On The Road Again

Have to brag about Jennifer and Shannon one more time, they got a 81.45% in their pas de deux last weekend at the Youth Team Competition. We are all so proud of them!!! Here are a few pictures.

I will be signing out for a week! Yes, there are still places in the world where you have no cell phone or internet access.

I think it is about time for a vacation..... Today on our drive I was on the phone to the USPS trying put a hold on our mail. I was following all the instructions just like I was supposed to do, and after about 10 min (at least it seemed like it, or 20 min), I finally lost it. I could feel it welling up, that terrible, terrible feeling of uncontrollable...... LAUGHTER. I am sitting

on the friking phone having a (seems like) 20 min conversation with a COMPUTER! When it finally asked my name, I could barely squeak out the letters... B (ha ha) A (ha ha) R (ha ha). When the computer asked if the name "BAR" was correct, she/it got SO frustrated with me when I couldn't say "NO", that she had to connect me with...guess what? A REAL CUSTOMER REPRESENTATIVE!

I finally had to put Brian on the phone to make sure we knew what was going to happen to our mail.

OK everyone, have a good week!

Summertime, And The Ridin' Is Easy

Ok…..so you have to have a little fun right???? Judi and I decided the other day to take the horses out to ‘work’ in the field. As we were ‘playing’ one of the boarders comes out with her young daughter and said “we are coming to watch the big girls”, and I looked over and said OK, that’s great, the ‘big’ girls are playing ‘Simon Says’ today!!!! So then the big and little girls continued playing Simon says out in the field together.

Meanwhile, the not so big girls as us, young riders Shannon and Jennifer, were at the Youth Team Championships having a blast! You can see their results in the twitter column to the right. We are ALL so proud of them.

We had two great weekends in a row, with Lexington and then the Youth Team Competition. It has been a great summer so far.

Greetings from Lexington!

The weekend in Lexington has been fun but busy. I'll have some stories to share soon.......in the meantime, check out our progress on Twitter!

Photos from the Ride for Life

Here are some more photos I promised. As you can see, Norma Lynn, Jennifer and Shannon were busy at the Ride for Life, in addition to volunteering for the Dancing Horse Committee. Shannon, Jennifer and I also made an exchange - I coached them for their pas de deux before the show, in exchange for doing all the feeding, mucking

and watching over Degas at the show. As you can see in one of the pictures, they had some early mornings (and/or late nights??)

They also pitched in when Norma Lynn hurt her ankle (yes, she rode and won with a hurt ankle!!). They braided Floete and took care of her. Norma Lynn appreciated this with sponsoring them for Debbie McDonald’s Fireside Chat! Thanks everyone for all of your hard work and generosity. Go Team!

Norma Lynn on Floete

Shannon on Secret

Shannon on Secret

Jennifer on Morgen

More from the Ride for Life

The Ride for Life was such a special event! This year, we were honored to have Debbie McDonald as the guest speaker. She is incredibly generous, something that was wonderful to learn about her while organizing the Ride for Life activities with her. First of all, she donated a one day clinic, all proceeds going to Johns Hopkins. We decided to auction off the clinic on eBay. This turned out to be a great idea! The auction brought in $8500!!!!! The best part is that the clinic will be used for para-equestrian riders.

Of course, she gave in other ways besides taking up 3 days of her time to come to the Ride for Life. The Fireside Chats were a big hit, and everyone seemed to love having some personal time to learn more about Debbie, Brentina and her philosophies. It was also an honor to hear about the little girl who came to Debbie through the Make-a-Wish Foundation, and to hear how instrumental Brentina was to her recovery.

Debbie is such a down to earth person. She was so friendly to everyone, and seemed to have a good time being part of the gang. Here is a picture of Debbie, Me and Mercedes (who was the ‘Debbie Minder’ for the weekend). As you look at the picture, I just want to let you all know one thing….. long legs are not always what they are cracked up to be….but Nicole never took this as an excuse from me for not having my leg on the horse (yes, sometimes your legs feel too long for the horse)

You will also see a photo of the Dancing Horse Challenge committee with Debbie. Unfortunately the whole committee couldn’t be there on Sunday during the photos. However, Degas made it and seemed to enjoy being part of the gang and gave Debbie some extra kisses.

The next photo is of the Caravan for the Cure with Debbie. Those of you who don’t know, the Caravan is from North Carolina, and come up every year for the Ride for Life. They raised over $20,000 by themselves!!!! As a thank you for all their dedication and hard work, we arranged a private ‘chat’ with them and Debbie. When I walked out of the Fireside Chat room and found them all waiting in their Caravan t-shirts it was such a great sight!!! What an energetic, positive and fun group of people! Their group inspired many of us during the year as things got busy and tiring.

