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Above: Claudia on Zanee in the July 17^th show at Longacres. Nice form! We have a large album of pictures from that show at this link, all oversize with many interesting shots. Check it out as the “Album of the Month”!

 

 

 

Jumper Derby Three Days in 2013!

While this summer’s Longacres Jumper Derby is fresh in our minds, we’re announcing that we will be hosting THREE DAYS of jumper competition during our Diamond Jubilee Celebration of Longacres 75th birthday, August 14, 15, and 16th, 2013. Not too soon to mark your calendars for the big event, even though it is still three years away! We will have a warm-up class for good money on Friday night, along with a Six Bars Class. Then the Derby on Saturday night, with all the low Derbies earlier in the day. Then finish the weekend with some kind of Team or Relay Jumper events on Sunday. It will make a great Western New York Jumper week, since exhibitors can go right over to the Fair the next day on Monday. We hope to draw a good turnout of horses.

 

2011 Rates & Schedule Now Posted

Follow the link on our home page to the 2011 rates & schedules. All session dates and prices are now set to help you in planning enrollments for next year which we will begin to accept next week.

 

Sunday, August 29^th Update:

Bulliten – Horses Still Available for Lease/Loan Program:

Brody and/or Bobert are unexpectedly available for winter lease. Brody has been at Quakerfield Stables the past couple of years in their lesson program while he is not here at Longacres. There are some complications with stall space at Quakerfield that we were unaware of until this morning, so as of now, both Brody and Bobert may be available for winter lease. Brody has had a great year showing and as a lesson horse. Let us know if anyone is interested in this very nice horse!

 

Still available for winter lease are Brody, Bobert, Diesel, and Justin (also for sale). If we do not find homes for them, both Bobert and Justin will be sold – they are useful only for certain tyes of riding here at Longacres, and the time may have come for them to make room for our many new younger horses.

 

Diesel and Brody will not be sold, even if we have to board them this winter. But we hope to find good winter homes where they will be used! Stay tuned.

 

Saturday, September 4^th, 11AM Update:

Almost Like Winter!

Today is a double sweatshirt day at Longacres, with dark lake effect clouds streaming off of nearby Lake Erie. All too soon, those will be dumping white stuff on our snowbelt region! But it is temporary for the moment, with high 80’s returning by mid week.

 

We’re enjoying a bit of rest and relaxation this week right after our season. We’re getting the horses cared for and cleaning up the barn, but also taking time to ourselves. We’re headed to State Fair tomorrow and Monday with NOTHING to worry about or be responsible for. We’re just tourists!

 

Back to Work

Then we go back to work, big time. We’ve got many maintenance projects around the farm planned for this fall, including dining hall repairs, rebuilding much of the old Junior Barn, work on several of our rental units, perennial work on trails and roads, and fixing up some stuff around the barn. Our fiscal accounting year ends next week, and there are still things to be done before tax returns are filed by the 15^th of this month. - - - And we still have to get horse show expense accounting statements out to a few of you from Lazy Days week.

 

Jump Storing Party!

And a big job we have to finish is putting the jumps away for the season in the barn. Weather permitting, we plan to do that next Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons. If any of you can stop by to help, even just for an hour or two, we’ll be working from 4 to 8 PM both days. We could especially use help Tuesday when we’ll be getting the jumps down, collecting all the jump cups and pins, and putting away the rails. This work isn’t really heavy, but extra hands really help. Then Wednesday afternoon we’ll do the heavy stuff like the Butterfly, Light Houses, and the Star Burst and Castles. Call and let us know if you can make it, or just stop by.

 

Friday, September 3^rd, 6PM Update:

Good News!

We read Micayla’s registration form wrong. She is not coming for a two week session next July, she is coming for the full four weeks of the July session. Yippee!

 

We had a good soaking rain this afternoon at Longacres, badly needed. We’re busy today showing a couple of the rental cottages and apartments we own on the edge of the Longacres property to possible new tenants. We check references very carefully, since they will be your neighbors next summer, as well as ours. We have some maintenance work to do on the cottage, but it is in pretty good shape.

 

Meghan and I are still tired, even though we’ve gotten good hours of sleep the past few nights. We went to a movie yesterday afternoon, and we both slept through some parts of it and took turns nudging each other to wake up!

 

Friday, September 3^rd, 2PM Update:

Tom is Not Dead! (though sometimes it feels like it – more on that in a minute!)

There is a rumor going around that I died recently. It’s doubtful that you’ll hear it, but just in case, I thought I’d announce here that it is not true now and probably won’t be if you hear it later this fall. So if someone tells you the rumor, don’t be upset or prematurely celebrate, as the case may be. Just give Meghan a call and she’ll probably report me live and well and ornery as ever!

 

The rumor began among truck racers. For many years I was in the business of organizing and promoting 4-wheel drive mud races and monster truck shows. I did fewer of them in recent years and retired completely from that career after the 2009 season. I haven’t gone to one of those events since I quit the business. Probably someone turned to a fellow racer and said, “I haven’t seen Tom Kranz for a while. Do you think he’s OK?” And the friend told someone else, “I hear something happened to “Mr. Mud” (what they used to call me in that world). And someone else said, “Did you hear that Tom died?” And they told ten people. And finally one of the guys who used to work for us in that business called Meghan from eastern New York and asked, “How did Tom die?” Well, we assured him I am fine, but that news probably travels slower than the bad story. Was it Mark Twain who said, “Rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated.”?

 

Feeling Almost Dead

I do sometimes feel almost like I’m dead, and this afternoon is one of those times. I started a new project this morning of rebuilding and restoring the “Old Junior Barn” where we also sometimes keep horses in isolation. The first part of the job was pitchforking and shoveling out mountains of old wet hay and ten year old horse manure that was left from the last time the barn was used. Nobody is here to help and I didn’t feel like waiting, so I did it myself. I’m glad I attempted this job at the end of the summer when I am in decent condition. I feel almost dead now an hour after the job. I would surely have keeled over if I’d done this much work back in May! It is exciting to be starting the job of saving this classic old barn that goes way back in the history of Longacres. We made a long stop there on our “history of Longacres walk” back in July.

 

Welcome Back Micayla!

We got Micayla’s deposit for her 2011 session in the second half of July. Micayla is #3 on our early bird registration list, and we’re really glad she’s coming back! All the early bird signups so far have been for that same session in the second half of July, so we have only two spots left for riders 13 and up in that session. (We strictly limit enrollments by age in July to save space for younger girls to come who will be the future of Longacres.)

 

Bethany Writes:

hey guys, i thought you might find this funny...

 

1. i went to pack my stuff to sleep over at a friends house. first thing i grabbed was a flashlight...

2. wednesday morning i was driving home from an appointment at school and i saw the garbage truck and i got super confused, i was like "hey wait, it's not monday..."

3. i got in the shower tuesday morning and went "OMG! i don't have flipflops on, omg omg omg....oh wait..i'm not at camp"

4. i've woken up every morning at exactly 6:47am. and then realized i can go back to sleep.

 

miss you,

Bethany

 

Emily wrote and reports that she is coming in July next year but not quite sure of what session yet. Pretty soon, the first two weeks in July will be the only session with space.

 

NOTE: Don’t panic if you are interested in the June sessions or the August sessions for next year. There is plenty of space in those. The July two week sessions are the ones that always fill up first, especially for girls 13 and over, since those spots are rationed.

 

Thursday, September 2^nd, 9PM Update:

Welcome Back, Junior!!!!

Katie “Junior” W. is our second official enrollee for the 2011 season, joining Sydney for the second two weeks in July. We like getting a 2011 enrollment a day! We also heard from Michelle who is planning on being back at Longacres in 2011. The only question for Michelle is whether she comes as a counselor or as a CIT again, and we won’t know about the availability of counselor positions for a while yet. But it’s good to know we already have an official request from an experienced Longacres rider to be a 2011 counselor. Meghan also got a text today from one of this year’s parents saying that three more girls are busily communicating and trying to decide which session to apply for. Things are starting to happen!

 

Check this link for a picture I emailed to Kellie this evening, in case she needs a design to put on Horatio’s stall name plate in Texas!

 

And check this link for a picture Meghan just took of me down in my shop after I finished putting my “new/used” shop saw together with the table I built for it. NOW I can start on the train table! (Kellie guessed that Meghan’s first train would run out of the closet on September 20^th. I love you, Kellie, for your faith in my energy. Uncle Billy guessed December 20^th, right before X-mas!)

 

Thursday, September 2^nd, 11AM Update:

Misc.

Below: Note from Natasha who is giving Lincoln a great home for the winter and making him her training project.

 

Hi Tom and Meghan!

I rode Lincoln today, and he was PERFECT<3

He was actually really quiet surprisingly, and Marie (my trainer) sees a lot of potential in him (:

I'm really excited for this winter, and I'll be emailing pictures sometime this weekend!

 

-Natasha

 

Below: Note from Emily L, who has had Zanee and Quantum for previous winters and now has our newest horse, Crown Derby aka “Kirby”!

 

Hey guys!

 

Just letting you guys know that Kirby is such a blast! He seems pretty bombproof- hasn't even looked twice at anything here at Lehmans. I don't know how much you were working him with jumper turns and such over the weekend but I had a very "twisty-turney" lesson yesterday and he was just awesome! I think you guys will have such fun with him next summer, he'll be a great addition to the Longacres herd. Also, I attached a picture that I thought was just kind of funny- he got so excited and I was trying to "whoa" but he was trying to "GO!" and he won at this fence...

 

I'll keep you guys updated on how he does over the winter!

Emily

 

NOTE: Kellie texted last night to say that after a long, hot van ride Horatio, Tux, and Ebony arrived safely in Kennedale, Texas where they will spend the winter on the growing Hunn Ranch.

 

Now only Jazz & Boo are left to ship out to Colorado and Jessica and Katie next week. We still have no homes for Brody, Diesel, Bobert, and Justin. Spread the word if you know anyone who might be interested in free leasing one of those horses.

 

VERY hot here at Longacres today, but there is a cold front coming on the weekend and the weather should be delightful for our annual relaxation trip to State Fair in Syracuse Sunday and Monday.

 

Wednesday, September 1^st, 11:30 AM Update:

Sydney Officially #1 2011 Student!

As of today we are formally accepting 2011 enrollments and we’re proud to confirm the unofficial announcement from yesterday that Sydney is returning for her 4th year at Longacres in 2011 for one of the two week sessions in July. That leaves just three more spots for girls 13 and up in that two week session, since we save five spots during the July sessions for girls 12 and under.

 

Meghan Still Hiding Out

Some of you parents, especially Morven’s parents Fiona and Andrew, will appreciate where Meghan is resting. I took her to lunch at the Roycroft yesterday and after lunch handed her a room key as a surprise. She has been staying their totally resting and acting like a tourist in her own home town since then. I had breakfast with her this morning on the terrace, but mostly I’m leaving her alone for two days of total mental relaxation. She is thriving. You can see the life coming back in her eyes and the way she carries herself after the responsibility for all of you and the horses since May. I’m picking her up and taking her to a movie this afternoon, and she may not even sleep through it! Then we’ll have dinner with Uncle Billy, and then she will be back at work tomorrow, getting out spending money refunds and finishing finding homes for the last few horses.

 

Emily tried to join us in the group moon watch ar midnight, but there was a big cloud in the way in new York. She woke up at two AM, though, and there it was! So she saw “our moon” just a little later than the rest of us. Kellie also got to see the moon after I told her it was coming up later in Texas.

 

Diesel Training

I spent time doing ground work again with Diesel this morning. He was being a little lazy so I had to get a lunge whip, just so he knew I should be respected. He was trained with a driving whip by the Amish, so you don’t have to hit him – a tiny touch with the end of the whip on his flank and he’ll do anything you want. I got him back to trotting and halting by voice command by the end of my session. When I put down the whip and took off the lead rope he was still pretty good just with voice commands, except for trotting by voice only. I am making progress. Still planning to do a video of me working with him early next week.

 

Beta is working clearing all the junk and garbage some of you left in the cabins. We’ll send anything back that looks valuable. Let us know if you’re missing anything. We’ve heard from some of you already.

 

Wednesday, September 1^st, 12:20 AM Update:

Here’s a message from Kellie in Texas:

I've went outside probably 10 times since 10pm and all I've seen is clouds. There were a few spots with no clouds but not where the moon is. The wind is picking up so the storm is coming in, and I don't think I'll see the moon. I think you should do this moon thing more often- just to give Kennedale another chance. :)

 

I am sooo sad I can't be a part of this moon party. At least I get kudos for staying up, attempting to look at the moon. I think I'll just go to sleep then. 

 

The ponies (& horse!) are supposed to arrive tomorrow, I don't know what time though. And it's a 30-40% chance of rain tomorrow. Woo hoo.

But I'm still sooooooooo excited they're coming :D

 

Goodnight!

-Kellie<3

 

P.s. The night sky in Kennedale TX is supposed to be super clear next weekend! ;)

 

Don’t give up, Kellie; the moon won’t even come up in the east for another 20 minutes where you are! I am going out again to “watch it with you” if you are still up! – tsk

 

Here’s a message from Bethany:

Hey guys! I just wanted to e-mail and say I looked at the moon, it's so gorgeous!

 

-Bethany

 

Check out the pictures posted at this link, Bethany – two are for you!

 

Here’s a message from Micayla!

Dear Tom and Meghan,

      I guess some might call it fate that I looked at the Longacres Blog at 11:59 PM only to see the post about the moon tonight. I almost threw my laptop on the ground in the rush to get outside and look up at the moon with many of the other girls that I shared my experiences at camp with. To much disappointment, a nasty black cloud was blocking most of the sky and of course the moon. I still sat on my porch though and gazed at the stars and let my mind become flooded with all the memories this summer. The horses, the shows, the jokes, and of course the friends made this summer one of the best I have ever had. It's sad to know that it has finally begun to come to a close, yet I know I will never lose the memories and friends I made. Happy Moon Viewings!

Micayla

 

Check it again, Micayla – the clouds are only here and there tonight. I’m going out again to try to take a better picture of the moon while Kellie is watching it if she is still up in Texas. Check this link for pictures from earlier tonight. Check this link for the moon picture if I get it in the next half hour.

 

Tuesday, August 31^st, 11PM Update:

The Moon Thing

You get reminded of some science and astronomy when you try to organize a cross country simultaneous moon viewing like we’re planning for tonight. Everyone is supposed to look up at the half moon tonight at midnight eastern time and we’ll all have a shared experience. Conditions are great for it here at Longacres, with clear night air. Kellie from Texas has already written to say that she’s worried because rain is in the forecast for tonight in Dallas, so she might not be able to see the moon. Well, one other thing – Dallas is two time zones behind us easterners, and I don’t think the moon even rises until about 12:40 AM eastern time in Dallas for Kellie. Oh, well. We’ll still see how many are able to share the experience in just 57 minutes tonight! (Hey, Kellie, I’ll stay up and try to see it at 12:40 – 10:40 your time – and I just checked the radar – you might even have a few holes in the clouds around that time to see the moon!)

 

Sophie on Neek-o

Here’s another of Sophie’s nice pieces of writing describing Neek-o’s first day in Connecticut:

 

Tom and Meghan-

 

Neek-O arrived safely last night and is as happy as ever! He had a day off today munching hay in his new stall (Tuesday) but tomorrow we might do some light lunging with him. He was slightly over-heated coming off the trailer, so we put a fan on his stall, gave him a nice bath, plenty of water, and some fresh air. I was very excited to see him as you can imagine!

 

Everyone at the barn seems to love him, and think he's absolutely adorable!!!! My barn manager, who's been working with him a lot, showing him around and getting him used to his new home, said that when new horses come they usually prance around in their stall and nicker to their friends for the first few days. Neek-o was quiet as a mouse!!!

 

We gave him a bath and while the barn manager was worried that Neek-o would refuse to go in the wash stall like most new horses, he marched right in and enjoyed a cold bath while some barn girls oodled his face. Was he clipped recently before coming? He looked very sharp when he came, and after his bath, even his white stockings shown!

 

I'm spending almost the entire day with Neek-o tomorrow, and though I may not actually ride him, i'll maybe do some ground work with him and possibly lunge him. He's desperately in need of a good shoeing, the ones he has on now are ready to fall off! Andrea really appreciated the horse log you sent with him. She said she's never had that much information come with a horse before. It will be very helpful with making medical decisions for him.

 

Also, a HUGE thanks for sending my trophy with Neek-o and the nice card. I closely followed the summer series points after I left and prayed that I would win the trophy! (BTW I read the blog everyday (If not two or three times a day!). I guess you can say I'm obsessed with Longacres!)

 

Sorry, this was probably more information than you wanted to know, but Neek-o seems in high spirits, and i'm excited for a great winter!

 

-Sophie

 

Tuesday, August 31^st, 4PM Update:

90 Degrees and a Hose

I didn’t work Diesel at a trot today – just too hot out for me to be jogging next to him. But I did spend time with the horses, taking a half hour this afternoon to top of the water troughs and offer to hose the horses down. Ginger rather liked being sprayed. Jazz was suspicious and kept trotting away after a little spray but coming back to see what Ginger liked so much about it.. I did get Jazz a little wet. The geldings all seemed uninterested in the hose and stayed up on the top of the hill at first. I went up and lead Brody down by the trough and hose and Diesel followed us down. Brody didn’t just love being hosed, but he tolerated it. Diesel was the one who seemed to enjoy it the most! Once he saw what I wanted to do, he just stood about ten feet away from me and let me hose him off from one end to the other, top to bottom. The water was just running off him and I bet he really liked it in the 90 degree heat of the afternoon. I may hose them again tonight.

 

Turn Out the Lights

I forgot to write about one of the really emotional things about last night. Just as I was driving over the hill down to the barn after watching Joel taking apart the jump course on the big field and as I saw Bethany loading her stuff in her father’s truck to go home, guess what song was playing on my car radio? It was Willy Nelson’s “Turn Out the Lights, the Party’s Over”! I am not making that up.

 

Half Moon Reunion?

Remember to write in and tell me if you joined the Longacres Moon Watching reunion at midnight tonight Eastern time (only 10PM Texas time, Kelly!) We’ll all be together one last time this summer if we all watch the same moon at the same time.

 

Tuesday, August 31^st, 9AM Update:

#1 Early Bird Enrollment is Sydney!

OK, we don’t officially confirm 2011 enrollments until tomorrow, September 1st, but Sydney will be returning to Longacres for her 4th year, was one of our youngest CIT’s ever this summer, and we’re so pleased to know that she’ll be back next year and is our first official enrollment, that we can’t help but announce it today! We wish you a great year living abroad in Japan this year Sydney, and we’ll welcome you back to the States and Longacres next summer with open arms. You did a really great job here this year! I suppose that since she was a CIT, we could also call Sydney the first staff to commit to Longacres for 2011, but staff don’t usually know their plans until later in the fall.

 

Meghan’s Day Off

Meghan has been working just as hard the past few days as she did during the season shipping out horses to their winter homes. But for the first time today, we have no horses to ship. The remaining horses are all staying another week to ten days. So today and tomorrow are total days of rest for Meghan, very well earned, if I do say so myself. I will answer the phone and emails to cover for her as she takes time to herself (sleeping mostly!). She’ll be back in action Thursday.

 

Spending Money Refunds

We are pretty much done entering expense and horse show charges on all the accounts of the second session students. The Fair charges were complicated and took time. Meghan is almost done double checking for mistakes. She says she should get your refunds out to you of unspent money late this week. Thanks for your patience. Almost nobody went over their budget this year, so almost everyone will be getting a small refund.

 

Monday, 11:30 PM Update:

Anyone notice that there’s still a great half moon out if you get up late at night to see it come up? It’s just up tonight at 11:30 – if you’re a night owl like me, try to take a look at the moon at exactly midnight tomorrow night (Tuesday). Meghan and I will. If you get the chance to be up that late and look up at the moon at midnight, write and tell me. We’ll see how many of us can share that little experience as an end of the summer thing!

 

Monday, August 30^th, 10PM Update:

A Double Whammy of Depressing Images

I couldn’t get away from sights that made me very sad that the 2010 season is really ending this evening. I drove in the barn driveway and there was Joel working taking the Derby jump course apart. As the flags came down and the brush came off and the decorative hay bales were collected and stacked, it seemed like we were tearing apart some of our great memories of this summer. I drove on down to the barn, and there was Bethany packing all her horse stuff into her father’s truck! I would be sad to see Bethany leave anyway, but it was even worse since she was packing up at exactly the same time that we were starting to tear down the jump courses and pack away the jumps for next year. Bethany was the last camper or counselor to leave Longacres, and she seemed to symbolize all of you and our good memories of the fine 2010 staff and students we’ve had the good fortune to share our horses with this season. It wasn’t just Bethany leaving tonight, it was all of you.

 

The Texas Trip

Three of our very best horses are on their way west to Texas to spend the off season at the Hunn Ranch in the Dallas - Fort Worth area. As they pulled out of the driveway on the van, we felt like nervous parents watching their teenage children take their first solo drive in a car. We know they will get to Kellie’s place fine in a day and a half, but we can’t help worrying about these great ponies. Kellie took Ebony and Tux home with her last winter and did a great job with them. We all know that Ebony had her best year of showing ever, maybe, and Tux is maturing into a fine show pony. Kellie is also giving a good home to Horatio, “Against All Odds”, the winner of the Longacres high jumper Derby for 2010! Kellie rides Horatio very well and is a soft gentle rider – just what Horatio needs to stay in top shape as one of our most talented show jumpers after the loss of Quantum Leap early this summer.

 

Check this link for some pictures of Bethany doing the final ride of the 2010 season at Longacres on her own horse, Holly. Check this link for a few more pictures I took around the farm and in my shop tonight.

 

We should have taken a picture of Bethany driving out the driveway tonight as a symbol of the end of the summer, but it wouldn’t have turned out too well – the photographer was a bit misty eyed. (Bethany, we will NOT cut the tall grass where your car was parked all summer until you return.)

 

And we hope many of you who were such important parts of the 2010 Longacres season return for a visit this fall and that you return for a Longacres session next summer. It is lonely here already. And you are welcome to stop by anytime during the fall or winter to see what Longacres looks like all closed up!

 

The local newspaper printed a picture of all of you who were at the Fair with your ribbons and a nice story. Check it out at this link.

 

Monday, Noon Update:

This and That

This is the time of year when I slowly transition from constant news of riders and horses and what they did today to a more general and personal Blog about life on the farm and our personal lives. As my mind drifts and random stories take up space here, you can pick and choose what interests you in my writings.

 

Diesel

He still needs a home for the winter, and we are eager to clear out our pasture so we have less work and worry. But I am secretly pleased to have him spending a few weeks to a month here after the barn officially closes! I have fun with him at this time of year when time is not at such a premium as during the summer. I started by riding him yesterday after Beta’s “Wild Ride”. Today I spent some time working with him from the ground. I’m going to spend a couple of days giving him little “Tom’s Tasty Tidbits” of horsemanship (horse’s version!). Then Meghan can take a video and show you all my progress in “horse whispering” later in the week.

 

Today I lead him around doing a lot of halt – walk – trot – walk transitions and reinforcing his voice commands. I included hand yielding exercises where I made him turn on his forehand by moving away from my hand pressure on his side and haunches. Then I took the lead line off and was successful in getting him to walk – halt – walk – halt - walk and turn a corner with no lead line attached. I’m training him to transition from a walk to halt to walk when I snap my fingers and begin to move myself or halt next to him. Next step will be getting him to trot by voice command with no lead line attached. I’ll report on my progress and hopefully be able to make a video late this week or early next. This kind of training is my idea of the basic building blocks of horsemanship that we at Longacres believe are the foundation of all good riding and training. Nice to have time to practice what I so often preach to all of you.

 

My Table Saw!

I wrote earlier in the summer about getting a good deal on a used Cabinent saw for the shop. Emily and Laura lent me their young muscles to help get it off the truck after I picked it up. But I was too busy in the summer to put it together beyond turning it on to test the basic functions. I am now having fun putting it together and building a wood extension table and shelf for it. You could do this just by making a couple of cuts in a piece of plywood, but that’s not me. I carefully measured and cut the basic plywood veneer pieces, and then cut and glued clear pine edging to the table pieces. Check this link for a picture of me with all the parts to the saw. I’ll report my progress over the next week and a picture when it is all put together, stained, and varnished. I’m pretty excited about this, so progress should be quick (by Tom standards!)

 

Train Layout Progress – Maybe not so Quick!

One of Meghan’s MANY great qualities is that she likes trains as much as I do. All kinds of trains, traveling by train, photography and video of trains, and model trains. For some time (years!) I have been planning and promising a train shelf that runs through our closet and comes out of a tunnel across a corner of the bedroom. Honest, I swear, Meghan likes this idea as much as I do.

 

Here’s where you guys come in: Send in a guess on the date the first train actually runs out of the wall, across the corner of the bedroom, and back into the closet. There is some cause to pick an early date. I actually made a careful scale drawing of all the construction details right before camp opened for this season back in May. I bought the wood for the table, and only a little of it has been detoured to make horse jumps and hang up the ribbons at the Fair! I made marks on the bedroom wall to show where to screw wood braces to support the train table. So you see, I am really motivated. But there is some evidence that it might still be a while before that first train run; I have been planning this for only maybe 8 or 10 YEARS, with little progress at all before this spring and summer. And nothing has been actually accomplished that a pencil erasor couldn’t cure. On the other hand, part of the excuse for buying the new/used table saw is that it will be used for making the train table.

 

So make a guess and send in the date you think we’ll run the first train on the new layout. (If you guess “never”, my feelings will be a little hurt, but your chances of winning the contest might be as good or better than picking some near future date!)

 

Weather Only a Casual Interest

You all know that I am a bit of a weather enthusiast. It’s very useful during the summer when I provide Meghan and our staff with good advice and warnings of bad weather. Now that we’re nearly all done riding (pictures of Bethany jumping Holly at 3 this afternoon), there’s less need for me to follow weather forecasts. But there is an interesting one for the rest of this week, and I am glad we are done riding for the summer! We’re expecting a four day spell of 90 + degree heat, just great for NOT having to ride. Then a strong cold front at the end of the week with a 20 degree temperature drop just in time for our customary trip to NY State Fair next weekend!

 

Monday, 11AM Update:

Our newest Longacres horse, Crown Derby, purchased just this week, is on the way to Rochester, NY and Lehman Stables where he will spend the off season with Emily L, the girl who had Quantum last year. Brownie is also spending the winter with Lehman’s where they have taken good care of him last year, along with Boo and Zanee the year before. (In fact, Emily who is taking Crown took Zanee the year before she had Quantum, so she has lots of experience with Longacres horses that jump well.

 

It has been a complicated morning with all the horses going out today. We had to coordinate the final purchase and payment for Crown with the signing of the winter lease with Emily and Lehman’s. All that careful business stuff!

 

We’re waiting to hear from the horse van drivers who are taking Tux, Ebony, and Horatio to Kellie in Texas. Yes, that’s right, Texas. We’re very proud that the Longacres string of horses is of a quality that makes people willing to truck them all over the country for the off season when we don’t use them. We have horses going to Texas, Iowa, Colorado, New York, Connecticut, New Jersey, and North Carolina!

 

Monday, August 30^th, 8AM Update:

Lots of Horses on the Move

This is going to be a very active day for shipping horses out to their winter homes. Lincoln’s commercial transporter arrived in the middle of the night and slept parked at the barn until Lincoln could be loaded first thing this morning for the trip to North Carolina. Natasha T., a second year Longacres student, will be keeping Lincoln over the winter. Natasha had Zanee for the winter last season and gave her a great home! She is looking forward to the challenge of finishing Lincoln’s training which was begun so well by Debra and Sydney last winter. Natasha did good work with Lincoln while she was here at Longacres in July. This will be a great home and we can’t wait to see Lincoln’s improvement when he returns for 2011. (He has had a good rest the past few weeks, Natasha. You’ll need to put him back to work slowly and remind him of your riding skills.)

 

Frank leaves in about an hour with a full load of horses going to Connecticut and New Jersey. He is taking Neek-o to Connecticut where he will be ridden all winter by July student, Sophie L. Sophie had a real bond with Neek-o and we know he will get great care.

 

Sharon and Laura will be waiting for Frank to drop off Bristol and Cape. They have taken Longacres horses over the winter for quite a while and Bristol is a good choice for them. This first year horse for Longacres has gotten in better and better condition all summer and her training to listen and collect has constantly improved. Sharon thrives on this kind of training, and the horse will come back greatly improved.

 

Whitley is also on the load, heading to suburban New York area to stay for the winter with Ofelia. They were a great team at camp this summer, so it should be a good pairing for the winter. He will arrive well rested after getting pretty light use this week.

 

Bethany leaves for home at dinner time tonight (sniff, sniff), and takes Hock & Jolly with her, of course. As private horses, it’s not fair to say they’re “leaving”, since they’re going home. But they have been a huge part of the Longacres showing program for 2010 and they will be missed as part of the Bethany Team!

 

We’ll post again later when we know for sure the departure time for the Texas horses!

 

Sunday, August 29^th, 5PM Update:

Work & Perks!

Bethany is the last staff member of our fine 2010 summer crew still working. She has to take care of all the horses with some part time help from Beta and Joel. It’s hard work! But there are some perks available to the last good rider at Longacres at the end of the season. We always are looking for one or two more good horse jumping pictures to use on the website and in our advertising over the winter. So Bethany gets to ride some very nice horses over some very big jumps these last few days. Not a bad “job” to have to do!

 

Check this link for a few more pictures we took this afternoon of Jazz jumping out in the big show field.

 

By the way, we really miss all you guys who were here for the summer of 2010. We hope many of you decide to return for a 2011 session.

 

Sunday, 3PM Update:

Beta’s Wild Ride!

I can tell this as a funny story because all’s well that ends well, but it was very scary for a few moments! While Bethany was riding for us to take more PR pictures of some of our horses (Crown Derby this morning), we wanted to give Beta a reward for her hard work for us this summer and offered to let her ride Diesel. She loved the idea and got him all clean and ready. She got on and rode around the edge of the field while Bethany was jumping. But she is a small girl, and Diesel was eager to get back to eating in pasture. So he was not the best about listening to her. He would start back towards the barn at a slow walk and not want to turn. I told her, “Just give him a little smack with the stick if he’s bad, and he’ll listen to you better.” Fateful words.

