[January] [March] [May] [August] [September] [October] [November] [December]
January has almost passed us by and except for a few cold days, not much action goes on around the farm this time of year. Because of the cold weather, it seems that the horses have been in more than they've been out and a few lessons had to be cancelled (much to the chagrin of the lesson kids). Despite the occasional frozen water bucket and frosted door, everyone is still fairing well with the weather.
The cold doesn't seem to bother the horses much. As soon as they get out in the pastures they are quick to drop down and roll and then kick up their heals and frolic around before settling down and eating. Snow flies in all directions in a powdery explosion as they puff out twin plumes of breath in the frosty air, and even the old geezers can't resist a buck or two.
Still we try to keep things interesting here around the barn. One of the boarders, Diane Thompson, will be giving a lunging clinic to the younger boarders/leasers/lesson kids on February 1, to teach them the safe and proper way to lunge their horses.
Randy Hayward of Prairie Schooner Equine Services brought his students from Oulton's out again for a hands-on class, muck boots, pitchforks and all. They all get to clean the barns in return for using the facilities and the horses. It's great for us but somehow I'm not sure they share our enthusiasm for mucking out!
Well winter only has a few more months to go before departing for another year, and hopefully the last months won't be the worst ones. Soon the flowers will be springing from the ground and the breeze won't have quite the bite to it and then we get into the mud. . . but that's not for a time yet.
There is a new co-op student helping Roberta all the while learning about everything horses. Her name is Tarah Beaumont. If the name sounds familiar it's because she is one of Fynn's owners. Welcome to "Action Ridge" Tarah. I hope your time here proves to be interesting, as well as educational!
Spring break has now passed and there was very little
riding done at the farm. Not that the interest wasn't there, but the farm had
a little problem with flooding. O.k. maybe not a little problem. On Wednesday
morning there was about 6" of water covering the entire footing of the
arena (thanks to our lovely New Brunswick weather). It had started Tuesday night
while Linda Clark was teaching a lesson, Kola loved splashing through the puddles
but everyone else was a little worried (with good reason as the next day proved
to us all!). The entire day Wednesday was taken up with trying to dig trenches
from the inside of the arena to the outside so the water could drain. Kara,
Diane and Chantalle worked on those while Jim and Rob tried using the backhoe
to dig out the ditch in the back, and Debbie did a Tim's run to keep us going
before pitching in herself to help.
Thank you to all who helped on that day. A special thanks you goes out to Tarah
Beaumont, the new co-op student, and Shelby Wilson who came out on their March
break and cleaned up both barn, leaving the rest of us to worry about the arena.
P.S. We are glad to announce that the arena is back up and running.
There is a plan in the works at the barn to go on a sleigh ride. We're going to hitch up Sandman and. . .just kidding! Actually it will be at Shandi Mitton's stable, Spruce Hollow Corral. The date is next Sunday, March 14 (weather permitting of course). This might prove to be interesting so there will definitely be pictures to follow!
Now that Spring Break has come and gone, everyone is realizing that it's now Spring and soon horse shows will be the topic on the brain. Despite the weather trying to trick us into still thinking it's Winter, the boarders know that soon that first show will be coming around the corner and the mad rush to get everything ready will begin. And here's a surprise to everyone, there are 9 shows this year on the GMEC circuit! Busy, busy, busy. Here are the tentative dates for the shows:
May 22, 23 - Albert Spring Show
June 05 - Open Show hosted by the Paint Club
June 19 - Havelock show
June 26, 27- GMEC Spring Into Summer Show
July 04 - Miramichi show
July 10, 11 - Carmaz Stables show
July 17 - Spring Water Stables show
Aug 7, 8- Spring Brook Stables show
Sept 25 - Spruce Hollow Corral show
With the snow melting, then snowing, then melting again (and don't forget all that rain!) everyone is all geared up and chomping at the bit for the new show season for 2004. Some of the boarders brought out their horses for a spring tune up at Twelve Pines Stables on the Niagara road where a training show was held on May 15th. It was a great opportunity to iron out the last few kinks, and scope out any new competition, before the first show of the season. The day turned out beautifully and the facility was very nice. Hopefully more shows will be held there in the future. Thanks to Shelley and Phillip.
