be posted at this link from meghan’s camera later.

 

We will be having a late dinner at Pasquale’s – probably won’t get there until 7:30 or so.

 

More news to come later including some results from the show. (Eva was reserve champion in the 28 horse puddle jumper division on Ginger.)

 

Saturday, June 23^rd, 7AM Update:

Good Luck in the Show

The girls were all in high spirits last night getting their horses and equipment ready for today’s show here at Longacres. This has been an excellent group that works and plays well together. We hope that the achievements todfay will far outweigh any disappointments, but there will likely be both. That is the nature of horse shows! We’ll post lots of pictures late tonight. We look forward to meeting our new students this afternoon if you visit the show and tomorrow when you arrive for the next session!

 

Friday, 2PM Update:

Longacres Horse Show Info for our students & Visiting Stables

The show starts in the jumper ring at 9:45 with Puddle Jumpers. The small show ring starts at 11AM. Please, no schooling until you sign in and get a number. Our secretaries will be available from about 8:30 on and we urge you to get here early to get your numbers and have time to practice. Just between our partner stables, Newstead and Spruce Meadow, ourselves, and Hunters Ridge, we have 40 horses coming, and we have heard from many others. It sounds like a big show on a very nice day for riding!

 

If you are coming for the first time, there will be a “Horse Show” sign on Mill Road three miles outside East Aurora. The address is approximately 1743 Mill Road in East Aurora, though that address does not show up on some GPS units.

 

Our cell phones are 716-380-6088 or 716-989-1113 if you have questions. We will try to answer if we aren’t in the middle of something.

 

Friday, Noon Update:

Great Farley Clinic

Farley Bridgeman taught everyone this morning and her lessons were as popular as usual. She gives a fun clinic.

 

Check this link and this link for lots of pictures from yesterday – not sure that I posted these links yet.

 

Friday, June 22^nd, 7AM Update:

Longacres Weather Trend

The three day heat wave of the early part of this week is a thing of the past, with plunging temperatures accompanying the passage of a cold front. Temperature from now through most of next week will be ideal for riding – even sweater weather for part of next week. We’ve had very light rain the past few hours, expected to end as partly sunny skies arrive just in time for our first lesson of the day after breakfast. I hope we get a few more showers first – we had enough overnight to hold the dust down, but could use more to keep the footing soft for the show.

 

We should have a nice day for most of tomorrow as we greet our new students. Then more needed rain overnight Sunday into Monday. Scattered showers are expected here and there the first half of next week, but not enough on any one day to wash out the riding program. We should get in most of our scheduled riding, possibly rearranging the schedule to duck passing showers now and then. All in all, a nice riding weather week with no dust and soft footing for the horses. Clear weather returns by Thursday, and we hope it sticks around for the newstead horse show next Saturday. We’re pleased with the next week’s forecast. You’d think that a riding camp would want constantly clear, sunny skies, but not so. Our ideal is pretty much what we’re going to get, with occasional light rain that keeps our turf soft and green and the dust down in the sand rings, and the horses free of dust and allergic coughs.

 

Not Just “Horse Stuff” to Worry About

90% of Meghan’s time over the summer is spent working right with the kids and the horses, but we have to squeeze in work that any business needs done. Meghan was up at the crack of dawn and will be sequestered in her truck/office for part of the morning filling out forms just in time for the renewal of our insurance policy. Funny how deadlines sneak up on you when you’re having fun!

 

Horse Show

From the volume of calls and inquiries that have come in this week, we are guessing that there will be a lot of horses from other stables here for our first show of the season tomorrow. With perfect horse show weather forecast, it should be a great day. Bummer for me, since I sprained my ankle the other day and probably should not be running around raising and lowering jumps – though I have been since the sprain, with not great results! Meghan has extra helpers for the ring I run at the show and has me ordered not to move jumps – we’ll see.

 

Pasquale’s

We’ve had a few Pasquale’s restaurant dinners this season, but this should be the first one with several visiting parents joining us. We traditionally eat there after a horse show and parents here to drop off or pick up their riders are welcome to join us. Any of you arriving this weekend to drop off your kids on Sunday are welcome to stop at the horse show tomorrow and say hello and are welcome to join us at dinner.

 

PS – Since I started writing this update, a much steadier rain has been falling, nicely soaking the ground. Exactly what we needed. The radar picture still indicates dry weather arriving after breakfast just in time for all of today’s scheduled riding! Perfect timing!

 

Thursday, Mid-day Update:

Katherien & Ale Canter!

Check this video link. First time for Katherine at Longacres and first time EVER for Ale! They looked good. I was ready to stop them if they had a balance problem, but they were both fine.

 

Thursday, June 21, 11AM Update:

Check this link for a few pictures from the slumber party last night at the old barn and a couple of nice pictures of Ella with Jazz. We are really busy today preparing for the show. Every jump on the farm has to be moved, measured, and carefully set in exactly the right spot. A LONG process!

 

The girls will have their phones from about 6 to 9 this evening if you want to plan calls.

 

Wednesday, June 20^th, 7PM Update:

Plan “B” & the “Ale Update”

Our Plan “B” hot weather riding schedule went well. Everyone got up very early and they were mounted in blessedly cool weather at 7AM. They had a second ride at 9, and another at 10AM with guest instructor, Linda Fuller. Linda was here as an instructor for the first time, though we have known her from the horse show world for years. She gave great lessons.

 

Most of the girls skipped the optional trail rides at 4PM because they had just been at the ice cream parlor and watched video in the cool office room, so they weren’t just psyched to get on horses in the still hot afternoon sun. They are riding now at the barn and all the girls going home this weekend are on an overnight trail ride and slumber party in the hayloft of the old barn.

 

Many pictures will soon be posted at this link. There will be only a few pictures tomorrow and Friday because we are swamped with horse show preparation work. We are running the regular Longacres program, getting ready to host a big open horse show, and managing the Summer Series and working on keeping track of those horse show points. Very busy two days coming up. You will get lots of pictures after the show on Saturday!

 

Ale Update

Our “Ale Project” is continuing to be a smashing success. Check this video link for a clip of Ale trotting and posting on her own with no lead rope attached! Keep it up, Ale!

 

Wednesday, June 20^th, 7AM Update:

Thank You, Lake Erie

We call it the “Longacres Bubble” when we have better weather in a very local zone right off the east shore of lake Erie, which is about 8 miles to our west / southwest. A west or west southwest wind will bring noticeably cooler temperatures and more stable weather to a zone ten or fifteen miles inland from the lake while it may be much hotter or have thunder storms just a few miles further inland. We had very strong winds from that direction yesterday, so temperatures topped out in the mid 80’s here while breaking 90 nearby. We expect similar conditions today, with maybe a slightly lighter wind and a few degrees hotter temps. We are on a special “hot weather” schedule today, plan “B”, just to be sure our girls don’t start suffering from the heat. We rode a full regular schedule of 10, 11, 3, 4, and 7PM lessons yesterday, while Sara kept visiting the girls on the field forcing them to drink water from the cooler she carried.

 

Today we are up very early and the first lesson just started at 7AM to beat the heat. We’ll do horsecare after that ride, a quick breakfast, then come right back and get on for a second ride with our guest instructor of the day at 9AM and a third ride at 10AM. Then it will be siesta time during much of the heat of today. We have good video from the past two days to show in slow motion and discuss, all in the air conditioned office video room. We’ll also have some discussion on riding theory. Then a long nap in the cabins or at the big creek in the water. Then a 4PM quiet trail ride in the woods. We will have another serious jumping instruction lesson at 7:30 PM after it begins to cool off. That’s “Plan B”, usually instituted on those rare days in our region when the temperature tops 90.

 

Today’s guest instructor is Linda Fuller. Pictures to come later. We have another guest instructor today coming just to give a special lesson to our beginners. She is Susan Schum from Tanglefoot Farms.

 

Tuesday, 5PM Update:

Ale and Katherine ROCK!

Longacres attracts many fairly experienced riders who come for our great horses and jumps. But I never let myself forget the thrill of teaching a real beginner and watching their rapid progress. You should have seen the smiles on Ale and Katherine’s faces this afternoon! Meghan and Beta and I all worked with the two of them. Beta and Meghan had started them trotting over a pole on the ground in jumping position before I arrived at the field. I liked the good balance they were showing and I looked over at Meghan. She nodded, and we hooked on lead lines and let first Katherine and then Ale (pronounced like Ali or Aleee) trot over the ground pole again in jumping position. Then I said, “How about a real jump?” I got big smiles, so we set up a little X-rail jump and lead them over again. Ginger and Ebony both did little jumps. You should have seen the smiles!

 

Katherine does have her own horse, but had never jumped and is only a walk – trot rider at home. So this was a red letter day for her, “Tuesday, June 19^th, 2012”!

 

Ale – well, Ale sat on a horse one time once, but had never really ridden a horse AT ALL before yesterday. And her second day at Longacres, she is getting her balance, going over a carefully controlled jump, AND - - And I took one minute to show her how to half rise, half bend at the hips for a posting motion, then I lead her in a trot on the lead line, and she POSTED at a trot her very first try. Not elegant form, but she has the idea of the rhythm already. I LOVE teaching real beginners who have some talent! (He writes with a little tear in his eye, especially since Ale is second generation at Longacres – her mom was a camper here.) Video of Ale and Katherine at this link.

 

Meghan also took pictures which will be at this link later this evening.

 

Tuesday, 2:30 PM Update:

More Than We Hoped For!

If you read the below morning update, you know that we made special plans for our most beginner riders, Ale and Katherine, to take part in the Peter Anderson Clinic and listen from close in even though they were not ready for the exercises he had planned for more experienced riders. But Peter has taught beginners in his long career and at the end of the regular lesson while the other group was mounting, he gave private instruction to Katherine and Ale. Check this video link! I love it!

 

Very Proud of Longacres

We work hard and we are often pleased with the results. I was especially proud of Longacres and what we can do at our best this morning. All the girls dressed up and turned themselves out well for the guest clinic with Peter Anderson. They paid attention, lined up their horses with care, and rode well. Meghan and her crew have the farm looking just about perfect. All the jumps are now up and freshly painted. Maybe my proudest moment was watching the young girls get their special attention from Peter. Ale and Katherine were beaming. In the heat of the late morning sun during the second hour with Peter Anderson, Sara showed up right on time with cold water and cups that she took out onto the field to keep the riders hydrated, as she often does during very hot weather. I video taped part of the clinics for viewing tomorrow when it is very hot in the middle of the day. Meghan was taking pictures. The folks from Spruce Meadow Farm showed up with their show results. Everything we try to do was working perfectly and I felt good. (Now I am knocking wood and waiting for something to go wrong!)

 

Do watch the video of the little riders and look at all the pictures. Here is another video link of a lunch hour greeting from your kids (this one is a little forced – it was like pulling teeth to get everyone to say hello – but I got Anderson to send you a greeting, George!), and a video link of the horse show field during this morning’s clinic.

 

Tuesday, June 19^th, 10AM Update:

Peter Anderson Clinic

We have guest instruction today from Peter Anderson, a very successful rider, trainer, and horse farm owner. Here is a video link of him riding that we posted recently. Meghan is down at the clinic now taking pictures which we will post later this morning at this link.

 

Everyone is getting attention from Peter at today’s guest lesson. Our two beginners, Katherine and Ale, are not yet at a level where they can do the things Peter will ask of the students, but they are on horses and in the ring with Peter. He will be turning to them frequently and telling them why he is having the other girls do various things. We could have given those two a private lesson with one of our instructors during the clinic, but we chose to have them get close first hand experience with this advanced instructor. More to come later.

 

(Yes, it is already hot today – tomorrow we will ride very early in the morning, quiet trails during the day, a long break in the air conditioned video room during the hot part of the day, and another jumping lesson late in the evening.)

 

Monday, June 18^th, Midnight Update:

We have one more album of pictures that Meghan took this evening at this link. Meghan thinks this group has bonded (getting along, laughing and joking together) quicker than any group in recent memory – maybe like the one last year with kaitlin, Sarah, Ruby, etc. It’s going to be a fun week.

 

Monday – 4PM Update:

Pictures are now posted at this link – more to come later.

 

We send a fond and grateful farewell to Dayton who headed back to Texas this afternoon after doing so much to help us open Longacres for the season, including building new jumps, exercising horses, helping with a cheerful offer of help wherever needed. Thanks, Dayton! Until next year!

 

Monday, June 18^th, Noon Udate:

Personal Attention!

We are at capacity now, with nine students, two counselor’s in training, and our staff. It seemed like a lot of people up on the field this morning! Senior instructors, Heather, Colleen, and Shelly, were teaching small groups, and our two intern instructors, Payton and Beta, were giving one on one instruction to the youngest. I was there for all of the first lesson helping teach and observing the new riders. So was Meghan. Let’s see, that’s 7 instructors supervising 11 riders this morning. Pretty good personal attention! Meghan took a lot of pictures which will be posted at this link after lunch.

 

Ale, Student of the Day

Now and then I’ll give a little extra info about a “student of the day”, though we like to think of everyone as special students “of the day”. But Ale is special to us. She arrived at Longacres this morning as a first time student – first time for her, but not for her family. Her mom, Kathryn, was a Longacres camper herself a “few” years ago, so Ale is what we call a legacy. She’s an enthusiastic girl and dove right into her lessons this morning, first on Neek-o. Oh, there is one other thing about Ale, and then one more thing about her instructor this morning. Ale has never ridden before. That’s not common at Longacres, since our program appeals to riders with some jumping experience. But we actually love teaching beginners – we can then really say, “We taught her to ride!”. One of the first things we teach a complete beginner is the jumping position on a horse – check this video link for a clip showing Ale doing her first ever little “jump” on a horse! There are more pictures of Ale with Peyton teaching in the album today.

 

Oh, yeah – Ale’s teacher. Ale was getting private lessons this morning from an intern instructor with very appropriate experience at Longacres. Peyton is going to college next year, but she began her riding career just like Ale, here at Longacres when she was 12 years old. And just like Ale, Peyton had never EVER ridden a horse before coming to Longacres. But she was determined to learn something new and loved horses. Peyton learned from scratch that summer over the next seven weeks how to ride well enough to enter our jumper Derby in the low division on Brownie and WIN! There could be no teacher with a better understanding of Ale’s first time on a horse than Peyton and she stuck to Ale like glue this morning!

 

Good Group

Otherwise, this great group of girls that seemed to bond immediately last night are getting along great and working together. We kept the jumps low and few this morning while introducing new horses to the new students. We will do a little more this afternoon and lots more tomorrow.

 

Sunday, 10 PM Update:

Just About Everyone is Here

Ale and Ella are still to arrive tomorrow morning, but everyone else has safely arrived and has played with horses, shared pizza, played jump rope and had a personal high jumping contest (won by Carrie!). This group is quickly bonding and getting along very well together. We are off to a good start.

 

Thunder storms are popping up nearby, but nothing here yet. We could use the rain, so bring it on!

 

Meghan took pictures which will be posted at this link when she gets up to the house from the barn where she is organizing tomorrows ride lists.

 

Sunday, 2:30 Update:

The Week’s Weather for Longacres

More good news than bad on the weather front, but it will be hot for Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Upper 80’s Tuesday and Thursday and 90 or better Wednesday. We will work hard to keep everyone hydrated with water breaks on horseback and lots of trails through the woods. We may do our most serious jumping those days during evening ride.

 

But there is also good weather news. We expect needed rain tonight and a pleasant dust free riding day tomorrow. More rain may come Thursday night. We love night rain during camp to keep the dust down and the footing soft for the horses. Best weather news of all is that they expect the mini heat wave to break Friday and we will have glorious riding weather with the temperature in the mid 70’s under sunny skies for our horse show next weekend!

 

Sunday, June 17^th, 2PM Update:

Ssshhh!

Meghan is taking a nap – something almost unheard of during the summer for her. We’ll try not to wake her up until just before the new students begin to arrive at 4!

Thank you, Sarah!

Sarah K. from Chicago wrote the following:

 

“dear Tom and Meghan,

First of all..... HAPPY FATHERS DAY TOM!!!!!! Second of all.... I ONLY HAVE 14 MORE DAYS UNTIL I WILL ACTUALLY BE A LONGACRES INSTEAD OF DREAMING OUT IT!!!!!!!!! OMG IM SO EXCITED! I saw all the pictures on the blog and it just makes me so much more excited to see jazz and come ride there and see everyone and OMG!! Well before I blow up I'm so excited I'm going to go pack :D!!!!!!! See you in ONLY 14 DAYS!!!! - Sarah”

 

Thanks for the Father’s Day message, Sarah – it made me feel good. And I think that Sarah speaks for many Longacres students who are counting down the days and beginning to pack! See you soon, Sarah!

 

Sunday, June 17^th, 11AM Update:

Goodbye & Welcome

We like being able to offer one week special sessions in June as a way for new people to try Longacres who could not otherwise make the time for a longer session. But it is also sad and frustrating to just really get to know some great students and then they are gone again! We thank the girls who leave today for their contribution to Longacres 2012.

 

Arrivals!

Eva is due in fifteen or twenty minutes – a popular and talented student from last summer who is taking the unexpected vacancy for next week, then going home for a month and returning for our August session. Eva is good friends with Kellie and Anderson who are here now.

 

The rest of the students for the coming session arrive about 4 PM or a little later. We’re eager to meet you guys, some of you will be staying for three weeks.

 

More details later – did we post enough pictures for you last night?!?!?

 

Saturday, June 16^th, Midnight Update:

A Good Show!

Thanks to Spruce Meadows Stables for putting on a nice Series Opening horse show! Our girls put in solid rides and had good times. Check this link for the best 180 of over 400 pictures we took. There was a fine turnout of horses, with more than 25 jumpers between the three divisions! The 2012 Summer Series looks to be a big success.

 

The show ran long and we didn’t get to dinner at Pasquale’s until nearly 9PM, and watched some video after that. Most of the girls went to bed before watching all the video.

 

Meghan and I are sharing the workload – her share is 90% and mine is 10%, but I am earning all of my ten percent tonight, as I upload pictures and write the Blog in the middle of the night. Meghan got less than two hours of sleep last night after preparing for the show and getting up before dawn to organize more stuff, so I am insisting that she get 8 hours of sleep tonight. She had to be herded to bed like one of the more stubborn horses, kicking and screaming, but she was out like a light when her head hit the pillow! She should be well rested when you new students arrive tomorrow evening.

 

I’ll post more Blog news tomorrow, but time for sleep tonight. Congrats to all our girls for their good riding at the show!

 

Thursday, June 15^th, 9PM Update:

Show Tomorrow – Fun Tonight

Check the next update below for horse show information links. The show will begin between 9:30 and 9:45 AM at Spruce Meadows Stable in Clarence, NY. The girls trained hard today preparing for the show so tonight we let them just have fun popping over the big Castle Jump and the Lighthouse jump. Pictures at this link. Video of the Castle here. Video of the Light House here.

 

Thursday, June 15^th, 4PM Udate:

Lots Going On!

It is a busy day at Longacres on the last day of this session before tomorrow’s horse show. Check this link for lots of pictures! The girls all jumped out on the hunt course in the woods, jumped a long course with bigger jumps later in the morning with me, then had a guest clinic with Kathy. There’s more riding to be done tonight, preparations for the horse show, sleep (a little), then early to ride for the trip to the show. The show info is at this link.

 

Thursday, June 14^th, midnight update:

Two more days in this session – we will miss this nice group of girls! Check this link for a LOT of pictures Meghan took this morning during Kate Webster’s guest clinic.

 

Actually, we will not have to be missing some of the girls. Kellie and Anderson stay on for the next week along with Natalia. And, if all the details work out as we expect, EVA WILL BE BACK NEXT WEEK!!!!! She is taking the cancelled week that opened up, then going home and returning for the August session later in the summer. Can’t wait to see you, Eva – Kellie and Anderson say “Hi”.

 

We jumped full courses in today’s clinic and we will jump courses that are higher tomorrow. It is getting fun now near the end of this session as the girls gain experience!

 

It is very late here now, so I better sign off. We both worked late tonight – I unloaded and moved the horse show equipment trailer at just before midnight to get a little ahead of tomorrow’s work load.

 

Thursday, June 14^th, 8AM Update:

Getting Busy!

There’s lots going on now that we’re nearing the end of the week. We have our first show of the 2012 season in two days at Spruce Meadow Stables and we are starting to ride longer courses of jumps today in preparation. Check this link for the Spruce Meadow website with the show information.

 

The girls who were on the overnight are likely to be looking a little tired today! They will have a bit of a chance to relax this afternoon and evening when we go out to the mall on the cook’s night off for our traditional pre-horse show break. The girls will have their cell phones, so you folks at home can expect to hear them or you can call them between about 5 and 8 PM.

 

We have another guest instructor this morning, Katie Webster. We’ve known Kate for years as a rider and trainer at our horse shows, but this will be the first time we’ve had her in as a guest instructor. We’re looking forward to her instruction, along with the chance to ride full courses in today’s lessons.

 

I fell asleep again waiting for Meghan to get back from the slumber party with her camera, but last night’s pictures are now posted at the link I gave last night.

 

Opening for Next Week?

We have had a couple of families ask about the opening next week that is available to fill a spot available after a cancellation. Nothing is definite yet, so give us a call if you are interested in short notice.

 

Wednesday, June 13^th, 10PM Update:

A Better Day

After the difficult start to our day, things went much better. Oh, we still had excitement – one of our new horses, Digger, broke from his cross ties while being prepared for his first ride. He got out and enjoyed complete freedom on the barn lawn, running and bucking while seven of our horses were tacked up waiting to go on the overnight trail. Our horses behaved very well. Digger would not let anyone put a rope or halter on him until I had the girls all ride single file into the back of the barn while we closed the front door. Horses are herd animals, so Digger filed along after the other seven horses and into the back of the barn, which we promptly closed up. The jig was up for him!

 

All the girls who have to go home this weekend are on an overnight trail ride and hayloft slumber party tonight. The rest of the girls will do it next week. Heather is with the overnighter girls, Mya, Kodi, Annie, Avital, and Linden. Maybe I am forgetting someone. Meghan is taking pictures which we will post at this link later tonight.

 

Kellie was training the other new horse, Sunfire, after dinner, and Natalia rode Ladd, Anderson was on BIG Jazz, and Dayton was riding even bigger Diesel with Colleen.

 

The vet came to check out Tee’s cut leg and she does not think it is serious. Gave her some antibiotics and will check with us tomorrow.

 

We picked up our newer/used RV from the paint shop today. It looks like it was new, even though it is far from it! We’ll include a picture of the RV with the horse pictures tonight at this link.

 

There are also pictures from the Farley Bridgeman Clinic, which all the girls really liked. Farley had them all jumping the stuff out in the big field, which we allowed for this clinic since the girls have now been here several days and are better acclimated. We kept them in the small ring most of the time for the first Clinic.

 

We never did find anything in the mares’ pasture that we thought could have caused the leg cuts we have been seeing. But three of us worked out there all afternoon with chainsaws, the big tractor, and pruners. We took out two trees, several scraggly shrubs, and countless old dead branches on the apple trees. Whatever was causing the injuries, just the law of averages says that there is likely to be less hazard now than before today.

 

 

Wednesday, June 13^th, 11:15 AM Update:

One of Those Mornings

This Blog is most often the purveyor of good and cheerful news. But we are strong believers in openness and we pass on stories of our problems along with the more often cheerful updates. Don’t worry, there is no big problem this morning, just a cascading chain of little problems. We started out great with this group of hard working girls finishing morning horse care early and getting to breakfast early or on time in a cheerful mood.

