Do You BELIEVE Linda is going to marry the guy responsible for this?

The ever alert Krissy snapped this pic a few weeks back when Linda's fiancee asked why his horse looked so different with his halter on in the cross ties.

For all the riders who haven't been approved for a trail lesson yet, here is a good secret: she lets David ride on the trail ...

Weaning Patty, Working Vixen

We are quickly approaching the time to wean Patty. Today, Patty went into the stall she has shared with Vixen since her birth while Krissy saddled up Vixen and rode her for a half hour or more down on the hunter/jump course set up on the track (now, the barn is cleaner than my house and the track is decorated prettier for fall than the yard ... oh well).

Patty happily munched on hay the whole time -- a very, very good sign. I don't know all that much about horses, but I stopped to watch Krissy ride for a while and to the untrained eye Vixen looked beautiful -- smooth and sound. Krissy said all the horses are a lot happier in that setting. I guess they like the idea of no fences!

When Vixen went back in the stall with Patty she actually didn't let her nurse -- another good sign that she is actually weaning the foal herself! Starting tomorrow we are going to feed them their grain in separate stalls. Soon, Vixen will be in a different pasture and stall than Patty till she is completely weaned.

Linda told me today she thinks with a month of concentrated work, Vixen will be ready to put back in the school horse rotation! She is such a pretty horse. We just need to watch her leg for that old lameness injury, but so far she seems good. I worried about her the last few weeks of the pregnancy.

We can certainly use another walk/trot pony for beginners and advanced beginners. Vixen actually has great breeding and was destined to be a 'fancy' dressage horse until sometime around 2 years she went through a fence and hurt her leg. She recovered enough to go on to a YMCA camp where we are told she was a great camp horse. Being a sound and calm camp horse and a good riding school horse are pretty consistent.

I still hope to possibly breed her again one more time ... she did such a great job and threw such a beautiful filly! And speaking of that filly, it is clear why Vixen was so big those last few days of her pregnancy. Man, that filly is getting HUGE. The bigger she gets the more anxious all the riders get to saddle her up. But the really good news is what a great disposition she has. A little spirited for sure, but loves people and lets you handle her.

Who wants the first lesson on Vixen?????

Anatomy of a Successful Birthday Party

We had a very, very successful first attempt at a Cobble Hill Farm birthday party. Harper turned four and a dozen of her friends helped her celebrate!

We kicked the party off with the much anticipated pony rides. I had set up two craft tables with a fun decoupage horse jar project so that the kids who weren't riding could stay busy. I was very surprised that most of the kids preferred to watch the pony rides ... even after they took their own turn. Hercules and Dixie were, as we'd hoped, really calm and cooperative.

Some of the kids were hesitant but others were ready to go. A few progressed to putting their hands on their hips while the horse was led around and a few even did a lap riding backwards.

The birthday party guests were so captivated by the horses that I made a spur of the moment decision to bring Vixen and Patty into the ring to do the lunging demonstration for them. They really loved it but some of our new horses in the back paddock got all jazzed up by the action in the ring and came galloping down to observe and then try to join in the celebration.

The scavenger hunt was next up --- ten clues like "Where Jay might find a drink of water" (the clue was taped to the waterer in his stall). The clues each garnered a letter in a baggie and when collected spelled: C*O*B*B*L*E**H*I*L*L

Then, before breaking for the pizza, fruit, cake and juice that Harper's mom brought, we did our own variation on finding a needle in a hay stack. I was thrilled to find a perfect use for the bags of hay chaff that the summer camp kids had scooped up (here is a picture of that activity). I dumped it in the back of the barn near the wash stall and hid a bag full of double bubble gums (individually wrapped) in it. The kids loved digging through the hay ... and for a few of them, it was their first ever experience with gum -- Double Bubble is definitely a great first gum!

While the revelers stopped for refreshments, Chuck dumped the water out of one of our wagons and hooked it up to the tractor. We made seating with hay bales and backed the wagon into the entrance to the barn. All the kids (and a few lucky dads who were pressed into duty to sit at the end of the wagon) happily climbed aboard, the rain and mist let up for long enough for a 15 minute hay ride. I am hoping one of the moms who took pictures will send them along.

It was a fun day -- and amazing that it was not so hard when the birthday child is not mine. I had a blast and wasn't stressed at all. The Hunt girls were a HUGE help (I did bribe them with a promise to pay them $10 each if they helped ... which they each earned) and of course, my mom was once again the special sauce ... chatting with everyone and generally keeping the craft tables humming.