On May 22nd and 23rd, the first show to kick off the GMEC circuit was the Albert Spring Show. Kara brought out her horse Kola for the Western classes and her daughter Lindsay rode him in the English division. Emma brought her horse Astra down for their first show of the season together and, as always, Jill and Jodi brought their horses Magic and Willie down as well. This show was also the official "debut" for Julie Williams and her new horse Slick. Being the first time off the property since she bought him last April, everyone was delightfully surprised at the way he performed. Slick went around the ring like a seasoned show horse and placed well in his classes. Julie couldn't be any happier with the way her day went.
A big thank-you goes out to Peggy Davis who once again put on a fantastic show at Albert. Great job to her from all of us at Ashton Ridge and the GMEC club.
Kara and Diane will be heading out to Sussex this Sunday May 30th for the Cattle Penning's Fun Day.
The next show on the circuit is the Open Show hosted by the Paint Club that will again be held at the Albert fairground on June 05th. Judge will be Phillip Elderkin. For information please contact Wendy Fillmore.
August is now upon us and many riding camps are in full swing (including day camps here at the farm). Emma Laffoley and her horse Astra, Shelby Wilson and Maureen Mungal have all packed up their bags (and hay nets) for a week long camp up in Norton at Linda Clark's "Horizon Farm". It's a first for both Maureen and Emma and they were quite excited about it and while Shelby's been to the summer camp before, she was no less excited herself. Have fun at your camp girls and we hope you have a great time!
Michelle Cox hosted her show this weekend at her farm "Spring Brook Stables"
up on the Homestead Rd. It was a 2-day event with English on Saturday and Western
on Sunday. This was the second last show of the season and there was a good
turnout. Both Lindsay with Kola and Julie with Slick were in attendance. Shelby
was on one of Linda Clark's horses that she rode at camp, Solar Eclipse and
even took him in the jumping classes. Despite having a rainy day on Saturday,
the ring stayed dry and the classes kept going. Sunday started off a little
better with sunny breaks but there was still a rainy period. Despite the weather,
everyone was very pleased with their horses performances.
Sunday was another fun day of cattle penning and both Kara and Diane packed up their horses and headed down to Sussex to be part of the action. As soon as the cattle penning ended, they headed down to Linda Clark's Horizon Farms for their own week long camp. We hope they haven't forgotten anything back at the barn! Have fun cattle penning and enjoy your camp!
September is now upon us and with it comes the occasional hint of fall and soon after that, winter.
School is back in session and we would like to take this time to wish Lyndsay luck in her first year away at St-Mary's University in Halifax.
Riding lessons are back in full swing after a brief 2-week vacation. Everyone is geared up for the new sessions, and with it comes some new riders.
Cavalier has also started a new session that will end in October, wrapping up another successful year of therapeutic riding lessons.
The last horse show on the GMEC circuit was held at Spruce Hollow Corral on September the 25th. Most of the boarders geared themselves up for that one last show before packing it in for the winter. With Lindsay gone to school, Kara decided to brush the dust off her tighty-whities and show Kola English as well as Western. Her partner in crime Diane, for moral support, also showed in both disciplines.
While most still hoped to get some last minute points
for the year-end awards, nevertheless the atmosphere at Shandi's show had a
carefree attitude as everyone met up again for that one last time. The day dawned
sunny and a brisk wind kept the day from getting too hot as the classes progressed
throughout the day.
The Ashton Ridge Peanut Gallery was there in full swing, cheering everyone on!
All in all it was a great way to end the show season.
The leaves have now mostly turned colors and that can only mean one thing; October is now upon us. Soon we'll see the first snowflakes flying in the air and the thoughts of winter and Christmas will fill everyone's head.