 

But there were special issues to take care of this morning. Two new horses, Digger and Sunfire, came in last night and while managing the tacking and mounting process for morning lessons, the instructors also had to go through our protocol of introducing those new horses to their pasture mates to avoid fighting problems later. That disrupted the preparations for morning ride to begin with. We also had a horse come in from pasture with a swollen leg and cut (more on that in a minute), and that had to be cleaned and medicated and evaluated in case it requires a vet (it might, and worse, it is not our horse – Tee). Then, while everyone was nearly ready to mount, Mave broke loose from her rider, galloped around the barn breaking the bridle, and had to be caught, the bridle repaired, and another horse groomed and mounted.

 

The morning lesson finally got started 45 minutes late with everyone on edge a little hoping THEY would not be part of the next little issue!

 

Pasture Cuts

Horses get scrapes and cuts in pasture all the time. They are delicate, damage prone creatures and if there is a way to find trouble, one of them will eventually find it. We take great care maintaining our fences and looking for problems in pasture. But horses come in with cuts and bruises now and then no matter how hard we try to remove hazards and turn out horses with others they will not fight with.

 

Four days ago one of our best horses, Jazz, came in for morning feeding with a cut high on her front leg. We treated it ourselves, it did not bother her, and she is nearly fully healed now. We did have the instructors walk her pasture looking for hair on a sharp branch or anything that could have caused the cut, other than a fight with another horse. Not a big deal – just one of those things. And we did not find any problem in pasture. Then two days ago Mae, one of our leased and “for sale” horses came in from the same pasture with a series of scrapes on the inside of her hind legs. Lower down than Jazz’s cut, so likely not the same thing. But from the same pasture in the same week, so we began to wonder more about there being some hazard in that pasture. Dayton and the counselors did a more thorough walk through of the pasture and did trim back some small twigs and dead branches that could possibly have cut a horse. But there was still no obvious hazardous condition that we could see.

 

Then last night we had Joel take his bigger saws out to that pasture and trim other branches that we did not think were a problem, but MIGHT be.

 

But after all that, this morning, Tee (another lease/for sale horse, and owned by the same farm – very embarrassing for us) came in with what appeared to be a puncture wound or very localized deep scrape on the inside of her hind leg. This one in a similar location to Mae’s cuts. This one might need a vet, because there is fluid around the cut under the skin and possible infection.

 

So after breakfast Meghan and I walked every inch of that pasture. For the life of me, with fifty years of experience caring for horses, I cannot see one spot in that pasture that makes me say, “Aha – that’s what’s causing these cuts.” Before we turn horses back out there we are taking down two small trees that could possibly be a problem and trimming back a dozen more small branches on the small shade trees. But there is no clear hazard to horses in that pasture. Very frustrating to know that we are having more horse injuries in that pasture than we should so there must be “something” out there, but we can’t see it.

 

So that is how our morning has gone so far. And the promised bright sun expected for the rest of this week has not shown up yet, making a somewhat dreary day seem even greyer. The sun is due to break out within the next hour or two and somehow I think that will make all these little issues seem less depressing!

 

PS: As I finished writing this and was about to hit “upload”, the sun finally poked through. YES!

 

Wednesday, June 13^th, 9AM Update:

Sunfire & Digger Arrive

We have two more new horses at Longacres, both loaned to us for the summer by friends. Sunfire is from Trilogy Farm, the same folks who sold us Tux and Ladd. Digger is from Tanglefoot Farm – they come to our shows. Both horses look great and we are eager to put them to work. The album also shows Tom trying to jump like a horse the way Anderson did! I did it, but I am paying for it this morning! Pictures at this link.

 

Weather is gloriously cool this morning!

 

Tuesday Evening, 7PM Update:

We Dodged the Rain!

There was a forecast for 90% chance of rain most of the day today. But we sure lucked out, as we sometimes do in the Longacres “bubble” off the end of Lake Erie with prevailing cooler lake breezes affecting our weather. It rained much of last night, but let up in time for morning horse care, then a little rain during breakfast, then no rain for the first lesson, just a little at the beginning of the second lesson, some hard rain during rest period after lunch, then no rain during the more than two hours of Guest Instructor Clinics, then just a little rain after dinner, and it now looks to be mostly rain free for evening ride. Wow! Because the clinics ran long, we actually got more riding in than a normal day today. And the weather looks wonderful for the rest of the week.

 

Here is a video of part of the clinic with Vanessa to give you at home an idea of what we are doing. And check this link later this evening for pictures from Meghan’s camera.

 

Tuesday, June 12, 1PM Update:

Rain Not Too Bad

We took lots of video yesterday so that we would have good things to watch if we were rained out for too much of today. But so far, so good. The first lesson we had only a few sprinkles. The second, the girls did get wet a bit right after mounting, but they did not let it bother them and they got in their full schedule of morning rides. There is some rain in this afternoon’s forecast, but we should again get in our scheduled rides with our guest instructor – knock wood! The weather from tomorrow right through the weekend is looking perfect for riding – sunny and cooler!

 

Tuesday, June 12^th, 10AM Update:

Opening Next Week

One of our students has cancelled out her two week stay for personal reasons. This opens up a spot in our previously sold out space from now until June 24th. Several of you out there have expressed interest in extending an enrollment for this week to include next, or coming in a week early. Call us right away if you are interested in the one week from June 17th to 24th, or even coming sooner for the last part of this week and the Spruce Meadows show. (We thank Emma for her cooperation with us and her efforts around the barn during her short stay and wish her a great summer.)

 

The Great Cookie Dough Raid!

Last night we stopped being an intense horse training program and we switched gears and for an hour we were a rollicking, good old time summer camp! Meghan went down right after curfew with a bunch of goodies, including cookie dough. She first went to Pegasus bunk and asked for their help in “raiding” Esseress. The girls were all in on this one! They snuck next door and suddenly were banging on all the walls, causing squeals from the Esseress girls just going to bed. But they were let in and everyone splurged on goodies and told stories. I am sorry that I missed it, but it was a girl’s kind of thing. Meghan says that spirits could not have been better and that this group is really bonding together very well. Pictures at this link.

 

Monday, June 11, 4PM Update:

Video

I didn’t have time to take a clip of all three lessons this afternoon, but here is one video clip showing some of the riders in Colleen’s lesson. Also check this link this evening for more pictures that Meghan is taking this afternoon. Ya’ think we took enough pictures today!?! This second link will not work until after dinner.

 

Monday, June 11, 1PM Update:

Nice Riding!

Everyone was nervous during their first Longacres ride this morning, but they calmed down very well and rode nicely in the second hour. Check this link for pictures – LOTS of them!

 

Monday, June 11^th, 11AM Update:

First ride done – nobody fell off! Everyone is on video and will be analyzed in slo-mo tomorrow. They are mounting for their second ride right now. Pictures coming early this afternoon.

 

Monday, June 11^th, 7AM Update:

Ready for Week #2

I fell asleep in the middle of uploading pictures last night, but I just did it this morning, so they are now at this link. Meghan will have more later this morning. As mentioned last night, we have one homesick in this group. Meghan spent a lot of time with her last night, she is taking part and talking fine with Meghan and we are hopeful. Parents have had an email, so if you have not heard from us, it is not your daughter.

 

We will be taking video of everyone later this morning and will do extensive slow motion analysis tomorrow, when we unfortunately may have considerable time to watch during the rain. With luck, much of the rain will fall overnight tonight, but the forecast is not good for tomorrow, Today is expected to be HOT, though not so much so for Kellie from Texas, Kodi from Arizona, or Linden from Florida (or Avi & Natalia from South Carolina for that matter). We have lots of southern states girls especially during early June when they are out of school before northern girls. Anyway, hot for me today! Then after tomorrow’s rain we have glorious cool riding weather in the forecast for the rest of week #2. And a good forecast for Saturday’s first horse show at Spruce Meadow!

 

Everyone got a handout yesterday on arrival – almost like school – you can read it at this link. This morning all our new students will be learning about the Longacres “building blocks” system of riding and training.

 

Sunday, June 10^th, 9PM Update:

Everyone is on Schedule

Everyone who is supposed to have arrived did so on schedule. Only Kellie is still coming tonight and her plane just landed. Anderson will be here with her dad first thing in the morning. Everyone has met some of the horses and is helping with evening chores and turning the horses out to pasture as I write this. Mostly very cheerful and actively getting acquainted. One a little homesick, but smiling and helping with all the chores. I think it will work out fine.

 

Meghan took some pictures during horse care and they will soon be posted at this link. Many more pictures and some video coming tomorrow!

 

Sunday, June 10^th, 8AM Update:

Welcome new Students!

Annie and Mya are already here after attending week #1. Anderson arrives with her dad first thing tomorrow morning. Emma & Kodi are arriving with their dads late this afternoon. Kellie is getting picked up by our Danielle at the airport. The twins Natalia & Avital are arriving with John the taxi man, Linden is also meeting up with the twins at the airport and coming with John. I think I have all those arrangements correct – call us if I am missing something! Most are arriving around 4 to 5 PM, and we will get you settled in your bunks and then give you the horse you will first ride tomorrow to work with this evening on the ground and get acquainted.

 

Check this video link for a clip taken at dinner last night.

 

 Saturday, June 9^th, 9PM Update:

Keep the Suggestions Coming!

Already we’ve had a response for our request for suggestions on how to best run adult sessions. Sarah H. was a Longacres teenage student a dozen years ago, was a counselor for a session last year, and now in medical school and thinking of adult week next summer. Here’s her suggestions:

“Hey guys,

I may want to come back as an adult when my schedule calms down (next year). I would want to ride as much as possible. I think that 4 rides that are longer would be better. Sometimes the horse switch just made things tough. Horsecare is hard work! I'm on the fitter side for adults and I didn't mind it unless I had to pretty much hay the pastures by myself. But if I come back, I would want to ride ride ride ride ride. But I may not be representative of most adults. 

 

Hope you guys are having a great season! I think those water bottles are an excellent idea! Give Zanee and Bristol some love for me. 

 

Sarah”

 

Saturday, 6:30 PM:

Our barn crew is busily finishing evening horse care before we head out to dinner on the cook’s night off tonight. We’re meeting a few people at Red Robin. Yum! We’re thankful for our guests today helping with barn chores since we only have two students today between sessions. Not so tomorrow night! We have a flood of new students arriving tomorrow and are completely full this coming session. Horse care will be EASY with all those bodies next week, mostly older girls. Mya and Annie will have to get used to sharing “their horses” with all those new girls!

 

Saturday, June 9^th, 5PM Update:

First Session Over Already!

It’s hard to believe that we have finished the first week long session – it seems like we were just counting down the days until opening day! But we have said, “Until next time” to our adults students. Sharon left yesterday after her time shifted week which began two days early. We bid safe travel to Ann and to Paula this morning. Our adult students rode well and showed good progress while they were here. They were hard workers, perhaps more so than they had expected, but we thank them for putting up with the hardships of Longacres.

 

We always evaluate our sessions when they end, and we plan a major evaluation of Adult Camps before next year, much the way we sent out 50 evaluation and suggestion forms to former staff from the past five or six years last winter. The many useful comments helped us make some very useful changes in staff planning, and we plan the same kind of effort to consider changes in Adult week sessions. For instance, we think that the five lessons a day plan works very well for our younger girls, but it is a hectic pace for adults. Perhaps going next year to a schedule for adults with longer but fewer rides might allow a bit more time for preparation and adults have a longer attention span than children (often), and they might enjoy a longer lesson with fewer of them each day. Paula told me that would have suited her better. Anyway, adults from the past half dozen years, expect an evaluation form in the mail this fall.

 

Between sessions today, Annie and Mya are getting in extra riding. Mya had a private lesson on Horatio this afternoon, and she did well. She is the kind of soft seated rider that is good for this talented horse. Annie rode Whitley, who continues to thrive this season.

 

Winky and a mystery guest were here all day helping and riding with Colleen, while Heather had a day off.

 

Check this link for pictures, but they won’t be posted until later. There will be a few pictures of new jumps included. We are replacing many of our more worn coops this spring and building ten brand new small white jump stands & wings to replace some of our more worn versions of the same. To maintain a top quality collection of jumps like we have takes constant maintenance and new construction!

 

Friday, 2PM Update:

Everyone seemed to have fun jumping the Butterfly jump and others out in the field today. Pictures here.

 

 

Friday, June 8^th, 10AM Update:

Butterfly Day

Those that want to try it will be jumping the Butterfly jump all set up with the extra stands this morning. Pictures to come later today!

 

Thursday, June 7^th, 10PM Update:

Tired

First, click here for some pictures from today.

 

Tired? Yes, it’s been a long first week with riding every scheduled hour and lots of horses to take care of. All of us who are adults here this week, from Meghan and I, our counselors, and the adult students are pretty tired and maybe didn’t have our finest hour tonight. We had a bit of a spat over who was supposed to be helping hay the pasture. Silly. But it had been a long day. Oh, well, tomorrow is another day and hopefully we will all sleep it off and have a fun day tomorrow.

Thanks to Mya and Annie, our teen students, who were in great form haying their pasture and stayed in a fine humor all night. Where do those youths get their energy?

 

Thursday, June 7^th, 1PM Update:

Welcome Schooling Riders & Peter Anderson Clinic

The Peter Anderson guest instruction was wonderful this morning. Hanks, Peter! Pictures here.

 

And we have a field full of horses from other farms practicing over our jumps this afternoon. Our jumps are popular and area riders may pay a use fee to practice here. Many will be returning for our first show here on June 23rd.

 

Wednesday, June 6^th, 9PM Update:

Hey Counselors, Meghan says, “Gotcha”!

I think that is an inside joke, and I don’t know what it means? Meghan and the adult students are headed out for “Girls night out”, a tradition during adult week at Longacres. The counselors and Mya & Annie (and me) are holding down the farm.

 

The weather forecast was a little iffy for tomorrow, but it now looks like any rain will hold off until after the Peter Anderson guest clinic in the morning. Our luck with weather is holding.

 

Check this link for a lone picture showing a sample of the new coop jumps we are building. There will be eight of these, which are used in pairs as fillers under rails or as jumps by themselves. They will be painted in various themes, brick walls, stone walls, etc. We are also building five more pairs of our simple white jump stands and wings. We actually have plenty of those, but some are getting pretty old and worn. We may have a sale at one of our horse shows and sell some perfectly usable but worn jumps as we upgrade our fine collection of jumps.

 

We went over to a collision shop this evening where our “new-used” RV is being painted. We have a lot of vehicle expense at Longacres and we keep it under control by carefully maintaining a fleet of older vehicles. This was the year to upgrade our newest RV. We keep several RV’s which we use for horse show offices, at horse shows, and for transportation.) We searched for months for a particular model of diesel Winnebago which would suit our needs and found one in North Dakota, of all places. Terrific mechanical condition, but a little faded on the outside from the western US sun. We’re giving it a modern paint job, so it will look much newer than the nearly 14 years old that it is. It is quite a bit like the current Winnie, but a little bit bigger, heavier, modern suspension & air brakes, more comfortable and safer. The paint job is coming out very well – we are excited!

 

Wednesday, Noon Update:

Morning pictures at this link. Annie and Mya rode lines of the fancy jumps in the big show field this morning, our first serious use of the big field now that the girls and the horses are getting comfortable here this session. Paula had an exciting ride when her horse jumped bigger than expected and she lost her balance, but she stayed on, got control, and finished the ride. Might not want to jump that horse again, she says!

 

Wednesday, June 6^th, 10AM Update:

Happy Anniversary, Meghan!

Yup – we were married on 6-6-06 and it is now 6-6-12 – some nice symmetry there! We will be abandoning the riders sometime today for a brief time out to lunch together.

 

But not just yet. Meghan is down with the ladies right now setting up the horse assignments and reviewing teaching plans after the great guest instruction yesterday. Peter Anderson comes tomorrow to do another guest Clinic. I’ll be on the tractor for part of the morning mowing trails and part of the morning I will spend watching the riders on the big field for the first time if they are comfortable there.

 

The weather is variable today, with a light shower during breakfast, but nice sunshine right now. We have not lost a minute of riding time yet this week, while having just enough scattered evening showers to keep the grass green, the dust down, the footing soft, and temperatures perfect for riding. We couldn’t ask for more. There is the possibility of some showers today and again tomorrow, but definitely mostly dry and good for riding.

 

Tuesday, 10PM Update:

A Great Day!

A good day always seems even better with unexpectedly great weather, which we had this afternoon and evening for the clinic. Everyone was laughing and joking at the dining hall tonight and again when we got together to watch video we took at the clinic in slow motion. Kathy’s clinic was very popular – she is returning for another guest teaching session a week from now.

 

The younger girls and the counselors went into town for ice cream with Meghan after horse care.

 

Check this link for more pictures, many very nice, of the girls in Kathy’s guest lesson and again during evening ride.

 

Joyce & Tim made a wonderful apple crisp dessert and we all voted to have it once every week for the rest of the summer!

 

Tuesday, June 5^th, 2PM Update:

More Pictures

Check this link for some pictures Meghan took this morning. She will have more after this afternoon’s guest instructor. Check this video link for a clip of Colleen jumping Jazz. Everyone is riding lots of horses. Annie and Mya have each ridden 7 or 8 new horses already. Meghan is headed down to the barn right now to take more pictures in Kathy’s guest clinic.

 

Tuesday, June 5^th, 8AM Update:

Looking Up!

Although it was mostly cloudy with some light drizzle off and on yesterday, we got in all five of our scheduled lessons. Everyone rode well and our horses are performing well. We have already used 20 of the 26 horses on the farm, which is very good for early in the season. Thanks to the good training the horses have had from Colleen and Heather the past three weeks. The weather today is looking even better, with only a possible light shower. The sun is out now and is expected much of the day. We also look forward to our first guest instructor this afternoon when Kathy J. will be teaching both groups.

I have a slight flu bug, so I will be keeping my distance from the students (far end of the table, not out of sight completely!) I feel pretty good, but Meghan gets these bugs hard, so I hope she doesn’t pick it up from me!

 

If you did not look at my little fox picture last night don’t miss it at this link. It is maybe the best wild life picture I’ve ever taken.

 

Monday, June 4, 8PM Update:

Evening Ride Pictures & “My Little Friend”

Check this link for some casual pictures from tonight’s evening ride. Ann took the ride off to catch up on some other things. The light was fading so the pictures aren’t the greatest.

 

AND – my Little Friends are still here at their den on the trail. They are learning to be shy of humans, but after I waited more than half an hour, one came out and let me take about 40 pictures. This is a link to the best!

 

Don’t worry, Meghan was with the girls at the barn and I watched them ride three times today.

 

Monday, June 4, 4PM Update:

Sun is Out – Everyone Riding

We don’t always post four or five times a day, but often we will the first day of a session. Check this link for a few more pictures taken late this morning and at the beginning of the 3 o’clock lesson. Most riders have been on at least three and some on four horses now. And we were not supposed to see sun until Wednesday or Thursday, but it is out right now and more sun is expected for part of tomorrow. We’re having some good fortune!

 

Foxes?

I spent 45 minutes during lunch hour watching my fox den, but saw no sign of my little friends. I hope that they were sound asleep on a cold, damp day, but I fear that Moma fox may have been worried about me hanging out near the den and moved them someplace else. I will check again late this afternoon when they are often most active. (Hi, Dr. Melfi!)

 

Monday, June 4, Noon Update:

Check this video link for a short clip showing the riders posing for Meghan’s still pics. Everyone is now on at least their second horse, some having switched in the first lesson have now ridden three horses.

 

Monday, June 4^th, 10AM Update:

First Morning Good

Everyone was up ‘n at ‘em at 7AM for morning horse care and surprisingly cheerful for a cold, cloudy morning. Mya & Annie, our youngest students this week, are full of energy and a good example to their elders! Keep it up, you two! Dayton got up at the crack of dawn to find his way through unfamiliar trails from where he is staying in the apartment at the main house (he did NOT get lost! Thanks to Kellie briefing him on the lefts and right turns on the trails.)

 

Check this link for a few pictures taken yesterday during arrivals. And check this link about lunchtime, where we will have pictures of everyone on horses the first morning.

 

Sunday, June 3^rd, 9PM Update:

Everyone Has Safely Arrived!

We assume that everyone has called home and let their families know they are safely here, but if not, they are! Annie arrived while I was picking Dayton up at the airport. Annie & Mya seem to be getting along great, and the “adults” went out to dinner at Pasquale’s together to get acquainted. Dayton got a big hug from Meghan when I drove in from the airport with him. They are all doing horse turnout together right now, and horse care will begin again at 7AM. We should have our first pictures of this group of riders on horses posted by lunchtime tomorrow. Longacres 2012 is under way!

 

Sunday, June 3^rd, Noon Update:

Welcome Linden!

Linden M. from Florida is taking the final spot at Longacres for the 2012 season, except for the post season Lazy Days Week spots. We are now completely sold out, including all the pre-season Clinic weeks, for the first time in four years. (There are spots in the post season Lazy Days, which usually sell to girls who are here for an earlier session and decide they’d like to return for an extra week.)

 

Linden is fifteen and owns her own horse. It sounds as though her riding experience will allow her to fit right in with the group here for the June 11^th week when she is coming. Linden loves riding a variety of horses in addition to her own, and where else could she do that better than at Longacres. Welcome, Linden!

 

Pictures

This morning’s pictures will be posted at this link right after I update the Blog. Meghan is mad at me for taking the pictures before she and Danielle finish putting all the silk flowers in front of the jumps this afternoon. But I wanted you guys coming for this session to see that things really are looking good – we are ready for you! Maybe I will take a few more pictures with the flowers set this afternoon.

 

SCHOLARSHIP

Meghan and I are grateful to all of you who have signed up and made 2012 the most successful season for us since the recession hit a few years ago. We would like to give something back to some worthy horse lover. We will be offering a full tuition scholarship during Lazy Days week. We prefer that it go to someone who could not otherwise afford a riding camp like Longacres. We welcome girls from 11 to 15 to submit an essay telling us why you would like to come to Longacres for a week, and what you do now to help earn your way with horses. Preference will be given to girls who are already earning part of their riding by helping at a barn. We will consider riders we have never heard of or who don’t know a Longacres student already. But we also welcome our regular students to recommend someone you might know from your home barn who is deserving of this opportunity. In addition to the essay we’d like you to submit a YouTube video of you riding or working around a barn – make it imaginative!

 

Longacres gives some form of scholarship aid to a deserving local rider nearly every year already. This will be a little bit more advertised process as thanks for our good fortune this year in being sold out.

 

Sunday, June 3^rd, 4PM Update:

Almost Ready

Check this link for a few pictures taken in the last 30 minutes after Danielle put some artificial flowers around the jumps. Also Meghan and the girls having a meeting.

 

Sunday, June 3^rd, 11AM Update:

6 Hours to Go!

Our students for the first week of the season arrive in just hours to get settled in and ready for their first rides tomorrow morning. Meghan and I just got back up to the office after setting up the last of the jumps in a light drizzle. Nothing like working right down to the wire to be ready on time! But ready, we are. Can’t wait to meet our first riders in person this evening.