 

Ten or fifteen minutes later as Meghan and I were taking pictures of Crown Derby, we saw Beta heading towards the barn on Diesel at a brisk walk, and then a trot. Well, remember, Beta had just been told to give Diesel a little smack with the crop if he was bad, and she doesn’t have a lot of experience to draw on. She was getting scared when he kept going towards the barn, so she thought to herself, “Bad Diesel!”, and gave him two hard smacks with the crop. Well, Diesel figured she was mad that he wasn’t going fast enough, so he broke into a full gallop to the barn, fastest I’ve ever seen him go!

 

All the rest of us raced after Beta, Bethany on Crown, Meghan running next, and me huffing and jogging to try to keep up. The last we’d seen of Beta was her heading over the hill at a full gallop screaming in terror. We expected to find a battered and broken Beta lying in a pile near the barn or on the hillside when we got there. We all had a few bad moments. But when Bethany rode over the hill and Meghan caught up, we found Beta still high on top of Diesel standing beside the barn already smiling and asking, “What did I do? Why did he do that?” Beta is one athletic girl to ride that gallop out all the way over the steep hill and down to the barn. And she really wasn’t that upset once he stopped running. Brave chick!

 

Check this link for pictures we took of Diesel, Crown Derby, etc this morning. He looked very good with Bethany showing him off over a variety of jumps at about 3’6”. He easily jumped anything that I would ask our summer camp students to do. He even jumped the Liverpool water jump – once! We decided to give it a try and Bethany cantered him down to it, hit a good spot, and up and over he went. But right in the middle of the jump he looked down and must have thought, “GOOD GRIEF! What’s that dark, shiny rippling stuff under the jump rails?” We brought him back to do it again and he wanted no part of it. I didn’t want a battle with him just as we were taking the “Meet the Horses” pictures, so we let him get away with only doing it one time. He can learn that next summer.

 

The other excitement this morning was Tom riding! Yep – I haven’t realy been on a horse this summer for more than a few seconds, so I took Diesel after Beta’s wild ride and went on a trail ride with Bethany. Not a long one! My old muscles felt it after just ten minutes out to the Maple Grove loop and back. But I trotted, cantered a few times, and gave him a little flat work training. Meghan has pictures to prove it!

 

Star Left this Morning

Star is one of our really reliable large ponies and she left this morning to go back to the same barn that’s had her for the past three years, Omni Equestrian Center in Elmira, New York, about four hours from here. She went there first with Debra, Sydney, and Sam, three of a mother – dsaughter group that have been to Longacres for several years. Last winter they took Star and Lincoln as a training project. The barn fell so in love with Star that they are taking her back even though Sydney, Sam, and Dera are leaving to live in Japan for a year now. It’s a great home for Star with people who know her well and care about her.

 

Sunday, August 29^th, 9AM Update:

Shipping Out the Horses

As you all know, we close down the barn and lend/lease all our horses to winter homes in the off season before getting them all back next May for the 2011 season. Our updates for the next couple of days will tell you about the horses winter homes as they leave.

 

The first two to leave were ShaBang and Chesney who left last night with a local adult rider, Tara from Springville, NY. She is about the closest to Longacres of all winter horse homes, only about 17 miles south of here. Tara had ShaBang all last year trying to rehabilitate him from a nagging leg injury. He is much better, as second session students know. Tara wanted Chesney for the winter last year, but he ended up going to Laura and Sharon instead. She is pleased as punch to have him this year. She is a good, quiet rider who likes to do lots of flat work with her horses. Just the thing for ShaBang and Chesney.

 

Zanee left this morning to stay for the winter with Joleene J, a local adult rider with a young daughter. Jolene will be the one riding Zanee mostly. She had horses and showed when she was young and is just getting back into riding as an adult. Jolene rode Zanee beautifully when she tried her out here at Longacres. Zanee is just around the corner from Longacres.

 

Rocky is spending the winter at the barn of the people who loaned us Anna for the summer. He is also right around the corner at Rivendale Farms in East Aurora. They are good horse loving people who like Longacres. Rocky left on the same trailer as Zanee.

 

Most of you know that Merlin is spending a second winter in a row with long time Longacres student, Michelle from Rochester. Michelle has been with us for five years and taken horses for three years. Merlin will have a great home with a rider who really loves him! He left on the same trailer as Zanee and Rocky and Anna this morning.

 

Saturday, August 28^th, 5PM Update:

Check this link for some pictures I don’t think you’ve seen of the girls in the video lesson on Thursday. Check this link for pictures of the newest addition to the Longacres string of horses, “Crown Derby”, (Kirby). We have to measure him, but Crown Derby is about 15.3 +, and a cute 13 year old black gelding. He’s very friendly to handle and in the barn. A willing jumper and not too complicated to ride. Emily, especially, really, really likes him!

 

In the Crown Derby album, we also have some pictures of Bethany jumping Horatio pretty high today. We’re taking a few nice jumping pictures while Bethany is still here to use in the updated “Meet the Horses” page we’ll be posting soon. (Horatio looks REALLY good!)

 

Saturday, August 28^th, 3PM Update:

It’s Over

An hour ago we said our last “See Ya’s” as Emily, Sharon, Laura, and Michelle all drove out about the same time, after we bid a goodbye to Stephanie, Vikki, and Alexis earlier in the day. Now it’s only Bethany and Beta taking care of the horses and closing up the barn tomorrow and Monday. (They’re not QUITE all gone – Emily just texted Meghan and said, “We’re at Kone King – can’t I just stay all winter and live in the barn and I’ll home school myself?”)

 

Now we relax only a moment and start working on things for 2011. WHO will be the first to enroll and earn the title, “Super Longacres Early Bird # 1 2011 Enrolleee?” We know several of you are talking about signing up this coming month. Who will be first?

 

New Horse!

The very first thing we’ve done for 2011 is buying a new horse for next season! Yes, we now own “Crown Derby”, or Kirby as the girls are calling him for a barn name. We’ll post more pictures soon. And the contract has not actually been signed – we’ll own him Monday night if nothing goes wrong. His former owner had him shown here at the Longacres June horse show and at Erie County Fair as a jumper. He has a nice jump and is not very hard to ride. He’ll be a useful addition to Longacres. We hate to spend money on horses at this time of year when we have to place them until next season, but he was too good a prospect to pass up.

 

Friday, August 27, 4:30 PM Update:

Fun Show Pictures

Check this link for a bunch of informal pictures Meghan snapped at the show this afternoon. There were ribbons galore, and quite a few trophies handed out. Everyone had a few really good things to be proud of on their last day at Longacres. We’re taking care of the horses, heading into town for a last dinner together, then one last ride on our favorite horses tonight and maybe again in the morning before leaving.

 

Friday, August 27^th, 3PM Update:

Fun Show Update!

No outside stables showed up for today’s “Fun Show”, but that’s not hurting our fun. Everyone wins ribbons in each class and because it’s an informal fun event, they all dressed up in goofy outfits with stuff duct taped to their riding helmets, etc. Meghan asked if they wanted to cancel any classes to shorten the afternoon, but the girls all said, “No way, we’re having fun!” Our senior instructor and #1 rider, Bethany, is not allowed to enter the game classes and compete against her students, but so she can have fun, too, we have the “Beat Bethany’s Butt Challenge”. Bethany is getting an unofficial time in the speed timed events, and if anyone can beat her time they get a special “I beat Bethany Trophy”. Fosto the Great did in fact beat Bethany in the very first barrel racing class, putting in an outstanding time on Zanee, while Bethany lost time on one turn on Tux. After that, nobody beat Bethany again through the time of this report. The show is still going on!

 

More later.

 

Friday, August 27^th, 10AM Update:

It was COLD this morning! A taste of fall so soon to come in western New York. It’s going to be a great riding day today with temps in the low 70’s and sun. But by Sunday and Monday it will be near 90 again for a few days.

 

We have not heard of any other stables coming to our fun show this year, so the girls will definitely all win ribbons. We have a real judge and Beta helping with entries, etc, but it’s just going to be a fun day. We’ll have time for the girls to get on their favorite horses one last time later this afternoon and this evening. Then the girls who aren’t leaving until after lunch tomorrow might get one last ride in the morning. But we are almost done with the 2010 season, one of our best in recent years! We’ll be writing numerous “remember this moment” updates during the next two weeks. There’s so much to remember from this year.

 

Don’t forget – 2011 enrollments will be accepted anytime after September 1^st, and the July two week sessions and four week session will fill fast. You’ll have more time to decide if you’re interested in one of the June or August sessions.

 

Thursday, August 26^th, 7 PM Update:

Sob, Sob, we’re almost done!

We had our last turkey dinner from Tom the Chef (not me, the other Tom), and it was wonderful. We all clapped for him at the end of dinner, and he touchingly said this is one of the favorite jobs he’s ever had and he hopes he can do it again next year. We eat out together tomorrow night, so this was “goodbye” to Tom.

 

Check this link for a bunch of pictures from this afternoon. Our new students, Stephanie and Vikki, were riding bigger more challenging horses than before in VInesssa’s clinic. All the girls really liked Vinessa, who has only given clinics twice at Longacres. We’re really liking her and talking about trying to get her as a regular instructor next year.

 

More later. I am headed back down to the barn to take one more look at Crown Derby before we make an offer to buy him or send him back.

 

Thursday, August 26^th, 6AM Update:

Hard to Believe the Summer is Almost Gone!

Just one more day after today and the 2010 season at Longacres will be history. Bethany will be helping us with the horses for two more days and then Monday night even she will go home. I am feeling lost and lonely already! (Meghan, who does more of the grungy long hours behind the scenes work than I, is really looking forward to the peace and quiet!)

 

After a wonderful day of sunny weather yesterday, we got a short, hard rain squall right after the girls were done at the barn last night. Perfect to keep the dust down and the footing soft our final two days. We’re looking at bright sun right through the middle of next week. (That’s another change coming soon – No need for my detailed daily weather checks!)

 

We have two guest instructors visiting today. Vinessa is an adult coach who has given clinics here before and coached a college riding team. Ashley Glica is a successful junior rider like David Laks, and a good friend of Longacres. She’s doing this for the first time at Longacres today and we’re looking forward to having fun and maybe learning a new exercise or two.

 

Our Fun Show begins at 11 tomorrow moring and is open to the public, but we are never sure whether anyone besides our own riders will take part. If not, then our girls get ALL the ribbons! If outsiders come, it is fun to have the competition and the excitement of more horses in the events. We’ll let you know at home if anyone else shows up.

 

2011 Enrollments Open this coming Wednesday, September 1^st

We’ve been getting questions about the different sessions from some of you, so we know you’re thinking about it. The July sessions are likely to fill the earliest, and the June and August sessions later in the year. We’re trying to dream up some really cool “First 2011 Enrollee” title to honor the first one to sign up officially!

 

Wednesday Update:

Urgent Winter Horse Lease Info:

At least three out of the ten or so Longacres families taking horses home for the winter still have not completed ALL of the arrangements for taking your horse or horses. Time is getting very short before some of the horses have to leave Longacres, and the final paperwork must be in place first. Some of you have not got signed contracts back to us, or are waiting for something else. Some of you have not finalized mortality insurance arrangements, and the long distance trucking about to take place is a risk that you will want to have covered by insurance that is set in place.

 

Meghan has been working hard to get you any info or paperwork you need. If you still need something from us, email or call right away and we’ll be sure to take care of anything that we have overlooked. PLEASE double check that all your contract info and insurance info and health certificate arrangements for shipping are taken care of!!!!!

 

On a Lighter Note:

Lincoln is going back to work today. He’s had a nice vacation since the Derby, since he did not go to the Fair horse show. He’s been ridden once or twice this week, and Bethany is riding him this morning to give him a “tune up” before we send him off to Natasha in Carolina next week. I’ll let you know how he is later, Natasha, but he’ll be coming to you with plenty of rest!

 

Wednesday, August 25, 9PM Update:

Check this link for more pictures taken by Meghan at this afternoon’s clinic. The girls had a good time with Lindsey and got to jump a bit in the big show field. Tonight we showed Crown Derby to a girl who might lease him for the winter if we decide to buy him. We do like the horse – just a tough time of year to justify buying a fairly expensive horse.

 

The real story tonight is about the end of the 2010 season approaching very, very soon. A part of us is looking forward to no responsibility and lots of free time and sleep. But a big part of us is already missing the fun and excitement of the Longacres riding and showing program and all the friends we have during the summer. Longacres is going to be a very quiet place in just three more days! I am going to have serious withdrawal symptoms this year.

 

Wednesday, August 25^th, 10AM Update:

Odds ‘n Ends

Although it’s supposed to cloud up later with a slight chance of showers, it’s a wonderful late summer morning so far, with cool perfect riding temperatures. We’re setting up an interesting jumping exercise in the sand ring this morning and we’ll be taking video of everyone doing the test twice so we can watch later and see our equitation skills and weaknesses.

 

This afternoon Lindsey Cornell from Hunters Ridge Stables visits as a guest instructor. She is a regular at Longacres giving clinics and we’re grateful that she makes the time for us!

 

We’re planning the classes for the Fun Show on Friday. Call us if you are interested in joining the fun with your horse if you live in the area. We need to get an idea of how many are coming. We might have a “Derby Do-over Class” at several heights if there is interest. The Derby course is still up and looks wonderful, even with a few of the evergreen brush stuff starting to fade in color.

 

Wish you could all be here to see the Derby Course! After the rain the other day, the field is lush green and it just looks wonderful. We’re going to cry tearing it all apart next week to store the jumps for the winter. Check this link later today for some nice pictures of the jump course!

 

Kellie sent a great email this morning. She is happily (?) doing school work home in Texas already. Here’s her email – read it all the way to the end.

 

Hey y'all. I would use all of the crazy fonts and colors to describe how much I miss you guys, but it doesn't have that feature on my iPod touch. :)

first, I MISSS YOU GUYS!!

Second, wow! Jazz looks amazzzing! (Tom, just to tell you how many fans you have on your blog, I posted a note on ..voldemort.. saying how awesome Jazz looks over that 4'3 oxer, and almost ALL of the LA girls commented on it- "omg, I know!!" and "yeah she looks soo good!" and stuff.)

but yeah, Jazz has really come together this year!

 

So, you know how I give y'all a little gift Every summer to remember me over the winter? Well I had it in my purse to give to y'all but I totally forgot! I'll try to send it to you.

And I wish I was there for the moonlight ride- it sounded amazing :)

 

so today is our 3rd day of school and I have soo much homework. Yesterday, in our speech class, we were supposed to talk a minute about anything. I talked 1 minute about Longacres :) my friend was supposed to analyze my body language or whatever, and she said I was smiling the whole time so she could tell I loved what I was talking about. 

 

miss you.

tell ebony I said hi.

 

Love,

Kellie<3

 

How cool is that ending? (Tom & Meghan)

 

Back at the farm, we’re enjoying playing with “Crown Derby”, a show horse we’re considering buying for next summer. We’re carefully checking our budget – we don’t usually buy horses in the fall since we can’t really use them for eight more months. We’ll see.

 

Tuesday, August 24^th, 10PM Update:

Maybe the Best Moonlight Ride Ever!

Because of some cloudy nights and a few conflicts with other special events earlier in the summer, this has been our first moonlight ride of the 2010 season. And it was one of the best ever! (hey, Kellie, I thought of you tonight. I know how much you always liked the moonlight rides and I wish you were here for this one.) The horses behaved perfectly, and it was a crystal clear still night with the full moon. It’s supposed to cloud up tonight, but our timing was perfect – not a cloud in the sky where the moon was shining down.

 

Before I forget, it was Laura leading on Rocky, Michelle on Merlin, Sharon on Zanee, Stephanie on Neek-o, Vicki on Star, Emily on Boo, and Bethany on Joc-A-Bee. Everyone jumped under the moonlight (Don’t panic, parents, I know what I’m doing! We set up a cross rail jump with white stands and white rails and come at it with the moon at our backs shining full on the jump. It seems almost as bright as day and the horses do fine.) At first we got the horses used to the dark riding in a line with careful spacing. We did a lot of walking to get our night vision, then some short trots and finally cantered in the sand ring. We then went out on the big show field and looked at all the Derby jumps in the moonlight. We split up and everyone got to ride alone or with a buddy in the still night. Finally we had the traditional two minutes of silence standing still in a group with not a sound in the moonlight but the occasional horse chomping at his bit or snorting and the sound of the crickets and tree frogs in the woods. It was lovely. Everyone made a wish while we were silent, and since nobody broke the silence, the wish is supposed to come true.

 

Everything went exactly as I hoped, and it was truly one of the best Longacres moonlight rides ever, ever!

 

(Between Jazz’s big jump earlier tonight and the moonlight ride, I felt so good when I got back to the house that I broke my diet and rewarded myself with not one, but TWO big chunks of Ghirardelli chocolate!)

 

PS: Meghan took more pictures at the clinics this afternoon at this link.

 

Tuesday, August 24^th, 8PM Update:

Big Enough

Well, big enough for now anyway. Most of our readers know that we bought Jazz this spring thinking that she had the conformation and the attitude to be a serious jumping horse. But we were patient. We kept her over very small jumps for much of the summer. We let her jump a little bigger in the second half of the summer, but not huge. And recently, with riders like Laura and Emily and Carly, she has shown better and better attitude about jumping courses and trying new things.

 

We always like to try a few interesting things during Lazy Days week as the end of our season draws close. At dinner tonight, I asked Bethany, “Who are you riding tonight?”

 

She said she hadn’t decided yet.

 

I said, “How about getting on Jazz?”

 

Bethany and I often think alike about horses, so she knew right away that maybe I was up to something. When I next asked her, “Are you feeling adventurous?”, her response was what I expected.

 

“Always!”, she answered.

 

Well, I won’t keep you in suspense any longer. Click this link, and then continue reading when you come back.

 

Bethany set a new personal “highest jump” tonight on Jazz, and the highest we’ve jumped at Longacres in two years or so. Jazz cleared the 4’3” oxer effortlessly and never once even hesitated as she jumped several smaller fences building up to this height. I really think this horse might have the stuff to do the big jumper classes, but 4’3” is enough to ask her in her first serious year of jumping. She’s just six years old and part Clydesdale. Draft breeds mature slowly, so she has another year or so of maturing before we should really push her much more than we did tonight. But we have a lot of horse there! We sure had fun tonight. So did Jazz!

 

Tuesday, August 24, 3PM Update:

Pictures from this morning’s guest lesson at this link.

 

NOTE: We are tweeking next year’s schedue slightly. The Adult Week & Clinic will begin on June 6th rather than May 30th and we will have one less Clinic week in June. No other changes.

 

Tuesday, August 24^th, 10AM Update:

Two Guest Instructors Today

One of the more successful western New York equitation riders, David Laks, is stopping by this morning to share some of his experiences and training exercises as a good friend of Longacres. (David did his first jumps at Longacres when he was younger, and he has gone on to be very successful.) This afternoon Kathy J. is coming for an equitation clinic. We’re breaking our group in half for both clinics, so there will be very personal instruction.

 

Stubborn clouds are lingering over Longacres, but the sun is peeking out as I write and it’s supposed to be a gorgeous day later on. We’ll savor it, since clouds and a few showers return on Wednesday. The Fun Show Friday looks to have great weather again, and we better start practicing. The very hard riding girls from Dunham Stables are joining us for our open to the public fun show, and we’ll be hard pressed to beat them in the game classes! It will be fun and challenging.

 

Check this link for the dinner video I mentioned last night!

 

Check this link for a video I took early yesterday morning on the first day of Lazy Days when it was pretty wet out. The sand ring had good footing and we got in every scheduled hour of riding yesterday.

 

 

 

Monday, 7PM Update:

Wow, it’s getting dark early!

I guess it’s almost the end of the summer. It gets really dark while we’re doing evening horse care now. Check this link for some pictures taken this afternoon. And this link later tonight for an interesting video taken at dinner!!!!!!!!

 

Monday, August 23^rd, 11AM Update:

Blessedly Cool!

After a very warm summer, it is sweatshirt and sweater weather today at the barn. Very nice for horse care work and riding. We’re off to a relaxed beginning of Lazy Days week, giving our new riders a safety and orientation session before doing horse care. We’ll ride once later this morning, twice this afternoon, and again after dinner. The weather is holding to the forecast with occasional drizzle but nothing we can’t ride in.

 

I got up early and prepared a written handout covering things we’ll be working on this week. If you search this Blog page for the words, “words of wisdom”, you’ll come up with a posting I made last winter about our ideas at Longacres on preparing your horse for a good ride. I reprinted that this morning and we talked about it at breakfast. We’ll be moving new poles into the sand ring today and doing very interesting individual exercises over everything from ground poles to small jumps.

 

I also printed the following table of strides to feet between jumps to “paces” between jumps when walking a course. We plan to quiz each other on it during the week and hopefully it will be forever in this week’s riders memories. You at home ought to try to learn it as well.

 

 

Striding tables

It is customary at horse shows to set lines of fences multiples of 12 feet apart. As a standard (not always true!) we assume that full size horses take a 12’ stride when cantering over normal size jumps. If we want a line of jumps to be 3 strides, we set them 48’ apart. That is three strides (36’), then another half stride for landing and a half stride for taking off.

 

Following is a table to figure distances. It is useful for a serious horseman to memorize this.

 

Strides             feet                  paces

 

Bounce            12                    4

 

1                      24                    8

 

2                      36                    12

 

3                      48                    16

 

4                      60                    20

 

5                      72                    24

 

6                      84                    28

 

7                      96                    32

 

8                      108                  34

 

Beyond 8 strides you are likely to be riding off your eye.

 

PS: Ofelia, thanks for the great note! We’re trying to take good care of your horsie this week!

 

Monday, August 23^rd, 8AM Update:

A Bit Wet

A huge low pressure system is hanging out over the northeast which will give us more rain than previously thought this week. We now expect off and on drizzle today, then dry but cloudy weather tomorrow and 30% chance of showers the next two days. We’ll ride anyway, but we’ll get a little wet, especially today. The end of the week clears out nicely for our fun show. We’ll make the most of it.

 

The Trip to Camp from H—l!

Vikki has arrived safely at Longacres, and was remarkably awake and cheerful when Meghan finally met her at the Buffalo airport a little after 3AM. She was bounced around from flight to flight with delays and changes in New Jersey early Sunday night, then went through delay after delay. Twice, Meghan left for the airport to meet her last night but turned around after getting a phone call reporting yet another delay. She was originally supposed to get in a little after 8 last night. Seven hours later, she landed. Meghan had Vikki sleep up at the house to give her the most rest possible. We offered to let her sleep in more this morning, but she wanted to be up early and starting everything with the other girls, so she is on her way to the barn now. Tough girl!

 

Sunday, August 22^nd, 5PM Update:

A Quiet Day

Laura, Emily, and Michelle did their laundry today and went to the fair to buy more stuff with Laura’s mom. Meghan really was pretty good about relaxing, but did office work this afternoon while she was supposed to be taking a nap. Bethany did HOME WORK for school! And Tom? I not only flew one of my radio control model airplanes, I flew three different kinds of model and NONE OF THEM CRASHED!!!!!! I flew a big, fast airplane, my little slow “Night Vapor”, and a little helicopter. No crashes! First time ever flying three types in one day with success. I am pumped! (I know, it has nothing to do with me coaching riding, but it has everything to do with me being cheerful this week.

 

2011 Rates & Schedule Now Posted

Follow the link on our home page to the 2011 rates & schedules. All session dates and prices are now set to help you in planning enrollments for next year which we will begin to accept next week.

 

Sunday, August 22^nd, 8AM Update:

Much Needed Rain

We’re having a very quiet weekend between the end of the regular camp sessions and the start of Lazy Days late tonight. The girls staying over from the last session really enjoyed their “do what you want” day yesterday, and they all survived with no reckless riding. Today the horses will rest and the girls sleep late, then do laundry, and perhaps go back to the fair with one of the parents. But the fair will be wet and dreary today.

 

We welcome the wet and dreary as an end to the parched draught conditions we’ve increasingly faced during the month of August. We got a soaking rain overnight last night (though not as much rain right here at Longacres as in other parts of western New York.), and it will sprinkle off and on through early tomorrow. Much of the week now looks like it will be partly to mostly cloudy with a slight chance (30%) of showers two days, but mostly dry and unusually cool for this time of year. Great for riding.

 

We’re getting the usual reports of girls accidentally taking home the wrong shirt of jeans and offering to mail the stuff to the rightful owner. Just let us know and we’ll give you the right address or instructions. We’ll mail anything of value you might have forgottan, but we’ll just toss wet towels, etc.

 

Remember that we begin accepting 2011 enrollments next week. The two week sessions in July usually go fast, since we save 5 spots for girls 12 or under and that leaves only a few spots for returning teens every July. If you are over 12, act quickly to get a July 2 week session next year.

 

We expect much less early demand for the August session. Many of the girls who came in August this year are older and some will have to get jobs or go to summer school next year. We might have many new faces in August 2011. On the other hand, every year we have younger girls from July who move up to the August session the following year, so “Who knows?”

 

Anyway, enrollments open September 1^st and first come first served.

 

Saturday, August 21^st, 1PM Update:

“Do Anything You Want Day!”

Well, almost. We’ve said tearful goodbyes to many of our favorite students and to wonderful counselor, Carly, this morning. Ofelia and Katie will be leaving very soon. Then we are down to just a handful of girls who are staying over for Lazy Days, and I am always looking for opportunities to try something special. We have all very mature and responsible riders here this afternoon, so I told them they can do “anything they want” with the horses this afternoon, including Buddy trail rides and other special riding. This is a trustworthy group with good judgement, and Alexa will be riding with most of them, anyway. Three of them are also CIT’s, so I am comfortable with giving them this special treat and the associated freedom and responsibility. Have fun girls! Meghan and I get to relax for 24 hours!

 

Friday, August 20^th, 11PM Update:

Almost Done

We got back from a fun night at the fair about an hour ago. The girls all got to sign the “secret panel” on the Castle Jump. Sorry we kept forgetting to do it in the other sessions! Check this link for a few more pictures of some air brush shirts a few of the girls got with Longacres on the design. We had a great CIT meeting before Ofelia leaves tomorrow to talk about the challenges they faced providing leadership this session. I assured them that we thought all four of them did a great job leading by example. A fine group of girls, some of whom will likely be staff during the next few years!

 

Megha and I will be up early helping the girls with horse care and to get packed and moved out. Meghan and I will then get about 24 hours to rest up from the regular season before starting to welcome new students for “Lazy Days” at 7:30 Sunday evening. We will welcome the rest!

 

The CIT’s staying over will all be able to ride to their heart’s content tomorrow, including buddy trail rides if they like.

 

We enjoyed signing the Castle Jump under a ¾ moon, and it reminded us that we have yet to do a moonlight ride this summer. We’ll have a full moon next week and we’ll try to fit in a night ride if we get a clear night (which we think we will).

 

More tomorrow.

 

 

Friday, 4PM Update:

Good Weather for Lazy Days Week!

It begins Saturday night and Sunday, with a forecast for badly needed heavy rain exactly when we want it, on the horses’ day of rest! Then only a 30% chance of lingering showers Monday, then very cool, great riding weather most of the week with mostly sunny days (a possible mid week shower, then back to sunshine). We’re suffering from near drought conditions in western New York now, so this forecast is excellent for us.

 

Friday, August 20^th, 3PM Update:

Pond Day!

We just finished riding the horses into the pond with some hilarious efforts! We had to train Tux, Bristol, and Neek-o to go in, but we got them all to do it willingly by the end of the session. Bethany “chased” the spectators into the briar patch one time when Neek-o tried to get away from the water. She couldn’t make him ride in, but she finally jumped off and led him in on foot. From then on Neek-o was fine with it. Pictures at this link.

 

We’re running late, but the girls will have time for showers before we head over to the fair late this afternoon. More to come later. (I don’t know if it has quite set in with the girls that they just had their last ride of the 2010 session!)

 

Friday, 1:30 PM Update:

We just finished the final rides of this session, with everyone jumping their favorite horses, some pretty high! Bethany jumped Horatio nearly four feet, and others were close behind. We’re doing “pond riding” in about 15 minutes, so I’ve got to run back down to the barn. Lots of pictures at this link pretty soon! Then back to the fair later this afternoon.

 

Friday, August 20^th, 8AM Update:

Today’s schedule

We know some of you parents are in the area for the end of the session. You’re welcome to stop by the farm and watch some of this morning’s activities if you like. The girls got up late but should be on horses by about 10:30. We’ll be letting them ride all their favorite horses one last time, and then we’ll be trying the pond riding about 11:30 to noon or so. It’s fun to watch. They will have some down time to shower and relax after lunch and then we’ll be heading to the fair about 4:30 or 5PM. That’s a time the girls enjoy being together and bonding one last time before the session closes tomorrow. We ask you not to take your kids out of camp for dinner etc tonight so they can enjoy that time together.

 

Pick up is anytime tomorrow morning, or as late in the day as you like. (Meghan and I will be away after about 3PM, but one or more counselors will be here.)

 

If you missed last night’s update, do check out the pictures at the Pet Pyx website. They also have pictures from most Longacres and Series shows this summer which you may not have seen. Bonnie is a Longacres Alumni.

 

Thursday, August 19^th, 10PM Update:

Peacefulness at Last

Don’t know if that is a word, but it describes how Meghan and I feel tonight! We worked behind the scenes most of the summer and very actively for the past three weeks preparing for the Jumper Derby at Longacres, and then went right to the three day show at the Fair. It has been a trip and a half. And rewarding big time! But now the big events are over and this session will end tomorrow night. We really enjoy Lazy Days week every year and we’re looking forward to having good friends and a couple of promising first timers next week. Then the summer of 2010 at Longcres Riding Camp will pass into history along with the 71 previous seasons. And we go back to planning for the future, including the big 75^th anniversary year in 2013.

 

But tonight we are at peace. The girls are all in bed very early and will sleep in tomorrow before having lots of special last day activities. Things are good at Longacres.

 

More news tomorrow about the fair.

 

Check this link for a couple of hundred pictures from the Pet Pyx photography studio taken at Longacres shows and the Derby. Enjoy the small proofs online. Or go to Pet Pyx website to order quality prints or large digital files. Bonnie the photographer is a former Longacres camper!

 

Thursday, August 19^th, 1PM Update:

Carly Does It!!!!!!!

Carly won 1st & 2nd and Champion in the higher Hopeful Jumper Division, and those three ribbons were numbers 98, 99, and the 100th ribbon won by Longacres at the three day show!!!!! We’ll have pictures of Carly and all our other jumper riders from Day #3 later this afternoon, some at this link, and some at this link. We finished with 112 ribbons for the show, a record which may never be touched again. Fine riding by the 2010 Longacres Show Team (all of us!).

