News Around the Barn (2009)
[2008 Archives] [2007 Archives] [2006 Archive] [2005 Archive] [2004 Archive] [2003 Archive]
[January] [February] [March] [April] [May] [June] [July] [September] [October] [November] [December]
We would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a very MERRY CHRISTMAS and a HAPPY NEW YEAR!
This past year has been different than most - filled with ups and downs for myself and people around me. But we got through and hopefully 2010 will be an even better year. There was sadness in my life with the passing of two very dear friends; Nancy and Linda, but also the joy of a new baby - our precious McLaren.
We feel very blessed to have the friendship of a great group of boarders - they have been here many years! Also the Cavalier Riding Club has prospered with the addition of new coaches and that group of riders and volunteers is always an inspiration to us.
So as we see the end of 2009 and look forward to 2010, we are thankful for everything and everyone in our lives. May God Bless.
- Jim, Roberta, Mark, Nicole, Landon, Dane, McLaren, Robert, Chantalle and Karma
This that time of year again where there is much to do (*sigh* so much shopping, so little time!) and with everyone getting ready for the holiday season, it's nice to be able to get away from it all for a couple of hours. This coming Sunday is what the boarders plan on doing. Roberta and Jim have graciously offered their up their home for a breakfast gathering. And yes, Jim will be making his famous pancakes and eggs! Everyone will gather in the morning down at the barn, the beasties will be ridden and then the ravenous riders will make their way up to the house for some good ol' fashion home cooking!
Madame Okie Leo owned by Joanne Thompson-Franklin has once again gone home for the winter. Okie is used during the spring/summer/fall months as a mount in the Cavalier Therapeutic program held here at the farm. She's worked hard all summer long and now that Cavalier is done for another year, has earned a well-deserved rest. Until next year Okie!
Our condolences goes out to the Barnett family; Donna and Stan on the passing of Britt's Skip A Pride. Skip was 20 and his sweet "can-I-have-a-carrot?" begging face will be missed by all.
The GMEC had their annual banquet Saturday November 28 up at the Salisbury Legion. Amazingly, there was no snowstorm this year! Although it was a smaller gathering, there was still nevertheless a Yankee Swap and a silent auction on the go, as well as the awards presentation. Our own Chantalle was the MC for the night and it appears that everyone had an enjoyable evening.
Our condolences goes out to Linda and Brian Hooper and family on the unexpected loss of one of their grandsons; Saul. Our thoughts and prayers goes out to the family in their time of need.
Come out and support your local Therapeutic Riding Club! For the last 3 or so years, Gail Dryden and her show committee for the Spruce Hollow Fall Roundup have donated up to 4 classes in support of the Cavalier Riding Club. They are doing so again this year, but have added a special class called the Cavalier Royal Blue Parade where the horses and riders will be dressed in Cavalier's official color; Royal Blue. A hat will also be passed along through the crowd to accept any donations people wish to make. Some of the Cavalier riders will be on hand to pass out the ribbons for this class. We hope to see many faces there to show their support for this great cause.
Most of the boarders around the barn got together for a bit of fun in the form of a scavenger hunt via horseback. This was the brainchild of Ann Murray with help from Shani Murray. The day before, Ann and Shani went out on the trails to plant items for the rest of the boarders to find. Two groups were formed, with Diane Thompson and Chantalle Twohig (both dressed in red, oddly enough) on one, and Kara Greenwood with daughter Lindsay on the other. Ann stayed behind at the farm to note who returned first with all the necessary items on the list given out, and Shani followed along with Austin to act as a sort of guide. Despite a couple of water obstacles (Kara and Lexus), slight off-roading/bushwhacking through the trees (Chantalle and Bennett) and a buck (Shani and Austin), everyone enjoyed themselves. The winners for the day was team red; Diane and Chantalle. Thanks to Ann and Shani for planning such a fun event, and to Ann for providing a scrumptious chili up in the viewing room for a lunch afterwards.