 

The weather will not be the best the first few days of the season. The chance of rain tomorrow has actually gone up from 30% to 40%, but that still means rain free riding weather 60% of the time. The sun is now expected a little sooner, by the middle of the week rather than the end. We will make the best of it!

 

No Harm Meant

At least one person took offense to my update last night announcing both our Summer Series show dates and the dates of the Showtime “A” rated Series being run the same dates by Craig Brown at the Hamburg Showplex. No harm meant. We do want people in the area to know that they have an option of very nice big shows this month or very nice smaller local shows that are part of the Summer Series that we work with. I consider Craig a friend – I had him judge one of our Jumper Derby’s a few years ago. He does a fine job running big formal shows. Anyone who likes that kind of show experience and who can afford it will not go wrong taking part in any Craig Brown managed event. Anyone who thought I was unfairly slamming the big shows read things into my post that weren’t there. I’m sure Craig knows that.

 

That said, here once again are the dates of the first three Summer Series shows: June 16^th – Spruce Meadow in Clarence; June 23^rd – Longacres in East Aurora; June 30^th – Newstead Equestrian Center in Newstead. (I won’t comment on the post from the person who was upset, though it is tempting!)

 

PICTURES!

Check this link in an hour or so for an album of pictures taken around Longacres this morning. Even though it is raining off and on, Meghan has done an outstanding job of getting ready for Longacres 2012 Opening Day!

 

Saturday, June 2^nd, 8PM Update:

Horse Shows!

Our part of western New York has an embarrassment of horse show riches during the month of June. For those of you who want big, expensive recognized indoor shows with fancy stalls and all the trimmings, Craig Brown is managing Rated shows for two full weeks in June at the Erie County Fair ShowPlex. Contact him for info.

 

For those of you wanting more informal and less expensive, but still very nice local horse shows, Longacres is helping organize the Western New York & Southtowns Summer Series again, with the first show at Spruce Meadow in Clarence on June 16^th, the second at Longacres in East Aurora on June 23^rd, and the third at Newstead Equestrian Center in Newstead on June 30^th. More Summer Series shows will be held every week at Longacres, Newstead, and Skibbereen. The season final show is at Skibbereen on Sunday, August 5^th. Contact us at Longacres or any of the other stables for more information. Copy this email and forward it to all your horsey friends!

 

Bad Timing

No, nothing is wrong. But it is bad timing that just two days before our season opens I found a fox den way out in the woods along one of the trails with at least two little kits just the perfect age to be absolutely curious about everything, but still not afraid of humans. I don’t think they ever saw a human until they saw me last night and today. Check this video taken an hour ago of one of them coming out one hole in the ground, walking casually past me standing right in the open, playing for a moment, then going down another hole.

 

This is bad timing because we are so busy now opening the farm. I could stand and watch the baby foxes for hours! I gambled a little and mowed a little grass near their den to make it easier to watch them. The kits didn’t mind – they were back out playing within five minutes of my mowing. But mama may not like the signs of human action and she may move them all to a new den tonight. I hope my little friends are still there tomorrow!

 

Saturday, June 2^nd, 2PM Update:

Horse Training

I just helped Meghan and Colleen turn out most of the horses in new groupings. Until now, Diesel has been turned out with Jazz and Bristol, since they get along very well. But with a full barn, we have to begin keeping the mares turned out with the mares and most of the geldings together. So it was going to be potentially exciting to separate Diesel and Jazz for the first time. They were a little upset but they behaved very well – well, Jazz “sort of well”!

 

But what I noticed most was the general improvement in horse behavior since I last helped with turnout just a few days ago and today. We have been rigorous in making the horses listen and wait respectfully to be turned loose in pasture. We have been rigorous about training all the horses to stop when we are leading them and say “whoa”. That work (which you read about here a few days ago) has really paid off. These horses are now as kid-safe as can be expected and ready for opening day. But they are horses and sometimes unpredictable animals. We will be teaching you the Longacres way of handling horses, which is the CAREFUL way. Pay attention and handle the horses with respect when you arrive!

 

Arrivals:

We are expecting Mya C. by car with her family, Annie S. by plane – Danielle is meeting you; Dayton by plane – we are meeting you; Paula by plane – John the Taxi guy is meeting you; and Ann by car. Sharon is already here. If any of this information is not correct, call or email tonight and let us know.

 

Saturday, June 2^nd, Noon Update:

One Day to Go!

Our 2012 season officially kicks off Monday morning, but you will all be arriving tomorrow afternoon and evening to get settled in. Meghan and I are very excited and look forward to seeing old friends and meeting new people. The camp looks great. Meghan is down at the barn right now putting the finishing touches on setting up the jumps in the big field – and perhaps setting some of them up twice – it is very windy today and tonight, enough to knock over some jumps. But we’ll have them well set up for your arrival tomorrow so that when you drive into the barn entrance you will see most of the same jumps you have been admiring on the website all spring. You will see most of the same horses in asture, along with seven new horses here at Longacres for their first full summer. Two more horses arrive next week, but all the rest are hear and trained.

 

Some Grey Days, But Great Cool Riding Weather

Notice how I quickly emphasize the positive! It is raining off and on today and more is expected tomorrow, although it is sunny out right this minute. We needed the rain – it is good for the footing, good to keep the dust down in the sand ring, and good to keep dust from causing coughs and allergic problems with the horses. But grey days are not as pretty and cheerful as bright sunshine. I know – I am a “SAD” sufferer myself – seasonal affective disorder. Not seriously so, but I do like my sunshine, and there may be precious little of it this first week of the summer. Cloudy weather with scattered light showers is expected most of the week.

 

The horses will love it – good soft footing, lush grass growth, and cool weather. Rain chance after tomorrow is only 30% each day, so I do not expect we’ll lose any significant riding time. If there is a passing shower we’ll just ride a little later in the evening or reschedule the lesson or get wet. It does not appear it will cause any real problem except the esthetic one of the dull skies expected. So be sure to bring your sweatshirts or sweaters. This kind of weather is far better for riders than 90 degree humid heat. Think positive. The sun is expected to return by the end of the week when you will get to do the big field jumps and have great pictures taken over the cool jumps!

 

Returning Messages

We pride ourselves on our customer service. Most of you spoke with Meghan for an hour or two when you were first choosing Longacres. But please forgive us if we are a little slow in getting back to you this weekend. We are doing a million last minute little things to get everything perfectly in order for you and Meghan feels badly that she is a little behind on answering some of your emails and phone messages.

 

If your question or message has slipped through the cracks in the past couple of days, send the message again or phone us. We won’t think you are being pushy! Meghan’s cell is 716-380-6088. Mine (Tom) is 716-989-1113. The office is 716-652-9495. You all have the email, camplongacres@yahoo.com. You can call as late at night as you like.

 

WE WILL SEE SOME OF YOU TOMORROW!!!!!!!!!

 

Friday, June 1^st, 5PM Update:

My Little Friends

Very young, very curious!

Tom’s Friend 1

Tom’s Friend 2

 

Friday, June 1^st, 10 AM Update:

A Grey, Rainy Day

This is the kind of day that makes you want to cuddle up in front of a fire with a good book. Or head out to a movie. But not if it is the second to last day before we open for the season! Work goes on!

 

And we are very grateful for the steady rain just before many of you arrive for the first session, and following a near draught with no significant rain at all for the past few weeks. This is just what the doctor ordered for our acres and acres of riding turf and to put the sand ring in perfect condition. Along with the delightfully cool riding weather expected next week, this is a very good thing.

 

But not so good for putting the finishing touches on some of our preparations. Meghan and her crew will be working in the rain this afternoon setting up the last of the freshly painted jumps. We may need to do some weed trimming in the rain today and tomorrow, which can be a messy affair with wet grass thrown all over the weed cutting person (Joel or me – mostly Joel, haha, Joel!) We will get the work done. Those of you coming in the barn drive Sunday or Monday will be pleased with what you see!

 

Video links for Last Night:

Colleen on Jazz

Heather on Horatio

 

ThThursday, May 31^st, 10PM Update:

Two Days to Go!

Our regular 2012 season begins in two days on Sunday, with the arrival of most of the students who will begin riding Monday morning for the June 4th session. We are just about ready. We got lots of grass trimming done today and we will finish in time if we have even a few hours tomorrow with breaks in the rain. If we get a total rain out tomorrow, you guys coming Sunday might see a few spots with weeds still needing trimming! Meghan and a couple of helpers worked all afternoon putting up jumps in the show ring. Meghan was still carrying jumps in the dark tonight long after her helpters went home. Joel was running his weed trimmer in the moonlight! I helped him with my own trimmer until I ran out of cutting string after dark. Heather and Colleen kept the barn running, cared for the horses, taught some more practice lessons, met Sharon when she arrived for her special adult session today, and had a FUN time jumping Jazz and Horatio pretty big this morning!

 

Check this link for a few pictures Meghan took today.

 

I will post some video of Jazz and Horatio with Colleen and Heather on the Megfun YouTube sight later tonight. I will post the links here tomorrow morning.

 

Meghan reports that all the horses in the barn are now doing well. Diesel does have slight swelling on the right hind, but it does not seem to be bothering him. He is being medicated, and doing very well. Lincoln was a little lame the first night he was back here, but seems fine now. Same with Maggie who was a little sore or pulled a muscle that first night in pasture, but she was fine today and was ridden twice. Whitley continues to do very well.

We do have heavy rain in the forecast for tomorrow, so it may not be a good day for pictures. But we badly need the rain. It will set up the ground for good, soft footing and no dust for most of next week, with cool, pleasant riding weather.

 

Welcome Sharon and Welcome Cody

Sharon is our first official student for 2012, arriving two days early for her adult week since she has to leave a couple of days early for a family event. We also welcome Cody from Arizona who just reserved one of our last available spots for this season. Longacres is now sold out for the entire season with the exception of the end of August Lazy Days week which usually sells most spots during the summer to girls who are here for the first time, had a good time, and choose to return at the end of the summer for a final Longacres “fix”. Cosy will be here for the June 11^th Clinic week.

 

More news tomorrow.

 

Thursday, May 31^st, 7AM Update:

Farm is Looking Good

The Drought is Breaking

We had some light rain two nights ago and it was just enough to green up our parched looking grass. But we are still very dry with harder footing for the horses than we would like. That looks like it will all change for the better over the next three days, with some widespread steady rain tomorrow and into the weekend. In fact conditions for the beginning of our regular season early next week look to be just about perfect. The rain will set us up with great, dust free footing for the start of the session and as a bonus, we will experience below normal temperatures for much of next week – great for sleeping at night and for riding during the day! (The only one who will not benefit is poor Sharon who arrives today for a “time shifted” stay with us. Sharon has to leave early next week for her daughter’s rowing event, so she is starting two days early. Sharon will ride many horses this afternoon, but will be pretty much rained out tomorrow and we will have to try to sneak in some rides over the weekend between rain showers.)

 

Joel and I may also be doing some last minute grass trimming in the rain over the next few days so that everything is perfectly groomed for all of our arrivals on Sunday & Monday. We will be working hard doing as much of that as we can this evening before the rain begins. We always try to delay the last minute trimming so that we’ll be freshly trimmed for the Sunday arrivals.

 

Full Barn

Our barn is full right to the last stall! All of our own horses and most that we are training or have for sale have arrived and all our stalls are full. We have two more arriving in another week as summer lease/loan horses, and when they (Sunfire and Digger) arrive, Diesel and another horse will begin living in pasture most of the time.

 

Check this link for some late pictures from Meghan’s camera taken yesterday. More to come later today. Heather and Colleen will be jumping a little bigger this morning. If you did not watch the Jazz video from yesterday, don’t miss it!

 

Wednesday, May 30^th, 1PM Update:

Jazz Puts on a Show!

Check this video link

 

Jazz put on quite a pasture games show this morning when she was first turned out! Watch it in HD if you can – Jazz, Diesel, and Bristol were turned out together and Jazz, especially, had a good time running and jumping in pasture. Jazz has a small cut on her rump from the vanning trip, but it doesn’t bother her. Diesel came in with a swollen hind leg, but as you can see in the video it is not bothering him much either. The vet came this morning and put him on antibiotics for a few days in case an infection is part of the issue. We think he will be fine, although the vet told us about an immune issue that Clydesdales and some Belgians have that causes chronic swelling. I’m thinking that’s not this problem, but we’ll see.

The farrier is here all day fixing up horses’ feet for the summer. Wish we didn’t have to pay THAT bill, but a riding camp is only as good as its horses feet.

 

Tuesday Night:

The “Big Ones” are Almost Here!

Three of our biggest horses – biggest physically, and big in the impact they have on Longacres – are coming in about midnight tonight with Frank. Jazz and Bristol look very good he tells us from the road. Diesel has a swollen hing leg from some kind of infection he picked up last Saturday. It is being treated and we will have our vet look at him tomorrow if necessary. Hopefully it is nothing complicated. It will be exciting to see these big horses in pasture here tomorrow morning.

 

Check this link for some pictures from tonight’s practice lesson.

AND – “Hello down there in the cabin!” Heather and Colleen check in on their smart phones every night. Meghan wants me to write in the Blog here that these two instructors are knocking themselves out to try to learn the Longacres system. She is not sure if she has ever had two new staff members who cared about and tried harder to learn how we do things and to get them done well. Nice job! Keep it up!

 

Tuesday, May 29^th, 2PM Update:

Horatio, First Real Jumping of 2012 Season

Check this link for a few pictures from this morning. We’ve been doing a little jumping every day this spring, but mostly very low and over simple training stands and rails to get the horses quiet and in condition. Now it is time to begin more serious training. I set up a very nice looking combination in the small show ring this morning and had Heather take Horatio through a few times after a long warm up with lots of transitions and flat work. He is jumping effortlessly and looks great – thanks again for the fine winter home, Kay & Kellie!

 

We also rode Mae for the first time. She is on consignment for sale from Linda Fuller Stables and we like her. She arrived a couple of days ago and we let her get acquainted with our grounds and the other horses before riding her. Anyone looking for a willing jumper, inquire about this nice horse. She will be here all summer and a buyer can watch her progress and wait to be sure of her performance – a great way to buy a horse!

 

Here is video of Horatio

 

Another video of Horatio

 

Horatio over ground poles

 

Lake Effect “Bubble”

Longacres veterans know that we are just northeast of Lake Erie. That affects our weather in many ways. In winter, it dumps feet of snow on us (though not this year). In summer it often stabilizes the air and nearby thunder storms just miss us. There was a severe Thunder storm this morning that passed just five miles south of us along a lake breeze boundary. We got just a light shower. We are hoping for serious rain sometime this week to break our near draught and soften the ground for the horses. And keep the dust down in the arenas.

 

 

 

Monday, May 28^th, 10PM Update:

Odds ‘n Ends

We continue to make good progress painting & trimming. The place will look good when our first students arrive this weekend – you’ll like it. The horse of the day – this is tough because many of them showed us good performance – but I vote for Tux, with Ladd a close runner-up. Tux just behaved perfectly for Beta in the evening lesson. Willing, calm, well behaved. No naughty young horse friskyness! Ladd was just as good for Heather in the afternoon lesson. Coal had an allergy or dust issue, coughing some during the evening ride. Did not seem like a cold or other illness – just the very dry weather. Maggie looked a little off, so we gave her time off. John looked good and behaved well – he is a BIG horse! Rob repainted most of the black and red on the lighthouse jump. We will probably have more pictures to post later.

 

This link for more pictures from today!

 

Monday, May 28^th, 2PM Update:

Thanks to Volunteers & Staff!

Meghan and I love this time of year, even though it is very hard work. Opening up the farm for the season is like painting a picture, filling in one part of the canvas that is Longacres after another until the whole is done and ready for opening day. It is getting close. The barn is functioning and Heather & Colleen are doing a great job keeping it organized and training horses. The fields and trails are all getting mowed and trimmed. We will be ready next weekend.

 

We could not do it without great staff (thanks Heather & Colleen & all the support staff). We would have a hard time doing it without the many friends of Longacres who have found a place in their hearts for Longacres and who return year after year to volunteer and help out. Monica has been a priceless help at the barn. Nancy Zimmerman, Mark & Alexis come every year to help with the jumps and they were here today. Thanks to Matt Belz who washed dishes here when he was a kid and has helped us in many ways since. He volunteered himself and his crew to put the new roof on the dining hall this spring, and he brought over a load of pallets for the hay storage today – all as a friend of Longacres. We were also glad to see Sharon & Gerry when they dropped off Sharon’s riding stuff today – she is driving back to NJ after a trip and flying back here for adult week Thursday.

 

Picture of the day at this link.

 

Tom at the creek taking a break video here

 

The geldings all having fun in pasture here.

 

 

Sunday Evening, later:

Meghan gave me a few more pictures taken during Heather’s evening lesson. She was teaching Monica and Beta. Pictures here.

 

Sunday, May 27, 7PM Update:

Brody’s Back!

And he looks wonderful! You gave him a great winter home, Michelle. We’re glad he worked out so appropriately for you. Pictures of Brody at this link.

 

Sunday, May 27^th, 2PM Update:

First, check this link for more pictures from the past 24 hours:

 

New Horse Arrival at LA Procedure:

 

Today’s Update will be an explanation of the detailed procedure Meghan uses when new horses arrive at Longacres. Not just brand new horses – we go through this careful procedure for every one of our horses when they arrive here back at Longacres after being leased to a winter home. Meghan is a little worried that some of you will think she is nuts! Yes, it is true that you could run a barn with a much simpler procedure. You could take horses off the arriving van, lead them out to pasture or to their stall, and then whenever you have time, tack up and put them to work. Lots of barns work that way.

 

And lots of barns have most of their horses on site all the time year round, so this issue of evaluating each horse carefully does not come up so often. But this is how we do things, and we thought some of you would find it interesting. So here goes – this is Meghan’s check list and a few extra comments from me.

 

1.    Grass as soon as off trailer – make each horse glad it has arrived at Longacres by giving them five minutes to graze on our thick grass lawns.

 

2.    Soundness check - jog – this is usually part of the first grass treat. We want to know right away if a horse has a soundness issue or got hurt on the van.

 

3.    “Rental car” look over – we check over each horse as it comes off a van just as though we were checking in a rental car, if you’ve ever watched that process. We look the horse all over, inside the legs, under the mane, hoofs, soles and frogs – everything to look for cuts or injuries or other abnormalities not readily apparent.

 

4.    Stroll in front of barn, hill, around lower lawn next to barn – this is another step in making the horse feel at home, get a quick look at their new surroundings, and help them think the Longacres barn is their new home.

 

5.    Put in Stall. Deliver a handful of grain in the bucket. Top of stall door closed. Another horse next to them or across. Halter on whole first day and night – Another important step to making a new horse feel secure and at “home” in their stall in a new barn. That first handful of grain helps a lot. Keep any top half of stall doors closed in case a restless new horse might try to jump out. Make sure there is another horse in an adjacent stall to help these “herd animals” settle in.

 

6.    Leave them alone 2-3 hours – another step in settling in and feeling comfortable in the new surroundings before being put to work.

 

 

7.    First night inside (no turn out). “Nature walk” before staying in for the night unless came in after dark. Want to let the horse exercise some and get to know it’s surroundings before being cooped up! Lunging if time permits, but not a rule. – We don’t turn a horse out to pasture until it has spent at least one night in a stall so it will feel like the barn is home and not get excited or try to jump out of a strange pasture with strange horses.

 

8.    Next day: “Nature Walk” if not on day one – The “nature walk” is a Meghan Term meaning leading a horse all around the various riding fields and rings showing them anything unusual on the property – another important step in making them feel at home at the farm.

 

9.    “Walk the line” to show parameters of turn out pasture area. – The “walk the line” is something we do with all arriving horses before turning them out to pasture. We lead them around all the pasture fences letting them get accustomed to the electric tape, all the turns and different kinds of fences. We don’t know how much difference this really makes, but if we were horses, we’d like to be shown where we will be turned out before we are cut loose to gallop and buck and run.

 

10.“Meet & Greet” - Someone on totem pole lower and graze together in hand so the one already used to the pasture can be a friend for the new horse. – The “meet N Greet is introducing an arriving horse to a relatively calm and not aggressive horse already here that will be one of their pasture buddies. We do this with both horses on a lead rope with handlers. Just another step in a process of gradually making each new horse at ease here.

 

11.2-3 “trial turnout” in daylight with the lower on totem pole pasture mate or mates – first turnout is not overnight, but during daylight so we can keep an eye on how the new horse adjusts to pasture and their new pasture buddies.

 

12.2nd night get turned out if trial turn out went well. But first make sure (if it is a horse known to be dominant) that you also go through a “Meet & Greet” with the current high on totem pole where they can have their initial squeals and such in a controlled setting.

 

*Ridden only after turnout and flat only for the first ride

*Meghan or Tom will decide who rides the horse first

 

Entire analysis of horse’s condition upon arrival to be put in horse health log book: date of arrival, overall weight, any scars, any current cuts or other issues – define size and condition, how much grain they have been eating, how much access to grass have they had, when was last time trimmed/shod, shot records/notes, quick summary of previous work load to arrival, any other known major issues (if it is a new horse, you might need to note if it is an escape artist, etc.)

 

Summary: And you thought all we had to worry about at this time of year was painting jumps, exercising horses, setting up the show rings, and all the obvious jobs needed for openng the farm for the season? You can imagine how much time it takes to go through the entire process of checking in new horse according to the above check list for each and every horse that arrives!

Saturday, Late Evening Update:

For more of Meghan’s pictures from yesterday and today, check this link. The horses are all looking very good this year, as you can see! Our old friends returning from previous years are in good condition and we think you are really going to like the new horses we have either purchased ourselves or have here for sale or for training. It is a NICE herd!

 

We are always concerned with our horses soundness and condition when they return from a variety of different winter homes. Some have the winter pretty much off and must be conditioned. Others work all winter and need a little rest before serving our summer students. So we are on the lookout for problems. We have good fortune this year. Horses like Whitley that are sometimes tender when shod or have other sensitivities have been great. Whitley is in excellent condition. Boo has also had issues in the past, and we did think he looked just a little tender this morning, but was very willing when we got on him to check him out. Maggie and Lincoln both came in yesterday and had wild gallops around the pasture when they were first turned out here. Either they pulled muscles or had other adjustment issues, because they both looked a little off late last night when they were being checked after turn out. But they were both fine this morning, so we hope there will be no further issues with them. Both of them were sound always last season.

 

Other pleasant surprises include Ladd. He was a terrific pony for us last summer while we had him here being sold to a customer. When they plans changed during the winter we eagerly bought him back. We were concerned that at only 5 years old, he would be a handful at the beginning of our season, since he had very little work over the winter. But he has been an angel! Just a perfect ride, just like he was at the end of last summer in our Derby and at the Fair.

 

The Memorial Day Weekend is a little relaxed, though the barn continues to function and we are working horses every day. Heather had today off and Colleen will be off tomorrow. Thanks to Beta and Monica for stepping up and helping Colleen ride and take care of horses today!

  

Saturday, May 26^th Update:

Hi Cody!

We send out a Longacres “Hello” to Cody from Arizona. I spoke with her dad this morning and she is interested in the final spot in the June Clinic week. She lives right near where meghan and I sometimes have had Thanksgiving dinner when we wre in Arizona in the fall.

 

Whitley lookin’ Good

Check this video taken this morning of Whitley trotting in the ring. He was shod two days ago and he is sometimes tender after being shod – not this time. He has been fully sound since we got him back from Findlay. Bethany rode him and thought “maybe” he was a little short strided on one of his hind legs but I’m not sure. Anyway, we are very pleased at his condition.