If you know anyone wanting a special pony birthday -- send them our way. Saturday late afternoon and Sunday mornings will be the blocks that we will schedule events.

This weeks horse news

This week, Sweet Pea went up to Karrie's for the winter to chill. If he doesn't have another seizure it is possible an experienced adult rider might want to take him on ...

Bradley also went back up to Karrie's until the big hunter/pacer event that several of the adult and accomplished older girls are doing next weekend.

Chuck -- aided enthusiastically by Elizabeth -- has started making calls about getting a new school horse. There are lots of horses out there, but finding the right one to fit into a school program is hard. Optimally, we'd like a younger horse who can do advanced beginners but also can jump up to 18 inches as the riders progress.

I am sad to miss our Saturday lessons tomorrow for an out of town event. Going to be a GLORIOUS fall day. Maybe I will get home in time to do a short trail ride.

And of course: GO RED SOX.

Lots of fun, some ribbons and a beautiful day!

We had a wonderful day at the Oak Hollow Horse show to benefit Equus! We had riders entered in just about every event and so many of our riders either won championship or reserve championship ribbons, achieved some personal goals or simply had a great time ... and the weather could NOT have been better.

Regular readers of the blog know that I never identify riders in pictures. Today, I am going to post results (without pictures) with real names. One thing that Chuck always tells our daughters -- and they both experienced this for good and bad yesterday -- is that you have to remember that a lot of the results depend on what kind of day your horse is having. Some days both the rider and the horse are having a great day and they win! Some days the rider is having a great day and the horse is being a complete pill -- and you don't win. From my perspective, the riders probably learn more in the second instance. And, I reminded a few riders yesterday that there have probably been days when the horse was having a great day and the rider was being a complete pill -- and you never hear the horses complain. :)

Unfortunately, I don't have all the results yet. The Advanced Walk Trot was a huge class -- 11 riders! And we never heard them announce the results of the trail class or any award of Champion and Reserve Champion.

Champion & Reserve Champions:
If a student and horse compete in all the events in their class, they are eligible to be named the champion or reserve champion for the class (an average of the results). Congratulations to the following Cobble Hill Riders & their horses who won these coveted ribbons yesterday:

Beginner Walk/Trot Division:
Champion: Elyse Jandl and Buck
Reserve Champion: Cameron Sabin and Hercules

Advanced Walk/Trot Divison:
No results yet.

Beginner Walk/Trot/Canter Division:
Champion: Elizabeth Hunt & Hercules
Reserve Champion: Samantha Dorwin & Dixie

Junior Walk/Trot/Canter Division:
Champion: Mercer Greenwald & Hercules

Senior Walk/Trot/Canter Division:
Champion: Audria Greenwald & Bradley
Reserve Champion: Alexandra Manello & Jake

Advanced Equitation Over Fences 6 inches:
2nd Place: Grace Smith & Buck

Advanced Equitation over Fences -- 18 inch
1st: Alexandra & Jake
2nd: Audria & Bradley

Individual rider & Horse results (what we have):
E = Equitation, P = Pleasure, O = Obedience or Command, P = Pattern and T = Trail
Cameron & Hercules: E: 2nd; P: 2nd; O: 1st; P 2nd; T 3rd
Elyse & Buck: E: 1st; P: 3rd; O: 3rd; P: 1st; T 2nd
Emily Shanley and Dixie: E 3rd; P 2nd; O 3rd
Lauren Hunt & Mr. Tee: E 6th; P 6th; O 8th
Jillian & Norman: E 5th; P 3rd; O 1st; T 3rd
Holly & Jay: E 1st; P 3rd; O 4th; P 4th; T 5th
Elizabeth & Hercules: E 3rd; P 2nd; O 1st; P 1st; T 3rd
Samantha & Dixie: E 2nd; P 1st; O 6th; P 5th; T 1st
Mercer & Hercules: E 1st; P 2nd; O 1st; P 4th
Grace & Buck: E 4th; P 3rd; O 4th, P 3rd, T 2nd
Julia Burdick & Blaze: E 3rd; P 1st; O 3rd; P 2nd
Audria & Bradley: E 1st, P 4th; O 4th; P 1st; T 1st
Alexandra & Jake: E 2nd; P 2nd; O 1st; P 4th

Fun Class Results for CHF Riders:
Costume Class:
Holly & Jay: 4th
Cameron & Hercules: 5th
Emily & Blue: 7th
Lauren & Buck: 2nd
Audria, Julia, Bradley & Blaze: 1st

Pairs:
Audria, Julia, Bradley and Blaze: 1st

Egg & Spoon:
Christine Condaris and Bam: 1st

JUMPING CLASSES:
Additional CHF Results
Beginner Equitation Over 6 inch Rails: Samantha & Hercules: 4th; Julia & Blaze: 5th; Elizabeth & Hercules: 7th

Special thanks to Emily Sabin for keeping all the results, to Annika Wells for all her help with the younger riders, to our riders who weren't competing who came to root on the riders, Linda and Jeannie for being there with advice and support AND all the parents who worked so hard to make it a great day.