 

More news from the show later. The girls are all on their way home with the horses. There will be optional riding this afternoon, a chance to watch video of the show (including Bethany’s spectacular buck and dismount!). Then early to bed and sleep in tomorrow morning, then more video, riding in the pond, jumping hard horses, maybe something for a surprise, and then showers and we all go back to the fair a final time tomorrow night with money to spend on rides and other cool stuff. Then home on Saturday L except for those of you staying for lazy Days.

 

Wednesday, August 18^th, 8PM Update:

Hello Everyone!

Longacres positively buried the previous record of 64 ribbons won at an Erie County Fair show with an avalanche of prizes today! Depending on who counted, we now have either 88 or 89 ribbons in two days with a third day of showing left tomorrow morning. The girls are all hoping we pass 100 ribbons won by the end of the day tomorrow. We have a full enrollment this session, so we have more riders than some years, the girls have been riding very well this week, and we have several really good riders in the group who can be counted on to score ribbons. It’s been fun.

 

The first jumper class this morning was won by Morven on Ebony, and Longacres riders were 1^st, 2^nd, 4^th, 5^th, and 6^th, and that was just the beginning of ribbons which kept coming and coming. Ten year old Anderson won tons on Merlin and Brownie, including a Reserve Champion in Pony Hunter out of a LOT of ponies!

 

But We Did Get our Butts Kicked in Team Competition

Last year Longacres won the Team Jumping event, beating out highly regarded High Time stables. They got their revenge this year, riding very well while we made mistakes. Two of our team went clean, but one was eliminated and one had a rail down, which was enough to hand the victory to High Time stables team. Congratulations to them. See you next year!!!!

 

We took over 400 pictures and many will be at this link later tonight.

 

Tuesday, August 17^th, 7PM Update:

BULLITEN!!!! Best Ever First Day at the Fair!!!!

I began the day by giving the girls an “anti pep talk”. I declared today to be the day of the “Super Epic Power Failures”. The idea was not to be nervous, but to have fun and make all the worst imaginable mistakes on this first day of the fair, then settle down and do well the second and third days. Well, they laughed, but the girls didn’t listen to me.

 

They went out and won 41 ribbons on the first day of the show, by far the most of any opening day in our 43 years at this fair! Our record for three days is 64 ribbons and we should easily pass that tomorrow.

 

Longacres won the first three classes we entered, and it kept right on going well all day. Katie, Anderson, Staci, Kellie, and Bethany won first place ribbons and we had many more high placings. Bethany was 1^st & 2^nd in one of the higher Jumper Classes, and the featured $1000 Gambler’s Choice class was won by Bethany, and Longacres riders took four of the six money positions, with Carly 4^th, Ofelia 5^th, and Bethany 6^th on a second horse (out of 17 entries). Bethany won the Cooler and big money on Holly.

 

We’ll have pictures at this link and this link late tonight. More details later.

 

Monday, August 16^th, 10PM Update:

Pretty Good First Night Practice

There were some jitters and a few spooky horses, but everyone calmed down after a while and we had a good practice the first night at the fair. Bethany got on a couple of horses that were acting up, but mostly the assigned riders were able to get their horses going well by themselves. Every horse ended up improving and doing well by the end of the training sessions. The hardest was Petra’s private horse, Poker, who can be very nervous and needs a lot of calming and careful riding. He has a huge jump, and it is easy to get left on him when he jumps, which makes him worse the next time. He was refusing lots of jumps at first. I had Bethany ride him and he got a little better, but it was Petra herself who finally calmed him down after I had her trot many, many fences very slowly and getting him to relax. He was out in the training ring for an hour and a half, but by the end of the evening, he was jumping quietly.

 

Carly and Bethany trained over bigger jumps practicing for the higher jumper classes. Ofelia also looked very good on Whitley (who she is now DEFINITELY taking home for the winter!!!!), and Emily was good on both the horses she is riding, Boo and Bristol. Our team for the Team Jumping will be Bethany, Carly, Emily, and Ofelia.

 

Speaking of the team competition, the other team that was in the Finals last year with Longacres is back again, coached by Leigh Fischer from High Time Stables. Longacres just barely edged them out for first place last year. They are back to avenge the loss, and DUnhams Stables also has a team. We just barely beat Dunham Stables Team on Derby night this week, so it should be a good battle on Wednesday night for that Team Jumping Champion Cooler!

 

We will have a ton of pictures to post tomorrow after the first day of showing. In the meantime, check this link for a quick video of one of the six horse hitches of Belgians practicing for the parade while we were setting up our stalls this afternoon. And check this link for my very FAVORITE FAIR FOOD!!!!!!

 

Also, we took some nice pictures this afternoon of some of the Derby Jumps from a different angle than you’ve seen before. We’re very proud of how lovely the jumping course turned out, thanks to Drisana and other hard workers helping Meghan! Check out this link to see the challenging course your girls have been jumping the past week and at the Derby Saturday! The jumps are set for the height that Bethany, Carly, Emily, and Ofelia did, but the rest of the girls jumped the exact same jumps, just a little lower. Quite an achievement!

 

Speaking of favorite foods at the fair, I am afraid that I am at my “best physical condition of the summer” right this moment, and it will be all down hill for me the rest of the year! I have been working hard all summer, and exercising and eating right. I’m only five and a half pounds more than I was when I was playing football in high school. I’ve lost almost fifteen pounds since last Christmas holiday eating period. And I feel good. I’ll try to remember how this feels, because I will be enjoying fair food all week, with a traditional Fried Dough every night after the show and other really yummy foods for dinners! And then when camp is over after another week, I will not have to work so hard – and I will slowly begin having time to enjoy more tasty treats during the day. And – well, you get the idea. I do enjoy being in good shape right now, but I enjoy fried Dough and chocolate chi cookies even more. Oh, well.

 

Monday, August 16^th, 5PM Update:

All the girls are at the fair and the final load of horses (18 horses!) is on its way over. I’m back getting the car so we have two vehicles and I’m about ot head back to watch them practice jumping.

 

Monday, August 16^th, Noon Update:

Lazy Days Working Student?

We are offering an opportunity for a hard working student to join us at Lazy Days Week next week earning a $450 discount on the tuition by sitting out an hour of riding to help with extra barn chores. That would make the cost just $965 for the week from August 23^rd to 28^th. You’d still ride three lessons a day and take part in the guest instructor clinics. Open to all ages, so long as you promise to work hard! We have two other openings for any age, children or adults (to keep adult mom Sharon, who is signed up, company!)

 

Here at Longacres this morning, everyone is working hard to clean horses and tack and load up to leave for the fair after lunch. Some road a practice lesson this morning in the ring to get used to inside ring riding again after two weeks of mostly outside course work. Some spent the morning doing show prep stuff.

 

Monday, August 16^th, 10AM Update:

Spirits Great!

The girls are in good spirits after the fun of the Derby and a good day of rest yesterday along with a very early bedtime last night. I will try to psot a few pictures at this link after lunch of the girls getting ready for the show. More pictures at this link later tonight from our arrival at the fairgrounds this afternoon. We are taking 18 horses to the fair, including our private horses, which is an all time record number of horses for Longacres! All of them have a reasonable chance to do well. Our schedule for the next three days is frantic. I will post updates every night, but they will be late, like 10 or 11PM.

 

Wish us “Bon Voyage” and good luck for this 44^th annual Longacres Erie County Fair effort!

 

Sunday, August 15^th, 5PM Update:

I am uploading 103 additional pictures from the Derby Last Night at this link. I am having some trouble with our host server today, so if the pictures aren’t there, keep trying later tonight.

 

Sunday, August 15^th, 1PM Update:

Lazy Days Vacancies

Most summers the special “Lazy Days of August” week gradually fills during the summer and we have a full house for that fun and casual week of riding. We had a good early enrollment this year, but although several families have inquired about the openings, we still have three vacancies available this summer. If you’re interested in returning to Longacres one last time this summer, or coming for the first time to “try us out” for next year, call and talk to us. It’s a fun week!

 

Sunday, August 15^th, 8AM Update:

A Few Hours of Rest, and Then - - -

Everyone at Longacres is taking as many hours as we can this morning to sleep, rest, and recover our energy after the hard ten days or so of training we put in getting ready to ride the tough Derby course. Not to mention the hundreds of hours of labor setting up the course and making the dozens of arrangements for the big Awards party and everything that went with it. So we’ll enjoy the break this morning and savor the memories of an incredible day and night of fine achievements. Then, we’ll go back to work this afternoon, big time!

 

We’ll have less than 24 hours to get our horses and equipment ready for a trip to the three day horse show at the Erie County Fair, one of the largest fairs in America, with a million visitors over the 12 days of the fair. From what we’re hearing from other stables, this will be a very big horse show, after many shows this summer being smaller than usual. The horses stay at the fair for the full three days, while a few of us every night stay in the RV on the showgrounds and the rest of us commute back and forth, since it’s only about 8 miles away.

 

Before I head out to a relaxed breakfast, I want to send a huge “Thank You” to everyone who helped make this Derby Day and Awards Party the success that it turned out to be. We had great help from sponsors, from our staff, from parents and students here yesterday who stepped up to help change jumps around between classes, and from all the visiting riders and trainers. We couldn’t have asked for better cooperation and good sportsmanship from everyone who took part. I guess we’ll do it one more year next year! At least.

 

2011 Enrollments

Speaking of next year, remember that we begin accepting enrollments on September 1^st. The two week sessions in July will go fast. The schedule will be posted soon, and will be very much the same as this year’s. Basic tuition will go up about 5%. Some extra expenses like show costs and airport transportation, etc, will also cost more. Any sales taxes which might be enacted by a broke New York State could also impact camp costs, though we are not aware of any such tax increases yet.

 

Sunday, August 15^th, 12:30 AM Update:

Top Longacres Riders Excel!

Horatio Wins High Derby!

Yes, Bethany won the 2010 Longacres High Derby class. But not on her 2009 Jumper Horse of the Year, Joc-A-Bee. And not on her equally promising younger jumper, “Holly Would”. No, she won the High Derby on a Longacres lesson horse with a big heart, Horatio! Ho-ho was awesome!

 

Carly was within a whisker of Bethany’s times, jumping beautifully on Zanee and Brody. She was third over-all on Zanee and 7^th on Brody. Ofelia put in a clean round on Whitley and was in the ribbons, and Emily was perfect on Bristol all the way around the course until the final line where she got too far out on the turn and messed up the final combination. Still an excellent ride on our newest horse.

 

Bethany had three out of her four horses in the jump-off, in addition to winning on Horatio. Jazz was a little nervous about all the Derby Day commotion, and had a refusal, but got around the high course. It was more than I could have hoped for back in May when we first bought the horse!

 

All in all, a really rewarding day to be running a riding camp.

 

The Derby class was very exciting and the Awards Party went off very, very well. It was worth all the long hours of work!

 

Saturday, Derby Day, 4PM Update:

Longacres Wins Two out of first Four Derbies!

Carly Wins on Brody!

Morven Wins on Ebony!

And everyone won ribbons with very good riding. Dunham Sport Horse stables won the other two Derbies and the big one is still to be run tonight. I am very proud of the riding the girls did today!

 

We have over 400 pictures already and I’ll post a few of them now at this link. Many more late tonight and tomorrow morning.

 

Derby Day, August 14th, 7AM Update:

The Big Day!

Good luck to all our riders for what will be one of the most challenging riding experiences of their lives for many of them. We’ve added extra classes this year to the lower heights which are usually almost all for our students (though open to outsiders), so most of our girls will win awards. Just to take part is a big thing.

 

We’ll be seeing a good number of families here today. For those of you too far away to make it, we’ll definitely have pictures to post late tonight at this link. Perhaps even by late afternoon if I get enough of a break before the high Derby in the evening.

 

The weather, which has looked changeable all week, appears to be cooperating, with only slight chance of evening showers before a bigger rain likelihood late tonight and tomorrow.

 

Well, I’m off to put the finishing touches on show arrangements. We both got some sleep last night, so we’re full of enthusiasm! So are the girls.

 

 

Friday, August 13^th, 9:30 PM Update:

We’re About Ready!

Congratulations to Meghan and all her crew who worked tirelessly the past two weeks setting up for the Derby! Check this link for a few pictures of the completed course. Thanks to Drisana who interned here for two weeks as Meghan’s special Derby show assistant, to Taylor who is amazing, to her brother Sayer who helped out with detailed painting, Joel, Micayla who returned several times just to help, and to all the counselors and some of the students who pitched in to help. I know I’m probably forgetting someone important, so thank YOU, too! And BIG thanks to the sponsors who pitched in extra money when we were a little short at the last minute with the party costs. We covered the budget, thanks to all of you! We hope everyone in this area comes by for the evening activities and party tomorrow night. All horse lovers in western New York are invited.

 

We had a final quiet ride on the big show field getting the feel of the finished course. Everyone jumped the bank with all the brush decorations, and the horses seemed very calm. I have a good feeling about tomorrow. We’ll be seeing a bunch of parents and friends of Longacres here tomorrow.

 

Welcome to Robyn Low, long time jumper rider at Longacres, who arrived today to visit for the Derby. She will help judge, and she will also help present the Quantum Leap Memorial Trophy to the winner of the Derby.

 

Friday, August 13^th, Noon Update:

We’re off to the mall and air conditioned, relaxed bliss in half an hour. Everyone got in two quiet conditioning rides this morning and there will be another calm late evening ride on the show horses tonight. We might watch video’s after that of yesterday’s training.

 

Meghan and I will drive everyone in to the mall, then turn right around and come back to work on the course all afternoon with a couple of the counselors and Drisana. We’re almost done, but there are still a ton of little odds and ends to take care of, including setting the final height of the jumps for tomorrow mornings Beginner Derby. Hope to have some pictures tonight.

 

Thursday, 10:30 PM:

Thanks to long time Longacres students Kellie & Kay Hunn and to Summer Series supporter Rebecca Muscarella for their Awards Party contributions today! We’re within $200 bucks of balancing the budget for the party now. Thanks to all who have contributed.

 

Meghan has been a pretty good girl lately about getting her rest. (Thanks to Peyton for scolding her long distance!) She is down right now arranging flowers and numbering the jumps in the dark. But she promises to be in bed by midnight. She made no promises about not getting up at dawn, but at least that’s six hours of sleep.

 

Team Longacres

We can now announce the four member Longacres Team that will represent us in the team competition in the high Derby. Bethany on Joc-A-Bee, Carly on Zanee, Emily on Bristol, and Ofelia on Whitley will be our entries in the High Derby and the Team event. All other riders have opted to show in the four lower height Derbies. Those are proper decisions based on the way the various horses and riders are doing together at this point. Bethany will have additional individual entries in the High Derby.

 

If we had one more week there are three or four other riders close to being ready for the high Derby, but not by Saturday. Most of the rest of the girls will be showing at least one horse, many two, in at least two different Derby classes.

 

Thursday, August 12^th, 9PM Update:

Feeling VERY Encouraged!

I just got back to the house from helping the girls practice tonight. Everyone has hugely improved since the beginning of the week! I really believe every rider now has a good chance of finishing the course with few, if any faults, and I didn’t believe that on Monday of this week. They have worked hard practicing.

 

Alexandra, Most Improved for August Session

I told Alexandra this evening after Derby practice that I consider her the most improved rider this session. She came to us with good basics, but very unsteady legs, still using her hands all over the place to keep her balance, and often getting left behind when jumping. She has hugely improved in all three areas and I expect her to do well in the Derby on Neek-o (Aren’t you proud, Sophie?). I told Alexandra that if someone posted a before video and an after video of her riding this session, I’d be proud to say that she was a Longacres student!

 

Brownie Looking Good with Anderson

Anderson is planning to show Brownie and Tux and has practiced well on both of them. Brownie LOVES Anderson because she is so small! He looked ten years younger jumping the Derby course tonight for her. I wouldn’t put it past him to go clean and maybe even win the beginner Derby, like he did for Peyton four years ago.

 

STSS Points:

Just found out a small mistake in points in Baby Hunter Division, thanks to the honesty of the Dunham Sport Horse crew. They have a horse named “Emma”, and another horse with the same name came to Skibbereen and got points which were wrongly added to Dunham’s Emma points, putting her in first place in Baby Hunter. That’s incorrect, and we think Meghan Fuller is actually in first. Far as we know, there are no other mistakes.

 

Thursday, August 12^th, 9AM Update:

Feeling Encouraged

I am, this morning after a pretty good practice last night. This Derby riding is very challenging and this session’s riders have been challenged to their limits to get around the course and do the double and triple combination jumps that are always part of the Derby. But they are starting to get it, and just in time. It is fun to watch them succeed!

 

Today will include more training, some of it over higher jumps for those thinking of the higher sections. We’ll have a final session tonight jumping about half the course for each rider over the height they’ll do in the Derby. Then Friday will be a very restful day with only light work for the horses showing Saturday and a trip to town for the girls to kick back and relax.

 

I will post some pictures at this link by lunch time. More new pictures from noon at this link.

 

 

PS: A parent wrote, “The website makes it clear that this has been a tiring, challenging year.” No, Martha – ALL years are like this. It’s just that I’ve been more frank and revealing in my Blog posts as I get older!

 

Wednesday, August 11^th, 10 PM Updarte:

Busy, busy, busy

I spent most of the night working with the girls as they all did a full ride through of the Derby course. I video taped them all and commented after they finished the course. And most of them did finish, with big improvements by many from the efforts we’ve been seeing the past few days. They are really beginning to get it!

 

Four or five girls went through the whole course without a knock down or a refusal, which is HUGE, considering that nobody had done it before Katie did this morning.

 

Bethany rode four horses over the course today, including her own horses Hoc and Jolly (camp names), and Jazz and Horatio. She was perfect without a fault with all four horses. I helped her refresh Joc-A-Bee and Holly on the water jump and they both jumped it with a little “encouragement” in practice jumps, then both did it easily when Bethany rode the full course. She will be riding her horses and one or two for me in the high Derby section.

 

We have a good handle on how high most of our riders will be jumping on Saturday, with many doing the lower two sections in the morning and early afternoon. Several are still being considered to do the high section in the evening, but that will depend on the final two practices tomorrow and early Friday. I will be asking the girls their opinions on what makes them feel comfortable and then will take into account what I’m comfortable with.

 

Meghan is out around town shopping for more silk flowers, for fresh materials for new flags for the castle, and other Derby stuff. Sorry you haven’t been getting as many pictures in our updates recently, but Meghan usually takes some every day and she is just totally occupied by preparations for the upcoming shows right now. I’ll post a few I took tonight at this link, and I’ll try to get pictures of everyone tomorrow morning.

 

Bummer!

I lost my glasses somewhere on the show field tonight while I was helping the girls train. I do lots of “senior moment” things, but losing my glasses is not normal for me. I do remember flicking my forehead with the lunge whip while I was helping to get a stubborn horse moving. I imagine I flicked my glasses off then and didn’t notice for a few minutes. It was almost dark, and I can’t find them. Hopefully tomorrow morning. Distressing. Don’t get old!

 

Wednesday, August 11^th, 4PM Update:

On Being Protective

Here’s a little tidbit for those of you who like the occasional little personal anecdotes in our Blogs. Meghan and I have quite different responsibilities around the farm (me, the Blog, and her almost everything else!), so we don’t see a lot of each other except at meals. But we are quite protective of one another in important ways.

 

For me, that translates most often into trying to get Meghan to rest more. My little success the other day at sabotaging her alarm clock is a good example. I wish I could succeed more often in making her get her rest.

 

For Meghan, protectionism often reflects her concern that as a senior citizen, I’ll hurt myself using farm machinery or one of my beloved chain saws. Today it was the saga of pre-emptive chain sawing. Our maintenance guy, Joel, has been on vacation for a few days and was due back tomorrow. I was getting concerned that we’re behind on putting the evergreen brush around all the jumps for the Derby, so I offered to cut down a few trees and cut them up for the girls to use around the jumps. Meghan had that look on her face when we talked, but she didn’t say anything.

 

So after lunch when I finished showing the girls some video I took this morning, I changed to my work clothes (another story), loaded my saw and head gear and a chain into the Kubota tractor, and headed around the corner to the neighbor’s wood lot. As I got closer, I could hear the sound of chain saws. “That’s odd,” I said to myself, “Who else would be cutting wood in the middle of a hot summer day?”

 

As I pulled off the road, there was Joel with his chain saw and Sayer helping him load brush in the truck. Meghan had called Joel back to work a day early and taken Sayer off jump painting detail so that he could help Joel. There was nothing for me to do! Joel understands how guys like to use their tools, so he didin’t object when I helped cut up one of the downed trees. Then I drove the tractor down to the barn and offered to cut some of the pine branches into smaller pieces to make the jump decorating easier for her. But there just wasn’t much to do.

 

Meghan laid low running errands during this whole episode. When I see her, I’ll act a little mad that she was so protective of me and so skeptical of my abilities with chain saws. But secretly, I think it is pretty cool that I could play with my saw for a little while and quit the minute I felt a little tired. I had fun and I have time to sit up here in the cool office writing this update. And Meghan will be pleased that she once again helped keep me from cutting off my leg during a chain saw session!

 

PS: The girls are doing fine, with a relaxed afternoon schedule. It is very warm and humid and some are sitting out an afternoon lesson and others taking a trail ride. A few are training hard in the heat anyway!

 

Wednesday, August 11^th, 1PM Update:

Katie V. First to Ride Derby Course Clean

Second year Longacres student, Katie V, rode Ebony around the Derby course in practice with no faults this morning. All our riders have tried the Derby course by now and most have done pretty well, but had either a refusal or a rail knocked down. Katie was the first to finish the course perfectly.

 

Only a half dozen or so of our girls did the big course or parts of it this morning. Everyone will after dinner when it is cooler. Some just happened to be assigned their show horses for an extra ride this morning when I was there watching.

 

Emily was doing a good job riding Bristol on the Derby course, and then her old favorite Boo. She was very good on most of the course with Boo, but she misjudged the striding on the final Road Line, and took a nasty tumble. She got right back on and finished the course, but she will have a nasty bruise. She’ll be checked out more after lunch by Meghan. It was a painful way to learn what I have been preaching all week – that on this type of very technical jumping course, you MUST know your striding and be able to shorten or lengthen your horse’s stride.

 

After the students rode this morning, I had Bethany working to train some of our more challenging horses. She rode Jazz and Horatio on the Derby course and finished with no faults on each of them. (I kidded Katie before her ride on Ebony that she had a chance to “rob” Bethany of the chance to be the first to go clean on the course. Good job for succeeding, Katie!)

 

Wednesday, August 11^th, 5AM Update:

Final 2010 Summer Series Points

Trophy Winners!

 

Congratulations to Jumper Horse of the Year

114 pts We Bit of Rust – Alyssa Willibey, Dunham Sport Horse Riding School & Camp

 

Reserve

67 pts Joc-A-Bee – Bethany Scarlata

 

Hunter Horse of the Year

 

124 pts For Pete’s Sake – Carsen Helmicki

 

Reserve

98 pts Chunky Monkey – Emma Walters

 

All other trophy winners are listed in this points file.

 

(Yes, we did get some sleep before getting up very early to make the final corrections to the 2010 Summer Series points.)

 

 

Tuesday, August 10^th, 11PM Update:

Still Working on Points

We are burning the midnight oil getting the horse show series points done. We will finish tonight and you’ll know who gets Season Championship Awards if you stay up late enough! Or just go to bed and find out tomorrow morning. Anyone with questions or who thinks we’ve made a mistake, be sure to get in touch with us by midnight, Wednesday night or forever hold your piece.

 

Here at Longacres we worked hard all day setting the jump course. Check this link for a few pictures. It’s beginning to look impressive! Three more days of decorating and fine tuning to go.

 

The girls rode well this morning, especially the younger girls who did the course for their first time. Anderson was great on Brownie!

 

Oddly, after good riding all day, most did not do so well tonight over a four fence line in the sand ring. Triple combinations are hard to get right, but there are a lot of them on the Derby Course, so this practice is vital. By the end of my evening lesson it was going better, but many girls are still not having enough control over the more difficult exercises. I was frank with the girls who needed to put in more effort. A few tears appeared, but everyone got better as the lesson went on and they were in good spirits as we walked around the show field and talked about the jump off course as it got dark. I’ll say this; the Erie County Fair show will seem like kid stuff after prepping for the Derby!

 

Tomorrow night is a full dress rehearsal riding the proper heights on the outside course. Then a light training session to sharpen up the horses over particular problem jumps on Thursday and a very quiet day resting the show horses on Friday. Then, “The Day” arrives on Saturday.

 

Tuesday, 4PM Update:

While Meghan sweats setting the jump course for the Derby in the hot afternoon, I’ve been working in the air conditioned office checking points for the full Summer Series Season. It turns out that ALL riders missed at least two shows or got no points in two shows, so the Rule “Best 8 of 10 shows” will not affect anyone this year. All points posted on the running totals each week are good and you current point totals stand. We will post final point standings by late tonight.

 

Tuesday, August 10^th, 3PM Update:

Awards Party Update:

Plans are moving forward smoothly for the Derby and the Summer Series Awards Party this Saturday the 14^th. The Awards party begins at 5PM, with the awards to be handed out at about 8:30 PM. We could still use one or two sponsors to cover all costs, but many have come forward and we’re within about 500 bucks of covering everything.

 

Point Totals

We are working on the points totals today and will be burning the midnight oil tonight to finish everything. Update on the Jumper championships – looks like Bethany is Schooling Jumper rider of the year on Joc, and Alyssa Willibey of Dunham Sport horse and Camps is Champion in Special Jumpers, just edging Bethany out in the final class.

 

All other Division Championships should be figured and posted by very late tonight. Remember that only your best 8 out of the 10 Summer Series shows counts in each division. Most of you missed two or more shows, but some of the point leaders went to all shows and will have to give up some points in their worst two shows. All will be figured tonight. After the Awards placings are posted tonight, anyone will have 24 hours to ask us to double check points in the final show, only.

 

Quite a few Longacres girls will be getting awards!

 

 

 

Tuesday, August 10^th, 1PM Update:

Although it’s hot out again, the day is going pretty well. The complete Derby course is now up with the fences in the final places. The less advanced group of riders, some of whom were crabby last night about doing a flat lesson, all got to be the first to jump the complete course today. They did pretty well, though nobody was able to finish the course without a fault. We’ll post the name of the first rider to do it in practice! (It’s probably killing Bethany that she’s home on her day off.)

 

Check this link for a few pictures from this morning.

 

Speaking about those crabby girls from last night, I had a serious talk with everyone at breakfast about all that they are doing, and the importance of not jumping fast, higher, faster every lesson so we still have some horses left to ride this weekend and in the fair next week. Attitudes are much better today thanks to the talk and also to a parent conference that we felt was necessary. Things are under control.

 

Tuesday, August 10^th, 8AM Update:

Guest Instructor

We welcome David Laks, a talented area show rider and the son of the owner of Quakerfield Stables, who is stopping by as a favor to give the girls some advice this morning. It will be a nice change of pace during a hectic week of hard training. Another successful area rider, Ashley Glica, may come and teach later in the week.

 

I am teaching groups of the girls myself every day now as we get close to the Derby. Last night I broke the group in half, teaching the girls likely to go in the highest event, and scheduling my lesson with the other half of the group for this morning. Not surprisingly, there was a little impatient grousing from some. That will have to be dealt with this morning.

 

One of the many challenges we face during the coming two weeks with two very tough horse show events is keeping the horses from getting sour and lame. The girls would be happy if we could just run fast, jump higher, and put each one of them on only their favorite horse every hour of the day. But we can’t. Even with 26 horses in our barn, we have to be careful. 90% of the girls understand this and are working with us positively. The other ten percent we’ll talk with this morning.

 

(Before I forget, Meghan has slept long hours two nights in a row! She had planned to be up working at 5AM this morning, but I vandalized her alarm clock!)

 

We have lots of helpers today to set the final Derby course. Tomorrow we’ll be dedicating to decorations and brush. Nearly everything will be done by Friday night.

 

One more tidbit – it’s nice to have Emily & Laura around! Yeah for all the usual reasons, but also the bonus that they are tall, strong girls. I bought a used table saw for the shop yesterday and it is HEAVY. I brought it home in the back of the truck and was not even sure how I would stand it up so I could slide it off into the tractor bucket. I couldn’t lift even one corner more than an inch or so. Just to see if we could budge it, I asked Laura and Emily for help. I took one corner and Laura the other with Emily holding the bottom in place. It barely moved and we put it down. Then Emily said, “Here, Tom, let me reach in and help you on your corner.” And Laura kind of stretched a little and readjusted the grip with her crew muscles and suddenly, up it came! Amazing! That’s what rowing crew for Laura and throwing hay bales around does. Makes teenage girls stronger than senior citizens, I’ll tell you that!

 

More later.

 

Monday, August 9^th, 6AM Update:

A Restful Day

Well, for most of us! I’ll try to keep Meghan in bed resting as long as I can. She finally fell asleep about midnight last night after confirming arrangements for Elsa to get to the airport today. (We’re really going to miss you, Elsa!!) Meghan had been up for 49 hours since Friday night with 2 hours sleep early Sunday morning. I have been doing extra duty cheerfully spending time with the girls while getting my full ration of sleep.

 

The girls are sleeping in until 10 this morning, then doing a late horsecare. We’ll watch some of the horse show video, then have a regular riding schedule after lunch, then watch the rest of the horse show videos before bedtime tonight. The CIT’s under Laura will be practicing barn management and teaching tomorrow, possibly with a guest instructor. Meghan, her full crew of extra help, and Carly & Alexa will be setting the jumps for the Derby in their final positions tomorrow with lots of careful measurements. The rest of the week we’ll be decorating the jumps with flags, brush, and much more. The course will be awesome by Friday!

 

It sounds like a good turnout for the Derby. Meghan Fuller was at the show yesterday, and plans to bring two horses. She won one of the Derbies two years ago and was in the jump-off before falling last year. Very competitive! The Donan family was also at the show and they are trying to shift their schedule to make it to the Derby. Twelve year old Ingrid Donan was blazing fast on Special Jumper horse of the year 2009, Spicy, at yesterday’s show! Bethany was blistering fast herself in the first schooling jumper class on Joc-A-Bee and I told her, “No one will beat that time – I’ll bow down to anyone who does.” Well, Ingrid did beat us by one second, and true to my word, I bowed to her in the middle of the practice ring! The Dunham Farm, with Jumer Rider of the Year, Alyssa Willibey and her partner, Courtney and two other riders plan to have a full team for the Derby. It should be very exciting!

