Dressage Niagara...... Fun in the Sun on Saturday!

Saturday May 26th. What a fun show at Niagara! Three horses representing my stable; Sara on Barras' Destiny (Cedar) and myself with Gen Custer (aka Mav) and KF Almaz (Allie).

It was time to celebrate with a bottle of Mumms' Champagne with Sara; this was her first Prix St. George ride! They did good too! Only a percent behind Mav and I with 59% Way to go Sara; you looked great in Tails!

Mav was a character as usual, gaining looks of amazement from people when I told them he is an Arabian/QuarterHorse. We did an Intermediare 1 freestyle with some Western tunes including "Save a Horse Ride a Cowboy" as our opening music. We got 64% for our effort. I'm wanting to apply to ride a freestyle at US Sport Horse Nationals, so this was our first attempt to get the necessary scores to go. Thanks to everyone for the positive feedback on the music. I just can't see the "Westerny" looking horse half-passing to classical music ; just to stuffy for this fun little guy.

Allie was great as usual. She's come such a long way from the Booooooring Training Level rides. If we can get over the flying bucks for flying changes, we'll have it licked! She still got 63% for both of her Third Level trips. At least I got one out of 4 completely clean this time.

The crowd at got a "kick" out of it. (No pun intended). Gotta have some humor at a dressage show.

Thanks to Les again for the great pics.

Huge Storm Hits Nearby: Farm is Untouched

Do you ever have that gut feeling? Well today was one of them. I had heard a weather warning for our area, saw the black clouds and decided to batton down the hatches. I'm glad I did.

Even the horses outside were begging to come in.

Les and I took all the vehicles and parked them in the arena, as the weather forecasters were calling for hail.

Then all hell broke loose. As you can see from the pics, not even 1/2km from me the literal devestation that the "down draft" or "tornado" caused.

Just after the picture of the barn was taken, I ran down into the basement as I was probably the most scared I have been from a storm. With winds that I guess exceeded 100kms per hour, pea sized hail, and super black clouds, I was sure that we were going to get wiped out.

After doing a visual of the farm, I was surprised to only see a couple of full garbage cans toppled and a missing wash bucket. The horses were fine in the stables, and apart from a valley that had turned into a river, Kirkridge escaped damage.

The little town down the road was another story, as you can see from the pics.

We were VERY lucky.

CCF Porshah- For Sale

Some pics from today's schooling have been added to my webshots site. Just click on the title to go to the webshots page to see more pics.
"Po" is a 4 year old Anglo-Arabian 15.2h mare schooling second level. She would make an EXCELLENT ladies' or juniors' horse. She has a wonderful temperament. Po has won in Sport Horse under saddle, in-hand, and Hunter pleasure classes. She would make a super mount that will excell in any discipline. For more information contact elaine.ward@yahoo.com

Hey Sophie....Is that a Semi-Private Lesson?

No they are not twins, it's Sophie and Beech in Paris having their lesson today. Thanks to Lise, Sophies' mom for sending me the pics and I thought I would get creative and make it a "double" lesson. Sophie is a member of the Mt. Nemo Pony Club, and will be attending Pony Club competitions in Dressage and Jumping this summer :)

Update on Corey

I took some pics of Corey today riding Annaconda. To my readers who don't know, Corey is visually impaired. He is doing very well, and really put my mare through her paces today. It just proves how important feel and balance really is!

"Princess" Allies' first Third Level Test

I was spoiled for choice of what picture to post, so what the heck! Why not put both up for people to admire. This is Allie in her first Third Level ride ever at Milestone last weekend.

Thanks to JudyC for the pics again!

Looking Cool Warming Up at Milestone

Thanks to JudyC my student and photographer for taking this neat pic of Mav and I.

Nice extension on grass eh?

Milestone Arabian Dressage Show

Mav and Allie were really good at the show. Even though the scores were pretty low from the judges point of view, I could not complain about the quality of my rides. This was Allies first shot at Second and Third Level. I think you will see the real quality of my rides from the pics.

Mav was his usual self; even a little more than usual. Our Prix St. George ride was a wee bit tense, and he proved that he is not a dead-head by almost dumping me before I got in the ring. The judged moved her chair and he took off! Thanks to "Eagle Eyes" Jacquie who found my lost button from my jacket outside the sand ring when the Mad Palomino took the mad panic leap from hell.

Lauren and Moon did quite well, managing to come right behind me in both Second Level and H/A Sport Horse Show Hack.

Allie's show hack round was undoubtedly the BEST trip ever in that class. I even got a "Wow" comment from Cheryl Ehrlick who was announcing for the class when I rode by her!

Mikayla and Cameo won the Training 1 and came second in Training 2. Not bad out of 19 and 17 horses respectably! And Mikayla is only 13 years old!

So, here are some of the pics courtesy of Kirkridge's very own papparazzi; Les. Judy our other photographer will be bringing her pics tomorrow to sift through. I think between Les and Judy, they have over 500 pics!

Thanks again to Judy, Jacquie, Deanna and Les for being there helping me get the beasties to the show ring.

Ride Times for Sat May 5th at Milestone

Here are the times for Mav and Allie:
9:05am Prix St. George
11:30 Intermediate1
12:45 Third Level
1:45 Second Level