What is up with Farmville?

I have noticed a really interesting phenomenon on Facebook. There are all kinds of people who are playing a virtual reality game called "Farmville". I haven't done it myself, but from what I can tell, they must play some kind of game to earn money (I hope they don't pay real money!) to use to 'run' their own farm.

Recently, my aunt bought her first tractor. She also has built a gazebo to sit and watch the sunset.

Any of our riders or visitors know the reality of farm life is that it is a 24/7 job filled with lots and lots of hard work. However, there is a lot about farming that is really rewarding and running a horse farm in particular.

So I am wondering if all these people who are 'virtual farming' would actually pay to come ride and experience real life on a farm. Kind of like the Life on a Farm packages that we did this summer for children. I need to do some market research! Or would they just even visit our site and contribute to it? We are making the transition to an interactive blog where you can post and make comments. Should be up and running soon. I will have the ability to screen submissions for suitability before they get posted so that our culture and philosophy are embedded in the content -- we just hope to get more of you to read and post!

Here are some real pictures of life on a farm .... feel free to pass along to any of your friends over at Farmville. :)

Countdown to the Oak Hollow Show Saturday

Even though our barn is primarily about learning and fun, many of the riders look forward to doing a low key show. The barn across the street which runs an Equus program (where Linda still does some classes) http://www.equustherapeutic.org/ runs two shows a year as fundraisers for their programs. In these difficult economic times all non-profits are struggling to make their budgets. Which is why we are thrilled that our barn will be sending about 13 riders to Saturday's show.

In the past the shows have been on a Sunday and the riders have spent a better part of their Saturday getting their horses ready. With the show on Saturday we are preparing for chaos tomorrow between 3:30 pm and ????.

Hopefully, we will get the trailer completely loaded and possibly even parked across the street tomorrow night. And Krissy has agreed to work on Saturday even though it is her day off.

Will definitely post results!

Sweet Pea and Seizure

Unfortunately, blood tests came back confirming that Sweet Pea did have a seizure. The disappointing thing is that the toxicology reports did not give us any information about what caused the seizures which means we can't be sure if it will ever happen again. Long way of saying, Sweet Pea has to retire from being a school horse. We would never put a rider or a horse into a dangerous situation. Still, this is a really hard outcome and we are all still processing it.

As always, a big THANKS for Dr. Dowd -- he really has been such a steady, reliable partner as we work through issues like this.

Here is a link to some info on Seizures in Horses. http://www.thehorse.com/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=410

Our Own Facebook Page

In my continued efforts to be the most media savvy, web savvy horse barn ... I have been working on our Facebook Page. One great advantage to 'friending' the barn and checking it out ... I can post TONS of the great pictures that Krissy takes quickly and easily, whereas it is pretty slow and tedious on the blog. So, Friend Cobble Hill Farm!

Difficult Ending to a Saturday full of riding

Our first day of Saturday lessons with Jeanne went great! We also had lots of boarders, leasers and FOCHF (Friends of Cobble Hill Farm) here all day.

But our day ended on a sour note when Sweet Pea was getting tacked up for his lease ride by "Amy" and her mom. It appears that he had a seizure. Dr. Dowd was here (yes, we have now ruined two of his weekends in a row, but he is really, really nice about it!) and stitched up Sweet Pea where he had some pretty bad cuts (either on the way down or the way up). I don't want to write much more speculation because SP is one of our most favorite horses in the barn and while I want everyone to know what is going on (the Hunt girls, Amy's family and several boarders were here for the excitement) I don't want to speculate. It was a scary incident.

Everyone's thoughts and prayers worked great with Bam's injury ... so please do the same for Sweet Pea tonight. He is comfortable, seems fine and is in his stall eating hay and a bit of extra grain he got to get him to eat the anti-biotics and little bit of bute to help the pain (one gash was pretty nasty).

We have so many great pics of him, but here is a good one of many.