 

Our girls did well at the show. Bethany was battling for the Championships in the two higher jumper divisions, and we THINK she ended up as Champion in both Schooling and Special jumper divisions, edging Alyssa Willibey by one or two points. We have to triple check this morning. The judging got a little mixed up after a long day of showing, and we have to confirm some scores. There were FAST horses and riders besides Bethany at the show!

 

Carly was again excellent on Zanee and she is absolutely ready to be competitive in our own high Derby next Saturday. Pretty much I viewed yesterday’s show as a progress report on how our girls are responding to the very tough training of the past week. Carly passes with flying colors!

 

Laura looked strong on Jazz, making a few mistakes but showing good confidence and awareness of what she needs to improve. Good showing. Ofelia is hoping Whitley gets sound soon so she can show him in the Derby, but she did a solid job on Brody as a backup. Smooth, no mistakes. Just needed to sharpen up a few corner turns, etc. Ofelia is riding VERY well, and I’m nitpicking with her to make her even better.

 

Elsa and Alexandra both did jumper classes for the first time and both really had a good time (Elsa on Boo and Alexandra on Neek-o). Alexandra looked much stronger on Neek-o than the past few days and I loved her progress and the guts she showed.

 

Katie and Ebony put in multiple very good rounds, after having problems the past week with expecting pefection and not being satisfied with only very good. I liked her progress.

 

Tux was naughty for Anderson, but she had good rounds on Brownie and was feeling cheerful (and then some!) at dinner.

 

Kellie is riding very strong and looks ready for the Derby right now. Looking tougher than ever on Tux and Ebony!

 

Morven is transitioning from Zanee to Ebony as a regular show ride and was wonderful on Ebony – she really clicks with this mare. Good job, Morven!

 

Laura won flat classes on Bristol; Michelle also rode Bristol to 2^nd in a big flat class in the outdoor ring. Michelle was also very good on Merlin, though she needs to push him a little more sometimes.

 

Petra struggled on her own sometimes temperamental horse, Poker, but put in several good, quiet rounds and showed good improvement during the day.

Staci was great on Ginger, though she did have one sliding fall, which will give us great entertainment on video in slow motion later today!

 

I’ll have some pictures posted at this link later this morning. Only about 450 to choose from!

 

Saturday, August 7^th, 11PM Update:

Crunch Time – A Lot of Balls in the Air

Just so you guys at home know -

The last two weeks of the regular camp season are stressful for Meghan every year. She has more than a few important things on her “to do” list! It’s quite a juggling act.

 

1) The horse show season ends this weekend and we are responsible for the Awards Party next week and figuring and double and triple checking the points from TEN horse shows this summer. Although we tabulate points every week, a number of riders call in at this time of year and question their point totals or someone else’s. It is time consuming to make sure everything is right and to arrange for all the big awards for next week.

 

2) We put together the Awards party arranging the catering, the band, video, and everything else. Much of it is done by now, but a lot still to double check this week.

 

3) We are setting up for a major equestrian event next Saturday here at Longacres. The Annual Derby is lavishly set up and decorated. Meghan is working with a crew of four most days with other part time help to get this done.

 

4) Meghan has ten horses scheduled to leave Longacres in three weeks to spend the winter with Longacres students. We are in the middle of horse vanning arrangements, special vet visits for shots and health certificates that are different for every destination, finalizing what horse goes to which student, or if someone may change their mind entirely, reassuring uncertain parents or soothing bruised ego’s and answering a hundred questions by phone or by email – we are behind on some of this! (Another ten horses go out locally, and three of them still have no home, so we’re answering ads and canvassing local stables to see who might want Diesel, Justin, or Horatio.)

 

5) Between now (11PM) and 7AM tomorrow morning, the horse show newsletter has to be finished, a written schedule printed out of the horse show day job assignments, several crucial parent emails answered, a shopping trip to town for supplies and breakfast donuts made, and - - oh, I forget what else Meghan told me, but you get the idea!

 

6) Two days after next Saturday’s Derby here at Longacres, we pack up and go to the Erie County Fair three day horse show. We have entries to fill out, stalls to reserve, more vet checks to complete, class assignments for 13 riders to complete, VIP parking and RV parking to reserve, and more.

 

7) Oh, yeah, we have a riding camp to run every day, same as all summer long.

 

The above gives you an idea why Meghan plans to work until 1AM this morning, go to bed, and get up at 4AM to do two more hours of office work before beginning the horse show day at 6AM. This is against my advice. I feel that sometimes it is OK not to finish everything on your “to do list”. But Meghan is not a force to be trifled with once she has planned her work schedule or decided she’s obligated to finish a job.

 

So, if you are one of the items not yet crossed off Meghan’s August 7^th “to do” list, try to cut her some slack. It’s not for lack of effort that some of the balls are still being juggled and haven’t been caught and put in their final resting places!

 

Saturday, August 7^th, 10PM Update:

I’d like to be able to report that everyone got to bed early the night before the show, but I think many are still taking showers. Meghan did get the horse show stuff loaded and pushed the girls all out of the barn pretty early. Counselors are doing their best to get everyone rested tonight.

 

It is an odd weekend. Horse shows in our area are almost always on Saturday, then we give the horses Sunday off and have our town day. This weekend with the show on Sunday we had to change things around. The girls rode this morning, then we rested the horses in the afternoon and had our weekly town day and laundry trip, then a dinner out at Appleby’s for the cook’s night off. Tomorrow is the show, then we’ll let the girls and the horses sleep in Monday morning for the second half of their weekly “day off”. Then back to a full lesson and training schedule Monday after lunch.

 

Lots of merriment at dinner tonight! I am impressed with the riders resilience. We are giving them very demanding exercises this week and I’m spending a lot of time with them myself. Few are getting everything right, and there are discouraging moments. Yet we’re giving positive feedback whenever there is even a small success, and the morale seems very high. I am proud of the spunk they are showing, doing much more difficult riding than usual getting ready for the Derby next week.

 

No updates until late tomorrow evening after the horse show. Wish us luck. Several Season Championships will be decided by just a few points at tomorrow’s show, then the awards given out after the Derby next week.

 

Saturday, August 7^th, 1PM Update:

Check this link for a clip of Alexandra jumping. I think we missed her yesterday.

 

Everyone got to ride the full Derby course this morning, with varying degrees of success. This is HARD! By the end of the week, most will be getting around the course, but they will have tough competition in the show next Saturday. It is something they will remember a long time.

 

Saturday, August 7^th, 9AM Update:

The horse show tomorrow morning is at Skibbereen Farm, address below:

Skibbereen Farm

 

5142 Bussendorfer Road, Orchard Park, NY 14127-4315

(716) 648-1908

skibbereenfarm.com

 

Weather report is pretty good – 20% chance of rain later in the day. Pleasant temperatures.

 

Friday, August 6^th, 11PM Update:

Great Smores Party!

Thanks to Anderson’s mom for sending a whole package of glow sticks in a care package for Anderson. The glow sticks were the hit of the camp fire and smores party tonight! Most of the girls wore them like necklasses, but you will recognize Bethany in the video’s since she wore hers like a garland around her head. After the campfire, the girls discovered that the glow sticks could also be used as a hula hoop, sort of! With unpredictable results! Anyway, a big thank you for the glow sticks. Check this link for a video of the camp fire and roasting marshmallows for the smores. Click this link for playing with the glow sticks.

 

Friday, August 6^th, 8:57 PM Update:

After a very challenging day of riding and hard training, the girls were in excellent spirits at dinner! Loud joking and laughter all around. It carried over to evening ride with more training on extension and collection, then a relaxing ride on the big show field where the girls quizzed each other on the Derby jump course which Meghan has pretty well in place.

 

Now (8:59 PM), Meghan and I are scooting into town to pick up a few extra chocolate bars and marshmallows for a camp fire and smores party when evening horse care is done in half an hour.

 

I’ve had a couple of talks with Elsa today about the good job she’s done with her riding here during just 9 days of her 11 day special. Elsa is quiet, but we’ve really enjoyed having her and helping her with riding. She took 11 days of Emily’s second session spot while Emily went on a family trip. Elsa made it possible for Emily to come the rest of the summer. We’re putting Elsa on some of the biggest and most challenging horses during her final two days here. She’s done that good a job! We’ll miss you when you go home Monday, Elsa!

 

Friday, August 6^th, 4PM Update:

A Very Busy Day!

Meghan has her crew and some extra help moving jumps all day long, including multiple truck loads to move just the Castle across the field. By tonight most of the jumps will be in about the right spot and the girls can visualize the final course. We’ll be cleaning and painting jumps over the weekend before and after this week’s show. Then on Tuesday we’ll measure everything to perfection and set the final course. Wednesday and Thursday will be full time decorating the course with all the flowers, tons of fresh cut evergreen brush, and much more, including all the red & white flags on every jump. Friday will be our final dress rehearsals for the horses. (We’ll be practicing little bits of the course all week as it is set up.)

 

I taught all morning, mostly the exercise I described in this morning’s update. It was as I expected. Our most experienced riders did well; many more need a lot of work to get the feeling of how much to push a horse to extend his stride, and how to check back to shorten and then stop when you need to. Many of our first year students come to us with only basic to intermediate lessons where they have not been pushed to advanced extension and collection exercises. They almost all have very good position and basics. But need more “umphh”. They will certainly need more to get around the hard Derby course. That’s our job One for the coming week.

 

We did practice the Pulverman Jump this morning, including a whole series of four jumps in a row in a bending line. Most of the girls got through that ok. We’ll be doing it much more over the next few days.

 

I have a nice album of fresh pictures at this link, including trail pics from an hour ago and some in the rings. Kellie was riding very well on Merlin, so I asked her, “How high should I set the jumps for your final try?” She joked, “Top of the standard.” And I took her up on it. I think she thought I was joking at first when I set the top rail, but she trusted me and she trusted Merlin. He soared over the big jump! See the picture! She tried it again to see if she could make it prettier, but as you’ll see in the next pic, she let Merlin chip in two strides and he got too close to make it. She stayed with him, though.

 

AND – TADA – below are links to short video clips of many of the girls jumping a short exercise.

 

Michelle

 

Drisana

 

Morven

 

Carly

 

Laura

 

Michelle 2

 

Staci

 

Anderson

 

Ofelia2

 

Kellie

 

Michelle 3

 

Anderson 2

 

Elsa

 

THANKS to Micayla who has offered to come up and join Drisana getting ready for the Derby – we’ll see you in a few days, Micayla!

 

 

 

Friday, August 6^th, 10AM Update:

Galloping & Such

This morning’s special “Tom exercise” is going to include galloping. One of the big problems for many of our riders when they try to do a very difficult event like the Jumper Derby is that they often are not aggressive enough. They have spent so much time as riders working on their position and form that they have not developed strong enough “Yahoooooo!” instincts to use when the challenge is high. They will need those skills on August 14^th!

 

This morning we’ll be doing an exercise in which they will canter down one side of the ring as slowly as possible without breaking to a trot. I will time them with a stop watch. Then they’ll gallop up the same distance the other way as fast as they can. The object is to have the greatest possible difference in time between your slow canter and your gallop. We’ll see how everyone fares!

 

Hard to Reach Us This Session?

I’ll bet! We are usually pretty good about returning phone calls and emails, but Meghan gets swamped at this time of year with winter horse home arrangements, Derby set up, Erie County Fair preparations, and so much more. If we do not get back to you after an email message or phone message in 12 hours, please call again or email again. We are doing our best during a very stressful time of our season! Honest! Keep calling!

 

Thursday, August 5^th, 11PM Update:

More Sponsors!

Many thanks to Morven and her parents, Fiona & Andrew for becoming another sponsor of the Awards party next week. We’ve had a great response to our posting on the Awards party budget. The donations are a big help, but please don’t feel obligated. This is a very optional “extra”! We will make an announcement when the awards are given out thanking all the extended Longacres family for their help on a big night.

 

Thursday, August 5^th, 4PM Update:

A Special Tribute

“True Grit” & Other Stuff

 

Thanks to our Great 2010 Staff

We have been fortunate in 2010 to have an excellent staff. A fine group of young women has contributed to a good season, each providing us with different strengths and abilities. Thanks are due to Shelly who opened the barn back in May and June; to Katie who served as a transition between those early weeks and the regular camp season; and now to the “ABCD’s” – Alexa, Bethany, Carly, and Drisana this month. These young but very talented riders have given their all and worked well together. We’ve needed every one of them for the season to go as well as it has. Thanks to all of you.

 

A Fine Rider

This article is about one of our fine instructors in particular, a girl who has shown great skill and courage as a rider, while doing a fine job at the “other stuff” involved in being a counselor at Longacres. I’ve known Bethany for several years as a competitor on the western New York show circuit where we often were at the same horse shows, competing in the same events. Sometimes Bethany would win, sometimes we would. I noticed the first time I saw her ride that she had great talent as a rider. And I learned quickly that she had a strong sense of good sportsmanship. I think that meant even more to me than her talent as a competitor. There was always mutual respect between Bethany and our Longacres team. We would trade good natured trash talk sometimes at shows, but we were always pleased for each other’s successes.

 

Last winter I recruited Bethany as a riding counselor for our 2010 staff. As long time Longacres rider, Michelle, wrote at the time, that’s great, but Bethany is already almost a part of our Longacres family. She spent so much time talking with our girls at shows, taking part in their online networking, and several times visiting Longacres just for fun in past years, that it was a smooth transition when she finally joined our staff this summer.

 

True Grit

But not all was destined to be smooth sailing for Bethany in the summer of 2010. Friends of Longacres and Blog readers know that Bethany was Quantum’s regular show rider this summer, and that she was riding him when he broke his leg early in July. Here’s a detail not many have heard.

 

Quantum had been rested for two weeks before his accident because of a couple of minor cuts and a bruise that kept him from showing. He was feeling VERY frisky the night before the July 3^rd show, and was giving Bethany a handful to keep him under control. He had already thrown a few BIG Quantum “leaps”, and suddenly in the sand ring, he tossed Bethany big time. She landed hard, with sand ground into her elbow. She hopped right back on the horse and started talking with me about what most likely set him off. We agreed that taking her spurs off couldn’t hurt, and here’s the detail that I remember well: about 100 seconds after taking a really hard fall from a feisty horse, there was Bethany, sitting with one leg draped across the front of the saddle and the reins under one elbow casually taking off her spurs while talking with me. One of our moms, Sharon, happened to have witnessed the fall and had walked over to see if Bethany was OK. Sharon was incredulous when she saw how casually Bethany was sitting there right after the fall! (Bethany is not nuts – the fall came about from a moving and excited horse, and Q was always dead quiet when standing and having tack adjustments – she was not being irresponsible!)

 

The next morning Quantum started the day in great form, but as we all know, this day would be the end of his career. After he broke his leg, Bethany fell under him and was trampled a bit as he came to a stop on three legs. Bethany was taken away by ambulance for checkup. Thankfully with no major injuries. There was doubt amoung Bethany’s family, friends, and us whether she would be able to return to Longacres at all this summer after such a terrible accident. Bethany was back at work teaching our girls riding in 48 hours. I’m sure I’ll embarrass her by writing it, but “That’s true grit in my book.”

 

The “Other Stuff”

I’ve known for years that Bethany was a fine rider and a tough competitor. And I’ve know for a long time that her horse show conduct exemplifies good sportsmanship. It was a no brainer that she had a lot to offer at Longacres.

 

Like Tovah Abrams, Bethany is also a patient and dedicated trainer of problem and young horses. Go back and see the July 8^th Blog entry about her session with Whitley if you’re interested.

 

But there’s a lot more to being a good counselor at a riding camp than being a talented and brave rider. Meghan and I have been pleased that this girl has done so well taking responsibility herself, as well as fitting in and getting along with the other two in the “ABC” counselor trio. Like Alexa and Carly, Bethany has worked herself to the limit and been cheerful and enthusiastic about all aspects of camp life, from supervising laundry day to helping clean up after dinner. And she’s done it consistently over time as the summer has gone from one session to the next to the next. We value Alexa, Carly, and Bethany equally as counselors and members of the 2010 Longacres staff team. The three of them together are much more than the sum of each individual.

 

Not for any one reason – certainly not just because she is a fine rider – but for the sum total of what I’ve just written, I am proud to announce that Bethany Scarlata is the first person to be formally designated “Longacres Number One Rider” in several years.

 

It’s a designation I make with great care and only after time has gone by to show my deep respect for an especially fine rider with an outstanding attitude. Bethany joins names like Julie Murray, Sarah Helmstadter, Sarah Pistone, Meg Duthie, and Tovah Abrams who were also #1 Riders while they were here. We’ve also honored riders like Jenn Levy and Robin Low at the end of their Longacres careers with the title.

 

I will admit that when I first started recruiting Bethany last winter the thought crossed my mind that she was #1 Rider material. But that honor is not one given quickly and easily. It’s a title earned over time.

 

It is now well earned. I know Bethany will be the first to join me in saying that she couldn’t be who she is at Longacres without the other members of the “ABC” (and D!) team who work so hard together and with such enthusiasm to make Longacres what it is! Alexa, Carly, and Bethany, “thak you from Longacres”!

 

Thursday, August 5^th, 7AM Update:

Not Enough Rain

Heavy rain showers and thunderstorms came down on much of western New York early this morning, but not here at Longacres. The bubble of Lake Shadow that so often protects us from heavy summer rains was in place and we got just light showers. I wish we’d had a good soaking for the sake of our turf and vegetation. But at least what we did get will help green up our grass a little and keep the dust down today. There’s a slight chance of a passing thunderstorm late today, so I’ll keep my fingers crossed for more of the rain that we now need.

 

We’ll be doing some serious training for the Jumper Derby later this morning, riding short lines and combination jumps. The challenge is for the riders of the smaller horses to decide whether they need to ride one and two stride combinations in the “big horse striding”, or to add a stride for their smaller horse or pony. That’s the hardest thing about the Derby for many students at Longacres. We’ll get a handle on the problem today with most girls riding the horses they will show in the Derby

 

Wednesday, midnight Update:

Thanks

To Ofelia and her mom, Martha, joining Uncle Billy, and Katie & Molly as sponsors of the Awards party (along with previous Awards Party sponsors Tim Nunn, Frank Schlossin, and Kathy Johengen) – and all the sponsors of the individual show divisions Awards! The total cost of the Summer Series Awards, the Awards party, and the Derby Day events is almost $10,000 and we’re still about $1000 short of balancing the budget, depending on how much Derby entry fee money comes in. But, hey, it is one heck of a party and it’s worth what it costs! Be there August 14^th!

 

Wednesday, August 4^th, 10PM Update:

Georgia Jumps Big

One of my disappointments for the 2010 season is that more riders didn’t take advantage of the very talented warm blood mare we had here as a sale horse. “Georgia” is owned by one of our partner stables in the Summer Show Series, and they sent her here for the summer because she had a foal and was having separation issues. A new environment would likely help her. I liked her from the time she came to Longacres. But as it happened, she bucked one of our early season staff off while she was settling in here the first day she was ridden. Because of that, many people were afraid of her. She does look at stuff, and sometimes tries to avoid going near strange looking chairs, bushes, clouds, what have you! She has hopped around and done some small time rearing, which keeps her scary reputation intact. But she never again bucked after dumping that first day rider. Bethany rides her regularly, and Katie and Ofelia from this session have both been on her. But nobody besides Bethany has really been comfortable on her or asked to ride her. Meghan decided yesterday that this would be her last day at Longacres. We just can’t use her enough to justify the stall space.

 

Bethany and I looked at each other after dinner when people were talking about Georgia leaving tomorrow. We both knew we had to give her a farewell jumping session. Visit this link for an HD video of Georgia’s last jump at Longacres. The horse is for sale, so call us if you don’t mind a project horse. She knows how to jump just fine! It’s the settling down and trusting her environment that needs work.

 

Also check this link for a couple of pictures taken at lunch today.

 

Wednesday, August 4^th, noon update:

Thanks to New Awards party Sponsors!!

Many thanks to Uncle Billy from Buffalo, and to Katie and her mom Molly from New Jersey, for the upper level sponsorship pledges for the big Awards party on August 14^th. It really helps!

 

Check this link for pictures of our fun pairs and triple jumping exercises this morning. We’re going to be doing lots of challenging things in training for the Derby the next week and a half. This is just one of them. The girls were supposed to yell out a word or phrase as they did the jump to lighten things up. Some forgot – some used things like “velociraptor”!

 

We also worked with one group on jumping the big bank jump out on the field this morning. It is difficult and there were tears from one rider. Glad to report she seemed well recovered in the next lesson, but we are going to be doing some hard things over the next two weeks, and there will be disappointments. The Jumper Derby course will be attempted by everyone here on the 14^th, from ten year old Anderson on up to include all the instructors. It may well be the longest and most challenging jump course most of them will do their whole lives, unless they return to Longacres and do it higher another year. Not all will complete the course perfectly. We’re doing our best to give good preparation, and the girls will be jumping different heights in the Derby depending on their horse and their own experience.

 

Although we’re trying to keep the Derby training fun and rewarding, we are pushing to have the exercises done right. That’s why I expect more tears during the next week. Good – shows there is desire to get it right!

 

Check this link for a nice video of one of our best horse & rider combinations, Ofelia on Whitley at last week’s show here at Longacres. The video is available in HD if you have a good computer monitor.

 

Tuesday, August 3^rd, 7PM Update:

Meghan feels badly for not getting routine daily pictures today. She is all wrapped up in preparations for the big shows coming in the next three weeks. I may head down to the barn myself in a few minutes and snap some quick pictures for this link.

 

Drisana Arrived!

She is safe and sound here at Longacres after a two stage flight from Virginia. Meghan is really glad to have her here helping with the show preparations! Really glad!

 

Expensive Awards Party & Derby

We just finished putting together the budget for Derby Day, including the big Jumper Derby event and the South Towns Summer Show Series Season Championship awards. Depending on how you allocate the expenses and the various sponsorships and donations we’ve already received, we’re about $2400 short of breaking even. The Awards party and Derby usually run in the red a bit, and we’re glad to make up the difference. But if anyone out there planning to take part is interested in adding your name to the Awards party Patron List, give Meghan a call or send a check. If I remember correctly, it’s $50 to be a Silver Level Sponsor; $100 to be a Gold Level and $150 to be a Platinum level Sponsor of the Awards party. Part of the budget for the Awards Party comes from the $3 per horse Series fee paid at all the horse shows. Entries were a little lower this year at all shows in the series than last season, which accounts for about $1000 difference in the cash on hand for the expenses.

 

Tuesday, August 3^rd, 11AM Update:

A Good Day – and “Flailing”

In fact, we’ve had a pretty good start to this week the past few days. Just a couple of people showing signs of wearing out the other day got to me and were the catalyst for my write-up on exhaustion yesterday morning. I’m a pretty positive person usually, but I do have my moments of doubt. I lay awake most of the night Sunday night fretting about the glass being half empty and every little challenge facing us for the rest of the summer kept popping into my sleepless mind. That’s what set me up for my 6AM write-up on this Blog yesterday morning. Turned out I slept most of the afternoon and through dinner yesterday to make up for it, and I felt much better then. Thanks to Meghan for watching over everything while I was out of commission briefly.

 

But things are really going very well. The CIT’s are in charge today, running the camp in every way with the counselors and Meghan & I here as backup and to watch over them. They are doing GREAT! I asked Staci at breakfast how the CIT’s were doing, and she said on a 1 to 10 scale, they are a 10. They finished morning horsecare 15 minutes early with Winky in charge! That’s great teamwork! Alexa and Carly are riding every hour today as “campers”! Bethany is on her day off.

 

I stopped in at breakfast to see how spirits were holding up on what promises to be a very hot day. I could hear giggling and shouts 50 feet before I got to the dining room door. Check this video link. It shows Petra (why am I not surprised it was Petra doing the demonstration?) and some of the other girls demonstrating their versions of “flailing”. “What?”, you ask.

 

Well, it turns out that Alexa’s new college room mate put down “flailing uncontrollably” as one of her interests on her profile. When the girls heard that, they took off with it, coming up with all sorts of ideas of what “flailing” entails. The video shows Petra and the other Longacres girls in very good spirits at breakfast this morning! We told the girls at breakfast that they are welcome to sit out a lesson when it’s very hot this afternoon if they feel tired. Some might.

 

I stopped down at the barn a short while ago and took part in the end of the lessons being taught by Winky, Ofelia, and Laura. They are doing a fine job and showing the promise we expected they would all have as future Longacres instructors and counselors. We’re getting all the girls out onto the big show field for a part of their lessons this week as preparation for the August 14^th Derby.

 

We are really starting to get excited about the Longacres Jumper Derby coming up in less than two weeks now. Check it out at the link at the top of this page. And if you happen to be in the area or are considering a trip to visit this month, try not to miss the big party and Awards ceremony on Derby night! We have the bagpipe band reserved, and it is quite an event!

 

Quantum Memorial Basket of Goodies

The winner of this year’s Jumper Derby will be awarded a special “Quanum Memorial Trophy”, sponsored in part by donations from some of you. (Thank you!) The winner will also get a small basket of horse and riding related “goodies” donated in the memory of Quantum. We had an interesting donation come in today from one of our friends who is also in the high end Riding Camp business. Arno is the owner of International Riding Camp and we talk to him now and then. He has donated a ride on the beach for two at Windsor Estates in Florida next winter, where he runs the equestrian and Polo program. You guys should worry about us hanging out with Arno too much. His camp, IRC, is the most expensive riding camp in the country, which is a part of his promotional appeal. But he constantly urges us to raise our tuition closer to what he charges!

 

2011

(We plan only a minor direct tuition increase next year. The greater threat to increased 2011 camp costs might come from nearly bankrupt New York State imposing new taxes that could impact camp fees which are currently not subject to Sales Tax. Longacres will also be billing some extra fees next year, such as a fee for trips to the medical center that are incurred only by a few people, and an increased fee for meeting unaccompanied minors at the airport, which is much more time consuming now than it once was. Most increases next year will reflect our efforts to offer the best possible customer service, but billing extra for special expenses that apply only to a few people.)

 

Might as well mention here that we will be accepting reservations for 2011 sessions beginning in less than four weeks on September 1^st. We expect a high rate of return especially for the July two week sessions which might fill very early this year. As usual, June sessions, and August month long sessions are likely to fill later.

 

The rest of my day includes more checking on the CIT’s running lessons today, watering the flowers by the entrances since it is getting dry, and fixing my big tractor lawn mower, which lost a mower spindle bearing yesterday, fortunately right after I finished mowing all the trails on the farm.

 

Monday, August 2^nd, 4PM Update:

Here’s EXACTLY What I needed to hear this afternoon!

exuberance at its finest ;)

Monday, August 2, 2010 4:12 PM

 

 

From: Emily

 

 

To: camplongacres@yahoo.com

 

I CANNOT WAIT UNTIL CAMP!!!

 

And thank you for your words of kindness on the website :) I will indeed do everything in my power to "invigorate" you all! I’ve never been this excited for anything else. Can these next few days please just go faster?

See you soon!!! 5 days :D

Em

 

Monday, August 2^nd, 6AM Update:

Elsa & Anderson Pics

- - Fighting Exhaustion, etc

First, check this link for a bunch of pictures of Elsa and Anderson at the show on Saturday. When I picked out the best of the pictures for yesterday’s album, I didn’t have the pictures from Meghan’s camera and did not notice that I had none of those two girls. This album is all of them, and a few of Laura on two of her horses that didn’t make it into yesterday’s album either.

 

Gettin’ Tired!

My other comments today concern our efforts to fight exhaustion during the final three weeks of the season. Longacres is a unique place in the horse world. Few (like maybe none!) summer camps or summer riding schools attempt to offer five hours a day of riding and horse shows every week for everyone. There is good reason for that – it is an exhausting effort for our students, for our staff, and for us personally. But that’s why we are a one of a kind place, and a place much loved by the right kind of horse lover. We give it our best shot, and we sleep a lot of hours when it’s all over.

 

Meghan and I are adults and we choose to put ourselves through this ringer every summer, knowing full well ahead of time the sacrifices we have to make. It’s harder for our often young staff, who when they decide to come here think more about all the great horses and the shows and the fun, than about the grinding long hours of work. It is a brutal schedule, even for the girls we have working this summer, all of whom have outstanding work ethic and dedication to Longacres.

 

My very first talk with the whole group this session was about the exhaustion issue. I told everyone about all the great special events this month and all the fun ahead of them. Then I told them how much we worry about wearing out our riders and our horses during a session that not only includes all our usual daily riding, but two GIANT special events, the Longacres Jumper Derby, and the three day Erie County Fair horse show. I told them we would have to work together to get enough rest and not wear out ourselves or the horses.

 

With four brand new horses purchased this year by Meghan, lots of private horses in the barn, and several more here leased or on training, we have a solid string of horses and we’re rotating them enough so that they are holding up well. It’s more people exhaustion that we worry about this session, since the staff have been here most of the summer now. We do more than you folks at home probably know monitoring the energy level of our counselors. Just last Tuesday night at the end of our mid-term break, I scolded Bethany, (Meghan!), and Carly for being up past curfew laughing and having a good time in the barn together. After all the rest time we had carefully scheduled over break, I was disappointed that Meghan and the girls weren’t in bed conserving energy. But they felt good and were having a great time together. I felt badly putting a damper on their good spirits, but I was trying to look at the big picture.

 

Yesterday when we came home from Pasquale’s dinner after the horse show, we took the students to the house for our traditional Saturday videos of the show, but I sent the counselors straight to bed to give them extra rest. This week we’re beginning to assign extra sleep in mornings for staff. Bethany was scheduled to be our first this morning.

 

We’ve also called in reinforcements. I’m pleased to announce that Drisana returns tomorrow for two weeks as an extra Junior Counselor and intern with Meghan preparing for the Derby horse show. Drisana was the first of this year’s older students to inquire seriously about a counselor job next summer. We’ve put together a special two week session for her to try it out this summer and see how she likes it. We have high hopes for Drisana as a future counselor after having her here for two summers as a wonderful student. You’re coming at the right time to give us a boost, Drisana! Another fine student from earlier this summer, Micayla, is returning for a couple of days as an extra helper right before the Derby show. Micayla is also a fine prospect as a future counselor. We also have a couple of fine young local riders interested in stopping over to help teach some guest lessons this session. Don’t be surprised if you read the unfamiliar names Ashley and David mentioned as teaching guest lessons.

 

Our real ace in the hole this session is our depth at the CIT (counselor in training) position. Laura, Ofelia, and Michelle/Winky have something like 16 years of experience at Longacres between the three of them! In a pinch they could run the camp by themselves, and I actually plan to let them do just that for a day later this week! Just as the regular counselors are starting to get tired with the challenge of the big shows coming up this month, the CIT’s and guest instructors will start to pick up some of the load.