 

Friday, May 25^th 11AM Update

Meghan tells me I am supposed to be “off” today taking it easy on my old bones, so this will be a short update.

 

Check this link for yesterday’s pictures

 

This video link for “massed jogging horses”

 

This video link for Horatio jumping with Alyssa – he looks great, thank you, Kellie!

 

This video link for a fun little jumping exercise with John, Ebony, Coal, and “almost” Rocky

 

Show Schedule

Get the full show schedule from the link on our home page. The first three shows are at Spruce Meadow in Clarence on June 16^th, here at Longacres on June 23^rd, and at Newstead Equestrian Center on June 30^th. Don’t miss the Summer Series shows!

 

Thursday, May 24^th, 11AM Update:

Guest Riders & Practice Lessons

Heather and Colleen are getting a chance to teach some practice lessons, since we have several guest riders in this week to help exercise horses. Monica is an adult we have known for years and has been coming over and volunteering every day. Alyssa is Molly’s owner and she is planning to stop over later today to exercise horses. We have plenty of horses here to be ridden this week. Call us if you are nearby and would like to stop and ride.

 

I took a few video clips in the morning ride.

 

Instructors practicing leading a mounted game

 

Whitley and Coal warm up jumps

 

Tee doing a warm up jump

 

Fun With Math

In case you missed last night’s update, be sure to check out the table of striding distances and the corresponding number of paces a rider would take walking those distances. If you’ve never done that kind of training before, it can be challenging – our instructors are working on this challenge! You guys at home can try to learn the striding tables before you come if you like – you will be exposed to the concept when you are here. I know, I know, you are done with school and math, but arithmetic is necessary in the real world, even in sports that you love.

 

Wednesday, May 23^rd, 10PM Update:

Texas Has Arrived!

Thank you Kellie & family for taking such good care of Tux, Ebony, and Horatio! The horses arrived about dinner time tonight and they look great. Each of those horses from Texas is great in their own way. Ebony is a reliable athlete, Tux is the talented but mischievious boy, and Horatio one of our most valued advanced jumpers. Kellie spends lots of time with Ebony and Tux – but we are especially grateful to Kellie and the “Hunn Ranch” for giving Horatio a relaxing, stress free winter home. This great horse does some big jumps and important show jumping classes in the summer and he stays sound and fresh for us because he has had such a great and relaxing winter home with Kellie. He was just floating when we jogged him this evening on the grass in front of the barn. We can’t wait to see him jump again!

 

Check here for pictures of the horses that arrived yesterday and this evening, including Merlin and Rocky.

 

The farm here at Longacres continues to look better and closer to opening day condition every day. The grass is mowed and green, Joel is fixing gates and fences, the counselors are getting the barn organized and cleaned up, the horses are getting exercise – We are just about ready to open. Just eleven days away!

 

wisdomWords of Wisdom

Every year we like to give first time Longacres students a hint of what we’ll be trying to teach you when you are here. I just found the following article I wrote before we opened two years ago and updated it a little. It’s a good summary of our lesson plans:

 

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 is two years old, but very relevant as we review changes in our lesson plans for each new season. One of my top priorities for this year is that our instructors make warm-up time at the beginning of lessons thought provoking and challenging.

 

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 2012 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 2012“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.

 

 

Striding tables

It is customary at horse shows to set lines of fences multiples of 12 feet apart. As a standard (not always true!) we assume that full size horses take a 12’ stride when cantering over normal size jumps. If we want a line of jumps to be 3 strides, we set them 48’ apart. That is three strides (36’), then another half stride for landing and a half stride for taking off.

 

Following is a table to figure distances. It is useful for a serious horseman to memorize this.

 

Strides             feet                  paces

 

Bounce            12                    4

1                      24                    8

2                      36                    12

3                      48                    16

4                      60                    20

5                      72                    24

6                      84                    28

7                      96                    32

8                      108                  36

 

Beyond 8 strides you are likely to be riding off your eye.

 

Wednesday, May 23^rd, 10AM Update:

More Horses are Here!

And even more coming over the next few days. First you will likely want to check this link for the pictures of Zanee, Ginger, and Mave arriving from Ohio. As you will see, they look gorgeous – very good winter care at Maypine stables. The photo album also shows Molly arriving with her owner and trainer, Barb GLica – BZG to the thousands who know her well! There are also pictures of me leading Heather and Colleen on yesterday’s trail tour.

 

We jogged Whitley for soundness this morning with his one front shoe missing. We think he looks very sound for a horse with one shoe off – check the video below. We’ll post another video after he gets his missing shoe back on. All in all, Whitley seems very happy and healthy here this spring. There are other video’s from last night below. Don’t miss the Coal Train on the bank video! First time he ever was asked to jump a bank, at least in English tack. It took only three gentle tries. First time he just stopped and started eating the grass on the bank. The second try he put one front foot up on the bank, thought about it, and stepped back down. The third try you will see on the video. This is a fast learning horse!

 

Whitley Jogging for soundness with one shoe gone

 

John during last night’s evening ride

 

Avalon during evening ride

 

Coal Train during evening ride

 

Coal on the bank jump!!!!

 

Tuesday, May 22^nd, 5PM Update:

Heather’s “Leap of Faith”!

We did our first trail rides this afternoon to teach our new staff how to do the trail systems without getting lost. We have a lot of trails, and they can be confusing for newcomers! But before you even get to the tricky trails, you must cross the little creek behind Pegasus bunk. It is an easy gravel crossing with just a trickle of water. But it was enough so that Tee was not eager to cross, since the trails were new to this horse. I had to get off my ATV ( did I mention that I was leading the trail ride on my ATV?) and shoe Tee across the water. Even with me behind her, she hesitated until she finally gave a mighty leap, clearing the creek by a good five or six feet, and was ready to continue! Pretty exciting for Heather! So for the rest of the summer, that creek crossing behind Pegasus will be known as Heather’s Leap of Faith crossing.

 

Colleen rode Banjo, and he is a great trail horse. He is willing to go forward and did not mind the water, but he does not race to catch up if he isn’t leading. He will be very popular for trails. We covered just about every trail during our 45 minutes or so out, most of the time at a strong trot keeping up with Tom on the ATV.

 

Out on the old hunt course, Banjo and Tee both jumped the stone & log jump and the keyhole jump through the evergreen trees – which needs trimming – it almost scraped the girls off their horses! Video at this link.

 

Ginger, Zanzibar, and Mave

These mares are arriving at the barn right about now. Meghan is down at the barn now to greet them and check them out after their long van ride from Ohio. They spent the winter at Maypine Stables as lesson horses, where Zanee was one of the most popular horses. (You can imagine why, right Valerie?) We’ll get some pictures tomorrow, maybe even tonight.

 

Guest Riders

We are still looking for people to join us and help exercise the new horses during the two weeks before we open. Monica K. is an adult rider who used to show at Longacres and she is coming over tonight. We invited Molly’s owner if she has time, and Dana might come all the way from Pa next week to help us ride. Let us know if YOU want to join us.

 

Tuesday, May 22^nd, 1PM Update:

Molly Arrives

We’ll have pictures later today, but “Molly Jumper Pony” arrived today. Molly’s owner, Alyssa (did I spell your name right?), owns several horses including a really nice one she is concentrating on this show season. Alyssa wants Molly to be someplace where she is appreciated and given a useful job. We’re glad that Alyssa picked Longacres – this looks like a NICE pony! Pictures to come. Alyssa might stop by to visit Molly and perhaps help us school some of our other horses. You’re welcome any day, Alyssa.

 

Whitley – Now We Will Find Out

- - - if he is going to be a sound horse or not this summer. He has been perfect since returning from Findlay College – you would never know he can be sensitive and go “off” sometimes. But today he threw a shoe in pasture. For most horses that would be no big deal. But Whitley has always been very sensitive to shoeing changes and often gets tender for a few days if the shoeing isn’t done just so. We plan to have the shoe replaced tomorrow. Stay tuned to see if Whitley responds well to the shoeing.

 

Coal and John had good workout yesterday. John had a light jumping session this morning and Colleen and Heather say he behaved very well and was not difficult to jump. It was just little stuff, so we will challenge him a little more next time. But we plan to keep him on an easy schedule since he has some thoroughbred issues if he is worked too hard. We’ll probably have him on a schedule kind of like Bristol, one of our other great big horses that we treat gently.

 

Monday, May 21^st, 9PM Update:

Every day things look better, the horses settle in more, and we are a few steps closer to opening day. Check this link for a video of Colleen and Heather riding John and Coal this evening. And check this link for some pictures taken this evening around the farm, including a great rainboew after a little shower.

 

(And, if you want to know what has really excited me this week almost as much as the great horse happenings - - - check this link for a video Meghan took of me flying my model helicopter yesterday – it only took me two years and 1000 flights to learn to do this – and I have a LOT still to learn! Not much time to practice this time of year when I’m mowing grass and watching horses work all day.)

 

Horses, Horses, Horses!

We’ve had six or seven horses in early this week, but a lot more are coming tomorrow and the rest of the coming week. Zanzibar, Ginger, and Mave are coming in tomorrow and then more every day. We’ll post pictures. If I can find the album on the computer after I post this update, I’ll post some more pictures we took of “Tee” at this link.

 

Even more pictures from Meghan’s Camera tonight at this link.

 

Monday, May 21^st 1PM Update:

Back to Work

Yes, back to work after a relaxing day Sunday. Relaxing for most of us, with Heather home graduating from College and Colleen on her day off. But Beta and Danielle put in a lot of Sunday hours painting jumps! Those pictures and others at this link today. Meghan and I had some time to ourselves and took 45 minutes to ride around all the farm trails on the ATV, just to enjoy the beauty of Longacres on a very fine spring day. Well, almost “just to enjoy” – we did at the last minute take a chainsaw and trimming cutters with us and somehow our relaxing ride included a dozen or more stops to trim out logs or pricker bushes along the trails – can’t just WASTE 45 minutes!

 

Today included catching up on horsecare, moving some of the manure pile with the tractor, mowing both rings and trails for me, a video training lesson for Heather and Colleen, exercising horses (Avalon and Banjo first), and shopping for supplies. Meghan and the instructors are now meeting every day orienting them to the way we do things and talking about the new horses.

 

More to come later today. So far we have seen none of the rain shower activity promised – we now need some rain – do a rain dance for us!

 

About 13 Days Until First Students Arrive!

 

Saturday, May 19^th, 2PM Update:

Bethany’s Visit

Coal Jumps!

It’s hard to let great staff get away with escaping from Longacres and moving on with their lives to new experiences, but it is a part of running a seasonal business like the Longacres Riding Camp. But losing great staff is a little easier when they remain good friends and come back for visits, as Bethany did today. She spent all morning with us and rode Whitley and Coal Train. She made them both look good, as she always does when she rides. We caught up on news with her family while she rode. There are lots of Bethany riding pictures in today’s album at this link.

 

Colleen did a nice job jumping Banjo this morning. We are getting to know him along with the other new horses, and you are going to like him. He is a willing jumper, but very easy going about it and easy to control. Avalon jumps just as well, but is a little strong after the jumps.

 

Bethany also gave Coal his first real jumping opportunity. He is very willing, though with no real jumping in his background, he doesn’t quite know what to do after the jump to look organized! But he is taking to it like a duck to water. Most of what Coal needs is a little time being ridden by English riders who have a light contact with the bit – he is used to western pleasure riding.

 

We are getting calls from friends of Longacres interested in helping out before camp opens and exercising horses. Dana H. called this afternoon and might come up for two days to ride and help out. Alexis and her family may also come and help set up the jumps next week or the following week.

 

Whitley Still Looking Good

Bethany was especially interested in checking on Whitley, since he is a favorite of both Bethany and some of her friends. She rode him, did an easy flying lead change the first try, and jumped him over some little jumps. We are still conditioning Whitley after he took time off this spring at Findlay College, so we didn’t want to do serious jumping. I though Whit looked very good the whole ride. We are concerned with his soundness since he is known for being sensitive and having some issues. Staring at him move at a trot at the beginning of the ride, I could almost convince myself that he was moving just barely short in his hind quarters and at the end of the ride, Bethany said she thought maybe the same thing. But she said he was perfect at a canter and jumping and especially felt good the second part of her ride. We’ll keep “friends of Whit” at home posted on his daily progress. I watched him gallop, play, and trot all over the pasture early this morning and he was sound as a dollar out there!

 

There will be Whitley video’s posted here soon.

 

Whitley Jumping

 

Whitley #2

 

Whitley Flying Change

 

Colleen & Banjo Jumping

 

Friday, May 18^th, 9PM Update:

Bethany’s Coming to Visit!

We had a pleasant surprise in the email inbox tonight when Bethany wrote to ask if she could come and help us exercise horses tomorrow. “Of course!”, we replied. It isn’t every day that you have a rider of Bethany’s caliber offer to exercise your horses. She has a busy show schedule this summer, but we knew she would find a way to visit. We just didn’t know that it would happen before we were even open! We also suspect that she is coming partly as an emissary of “friends of Whitley”. Yes, she will get to ride Whit tomorrow, so long as he continues to look as sound and healthy as he has every day since returning to us last week.

 

The weather here at Longacres continues to be outstanding. It will be another good week for getting work done. The mess from replacing the dining hall shingles should be cleaned up over this weekend. The shutters were taken down a few days ago, the screens are up, and it is just about ready to feed all of you.

 

We are still busy painting jumps. Every jump in the farm will be repainted by the end of June at the latest. And Joyce’s husband, Tim, is going to be building four new coop style jumps, which we will paint as brick walls or stone walls and maybe one or two with other patterns.

 

We have caught a break on grass mowing. We are near draught conditions from the lack of recent rain, which has really slowed down the grass growth. Most years during May we have to mow everything every three days. We are ahead of the game right now with everything mowed well. Some needed rain is forecast for Tuesday and Wednesday, and if we get much, the grass will shoot up again fast and put me in the tractor seat full time for a few days!

 

 

Friday, May 18^th, 4PM Update:

An Easy Day

We worked hard and long yesterday and Meghan was up until 1AM in the office. So we earned a bit of a “rest” today. We took one of our country drives after breakfast this morning, ran some errands picking up machine parts, stopped at a garden center and picked up a flat of Impatiens for the office garden, and then back to regular work. Along the way I took a couple of nice pictures of some flowering trees and wild flowers, and a few of Colleen riding Avalon at this link.

 

Anyone Want a Riding Counselor Job?

Not here at Longacres! We have good ones and are all set. But the counselors we have are so good that we have a problem. We hired Heather to work just the first half of the season and then other good counselors come in to take her place for the second half of the summer. Thing is, she’s too good for us to let her go without a fight! After we signed her up for a 6 week stint, she got another job at another camp for the rest of the summer. We would love to find someone who still needs a summer job so that we can negotiate with that other camp to release Heather from her contract so she can work for us the full summer. So if you know someone with horse experience who would like to work at a general camp with lots of activities and a small riding program as one of the activities, have them call us and we can try to get them in as a replacement for Heather at that camp. HELP! We WANT Heather for the full summer!

 

Thursday, May 17, 5PM Update:

Pictures of Avalon

Colleen did a nice job of training Avalon this afternoon. The horse has a willing and bold jump, but can get a little strong after the jump. We did lots of work trotting a jump and coming right down to a trot or a walk after. By the time Colleen was done - - - well, check the pictures at this link.

 

Thursday, May 17^th, 4PM Update:

Colleen & Beta Taking Care of Horses!

Heather has a couple of days off for her graduation events, so Colleen and Beta will be doing the horse stuff for the next couple of days. Hurry back, Heather!

 

Check this link for a few more horse pictures from this week.

 

Babies!

A pair of geese often adopt our pond and lay eggs about this time of year. The little geeslets hatched yesterday and are VERY cute. If I act fast, I might be able to get some nice pictures for you. But the little ones disappear quickly every time the geese lay eggs here. We think that they are bite sized for the big turtles in our pond. Sad. But nature’s way.

 

Thursday, May 17^th, 1PM Update:

Want to Ride?

We’re looking for exercise riders and guinea pigs for our instructors to practice their teaching skills on. We wish some of this year’s students lived close by and could take part! But we do have readers who live in the area, and if any of you would like to stop by and ride with Colleen and Heather, give us a call. It would be either mid morning (10 or 11AM), or in the evening (7PM). We’d expect you to also help with feeding and turnout of the horses if you take us up on the free riding.

 

Everything Looking Good!

The camp is in operation with most of the important work finished almost three weeks before the first students arrive. Colleen and Heather are hard at work training and conditioning horses, conditioning themselves, learning our teaching philosophy and methods, and sleeping VERY WELL after long days at the barn. Check this link for pictures from last night and this morning.

 

The horses here early are all looking really, really good. Check the pictures! We especially compliment Findlay College for their excellent care of our horses and theirs. They do a good job and we look forward to trading horses back and forth with Findlay more each year.

 

We are pleased with the work ethics of our first two horse staff (who are new to us this year), AND the work ethic of all our support staff who have worked so hard to refurbish and improve the Longacres facilities for this banner year of a full house all summer.

 

Wednesday, May 16^th, 2PM Update:

Heather rode Banjo and Whitley this morning and they both went well. We are going to have some NICE new additions to the Longacres herd for this summer, in addition to all your old friends from previous years returning!

 

Wednesday, May 16^th, 8AM Update:

Horses at Play

Sometimes when we are working hard for months to plan and organize the summer season, we forget how simply beautiful horses are when they are turned out to a fresh green pasture and simply allowed to be horses! After letting them settle in for a night, we turned most of them out yesterday afternoon when Colleen arrived. They exploded with pent up energy, galloping around and around the pasture! I did not video the best of it, but check this link and this link for a few clips as they were winding down. We will find out just how sound some of our more “sensitive” horses are this morning after they really stretched their muscles last night!

 

We’ll post some video of Coal Train later today. More updates to come later.

 

Coal Train & TW video here

 

Whitley jogging sound after the hard gallops in pasture last night, here and here

 

Not sure if I already posted this video of John & Banjo in pasture

 

Tuesday, May 15^th, 10PM Update:

“Coal Train”

Meet Longacres newest horse at this link! His old name was “Smoke”, but Meghan likes “Coal Train”, and that is what he will be known as during his Longacres career. More details tomorrow. Meghan is still down at the barn settling him in!

 

Spruce Meadow Show

The season opener for the Summer Series shows will be at Spruce Meadow Stables in Clarence, NY on Saturday, June 16^th. Erin, Karla, and the crew at Spruce Meadow have supported the Summer Series shows for years and we look forward to showing at their place for the first time on the 16^th. They have made many recent improvements, with an all new main barn in the past two years and a brand new indoor arena just completed last month. They want folks planning to attend the show to know that their main outdoor ring is dirt and has some rocks in it. They promise a massive “rock picking” the week before the show, but if you really need a sand ring or grass, we just want you to know what to expect at Spruce Meadow. We’re taking all our horses and are looking forward to it. The prize list will be posted here soon, but will be very similar to the Longacres class list. Here is the Spruce Meadow website link.

 

Welcome Colleen!

We enjoyed showing barn manager Colleen and her family around Longacres this afternoon when they stopped by. Colleen moves in for the rest of the summer tomorrow afternoon.

 

Tuesday, May 15^th, 3PM Update:

Video!

The following video’s were all taken this morning at the Longacres barn:

Whitley

John

John under Saddle

Avalon

Avalon under Saddle

Banjo

TW

 

Tuesday, May 15^th, Noon Update:

Horse Pictures!

Check this link for great horse pictures taken this morning at Longacres. All the horses looked sound and in great shape. ESPECIALLY Whitley!! Video is coming later today. Check back often.

 

We are on our way to Spruce Meadow to talk about a show this afternoon. Will post the video when we return and meet Colleen and her family.

 

Monday, May 14^th, 10PM Update:

Horses, Horses!

Let’s not waste any time – go to this link!

 

I’ll have to wait until tomorrow morning to get a picture of John – he was happy in his stall. Boo and all the other horses arriving from a winter at Findlay College looked GREAT – they sure feed well there! Avalon is cute – “Banjo” is VERY cute, but I don’t know how hard it is going to be to groom him after a good roll in the mud! And Whitley - - -

 

The Saga of Whitley

It will be a Saga by the end of this summer. As we have announced, Whitley is for sale – he is the most expensive horse we ever bought at Longacres, and he is wonderful. But he is sensitive and has issues with being sound if not shod exactly right. And he is hard to ride to get the best out of him. We have come to the conclusion that he is just one of those horses who will be happier with one owner than getting bounced around from summer to winter homes with different people. And several girls really love him so we are sure he will get a good home. We were curious how sound he would be tonight when arriving home from a long van ride.

 

Knock, knock, so far, so good. Check this link for a video of Whitley jogging in the barn half an hour ago. It is dark, but a good way to evaluate the video is to just watch Whitley’s white face and it does not bob up and down at all. If this horse is lame, he is so very slightly off that I can’t tell anything. We’ll check him out at greater length tomorrow. But he looks good. And his condition – WOW! He is shiny and well fed. I am sure we will have issues with Whitley if we keep him all summer – he is sensitive and needs care. But right now he sure looks good! We’ll post another longer daylight video tomorrow, sound or not. We will let Whitley’s friends see his progress daily, time permitting.

 

Monday, May 14^th, 6PM Update:

Heather is Here!

Heather arrived safely at Longacres and is already working with Meghan checking in horses. They are at the barn with John right now, and more horses will come in later tonight. Check this video of Heather taking her stuff to her cabin by wheelbarrow – MANY more wheelbarrow loads of “stuff” will be taken to the bunks in the next three months!!!!!

 

Monday, May 14^th, 10AM Update:

Today is the Day!!!!!!!

We have about six more hours to organize a few more things before we welcome Heather at about 5PM and our first load of horses not long after. Horses arriving today include John, Whitley, Boo, Avalon, Sadie, and first thing tomorrow morning, “TW”, and Smoke might come tomorrow or maybe the next day. You say you don’t recognize most of those names? You are correct, all except Whitley and Boo are new to Longacres this year. We like to get new horses in as early as possible so we can school and condition them and our staff can get to know them.

 

We will post lots of pictures tomorrow, maybe even some tonight if things happen early enough! Stay tuned!!!!!

 

Sunday, May 13^th, 9PM Update:

One Day to Go!

First of all, many thanks to Joyce, Tim, Danielle, Beta, and Rob, all of whom gave up parts of their Mother’s Day to put some last minute touches on camp preparations before our first horses and staff arrive tomorrow. We will be ready for “Heathers & Horses”!

 

Horse News:

And there will be horses! We are going ahead with trying out “John”, whose pictures and video we posted last night. Peter Anderson is dropping him off tomorrow afternoon. And there is fresh horse news, hot off the press, as it were: WE BOUGHT SMOKE! You may remember stories about and pictures of Smoke some weeks ago. We were not quite able to make a deal to buy this promising horse then, but things worked out after all and Meghan just got an email saying that our offer was accepted. He is a gelding with a golden kind temperament, much like Horatio is on the ground. He comes from the same stable that sold us Brody and has been there three years, so they know him well. We will be training him to jump, but he has both English and western experience on the flat with lots of trails and pleasure riding. Just the kind of horse we like to buy – not messed up by someone else’s too aggressive jumping training, and ready to learn our system. Meghan is stoked!