Congratulations to Linda and Brian Hooper on the arrival of their new grandson; Hudson Brian, who came into the world at 8lbs. Mom Jessica and baby are doing fine.
July has been an odd weather month, with high humidity and plenty of rain! Luckily, there were enough nice days in a row to cut and bale some hay. A crew was assembled and hay was chucked on Friday and Saturday, and finally finished the following Thursday. We're happy to announced that all the hay is in.
There was a little bit of bustling going on at the farm in preparation for the 3rd segment of Linda Clark's No Frills Dressage Fun Show hosted at the farm on Saturday July 25. Despite having some nice weather before the weekend, unfortunately it poured on Friday and the event was moved to the indoor arena. This didn't deter those who made the trip to the farm to help give their horses exposures to new places. Kaiko made her show ring debut with Shani up, and everyone seemed to have great rides. A big Thank You to Ann Murray for organizing this event (and calling the many tests for everyone), Debbie Wilson for judging, Roberta for opening up her facility and Ann's parents, along with Wendy Murray for providing us all with a delicious lunch.
Jim and Roberta are proud to announce the arrival of their new granddaughter, McLaren Faith Stevens. She was born on May 27 weighing in at 8lbs, 2oz. Proud parents are Mark and Niki and big brothers Landon and Dane. Thanks to Kathy Thompson on taking some great pictures of McLaren.
Things are picking up around the farm with the arrival of the nicer weather (although, as I write this it has currently been raining for the past 3 days!). This past weekend was the Havelock Horse Show. We hope the riders didn't get too wet on Saturday.
On June 13, Shani and Chantalle hooked up the trailer and hauled Bennett and Austin out to Carmaz stables to ride in the Roz Moskovits clinic hosted by the GMEC club and they both had a fantastic time. Both Austin and Bennett were well behaved and Shani and Chantalle learned a lot. A big Thank You goes out to Roz for making the trip up for a 1 day clinic.
Cattle Penning and drill team practises are in full swing for some of the boarders. If they're not out chasing cows and racking up points for their year-end awards, they're out riding or walking their drill team pattern in preperation for the competition on August 6.
Cavalier has successfully finished their first session and are on a week's break before gearing up for their summer session. They will actually be expanding to include a 3rd night since they currently have 3 coaches. A thank you goes out to coach Colleen Carroll-Nisbett for trailering her own pony, Jasper to the farm for the use in the Cavalier program.
The next show on the GMEC circuit is the Carmaz Horse Show held on July 4.
Cavalier Riding Club had their volunteer orientation on May 3rd here at the farm. The first lesson started Tuesday May 5 and is now in full swing for the Spring session.
On the weekend of May 9th and 10th, Kara and Linda got all their stuff ready and hauled Lexus and Josie up to Whispering Winds to take part in the Herb Best clinic hosted by the GMEC club. Both Kara and Linda were very pleased with the clinic and their mounts and came away with plenty of training tips.
The first GMEC show is the Albert Early show on May 16th and 17th in Riverside Albert at the fair grounds.
The next GMEC show will be the GMEC Learn & Earn show on June 6.
Things have been fairly quiet around the barn, what with the odd Spring weather, but now the sun has made an apperance and things are starting to pick up.
We would like to extend a warm "Welcome Back!" to Okie and JoAnn Thompson-Franklin to the barn. Okie is now back with us what with the new Cavalier season about to start any day now. Shani Murray has gratiously agreed to ride both Okie and Cowboy to help get them back in shape and everyone's coming along great!
There's been some moving around at the farm with the move of Mark, Niki and the two boys to their new house. There was a group of us that got together for a wallpaper stripping party and spent a better part of the day removing the sticky stuff. Niki's happy to say that all the wallpaper is now gone!
Things have been quiet at the farm the last few months as everyone's been hunkering down from snowstorms and bitter cold weather. It's no fun trying to ride with so many layers you feel like a puffy marshmallow, but a few nice days came out to tease us with thoughts of Spring. Although lessons with Linda Clark and the occasional one with Erin MacQuarrie have continued throughout the winter, things have started to pick up again around the barns. With the warming weather, clinics and the show season can be glimpsed on the horizon.
