September 14, 2008 - Again a busy weekend last weekend followed by a hectic week. Last weekend was the Rare Breeds Festival put on by the Equus Survival Trust. It was held at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington. As always, it was a great venue. Wolfie went to represent RFI and the Cleveland Bay. It was a hectic schdule. He did jumping and the Cleveland Bay classes on Friday, dressage and in hand on Saturday. The hight point was the dressage clinic with Lendon Gray on Sunday. She had some nice things to say about him and I saw a huge difference at the end of the hour versus the beginning. He won the Most Versatile Cleveland Bay award which included a nice rosette and tack stand. The award was sponsored by Gabrielle Gordon of the Cleveland Bay Horse Society of North America.

Joni took Sassy as well as some students to the Coytee show last weekend. All did very well. Casey jumped her first 3' course at a show and had a beautiful round placing second! Sassy was a little inquisitive but behaved like a pro placing second and first respectivley in the jumpers. The riders in the hunter classes had a great showing as well bringing home lots of ribbons with Abby bringing home reserve champion in the equitation division. Emma swept the short stirrup division with all blues. Spencer and his mount both enjoyed their first show and are eager to take on the remainder of the season. Anna had a beautiful classic round and placed fourth over all out of a large competitive group. All are looking forward to the next show September 19-21.

Right now we are doing some reorganizing at the barn including makeing aif book with pictures and interesting pointsfor all the horses. We are having some equipment problems but hope to get one of the cutting machines working. The grass is getting unruly. We are hopeful for another cutting of hay before fall comes.

September 2, 2008 - Last weekend was a very busy one. After a very carefully planned training week, Saturday Tracie and Moose and Tally and Ginger headed to McCord Farms for the First Annual Jump for Kids show to benefit New Hope Children's Advocacy Center. It looked to be a huge success and I believe the turnout was greater than expected. There were some last minute schedule changes and Tally ended up showing under the lights. Ginger was very brave. Moose went a little earlier and did very well. She continues to improve around other horses and seems to love to show. Although no prizes were won, we enjoyed ourselves and were happy with our showing. One of Joni's other students did well and placed in one of her classes at her second jumper show. Congrats to Casey! We each only did one round because we had plans to visit Holli Adams the following day.

Sunday Tally and Tracie took Ginger and Moose to Holli's for an overnight trip. We lessoned Sunday evening and Monday morning. Monday both horses were very good and Holli seemed pleased, as were we. After our lesson Sunday evening we had a nice visit with an old friend of Tracie's, Jill Silver who is an accomplished artist in the Tryon area.

Plans are underway for our next trip. Thursday we leave for the Kentucky Horse Park for Wolfie to have a weekend of showing and clinicing at the Rare Breeds Festival. Look for information next week.

August 18, 2008 - We finally got the journal up and running. Now, if we can keep it updated.

So far we have had a fairly busy August. We have been to one show at Westwind where both Ginger (St. Simon's Island) and Moose (Second Chance) did well getting many first and seconds. Two attempts were made to go to Tryon, NC for training with Holli Adams, but both were unsuccessful. The first one was foiled by an interstate accident, and the second by virus. However, Joni and Sassy and Amelia and Bill were able to take a long weekend for some intense training with FEI instructor Tiffany Loudon-Meetze and both came home smiling. The horses looked happy, too.

Last weekend we had a new arrival from Virginia. Killian is recovering from an abscessed foot, but seems to be doing well and adjusting to life in her new field with some new friends who aren't always so friendly. We also bailed and put almost 300 bales of hay so we are almost ready for winter. I hope all goes as planned as our farm expert, JD, predicts an early frost, We sure could use some rain. We continue to have water truck issues. Hopefully we wil get it running again soon. Usually as soon as it gets going, it rains. We need to get pictures of it as it is sure to become a farm mascot.

We had a new potential boarder come by on Sunday. She does dressage and I think she would fit in nicely.

The next event will be the Jump for Kids show at McCord Farms. We are looking forward to it in preparation for our next A rated hunter/jumper show at River Glen in October.

Another event we are looking forward to is the Rare Breeds Festival put on by the Equus Survival Trust. It will be the first full weekend of September and the best part will be a private dressage clinic with Lendon Grey for Wolfie (Stainmore Wolfhound) and Tally. Tracie will be scribing for part of the clinic, and she is looking forward to that, as well.

August 2, 2008 - This is the first entry into the Ridgemor Journal. Check back often to read updates about what is happening around the farm and how our riders did at the latest shows.

August 1, 2008 - The new Ridgemor Journal is almost ready!!