The last run for Cattle Penning was held at Broadleaf on the weekend of October the 2nd and 3rd. Both Kara and Diane were in attendance, hoping for some last good runs before packing it in for another season. It was a beautiful, warm day and most of the boarders and friends went out to cheer them on, but only after having a great big breakfast in the cookhouse of course.
Indraffa has come home to stay! Wayne Pert, her owner, has sold Indy back to Roberta and now she will spend the rest of her years in retirement here at the farm.
The lesson kids were sad this week to see one of the lesson horses leave. Fynn has gone back home to his owner Tarah Beaumont to be with her other horse for the winter months. Many thanks to Tarah and her family on loaning Fynn to us and we hope to see him back in the spring but for now he'll be taking it easy by going on the occational trail ride in Shenstone.
Robb Connors held a small clinic out at Upper Coverdale Stables on Sunday November 14th. There was quite a crowed that showed up to support him. What he had done was have 4 children of various ages (Cade Connors 13, Tommy Conners 14, Amy Bishop 14 and Jessica MacCleod 17) who each had two unbroken ponies/horses to start off and have 10 rides on each.
As his "project" progressed and, with the more people he told about, there was a great interest in finding out how everyone was doing so he decided to host a little clinic where the spectators would then choose which horse or pony had progressed the most. It was quite interesting and the winner was Amy Bishop on her first horse Motorboat. Congratulations goes to Amy but all the riders should be proud, they did a very good job and impressed everyone, in fact, people are joking about signing their kids up for his next program. Niki already has a spot reserved for her baby and it's not even here yet!
There's a new horse in the barn in the form of 20 year old palomino Quarter Horse cross named Fancy Free. "Fancy" is owned by Ann Murray who teaches Cavalier here at the farm.
Dr. Randy Hawyard has brought over his vet student's to experience the "large animal" part of being a vet. Once again, as thanks to Roberta for being able to use her time and horses, the students donned their barn boots and armed themselves with pitchforks and shovels and mucked out the barns, all the while asking questions to either Roberta, Julie and Chantalle about the many aspects of working daily with the big animals. A big Thank you goes out to Julie and Chantalle for their help with the students to make sure everything ran smoothly.
Tuesday November 23rd was the "Happy 6th Anniversary" for the farm and the grand opening for the new viewing room. Roberta bought cakes and made punch and everyone celebrated after lessons with Linda Clark were over.
Things were a bit quiet at the farm for Roberta at the beginning of this month because Jim went to Florida to visit his parents for a few days. He left early Friday morning and returned the following Wednesday evening. Since the weather had just started to turn cold (in fact it was the coldest day of the year) he couldn't have picked a better time to go! He originally didn't want to go as he knew he was going to miss the annual Hillsborough Santa Clause parade, but renting a Harley Davidson and going to a toy drive with 35,000 motorcycles eased the pain a bit. On the phone, he told Roberta he bought a "toy" just before coming home, but thankfully it was an actual toy and not a real bike! He hasn't been home long and is already thinking of making a trip down next year!
Robb Connors held a clinic for the boarders the weekend of December 04,2004. There were 5 riders in attendance with their horses; Kara with Kola, Diane with Cassy, Shelby with Jackson, Suzanne with Tess and Linda Clark with her new horse Stormy. It's not uncommon for the boarders to ask Robb's opinion on a horse's behavior or to take a look at a horse when he comes for the shoeing, so we decided to host a clinic with him.
It started Sunday morning bright and early at 9 am. Robb mounted each and every horse so that he could get a feel for how they moved, making it easier to then explain to the riders what he wanted them to do. It was very interesting to watch, especially when he got on Jackson in an English saddle (we have pictures!) Everyone came away from the clinic with new knowledge of how far along with they were with their horses and what needed to be done to improve them. A big thank-you goes out to Robb for coming out and we hope to have him out again soon!