Riley lives up to his name

"Rile You Up" had an outstanding weekend in Clemson. He got everyone around the grounds talking about him. He was shown by Gia and Chipper in short stirrup both Saturday and Sunday. He was fantastic. He came home with 2 championship ribbons and 2 reserve championships. He was named horse/pony of the weekend by show management and received a big bucket of apples and carrots for himself. I decided to see how he would do in the trail class. He had never been asked to cross a bridge, back an "L" or other tasks that go into trail. We schooled the bridge twice before competing. The first time he took one look at it and said..."Uh, NO" he danced all around it. When he finally stepped on it he went right off the side. The second time there was not a moment's hesitation, then we rode in the class, and no suprise he won the class.

We also took Sebastian to the show. He wasn't real thrilled with the experience. We had to scratch Saturday all together because he was not willing to cooperate. I rode him about 4 times during the day. He started out a bucking fool. We finished up the day schooling crossrails. Sunday morning started out much better. I showed him in crossrails and he did very well. He came out second in his class. I had originailly planned to show him in the Hunter Classic, but decided to scratch because I wasn't sure how he would do. I wanted to quit on a good note. Karin had wanted to show him in a few classes, but we had to scale that back to just the walk/trot on the flat. She took second in her class. A friend of her's then brought her horse up for Karin to show over fences. She showed in the classic on "Gus" against me on "Riley". Riley and I had an awful round. I guess I don't ride over fences enough, nor Riley enough. Our second round was much better, but I blew the first round trying to find spots for him. Low and behold Riley has no adjustability and knows his job. All he wanted was me to get out of his way and let him do his job. Ooopppss so much for being a pro.

Here are some pics from Saturday, Sunday to come...

What am I up to???

It's been quite awhile since I have blogged. As you may know I have shrunk the size of my operation, and am down to just teaching a few students on a regular basis. I'm staying in touch with as many students as I can. I have some video to post of what I've been up to as life has been winding down. Stay tuned to see some amazing footage!!!

As for what I'm doing at this moment... I'm sitting in a hotel room with Kellie, and Gia watching Monster In-Law. Karin, Chipper (and family), and us all travelled up to Clemson today. There is a show this weekend. We had a long day getting here, but are settled in for the night. Riley and Sebasitan aka. Tommy are at the show grounds snuggled in their stalls for the night. There was a suprisingly low number of people stabling tonight. We're assuming more will turn up tomorrow. Gia and Chipper will be showing Riley in Short Stirrup. Karin will be showing Sebastian in some beginner classes. I will be showing him in 2' adult hunter classes, and 2' jumper classes. There is a hunter classic Sunday so I'll be showing both of them in it on Sunday.

Stay tuned to hear how we did.

Too Good not to share

FLORIDA COURT SETS ATHEIST HOLY DAY
In Florida , an atheist created a case against the upcoming Easter andPassover holy days. He hired an attorney to bring a discrimination caseagainst Christians, Jews and observances of their holy days. The argumentwas that it was unfair that atheists had no such recognized days.
The case was brought before a judge. After listening to the passionate presentation by the lawyer, the judge banged his gavel declaring, "Case dismissed!"
The lawyer immediately stood objecting to the ruling saying, "Your honor,how can you possibly dismiss this case? The Christians have Christmas,Easter and others. The Jews have Passover, Yom Kippur and Hanukkah, yet my client and all other atheists have no such holidays."
The judge leaned forward in his chair saying, "But you do. Your client, counsel, is woefully ignorant."
The lawyer said, "Your Honor, we are unaware of any special observance or holiday for atheists."
The judge said, "The calendar says April 1st is April Fools Day. Psalm 14:1 states, 'The fool says in his heart, there is no God.' Thus, it is the opinion of this court, that if your client says there is no God,then he is a fool. Therefore, April 1st is his day.. Court is adjourned."

Stay Tuned

I know this has been a very down week around the farm. I want to encourage every one to keep their faith and their chins up. I am working on something that might prove to be very exciting. Everyone hang in there.

Look for another announcement about Tuesday or Wednesday of this week.

Love

I love all of you. I do my best to go above and beyond for each and everyone of you as often as I am able. I can't always give you everything I want to, but know that I try.

If you can think of any one time in our relationship that I have gone above and beyond for you please honor me by doing the following...

Take half an hour and watch this video. I hope that it will transform your life in some way.

Thank you in advance for giving me this gift=)

Busy day

What a full day I had. I started out with Emily's lesson over at her farm. Gift is coming along very well. She is now jumping fences instead of taking them in stride. She sits down very nicely using her hind end over the fences. Emily is supposed to send me the video from this morning. I'll add it when I get it. Emily is having to adjust her equitation to account for Gift's new found power. We're heading to Aiken this Friday for a "AA" rated show. Wish us luck...

Congratulations go out to Helen and Heather Jervey. They are the new proud owners of Squeeks. They are the ones who I dropped a horse to on Christmas morning.

Then a bunch of us gathered at the Kramer's property to build some fence. KJ brought over the auger and was our "ox" for the day. Although after a wonderful subway lunch courtesy of Beth Randall did have to pitch in and help.

Fundraising Opportunity

We have talked a lot about wanting two things...shirts that match and stall drapes for shows. I have come up with a way to get both. I opened a store at Cafe Press. I will work on uploading more designs and options in the coming week. If there is something specific you want to see let me know and I'll try to add it. So far I have two designs up one with our farm Motto "Go Strong or Go Home", and one with a farm logo.


If anyone wants to take some time to create farm related art I can use it to make more apparel designs. Save it as a .jpg and send it to me if you're interested. There is also a sticker done for our cars. I'm going to work or redesigning the above art larger so we can use it on the back of shirts too.