 

We did not get any of the rain that was expected for today and tonight, so things are starting to get too dry. Conditions are fine right now, but we could use some rain. Some is expected on Wednesday and we’ll hope that it comes then.

 

Horse Pictures

I can’t promise horse pictures tomorrow night, since the horses may be coming in near dark, but we will surely post pictures on Tuesday.

 

Can’t Wait to Welcome Heather & Colleen!

Meghan has talked with both of our new instructors at great length on the phone, but we will be meeting them in person for the first time this week. Can’t wait to meet you tomorrow, Heather. And you on Wednesday, Colleen!

 

Speaking of Colleen

We just might have two Colleens for the first week in June. Our Barn Manager Colleen will be here working, and Meghan spent a lot of time yesterday on the phone with a New York City lawyer named Colleen who is very interested in joining us for Adult Week. Meghan and Colleen hit it off well, but there are a couple of scheduling issues to be resolved. We hope it works out for you, Colleen.

 

Peter Anderson

Those of you who have been coming to Longacres before know a bit about Peter Anderson. Peter is a well respected trainer and professional rider from our part of New York. He does us a favor by coming in a couple of times a year as a guest instructor, as he will next month beginning with a visit during Adult Week. Several years ago we bought Zanee from Peter, and she has been an amazing horse. He is sending us “John” this summer to try out. Peter now has a sponsor and is doing very high level dressage riding. Check this video link of Peter riding. We thank him for taking time out of his busy schedule to be a guest instructor at Longacres again this summer!

 

Fosto

We got a great and long message from Laura “Fosto” bringing us up to date on her life. She is a serious rower – as in crew. She trains at a high level and has qualified for some national competitions and training this summer. She hopes to row in Europe and - - well, the sky is the limit. We love to hear about her boating successes, but I most of all enjoyed reading the following paragraph at the end of her update:

 

“I read your mention of "John". Since he is so large, maybe "Little John", like the character in Robin Hood, if he comes to Longacres? Just a thought. I can't exactly express how excited I am for the 2012 Longacres season over email, but THERE'S ONE MORE DAY TO GO!!!!! Longacres has been, and hopefully will continue to be, such a positive part of my life and such a significant part of my growing up. I feel that every summer I spend at Longacres winds down with not only tears, but also with a growth within myself. Since my first summer here, in 2005, I know that I've grown in confidence and maturity, and that quite a bit of that growth is due to Longacres. I don't know just yet when I'll be able to visit, but I know I will visit. As I've said (somewhere in this ridiculously long email) summer simply isn't summer without Longacres.”

 

Thanks, Laura – reading words like those make our job worth while!

 

Also thanks today go out to Peyton, who sent Meghan a “Mom’s Day Greeting”. You should have seen Meghan when she read your message, Peyton. We do like hearing from old Longacres friends like Fosto and Peyton. We have more good news from friends of Longacres. Last summer’s head counselor, Mandi, has a flexible schedule this summer and is very interested in coming up for possibly a couple of weeks to visit and help out this year’s staff and see some of her rider friends from last summer. We’re trying to work out the best dates.

 

Saturday, May 12^th, 10 PM Update:

Two Days to Go!

The 2012 season at Longacres will be officially under way in two more days, when the first load of horses returns from their winter homes and Heather, our first instructor, arrives. Whitley and Boo and two new horses from Findlay College arrive on Monday evening, about the same time as Heather drives in from her home in Massachusetts. We can’t wait to have horses in the pasture!

 

We have been busy every day this week, but especially today. Meghan had about ten people working around the farm today. Matt and two of his crew were up on the dining hall roof all afternoon and they finished the new roof on the east side of the building. All they have to do now is clean up the mess at the beginning of this coming week. Joyce and Tim, our food service folks, worked a good part of the day cleaning and organizing inside the dining hall and kitchen. Joyce has many years of experience at Longacres, and she knows what to do.

 

Danielle and Rob worked together at the barn moving, cleaning, and painting jumps. Last year our jumps were in good shape from the previous year, so we just touched up the paint where needed. This year we are repainting EVERYTHING! Every stand and every rail will have new paint. Check our pictures from today at this link. There are some pictures of the jumps being set up for painting, and there are some pictures of “John”.

 

“John”

At about 17 hands, perhaps we should call him “Big John”, but Meghan may give him a new name all together if he comes to Longacres from Peter Anderson’s stable. Meghan spent a part of this morning with Peter checking him out. He is a 10 year old gelding with lots of talent. He was a race horse until six and won a lot of money. He has some thoroughbred wear and tear on him from the long racing career, so we will have to see how he holds up soundness wise, but he is a nice horse, as you can see from the pictures, and from this video.

 

New Hay Storage

Meghan tries to make some improvement every year that will just help make the horse care work a little bit easier. It will always be hard work caring for enough horses to let you ride five hours a day, but there are little things that can help. This year’s project was enlarging and leveling the hay storage area for the Orchard Pasture. Joel and I worked together this morning taking up the old wooden pallets in that area and then enlarging the storage space and leveling it with my tractor. It has much more space for hay now and it will be better leveled making it easier to stack and move the hay around.

 

Tom in the Woods

After working on the hay storage rack, I took my tractor and the big chain saw out on the trails in the woods and spent over an hour cutting out brush and a huge tree that had fallen across one of the trails over near Maple Grove Loop. Meghan is always uncomfortable when I work with chain saws at my age, so I told her about it when I was done. I had planned to do the job with Rob next week and thought I was just going to get a head start this morning. But things went well and half way through the job I told myself, “You know, Tom, I bet if we paced ourselves and take a little break now and then, we could clear the whole trail this morning ourselves.” So that’s what I did. I am paying for it now, with some very sore arm and back muscles! But I did it.

 

Friday, May 11^th, 11AM Update:

Three Days to Go!

The weather looks excellent for Heather, Colleen, and the first returning horses during the coming week. It will be pleasant conditions for the girls to learn the ropes at Longacres. With luck, we will have the mess from the dining hall roofing project cleaned up by the time they arrive. The farm is pretty well mowed and trimmed up now for Heather’s Monday arrival, though we won’t have the little finishing touches like weed trimming under the fences done. Those fine tuning touches will wait until our first students arrive in two weeks. THEN, we will pull out all the stops!

 

We should have another update later today. We left all the power, water, and hot water heaters on overnight last night for the first time and nothing is leaking today. That’s one of our important benchmarks in opening for the summer.

 

Thursday, May 10^th, 10 PM Update:

Four Days to Go!

I know, I know, I said “Five Days to Go” two days ago, so it should be three now. But consistency is the province of small minds. It depends whether you count the day horses arrive on Monday or not. Anyway, we will have horses and summer staff here SOON!!!!!

 

Busy

Sorry for no update yesterday, but it has been busy here. Very busy. Over the past two days we have mowed all the grass again, finished final testing of the shower and dining hall plumbing and water heaters, started leaving the electricity and water turned on 24 hours a day after testing for a week first, final testing of the power and water at the barn and cabins, had feed for the horses delivered, cleaned out more drainage ditches and trimmed bridal path trails, Joyce & Tim cleaned and prepped the showers and bathrooms, did a massive scraping and prep of the dining hall ceiling before new paint, preliminary cleaning of the kitchen (waiting for final cleaning until the final part of the new roofing is done on the weekend), Danielle & Rob finished setting up the pastures, stripped the old electric fence tape from part of the Orchard Pasture getting ready for a new section of tape, did safety check of horse stalls for first arrivals, cleaned up the counselor office, main tack room, camper tack room, and the feed room, so they would be ready for Heather & Colleen to have “functionability” to clean and inventory tack and other horse equipment, moved many jumps out of the barn aisle to the porch for painting the rails, carried jump rails outside and cleaned them in prep for painting tomorrow, set up drop clothes for painting, Meghan spent lots of time organizing where horses will spend NEXT winter (believe it or not, we have to start on that NOW!), organized final shipping plans to get horses back here over the next two weeks from their homes all over the country, put in an offer to buy another new horse, made plans with Peter Anderson to go look at one of his horses on Saturday (the guy we bought Zanzibar from), ordered Port-o-potties (IMPORTANT!), put in bank deposits, wrote up the work schedule for the coming week, worked on the horse show schedule (still a few loose ends), worked on a retirement plan for Rocky to free up space for some of our new horses, signed up a new student and took care of paperwork for several girls who recently signed up, Rob trimmed some more trails, Tom did the mowing previously mentioned (hours of it!), worked on clearing a big fallen tree on one of the trails, greased the big tractor and mower, trimmed tree branches growing over trails near the dining hall and on the lower field, filled some small potholes in roads, fixed and flew one of his model helicopters!, helped Meghan with some maintenance plans, Joel and Meghan made plans for fixing the Pegasus door step and a new door on Esseress bunk, and - - - - - well, you guys get the idea - - and that’s just the past three days!

 

Pictures

Check this link for some pictures taken today around the farm showing some of our progress. And we promise that in four more days you will be getting regular pictures of horses and riders! One of the pictures shows Tom holding some really cool water bottles that were donated by one of our student’s family. They are high quality metal and they have Longacres Riding Camp printed on them, and hooks for your belt loop. And they did not just donate the four bottles Tom is modeling – there are enough to give one to every single Longacres student when you arrive as a “hello” present! Very generous of this family who prefer to make the gift anonymously! This has been a good week for generous offers from friends of Longacres. Matt Belz is donating the labor of his crew for putting the new roof on the dining hall, also!

 

Tuesday, May 8^th, 9PM Update:

Five Days to Go!

Peyton

Is

Back !!!

It’s late tonight so many of the details will have to be told in a longer post tomorrow, but Peyton from Texas, one of the most popular students in Longacres history and a girl we taught to ride from complete beginner to Derby class winner in 7 weeks, has taken the teaching intern job that was open from June 15 to July 8^th. Yippee, Yahoo, Yea!!! Peyton knows all about what it takes to learn to ride as a beginner, and her special job those weeks will be watching over and giving encouragement to our younger students. (And for our older students, Peyton is FUN!) Hey Ryan, Peyton is from Dallas, and I know you will enjoy being buddies with her at Longacres and beyond! This article about Peyton will be updated with lots more info and a video tomorrow!

 

I found it - Check this video link for a movie of Peyton winning the low section of the Longacres Jumper Derby in 2006 when she was 12 years old and had only been riding for 7 weeks in her entire life, maybe only six, all at Longacres! Peyton is now 18 and attending college in the fall.

 

“Digger”

Meghan went to meet Digger, a gelding that is being sent to Longacres for experience by good friends of the farm. He is a very nice looking horse and loves people. Check this link for some pictures – I may not get them posted until tomorrow morning, but I will put them up soon. I will also have a video at this video link later on.

 

Welcome Mya!

Mya is from Ohio, age 13, and will be joining us for two weeks in June as Longacres 2012 student #44. Mya is an experienced rider who can tell her leads without looking, and is looking forward to the variety and challenges of riding at Longacres. Meghan and I met Mya and her mom in Ohio on our way home from Texas last week – thanks for dinner, guys!

 

Welcome Avital!

Natalia’s sister, Avital, has decided to join her for a week at Longacres in June and she will be Longacres 2012 student #45. She has good riding experience and we’re glad she was able to fit in a week at Longacres – she goes to several different kinds of camps! Natalia and Avital are twins, age 14.

 

A “Hello” to Liana from Carolina!

Liana is a 14 year old Pony Clubber from North Carolina who is interested in two weeks in June. It may not work out because of graduation party conflicts, but we have our fingers crossed. Liana’s experience sounds much like the other students who will be here those two weeks.

 

Monday, May 7^th Update:

Six Days to Go!

In another week, you guys will get to see pictures of horses and riding posted just about every night, instead of boring pictures of us getting the farm ready for the summer. In the meantime, you’re stuck with just Meghan and I. Check this video link for me talking about mowing in the rain today. Check this video link for a shot Meghan took showing me in my tractor talking to you guys about the summer.

 

We got a nice message from Bethany the other day telling about some of her great rides recently. Holly is really doing well this winter and spring and won a bunch of classes for Bethany. Bethany will be doing a lot of shows and working with Dave Kendrick; she is doing very well with Dave and we’re glad we were able to introduce her to him when we showed down that way two years ago. It has worked out well. Bethany is very likely to come for a visit sometime over the summer.

 

“Dear Old Longacres”

When Colleen sent in her contract to work as an instructor, she included a picture and scribbled the following message on the back: “Dear Old Longacres, cheers to a full summer’s journey together. Cannot wait! Sincerely, Colleen”

 

Meghan showed me the picture and the message and told me, “I really enjoy talking with Colleen – she has a nice sense of humor and writing to us as Dear Old Longacres is a good example of the way she talks.”

 

I thought for a moment and answered Meghan, “What do you mean? Obviously this is a personal message to me!”

 

Sunday, May 6^th, 10 PM Update:

Seven Days Until Horses & Heather!

We’re really counting down now, with less than a week to go until Heather and the first horses arrive. Very exciting. Check this link for some pictures taken around the farm today, mostly of Matt & his crew putting the new roof on the dining hall. There goes one of your tuitions!

 

Joel had very good luck so far turning on the water system for the summer. Since we close in the winter, we always have some broken pipes or leaks from the very cold weather bursting pipes that don’t completely drain in the fall. But Joel easily fixed the very few leaks we found. The refrigerator, freezer, and stoves in the kitchen all seem to work, though we have to do some more testing to make sure something doesn’t fail right after we start cooking!

 

I mowed lots more grass today after doing a mower repair yesterday. Most of the riding areas have now been mowed at least twice. I also mowed the old hunt course and the paddock at the Old Barn today.

 

Meghan spent most of her day putting up new shades and curtains on the bedroom here at the house so that if I get cranky during the summer, she can lock me up and make me take a long nap. (Hmmmmn - -maybe if I act just a little cranky, I can get out of work some afternoon?)

 

The weather was simply wonderful today. We enjoyed it the best we could, since it is going to turn dreary for much of this week, with some heavier rains tomorrow night. I missed the “Super Full Moon” last night. I did look out the window and saw how bright it was, but I was tired and told myself I would go outside and enjoy the sight the next night – which is tonight – which is cloudy outside. Oh, well.

 

Friday, May 4^th, 6PM Update:

We are Home!

Nine Days to Go!

Heather and the first horses arrive in NINE DAYS! Colleen arrives two days later, along with more horses. We are hard at work, and when we got home yesterday we were excited to see all that Joel, Danielle, and the crew had accomplished. The cabins are cleaned, the electricity is turned on, and we began turning on the water system this afternoon. The pasture is fully repaired from winter damage and the electric fencers are working properly. Heather could arrive tomorrow and Longacres would be ready for her to go to work!

 

I’ve only been here for a day and a half, but have already mowed three quarters of the riding fields. Then a bearing on the big mower went out early this afternoon in the middle of doing the lawn in front of the barn. Fortunately, Meghan had given me a powerful impact wrench for Christmas, so it was easy to get the old bearing off the mower and our tractor dealer is having a new one shipped in next day air so that I can keep mowing over the weekend. Just need to make a trip to the tractor place tomorrow morning.

 

Sleeping in the RV

Our trip the past week was to Texas to drive the RV home from where we stored it last fall after our “hi guys” trip to meet our new Texas students. We set aside nine days to make the trip in easy stages, but even taking extra time to drive almost entirely on two lane country roads, we got home two days earlier than scheduled. Meghan and I like camping in the RV on trips, so the past two nights we have been “pretending” to still be on the road. After we finish in the office, we take the RV down to the barn and park next to the pasture for the night listening to the tree frogs and other sounds of nature, which included a spectacular lightning display last night. We might do that one more night this evening before turning off the RV appliances and moving back into our house! We have been pretending to hear the horses grazing and squeeling the past two nights – in nine more days it will be for real.

 

I’ll try to post an album of pictures at this link later tonight if we don’t camp in the RV again. There will be lots more news every day now as the season gets closer!

 

Monday, April 23^rd Update:

Temporary Blog Link

Meghan and I will be out of town for a few days driving the RV back from where it is stored during the winter. As usual when we travel, it is easier to update Tom’s personal blog at this link. Check there for updates until next week.

 

Friends of Mill Road

We went to a meeting of the “Friends of Mill Road” group today. It is a good cause, working to preserve an important piece of Open Space on the road from town out to Longacres. Many old friends of Longacres know the view well. If you’re interested, check the website and see if you can help out a good cause.

 

Saturday, April 21, 6PM:

Winter Storm?

...WINTER STORM WATCH IN EFFECT FROM SUNDAY EVENING THROUGH

MONDAY EVENING...

 

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN BUFFALO HAS ISSUED A WINTER STORM

WATCH...WHICH IS IN EFFECT FROM SUNDAY EVENING THROUGH MONDAY

EVENING.

 

* LOCATIONS...SOUTHERN ERIE AND WYOMING COUNTIES AND THE WESTERN

SOUTHERN TIER

 

* TIMING...SUNDAY EVENING THROUGH MONDAY.

 

* HAZARDS...ACCUMULATING HEAVY WET SNOW.

 

* ACCUMULATIONS...10 TO 16 INCHES.

 

* WINDS...NORTHEAST TO 40 MPH.

 

* VISIBILITIES BELOW A HALF MILE AT TIMES.

 

* IMPACTS...WIDESPREAD DOWNED TREES AND POWER LINES CAUSING POWER

OUTAGES. HAZARDOUS DRIVING CONDITIONS DEVELOPING.

 

* FORECASTER CONFIDENCE...HIGH.

 

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

 

A WINTER STORM WATCH MEANS THAT HEAVY SNOW ACCUMULATIONS ARE

POSSIBLE. IF YOU ARE WITHIN THE WATCH AREA... REMAIN ALERT TO

RAPIDLY CHANGING WEATHER CONDITIONS.

 

Saturday, April 21^st Update:

Pasture Work

I spent a good part of yesterday working with the tractor out in the Orchard pasture. There’s a big area when you first turn the horses out in that pasture that gets very muddy unless we have a long dry spell. We try to do something each year to improve drainage for wet spots around the farm, and the Orchard is the spot this year. There is a picture of some of my work in today’s album. It looks messy, but will really help to dry out this area.

 

Frank’s New Foal

Frank, the horse trucker, had a new addition arrive at his farm down the road from Longacres this week. It’s just a cell phone picture, but it is cute!

 

Winter Storm?

What a very weird weather year! We had almost no snow this winter and record breaking warm temperatures. Now, with all our spring flowers in bloom and the leaves out on the trees, we might have an historic April snow storm with a foot or more of heavy, wet snow on Monday. We sure hope they are wrong, because heavy snow now would cause havoc with the trees and powerlines. Please, mother nature, keep it just a degree or two warmer than forecast!

 

Check this link for today’s pictures, including the new foal.

 

Thursday, April 19^th Update – 2PM:

A Photo Tour

Curry and Katherine have each had a chance to visit Longacres this spring with their families and walk our trails to see what we look like before opening for the regular season. At this time of year Meghan and I often take a full tour around the farm to check on work projects, talk about things that still need to be done, and often just to enjoy the natural beauty of a very special place. This morning Meghan snapped a lot of pictures as I drove and we thought we would share scenes of Longacres taken just an hour ago around the farm. No horses and no people, but interesting if you have never yet been to Longacres. All the trees are turning green, wild flowers are blooming, and the little brooks are babbling! Check this link and enjoy!

 

The “Thursday Tour” begins about ten or fifteen pictures into the album. There are also a few shots of Tom & Rob raking the sand ring, a shot of the “new-used” RV for horse shows, and a few personal shots.

 

Wednesday, April 18^th Update:

Today was a busy day at Longacres, but mostly doing little things. I spent the morning running errands and arranging for repairs and this afternoon I worked with the tractor and with Joel moving old fencing for the scrap metal guys to pick up. We’re also working on repairing wind damage to the power lines supplying the bunks with electricity. It’s a job that we do every spring, sometimes easily, and sometimes less so. This year is in the middle – three big sections of wire down and a couple of small problems. Meghan is getting busy ordering horse supplies for the summer, things like wholesale lots of saddle soap and other consumables.

 

Intern?

If you know an older high school student or young college student interested in being an intern instructor for a few weeks during the second half of June and first week in July, have them get in touch with us. We have all our senior instructors hired for the summer, but Meghan would like to have one more helper for that late June early July session, just to make it easier for the senior staff.

 

Tuesday, April 17^th Update:

Meghan in the Barn

We were very busy working in the office all month getting final staff arrangements in place, doing our taxes, and ordering supplies for this summer. Meghan is exciting to have caught up with indoors work and finally got to spend a morning in the barn over the weekend inventorying equipment and organizing the barn office. The barn will be a busy place very soon after lying sleeping all winter!

 

We have a few images of Longacres for you to enjoy today. Check this video link for a clip showing Tom and Rob working to rake the debris off the sand ring, and this link for a collection of pictures sent in by you guys. Many are artistic renderings of Longacres horse picturessent in by Ryan, and there are a few others. We don’t always announce your pictures the minute you send them to us, but we look at everything you send andwe appreciate the feedback. Keep your pictures coming!

 

Saturday, April 14^th Update:

I wrote a description of our half work, half play day on my personal Blog tonight, since it is not really a Longacres post. Check it out if you like.

 

Friday, April 13^th, 9 AM Update:

Yikes!

Four weeks from tomorrow our first horses and staff arrive to get ready for the 2012 season. Yikes! Although we are off to a very good start in making preparations for the new season, it is always scary when we begin counting down the days in the final month before we are “open”, even if at first it is just for staff and horses. Don’t worry – we will be ready. But we will be busy, and a week of that short time will be taken up by moving our RV home from Texas where we parked it at the end of our fall & winter trips around the southwest. And today is fully taken up doing income taxes, so that’s one more day we won’t be doing much about Longacres. But, never fear, Meghan’s always full planner has everything scheduled.

 

Wednesday, April 11^th, 10PM Update:

More About Colleen

We briefly introduced you to Colleen in yesterday’s update. Here is more.

 

She is taking the spot on our staff that had been planned for Becky from England. Complications and delays in the Visa process will keep Becky from joining us this season. We have invited Becky to come for a visit anyway, and hope she might be able to fit Longacres into her plans next year.

 

Colleen F. will be on our staff as a Barn Manager for the whole summer. Her 20^th birthday is the day after she leaves Longacres in late August! Colleen is from south of the Boston, Massachusetts area. She is currently an Equine Industry student at the Stockbridge School of Agriculture at University of Massachusetts Amherst. Colleen has been horseback riding for ten years and plans to work around horses the rest of her life. Her background is mostly in Eventing. Colleen has had some experience teaching complete beginners how to ride. She valued the rewarding feeling and sense of accomplishment when she was able to witness first hand a students’ progress! She is currently on the school Polo team. Colleen is also the Secretary of UMASS Polo & Co-Founder/Treasurer of Ladies of Stockbridge (agricultural sorority).

 

Check this link for some pictures of Colleen riding.

 

Here is Colleen in her own words about her background with horses:

 

“The first day I ever was outside, I was at the Rolex event in Kentucky, because my aunt and uncle live there, in Lexington. I'm convinced that's why I've literally always loved horses. My firefighter father never wanted to let me take riding lessons because it's dangerous, but one day, as a nine year old, my parents surprised me with my first riding lesson. At that moment in time, I had no idea it would be the most important day of my life. I rode with R. W. Farm for 8 solid years in lessons and joined their IEA team while I was in middle school. I've attended several riding camps. As a seventeen year old, I couldn't afford to take lessons anymore and wanted to move on. I got the opportunity to free-lease the horse I own now, a 13 y/o Appendix Quarter Horse. He came from Texas. When I met him he was Western, dominantly bossy, had no head set, and would refuse jumps. I trained him English, over jumps, gave him a job, and worked him at local shows for equitation. I also use him on the trails and he is a completely different horse now. I currently play polo for UMASS which has seriously tested me as a rider and allows me to continue my equine diversity.”