Look soon for more photos of the Tribute ride.

Pictures From An Exhibition

As promised, here are some pictures from the Dancing Horse Challenge. As you can imagine, there were many details to be tended to prior to the show! In this first shot, Brian is helping me get ready for the tribute ride. Part of the fun is being able to dress up in costume for the performance - something we never get to do in competition!

Of course, my arena companion, Degas, had quite a costume fitting of his own for the ride! Here you can see the wonderful touches done by Lauren to make Degas look perfect for his ride during the tribute's "Fields of Gold".

Finally, here is Lauren Sirrine proudly displaying her ribbon awarded from the Dancing Horse Challenge - we are so grateful to her and the other wonderful riders who helped make the evening a special and unforgettable one!

Memories from the Ride for Life

There were so many memorable events during this year’s Ride for Life. I want to share a few special moments from the horse show. We had a few students showing this year in addition to us all organizing the Dancing Horse Challenge.

Norma Lynn won all of her Intro classes! But the special one was the last class on Sunday when Norma Lynn and Floete had their best test ever. Congratulations Norma Lynn! It is so great coming out of the ring with this feeling!

The other really exciting class was ridden by Jennifer Foulon on Janice Alperin’s Morgan, and Shannon Zik, on her own Secret. Yes, they performed their first pas de deux! I felt like a proud parent watching both of them perform. I got all teary eyed when they nailed all their transitions. I walked out of there not caring what score they got, but thought it had to be good…………and it sure was - they got a 78%!!!!!!!!!!!! How exciting!!!

The weekend ended with a flourish as both Paulette Ziegler and Donna Fortuna each received a 64% in the Second level test 4 and placing 2nd! We were all so excited. Paulette joined us from Ohio for the whole week before the Ride for Life and came with us to the show. We had such a good time having her with us and it was great to see her rewarded for all her hard work. With that performance hopefully she had enough adrenalin to help her make the 7 hour trip home that night.

The Ride for Life

The Ride for Life and in particular, the Dancing Horse Challenge, was a night to remember. It is amazing to have months of work play out in one short night.

As hard as I could have imagined, I would never have guessed how much hard work and

dedication went into organizing something like this. At each turn I was amazed at the people on my committee - amazed at their dedication, tenacity, patience and creativity. My deepest heartfelt thanks go out to everyone on our committee who made this evening possible.

As much as we planned, we could not have imagined what things could possibly happen. Up until minutes before show time, everyone on the committee was coming up with new plans…. We had gotten to plan Z, and then started the alphabet again with plan AA! As with horses and life in general, anything can happen, and we feel like everything was thrown at us! Up un

til the day before the performance, we had injured horses, riders and much more. But with the creativity, dedication, and generosity of many people, we were able to put on a great performance.

I would like to congratulate Belinda Nairn-Wertmann who was the Land Rover Trophy first place winner, and Jennifer Sirrine, who was the Dover/Nutrena People’s Choice winner. I would also like to thank and congratulate each rider who made this the best Dancing Horse Challenge Performance yet. Many thanks to Courtney King-Dye, Felicitas von Neumann-Cosel, Lauren Sprieser, Jules Anderson, Becky Langwost-Barlow and Jaralyn Finn. Also many thanks to Betsy Steiner, Michael Barisone, and Cathy Morelli who were scheduled to perform and for reasons out of their control were unable to attend. We appreciate that Betsy and Jessie Steiner were able to attend without their horse!

My special thanks go to those who worked together to create the tribute. It was such an honor to perform the tribute with Degas and also with our very special guests, the dancers from Bowen McCauley Dance. Degas made new friends in Dustin Kimball, Alicia Curtis, Brooke Urguhart, Suzanne Creedon and their choreographer Fran Ichijo. We hope to see them again soon! It was amazing how Degas took to the Dancers. He seemed to love every minute. It was such an inspiration to work together with these artists. Of course, my very special thanks go to Frank and Cece Maddlone of Equichord who created such an awe-inspiring tribute.

This quote sent about the tribute says it all…….” The tribute was stunning and something I will always remember. Maybe because I am a person of faith, the spiritual aspect that the dancers brought made it so special. To me they were angels or spirits and represented those gone to a better place. The symbolism of Degas acknowledging and saying farewell to each of them is still replaying in my mind. I'm sure that many - as I did - mentally placed their lost loved one in that circle. As Degas rode between the dancers it was a great joining of one of God's greatest creatures with man and angels.”

I am posting what pictures I have for the moment. Please come back to see more photos and hear more about the Ride for Life Weekend!