 

The Emily Factor!

YES! CIT Emily arrives in just another week after a trip abroad, and the timing of her arrival couldn’t be better. She is an exuberant girl, and she’ll be coming in just before the Derby and I am sure she’ll do a lot to invigorate all of us who have been working all session!

 

I hope I haven’t scared you regular Blog readers with this frank discussion of the problem of exhaustion. As I wrote at the beginning of this update, Longacres is truly a one of a kind place, and for good reasons. It’s a monumental undertaking for a small family business. It’s only possible because our “extended family” includes all of our students and staff and all of you at home pitching in to help. We want you to know that we have plans in place to keep our heads above water through the end of the season, and we hope you have faith in our judgement.

 

Best,

 

Tom

 

 

Sunday, August 1^st, 9AM Update:

We’re Still here!

Sorry for no update yesterday – it was a long day with a great show, dinner out at Pasquale’s with good friends, a video watching session, looking at the best of over 400 pictures we took at the show, and then falling into bed exhausted. We’ll be posting some of the best of all those pictures at this link later today. The girls are having a well earned rest this morning, a late horse care, and then town day with their phones sometime after lunch.

 

More later. (Our girls won lots of ribbons and Championships. Bethany entered the highest 6 jumper classes and won four of them, going off course in the other two. Joc-A-Bee was a perfect 3 for 3 in the Schooling Jumper division.)

 

Friday, July 30^th, 9PM Update:

Sorry for no updates earlier today. We work none stop pretty much the day before a horse show and there wasn’t time to take pictures of the girls riding. I did work with several of the riders during the day, showing jumper video to Bethany and Carly, and working with Katie and “Georgia” in the evening between horse show setup jobs. Meghan did nothing but horse show work, though she did pick up cookie cakes for each cabin to have a bunk party for good luck the night before the show.

 

Check this link. I did take a few pictures of the lovely jump courses all set up for tomorrow’s show, and some of the girls are riding out on the courses learning the patterns for their events tomorrow.

 

Probably no more updates until tomorrow evening after the show.

 

Thursday, July 29^th, 7PM Update:

Good spirits at dinner tonight are on display in this short video. Everyone was taking part in dinner talk, with Anderson the center of much attention! Meghan had her camera at the barn before dinner, and I expect a few more pictures to be posted at this link latter tonight. Weather is great! Cool and sunny all afternoon and more of the same expected the next two days.

 

Thursday, July 29^th, 5PM Update:

We had a good second day of this session. Check this link for some pictures from last night and today. We started off with me teaching more than an hour as Meghan video taped the lesson. We watched the video after lunch with lots of slow motion. Elsa was the star, since she almost fell off Ginger in the morning and made an amazing save to stay on the horse. We played her “save” in slow motion several times to great cheers from all of us watching the video! Elsa was a very good sport about it. And just to make sure she didn’t feel like she was the only one to come close to taking a tumble, I played the old Longacres “bloopers” tape showing a lot of falls set to music over the years. The girls left for their afternoon lesson in high spirits.

 

Everyone is already riding out on the big show field, since the Derby is in just two weeks and we need to begin practicing right away. I helped Carly teach Morven, Anderson, and Staci as they all jumped the special Pulverman jump this afternoon.

 

Meghan, Taylor, Beta, and I worked for quite a while setting the jumps for the Saturday horse show and trimming grass. BULLITEN: We hope to have the big water jump set up for the show and will give bonus time if anyone can jump it. We do not have a horse/rider combo here at Longacres ready to try it, but if the Donan’s come, at least Aaron Donan plans to give it a go! We’ll all be watching and cheering him on if he shows up.

 

Wednesday, July 28^th, 7PM Update:

Thunder!

We had a good day of riding, with most girls on 4 times already. But a strong thunderstorm just hit, and it looks like our evening ride tonight will be washed out. We can deal with it – we need the rain for our turf and the footing for the show on Saturday. And the forecast for the rest of the week, including Saturday’s show, is excellent, with temperatures in the 70’s.

 

We had a group talk after dinner about doing a better job properly mounting, and Alexa will be doing a demonstration tonight in the barn while it rains so that everyone will be well prepared for tomorrow, when we will be very particular about proper basic mounting skills. I told the girls after dinner that it is a compliment to them that we feel they as a group are good enough riders to do the basics right. We plan to set the tone for good horsemanship right from the start this session, even if it ruffles a few feathers the first few days. The first lesson this morning did a wonderful job getting their horses listening properly during warmup and keeping them alert during the lesson.

 

I am going to have a tough time getting the first desert after dinner this session. I thought I was first in line for the cake and I even had my hands around the cake dish. But Anderson snuck her hand in there and grabbed the spatula used to serve the cake. Everyone thought that she was going to get the first piece of cake, with good help from Petra and Alexa – UNTIL I reached under the portion of cake she thought she had and popped it up in the air, whisking it onto MY plate! Score one victory for Tom in “desert wars”, but I am not confident that I can repeat very often with this group!

 

Wednesday, July 28^th, 5PM Update:

All Safely Here:

Alexandra, our final arrival, is now here and on a horse.

 

Training Session Album:

Check this link for some nice pictures of counselor Bethany training one of her personal horses, Holly. I don’t quite know what you call it when Bethany and I work together with a horse. Sometimes it’s just me as a spectator, sometimes a joint training venture. We think alike in working with horses and I like to watch her work. Today was almost like a real lesson, since Bethany let me set the agenda for Holly, and I spent a bit of time having Bethany brief me on everything she’s already done training the horse. Then we worked for about an hour stretching the envelope a little for both the horse and for Bethany. It was fun, and they did great! As you’ll see from the pictures. Because it takes a toll on the horses, we can’t have all our students jumping the heights that Bethany does when she trains, but there is good trickle down benefit for all our riders when one or two are able to do quite advanced training work. It also keeps my head in the game, as it were. And with the talent of the riders this session, many of them will be doing advanced training over the coming month.

 

We Need To Improve our Mounting Skills!

But that advanced training will not come easy, and there are no short cuts to good riding. One of the foundation building blocks of a good ride, is the simple process of mounting properly. I sat for ten minutes this afternoon and watched a disappointing variety of incorrect and sloppy mounting efforts. It will take a long time to mount the lessons tomorrow, because it will be done right. Some will be getting on their horse, and then getting right off again to try harder for a proper mount five times or more. The riders this session are good enough to do it right. We’ll teach them how, then insist that they get on gently, and with perfect control of their horse.

 

Horses are often difficult to mount because they are accustomed to sloppy riders plopping down harshly on their backs and then letting them walk away before the rider is fully in control. It’s one of those chicken or egg things; bad rider efforts at mounting make the horse behave badly; a bad horse is hard to mount gently. We’ll try to improve horses and riders tomorrow and the rest of this session.

 

Wednesday, July 28^th, 2PM Update:

Everyone has arrived safely and been on at least two horses this morning, except for Alexandra, who arrives by plane late today. We have a very good group of riders this session, which is a good thing, since we face two very challenging horse shows; the Longacres Jumper Derby and the Erie County Fair show. We will be training them hard with demanding lessons for the next few days. By that time, we’ll know who is here mostly to have fun doing five hours of riding, and who is here to really work on their show skills. We’ll adjust our lesson plan accordingly for the best interest of each student. Our counselors will also be training hard. They are part of our show team, especially during second session now!

 

Check this link for pictures of everyone riding this morning. Check this link for one of the lessons doing the Castle jump; it is HD video from one of the new iPhones. Not bad for cell phone video!

 

More news later today. I put captions on all the pictures this morning and oversized them in the album.

 

Tueday, July 27^th, 9:30 PM Update:

Arrivals:

Kellie and Elsa have arrived safely from the airport. “Poker” has also arrived safely, just a half hour ago getting off one of the biggest horse vans ever to come on the Longacres show grounds! It was a huge semi tractor-trailer, just for Poker. We’re taking good care of him for you tonight, Petra. (Check this link for a picture of Poker’s horse van.)

 

We’ll see everyone else at 9AM tomorrow. No earlier, please – we’ve got things to get ready first thing in the morning. I know most of you are at hotels here in East Aurora just chomping at the bit to get to Longacres early in the morning! But be patient just a few minutes longer. Maybe I’ll see one or two of you at Tim Horton’s donut shop when I have my morning breakfast from 7:30 to 8:30 for my last peace and quiet of the mid-session break!

- Tom

 

Tuesday, July 27^th, 9AM Update:

One More Day of Rest

I’m headed out to do some more mowing to prepare for the next session, while Meghan sleeps until noon one more day. The girls say I’m doing a pretty good job of “being Meghan” checking on them and taking them to town as needed during the break. But Meghan will be back at work this afternoon and this evening triple checking on arrival times and writing out the final schedule for the first day of the new session tomorrow.

 

Kellie and Elsa fly in tonight from Texas and California, getting to Longacres very late. Everyone else arrives bright and early tomorrow. Several will be here in East Aurora at the Hampton or the Roycroft Inn overnight – if you see someone with a young teenage daughter at one of the Inns, ask if they’re coming to Longacres. Petra, Anderson, Morven, and Katie should all be in town tonight.

 

Meghan and the girls will be busy early this afternoon with a routine vet call to have Rabies shots for the horses and some routine tests. We also have to be here later to meet Petra’s horse, Poker, who is arriving on a huge truck from Florida.

 

Here we go again! Lots of riding and the big summer shows this session!

 

Monday, July 26^th, 8PM Updsate:

Me having some fun dragging the sand ring at this link. How I relax.

 

Monday, July 26^th, 8AM Update:

Catching some very nice

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Sunday night, late

Finally, a cold front and great sleeping weather here at Longacres! I am trying hard to keep Meghan resting, but it is a battle! Some of you have her cell phone number and are texting her, while I try to intercept her emails! She was thrilled when she got the text from Claudia about her first time stay at Longacres. Thank you, Claudia! Meghan smiled from ear to ear during dinner when your text came in. And, yes, Martha, we did see the wonderful moon on the way home tonight!

 

We do have the arrival info for Kellie and Elsa, and Taylor is picking you both up.

 

On the way home from Laundry in town, the girls told me I was doing a pretty good job being Meghan. I checked to make sure seat belts were in use, and when I overheard the girls talking about needing a new battery for one of the smoke detectors, I pulled into the office driveway and within 60 seconds of hearing about it, they had a new battery. The girls told me I was even quicker than Meghan on this one! They said that if Meghan had heard about the need for a battery, first the old battery would have appeared on the desk at the barn with a post-it note, and the next morning ,a new battery would have magically appeared. I was faster!

 

Sunday, July 25^th, 2PM Update:

They’re All Gone!

We said “see ya’” to the last of our departing riders about 1 this afternoon, with quite a few tears being shed both by the girls leaving and by the counselors staying behind. We’ll miss all of you!

 

The three CIT’s who will be working with the counselors for the rest of the summer training to be future Longacres staff are all here now. Laura, Ofelia, and Winky are here, and they, along with the counselors and Lydia, are having a final ride this hour before the horses are given total rest for the next two and a half days.

 

Meghan has finally crashed! She didn’t even make it to the shower she’d planned before taking a long nap today. She collapsed on her bed fully clothed and barely had energy left to pull a blanket over herself. The counselors and I are going to do our best to keep her from working and organizing and doing everything “a Meghan” normally does to keep Longacres running, until she’s taken full advantage of the three day mid-term break.

 

I’ll be resting also, but it is Meghan, who kills herself with 17 to sometimes 20 hour work days week after week in the summer, who really needs this break to be herself for the second session. So I’ll try to cover for her for the next few days.

 

E-mail me at the Longacres email and I’ll at least respond and acknowledge that we got your message or I’ll try to answer your questions. Most important, if you are planning to have us arrange an airport pickup Wednesday (or Tuesday night), put that info in an email to us. And if you’re arriving by car, email and let me know about when you think you’ll arrive. Meghan has most of this info well organized, but when she “comes out of hibernation” Tuesday night, I would like to have all the latest arrival info for second session confirmed for her.

 

Second important thing that’s going on is arrangements for winter horse leases. I know Meghan is trying to make final arrangements with all of you taking Longacres horses for the winter (TEN of our students this year!). If you’re waiting for information, either call me or email, or wait until Meghan goes back to work Tuesday night.

 

We have several UPS packages to go out tomorrow, and I think I have that under control. If you want to help me, email and remind me what needs to be shipped, and I’ll work on it tomorrow.

 

Carly, Bethany, and Alexa will be taking turns caring for the horses the next three days with help from the second session CIT’s and Lydia (who arranged to stay over break just for the fun of it!). The horses should be rested and ready to perform for our second session students when they come in Wednesday. Our first show is just three days later here at Longacres, and it sounds like it will be a big show, with many of the more active show stables in our region planning to be here. Long range weather looks to be sunny and temps in the low 80’s. Not a bad week!

 

Drisana from first session is planning to return to Longacres for the week of the Derby as an intern helping Meghan prepare for this big show. Micayla might also come help for a few days. We’re already getting excited about the big event on August 14^th!

 

Sunday, July 25^th, 7AM Update:

Thanks for a Great July Session!

We wake up this morning prepared to say “see ya’ again soon” to a great group of girls who have been with us for the past two weeks, and some of them for a full month. We’ve shared some fine riding moments and lots of fun. We hope to see many of you again next year!

 

After this session’s students leave later this morning, Longacres will settle into hibernation for three days of the mid-term break. Meghan will sleep LONG hours! But we’re already looking forward to seeing many returning friends and to meeting three first time students who are joining us for the month of August. We will have Longacres all cleaned up and the horses well rested when we open for the next term on Wednesday morning.

 

I’ll post a few updates over the break, but it will hopefully be a quiet time with a well earned chance for all of us on the staff to rest and recuperate.

 

Torrential rain has fallen over much of western New York the past few days, but not here at Longacres. We’ve been sheltered by the “lake effect bubble” as the more stable air coming off Lake Erie has kept us quite dry while the heavy storms have passed close to our north and south. As I write this morning, radar shows a heavy squall line from the cold front passing just five miles to our south and continuing to move southeast. I actually wish we had got more rain for our ground. In anticipation of severe thunderstorms, we laid all the jumps in the big show field down on the ground last night so they wouldn’t be damaged by strong wind. Turns out all that work was unnecessary; now we’ve got to put all the jumps up again!

 

Saturday, July 24^th, Horse Show Update:

Check this link and this link for lots of pictures from the show today. More news later, but everyone rode well, and I think everyone has good ribbons to prove it!

 

MANY THANKS to David and Noreen Laks and all their wonderful staff for putting on a fine horse show, as they always do! We had a great time and we can’t wait to host them at Longacres next weekend. The weather held off – rain about an hour after the show ended!

 

Saturday, July 24^th, 6:30 AM Update:

As you can see from the video’s posted last night, the girls are in very good spirits! And it looks like the rain will hold off at least through most of the show. But it is a hot, sticky day and torrential rains may come later in the day. Not my idea of a fun day for a horse show, but we are about to leave and make the best of it. Pictures and a report coming later tonight. I think we will see some of you parents at the show and for dinner at AIR CONDITIONED Pasquale’s tonight!

 

Friday, July 23^rd, 9PM Update:

Looking Better for the Show!

Check this link and this link for two video’s of the girls fooling around in front of the barn after loading the trailer with their stuff for the horse show. And the folks over at Quakerfield Stables must have lived right this week, because we now have a fighting chance of good weather for most of the show. Severe thunder storms were expected for today and tomorrow, and indeed there were many that rolled through western New York today, but they missed Longacres and Quakerfield just a few miles down the road. It now appears likely that we may get a little overnight rain, but will have a dry slot from early in the morning until about three or four tomorrow afternoon. Just enough for the show!

 

It’s hard to believe that this is the last day of the session! We’ve really enjoyed this group and in fact nearly all of our 2010 students so far. But we will welcome the mid-session break from Sunday to Wednesday! And we’re really looking forward to the August session with so many returning students from the past. It is going to be like old friends month, with just three first time students to give us a little fresh blood.

 

Friday, July 23^rd, 5PM Update:

The “Ruby Project”

 

First, check this link for some pictures from this afternoon, when some of the girls who had never jumped a bank got a chance to do it. The rest spent a long double hour lesson jumping in the sand rings and finally going to the big show field for some last day of the session jumps.

 

But the special effort this afternoon was to complete “The Ruby Project”. Sometime last week, we were talking about this being Ruby’s 4^th year at Longacres and how she has ridden most of the horses on the farm over that time. And since Ruby has been riding pretty well this year, we decided to make it a goal to get Ruby to ride every single horse on the farm before the end of the session. Some other girls are also close, but we’re concentrating on making our smallest rider the one to be sure to ride every horse. It helps that Ruby is a very soft rider and she makes excitable horses calm. Bethany frequently has Ruby ride her private Champion jumper horse, Joc-A-Bee, because Joc is very happy with little Ruby in the saddle. Today Bethany let Ruby ride her other jumper, Holly, under close supervision. We also got Ruby on Bristol last night, again with a counselor close at hand. And this afternoon, as I write this, Ruby is getting on the last two horses she has never ridden, Sha-Bang and Chesney. It’s quite an accomplishment for a small rider!

 

 

Friday, July 23^rd, noon Update:

Show News

                  Thankful for the Sand Ring!

                              A Good Training Session

Show news:

The Quakerfield Horse Show is on tomorrow morning at 9AM, rain or shine. Plan “A” is we don’t get too much more rain and everything runs outside as planned. Plan “B” is that one of the rings gets moved to the indoor arena. Plan “C” in case of torrential downpour, is to cut out some of the classes and move the whole show to the indoor and go with the flow and have fun. So, Longacres parents coming from a distance, bring your rain gear, but there will be a show tomorrow.

 

The Sand Ring is Maturing

Careful readers may remember me talking earlier in the season about our expanded sand ring. The new sand on the expanded part of the ring was a little too soft and deep, and the horses changed their movement a little as they went from the old part of the ring to the new. But we have been dragging the ring frequently all summer, and the old and new sand are mixing a bit with the clay underneath. The sand ring is just about perfect right now. I wish I could keep it exactly as it is now permanently. Which we’ll try to do, but maintaining a good sand ring is a constant process of grading, adding a little new sand now and then, and watching for any rocks that may work their way up through the sand (very few rocks in ours because we prepared the site carefully!). Anyway, with very wet ground after overnight rain, the footing was excellent in the sand ring this morning. Which was a good thing because - - -

 

A Brody Training Session

I have planned for a while to have Bethany ride Brody, a very talented and athletic, but sometimes stubborn horse. We had time at the end of the first lesson today, so I had Bethany get on Brody while the rest of the girls had planned to go down to the barn and change to their next horse. But no one wanted to leave, and it turned out to be a very educational session for them to watch. We did some high jumping, and the footing in our wet sand ring was perfect.

 

We’ve been preaching to this group of riders for two weeks how important it is to properly warm up and train your horse before a serious ride or lesson. How important it is to take the time to establish the “building blocks” of the ride. To make sure that the horse is respecting you doing the simple things like a working walk and an extended to collected trot transition before you even think about any jumping. And when I ask Bethany to work a horse, that’s exactly what we do. We don’t just assume that because Bethany is a strong and talented rider, she can hop on any horse and it magically will perform perfectly. We go through all those boring little building blocks. Bethany worked Brody at a walk, carefully making him listen and do simple transitions. We spent many minutes before the first jump. An example was that when we started cantering Brody in the wet ring he would break his stride from the canter over a puddle at one corner of the ring. Not acceptable. We made sure he was on the bit and respectful and that he would canter through that puddle without breaking stride before we did any jumping.

 

While Bethany worked the horse and I only occasionally gave her a suggestion or she asked me for an opinion, I stood on the side of the ring with the other girls trying to point out things Bethany was doing that were exactly like the things we’re trying to teach all out riders to do on their horses before they ask them to jump and do difficult exercises. Some of this is subtle stuff, and I know some of the girls were sitting impatiently waiting for the fun stuff (I had set some of the jumps pretty high!). But some students were interested and I think I got through to a few. I know I enjoyed watching the training session.

 

Finally we had Brody doing Cross rail jumps patiently and exactly as he was asked. I began raising one vertical a hole at a time, with Bethany sometimes trotting in and sometimes coming to the jump at a collected canter. Brody behaved perfectly, even when that jump got QUITE high. He made it look easy. And only then at the end of our schooling session did we ask Brody to canter through a small course including a triple combination with one stride between jumps. He did everything asked of him. A good demonstration of what we believe about horse training at Longacres. I hope the connection between watching a very experienced rider school a horse first doing very fundamental exercises and only then over high jumps, and the warm up work we ask our students to do every time they ride was apparent to some of our girls. I think it was.

 

Sorry there are no pictures. I didn’t have my camera since I wasn’t sure Brody would be available that hour.

 

 

Thursday, July 22^nd, 10PM Update:

Welcome Back, Sha-Bang!

A quick stop at our “Meet the Horses” page will introduce you to “Sha-Bang”, one of our more successful jumpers over the past five or six years. Regular readers will know that Sha-Bang got a small leg injury in pasture here at Longacres a year ago in May. He was never shown last summer as we rested him and gave him only light exercise the full 2009 season. A local rider named Tara took Sha-Bang home to her farm for the winter and spent countless hours rehabilitating him and giving him more than a year of rest from heavy work. We chose to leave him with Tara for a good part of this summer to see if the extra months of rest helped. Tonight he arrived back at Longacres. See pictures at this link of riding this evening and of Sha-Bang’s arrival. He looks gorgeous, has the same kind personality as always, and jogs sound right now. We will be slowly giving him some work and evaluating his soundness. Keep your fingers crossed that this fine horse can go back to doing at least modest work.

 

Check this link for a few iPhone pictures of the girls climbing all over Sha-Bang as he grazed on the lawn next to the barn!

 

Weather:

Although the forecast for the show on Saturday is still not good, it has improved slightly since earlier today. The big problem with the show will be wet ground from expected heavy rain tomorrow. We’ll just have to wait and see how things develop. Stay tuned for better show info tomorrow evening after 8PM.

 

Thursday, July 22^nd, 2Pm Update:

Nice Job on the Big Jumping Course!

Everyone got to jump the long Cross Country course on the big show field today, and we had some fine riding. Everyone was paying attention and every horse did well. There were a few refusals here and there, but everyone got their horses to finish and many did it with no faults. We took video of everyone, which we will watch tomorrow when we expect we’ll have some rain breaks. We also have LOTS of pictures at this link and at this link.

 

The girls will have their phones at the mall later this afternoon, probably from about 4 to 6:30 when we’re taking a little R & R on the cook’s night off. We’ll be back at Longacres in time for a late evening ride.

 

We’re watching the weather closely for the Saturday forecast and we’ll be consulting with Quakerfield tomorrow to see what the options are in case they get very wet, which is likely Friday night. Check here with us tomorrow before driving a great distance just for the horse show.

 

Welcome back Bethany, who is here after recovering quickly from a bug of some kind.

 

Wednesday, July 21^st, 11PM Update:

Camp as it Should be

And the Great Longacres History Hike of 2010!

(Tom cried)

It has been a fine day here at Longacres. Lots of good riding, but more important, really good spirits and lots of fun. We pitched a curve ball by taking the girls on a surprise midday trip to Kone King after lunch, rather than the usual evening trip. Then at dinner some of the girls were pestering me with questions about the history of Longacres, so I told them I’d take them around the farm sometime and show them where some old cabins and other places were in the woods. Well, they said “sometime” was not good enough, and could I please do it right after dinner? Then everyone wanted to come and even when we offered to have a riding lesson for those who weren’t interested, every last person chose to tromp around the farm with me and hear stories from the history of Longacres.

 

Well, we went everyplace, and I mean EVERYPLACE! I am amazed that I had the stamina, but I held up pretty well. We must have hiked three miles, including up and down steep ravines, through thickets of thorn bushes, and across creeks. We found the foundations and other remnants of many of the old cabins long since torn down. We explored the old director’s cabin where my grandparents lived and we all took turns climbing up in the hayloft of the “Old Junior Barn”. We heard the story of the summer when Brownie was sick and was isolated in the old barn. We found the remains of the 40 year old boys camp unit in the middle of a thicket of thorn bushes. We even found the remains of the old “Gunner Boys Cabin” that was burned down after my grandmother bought the land it was on from the family. And we peeked under the Carriage Hosue foundations where “the woman” is supposed to sleep at night!

 

And we think we found the place where my great grandfather, George Longaker, had his summer tent back in 1939 to 1955. That’s when the tears started unexpectedly flowing for me. I explained to the girls that they were “good tears” brought on by so many memories of long ago coming back all at once as we toured parts of the farm I hadn’t seen for years in some cases. Later I told Taylor, who was walking near me for most of the tour and especially interested, that the tears were also in recognition of the fact that all of us do really go from dust to dust in time. It was quite symbolic for me that I had this good memory of my great grandfather at Longacres, but there is no longer any sign of his tent platform on the hillside near the dining hall, beyond a slightly leveled spot on the hillside.

 

After the History Hike, I found old maps of Longacres, copies of the “How to Teach Group Riding” book written by my aunt with old pictures of Longacres, and old Longacres brochures from 40 and 50 years ago. I showed the girls pictures of some of the places they had found buried in brush during our hike.

 

Spirits were great when we finished the hike, and the girls were happy doing horse care. Meghan found them right after horse care all setting up buckets and brooms on the lawn in front of the barn and pretending they were horses running and jumping and laughing. Then it was time for a smores party around a camp fire and more stories of old times and scary things. A promise from me to unlock Dark Stranger cabin tomorrow so they can see inside and read the story of the Tall Dark Stranger!

 

Tomorrow’s feature is everyone riding the long Cross Country course on the big show field. But it will be hard to beat the spirit of good fun we all shared tonight!

 

Bethany is at home for a couple of days with a bad sore throat. Hope you feel better, Bethany – we miss you! Natasha sent you a new picture of crayons. (Hi Beta!)

 

Wednesday, July 21^st, 11AM Update:

Nice to Have Conscientious People!

Alexa and Carly were a little late getting their lessons mounted this morning because there were some changes in horse assignments. No biggy. What is a biggy to me, is that they both felt badly and were apologetic about being late. It is really nice to have staff who care about getting things right. (Bethany was on her day off.) Good job, girls! (be on time next time!)

 

We’re doing more practice on the fancy outside course jumps today and we will be letting everyone do the long 21 jump X-Country course during one of tomorrow’s lessons. We’ll video tape everyone and have a good session reviewing that tape before the horse show on the weekend.

 

Rainy Show?

Speaking of the horse show, the weather report is pretty iffy. About 50% chance of rain, and that rain could be heavy. We’ll have a better handle on the timing of the rain by Friday, so we won’t panic yet. But it’s something to keep in mind for you parents traveling to the show from a distance. There is always the possibility of having to cancel the show, or that they would postpone it, and our girls would have gone home by the time it is rescheduled. Check with us before you make a long trip just for the show on Saturday.

 

In the meantime, we have a decent day today with only scattered showers, and a truly grand mid-summer day for riding tomorrow!

 

Honoring Good Horsemanship

We have lots of eager riders this session. They are all a good group to teach. But because this is a younger group than in some sessions, attention spans are sometimes shorter. One of the fundamentals of the Longacres system of horsemanship is that riding is a series of building blocks. We begin a ride with a solid warm-up, paying attention to good transitions, independent riding (not just following another horse), and solid awake working walks and working trots. Have your horse ready and responsive for the rest of the exercises in your lesson. It is hard work to do a proper warmup. It is hard work for any rider and asking a lot for 11 and 12 year olds. We’ve spoken about this attention to detail several times this session, including a long talk the first day of the session.

 

This morning I was at the riding area watching the girls mount and begin their warmup. Sydney and Micayla were outstanding. They were in their own zones, really getting attention from their horses. After watching for a while, I called all the riders in, complimented the group as a whole for being good students, reminded them of the importance of the solid warmup as a foundation of a good lesson, and then singled out Sydney and Micayla for their outstanding attention to detail.

 

At the end of the lesson, I took Sydney and Micayla aside and let them jump extra jumps that were higher than everyone else did. Hard work deserves rewards.

 

There is always a possible downside in singling anyone in a group out for special praise. Read the Blog from the other day when we had to reassure one girl that it was no putdown to her when we asked two girls who were especially responsible to help lead mid day horse care. As a point of interest, the two girls who were put in charge during the counselor meeting the other day were Sydney and Micayla, same two who were so excellent in their riding today.

 

But I think I made my point today without being critical of anyone individually, that there really is a benefit to putting hard work and effort into your riding. I noted with pleasure that a couple of the girls who are serious students here most of the time, but who were not at their best during this morning’s warmup, were working especially hard during the rest of the lesson. They will be properly commended.

 

Check this link for a few pictures from yesterday afternoon in the big show field and this link later after lunch for some pictures from this morning.

 

Tuesday, July 20^th, 9PM Update:

Stephanie and Claudia had a well mannered diner table conversation about the order of the jumps on the cross country course, trying to see who could remember the full course fastest. Check it out here!

 

I’m about to deliver cookie dough and chocolate milk for a surprise cabin party. All is going very well. Can’t wait to see all our good friends for second session in August very soon!

 

Tuesday, July 20^th, 3PM Update:

Two Good Days!

We’re feeling very good about this week. Other than the brief “drowned rats” rain yesterday morning, we’re having good luck with the weather so far. None of the rain forecast for today came, and tomorrow & Thursday show only scattered showers in the forecast.

 

But weather is the least of our good news. Everyone this week seems to be getting along great with the counselors, with each other, and with Meghan and I. Oh, there’s a little squabble or “knock it off” here and there, but generally very good morale. Meghan and I are pretty well caught up on “big picture” stuff so we’ve been able to put in good time at being camp directors and working directly with the girls. I taught myself both yesterday and all morning this morning. I set up a big gymnastic jumping exercise (check this link for pictures), and I changed all the distance after the smaller strided horses did it so that it would work out well for the more long strided horses. One thing that pleases us is that all of our students and staff were able to do this advanced exercise and only two riders had to change onto a horse that did it with another rider. That’s a good string of school horses!

 

(You may wonder, “What the Heck?”, as you look at today’s pictures and see me down on the ground bowing to Taylor on Diesel! Well, the grid jump exercise is very demanding on the horses. Taylor had been assigned to Diesel before the girls knew we were doing this special lesson. I told her that I would not hold it against her if she couldn’t make him do the gymnastic, but that he could do it if she really pushed, and that if she succeeded, I would indeed get down on the ground and bow to her. She succeeded, and the rest is no photo history!)