 

When asked if she has ever attended camps when she was growing up, she gave us this response:

“In fact, the only camps I have attended have been equine related, and each one helped develop me as a rider. I've attended several Eventing camps - such as the Vershire Riding School in Vermont & Valinor Farm in Plymouth, MA. In addition, I've ridden at Furnace Brook Farm in Marshfield MA for dressage, and my home stable, R. W. Farm with their summer activities in Pembroke, MA for hunter/jumpers.”

 

At this point, Colleen has not decided what her first choice would be for a career within the equine field. She likes to challenge herself by seeking out diversity in her riding. This kind of initiative and drive is very useful for anybody who spends time at Longacres! Colleen is open to the idea of being an instructor and/or training horses. She has already had first hand experience in these fields. But she is also curious about breeding (Maybe Sr. Co. Stephanie can help with her knowledge?!!?). After Colleen graduates, she is hoping to be able to participate in the hands on Kentucky Equine Management Internship, which has always been one of her goals. Maybe that experience will open another door for Colleen?!

 

We are honored and pleased to have Colleen as a key part of our team and representing our program. She has been working since age 16 and has held the same jobs for years. A big plus in our minds! The reports we heard from her bosses were all about how exceedingly adaptable, dependable, and willing she is in her jobs. In addition to these qualities Colleen is already used to being up at 7am for horse care at college and walking A LOT on her big campus. Good preparation for her time at Longacres in 2012!

 

Wednesday, April 11^th Update:

An Afternoon Off

I “kidnapped” Meghan this afternoon and took her to a movie and an early dinner out. It’s very hard at this time of year to get her to relax, so sometimes I just have to insist she take a break. But I don’t know if it is doing her a favor or not – we are home from dinner now at nearly 9PM, and she is holed up down in her office again at work! Anyway, we had a good time.

 

Doctor’s Office for an Allergy Shot?

Hey, western New Yorkers in the medical field: One of our counselors has to stop at a local doctor’s office one time while she is working for us this summer for an allergy shot. You’d think that would be easy to arrange, but it is proving harder than we expected. Meghan and I go to the same medical practice, and our own doctor’s office refused to make an appointment for this girl, calling her a “new patient”. We are not happy about that! Anyway, if any of our readers with Buffalo area medical connections can hook us up, we and the counselor in question would be grateful.

 

Helicopter Magic

Tom flew a model helicopter “nose in” this afternoon. I know, I know, you could care less! But it is a big achievement in that hobby and I just have to share my excitement! Thank you for the applause!!!!!!

 

Snow

Yes, we had brief snow flurries today. Seems strange after enjoying 70 and 80 degree days in early March. This winter has been a strange one, for sure. It will be back to above normal temperatures by the weekend and we will be back at work out around the farm. Joel is nearly done with the new safety fence along the main trail and we will be starting to build new horse jumps and do some roofing on the dining hall next.

 

 

 

Tuesday, April 10^th, 5PM Update:

Colleen is Confirmed

Meghan is pleased to confirm Colleen as an additional senior staff member for the entire season. She will be providing important continuity as other staff come for different sessions, keeping us with fresh energy as the summer progresses! Meghan and Colleen have had frequent, long phone conversations and as with all staff, Meghan has spent many hours checking Colleen’s very fine references. Here’s a note from Colleen when she first introduced herself to us.

 

“Colleen F., I'm nineteen years old and I'm an Equine Industry student at the Stockbridge School of Agriculture at University of Massachusetts, Amherst. I also play polo for UMASS and co-founded/run an agricultural sorority. I've been horseback riding for ten years now and plan to work around horses the rest of my life. I'm actually also a Massachusetts resident as well.”

 

Pictures:

Check this link for some pictures taken during Curry’s tour of Longacres last week and some other pics around the farm.

 

A Lazy Day for Me – Typical Dawn to Midnight for Meghan!

I took a real “day off” yesterday, except for posting my morning update. I did some reading, some fun stuff, and a lot of nothing! I feel good today after all that rest. Meghan does not voluntarily take it easy, but regulars at Longacres know that. Over the weekend, I did kidnap her and take her out to dinner one day and barricade her office door so she couldn’t work at night! But she is back to her usual ways at the beginning of this week.

 

Zippy Meghan

I have a little “Meghan story” that says a lot about Meghan’s energy and will have the ring of truth to those of you who know her. We were shopping in the grocery store the other day and I came around a corner and looked all the way down an aisle at who I at first took to be Meghan. It turned out to be another woman wearing the same jacket and with about the same hair as Meghan. It was too far away for me to really see that it was not Meghan, especially looking at her back, but I knew in about two seconds. This non-Meghan person was standing there in the aisle next to her shopping cart studying her shopping list for several seconds. Right there, I KNOW it’s not Meghan. Meghan does not stand around looking at lists while she is shopping! She would be A) – pushing her shopping cart down the aisle while reading her list with one eye and watching out for other shoppers out of the corner of her eye; B) – reading her shopping list with one hand while picking groceries off the shelf with her other hand; or C – both at once, pushing her cart down the aisle, reading her shopping list, and snagging bags of treats for Tom on the fly as she cruised by the cookie section!

 

During the summer, you guys will most notice Meghan’s multi-tasking as she watches you in your riding lessons at the barn. She often parks her pickup truck / office between two of our training rings and monitors riding lessons while doing some paperwork out of her always present binder, and catching up on a few phone calls. She is one energetic lady! Which means that to be a well balanced pair of camp owners, one of us needs to be a little more laid back and relaxed – which would be ME!

 

Monday, April 9^th, 1PM Update:

Odds ‘n Ends

We have a few more “around the farm” casual video’s to show you today if you are following the Longacres season opening projects closely.

 

Check this video link for a clip showing the little babbling brook where it flows through the old time swimming pond.

 

Check this video link for a clip we made for “Katherine” that shows Meghan has done a good job and finished putting up the new safety fence early, way before you guys arrive in June.

 

Staff Fun

We got most of our 2012 staff lined up quite early this year, but we always have to do a little fine tuning as the summer gets near. One of our younger teaching interns is not able to attend this summer after-all, so we need to find someone else to take that position. Luckily, we have a very promising senior instructor application and it appears that she (Colleen) is likely to be available. She is overqualified for the vacant intern position, but if we sign her up, it will give us a little cushion and extra backup for the other senior staff. And a safety factor in case we were to lose any other staff.

 

We hope there will be no other big staff problems, but there are always complications. It is turning out to be much more complex than we had expected to get the J-1 exchange visa for Becky to join us as barn manager from England. All the new Homeland Security stuff is making those processes cumbersome and time consuming. Becky still plans to get everything done and join us for the full season, but we are working to hire Colleen partly so that she could take over Becky’s position if Becky can’t meet all the requirements for her visa in time.

 

You parents out there who are in business yourselves will likely sympathize with what we are going through – or I should say what Becky is going through. We’re helping her as we can, but she is the one facing all the work of finishing the visa process. What we were surprised to learn is that the State Department and the Immigration service of the US government do not apparently handle most of the details of the special purpose J-1 cultural exchange visa applications themselves. That process is farmed out to authorized private sector agencies that are in many cases profit making businesses. InterExchange is one of the authorized businesses that handle and approve summer camp related foreign exchange workers. They charge applicants for summer exchange jobs in the USA a fee for their services. And then they require a sponsoring business in the US, like Longacres, to sign a contract with them, even though we only are supposed to verify that the applicant will have a position here in the US during their visit. And those contracts have some obnoxious provisions and they are “my way or the hi-way”, take it or leave it. There is some misleading information put out by these agencies. We are holding our noses and going along with this cumbersome process to try to make it possible for Becky to be here this summer. Stay tuned. We should have Colleen confirmed in a day or two as a backup staff person, just in case.

 

Friday, April 6^th, 11PM Update:

There’s a Moon Out Tonight

I hope some of you are out and about this evening and sharing the sight of an amazing full moon. Check this link for our view!

 

Friday, April 6^th, 2PM Update:

Great Meeting You, Curry!

We had a really good time today meeting Curry and showing her and her family around Longacres. They had an “exciting” trip from South Carolina, with various delayed and changed flights – airlines can be so much fun! But they got in late last night and stayed at the Roycroft here in East Aurora. We met them for breakfast and then watched video of the Jumper Derby and walked all around Longacres. Curry is here for the long August session and we think she will fit in perfectly with our “dream team” of returning students that session. Curry’s two younger sisters, Mackey, and Birney came too, and they both like horses – we may have Curry and her sisters at Longacres the next few years! Maybe even mom and one of the sisters as a mother – daughter team next summer. We all got along really well and welcome the family to the Longacres family.

 

Thursday, April 5^th, 1PM Update:

Lots of New Horses!

Springtime Video

Hello again! Second update today, this time with some exciting horse news. Meghan has been hard at work shopping for horses to buy and making deals for horses that will be sent to us on the “send your horse to camp” program or as sale horses, and things are coming together. She now has 8 new horses lined up to come to Longacres for this summer in addition to the 18 that we own ourselves. That includes Maive, who was here last summer on long term lease, and is returning under the same program. Two of the new horses are coming on summer loan from Findlay College (Avalon & Sadie), and Findlay will be taking Brody and Maggie next winter from us. Two of the new horses are for sale and we are looking after them and showing them for Linda Fuller Stables. The other three are on loan to us, including Sunfire, Molly (jumper pony you guys just saw the other day), and a gelding from the nice people at Tanglefoot Stables that we still need to get pictures of. All our stalls are now committed for the summer, so we will only buy or take in an additional horse if it is JUST TOO GOOD TO PASS UP! That does happen sometimes!

 

Video Clips

NO, no new exciting horse video, though we are expecting some soon. But I have been taking video around the farm as I am out and about working and making plans for summer projects. If you are bored and would like a couple of minutes of Longacres sights and sounds, check the following links:

The canoeing Pond at Longacres

The New Safety Fence at Longacres

Out in the Thick Woods at Longacres

 

Thursday, April 5^th, Noon Update:

“Welcome” to Lexi & a Literal “Welcome Right To Longacres” to Curry!

I gave Lexi an unofficial “welcome” a few days ago after Meghan talked with her family, but her enrollment is now here and it is official! Longacres is now sold out for the 2012 regular camp season, though we do have space for the one week sessions early in June (June 11 to 18) and in Lazy Days at the end of August (August 20 to 25^th). Lexi took the final two week session from June 24 to July 8^th and is Longacres 2012 student #43. Welcome, Lexi! Lexi is from Pittsburgh and has ridden for quite a few years. She has been jumping for over a year and has been in a number of shows this past year. As usual, Meghan spoke for a long time with her mom on the phone and gave her a full description of the Longacres experience.

 

Welcome Curry!

In a couple of hours we will be welcoming Curry for real on her Easter Break visit to Longacres. Curry is from South Carolina and her family wanted to come meet us and see the farm while having a little family break together this holiday week. They’re arriving here later this afternoon and we will take them on a hike around the farm. Things are starting to get nicely cleaned up from the winter and the place looks inviting, even though there are no horses here yet and no jumps set up. But there are lots of jumps painted and lots more new ones with construction about to begin.

 

For our hike around the farm it is supposed to be cool but pleasantly sunny – you could fool me – as I look out the window there is no sun to be seen yet. Hope Curry brings the sun back when she arrives! We plan to go out to dinner with Curry’s family later this evening. We really enjoy these chances to get to know new Longacres families before the start of the season. But you guys are spread out all over the world, so we don’t get to meet everyone for real. That’s part of the reason Meghan talks with you so long on the phone while you are considering enrolling.

 

Kellie is OK

We quickly got a text back from Kellie that she was at school in a tornado drill and is OK. She doesn’t know anything about her house or the horses yet. We hope all is well. Waiting to hear from the rest of our Dallas – Ft Worth friends that they, too, are OK. One of the bigger tornado’s went right through Kellie’s town.

Wednesday, April 4^th, 11AM Update:

Good News from Texas

Kellie reports that all her family, and the horses are fine and that their house is OK. Their town was one of the worst hit in the Ft Worth area and has been declared a disaster area, so we are very glad to hear that Kellie & people & horses are fine. Ryan also reports in that they are all fine. Their house was about 8 miles from the nearest damage. (There is sometimes a silver lining in every storm cloud – Ryan says her dad is in the roofing business!)

 

More Pictures

Meghan has labeled a couple more nicer pictures of two horses she thinks will be here for training and on consignment for sale this summer. We’ll tell you more about them when we have seen them in action and talked with the owner more. Today’s photo album at this link also has some nice pictures I took around the farm this morning so you at home can all watch the woods, riding fields, and trails slowly turning green.

 

Tuesday, April 3^rd 2PM Update:

Tornado in Texas

We have no news yet, but we have our fingers crossed for the welfare of all our good friends in the Dallas – Ft Worth area, which was struck by major tornado’s this afternoon. Take care of yourselves first, but as soon as you can, let us know that you are OK, Kellie, Ryan, Zoe, and Paige (and the horses).

 

The Mares

Meghan continues to shop for horses and arrange for several “send your horse to camp” prospects and a couple of horses that are for sale and will be at Longacres for part of the summer. Check this link for a couple of pictures (some of them very small) of two mares that are for sale and might come to Longacres.

 

Monday, April 2, 8PM Update:

New Horses

Check this link for a bunch of pictures showing “Smoke”, a nine year old gelding Meghan is looking at to possibly purchase, and “Molly”, a 16 year old Appy – Welch cross jumper pony. Smoke is new to the English jumping scene – he has spent most of his life as a western trail and pleasure horse – training that is a good foundation for an English horse. Molly is a veteran show horse with great experience in jumpers. Her owner has too many horses and has grown out of even a fine pony like this and wants her to be used and do what she was trained for this year at Longacres as a “send your horse to camp” pony.

 

We have heard from some of you already who are sad to hear that we may sell Whitley. And we have heard from two who are interested in buying Whitley. But nothing will be done right away and there is a good chance that he will be here when you guys are during the summer. But part of running a show oriented program is making wise decisions on which horses are the most useful to the Longacres team as a whole. And decisions on what is best for a horse, and we are sure that Whitley will be happiest with a one owner riding career.

 

It’s not that we don’t want difficult horses at Longacres. We do want you to have challenging animals in our barn. Horatio is a perfect example of a horse that is very difficult to ride well enough to show, but we keep him because he is a winner, a great athlete, and he can be ridden in casual work by quite a few of you, so long as he doesn’t “get going”! So, don’t worry, girls, we are not going to fill our barn with “boring” horses! In the pictures we just posted, one of the horses is quite steady, and the other is an exciting jumper pony. We’re keeping a plan for a wide variety of horses in the barn.

 

Monday, April 2^nd, Noon Update:

Whitley for Sale

It is very rare that we offer one of our horses for sale. Especially one of our most talented show horses.

 

Whitley is the most expensive horse we ever purchased. He had a good show career before we bought him two years ago and has won impressive classes with us. He is one of our most talented jumpers. But he is sensitive and a horse that does his best when he is used by one rider. He achieved great success with Ofelia, a veteran Longacres student and junior counselor last summer. Ofelia took Whitley home for the winter of 2010 – 2011. Ofelia did very well showing Whitley this past summer in the high section of our own Jumper Derby, and in high hunter classes and the Team Jumping event at Erie County Fair in August. Whitley can do it all.

 

But we have decided that it is better to place Whitley with an owner who can give him the consistent riding, training, and care that he needs, rather than keeping him as an advanced “school horse” here at Longacres. Whitley will bring a good price. We can buy two solid horses with that money that can be ridden and shown by many more Longacres students. Whitley’s best use at Longacres last summer was on “big jumping day” when we let many of you feel his talent and power under controlled conditions with close supervision. Beyond that, only a few of the best riders and counselors had the ability to ride him quietly, as is needed, and show him at shows.

 

Whitley will be sold as we always sell horses – with complete veterinary history and full disclosure of any issues in his background. We sell several horses every year, usually consignment horses sent to us by an outside owner for training and showing and for sale. We have a proud record of disclosing EVERYTHING about a horse we are selling.

 

Whitley is sound most of the time. He can have tender feet and has a history of being off for a few days after shoeing if not done just right. He also pulled a tendon while he was with Ofelia in the spring of 2011 and was off for about 8 weeks. He recovered fully and was sound for us all last summer, except for an odd two day tenderness from which he quickly rebounded. Any buyer will be given access to his whole health history. He is priced at $12,000. You can see Whitley pictures on our “Meet the Horses” page, following the “Tour of Longaces” links.

 

Saturday, March 31^st, Noon Update:

“Welcome” to Lexi & “A Second Chance”

Longacres is now sold out for the 2012 regular camp season, though we do have space for the one week sessions early in June (June 11 to 18) and in Lazy Days at the end of August. Lexi took the final two week session from June 24 to July 8^th and is Longacres 2012 student #43. Welcome, Lexi! Lexi is from Pittsburgh and has ridden for quite a few years. She has been jumping for over a year and has been in a number of shows this past year. As usual, Meghan spoke for a long time with her mom on the phone and gave her a full description of the Longacres experience.

 

A Second Chance

You don’t usually get second chances. Longacres owns 17 horses at the moment and we lease a couple of horses, take a couple of horses in “for sale”, and a couple of horses in our “send your horse to camp” program every summer for a total of 25 or 26 horses here at any one time during the summer. We buy a couple of horses every summer, but once we have met our budget, that is usually it until the next year.

 

Last summer we had a wonderful pony, Ladd, here for much of the summer as a “send your horse to camp” horse that was here for training and for sale. Early in the summer a local girl, Gina, was interested in buying Ladd. He still needed training, but had a great personality. We worked with Gina and Ladd during her frequent visits to Longacres and she decided to buy him at the end of the summer. Well, about the time she agreed to buy him, we suddenly realized how wonderful a show pony Ladd was quickly becoming! We thought of going back on our offer to sell him, but we had already promised to sell him and we don’t do that kind of double dealing stuff. So we said a tearful “goodbye” to Ladd at the end of the summer and wished Gina the best of luck with her great new pony. We did say we would keep in touch.

 

And guess what? Gina has unexpectedly decided to go back to school for a couple of years and she can’t take Ladd with her. We just last night BOUGHT HIM BACK!!!!!!!! That’s right, Longacres now owns one of the most promising jumping ponies we’ve had in years!!! LADD IS BACK!!!!!!! Go to the “Meet the Horses Page” and scroll down until you see Ladd’s listing under “send your horse to camp” horses from last summer. His listing will soon be switched to “Owned by Longacres”!

 

(What do you think of that, Sophie and Anderson?!?)

 

Friday, March 30^th, 11AM Update

Another one off Tom’s Bucket List

We are keeping our fingers crossed that all goes smoothly this evening. If it does, we’ll be crossing another biggie off my lifetime bucket list. I am an average sports fan for lots of sports, but not a fanatic. But I have always been a Lebron James basketball player fan and follow him and his career closely. I’ve dreamed of being able to have court side seats to a Miami Heat game to watch Lebron and his teammates do their magic. I noticed yesterday that the Heat are playing in nearby Toronto tonight, and on a whim, I logged onto the Ticket Stub website to see if any seats were available at a not astronomical price. Well, there were a few seats at only semi-astronomical prices, so I walked downstairs to where Meghan was working in her office and said, “Guess what we might do tomorrow night?” Well, she was stunned, but she knows this is something on my long term wish list and it seemed like a good time for us to take an evening off for an adventure.

 

I have never been to an NBA game – this kind of sports event is out of my price range usually. But I did go to a Formula 1 race last June, so as I enjoy my senior citizen status, I am treating myself to a few special events now and then. And I have never used a secondary market ticket service, so I hope I did not get scammed out of my money for bogus tickets! We’ll write a story when we get home and let you know if we got into the game.

 

And if Lebron played! He sprained a finger two games ago at Indiana. He did play the day before yesterday, so I hope he does tonight. Big bummer if he sits out most of the game! Wish me happy “Bucket Listing” tonight.

 

Tuition Reminder:

Final tuition payments are due tomorrow. Two thirds of you are paid in full now, but almost one third are not. If your payment is not yet in the mail and you expect it to arrive late, please call or email and let us know so we do not worry that you are changing your plans.

 

Pictures

Check this link for some pictures taken around the farm the past few days. Note that Joel and Meghan have started work on replacing the old safety fence along the main trail. We’ve kept putting this off over the past couple of years, but it will be done for this season!

 

Thursday, March 29^th, 11PM Update:

“Molly” and Final July Space

We’ve had interesting conversations with one of Barb Glica’s students about a large pony jumper she wants to place in a program like our “send your horse to camp” program. Meghan is going to look at the horse and watch it ridden on Monday. You can take a peek here. Check this video link for a schooling ride and this video link for a show just last week. The horse has a nice jump! There is no guarantee that we’ll put this deal together for the summer, but it sounds promising. We like to tease you guys with information about horses we’re considering.

 

Final July Spot

As I’ve mentioned, we have increased our Google advertising for the coming month to help fill the final spots this summer which are about to be down to the one week special clinics and the one week Lazy Days week in August. We are getting a lot of calls and several are interested in the final two week session, June 24 to July 8^th. The first family to call us and say, “Please save the spot, we’ll FedEx the check.”, gets that last spot. Then we will be limited to “wait list”, if you can’t attend for one of the early or late one week sessions.

 

Tom the “Story Teller”

Meghan just told me about a comment made by Katherine’s mom during our tour of Longacres with that family two weeks ago. I was walking ahead and telling stories about the history of Longacres as we passed various significant spots. Meghan and Katherine’s mom were walking behind listening to me and chatting themselves. She turned to Meghan and said about me, “He sounds just the way he does writing in the Blog.” Well, I rather like that! I guess I am a consistent story teller.

 

Thursday, March 29^th, 2PM Update:

Tuition Due Saturday & Horse Excitement!

First, a reminder that final tuition payments are due in two days on Saturday. Many have not been received. Please make sure that your family bill payer got the invoice by either email or regular mail – it was sent out both ways. Except for one spot from June 24 to July 8, we are full for all but the early and late one week sessions. You need to be paid in full to have your spaces held.

 

Horse Excitement?

On a more exciting topic, we may have very good horse news to report tomorrow. Meghan has to make sure the business end of the arrangement is practical, but if it all works out, you will like the news I hope to be able to post soon! Mystery!

 

Wednesday, March 28^th, 11 AM Update:

Smoke?

As we move forward in horse shopping for 2012, we will keep updating you readers. Most of the 19 horses owned by Longacres will be back for the 2012 season. A couple are getting older – we will be looking for possible retirement homes, perhaps for Rocky due to age, and for Boo due to chronic off and on soundness issues. At this time, we think they will both be back to at least start the summer season with us.

 

We have leased several of our horses to Findlay College over the past winter for their equestrian program. They have treated them well. We are likely to lease several Findlay horses and bring them to Longacres this summer in return. We’ll let you know when we have information about those new to Longacres horses.