Speaking of clinics, the farm will once again welcome long time friend and trainer Larry Donovan for a day clinic on Saturday March 28. It should prove to be a fun filled day and hopefully we won't embarrass ourselves too much in his presence!
Cavalier Volunteer Orientation will be held at the farm on Sunday, May 3rd from 1:30pm - 4:00pm. For further information, please contact Roberta at 386-2596.
Indraffa - DOB March 03, 1983
Sire: Ruala Shawan
Dam: Ben Adhem Indira
My little grey arab is 26 this month-my, how time flies. It seems like yesterday Niki was pointing her out in a barn in Sussex while her father and I stood back and wondered what she saw in her. It turned out to be a love/hate relationship but Nicole sure learned how to ride, or should I say, hang on. With the help of Stacey Maxwell in Sussex Niki's love of horses took off. Stacey coached her, took her to every Arab show imaginable and encouraged her every step of the way. Those were very busy days,especially since we lived in Riverview and travelled 4 or more times a week to Sussex. I loved every minute of it and can never thank Stacey and her Mom enough for all they did.
After Sussex we boarded in Petitcodiac at SugarSuite Stables owned by Vernon and Corinne Lounsbury. Jim was very happy we were getting closer to home, but we still spent most of our spare time at the barn. How I loved it there!! I cannot say enough about these people, their love of life and genuine love of horses was very apparent. Next we bought our 2nd horse, a very young TB gelding, and now time had to be made for both horses.We did this for a few years and finally moved them both to Riverview, to Tannic Farm in Upper Coverdale. We leased Indraffa out to a young girl who eventually bought her. In 1998 we bought Ashton Ridge and moved here. One day I got a call from Indraffa's new owner asking about board. Iwas only too happy to have her here. When they decided to part with her, I jumped at the chance. Indraffa---(Indy-500) is home for good, to retire, along with Jim and I.
We're happy to announce that Okie will be making her way back to the farm in mid-April with enough time to get ready for the 2009 Cavalier season.
Congratulations to Anne Murray on becoming a grandmother! A baby shower was held this past Sunday and everyone got to meet little Sunshine Anne in person.
The GMEC's Annual Christmas Party and Awards Banquet that was postponed due to bad weather back in November, is now being held Saturday January 24. It will be held at the Irishtown Rec Center with the same theme, being a Pot Luck supper, a Silent Auction, Awards presentation, Yankee Swap and dance. The doors will be open at 5:30pm and the festivities to begin at 6:00pm. We hope to see you all there!
Some of the boarders are heading up tomorrow (pending good weather) to Fredericton for the annual January Thaw. It will run from 9 am - 5 pm Capital Exhibit Centre, Fredericton Ex Grounds. There will be many talks and exhibitors there, making for a fun and educational afternoon.
Although not really new news, there's been a new face at the barn for the past couple of months in the form of a new barn cat Roberta has christened Tessa. She's a cute little thing, grey and white, and full of energy. She loves to keep you company while doing barn chores and is a delight to watch when she gets wound up and plays with anything that catches her eye (including the pitch fork when you're trying to clean up a stall).
The GMEC club have 3 clinics so far set up for this Spring and Summer. The first is a Larry Donovan clinic to be held at Whispering Winds on April 10th. Auditing fees for non-GMEC member is $5.00 and free for members.
The next clinic will be a Herb Best clinic, also held at Whispering Winds, this time on May 9th and 10th. Auditing fees for non-GMEC member is $5.00 and free for members.
The last clinic on the list is a Roz Moskovitz clinic to be held at Carmaz Stables on June 13th and 14th. For more information and for clinic entry forms, please contact Elaine Boudreau - 533-8340 or elaine@keltictransportation.com. Auditing fees for non-GMEC member is $5.00 and free for members.