 

Meghan and I met with the ABC’s (Alexa, oh, you know!) yesterday before lunch for a good detailed discussion of what each student is working on with their riding, and the best exercises to let them each move to the next level. We came up with some useful ideas and also talked about how everyone was getting along in the bunks and how well each student was contributing at the barn. The news on those fronts was very good. We commend all the girls who are students this session. It was a great meeting and put all of us on the staff on the same page.

 

A “Glitch” That I Took Too Hard

It’s funny how even a tiny little glitch can dampen a great mood (for me). Yesterday and today have gone wonderfully. The farm looks great, the horses are in fine shape, and the kids are happy. But when Meghan briefed me last night on one very minor problem, I took it harder than I had any reason to. During the staff meeting before lunch yesterday we put our lone CIT for this session, Sydney, and the oldest student, Micayla, in charge of managing the mid day horse care while the staff met. It was meant to be an honor and a chance for those two excellent students to have some experience supervising. And they did a great job!

 

Later in the evening, Meghan told me that one of the other girls had hurt feelings that she wasn’t chosen to be one of the leaders during that mid day horse care session. It was no real problem. Meghan just had to take time to talk to the girl and explain why we casually chose two excellent students to do a job. Nobody else on the farm besides the counselor who passed on the heads up was or is even aware of the small problem and it is now a thing of the past. But I lost sleep last night thinking about it. I guess I’m pretty tired myself after almost eight weeks of camp session and I had worked especially hard yesterday to make things perfect. I was just bummed that everything wasn’t perfect for everyone after all.

 

We are a little tired, but we’re pulling extra hard for the final four days of this session and THEN: We get to SLEEP! Mid Season BREAK!!!!!!!

 

 

Monday, July 19^th, 11PM Update:

Here’s a link to a quick video of Ruby & friends feeding Brownie nice green grass with unexpected results!

 

Monday, July 19^th, 11AM Update

Drowned Rats!

That’s what the girls looked like a few minutes ago after getting caught out in a heavy burst of unexpected rain. The forecast had been for scattered very light sprinkles this morning, and we had been getting just that for the first 2/3rds of the 10AM ride. A few drops were falling while I helped teach all the girls for that lesson, and suddenly we heard that tell tale sound of heavy rain falling in the still air on the trees and getting CLOSER! Before we could even think about riding down to the barn, everyone was soaked. The previous showers had ended in like 30 seconds, so the girls just kept riding for a minute or two before we realized this was going to be serious rain. I checked the radar on my iPhone and found that the cold front coming through this morning had organized into a narrow band of much heavier rain than the weather men had expected. But it was a very narrow band, and the sun is out again already as I write this update. They are getting on now for the second ride of the morning and Meghan is heading down to take pictures.

 

As mentioned in this morning’s update, we’re conferencing with all the girls in today’s lessons and working out individually tailored training plans for the rest of this session. I talked with most of the girls myself at 10AM, and the counselors are following up. For most of this sessions riders, better extension and collection of the horse at a walk, trot, and canter is the most important thing that needs work. Many riders were letting their horses run out of gas at the end of the show when the horses were a little tired and the riders more than a little tired. Training in extension and collection is a good way to help that situation! We really worked on that this morning.

 

We’ll have some new pictures posted at this link around lunchtime.

 

I also have several fun video links. Heres a link to a video of Lydia being “lunged” by Taylor. Just watch – it needs no explanation!

 

Here’s a link to a video of the horses just munching hay in pasture and enjoying their day off Sunday evening. Nothing happens, but it does give you a feel for the atmosphere on Sunday nights.

 

Here’s a link to a video clip showing the proper way to turn a horse loose in pasture. Well, almost the proper way. Sydney should have slightly more completely turned the horse back so it faced her completely before she let go and stepped back to be out of range of a high spirited buck/kick. This is an important safety issue and we drill it all the time.

 

Here’s a link to a clip of the girls right after the sudden cloud burst this morning as they cheerfully rode back to the barn to get on for the second ride of the day. They were soaked and it was still raining, but they had just sung “Row, row, row your boat”, and were singing another song while I took the video. Good kids!

 

Monday, July 19^th, 8AM Update:

Final Week of the Session

Today begins the final week of both this two week session and of the 4 week July session. We plan lots of fun for the grand climax, with bigger jumps, more long courses, perhaps a surprise instructor, “special portrait jump” pictures of everyone, and much more! Weather looks decent. We had rain overnight last night as expected, and after a hot past two weeks, it will be sweater riding weather today. Yippee! We should get in at least half a day of riding tomorrow, with rain likely in the afternoon. Great weather Wednesday and Thursday, with some chance of rain again Friday. Not bad. Just enough rain to keep our ground soft and the grass green.

 

If you haven’t already, do check the pictures from the show posted at this link late last night. Many of them are very good. (Thanks Deb, for voting for the “Coming at ya’” picture as your favorite.)

 

Staff will be meeting today and we’ll be talking with each student about personalized goals for each rider for the week to work on the thing that will most help improve each rider during their final week. We’ve seen good improvement across the board this session, and we want to stretch that progress to the next level this final week.

 

Sunday, July 18, 10PM Update:

Hi all,

I collected 59 of the best of the horse show pictures at this link, oversize with captions. Enjoy!

 

It was a quiet day at Longacres, with laundry and town day, and then relaxed informal time after dinner and long showers. Seemed like the girls were in great spirits when I checked on them about 8PM on their way to an early bedtime.

 

Meghan and I also got to relax a bit with a dinner out with our good friend, Uncle Billy. We’re all looking forward to a well rested start to the week tomorrow morning. We’re expecting rain overnight, but decent weather tomorrow.

 

Sunday, July 18^th, 7AM Update:

More Show Results

Jill won a trophy in English Pleasure on Diesel. The judge told us later, “I wanted to pick the horse I would put my grandmother on for a safe ride. That Belgian was it!” Sophie was Reserve Champion Special Baby Hunter on Neek-o and Claudia was Champion on Tux. Micayla was Champion in Low & Slow Hunter on Brody. Katie was Pony Hunter Champion. Jill was Reserve Champion in Hacks on Star. Kati was Reserve Champion on Justin in Beginenr flat classes. Ruby also got two 3rds in those classes. Sydney got a 3^rd with Opportunity Knocks in X-rails. Taylor was CHAMPION on BRISTOL in the flat classes in the small ring! Olivia was Reserve in a division with Whitley. Ruby won ribbons in all the Pony Hunter classes. Lydia got 3^rd, 4^th, and 5^th on Jazz in the Low & Slow classes, with one very good round over fences. Sophie was Champion in Baby Hunter on Neek-o! Sydney got a bunch of ribbons on a very “Willful” Boo in eq. over fences and Low & Slow Hunter. Sydney also rode Lincoln to ribbons.Stephanie had two 1sts, a 2^nd, and a bunch of other ribbons on Star. Olivia had a bunch of 2^nd’s and 3^rd’s on Merlin.

 

Lydia, Sophie, Claudia, Carly, and Stephanie, all showed on the more difficult outside show field, winning a bunch of ribbons. Dunham Sport Horse Stables owned that field yesterday, winning most of the blues, and we salute our good friends from that stable for their success on our home field! They came in and “put it to us”! Their main jumper riders, Alyssa and Courtney are very good, and getting better. Nice girls, too! Bethany won the first jumper class she went in at the higher height on her own horse, Joc-A-Bee. Joc slipped taking off for a jump in his second class and knocked a jump. Bethany gave him a breather with a confidence building slower ride the next class. Bethany also put in good rounds on Whitley, but she is not going for speed yet, since her goal is to train him so he is better for our younger riders when they show him.

 

One More Thing!

Before I stop talking about yesterday’s show, I want to report that Meghan told me last night, “The counselors did an outstanding job of having the girls ready and prepared for their classes on time and coaching them. The best ever!” This is a bigger accomplishment than you might think. We run two rings at once, with a dozen girls riding in all kinds of classes and most of them riding more than one horse. It can be a zoo! Fine work by the “ABC’s” - Alexa, Bethany, and Carly!

 

Weather for the Coming Week

It looks like not a washout by any means, but scattered showers and storms off and on for much of the week, which we do need to keep our ground soft and the dust down. At the beginning of the week, most of the rain should fall overnight tonight – it doesn’t get much better than that! All in all a cooler week than last with just enough rain. Slight chance of rain for the Quakerfield horse show, but that’s a long way off and we’ll worry about it when the time comes.

 

Saturday, July 17^th, 6PM Update:

A Good Show Day!

Lots of ribbons and successful riding by Longacres girls today. We’ll post some results later this evening or tomorrow. There will be zillions of show pictures posted at this link and this link and this link, too later tonight. We took almost 700 pictures today! Don’t worry, we will delete many of them!

 

The show had more hunters on the outside course than some recent shows, but still a light turnout in those divisions. Meghan’s inside ring was swamped all day and ran until just a little while ago. We had a good turnout of jumpers, and congratulate Alyssa Willibey from Dunham’s for winning the Puddle Jumper Championship and lots of other stuff. She is tough! Bethany won a class in Schooling jumper on Joc-A-Bee and rode Whitley for the training experience in three classes, making him look better each time out. Carly was a star on Brody on the outside course, and Micayla was great on him in the small ring!

 

We’re headed for dinner soon and have lots of video tape to watch tonight and tomorrow.

 

Losing a Student – Vacancy Next Week

We are sorry to report that our one 17 year old student is leaving a week before the end of her session. She expected more older students near her age, and has other things about Longacres that didn’t meet her expectations. We wish we could make every last one of our customers completely happy, but sometimes we fall short. We try to learn each time and improve the briefings we give new families before they sign up so that they won’t choose Longacres if it’s not right for them. Each time someone goes home early we add something to our screening talks based on what they didn’t like about us. This means there is a vacancy at Longacres next week if anyone who was turned away because we were full is interested in coming on short notice. Give us a call if you’d like to come next week to fill the vacancy.

 

The good news is that everyone else is having a grand time and doing great in their riding. We hope most of this session’s riders will join the nearly 70% of Longacres students who return each year.

 

Friday, July 16^th, 7PM Update:

Show Prep Day!

Hi everyone,

It’s a rare day that we have no Blog posting until this late in the day. We’ve been swamped with watching the girls ride and getting the show grounds prepped for tomorrow. The weather report has actually improved slightly this afternoon, with now only 20% chance of rain tomorrow and later in the day. Good deal! Wish we had gotten a little more rain here last night to soften the ground. We did get an hour of light rain this morning early and it is just enough to green up the grass a bit and to have kept the dust down for us today in lessons. I’m afraid not enough to guarantee a dust free show tomorrow.

 

The girls are cleaning their saddles and prepping themselves for the show as I write, with a few doing some last minute horse training.

 

The big event today was a guest instructor showing the girls all about side saddle showing and the outfit you ride in at formal show events like Ladies Side Saddle. Stephanie got to be our “model”, getting all dressed up in the formal outfit. Stephanie was hilarious making all kinds of faces as each new article of apparel was added to her outfit and as she was forced to pose for all of us. Pictures at this link later tonight! Thanks for being a mostly good sport, Stephanie!

 

Probably no more updates until late tomorrow night after the show. The girls will all be here at the house in an hour and a half to watch slow motion video of them jumping yesterday as part of preparation for tomorrow’s show.

 

Thursday, July 15^th, 2PM Update:

Informal video

Check this link for a short video clip of fun chatter at lunch today and this link for another. Nothing important said, but the girls were all having fun and taking part. The girls who were most quiet at the beginning of the week are really loosening up and taking part.

 

Thursday, July 15^th, 10AM Update:

Details of Quantum’s Accident

If you are so inclined, you can go to this link for a short description of exactly what happened when Quantum broke his leg two weeks ago. It will not be an unpleasantly graphic description, but will include details of how it happened and the nature of the fatal injury. Don’t look if this would bother you. After last night’s ceremony and this article for final closure, we will truly put the Quantum accident behind us, other than a brief statement along with the special Quantum Awards at the Jumper Derby August 14^th.

 

Thursday, July 15^th, 7AM Update:

A Few Weather Issues

Meghan reported a fully “bonded group” happily goofing off while doing a late evening horse care last night after the Memorial Ride. Their spirits were excellent. Lots of running around the field and having fun. We did not check on bedtime curfew, preferring to let them have a good time and showers even if it got them to bed late. The weather may give them some extra rest and down time over the next two days.

 

Weather

Today will be very warm and humid. It should be OK for the morning lessons, and we may try to squeeze an extra quiet trail ride in right after lunch, but the late afternoon looks to be very hot. Fortunately, we already had a field trip to the mall scheduled for late today, and it comes at a good time. The only fly in the ointment is that a good bit of rain is expected Friday morning. Normally, we might well cancel the mall trip today if tomorrow’s riding time is threatened to be cut short by rain. But the great heat this afternoon tips the scale in favor of the mall trip. We’ll do the best we can to ride between rain showers tomorrow. (We do really need the rain.)

 

Saturday Show

Yesterday’s forecast looked wonderful for our show on Saturday. They have backed off that a bit, and now call for 30% chance of Saturday afternoon rain. We should still be able to run the show OK, but might be looking at a rain delay or two during the later classes. Remember, that jumpers go first now at Longacres shows, beginning at 9:45 AM.

 

The girls should be at the mall with their phones from about 5:30 to 8 PM.

 

Wednesday, Midnight
Check this link for a video clip of Stephanie doing “The Bobert Dance”!

 

Wednesday, July 14^th, 10PM Update:

Thanks to the girls for their wonderful participation in the Jumper Hill Ceremony and to our out of camp guests. It was an emotional and inspiring event.

Some picture at this link. More tomorrow.

 

Wednesday, 3PM Update:

Check this link for a nothing very special little video clip of the girls at lunch today. It’s getting so easy to upload stuff to YouTube that we’ll begin offering more video on the Blog. This one is of them showing me a picture they took of me while I was talking at lunch.

 

Wednesday, 11AM Update:

I spent most of the first riding hour down with the girls, where I took rapid fire stop action picture series of all of them. They’re posted at this album after deleting a few of the extra frames. Each girl got to discuss her form over fences with me right after jumping.

 

It was supposed to be sunny all day today and quite warm, but lingering cloud cover and even a few light sprinkles has kept the temperature below 80 and made for quite comfortable riding. We’ll take it as a bonus. Sun is supposed to come out this afternoon (it just peeked through for a moment!), then sunny and very warm tomorrow. Friday is now looking very rainy until late afternoon. Perfect to prepare our ground and footing for the Saturday show, but we’ll likely lose a couple of hours of lesson time. But it’s been a good week in that respect.

 

Wednesday, July 14^th, 7AM Update:

Jumper Hill Ceremony Tonight

A few good friends of Longacres will be joining this session’s students for a traditional “Jumper Hill” ceremony at 7:30 this evening. Read the story above and join us if you’re nearby.

 

Check this link for a few more pictures Meghan took last night.

 

We’re happy that we got in all five hours of riding yesterday, in spite of a rainy forecast. But we now really need some rain, with the rings getting pretty dusty. There’s another chance of rain Thursday night and Friday, which would be good right before the horse show. It did rain hard very close to us yesterday, but all we got were a few tiny drops around lunchtime.

 

Meghan spent most of the evening down with the girls last night, first monitoring their evening lesson, and then the horse care session. She saw me right after horse turn out and said, “Spirits couldn’t be better, across the board.” Many sessions it takes a couple of days for the group to bond, and this session it was three days. It’s still a little early to be sure with everyone, but it looks like another good group for the next week and a half.

 

Tuesday, July 13^th, 5:30 PM Update:

Check this link for some more pictures of one of the jumping lessons. Meghan didn’t get everybody, since some were out on a trail with Bethany. Also check this link for a picture of Ruby riding Bethany’s own horse, Joc-A-Bee, the 2009 Jumper Horse of the Year. Quite an honor! (Ruby told Bethany, “Hey, I’ll ride Joc in the schooling jumpers this weekend!”)

 

I was later than I intended to watch the afternoon lesson. I took a ten minute break after lunch to fly one of my model airplanes up on galloping field. It got too far away from me and crashed in the neighbor’s woods L I did find it after 45 minutes of walking the woods and fields near where I last saw it diving into the trees. It is not even hurt too badly, since it landed in very tall grass.

 

Tuesday, 2PM Update:

OK, This Counts as “playing”, but you’ll like it

Since I splurged and got myself the iPhone 4 last night (Thank you Meghan J J J), I’m fooling around today taking video and uploading it to YouTube. You can find the latest submissions at our YouTube page (Megfun). Or check out Jill playing with Bubble Wrap from her care package at this link. Or check this link for a YouTube of everyone saying “Hi mom”, and “Hi” to two other people, one of them fictitious, all at once!

 

Here is the link to the pictures from Meghan’s camera this morning. I’ve got another update coming in a few minutes about my day so far.

 

Tuesday, July 13^th, 11AM Update:

Check this link for a few camera phone pictures from my iPhone this morning. Meghan will have more at this link from a real camera in an hour or so. (Actually, I just splurged and got myself one of the new iPhone 4’s, and the camera is really pretty decent.)

 

I spent the whole hour with the girls, working a little with all three groups along with the ABC’s. Common issues for the first and second day of a new group at Longacres. Sloppy mounting the horses and taking gentle but definite control right at the start. Lazy working walks, which translates into less than perfect more difficult exercises. And just in general attention to the little things. Many girls are not challenged at home the way we challenge our riders at Longacres to pay attention to the fundamentals and details.

 

Mind you there are good riders this session, and I gave many compliments during that first hour this morning. And we’ll have a good discussion at lunch about the building blocks of a good ride beginning with a good mount at the beginning of the lesson and a good walk away from the mounting block. I am beginning to see which riders will be content to just have a good time on their horses and enjoy five hours of riding and which ones are more serious students who will want to be pushed. Either is ok with us, and we’ll work to tailor each girl’s Longacres experience to what she wants to get out of her stay here. We’ll be talking with each rider privately about that later today.

 

We’re off to a good start this session and the girls all seem to be getting along with one another well.

 

PS: Weather Report; so far the forecast showers and thunderstorms for today are staying well to our north in Ontario. We do expect some rain between now and tomorrow morning, but we’re getting in a full riding schedule so far. Tomorrow’s weather looks excellent, and pretty good the rest of the week, though warm on Thursday and Friday.

 

Tuesday, July 13^th, 7AM Update:

Odds ‘n Ends

Problem: Phone rings just before 7AM – uh oh, that usually means a problem! This time it is a counselor at the barn saying, “There is a RACOON in Neek-o’s stall and we’re all looking right at him and he is just standing there shaking. What should we do!?!” Solution: Quietly have everyone walk to the front of the barn, gently open the stall door, and walk away so he can retreat.

 

Problem: Lydia is very good at “stare down contests” at the dining room table. You know, when you lock eyes and whoever looks away first loses? Well, she challenged me last night, and I had a wildly popular tactic for victory! I began with the usual blank stare back at her, then put on my most fierce looking face like she was in deep trouble. That didn’t phase Lydia a bit. She sits kitty corner across the big table from me, so I slowly stood up while keeping my fierce stare on, and like a spider stalking its prey in slow motion, I began to one arm and one leg at a time climb up right on the dining room table and in slow motion stalk across the table towards Lydia. Mind you, all the food was still on the table, so it was quite a sight to the rest of the at first stunned campers! Lydia held her ground and her “stare” until the last minute when I was leaning right over her dinner plate staring down at her and she dissolved in giggles. Ruby was in hysterics. I am proud to report that I spilled no lemonade pitchers and didn’t stick my foot in the spaghetti sauce dish!

 

Problem: Ruby always takes a couple of days to feel comfortable when she’s at Longacres over a session change over, so we’re paying special attention to goofing with her. Solution: At dinner last night Meghan and I crouched down on our side of the table right across from Ruby so that we could get “Ruby’s eye” views of how the world looks (she is short). We had to bounce in our seats to see over all the pitchers and stuff on the table to look at everyone. Ruby thought we were pretty goofy, but she was laughing with us.

 

Problem: Not enough horses. Mind you, we own more horses right now that we have in fifteen or twenty years. Tom doesn’t think we need more horses, especially since the herd this year is very healthy and sound and we have fewer horses on limited duty than in recent years. But Meghan is trying to upgrade the herd both in talent and in youth and variety. Solution: We have had Bristol here on trial for over a month and she is VERY comfortable and popular, and already has a likely home for the winter with Laura and Sharon. Right before the show last weekend, we formally purchased Bristol and she is now officially a Longacres horse!

 

Problem: For some reason, the link to the Hasty Hills show pictures failed. I don’t know if I accidentally deleted the album, or what. Solution: Upload the album again this morning; hope it works now, Heather! Try this link.

 

Monday, July 12^th, 10AM Update:

Lookin’ Good!

Meghan and I both fell asleep while pictures were being loaded on the computer last night! They are now at this link. Lots of smiles from new students and from those staying over from the last session, especially RUBY!!!!

 

Meghan should have more new student pictures after lunch at this link.

 

The ABC’s

That would be our instructors, Alexa, Bethany, and Carly! We are very pleased with the way they are handling their jobs and working with the girls as this session kicks off. Alexa has now taken the reins from former head instructor, Katie. We thank Katie for taking a month and a half off of her “big girl – real world” jobs to help us get the 2010 season off on the right foot. Her adult guidance has been invaluable! Thanks, Katie. But her presence has also put the other instructors a bit in her shadow, and we find them thriving now that they are responsible for everything without Katie. Meghan is working closely with the ABC’s having little “30 second Popper” meetings with them during the course of the day. We like the chemistry between these girls.

 

Don’t miss the Tribute to Quantum Party Wednesday night if you live in the area!

 

Sunday, July 11^th, 7PM Update:

New Group Getting Acquainted

Everyone has arrived now, with Stephanie & Claudia the last to get here. And it was a little quiet at dinner, with lots of new faces, and Ruby & Lydia & Sophie missing their good friends from the last session. But everyone hung out around the dinner table after eating, and then we all gathered around the collage of pictures that Micayla put together as a tribute to Quantum. Meghan and I tried to answer everyone’s questions about who all the riders were. And that led to me telling a funny story about the last time I competed in jumpers and the video we have of me almost falling off (But I Won!!). The girls were all laughing together when we finished making fun of old Tom. And there was animated chatter as they walked down the stairs to the showers and then on towards the barn for safety talks and horse care procedure talks tonight before a very early bedtime. All our staff and the girls staying over from last session were up very late last night, so they are eager for the rest. Some of the new session students have also been up for many hours traveling. Olivia got on her flight from the west coast at 11PM last night and hasn’t slept since! (Well, one hour during our after lunch rest period. She is making jokes about it, but she looks ready to really sleep tonight.)

 

We have a full day of five hours of riding planned for tomorrow.

 

Check this link for a couple of funny pictures, and this link in an hour or two for lots of pictures from today.

 

Sunday, July 11^th, 3PM Update:

Almost all here.

Quantum Tribute Scheduled for Wednesday evening, 7:30 PM at Longacres.

 

Natasha and Lauren were the final students from this past session to leave just a few minutes ago. It was a great session and we thank everyone who was here the past two weeks. Ruby, Sophie, and Lydia stay on with the next group.

 

And almost all that group has arrived. Only Claudia and Stephanie are still to arrive and they’re due any minute. Some pictures will soon be posted at this link.

 

Quantum Tribute:

We plan an open to the public tribute to Quantum, kind of an evening social get together, next to Jumper Hill here at Longacresd at 7:30 PM on Wednesday, weather permitting. It may be just our own students from this session, but it is open to the public and you are welcome to come just yourself, or bring your horse.

 

Jumper Hill is a low bank jump on one of our fields where our greatest jumping horses from the past are buried, including China Heart, Yorke Springs, Tip-off, Peppermint Patti, and now Quantum. During “Jumper Hill Ceremonies”, our riders one at a time jump that bank jump and ride across Jumper Hill as they pay tribute in their hearts to the great horses there, and to all great horses that have come and gone in their own lives. I usually give a little talk about the history of the fine horses buried their.

 

We welcome guests to bring their own horses and take part in the mounted ride over the hill. It will be a gentle riding experience.

 

Give us a phone call or an email to let us know if you are coming, and if you are bringing a horse or coming on foot. We’ll post directions. There is good trailer parking on the field there. Hope a few friends of Longacres and of Quantum can make it.

 

- Tom

PS – We are opening a small fund to pay for a special Quantum Trophy to go to the winner of next month’s Jumper Derby, and donations of anything else appropritate for a basket of goodies for the winning horse & rider. Let us know if you’d like to make a contribution of cash or of stuff for the basket of goodies in Quantum’s memory. This idea comes from former Longacres rider (and one of next week’s horse show judges), Nancy Donolan. Good thought, Nancy!

 

Saturday night, July 10^th, 1AM:

The Lesser of Two Evils

The most attractive of two tough choices tonight will result in some very tired students and staff tomorrow. We really would have liked to have at least our counselors bright eyed and well rested to greet our new students tomorrow. But we also wanted to let everyone from this session have a good long last chance to bond together, to go out for the traditional Pasquale’s dinner; to Kone King; and to watch all of today’s horse show video’s. We chose the latter and the girls all did have a great time together, but we only got the last group to the cabins a little after midnight. It was a very long day!

 

The counselors are going to have to “man up” tomorrow and paint on enthusiastic faces when you next session students arrive. We will be slightly modifying our usual first day schedule to permit a very early bedtime. Which is probably not a bad idea for everyone, since most of our new students will have been traveling for many hours and could also benefit from a good night’s rest tomorrow night. This way we can all start the new session off first thing Monday morning well rested and ready for action. We will get everyone but the latest arrivals on horses for an evaluation ride tomorrow late morning and afternoon.

 

The Horse Show

Yes, we did have a great show at Hasty Hills today. We took over 500 pictures and we’ll post some of them at this link later tonight or first thing in the morning. The girls got to see all the pictures playing on a laptop during dinner at Pasquale’s. I think pretty much everyone got ribbons. Bethany and Whitley were Puddle Jumper Champions. Cassie and Merlin tied for Reserve Champion in Low & Slow Hunters. More results tomorrow.

 

Here’s a short report from Sophie:

Hasty Hills Show Story

 

            We had all been anticipating Hasty Hills for awhile; we really weren’t quite sure what to expect. We had made some, well, interesting decisions about which horses we were going to bring. Whitley (who had been particularly difficult in the past few shined with Bethany recently) could have gone either way. Even the more consistent horses like Brody and Lincoln still were questionable about how their performance might go.

 

            But as we pulled up to the manicured fields and bustling trailer grounds we knew that this show would be a good one for the team. After an interesting Warm-up for a few of the hunters all the horses went surprisingly well, despite the difficult and spooky jumps (including a couple of random trees with a hay bale in the middle and some brush on top as a fence.) Each rider handled their horses like pros, navigating them around the complicated courses with ease. We may not have the blue ribbons to prove it but the hunter division was a plus.

 

                                    But as we entered the jumper ring the whole dynamic of the show changed. Longacres clearly knew what division we owned as we took home blue after blue. Notable performances were by Whitley, who now discovered his new calling, going quickly but in control, and Brody, who for once didn’t start spinning like a mad man as soon as he slightly strayed from the group. They not only felt good about their rounds but they were also quite decorated as well. We all left the show satisfied with our performances. Exhausted from the heat we trudged into the motor home and ambled home.

 

- Sophie L.

 

Friday night, July 9^th, 8:30 PM:

Show Tomorrow

There aren’t likely to be updates until late Saturday night, since we’ll be leaving for the Hasty Hills show early in the morning and it is likely to run late. We’ll be seeing some of you parents at the show since it’s the last day of this session. And remember, it is traditional for parents in the area to join us for dinner at Pasquale’s after the show if it doesn’t run too late.

 

The show is at hasty Hills Farm, Java, NY. From East Aruroa, take rte #20A east for a couple of miles, then turn right on NY #78 and go about 14 miles through Strykersville and Java and watch for Pit Road on the right (the right!), across from Beaver Hollow conference center. Alternatively, go to their website which is linked from the Longacres hrose shows page on our opening page.

 

Parents visited tonight and found the girls in fine spirits; all the people involved in the little tiff earlier are made up with one another and happy.

 

I gave the whole group a talk tonight on the Longacres philosophy of riding, which is “building blocks”. One little step at a time and make sure you build on a success before going too far, too fast. It was related to the “A Beautiful Thing” blog posting two days ago. Read that if you want an idea of what we talked about tonight. It is important to me that no matter how much a student improves their riding here, they leave us with an understanding of what we believe about horse and rider training.

 

Check this link for a few informals taken in the soggy sand ring tonight after the rain stopped. Sorry we don’t have pictures of everyone today. Meghan was running around like crazy preparing for the show and dealing with a couple of issues.

 

I’ll post next tomorrow night late after the show. Wish us luck.

 

Friday, July 9^th, 3PM Update:

Decent stables in Fiarfield County, Connecticut? Darien – New Canaan?

One of our students is interested in taking a horse home and looking for a place to board near New Canaan. If any of our readers are familiar with stables in that area, let us know. Family knows it will not be cheap, but looking for something a little less than Ox Ridge!

 

Heat is Breaking, Finally!

We’ve had a soaking rain the past hour and a half, which we badly needed for our turf and our footing in the rings and on the trails. Our grounds should green up nicely by Sunday when new students come in. We are on schedule for having the rain pass through before tomorrow’s show.

 

Friday, 2PM Update:

Things are looking up already

I don’t know details yet. Usually when Meghan gets stuck with a stinky job like refereeing little disputes, I go look for an equally unpleasant job to occupy my time so that I’ll feel like I’m “doing my share”. For the past hour I’ve been out in the rain trimming the office driveway with the weed whacker. Not fun, but still better than getting between feuding teenage girls!

 

When I came back in the house to get out of my wet clothes I called down to Meghan at the barn and asked if she needed reinforcements. She told me, “No, got it covered!” And she sounded cheerful, so I think today’s little moment is pretty well taken care of. I’ll report if it’s not.

 

The root of the problem is likely the fact that the barn was getting a little sloppy this week and the girls were getting to be late more often for lessons and meals, which made it hard for us to plan the special events to deal with the heat. Meghan got onto the counselors a bit about holding to the schedule better. We hoped they could deal with it gently with the kids. Probably we made a mistake and we should have had a whole camp meeting so that Meghan and I could have explained ourselves why being on time is so important when we’re trying to get them good riding lessons under difficult conditions. Anyway, all’s well that ends - - - at least I hope so.