 

We always take in a few “Send your Horse to Camp” program horses that are owned by other people who want us to train or condition or try to sell them. Sunfire was the first to be confirmed for this program for 2012 and we have already introduced her to you. We will likely add a couple more horses under this program.

 

We also purchase on average two new horses every year. We posted a video link to “Air Jordan” a few days ago. He is under consideration. Check this link for some pictures of “Smoke”. Smoke is a nine year old gelding from a stable we know well. The owners bought “Joker” from us a few years ago and have given him a great home. We got Brody from them a few years before that. Need I say more? Anyplace that produces a “Brody” is a place with horses that are worth looking at!

 

Tuesday, March 27^th, 8PM Update:

“Meghan Says”

I walked into the office tonight after being out around the farm and she has more news. First of all, she is complaining that it’s hard to get any regular office work done this week because the phone won’t stop ringing. But, that’s a good thing! In addition to talking with Annie who just signed up, Meghan has been in touch with Rebecca from Michigan. Meghan had a long talk with her mom about the possibility of Rebecca being a CIT for two weeks. (Two week stays this summer are almost gone – will be very soon.) We’ve corresponded with Sara, who has several horses and likes jumpers. Meghan has also talked with Todd from Ocala, FL, who is interested for his almost 11 year old daughter, Natasha, who is also a jumper rider! Lots of good riders corresponding with us this week.

 

Meghan is also getting busy shopping for NEW HORSES – Yea, YAHOO! I just know that all of you readers out there find news of horse shopping much more interesting than news of our rebuilt tractor or the way we are repairing the safety fence along the paths! (Also today, Meghan made arrangements for getting one of our RV’s back from where it is spending it’s “winter vacation”, worked on staff contracts, talked with our employment agency, paid bills, did some more work on enrollment packets (which Meghan keeps beginning, but is always interrupted), and did some work arranging transportation for our horses to return to Longacres from their winter homes. Yes, she is a busy person! Also she and Joel got new screens put on both bunks. Meghan is about to tell me more of the things she did today, but I am getting tired even hearing about her work list!

 

Tuesday, March 27^th, 1PM Update:

“Welcome” Annie!

Wow, Annie from Missouri doesn’t fool around when she decides she’s going to do something! Just yesterday I posted a “hello” to her after she had a long talk with Meghan about Longacres. She must have raced to FedEx, and her formal enrollment arrived at our front door while we were at breakfast this morning. Cool! You are now Longacres 2012 student #42, Annie. Glad to have you as part of the Longacres family this season.

 

Annie has been to multiple camps before, but is now ready for “the full deal” to really immerse herself with horses. She is ready for a more focused level of concentration with training – we think she has found the right program! Annie lives just outside of St. Louis, MO., but is originally from Oklahoma. Annie is celebrating her birthday this weekend - - on April Fools’ Day! She will be 16. She sounds like a very typical Longacres kind of girl of being a barn rat. . . she just loves spending the whole weekend at the barn - “just because”! Not a city girl. : )

 

A Busy Day and a Busy Spring

I’ve already put in time today out on the tractor mowing the first grass of the season. It is growing, but not too thick yet – I don’t think I will really have to mow much for another week or two except where the grass grows very thick. Joel is hard at work replacing almost 700 feet of the mesh safety fence along the steep cliffs next to the main foot trail between the barn and the dining hall. We’ve been keeping an eye on that fence for a couple of years, and we can’t put it off any longer.

 

The other big repair project we face this spring (besides building new horse jumps, which is FUN!) is putting a new roof on one half of the dining hall. It seems like roofing repairs or replacements are a never ending part of owning a camp that is in its 74^th season. We replaced the entire barn roof at a cost of thousands only a few years ago. We replaced parts of the carriage hosue roof, part of the Esseress bunk roof, part of the dining hall roof, and the whole old barn roof over the past five or six years. And it is a never ending task.

 

But things do look pretty good around the farm. We’re eager to meet Curry and her family who are visiting pretty soon. The farm will look well picked up for you.

 

Monday, March 26^th, Noon Update

Winter’s Back!

“Hello” Annie

That wonderful taste of summer weather from last week is now a memory as it is a blustery 35 degree day and a hard freeze is expected tonight. Oh, well, we did get lots done during the great weather.

 

Longacres sends out a big “Hello” to Annie from Missouri. Annie didn’t waste any time after finding Longacres on the web. She wrote in last night asking how she could talk to us and sign up. Meghan and Annie and her family talked for over two hours last night and we think she is signing up for the Adult week and for the June 11^th Clinic week. She has a variety of riding experience and has her own horse at home. Meghan tells me that Annie has a great sense of humor and should fit right in with the other horse lovers at Longacres. We’ll tell you a little more about Annie when she sends in her forms and we announce her official “Welcome”.

 

Will We Fill Every Session?

We now have only one spot for the June 24 to July 8^th session, and then all traditional camp sessions between June 18^th and August 19^th will be completely full. (BULLITEN: As I was typing this, the phone rang and that final June 24^th spot might be taken.) Adult week is down to one, maybe two spots, and we have only four spots left in the June 11^th Clinic one week session. We do have plenty of space in the Lazy Days week at the end of August, but that always fills up late.

 

Early Bird Week

Because we are so close to filling all spots, we have decided to open up the Tentative Early Bird week that we had listed on our schedule for May 28 to June 2^nd. Our staff will be here, the horses will be here, and we will welcome a few extra riders who would enjoy helping train the new horses and getting our old friends into shape for the summer. Tuition will be $1200 for that special week, a little less than other sessions because we will be offering an informal food service, eating in town several nights, and we will be grateful to the students that week for helping our new staff get used to teaching in our program. If you are an intermediate or better rider and interested in this kind of week, give us a call and we’ll tell you more about it.

 

Tell A Friend – Big Push this Week for New Students

We count on referrals from happy Longacres customers to spread the word about our sessions. Now that the regular summer camp programs are almost full, we have to work hard to get the word out on the early June and late August weeks that are not yet full. Do tell a friend if they are in private school and out of school in early June, or if you think they might like to try just one week at Longacres during Lazy Days week in August to see what we are all about and maybe come for longer next year.

 

We have also boosted our Google search ads for the next couple of weeks to help us fill the final few spots we have left.

 

YouTube Video

We have nearly 400 video’s posted on Youtube under the “Megfun” user name. I am going to try to post a link here to that user account so you can browse through ALL kinds of Longacres related video’s. At the moment, they are not organized by topic. They include many of Longacres horses and riding, but also some of tom’s model helicopters, Tom & Meghan riding snowmobiles in the winter, and lots of other stuff. You can skip through and find only horse videos, or you can learn something more about our lives from the odd stuff you will find. We may soon organize a “Channel” with only the horse video’s. Check out the link, or just search YouTube for “Megfun” video.

 

A Longacres “App” for iPhone or iPad?

We are trying to think of ways to take better advantage of modern technology. One idea is to publish an “App” for iPad and iPhone that would have lots of Longacres information, pictures of the jumps, video of the horses, and maybe other stuff. All that is on our website anyway, but people do love their “Apps”! Does anyone know much about publishing “Apps”? Is this a good idea?

 

And How About a Facebook Editor?

Long time Longacres students know that Meghan and I are not Facebook users. We don’t particularly like it and don’t use it much. But we are very aware that “the rest of the world” doesn’t necessarily feel the way we do, and a Facebook presence is very important for a business. We do have a Facebook “Page”, Longacres Riding Camp. The trouble is that we just don’t have time to update that very often after all the time I put into our regular Blog on this page.

 

What if we had a student “Facebook Editor” for the Longacres page? It could be a position that rotated, with volunteers, or even a paid junior counselor doing regular updates or posting pictures and descriptions. What would you like to see on the Longacres Riding Camp Facebook page? What could a student Page Editor do? Who among you might be interested? You wouldn’t have to be Shakespeare – just put something “up” once a day.

 

Well, if you have read this far today, you know what’s on my mind. And SOON, I will write about what is now often on my mind – the 2013 Longacres Diamond Jubilee!!!

 

Sunday, March 25^th, 1PM Update:

Summer is Fading!

After a record breaking 6 day string of record breaking high temperatures, our fluke taste of summer is fading fast. Rob is working in the barn all day today painting jumps. It will be one of the final days this week warm enough for painting. It’s supposed to be a more normal March like 25 degrees tomorrow night. We are grateful for the weather the past week. We got a BIG head start on cleaning and painting around the farm to prepare for summer 2012. April and May at Longacres are always way easier if we get a little done in late March. We plan more maintenance than usual this spring, so it is especially helpful to get a head start. I am hoping also that the cold tomorrow night reminds all the grass around the farm that it is not even April yet. The grass all turned bright spring green over the past week and only really began to show growth the past day and a half. One or two more days like that and I will be mowing for almost an extra month. That would be a lot of tractor time and fuel! So, cold temperatures, bring it on and shut down that grass growth for a few more weeks!

 

Spring Visits to Longacres

Curry and her family are visiting in another two weeks, the second Longacres 2012 family to pay us a spring visit. We enjoy showing new people around the farm and getting acquainted. With all this good weather, we may not be able to show Curry “the Longacres spring-time shuffle”. That’s the way we look as we walk all the trails early in the spring. Every few steps we take a sideways kick to push small branches and debris off the trail. Hundreds and hundreds – probably a couple of thousand branches and tree trash get blown down onto the trails during winter wind storms, and it all gets picked up or pushed to the side as we walk and work on trails and paths in the spring. I am sure we look funny to visitors following us along. This warm spell has let us do a lot of that clean up work this week, so there won’t be much left to worry about as we show Curry and her family around.

 

Do feel welcome to call us and ask for a spring tour or to go out to dinner with you to get acquainted if you’d like to trek up here to Longacres. We do like getting to know new families better than we can just from phone calls and emails over the winter.

 

Friday, March 23^rd, 4PM Update:

“Air Jordan”

A friend of ours, a trainer with a good reputation, has a jumper for sale at a reasonable price. We know the horse’s history and can vouch for Alfonso. Check this video link and if you are interested, let us know and tell Alfonso that you saw the video on our website. I kind of like the looks of the horse myself, but we already have Jazz, Whitley, Bristol, and Horatio and I am not sure how many big horse riders we have enrolled this summer. We will think about it. In the meantime, have fun evaluating a horse with talent and scope that has not done too much in it’s career. Lightly used.

 

Friday, March 23^rd, 3PM Update:

More About Heather

Meghan put together the following information on Heather, the senior instructor. Hope you enjoy getting to know some of our new staff a bit!

 

Tom spent the morning doing tractor work landscaping and cleaning out drainage ditches and boring stuff like that. Right after doing this update, Tom will be repairing one of his model helicopters that made contact with the earth at high speed after Tom started to think he was getting pretty good. Humility is always right around the corner with these flying toys!

 

Meghan has been doing office work all day, mostly answering questions from parents who are realizing that camp time is getting closer.

 

 

 

Heather:

 

Heather Z. is 22, from Massachusettes, and graduating this spring with a degree in Equine Science. She is currently on an internship in Arizona with a hunter/jumper show stable and working the kinds of hours she would be likely having at Longacres!  She has had a lot of experience with the day to day care of horses in all regards and managing a large stable.   Her hopes are for her experience at Longacres to assist in a career path in the equine field. Heather would like a career in training horses, managing a stable, and likely teaching students.

 

Heather has ridden English, Western, and helped with therapeutic riding.  She was also a former member and President of a 4H club. Heather has competed in 4H shows and intercollegiately.

 

In addition, Heather has had numerous opportunities to be managing and preparing for horse shows. She was greatly involved with all the behind the scenes prep work with the horses and tack.

 

Already, Heather has had quite a few first hand experiences with supervising and managing others with barn chores, horse health care, and the sale proceedings of yearlings with their handling and safety.

 

Thankfully for us at Longacres, she has also helped before with horse day camps and children at her home stable in Massachusettes.  Heather assisted the children with horse health care and lessons.

 

Her rave references included: “strong work ethic, punctual, reliable, focused, determined, her drive, always going above & beyond as she is a perfectionist, detail oriented, very friendly & approachable with a VERY calming influence”.  Sounds like a perfect recipe for a staff member at Longacres!  

 

Heather was carefully chosen as a Sr. Co. to work with Barn Manager Becky to open the barn in mid May, Adult Week, and the first 2 clinic weeks along with our full time intern Melissa until our other Sr. Co. Winky arrives in late June!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thursday, March 22^nd Update:

A Busy Day – Summer is Here!

Sure feels like summer here at Longacres! Partly because for five or six days in a row we have set record high temperatures and we are getting tons of work done out around the farm many weeks before we normally do. We figure that we could open for the season next week if we had to. It also feels like summer seeing Joel working in the evening preparing the grounds. Joel has been working with Meghan handling most of our maintenance for ten years now, and he started this season’s work today. Now we know that “summer is here”!

 

Heather – Final Piece of the “Puzzle”

Meghan is an excited camp owner today. She has been talking with Heather for many weeks and waiting to see how her summer schedule works out. Today we heard that Heather can accept Meghan’s offer to fill the final spot in the 2012 riding staff at Longacres. Heather is graduating from Morrisville College this year with a degree in Equine Science, and she will be here from the middle of May when we begin bringing the horses to the farm for the season and will stay through the first part of the summer until Winky arrives to help Becky for the July sessions. Meghan now has at least three riding staff for each major session during the summer. It is shaping up to be a very good year.

 

We might add one or two short term interns still, but our staff is complete and ready to provide a great season. Our new “intern” program is intended to allow young women interested in working here the following year a chance to spend a little time at Longacres learning the ropes and finding out how we do things and whether or not we are a good fit for them. It’s part of several new ideas for helping to give us more depth in our staffing.

 

The 2012 Longacres staff includes adult support staff with many years of experience at Longacres. Between Joyce in food catering, Joel in maintenance, Danielle in horse shows and support, Sara in office and student support, Beta in horse show and student support, and Cheryl in backup food service and office, our “background staff” has over 30 years of experience at Longacres. (Add Meghan and I, and that jumps an additional 60 or 70 years, but we won’t go there!)

 

We do have several new girls taking senior riding counselor positions, here for their first time. Meghan is comfortable with the team she has put together after dozens of hours checking references and talking over and over with each staff prospect making sure they know what they’re getting into at Longacres. We also have the oldest (most mature) senior riding counselors in recent years, with three college graduates or seniors on the staff at the barn, all of them with Equine Science degrees, all of them planning careers in horses. Meghan worked especially hard to put together a team with different backgrounds that complement one another.

 

Giving us continuity at the barn, we are very grateful to have Winky as a returning senior counselor, Emily as a Junior counselor, and Kellie, Sydney, Valerie, and Sophie as CIT’s, with a combined 32 years of Longacres experience.

 

Check this link for some pictures of new staff members Melissa and Heather. Check this link for a few new pictures from around the farm.

 

My Day at Longacres

It was a good one for me! I worked hard and played hard. I got to go out to eat with Meghan twice, which is hard to do in one day trying to pull her away from work. We went to breakfast together as we often do, and then out to Red Robin for dinner to celebrate signing up the last person needed for our 2012 staff. In between I played with my beloved helicopter models, took pictures, and had fun working around the farm. Check this video link for the view from my tractor as I blew leaves off many of the roads and trails around the farm. Check this video link for a view of some of the jumps we have to paint (this is just the all white jumps!) I cleaned up the sand ring, mowed the first grass of the year (almost four weeks before we usually start mowing!), cleaned roads and trails, worked on this Blog, mounted the big mower on the big tractor, and more. I will sleep well tonight!

 

Wednesday, March 21^st, 1PM Update:

Although it is gorgeous outside, we are catching up on office work around lunchtime today. Meghan was just on a long phone call with a candidate for one of our new teaching intern positions. We are taking on several girls for shorter sessions who are interested in being instructors in 2013 and we are investing some time to help train them in hopes of having very good choices for staff the following year. It is also part of our plan to give extra free time to senior staff this year.

 

I did take some time to “play” this morning, flying my model helicopters and taking some close up pictures of spring flowers at this link. Meghan and I like our photography and until YOU GUYS all come beginning in two months, we have to get our photography fix taking nature pics around the farm.

 

Bulliten: Meghan just told me that Melissa is confirmed as an intern for the two June clinic weeks and the first two week session in July until Emily arrives. We’ll soon post some pictures of Melissa and more about her. She has tons of horse experience, much of it in the Pony Club system that Barn Manager Becky knows so well. They should get along well.

 

THANKS to those of you sending in your tuition early. Everyone’s final payments are due in ten days on April 1^st. Then, very briefly (VERY), we will have a lot of money in the bank! Maybe we will clean out the account and skip town, never to be seen again – HaHa! Just kidding! We will not have most of that money for long. More than half of our annual budget is spent during May and June as we open the farm, build new jumps, and keep a big crew of part time help cleaning and painting everything.

 

Wednesday, March 21^st, 11 AM Update:

A Piece of Longacres History

We are often building new things at Longacres or replacing worn out stuff with something newer. But we also value our 74 year history and we go out of our way to preserve some of that history. A well known example is all the work we did restoring the “Old Junior Barn” last summer so that it would not fall down and be lost to future friends of Longacres. It was a nice benefit that we upgraded it and added the little turnout pasture so that all current students get to experience and overnight trail ride and hayloft slumber party at that old barn.

 

Click this link to experience another step in Longacres restoration and preservation. The first set of pictures show our trusty old Ford tractor as it looked last fall. Meghan and I are both very fond of this old tractor. It is a 1948 Ford 8N, a classic small farm tractor. We don’t use it much now because we have a very new and powerful Kubota 4-wheel drive tractor for real work. But, like the old junior barn, we did not want Tom’s trusty old Ford to fade away. Tom bought the 8N in 1961 or 1962, a half century ago, and it graded driveways, cleaned out barns, mowed all the Longacres grass, pulled logs out of the woods, and a hundred other farm chores for all those years.

 

I have for years thought about painting it up and restoring it to its former looks, but never put that project high on our “Todo list”. Last fall Meghan was talking with Frank, the horse trucker, and he gave her a name of a guy who likes to work on old farm machinery. We had Faron stop over to look at our tractor and he told us how he would go about it. We had good reports on his work, so in late November he came with his truck and trailer and took our tractor away to his farm in the southern tier. Meghan insisted that we get this job done right – she really likes old machinery with history!

 

The second set of pictures in the above album were taken this morning, with the restoration work nearly done down at Faron’s farm. We hope some of you who enjoy history and old things will like seeing what has been done!

 

Faron is an interesting guy and he may do some other work around Longacres if Joel is too busy with other farm projects. He showed us around his farm house that he and his wife are remodeling. They have done some amazing workmanship, exposing old beams and planks and combining modern carpentry and drywall with old exposed and varnished woodwork. Just like our tractor, really nice workmanship! Best part of this story? Faron and his wife are the fifth generation of his family to live in that little farm house that was built in the 1850’s. Let’s hear it for western New York farm life! A lot of it much older than Longacres 74 years.

 

Monday, March 19^th, Noon Update:

A Few Pictures

Check this link for some pictures of Katherine meeting Merlin and Beta over the weekend. I don’t have to tell any Longacres students how cute Merlin is, but he is REALLY cute in some of these pictures. I did not post ones of his full body – he just came out of the pasture, and you guys know how fuzzy horses look when they have just been rolling in the mud shedding their winter coat!

 

There are also some pictures of us working around the farm.

 

Sunday, March 18^th, 7PM Update:

Welcome Ann!

Ann J., an adult student who hails from Cincinnati, will be Longacres 2012 student #41, coming during the Adult Week June 4th. Meghan has gotten a kick out of her talks with Ann and we are really looking forward to the adult Week group coming in June! Can’t wait to see you here, Ann!

 

A Busy, But Very Rewarding Weekend!

Sorry that I haven’t done any updates over the weekend. We were swamped with organizing clean up and painting plans for this weekend and all next week when it is going to be summertime at Longacres. We have lots of helpers coming in and plan to get ALL the white jumps and jump rails painted this week, which will put us way ahead of schedule on opening the farm for the 2012 season.

 

We also enjoyed a day and a half visiting with Katherine, her brother Will, and her parents. The very best of Longacres is when we sign up a young student and have a good chance to get to know her whole family. We walked all the trails and paths at Longacres during Katherine’s tour, went out to dinner with the family, and then the next morning, Meghan took Katherine to meet Merlin, who is spending the winter right around the corner from us with Beta. Thank you, Beta – you were a great help. (Did you do well in your swim meet, Will?) We had lots in common with Katherine’s family, all of us having done some boating. We hope Katherine enjoys her stay at Longacres in June and that we know her and her family for many years.

 

Thursday, March 15^th, 1PM Update:

Gobs of Good News!

First, some unfinished business. More details about Sunfire. Meghan tells me, she is a four year old mare, 15.1 (a little bigger than her siblings), chestnut with a beautiful blaze and socks – “the works”! (Meghan’s words as she sits next to me.) She is an Arab – Irish cross, very respectful on the ground with people, she knows how to walk-trot-canter, but we will be teaching her jumping. She just did her first trail the other day and was sensible, stable, level headed without any spooking. She even “hopped” over a little water crossing with no big fuss. She has the same wonderful demeanor and wants to please that other horses coming from this stable have shown – Ladd, Tux, Starfire, etc. We have had six or more horses from Mary’s “Trilogy Farm” over the years, all interesting, nice horses and ponies.

 

Now for the REAL good news of the day. Joyce Chrostowski has accepted the job as caterer and chef at Longacres this summer. Joyce had the cooking job at Longacres for three or four years earlier in the past decade and only stopped because she got busy in her year round party catering business. She is an upscale chef! It has been almost six years, maybe more, since Joyce did all our cooking, but we kept in close touch. Every year she catered for the big Awards Party and our Jumper Derby in August. And last year when we unexpectedly lost our cook two weeks from the end of the summer, Joyce stepped in and finished the season for us. That got Joyce and Meghan talking about, “what if” again and they have been tossing it around all winter. They talked again this morning and confirmed the arrangement. What great news!

 

Other Great Support Staff

The great news from Joyce is not all that was confirmed today. I guess the incredible spring weather has gotten people thinking about camp. Joel’s Maintenance Service confirmed that he will be back for about the umpteenth year taking care of the Longacres farm mechanics and structures. He is one of Meghan’s right hands during the season (and before and after starting this week!). Another of Meghan’s “right hands” actually has the nickname “Righty”, Sarah “Righty”. Sarah does a great deal for Meghan, helping take care of Breakfast, doing many things in the office, taking charge of a group this year on “Mall Day”, and so much more. We also have another adult now confirmed back this summer after an absence of two years. Cheryl was cook here for three years and did lots of office work and other background help for Meghan until she moved to England last year. She is back for the summer and will help out Meghan in lots of useful ways. Meghan also reminds me to announce that another valued adult part timer, Danielle H, is back on the team for 2012. Danielle is a real jack of all trades. She helps paint jumps in the spring, helps run horse shows, and is often the adult who will meet you or drop you off at the airport if you don’t choose to use John, the East Aurora taxi guy.

 

So our entire adult support staff from previous years returns for the 2012 season. They are known quantities that we trust and can count on. That is very good, since we will have some new riding staff this year. Continuity is very good.

 

Meghan is busy today with a heavy exchange of texts with Anne and Michele, two very adult women interested in Adult Week. They are both a riot to talk with. Those chats, along with the very good news about Joyce, Joel and other adult staff today have kept Meghan with a big smile on her face.

 

Visitors Tomorrow!