Strength and Conditioning

Many new riders who come here are active in other sports in their daily lives. It is interesting how surprised they are at the soreness they feel after riding or the difficulty they have with certain aspects of riding. (For me, it is the core strength needed to post while keeping a steady rein)

I just came across a great website that gave some good conditioning tips for riders. Here is the link: http://www.ehow.com/how_2247007_get-shape-horseback-riding.html

Of course, it is also true that runners or bikers might benefit from some horseback riding in order to improve things like balance!

And, this picture of Chuck and Lizzie has nothing at all to do with this post, but Krissy has taken so many great pictures that I hate to do a post without putting some up. And this is one of my favorites. And we are putting some more hay in this week -- today, actually. So ....

Moms who canter

This picture is Buck (my favorite trail horse!) and Ceasar in the paddock scratching each other. It is so interesting to see the different interactions and relationships between the horses.

Had to switch into an earlier lesson today. Ended up with Christina, Brenda and Lucy and I rode Mr. Tee. He was a much better workout and harder to ride than Buck which shocked me -- it sure is different riding than watching! You need to work very hard to keep him on the rail (the periphery of the ring) by keeping near-constant pressure with your inside leg. Probably a lot less work at age 10 than 40-something!! It made my ankles kill.

Christina has been cantering Sweet Pea but today Linda was determined to get her to canter Buck. She was nervous (after my disastrous attempt to canter on Buck, I understood why) but she really stuck with it and did it! We were all cheering ... which Linda leveraged to challenge each of us to do more than we were planning. We all cantered! It was such a great, affirming and supportive experience. I think we were all near tears building off each others confidence and achievements which sounds sappy, but it was powerful!

In addition to cantering Mr. Tee (twice! no pulling back on the reins, but hard to keep him on the rail and me in the saddle) we got lots of my 'administrative' responsibilities done today.

Linda and I have nearly finalized the fall schedule -- no mean feat as we are bursting at the seams after school. Jeannie is going to have 3 lessons on Saturday of beginners and advanced beginners! But I also solidified our Thursday night Ride and Relaxation program by recruiting Kerry Holbrooke to run it! Watch for an email or announcement on the "What's New" page. It will be at 5:00 till 6:30 on Thursdays ... $50 per ride. 45 minutes of instruction and 45 minutes of wine tasting on the deck (hopefully with sunset)!

Also, Tasha spent some time here today and we were all SO glad to have her in the barn. She, Linda and I finalized plans for a Tuesday morning Yoga & Riding experience. Each class will do half an hour of Yoga floor work in the space downstairs in the house, then move to the barn for 45 minutes to an hour of tacking up and riding. Tasha has a numerous different aspects of riding and will focus an entire class on that -- for example: keeping your heels down (which sounds easy till you try to do it for 45 minutes on a bouncy horse!). She' ll do related yoga moves and then she and Linda will co-teach the riding portion which will be a continuation of that one area of concentration. I am often out of town on Tuesdays ... and I can tell I am going to be really jealous of the riders who can work this in to their schedules. It will also be $50 for the session and limited to four riders per session -- at least to start.

A pretty productive day. And in between I wrote a short op-ed piece that will be in the Washington Post this weekend! (alas, about politics and not horses or being a farmers wife ....)

Back to School ....

Most of our riders started school today and many are getting underway with fall sports. We are thrilled that so many folks want to ride this fall! (If every day is like today, you can see why!)

Most of our after-school youth groups are full and we are adding two new groups on Saturdays with Jeannie.

We are also adding some adult programming. At the moment it is primarily lessons -- in the ring and for advanced riders, on the trail. But we are hoping to get more creative and do some more stuff as the fall progresses. Keep an eye on "what's new".

Update on Bam: He is doing really well. Dr. Dowd is keeping him splinted for a few more days, but we are cautiously optimistic that he simply pinched a nerve .... so if you were sending good thoughts our way, thanks.

Check out this article in today's Globe:

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/09/02/in_search_of_greener_pastures/

So, so sad. We are going to consider adopting one of these abandoned horses. We are lucky to have the staff and space to potentially turn lemons into lemonade.

the Boys!

Sometimes there is a misperception that all youth riders are girls. While we have many, many girls who ride, we also have a healthy group of boys who are riding here.

Mickey is featured here tearing it up on Buck! He loves to ride western and he can make Buck move. Watch out for him in the barrell races.

I want to get good enough to challenge him (me on Buck, him on Dixie) to a barrell race!!!