 

Friday, July 9^th, 1PM Update

Good People Bickering because they are Exhausted

That about sums it up. I don’t have all the details, and I plan to leave the fun of sorting it out to Meghan (who’s also trying to get everything set for the big changeover this weekend). In a nutshell, three of our very best teenage students who are also possible future counselors apparently refused to get out of bed when their counselor woke them up for horsecare this morning, and were fifteen minutes late. Which started a series of less than perfect communications and cooperative efforts this morning, including the three sulking on the barn porch while everyone else worked before lunch. That they may have been asked to do things in a less than perfectly diplomatic way is also something Meghan will be exploring – there’s probably blame to go around.

 

Meghan will now have a series of her usually successful sit-downs to try to make peace and return spirits to the high point that they were at just 13 hours ago last night. The real deal, obviously, is that it has been a brutal week with emotional events and the oppressive heat since Monday. The temperature is falling along with rain drops as I write, so we’ll try to get everyone well rested this afternoon and hope for a good natured finish to the session tomorrow at the show.

 

These are not hard problems to deal with, since we have really good people here as students and counselors and a little talk should ease the hurt feelings. It’s just a bad time for poor Meghan to have to drop everything and deal with it.

 

Friday, 10:30 PM:

A large band of rain showers passed just five or ten miles to our northwest during the past hour. I’m glad that we’ll get in our second morning lesson without problems, but we badly need the rain forecast for this afternoon. We’re pretty sure to get it.

 

Friday, July 9^th, 9:30 AM Update:

Check this link for an interesting collection of rapid fire stop action pictures I took of Heather, Lauren, and Sophie this morning, along with comments on their positions. It was Sophie, Cassie, Bethany, and Alexa who asked that I do this today, especially for Sophie who is just learning a proper jumping position and is really eager to learn and to see herself. We do this kind of exercise for many of our sessions at Longacres. I took the pictures and immediately showed the riders right on the field, then let them try again and compare their positions after trying to make corrections.

 

I looked in on two of the three lessons this morning. Didn’t have time to get to Bethany’s. I spent the most time in Alexa’s lesson taking the pictures at the above link. Katie had Caroline and Drisana jumping while I watched. Drisana was riding Jazz, one of her favorites, and did probably the best line of fences I’ve seen this horse do since we got her, and certainly the best job Drisana has has done! Really nice to see this kind of progress setting in at the end of Drisana’s session. Good job, girl! Caroline had Chesney going soft as a children’s hunter over fences. She is an awesomely soft and reassuring rider for all the difficult horses. Very impressive for only 12 years old!!!! Chesney frustrates me to no end. Just the other day he was aweful out on the show field, completely unnerved and upset. I was ready to send him to an auction. Then this morning with Caroline, in the inside ring where is is often at his best, he’s just wonderful and at the end of the lesson I had Caroline take him over much bigger jumps than normal, and he was still calm as can be. Maybe very warm temps this week have helped, but Caroline has a way with excitable horses. If only Chesney could be like this all the time, he would be one of our most valuable horses and potentially a great jumper horse.

 

Looking at the weather radar, rain is now very close. It is supposed to hold off until noon, but it will be a close call before then. Looks like perhaps the rain is following the Lake, and with this morning’s wind direction, just might miss us until later on.

 

If the rain holds off, we’ll have another lesson this morning, then show prep and riding theory discussions early this afternoon.

 

Friday, July 9^th, 7AM Update:

Heat Wave to Break this Afternoon

One more morning of getting up early. We should get in our normal riding ration this morning, then heavy rain this afternoon, hopefully ending in time for a long evening ride. The weather should be great at the show tomorrow! We’ll be seeing some of you there.

 

More on the problem of heat rash/riders rash. Here’s a note sent in by Petra who lives in Florida:

 

Oh, a couple of things work on heat/riding rash. We get that in Florida all the time. Baby powder before and after a ride helps. Also any fungus fighting lotion like lotrimin(athletes foot lotion) helps. (be warned lotion may sting). 

~Petra

 

We will add that riders who are most physically fit are least likely to run into this kind of problem.

 

We’ve got show preparations to make this afternoon and we’ll be sitting down together to review what we’ve learned this session and talk about the big picture issues of learning to ride and train horses.

 

Thursday, July 8^th, 11PM Update:

The girls had a really fun camp fire and smores party tonight, with scary stories galore. Thanks to Cassie for contributing her own scary story! Tom told about the ghost of “the woman” in the bottom of the carriage house.

 

We’re getting up early one more morning, but a little later than we did today. The heat wave finally breaks tomorrow, with possible heavy rain late morning – early afternoon. We should be able to ride again later in the day. Then we have great weather expected for the show on Saturday. And, by the way, if you haven’t heard, the jumpers will show on Saturday afternoon. No show at Hasty Hills on Friday for jumpers.

 

The story about Bethany training Whitley, in the 2PM Update is equally a story about the whole Longacres philosophy of riding. I try to impart to all Longacres students the understanding that good riding is a series of building blocks beginning with the way you take your horse out of his stall and the way you handle him, groom him, tack him up, and the way you mount him, and then the way you work him at a walk before doing more advanced work. Patience is the key to getting the most out of a horse. That’s what I saw Bethany do this afternoon with Whitley. We talk about this all the time at Longacres. We’ll talk about it again before this group goes home this weekend, and we’ll begin next session with the same discussion. There’s nothing tricky about the Longacres riding system. Just simple basics done well before trying to ride advanced jumping courses. “Working walk” before you run, in other words!

 

Check this link for one picture of Bethany on Whitley this afternoon.

 

For the second time this summer, a Longacres student came down with “five hours a day of riding” disease. It’s no joke. In hot weather if you ride as much as we do here, it is easy to develop various forms of heat rash around the thighs that can in some cases require antibiotics and extensive rest. Both this case and one in June appeared just a day before the end of the students session, so relatively little riding was lost. The best treatment is prevention. Take an hour off if you find redness or the beginning of a rash on your thighs, especially if you find yourself sweating and not drying quickly. Parents have already been consulted, so it is not YOUR student if you don’t know already.

 

 

Thursday, July 8^th, 2PM Update:

A Thing of Beauty

I can’t think of a better way to describe the demonstration of fine horsemanship I just witnessed. After the pond riding this morning and the horse turnout, I asked Bethany to get on Whitley so that I could take a good in depth look at his potential. Now that Quantum is gone, it’s natural that I spend time wondering where the “next great jumper” will turn up. And maybe that horse is already sitting in one of our stalls someplace in the barn.

 

Whitley was purchased early this spring to be the quiet hunter and equitation horse. That’s what he’d done with his previous owners and he was certainly graceful and poised when Meghan and I looked at him before purchase. But he’s gotten quick and hard to ride lately here at Longacres. I haven’t paid too much attention, since I knew he would need time to adjust to many different riders in our program. But I was a little worried that he would be too hot for many of our riders to handle.

 

Today was the day to find out what kind of capabilities this horse has. I spoke with Bethany while she was mounting up and told her that I wanted to see a good, smart warmup, lots of transitions and extension and collection, careful attention to control and steering, and then work into lead changes and keeping him quiet jumping. That’s the last thing I said for the next 30 minutes. Bethany thinks almost exactly the way I do about horse training. I see something that I might tell another rider to do if they were on the horse, and the next moment Bethany does exactly that thing. Watching Bethany school a horse is very easy for a coach – ya’ just sit and watch fine riding!

 

Hundreds of people around western New York know that Bethany is a very successful jumper rider who wins most of the time. She is admired for that. She is also known as a competitor with outstanding good sportsmanship, which is a big part of the reason we hired her at Longacres this summer. What many people may not know, is that she rides for hours every day year round, and a lot of those hours are on green horses. One of the things that seems to really fulfill her is patiently working with a horse until she eases it into the next level of performance. She reminds me of Tovah Abrams, a long time Longacres #1 rider and the girl who helped train Quantum and Merlin a number of years ago. Like Bethany, Tovah could just walk, trot, and do basic dressage on a green or problem horse for hours without getting bored.

 

Which brings me back to today. Whitley has shown a difficult side the past couple of weeks. He has not taken well to the wide variety of riders we’ve put on his back. Some horses do. Some don’t. Whitley has become nervous about the variety of riders and when he gets nervous, he gets quick and that makes many riders nervous and tense, which makes him worse.

 

But that’s not the kind of rider who got on him today. Bethany worked patiently for a good 20 minutes at a walk (Working walk!), trot, basic transitions, backing up, proper bending. Just lovely to watch. And the horse softened and trusted his rider, and listened. By the time Bethany first cantered, the horse was like putty in her hands. She did a bunch of transitions from the canter, changes of direction, etc. Finally I said, “Let’s see what kind of lead change he has now.” Because Whitley has not been giving the nice full flying changes he had when we got him recently. Bethany cantered a couple of circles to collect and extend the horse. She asked for a left lead to right lead change and for a second I thought he didn’t do it because it was so instant and subtle, but there he was on the other lead. Half way around the ring, and just as perfect changing right rein to left lead. Ready for a Medal class!

 

We did a little jump course in the sand ring, and he was quiet as you could ask. He did make his only mistake of the afternoon then, putting two strides in a one stride in and out, but he was so quiet it was to be expected. Bethany came right back and did the one stride when I raised the jumps a little. (By the way, did I mention Whitley was all alone for this, but didn’t seem to care a bit that all the other horses were out in pasture. He was paying attention to his rider.

 

Then it was up to the front show ring, where we popped around over a two foot course, Whitley just as calm as could be. Finally I put al ine of fences up to about 2’9” coming in and about a 3’ at the end of the line, and we rode a mild jumper turn before the first fence in the line and then down over both fences. Again, perfect striding and quiet horse. He did touch both rails lightly, but we hadn’t asked him to jump that height since we bought him a couple of months ago. So I raised the jumps in the line a little, and he went down one last time absolutely perfectly, clearing the higher jump at the end of the line with room to spare.

 

All this was just me and Bethany and Whitley. I kind of wish the other kids had been there to watch and see the fine riding and training. On the other hand, I rather liked that it was a private demonstration with just the horse & rider & me. It was a great pleasure. Now we have to work out how we can let more riders work with Whitley while keeping him this well disciplined and trusting of his riders. And - - - well, who knows what else we might do with Whitley, but if we decide to give it a try, watch out!

 

Thursday, July 8^th, noon Update:

Hottest Day of the Heat Wave so far

But the girls and horses are pretty cool from their ride in the pond. Check this link for pictures. The rest of the day we’ll be keeping cool before another long evening ride or two tonight. The girls will be out and have their cell phones between 3 and 6PM. No more riding until then except that Bethany and I are going to school Whitley for just a few minutes to evaluate a couple of possibilities.

 

The album shows some of the girls in the early morning lesson (they look tired still!), the hunt course jumps, and the pond riding.

 

Thursday, July 8^th, 8AM Update:

Easing Back to a Schedule & Neatness

The girls have been through a lot this week, between the accident last Saturday, the brutal heat, and a constantly changing schedule. It’s a tribute to them, the counselors (and to us!) that they have been full of laughter, fun, and good spirits most of the time this week as we constantly tweeked the schedule to make sure the girls didn’t over heat and that they got enough rest. And that there were enough interesting and challenging things to keep them excited.

 

But there has been a bit of a downside. We have worked so hard to cater to their good spirits that we have been more lax than we like enforcing cleanliness around the barn and attention to being on time getting mounted for lessons. We are beginning today to return our attention to that kind of detail. By the time Carly arrives on Saturday to take Katie’s place as our third instructor, we expect the barn and the lesson schedule to meet our standards.

 

An example came just an hour ago this morning. The girls had been late getting mounted for the morning lesson a couple of times this week. Meghan asked the counselors last night specifically to have everyone mounted by 7:15 this morning so we’d have plenty of time for a good lesson and a trail ride to jump the old hunt course fences out in the woods. Because of the record of tardiness the past few days, I went down to the barn to help spread good cheer at 7:15, but nobody was on a horse yet. It took fifteen minutes before they were all on, and that fifteen minutes meant only a little bit of jumping in the lesson I helped Bethany teach. If they’d been on time, they could have done some nice exercises over higher jumps. There is fault to go around, a bit with the girls who could have groomed and tacked up faster, a bit more with the instructors who very much should have done a better job watching the clock and giving closer supervision, and including Meghan and I, who now will have to be at the barn at 6:30 tomorrow morning to make sure the schedule is met.

 

I’d like to emphasize that all the girls are being cooperative and cheerful. It’s just that the balance between running a tight ship that’s on time, neat, and well organized, and making sure that everyone’s treated gently during a difficult week has tipped a little too far to the gentle side. Now we’ll “gently” try to move back to the center of that balance.

 

Wednesday, July 7^th, 11PM Update:

The girls got well rested today and were in good moods doing evening horse care. They did get in two riding lessons after dinner for a total of about 3 ½ hours today. We have one more hot day before the heat wave breaks with showers and thunderstorms Friday afternoon. We’ll be up early again tomorrow morning for a cool lesson, then we’ll take the horses in the pond late morning after breakfast. Then mall trip and an early dinner and more lessons in the evening.

 

Hasty Hills Show Might be Saturday Only

Check with Hasty Hills or on our website tomorrow night for a final decision. The weather for hasty Hills on Saturday looks magnificent, with low humidity and highs in the upper 70’s!!! But it is likely to rain on Friday afternoon. Good chance jumpers will go Saturday, but that decision has NOT been made yet for sure. Stay tuned.

 

Wednesday, July 7^th, 1:30 PM Update:

Check this link for a ton of pictures of the Pegasus Cabin (younger girls) being supervised by Cassie at the creek. They had fun! The older girls are sleeping during the mid day heat. We should all meet up at the house soon for video watching of the show yesterday.

 

Winter Horse Leases:

We will be finalizing winter horse leases beginning next week, July 12th. Many of you have expressed interest in leasing one or more of our horses beginning at the end of August. Please make sure you are confirmed on Meghan’s list and that she is saving a horse for you. You’ll need to get the lease agreements signed by the end of this month, and that sometimes takes time for sending documents back and forth. Please give Meghan a call or send an email this week if you are still interested in a winter horse lease, even if you think Meghan knows already.

 

Wednesday, Noon Update:

Check this link for some morning pictures of some of us. Everyone had an extra long early morning ride, finished horse care, and are now either in the creek enjoying being cool & wet, or sleeping. It will be a very relaxed day with horse show video in air conditioning, then we’ll get another long ride or two in after dinner when the sun is going down. We should still get in three to three and a half hours of riding even under a strict Plan “B”. More later.

 

(I spoke with Cassie after she got VERY wet in the pictures, and I found out she has not skipped a single ride all this session, even the hot ones. She is one of just a few, I think. That’s a horse lover for you!

 

Wednesday, July 7^th, 8AM Update:

Chilling Out Today

It’s supposed to be even hotter today, but our Plan “B” seems to be working and we’re determined to get everyone cool and well rested today. The girls got up very early this morning and put in an hour and a half of riding before the sun heated things up. They’ll be getting off soon, doing barn chores, then breakfast, and then catching up on sleep, rest, playing in the swimming hole at the creek, and just having fun. We’ll be watching video of yesterday’s show this afternoon, maybe doing a mini-Kone King trip, and then an early dinner. We plan at least another hour and a half of riding, maybe two full hours tonight between dinner and dark.

 

Check this link for more pictures from last night, INCLUDING Heather this time!

 

Thanks for the Kind Words and Feelings

Thanks to the hundreds of former Longacres students and friends of Longacres sending in messages of good will. We haven’t had time to respond to all of you, but we’re grateful. Check the photo albums – we and the girls are doing well and remembering Quantum, grateful that he gave us nine wonderful years. That’s a good, long show career. So many of you writing in are expressing my own feelings that harsh and tragic as his accident was, we went out with style at his best. I am at peace with that. Thank you all.

 

I will post a link sometime soon to a more detailed description of Quantum’s accident. It will not be graphic, but I have reviewed video now, and can describe for those interested (and only those who click on a link), what happened, or more accurately, what did not happen. It was an unexplainable sudden failure of a major bone.)

 

Tuesday, July 6^th, 10PM Update:

Check this link for many pictures of happy riders. Thanks to Quakerfield Stables for bringing two trailer loads of horses to make it a real show, but it was mostly us, and the girls all won ribbons. (Meghan wants Cassie’s family to know that she got ribbons, too, but she was too tired to go get them for Meghan to take a picture. We think we got pictures of everyone else with ribbons, and there are pictures of Cassie riding.)

 

More news coming later. I’ve got to run to catch the pizza party at the barn!

 

Tuesday, July 6^th, 9:30 AM:

Remember, second half of our horse show begins at 5PM. Public and outside competitors are welcome. Rings are open for schooling from 3:30 on, but it will be hot until five!

 

The girls were about a half hour late tacking up this morning for the early morning ride. I considered a little “encouragement to be ontime” talk, but decided that on a hot day with the show tonight, a “go with the flow” approach was more appropriate. I went in and had my breakfast and newspaper and came back near the end of the lesson. I spent quite a bit of time with the girls as they were cooling out their horses and doing chores. I took several aside and talked about specific riding issues. Spirits remain good and the girls are really looking forward to seeing the horse show video’s in the air conditioned video room this afternoon before the show.

 

They were also VERY excited when I announced at dinner last night that we will have a “pond day” taking the horses in the water, on Wednesday or Thursday when it is even hotter than today.

 

Tuesday, July 6^th, 7:30 AM:

Here are a few pictures of last night’s cabin party and Bethany’s return to Longacres.

 

Tuesday, July 6^th, 6AM Update:

Oops!

I was starting last night to upload all Meghan’s pictures of cheerful Longacres riders that she took yesterday and I fell asleep fully clothed, out like a light and down for the count. I just put the pictures up early this morning at this link. Enjoy.

 

Monday, July 5^th, 11PM Update:

Welcome Back Bethany!

Meghan already had a surprise cabin party planned for tonight and we were on our way into town to get cookie dough and chocolate milk (traditions for Longacres cabin parties) when a little birdy told us that Bethany was coming back to Longacres late tonight, catching a ride with Katie returning from her day off. So we were all down in Esseress Cabin with all the girls chomping their cookie dough treat, and in walks Bethany with a big smile on her face and looking ready for anything at Longacres. She looks great for someone who’s been through what she has in the past three days. She got pretty banged up in the accident Saturday, but she sure isn’t letting it show. We are really glad to have her back. The girls all gathered around her when she walked in the cabin and are making her feel right “at home” again. One tough girl! We will all be part of her support network as she eases back into her roll as instructor and trainer at Longacres this summer.

 

In case any of you at home are wondering about the spirits and morale of the girls, do check out Meghan’s big photo album from today at this link. LOTS of huge smiles and laughter! There will surely be somber moments for all of us as we are reminded of Quantum over the coming weeks and months. But we at Longacres have truly managed to begin thinking of him as one of our great jumpers of the past, and having good feelings about his great moments at Longacres. It allows us to go on doing what we all love doing at Longacres, and I think today’s pictures show that things are coming along very well. Bethany’s quick return to her job at Longacres is one of the final pieces in our recovery from the tragic accident over the weekend.

 

Monday, July 5^th, 8:30PM Update:

Good Gosh!

Meghan handed me her camera down at the barn a few minutes ago and there was something funny about the way she said, “I’m not quite through culling out the bad pictures – you might have to delete a few.” She has had the camera through the gymkhana this morning, various activities around the barn, and evening ride tonight. But I was shocked to get up to the house and find that she’s taken 315 pictures today! So it will take a little while to cull through them and pick maybe 50 for our evening album at this link. Try us later tonight.

 

Meghan is throwing a surprise cabin party for the girls later tonight with cookie cake and one other surprise. Everyone will like it.

 

My big project this afternoon was working with a hired excavator and dump truck and my tractor to move the huge manure pile behind the barn. It was getting so it was hard to find a place to dump your wheelbarrow when you were mucking stalls. Now that will not be a problem and I have a lifetime supply of well rotted manure for landscaping in a more convenient location!

 

Five Hours in Spite of the Heat!

Longacres did offer five hours of riding today. Many girls sat out one or more rides because of the heat, but we made the schedule work. A good lesson early this morning, a mounted games hour, a relaxed afternoon ride, and two hours tonight after an early dinner. It was actually cool and pleasant during the final ride of the evening.

 

Horse Show, Tuesday, 5PM

We are running the classes that we did not get to do on Saturday at our open make up show tomorrow (Tuesday) at 5PM. The public and other stables are invited. Quakerfield, at least, is coming.

 

Monday, July 5^th, 1PM Update:

Hey Bethany – Check this link for some pictures taken of your horses this morning, happily turned out and having a couple of days of good rest.

 

The rest of you check this link in maybe 20 minutes for pictures Meghan took of the mounted games she ran this morning. Some hilarious moments! I wish we had been taking video so we could have showed you the “out takes”!

 

Also, the first link with Bethany’s horses shows how I mowed down some pricker bushes and weeds that maybe somehow were causing a couple of horses trouble. But I did everything I could to stir up any bees or wasps, and saw none. Really can’t figure what cuased Anna and Bristol to get inflamed hind legs within two days of each other, but it is suspicious that the scrapes and swelling look the same on both horses.

 

Monday, July 5^th, 11AM Update:

A good morning ride

It was beginning to get pretty warm by the end of our early morning lesson, but it was not bad for most of it, so I think it worked out well getting up early to beat the heat. I went down at the start of the ride and had planned to just take some video of the girls to watch later up at the air conditioned video room. But I got involved and helped Heather teach her group. We ended up jumping an oxer a little bigger than they do in most of their lessons, and working on good corners and approaches to jumps. We have lots of good pictures from this morning at this link. I hope to personally teach the girls in the other lesson this evening. I had fun. I taught Heather, Cassie, Leslie, Lauren, Sophie, and Rachel. I will try to teach the others later.

 

Meghan is at the barn now running a Gymkhana (mounted games). Then all horses will get hosed down to cool them off before going out to pasture for a few hours. Then a nice rest for the kids, a quiet trail ride, and more riding in the evening when it cools down a little. More pictures later.

 

Get Better Soon Bethany!

Bethany, who was riding Quantum when we had the accident on Saturday and took quite a tumble, is home resting. As of now she is planning to return soon to teach at Longacres and we can’t wait. We miss her. But she has a doctor’s appointment today for a checkup and we are very glad she’s getting a break and rest after such a hard experience. I know she will be pleased when she gets “home” to Longacres to hear how many of you at home have sent in best wishes to her, as well as to Quantum’s memory. Keep the nice comments coming.

 

And another problem, Just so Meghan Doesn’t Get Bored!

As if we didn’t have enough on our plate the past few days, we have a mystery horse issue out in the mares’ pasture in the orchard. First Anna came in a few days ago with a mild scrape on one of her hind legs and the leg all swollen and appearing infected. She is being treated with antibiotics. Then yesterday Bristol, who is in the same pasture at night, came in with a nearly identical condition. Hind leg with very minor scrape but big swelling. The counselors checked the pasture last night to see if they could see anything that might be causing this and Meghan and I are about to take a careful look together this morning. I’m taking the big tractor out there to cut down any small brush or thorn bushes that might be toxic if a horse scraped them. I am also very suspicious that it could be bee or wasp stings, though there is no sign of that kind of bite on the two horses legs. It is really a tough thing to figure out. So we’ll spend time in the hot sign this afternoon trimming brush and looking for bee’s nests, etc. If another horse gets this condition, we’ll have to evacuate this pasture until we find out what’s going on. A mystery. But at least it will keep Meghan from getting bored during a “slow week”. Ha ha!

 

Monday, July 5^th, 8AM Update:

Dealing with the Heat Wave

Fortunately, we are still going to be five to ten degrees cooler than most of you who live on the east coast or further south of us. But it is going to be hot and we’re adjusting our riding schedule to ride mostly early in the morning and late in the evening, as described yesterday here. Today and tomorrow we benefit from a southwest wind which brings cooler air off of lake Erie and we should stay just below 90 degrees. Wind becomes more from the south on Wednesday which will allow us to break 90 like the rest of you. Lots of sitting in the creek during the hottest part of the day. Maybe even an air conditioned movie theater on Wednesday! We’ll keep the updates coming.

 

Sunday, July 4^th, 9PM Update:

A Parent’s Message

We have received lovely emails and phone calls and visits from many parents and friends of Longacres since the accident that took Quantum’s life at the show yesterday. Too many to post or acknowledge publicly here and some very personal. With his consent, I would like to quote Lydia’s dad, John. He was here during the show and the accident and we are deeply moved by the following message he sent us today. He expresses eloquently sentiments we’re proud that others have also communicated.

 

“Dear Tom and Meghan,

I just got home from a long drive back to the east end of Long Island, much of the trip I was thinking about the loss of your wonderful friend and I wanted to once again send my condolences. Horses are truly the greatest of creatures and I know Quantum was particularly special....as exemplified by the calm and courageous way he stood waiting for help and probably worrying about his rider.

Tom, your words about him were so calmly spoken and so true....just the perfect thing to say at the time and I'm sure were a great help to the shocked onlookers and especially the kids, which I know was your intent. It is, as you said, a wonderful thing that your special horse ended his life doing what he most loved doing.

May the same be true for the 6.7 billion of us.....you guys on your horses or exploring on your snowmobiles and me either on a horse or maybe sailing......

   Thanks to both of you for your magical camp, what it means to my daughter and the effect you both have on her. The tragic events of Saturday, as unfortunate as they are, is another example of that.

   You taught all of us in the way you lovingly and respectfully dealt with the end of his life.

  My best to you both

  John Starke   (Lydia's Dad )”

 

When bad things happen, you can’t help at least briefly wondering whether you still want to be in this business. It’s letters like John’s that keep us plugging along. Everyone here at Longacres is well, and getting to bed very early tonight to be ready for that cool early morning ride tomorrow.

 

 

 

Sunday, July 4^th, 8PM Update:

Sneaker Creeking

Horses are mostly what we do at Longacres, but not everything we do. Especially in hot weather, the big creek beckons. After dinner tonight the girls all donned their oldest cloths or bathing suits and headed down to the creek and the old swimming hole to cool off. Check this link for some blurry cell phone pictures of the girls in the water!

 

And cooling off is what we’re most worried about the next few days. The Buffalo office of the weather service has a definition of “heat wave” for our area that includes certain combinations of heat over 90 degrees and certain humidity for several days in a row. We are likely to break 90 Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, the first time in three years that we’ve had back to back 90 degree days here in western New York.

 

We have a Plan “B” for the riding schedule during very hot weather. We will be getting up before 7AM tomorrow, bringing the horses in from pasture, and immediately riding from 7:45 to 9:00. Then we’ll feed, go to breakfast, come back and do barn chores, then have an optional ride late morning depending on how hot it gets. We’ll take a long mid-day rest, then a quiet trail ride in the woods in the heat of the afternoon. We’ll have an early dinner, then begin two periods of riding late in the evening when it cools off and ride until dark.

 

We’ll see how that schedule works tomorrow and watch the weather reports for the next two days. If necessary, we can get up even earlier in the morning and ride a couple of early morning rides, and rest longer during the heat of the day. I do believe we’ll be seeing more “sneaker creeking” like in today’s pictures over the next three days! Meghan also has a mounted games session planned for later tomorrow morning with WATER involved!

 

That’s the plan for the hot weather.

 

Thanks to Leslie Ann McCulloch, one of the true champions of Longacres Blog readers for caring enough to drive an hour and a half this morning after she read yesterday’s news to share memories with us in person. It meant a lot to us, Leslie!

 

We are hearing from many old friends of Quantum, some who we hear from only maybe once a year or less. It makes us feel good that so many people care. The girls here are in fine spirits and dealing well with recent events. So are we. I sound like a broken record, but we are choosing to remember all the great times and celebrate the memory of a great horse, rather than mope in grief.

 

Sunday, July 4^th, Noon Update:

The girls are doing well this morning working cheerfully (mostly – haha!) on their Sunday morning cleanup of the barn and their cabins. We’ll be taking them to town soon for their “Town Day” doing their laundry and wasting money on junk food. They will have their phones and you can expect to talk with them between maybe 1 and 3 or 4. They were in good spirits last night at dinner, Kone King, and the fireworks.

 

I am pretty stoic about dealing with bad situations and people often think of me as cold in situations, but it’s just my way of helping to keep everyone on an even keel during an emergency. I finally did shed a couple of tears for Quantum this morning after we dug his grave and laid him in the hole. I picked a few wild flowers and scattered them on Quantum before we filled in the grave. A few tears at that moment. He is now sleeping peacefully on “Jumper Hill” with the other greatest jumpers in Longacres long history, China Heart, Yorke Springs, Tip-Off, Peppermint Patti, and now Quantum Leap. I think we’ll do one of our occasional “Jumper Hill” ceremonies this week as a remembrance.

 

Meghan and I certainly miss this great horse, but we also feel that it would be hard to have scripted a more appropriate end to this horse’s great show career. He was at the peak of his abilities still, with his best show year ever last season and a promising start to the 2010 year with Bethany riding him with great success in the first few shows this summer. But he was 18 years old. Yes, I would have loved to have him for a couple more years if he held up. But I would not have wanted to watch him decline and endure increasingly common health and soundness problems, as so often happens with great show horses.

 

And we will never forget that Quantum died surrounded by professional trainers we’ve known for years and who all came together to help make his last minutes as comfortable as possible. Yesterday’s loss was greatly eased by the help from Katie on our staff, and from Noreen Laks, Peter Anderson, Aaron & Charity Donan, Virgil Dunham, David Kendrick, RoseAnn Deni, all the staff at Quakerfield, Lindsey Cornell & the Hunter’s Ridge folks, and Bonnie Duncan at Pet Pyx. Thank you all so much. Click this link to see Bonnie’s tribute photo showing Bethany S on Quantum in a breathtaking photoshop picture.

 

Sunday, July 4^th, 8AM Update:

The jumper riders did not get ribbons presented yesterday because of the accident. Check the horse show news page for a full list of results. We have your ribbons and can send them or you can get them at the next show.

 

Bonnie, the Pet Pyx photographer sent us a stunning photo tribute to Quantum which we will post later this morning. Fine work, Bonnie – THANK YOU!

 

Saturday, July 3rd, midnight Update: Show pictures at this link

Scroll down if you haven’t read the very sad news of the day. But the midnight update is much more upbeat. When bad things have happened at Longacres over the years, we usually find it best to keep everyone busy. Which is why we went ahead with the planned outing tonight to dinner and the fireworks. The girls were in excellent spirits. Respectful of Quantum’s memory, to be sure, but good spirits and morale, none the less. Perhaps their camaraderie was even enhanced by the great loss in the afternoon. Sometimes a shared painful experience bonds a group more tightly than before. Talk was good and cheerful at dinner, and more so at Kone King. On the way home from the fireworks? They slept! And they will sleep in tomorrow, the horses traditional day of rest.