Our first visit from a new student and her family comes tomorrow when Katherine and her family visit for the afternoon. We’ve got Curry and her family visiting from South Carolina in two more weeks, but Katherine is the first of the season.

 

We always tell early season visitors that everything is all closed up, the jumps put away, and that we’ll just be giving them an informal walk around the property. “We will have nothing done to show off the farm at it’s best”, we tell them. Well, some of you guys know Meghan, and the rest of you soon will! She has been a whirlwind the past two days arranging for part time workers to come in, tooling around the farm herself on an ATV checking things out, cleaning up little piles of squirrel mess in the bathrooms, having one of the show ring fences painted just to spruce up our “first impression”, and goodness knows how much more by three o’clock tomorrow afternoon when Katherine & family arrive.

 

Of course, we are lucky that we are having all time record mid March weather this week. I know we wouldn’t have been able to pull out all the stops like this in a normal late winter March!! But the temperatures are now expected to be in the 70’s all next week and we are laying on much of our part time maintenance crew next week, including Joel, to begin the big job of opening Longacres for the season, which will include painting and refurbishing every last one of our dozens and dozens of jumps and building many new jumps for this year. Last year our jumps were in great shape anyway, and we got by painting only about half of them and touching up others. This is the year of bigtime jump building and maintenance. We hope to get a huge head start on that work during the extraordinary weather next week.

 

Yesterday and today for Katherine and her family, we painted the show ring fence, picked up hundreds of branches on our walking and horse trails, did mild cleanup in the dining hall, the bathrooms, Pegasus cabin, and cleaned up and did a little repair to Pixie Oakwood guest cabin, started raking leaves along the office driveway, fixed a couple of potholes (we HATE potholes!), and that’s just what I know about.

 

SPRING IS HERE, even if winter might still visit briefly at the end of the month. There is some precedent to this great early spring weather. In fact it was only a couple of years ago that we got a March start to cleanup and painting and it made our job in May really nice. Hope this is a repeat.

 

Wednesday, March 14^th, 11PM Update:

“Welcome” Gabi!

We’ve sent out “hello’s” to Gabi during the past couple of weeks, but this is the official Gabi “Welcome”, now that she is formally enrolled as a Counselor in Training at Longacres for the June 24 to July 8th session. Gabi is Longacres 2012 student #40. Gabi is from Westchester near New York City and she joins Alexa from Rhode Island as the two CIT’s for that session at Longacres. We’ve given them each other’s names and they are in touch with one another. It is unusual to have two girls as CIT’s during the same session who have not been to Longacres before, but we’re excited because they are both serious students and both specifically inquired at Longacres about a Cit program to prepare them for future horse related jobs. Gabi has been riding for eight years, she has been at other camps, including five years at a riding camp not far from Longacres that includes horses and many other activities. She was a CIT there. She also has western riding experience and has done some long distance trail riding. Meghan and I are looking forward to helping Gabi learn and have new experiences here, and we think she and Alexa will have a lot of interesting things to pass on to the younger girls here that session as CIT’s.

 

Longacres at Night

I’m a big fan of full moons and moonlight rides during the summer, but there is also something beautiful about a really dark night. Meghan pointed out the interesting contrast of the stars and the dark tree outlines as we drove in the drive to our house this evening. I played around with my camera on a tripod trying to capture what Meghan had pointed out. Check this link. Hope you enjoy!

 

Sunfire

Meet our newest Longacres horse at this link! Actually, Sunfire will not belong to Longacres, as she will be here this summer on loan from her owner, Mary Mcnall. That name should be familiar to some of you. Mary breeds horses on her farm not far from us and we have had some great horses and ponies from her. Sometimes we buy one from her and other times we give them training and sell them for her or send them back if it is horse like sunfire that she really likes and plans to keep.

 

Guess what? Sunfire is a half sister to Tux! She is a full sister to another nice pony you may remember from a couple of summers ago, Starfire. Starfire spent a time at Longacres and we really liked her. (Since Kellie has Tux for the winter, we gave her the first chance to hear about Sunfire in a private email.)

 

Another Adult?

This has been a week for possible new Adult Week students. Meghan had a fun talk with Michele today and Michele has also had a talk with Sharon. If all these new adults sign up, we’re going to have a fun group at Adult Week, 2012!

 

Tuesday, March 13^th, 11PM Update:

Winky is #4 on the “Diamond Jubilee List”

Michelle “Winky” Kirsh, 8 year Longacres student, CIT, Junior counselor, and now senior counselor for 2012 has put her name on the list for our 2013 Longacres Diamond Jubilee. She’s #4 on the list behind Sharon, Bonnie, and Uncle Billy. Let us know if YOU plan to come and would like to be on this V.I.P. list!

 

Winky’s message was interesting for other reasons. I had forgottan that Winky was a very young camper at Longacres that year back in 2005 when we had a very small enrollment and made some changes at Longacres. Things I wrote about in this morning’s update. She remembers it well. Read her message:

Hi Tom,

I just read today's blog update and wanted to write about two things. First of all, if I'm available, I'd love to come to the Diamond Jubilee in 2013.

Secondly, the stuff you wrote about that 2005 summer brought back some memories. I remember that it was my first year at camp. Who would've thought that "Little Michelle" would turn out to become "Senior Counselor Winky" eight years later? Even though I was there in July, I remember that being the last session of camp that year. I also remember Meghan telling me about how all of the girls who had been coming back for years had stopped that year. It's strange some of the things you remember.

One a side note, Brody is doing well. I want to have one of my lessons video taped sometime. If I can, I'll try to send you a video. He's gotten so much better about transitions, getting into corners, bending, and collecting at the canter. I'd love for you to be able to see his progress. It might not be until I can start having my lessons outside. Knowing Rochester's weather, that could be a while.

Until next time,

Winky

 

Bulliten: Tune in here tomorrow when we will introduce and post pictures of the first new horse we have arranged for this summer!

 

Tuesday, March 13^th, Noon Update:

Sharon, Bonnie, & Billy

There’s lots going on at Longacres today! After breakfast I dove into outdoor projects and worked up a good sweat raking leaves. Now I’m ready for an early nap! Ah, the pains of being a senior citizen. I love doing outdoor stuff, but my stamina is not what it once was. It’s a good thing that Meghan’s energy is never ending. I do have energy left to sit and type, so update time it is.

 

Sharon, Bonnie, and Billy

Those three names are at the top of our “2013 Diamond Jubilee List”. You can go to our Alumni page and read an article I wrote a few years ago about our Diamond Jubilee 75^th Anniversary now only 17 or so months away. I will write an updated description of the festivities very soon. We are opening a list of friends of Longacres who are planning to be here for some or all of the 2013 events. Although you don’t have to be on any list to visit us in 2013, certain events will have limited space and those at the top of the “Jubilee List” will have first choice to take part in limited space events. Sharon Waters is a long time camp mom of Laura and a 7 year Adult Week student herself. Bonnie Duncan was a camper and counselor at Longacres herself, is now owner of Pet Pics photography, and a great friend of Longacres. Uncle Billy is Uncle Billy – always ready to lend a hand or an ear and one of our oldest friends – we have known him a long time, too! Anyone who thinks they are likely to take part in 2013 events, write and have me add your name to the list so you can have priority on limited space events.

 

Adapting to the Times

Nice segue, Tom. You would think that a business like Longacres entering it’s 74^th year this season would have well established ways of doing things. We do, but we spend hours every winter talking about things we could change. Usually it is minor stuff, but sometimes significant change.

 

This year we have written often about our evaluation of staffing plans at Longacres. We sent out a long questionnaire and discussion to nearly 50 friends of Longacres and former staff in late fall asking for comments and suggestions on ways to improve the staff experience here. In some ways, staff in the modern era at Longacres have it easier that staff ten and fifteen years ago. Women who worked here some time ago answered the questionnaire with comments like, “What do you mean you hire part timers to paint the jumps in the spring and have maintenance staff move the jumps out of the barn? We used to do all that when we came for our summer job!” It is true that we budget for extra help to do some things that counselors used to do. But other things are more stressful for staff nowadays than was once the case.

 

Longacres across the board is a more upscale place than it was even ten years ago. We have made huge investments in our jumps, as one of the most obvious upgrades. And to take full advantage of that huge investment, we are much fussier about taking care of our jumps and riding areas. Fifteen years ago we were OK with leaving jump rails on the ground at the end of a lesson or in the evening, knowing that the instructor of the next lesson in that riding area might have a wholly different lesson plan and want to set the jumps the way she planned for her lesson. Not now. We expect each of our arenas and training areas to be neat and have all jumps properly set at the end of each lesson. It’s a little thing, but we have to remind instructors and that is one little thing that adds to their stress level.

 

Another small improvement – no – BIG improvement, is that fifteen years ago we had only one big pasture and a small private paddock for turnout. Meghan now has four separate turnout pastures so that she can segregate different kinds of horses. It makes for much greater peace out in the pastures and many fewer lame horses that get hurt in pasture fights. It’s wonderful for the horses. But the process of turning horses out at night and bringing them in in the morning is much more complicated – more stress for staff.

 

So, along with many little ideas, the common theme among the comments and suggestions from former staff was to try to find even little ways to give staff bits and pieces of personal “down time” during the course of their summer here. And Meghan is doing it, working out overlapping time slots where new counselors will come in several times during the season, usually a few days before a new group is scheduled to arrive. They will provide fresh energy and allow Meghan the luxury of giving extra time off now and then to girls like Becky, who will be Barn Manager for the entire summer. Emily is coming for two extra weeks in the middle of the summer as a “relief counselor” – she will have a light schedule herself, but no other duties besides jumping in and giving an extra morning or evening or afternoon of personal time to one of the instructors that has been here for many weeks.

 

This kind of scheduling is not easy. Meghan is spending many hours at this time of year trying to work out job offers to very qualified girls and make those offers fit the personal schedules of each girl so that they have something else to do for part of their summer, while being able to come to Longacres for five or six weeks. The puzzle is coming together, but not without bumps in the road. We were very excited about a well qualified college student who inquired over the past few days and sent in a wonderful resume and had great references. But when Meghan finally spoke with her in detail on the phone today, it seemed clear that this kind of job was not going to fit in her schedule. Hopes dashed! But we are doing well, with only one more spot we really need to fill.

 

Changing Enrollments

We have had very good luck enrolling students early at Longacres, with few having to change their plans. But in a program like ours that fills many spots for next summer 10 months in advance, changes sometimes do take place. We had a double whammy this week, with two girls planning on the early Bird clinic weeks notifying us of possible issues. Both still hope to attend, but with health issues and family plans up in the air, we are announcing that the June 18^th to 24^th week that has been “Full – Wait List”, now is possibly going to have one or more vacancies. We’re keeping our fingers crossed for the girls signed up, but want those of you who have passed up that week because we called it full, to know there might be a space.

 

Changing Enrollments – Over the Years

Between her calls and messages about staffing for the changing times at Longacres, Meghan and I were talking this morning about other ways that Longacres is different than it was fifteen years ago. One of the most striking changes is that we only very rarely have full season students these days. Fifteen years ago, even ten, we often had 25% of our students come for the full 8 weeks summer season. That is very rare now. Young people have many more options for their summers today and a large number of Longacres students have other important plans for parts of their summers. The group of girls who come for our 3 ½ week August session are our “Long Term” students. But the majority of our students come for two week sessions and, recognizing that, we formalized our list of “Really Cool Things You do at Longacres Besides “Just Riding Five Hours a Day”! That list of special events that was once spread out over a whole summer or four week time slot is now repeated every two weeks, in recognition of the fact that a big part of our enrollment turns over every two weeks, except for the August session.

 

Responding to Change – Trying to Anticipate Change

With our current staff planning discussions and scheduling, and things like scheduling “Really Cool Things You Do”, we are keeping up with the times and trying to stay ahead of change. But we have been caught with our pants down in the past.

 

During the period from the years 1998 through 2004 we had an incredible group of girls at Longacres who came back together year after year, many of them for the full season, and almost all for longer than two weeks. Spirit was great and the camp was always full. (We had an 11 week season then, shorter than we do now.) But since the same girls came back year after year, we had no space for new girls. And the average age of our enrollment crept up from 13 in 1998 to eventually include all older teenagers in 2004. Guess what? No matter how much you love horses, you will eventually outgrow summer camp. Our group of loyal students all reached that age at the same time in 2005, with most of them old enough so that they had to get real summer jobs. We had only two girls return for the 2005 season, even though they were all Longacres lovers. There were no young riders in our enrollment to carry on traditions. The double whammy on us was that our promotional efforts had atrophied during those boom years. With our enrollment filling early every year with returning students, we had to do nothing to sign up new girls, and during that period of time, the way the internet worked for promotion had changed a lot. We were quite unprepared for what we faced in 2005. We actually cancelled half our season that year and ran only four weeks of camp.

 

We learned our lesson and vowed never again to be caught with all older teenage girls who might “grow up” all at once and leave us with no returning students. For the following year, we instituted a new policy of saving half the spots in our July sessions every year only for girls 12 and under. We have that policy to this day and it has successfully kept us with an enrollment well balanced among ages. (Oh yeah – that 2005 season? Boy, did we make sure that the girls we had during that four weeks had a great time! We had a fine rate of return for the 2006 season!)

 

So, that’s my “little” update for today. Most of today’s update was inspired by our ongoing efforts to keep changing little things as society around us changes and as Longacres moves through this 74^th season into our big 75^th Anniversary year in 2013.

 

More to come on 2013 very soon!

 

Monday, March 12^th Update:

Tom at Work

You guys at home are going to have to wait for a couple of months to see horse video’s, but we will begin posting more and more pictures and video of daily life at Longacres this spring now that it is getting warmer. You will get to know us a bit if you visit here often. And through the pictures and video you will be able to share with us the opportunity to slowly see Longacres transform from winter hibernation to the freshness of spring as we clean up, paint up, and fix up the farm and watch the spring blossoms and wild flowers come out.

 

Check this link for a video I took yesterday from the cab of my tractor to see the view that I have for more than 200 hours every year doing mowing and other tractor work.

 

Check this video link for another view of “Tom at Work”, but this time taken by Meghan as I get ready to change a trailer tire.

 

Check this link for some pictures taken around the farm in the woods yesterday – our new student visitors coming this weekend and in three more weeks will see these views as we walk together through the woods and horse trails giving tours of Longacres.

 

Meghan has been busy yesterday and today doing office work, answering questions about your accounts since we just sent out final bills, and talking with new students and staff. Barn Manager, Becky from England, has been in touch with Michelle and the other girls she will be working with. We’re glad that this year’s staff is putting in time to get to know one another before they come to work this season.

 

One of Meghan’s projects the past two days has been talking with Melissa, who is interested in being an Intern at Longacres for a significant part of the summer. She has tons of horse experience, is in high school, and might want to be a regular counselor next year. We are doing quite a bit with extra “relief counselors” and interns this season to give our regular counselors a bit more frequent breaks and rest periods than we have in the past. We like the way this program is shaping up. But it is costly. For this reason along with other improvements at Longacres, there will be some price increase at Longacres for 2013 after our holding the price the same this year over last summer. Just a heads up to parents. We are interested in feedback especially from old friends of Longacres on ideas for pricing our “product”, as it compares to other youth vacation and training opportunities.

 

PS – The title of this update was “Tom at Work”, but in reality, more time has been spent today with “Tom at Play”. I am getting pretty good at flying my big model helicopter outdoors. There are a few video’s of me playing with toys on the Megfun YouTube sight (but I am better now and do cooler tricks!) Some returning students will remember seeing me fly a model plane near the barn in between your lessons last summer. You won’t get to see me anywhere close flying my cool helicopter, because it can be dangerous. If some of you ever want to watch, maybe we can lock you in Meghan’s truck and you can look out the windows while I fly. I guess the point I am making is for the benefit of any parents who might know something about model planes and especially helicopters. Yes, we are very aware of the dangers of this hobby and will not let campers anywhere near the bigger helicopter! Maybe I’m writing this because Meghan just got done giving me a lecture on being careful myself!

 

Sunday, March 11^th Update:

Starting to Work Outside

But first, a Longacres “Hello” to Michele from Connecticut. Michele is a “seasoned adult”, interested in attending our Adult Week at the beginning of June. She is the second adult we’ve been in touch with this week – Anne from Cincinnati is sending in her enrollment. Our Adult Week is now nearly full for 2012, along with most other sessions. We have put Michele in touch with Sharon to find out more.

 

Check this link for a short video clip I took of Rob’s flood control dam along one of the horse trails yesterday. It’s fun to be working outdoors again at this time of year. Actually we have a really much warmer than normal week coming up, with temperatures in the 60’s later this week. With visitors coming to Longacres over the next few weeks, we hope to get some painting done while it is in the 60’s.

 

Tuition:

Reminder – Meghan has sent out all the Statements of account by email. If you spend most of your time on Facebook and don’t check your email, be sure to do so in time to get your final payments in by April 1^st to keep your enrollment in effect. If you need a printed bill, let us know and we’ll be sure it gets to you.

 

Pre-Pre-Camp Week?

Since most 2012 sessions will soon be sold out we are considering opening Longacres for our already planned “Optional Week” May 28^th to June 2^nd. It would include tons of riding getting our “herd” in shape for the rest of the summer and a couple of Guest Instructors. We have had riders like Jessica from Colorado that week for the past couple of years – it is a fun time, very informal, but lots of riding.

 

Short Term Interns?

We’ve spent a lot of time this off season discussing new ideas for working with our staff and making arrangements to improve the staff experience. One new idea is to offer girls who have other plans for this year, but might be interested in working at Longacres the following season, a chance to come in for a couple of days this summer as “Interns”, helping out a little around the barn, riding a lesson, and helping one of our instructors teach a few lessons. It would be a hands on chance to get to know a little about Longacres and for Longacres to get to learn a little about you. It would give you a big leg up in applying for a 2013 summer job here. Contact us if interested.

 

Friday, March 9^th Update:

We should be getting Gabi’s enrollment as a CIT over the weekend and after we give her a formal “Welcome” next week, we will have only one more spot open between June 16 and August 18th. That is a full five month’s earlier than when we filled our regular camp sessions last summer. Thank you all for your enthusiasm for Longacres this year! We have decided to save that last spot from June 24 to July 8^th for a teen age 13 or older. We have an excellent enrollment of younger girls this year, which is great for the future here at Longacres. But the balance of ages that first two week session will be better if we hold out for a teen rider for that last spot.

 

We now will have space for 10 to 12 year old riders only in the June 11 to 17^th week and during “Lazy Days” the last week in August.

 

Thursday, March 8^th Update:

Not as Nice Today

Check this link for a few pictures from around the farm today. One shows the excellent work Rob did along one of the trails yesterday improving a flood control dam.

 

Your Statement of Account is Coming and Final Tuition is Due April 1^st

This is a heads up for whoever pays the bills in your family. Your final tuition payment is due on April 1^st, just three weeks away. Meghan will have your statement of account emailed to you in a few days. It will be important to get this payment in on time, since we are now essentially sold out for 2012 and beginning to have inquiries from people who want to be on a wait list and get in if we have a cancellation.

 

Wednesday, March 7^th Update:

Company Coming!

Katherine and her family are coming to Buffalo for a meet next week and plan to meet up with us for a tour of Longacres and dinner. Then Curry and her family are flying in from the Carolina’s the first week in April for a visit and dinner. We enjoy meeting new students and their families before the season if you can make it to our neck of the woods.

 

Just remember that Longacres is all closed up for the off season and you will be seeing a barn with the windows all boarded up, and the same for the dining hall and other buildings. We do take a long walk around the farm with winter visitors. It is a lovely piece of property and visitors usually enjoy the walk. We do unlock the barn and show you all the amazing jumps piled in the horse stalls for the winter. The jumps look impressive set up during the summer, and when you see a whole barn full of jumps, that looks pretty cool, also! After your tour, we often go out to dinner with you in town and talk horses and riding.

 

Outside Work

A bit of spring came with a rush today. It was supposed to be near 60, but actually it was just under 70 at 4PM. Local maintenance guy, Rob, worked this afternoon helping us clean up trails and repair one of the dams on a small creek. You know that camp is just around the corner when you start doing repairs outdoors.

 

I’ll post a picture tomorrow of the big 6’ snowblower that never got used this winter. Usually we need to use it several times a week all winter with occasional breaks, to keep our 900’ office driveway clear. Not this winter. One day I did use it just to say I did, with only a few inches of snow. That’s it. One use, and that one not necessary. It’s been an amazing “non-winter’ here in western New York!

 

Tuesday, March 6^th Update:

Almost Spring!

We know it is almost springtime at Longacres when we start posting photo albums of pictures taken around the farm. Check this link for some pics from yesterday. I took a long walk through the trails checking to see how much damage needs to be repaired from the winter storms when we begin working outside. Things are not in bad shape! Which is a good thing, since we have a lot of work planned building new jumps and refurbishing the ones we already have.

 

The pictures show Longacres with just a bit of snow. It was frigid and winterlike during my trail walk, but it is a little warmer today. I had a chance to fly my model helicopter outside. Fun wow!! And the temperature is supposed to zoom up to almost 60 tomorrow.

 

We are also having dinner tonight with Dave and Christine from Newstead Equestrian Center to finalize some schedule questions and class lists for the Summer Series horse shows. I guess that if we’re having horse show planning meetings, summer is just around the corner.

 

Meghan spoke on the phone for over two hours with another prospect for senior counselor at Longacres. She really likes Heather, who also has excellent references. Meghan is enthusiastic about the new girls we plan to hire, and of course we have Wink & Bucket!!!! (See, Win, we promised to get you great help for your July session, and things are coming along very well. Your eight years of experience at Longacres will be invaluable, but you will not have to do it all alone!!!!!)

 

Sunday, March 4^th Update:

“Hello” to Gabi

Gabi comes from Westchester outside of New York and has experience at other camps as a CIT. Meghan had a great talk with her mom today and we hope to soon give her a formal Longacres “Welcome” as a CIT for the June 24 to July 8th session. Meghan enjoyed talking with both Gabi a few days ago and with her mom today.

 

Danielle, Rachel, and Alex

We have traded messages with several girls interested in Longacres sessions over the past few days. Danielle and Rachel were both interested in one week sessions, and Alex (from Russia!) wants five or six weeks. Unfortunately, we are sold out for most mid summer sessions and the only long session Alex could attend would be during June.

 

We continue to finalize details for the 2012 staff. Things are coming together and it looks like we’ll have quite a bit more depth than usual to this year’s staff, with several senior instructors overlapping their stays so we often will have fresh help coming in when sessions change over. We have invited Bethany and Mandi from last year to stop by and teach guest lessons and we think they are both likely to come. Their problem will be trying to choose which session to pay us a visit – I am sure they wish they could be here for every session to see all their 2011 friends again, but they both have busy summers planned!

 

Winter, but Spring is Around the Corner!

It’s been snowing off and on all day and we just got back from REALLY cold weather in the far north. But it may top 60 degrees out by Wednesday! We are rather looking forward to getting outdoors to work around the farm.

 

Friday, March 2^nd, 11PM Update:

We’re Back!

We had a great week of snowmobiling, in case you have not been checking up on us on the other Blog. We just got in the door after a grueling 12 hour drive home, and we made it just in time as the winds are rising by the minute and we just had thunder and lightning. Glad we did the long drive today to beat the weather!

 

There is a pile of mail to catch up on tomorrow, but SLEEP tonight!