 

Horse Show Tuesday night, 5PM to 9PM?

Few were in the mood to continue the horse show after Quantum’s accident this afternoon, and we shut down with quite a few classes left to go. Check tomorrow night for a final announcement, but we are tentatively planning to finish the cancelled classes from the show on Tuesday evening when the hot afternoon temperatures are beginning to cool down. It will be an Open STSS show, a continuation of today’s show. Our girls are excited about it and we welcome anyone else who can make it. No additional grounds fee or Series fee for those who paid it today. Check the website tomorrow night.

 

Bethany, we all hope you’re feeling better. Everyone misses you!

 

 

 

 

Quantum Leap

1992 – 2010

 

 

 

First let me report that all our riders are OK and safe, but this is not the story I wanted to be writing about today’s horse show at Longacres. Quantum landed wrong coming down from a jump on the road line during a jumper class and broke his right front leg. It was obvious immediately that it was a fatal injury and we called the area vets. As it happened a close friend, a horse vet who lives on our grounds in a rental cottage, was the closest and she came and put this great horse to sleep. It took over 30 minutes for the vet to arrive. This great horse, bold and tough to the end, stood on three legs during that time, occasionally trying to use the broken leg, but never panicking or thrashing in any way.

 

All the professional horsemen and women at the show banded together and helped make Quantum as comfortable as possible while we waited for the vet to arrive. It was a touching show of support, and I thank all of you who helped from the bottom of my heart. Meghan and I are deeply grateful.

 

Bethany was riding and having a great day winning two classes on her own horse, Joc-A-Bee, and looking great on Quantum right up until that fateful jump. She fell hard when he stumbled and was taken by ambulance for a checkup. I’m pleased to report that she has no serious injuries and was already released from the emergency room. She is back at the farm now, but will robably need a few days to herself. She loved this horse as much as her own, and it will be hard for her. We at Longacres are all here for Bethany and will deal with this together, just as we dealt with the joy of winning together.

 

This was also difficult for the rest of our riders, and we will be meeting together as a group and individually as needed. It is a teachable moment, as they say. There is always risk in active sports, risk to horses as well as riders. We can be thankful that in this case the rider appears to be OK.

 

As for me personally, yes, there is a deep empty spot in my gut. This horse provided me and hundreds of others at Longacres with great experiences over the years. It is a profound loss. But I am already planning the Party to Honor Quantum – the horse “wake”, if you will. I prefer to feel grateful for the privilege of having the chance to work with an amazing horse for almost ten years here at Longacres. That’s a long career for a show jumper.

 

Parents:

Some of you have spoken with your girls already, and the rest will have their phones perhaps tonight, and definitely tomorrow afternoon during “Town Day” when they do their laundry. Talk to them about death and loss. Let them know how I feel – grateful to have experienced an amazing horse.

 

Call me or Meghan if you like tonight.

 

Tom Kranz

 

PS: Saturday, July 3^rd, 6PM Update:

Kids are resilient department

The Quantum tragedy is very fresh in our minds, but when we announced to the girls that we would be going out to dinner as planned, and then a surprise trip to the East Aurora July 3^rd fireworks, there were squeals of excitement and eager chatter. The best way to deal with a traumatic event for kids is to stay busy. We’ll be very active tonight!

 

 

Friday, July 2^nd, 11PM Update:

Great Spirits for the Show Tomorrow!

If I had just a little more energy left in my aching body, I’d have taken a video of the girls doing show prep at the barn and posted it on YouTube. Until a half hour ago they were all working together cleaning saddles & bridles, grooming horses, eating cookie cake and junk food and laughing and joking. And some admitting they were excited but very nervous! It sounds like it might be a pretty big show, especially in the jumper ring. We’ve had calls and are expecting 20 or more horses just in the jumper division.

 

My aching body is slowly recovering on two Tylenol after helping Meghan all day preparing the course and the show grounds. Joel, her wonderful maintenance guy, is away on vacation this week, and I have a new appreciation of all that he does preparing for horse shows. But I managed to fill in for him and the show grounds are well weed trimmed, the grass mowed, the jumps in good shape, and all the sound system stuff set to go.

 

Every girl had good practices today and they are in good spirits partly because they have good reason to believe that they’ll do well in the show. Win or lose tomorrow, the girls also had a great time jumping long courses and higher jumps than earlier in the week. Our practices for this show were FUN!

 

Wish us luck tomorrow. We’ll have some pictures to post after our traditional dinner in town following the show! Also a guest story on the show written by Sophie!

 

Friday, July 2^nd, 1PM Update:

Remember, Jumpers begin at 9:45 for tomorrow’s show. Small ring and hunters begin at 11AM.

 

Good Riders & Some Good training this Week!

The horse show practice ride this morning went VERY well, and that’s not always the case. We did a lot of difficult things this morning, including jumping the Pulverman, the bank, and the log jump line. These are difficult things, and some of our intermediate riders were doing the tough jumps. Rachel, Lauren, and Cassie did especially well working directly with me on the hard cross country jumps. Bethany, our star jumper rider instructor, worked with Natasha, Drisana, and Heather and some other riders learning the jumper courses.

 

Sorry, no pictures from this morning’s session. All of us were on the field with the girls helping as they did the most difficult riding of this session. Sometimes there are refusals and tearful disappointments on this day before the show training session, but everyone had success after success. I just came from lunch where everyone was chattingly excitedly about the show.

 

The jumper classes look like they’ll be very competitive. We have stall reservations from an adult jumper rider in the area, a call from Kendrick Show Stables that they are bringing jumpers, and Dunhams always show up with Alyssa and Courtney. It will be competitive and exciting. Longacres will have at least seven horses going in jumper classes.

 

More news later today and we will take some pictures.

 

Friday, July 2nd, 9AM Update:

Odds ‘n Ends:

It looks like another gorgeous day for riding at Longacres, with temps in the 70’s, and most wearing sweatshirts this morning. We’ll enjoy it while we can, since very warm to hot weather is due beginning Sunday. The worst will be a couple of days, Monday and Tuesday. When it’s 90 or above, we have a “plan B” under which we get up early and ride from 7 to 9, then take a morning siesta, work with the horses to keep them cool, giving them baths (and getting very wet ourselves, which is fun in the hot weather!), take a quiet trail ride in the woods during the hottest part of the day, and then have lessons from after dinner until dark. No rain at all in the forecast until at least the middle of next week. We’ll welcome it by then.

 

Our girls are doing show practice this morning after helping us set up the jump courses on the show field after breakfast. We’ll be doing lots of the jumps on the big show field, so they’ll be having FUN. More show horse practice this afternoon and this evening. We expect our girls to all win ribbons, maybe lots of them. The show is likely to be fairly small because of the 4^th of July weekend and conflicting activities. There should be enough outside stables so that we’ll have to work to earn blue ribbons, but it will be a friendly show with a relaxed time schedule. Maybe we’ll have our resident guest writer, Sophie, write a story about the show tomorrow night.

 

We’ll post some pictures at this link later today – not sure when. There won’t be too many, because we’re pretty busy setting up for the show.

 

Thursday, 1PM Update:

Lots of Fun Stuff!

We continued to do some bigger jumping exercises in the second ride this morning. Two of the high points of the morning were provided by Caroline. FIRST, she managed to get on Diesel from the ground!!! Honest! She lowered the left stirrup to the longest hole and managed to climb up. There was a huge cheer from everyone in the front ring with her, and we heard it all the way at the sand ring and figured out what she’s done. THEN, Caroline took Diesel over a regular line of good sized show jumps and he picked up his feet and jumped wonderfully for her. He is definitely one of Caroline’s favorite horses and I think he knows that and tries extra hard for her! (Hey, Petra, we’re looking forward to you riding Diesel when you come in August, but you have a kindred spirit here now who also really likes the Might One!)

 

Heather did a great job of calming down Chesney in the sand ring and we put a jump up pretty high for him. The height made no difference – he was just as calm over a bigger jump, once Heather got him quiet in the first place. Natasha got Lincoln to do proper striding in a line and pick up his feet like a show horse. Lauren did a good job on Neek-o in that ride, Drisana was very good on Zanee; Lydia was on Brody, who was very quiet for her and got the right striding every time. Great job, Lydia!

 

In the other ring, Sophie was singled out by instructor Katie to ride Katie’s private horse, Abby. Sophie was very quiet and Katie really likes how she rides her horse. Quite an honor for Sophie to be picked out by Katie. I’ve already mentioned Caroline and her fine ride on Diesel (I’m partial!); Leslie was on Zeus and he got to do a line of X-rail jumps. He’s new to jumping and we have to be careful how much we ask of him, so it was a nice achievement for Leslie on her own horse. Rachel rode both Merlin and Whitley today and likes them both. She may show both on Saturday in different classes. Cassie was especially good in the first lesson when I was helping Alexa teach that group. She had good pace and was careful with the distances. Ruby looked great over the jumps in that lesson, but was a little wiggly trying to keep Tux going straight!

 

All of this was over bigger jumps than we’ve been using the first part of this week. Good job, girls!

 

Thursday, 12:30 PM

Did You try to call?

Someone left a message on our answering machine this morning that was garbled; we don’t know who or the last two digits of the phone number. Please call again and we’ll be glad to return your call!

 

Spending Money Refunds:

Thanks much for the patience of all the students who came during the June weeks. We are finally caught up on tabulating expense and show money and we’re mailing out refunds or statements to everyone who was here in June. We should be much quicker for the rest of the summer now that Taylor is up to date on her barn jobs and all caught up on entering expenses on the computer. Thanks again for the patience of our arly birds!

 

Thursday, July 1^st, Noon Update:

Check this link for some pictures of the girls jumping a little bigger than they did early in the week. We had some good smiles during these exercises! We’re trying to balance giving the girls a little more excitement in these show prep lessons, but not wearing the horses down too much before the show. Nobody jumped higher than I felt was safe (I was there for most of the bigger jumping, which was going on first in Alexa’s lesson, then in Katie’s. I missed a bit of Katie’s, where they had quite an interesting long course to challenge them, because Alexa and I were working together for quite a while with the girls in her lesson in the sand ring.

 

We’re having super duper long lessons this morning, since the afternoon is devoted to showers and our mall trip and movie. The girls are only just now getting on their second ride horses, so our total hours of riding today will not be that much less than normal, even with the field trip.

 

Thursday, July 1^st, 9AM Update:

Good Spirits at Breakfast!

Very cheerful girls this morning after getting to sleep at a reasonable hour last night well filled with ice cream from Kone King! And it helps that we announced that after 3 days of practice, they will be jumping a bit higher in today’s lessons to prepare for the show on Saturday. It also helped that they will be getting cleaned up later this afternoon and going to “THE MALL” and some of them may get to see “THAT MOVIE!” (Edward & friends, ya’ know!) A girl who has been slightly homesick was positively radiant at the possible chance to see Edward. I just hope tickets aren’t sold out for the movie.

 

We also announced that after giving them part of this first week jumping lower jumps to be sure they are safe, we will be jumping a bit higher during most of the lessons next week and we’ll be fully using most of the new horses that we’ve been evaluating only with the strongest riders this week. We are very pleased with Bristol who is turning out to be an unexpectedly useful mare. Better than we had hoped. Anna, the Russian Arab, has been used by Bethany and Heather for two days and more riders will be on her this week. She is very green at jumping but predictable and safe for advanced intermediates and up. Only Bethany is riding Georgia so far, but she has been good and we will expand the number of riders qualified for this pretty horse beginning tomorrow.

 

Thanks to “The Cops”!

We have a good local police force. After the girls getting scared seeing a local boy walking in the woods the night before, we asked that our East Aurora police make a couple of drive throughs of the camp roads last night just to reassure the girls that they were safe. Thanks to one of the officers who not only drove in to the barn, but took the time to get out of his car and walk the trails to the cabins, knock on the cabin door and introduce himself to the girls there making sure they knew they were being watched over. I went down to the cabins myself to check a little before midnight. I was pleased that all the girls were sound asleep by that time – not a sign of life from either cabin! Even the older girls were sound asleep. Dead silence except for the frogs in the pond.

 

Wednesday, 10:30 PM Update:

Spirits were very high at Kone King and in the RV on the way home. And the girls were hilarious on their way from the barn to the cabins. After the so called “prowler scare” last night, some of the girls had armed themselves with Star Wars “Light Sabers”, where they got them, I don’t know. They were laughing and squeeling as they headed through the trail to the cabins and to showers. Just as Meghan and I headed up to the house, our East Aurora police had a patrol car driving back to the barn for a routine check, which they have promised to do several times during the night.

 

We have one of the younger girls a bit homesick, and we are already in contact with the parents about it. Other than that, things couldn’t be better right now. One more picture album at this link.

 

Our horse show is now only three days away! Lots of work to do!

 

Wednesday, June 30^th, 8PM Update:

Things are going well

The two girls who were disciplined this morning are working hard and being cheerful and cooperative. I am pleased and I hope it lasts. All the older girls are in fine spirits and enjoying riding interesting horses. Meghan’s new horses, both the ones she purchased and the ones here on lease or trial are all working out very well. This is the most interesting new group of horses we’ve had at Longacres in a long time. It makes for a happy group of riders.

 

We do have one new student in the younger group not completely happy here, though she had a good night tonight riding her favorite horse for the first time. We are in touch with the parents, so it is not a mystery student! (Our policy in generally is not to write about any of our routine problems until the parent in question has been notified, so that the rest of you don’t have to worry.)

 

Some people ask me, “Why on earth do you write publicly about things going wrong or discipline issues?”

 

It is just the way we do things at Longacres. We are very proud of what we do here, and we feel it is consistent with our commitment to full disclosure to let you at home know when we have problems and what we try to do to make them right. Not everything is perfect here, and not every last student goes away satisfied. We are gratified that the great majority of our students do like the program and that we have a strong return rate each year. With the exception of the one new student who may yet come around, we’re really pleased with how this session is going and with the high spirits. In fact we’re especially pleased with how the girls who had a poor attitude this morning have pulled themselves together and tried hard since then! Way to go!

 

There will be one more set of pictures posted here late tonight.

 

Wednesday, June 30^th, 6PM Update:

Trails and ring work this afternoon, pics at this link quick right before dinner, and maybe Kone King after evening ride?

 

Wednesday, June 30^th, noon Update:

Round Two

I wrote late last night that Meghan thought she made an adequate impression on the younger girls cabin to make sure that they would fully cooperate when the counselors gave them direction. I was wrong. At least I was two fifths wrong! Two of the younger girls were again disrespectful this morning to counselors who made reasonable requests of them concerning horse care procedures. Maybe it was further testing of limits, maybe a continuation of their attitude from last night when they resisted going to bed by curfew time. At any rate, it earned them a loss of their morning rides, long talks at the office with Meghan (and briefly with the not-so-nice grandpa Tom), talks with their parents on the phone, and extra horse care jobs.

 

Parents, this has all been dealt with, so if you have not heard from us this morning, it is NOT YOUR KID!

 

This is annoying, because we really like the two kids involved. That’s the only reason they’re getting an opportunity for three strikes and you’re out. Normally at Longacres it’s two strikes and out for behavior issues. It’s a clear case of 11 and 12 going on 17 and confusing unfettered, laissez faire freedom with being grown up. Both girls were given the option of going home and they both very much want to stay.

 

On the Good News Side:

All of the older girls, and the rest of the younger girls are doing great and enjoyed a fine morning of riding in perfect temperatures. Check this link for some pictures Meghan took last night and this morning. The pictures will be posted right after lunch, so the link might not work for a bit.

 

Bethany’s Training Session

Bethany was hired by us this year partly to be an instructor, but also because she is a very strong competitive rider and horse trainer. Last night I asked her to be the first one to ride and jump Anna, the new Russian Arab mare that we have on loan for the summer. This is a sweet horse that’s not bad to ride on the flat, but has had only erratic jumping experience. Anna’s owners want to see what a Longacres “send your horse to camp” experience can do for their horse. We hadn’t planned for this to be a formal training demonstration, but Bethany got to the jumping part of the exercise just near the end of evening ride when everyone was cooling their horse down, so all of a sudden everyone was lined up around the sand ring watching Bethany work the horse.

 

Bethany began with a variety of flat work which was pretty uneventful. Then she took Anna over a very low X-rail, which the Arab jumped very big, not knowing quite what to do with a jump. Bethany brought the horse around again after reassuring her. Anna trotted towards the jump and at the last minute, tried to duck out to the right and twirl away from the jump. The horse was in for a big surprise. I don’t know if she’s ever been ridden by someone with Bethany’s solid seat and hands and determination! Before the horse could realize what was happening, Bethany had her head hauled back in front of the jump and the horse was standing still, looking very surprised that she wasn’t getting away with anything. Bethany then gently pressed her forward and made her jump the tiny X-rail from a standstill. She took Anna around again and the horse jumped, but way too big; Bethany reassured her after the jump. The next jump was another refusal, but Anna almost instantly knew she wasn’t getting away with it and willingly jumped from a stand still. The following three jumps were each smoother and better than the one before, with Bethany petting and reassuring the horse after each jump. We quit for the evening after getting two quite nice quiet jumps in a row. Bethany right way told me, “This horse is a fast learner!” And that’s a big part of why we hired Bethany S. to be on the 2010 Longacres staff.

 

Wednesday, June 30, 7AM Update:

Fine Riding Weather (and NOT a prowler)

Temperature is a chilly 53 degrees out right now and we’re only expecting a high of 66 today. Great for riding!

 

NOT a Prowler

After the younger girls were packed off to bed last night by Meghan we got a call from the counselors that one of the older girls had seen a “man/boy” on the trail near the barn. We checked the whole camp and saw nobody, but her description is close to describing a 14 year old boy who lives next door to the barn and who sometimes cuts through the camp during our off season to get to a friends house. We’ll talk to him today to remind him that the camp is now in session and it is off limits to him until the fall, especially at night. This incident does not concern us beyond the fact that it gets the girls’ imaginations going, and suddenly every raccoon or deer stepping on a branch in the woods at night sounds like a prowler to them. Anyway, we’ll add some extra evening patrols of the grounds to our long “to do” list. (The girl who saw “the prowler” last night was also out of her cabin after curfew getting something she had left at the barn. Curfew will be strict for all ages tonight.)

 

 

Tuesday, June 29^th, 10PM Update:

The Fine Line Between Exuberance and Misbehavior

The girls had a great day today with high spirits during the afternoon lessons and even more good humor during mounted games after dinner. When they finished horse care they even played at being horses running around over the jumps like little girls. Laughter and good spirits from everyone. Perhaps all that fun got too much adrenaline flowing, because a few minutes ago Meghan got a call from the staff that the younger girls were being rowdy and not being cooperative about getting to bed at curfew. We hate to squash good spirits, but we have zero tolerance for disrespect of counselors. Meghan is headed down to the cabin area. The girls are in for a surprise. Meghan is so cheerful and good natured that it is a shock to the girls if they ever get to see Meghan’s disciplinarian side.

 

I’ll know more soon (I try to stay out of discipline issues, because I have an old fashioned concept of respect for elders, and my response to this kind of thing has occasionally been unfairly harsh! PLUS, now that Meghan handles discipline, I am much more popular than I used to be. Kind of the nice grandpa roll.) It’s not uncommon for girls to test a few limits during the first few days of each season. From what I know now, there is no really bad behavior going on, just a bunch of nice girls having a great time and REALLY not ready to go to bed yet (they think!). The counselors were trying to get them to bed diplomatically without spoiling the good mood. They called Meghan for advice. So Meghan went down acting as though she was on a routine cabin check, so that if necessary, she will be the bad guy and not the counselors.

 

(Meghan just returned. Everything went exactly as I guessed it would. Problem solved, and Meghan thinks she made an adequate impression to insure that counselors won’t have to ask more than once to get cooperation.)

 

No need for parents to call and ask about your kid – it really was a case of that very fine line between really great spirits and improperly out of control fun being crossed. We’re comfortable with the resolution and the girls seem to understand why rules need to be followed.

 

Ah, camp!

 

Tuesday, June 29^th, 6PM Update:

Caroline Gets “some air”

Check this link for another batch of pictures. I think we got everyone this afternoon, but don’t get upset if I missed someone; Meghan wasn’t there and she’s the organized one that keeps track of such things.

 

Coolest picture is Caroline on Brody. I asked her how she liked him when she was riding him in a lesson in the small ring with one of the counselors. She answered, “He’s all right.” Well, I decided to try to convince her that he is more than “all right”.

 

We took the whole lesson out to the big field and let everyone jump the Butterfly (see the pictures). I knew Caroline had experience doing some bigger jumps, so I watched her over the lower heights. I liked what I saw so I jacked up the Butterfly to a decent height jump and let Caroline take Brody over. Then I asked her again how she likes Brody. I got a big smile and a “Yes, I like him!” response. We do that from time to time at Longacres when the horse and the rider look to be in synch and the conditions are right.

 

Tuesday, June 29, 5PM Update:

Check this link. We’re beginning to jump the big fences on the outside show field. Some of the girls were out on a trail ride this hour, but I took pictures on the field of the girls who were riding in the ring. Everyone will get to do these jumps over the coming few days.

 

Meghan and I also had a good meeting with Alexa, Katie, and Bethany after lunch discussing the riding status of each of the girls this session and how they’re getting along. The meeting was pretty much all good news and positive reports, and I like that. A few things to keep an eye out for. We try to meet every few days to share observations on everyone’s progress between the staff members.

 

Tuesday, June 29^th, noon Update:

Great Riding Day!

Just wonderful horse riding weather, with bright sun, a cool breeze, and temperatures in only the 60’s! And it will be much like this until late in the week when it gets warm again, but likely dry for the whole holiday weekend.

 

Check this link for a few pictures from this morning. The girls did mostly single jump exercises their first two days, but are beginning to work lines and parts of courses today. You should get some pictures of some of them jumping on the big show field this afternoon. Other good news is that Quantum is back at work after several small injuries the past ten days, and new horses Bristol and Georgia who have just been getting ground work, will be ridden this afternoon and soon join the rotation.

 

Tuesday, June 29^th, 10AM Update:

C I T-T’s (Natasha’s good term!)

Longacres places great importance on our CIT program. Counselors in Training, if you’re not up on camp terminology. Promising girls are given the chance to take on occasional extra responsibilities and do a little teaching for a year or two when they are teenage campers. We do this to help build a pool of potential counselors for the future who know the ins and outs of Longacres. Leslie and Heather are “official” CIT’s this session. But we have great depth in our group of responsible teenagers this two weeks. We were kidding at breakfast this morning that Drisana and Natasha will both get opportunities this week to do some CIT stuff. Natasha quickly chimed in, “We’ll be CITT’s!” We all laughed, but the term will stick.

 

We’re lucky because we have a good group of returning students from this same session last year. We wrote about last year’s early July group and at the time told many of you that the group here last summer from June 28^th to July 12^th was perhaps the finest group of girls we’ve ever had who were nearly all first time Longacres students. They just clicked together and with us, and we will never forget that group. Which is why we’re so happy to have the nucleus of that group from 2009 all back together at Longacres, now as experienced Longacres students. Heather, Leslie, Drisana, Natasha, Ruby, and Lydia all provide a great example to our first time students for this session and they’re all a great help to the counselors since they know the routines and our expectations. The older girls, Heather, Leslie, Drisana, and Natasha could probably run the camp themselves, and now and then during a counselor meeting or when there is a problem being taken care of, they do. Fine group of girls! Great “CITT’s”!

 

Tuesday, June 29^th, 7AM Update:

Oops!

I know, I know, no pictures yesterday. My bad. Meghan took a good bunch all day and handed me the camera during our video watching session last night. It had been a long active first full day of the session, and we were more than a little tired. None the less, I connected the camera to my computer and lay back just for a second to rest my eyes while the pictures loaded. I was out like a light in seconds! Meghan says I didn’t move – down for the full count.

 

So here are yesterday’s pictures at this link. Sorry to have failed last night. We’re adjusting the lesson schedule by a few minutes each hour today so that all of us, campers and staff, can get a good rest period in after lunch! The girls are in good spirits, but if we’re as tired as we were after the first two days, I’m sure the girls will be getting tired also. Proactive, ya know!

 

 Monday, June 28th, 6PM Update:

The rain was close by but we were dry this afternoon for both lessons after the deluge before lunch. We jumped in the sand ring this afternoon and got a lot of video, which we will be watching tonight. More later, plus pictures!

 

Monday, June 28^th, Noon Update:

Tough Chicks, “Ridin’ in the Rain!”

Chance of scattered showers and rain today, it said, and it’s “scattering” right over us at the moment! The girls got in a great first lesson this morning and about half of their second morning ride before the rain hit. At first it was a gentle drizzle, and when I left the barn 20 minutes ago they were still riding. Tough chicks! And I spoke with Meghan a few minutes ago while she was working at the barn, and the girls were still up top in harder rain. Tough Chicks! It’s coming down hard now and I hope they’re inside the barn, soaking wet as they all must be by now.

 

Weather is still supposed to clear later this afternoon with the sun out, so we should get in nearly a full ration of riding today and after dinner. Weather still looks very good for riding for most of the rest of the week.

 

I was working on my tractor around the barn this morning and I was able to sit and watch all the girls riding in both lessons. I’m getting a good handle on the strong and weak points of each rider and I’ll be sitting down with Meghan and the counselors tonight or tomorrow to talk about specific exercises that will most help each rider. They’re a good group of horsewomen, some very good. But there’s always things to improve. We’re already seeing girls bond with favorite horses and we think we’re finding some good combinations for the first show on Saturday.

 

Heather M. and Lauren F. got “gold stars” for mounting their horses especially gently for the second morning lesson. I was sitting in my tractor a couple of hundred feet away watching closely to see how careful each rider would be when they didn’t think I was personally watching them. Sneaky, I know. I do a lot of riding observations from the seat of my tractor!

 

Sunday, June 27^th, 11PM Update:

Here’s Why . . . . .

We work very long hours every year putting together the special program that is Longacres. Would you like to know why we keep doing it season after season?

 

Here is the reason why, written eloquently by first time Longacres rider, Sophie L.

 

= = =

 

“Sophie’s First Day at Longacres”

by Sophie L.

 

I really didn’t know what to expect when I signed up for Longacres. The idea of riding five hours a day, like most of the other campers, was what attracted me. My life would become total horse paradise. Just the thought gave me chills. Little did I know that it would be all that and more.

 

When we pulled into the camp driveway the first thing we saw was the beautiful jumping field by the entrance. All the jumps were freshly painted and were just calling my name. I spotted the castle jump immediately wondering when I was going to get to jump it. I had never really had the chance to jump a course with such extravagant jumps as that.

 

We then proceeded to enter the barn, a long row of horses on crossties stretched down the aisle. I couldn’t believe that even though I had just arrived I was already getting to ride. The next five horses that I rode were some of the best I have ever mounted. They were each different, from trust-worthy Bobert, to cute and spunky Ebony.

 

After a long day of horse care and quite a few hours of riding we were all ready to hit our cabin. I know that my dreams will be of the great rides and memories yet to come.

 

= = = =

 

Meghan had tears on her cheeks when she brought Sophie’s article up for me to post here. I’m a little misty eyed myself as I write. Thank you, Sophie!

 

 

 

Sunday, June 27^th, 8:30 PM Update:

Beginning to “Bond”

That’s always what we watch for when a new group arrives for a session. Are they all talking? Are they laughing and joking, especially at meals? Sometimes it takes three or four days, sometimes just a day or two. I’d say after just coming from our late dinner at the dining hall that this group is on track for a quick adjustment to Longacres. Everyone was taking part in the horse talk at dinner and there was lots of, “So what’s your last name?”, or “Where are you from?” Plenty of smiles. And we have two distinct age groups and the girls in each group seem compatible, with everyone appearing to have found someone to buddy up with already.

 

As I write this, there’s thunder and the rain’s beginning to fall, so the weather forecasts seem to be right on. Of course we’d prefer to have a glorious sunset on our first night of camp, but the girls all seemed very pleased that the rain held off until we got in all our planned riding for the first day and they liked hearing that after a few lingering morning showers, tomorrow is expected to be a fine riding day! (WOW! There was just an LONG rolling series of thunder claps out my window!) Mid week is expected to bring an unseasonably cold couple of days – perfect for riding!

 

Remember that we will still be posting one more album of pictures tonight a little later on when Meghan returns from the barn and horse care talks.

 

 

Sunday, 6PM Update:

We’re All Here!

Leslie and “Zeus” pulled in with their horse trailer from Pennsylvania about an hour ago, and the taxi from the airport just arrived with Katie & new student Rachel. We’re all here now and except for the late arrivals, everyone has been on multiple horses today. Rachel will get on for a short ride right after dinner as a proper introduction to Longacres. All the girls will have some chill time to take a horse out on the lawn grazing and just relax after dinner.

 

Tomorrow morning we’ll start off with all the safety talks and demonstrations and then get going for a full day of riding.

 

Weather report calls for heavy thunderstorms overnight tonight, but rapid clearing tomorrow morning and through the afternoon. We like rain at night! (I just checked the radar and sure enough, powerful storms are passing about 40 miles south of us – “stay away, storms!”

 

The first set of pictures from today is now posted at this link. I’ll post them over again in a couple of hours with captions so you at home can start learning who’s who this session.

 

Sunday, 4PM Update:

We have one CIT (Leslie) and one student (Rachel) still to arrive, then we’ll all be here taking care of the horses and riding together the next two weeks. We’re off to a good start. Sophie told me a few minutes ago that she’s ridden four different horses already today! We’ve got one more ride scheduled for about 5PM, then a late dinner and a relaxed late horsecare with safety and horse care procedure talks after dinner.

 

Check this link very soon for a set of pictures from this morning’s ride and video session, and check this link for more pictures later tonight.

 

Sunday, June 27^th, Opening Day With Lights After All!

Below is a very appropriate message from former counselor, Shelly, who is reading our Blog in London:

 

Hey guys!

 

I read about how you did well at the show yesterday! That's great and exciting! I want to give Meghan a mental hug and tell her everything is going to be alright, which I'm sure she knows and is tired of hearing, but she hasn't heard me say it yet. So Meghan, it'll be alright, it just means everyone is going to go to bed a little bit earlier tonight! Including the little hiccup, I want to wish the both of you the BEST OPENING DAY EVER!!! 

 

Love,

Shelly

 

Lights are Back On

And as luck would have it, the lights came back on themselves just before the electrician arrived to check them out. Which is too bad, because an intermittent electrical problem is harder to find than a total failure. But we know what it is probably and can easily fix it if it happens again. (worn fuse holder)

 

Most Have Arrived

Lauren is a stay-over from last week, and returning students He