Winter Newsletter and Season!

Here is the text of the newsletter that should be out this week!

WINTER 2009-2010 Newsletter




Indian Summer! While we enjoy these last wonderful days of fall, the barn is busy preparing for winter. As many of you know, we have over 20 horses – a few new winter boarders and some new school horses. We also have three new run-in sheds and have replaced the footing in the indoor arena and are very hopeful to have found the right combination to control the dust!



Winter Lesson Packages & Season sign up now. Many students took advantage of the 10 lesson package (it ends 11/20!) so we are offering the package for winter – with a few tweaks. The session will run from November 30th through March 13th. There are 15 weeks in the session. However, between holidays and those days when it is just too cold for lessons (less than 20 degrees) we generally miss a few days. So, we are going to price the package based on an expectation that there will be 11 total lessons. Just like in the fall, if you have to miss a lesson for illness or a conflict, you may (with advance permission from Linda) join a different lesson for a makeup. We won’t makeup weather cancelled lessons though (just like the airlines ).

Prices for the Winter lesson pack are:

Half Hour Private: $375

Hour Semi Private: $375

Hour Group: $250

Sunday Jumping: $400

Sign up even if you aren’t doing the ‘pack’! Even if you don’t plan to pay for the season, please let Linda know soon if you plan to ride for the winter – I know several of you have already done so. In addition, let Linda know if your schedule has changed or if you’d like to look for availability on a different day.



Private and Semi-Private lessons. If you were in a group lesson but really wanted a smaller, semi-private lesson or even a half hour private, winter is a great time to take advantage of the slower pace in the barn.



The Orchards. As some of you may have seen on-line the Orchards has offered a special rate to visitors to Cobble Hill Farm. We can get a $90 per night rate on available weekend nights in November or December. We are advertising a riding and relaxation package on line, but feel free to let us know if you have out of town friends or family who’d like to take advantage of this great package!

Cold Weather settling in

As the weather gets colder the race is on to finish up the myriad projects that need good weather.  Chuck's list is endless, but the big priorities right now are finishing the 'run in' sheds.  These are mini-barns -- almost like a doublewide for horses.  Here is actually a great picture by Krissy from a rainy day where it is obvious that the horses know what the sheds are for! 

We got this one pre-made from Jeannie that she wasn't using.  Chuck did a ton of figuring and bargaining and ended up determining that we (well, him and David!) could build them for less than half of what we would pay for them pre-built.  Below is a picture of the building in process.  By the end of this week (fingers crossed!!!) we will have three of these.  One in the large back pasture and two in the largest (blue) pasture. 

As of today we have 23 horses and 16 stalls.  Several boarders are here on 'rough board' and some of our horses (Ceasar!) are just as happy outside as in and we have some spots inside the barn where we can feed them.  With the three sheds we should be able to safely feed 6 horses in the pastures and then we can generally feed one horse in each of the smaller paddocks (there are four of those if you count the round pen) so we should just about be able to get through the winter.  (So I guess absolute max capacity is 26 but I am not voting for that)

The second biggest priority is the permanent fencing on the perimeter of the two large paddocks.  Once the leaves come off the trees the horses start to figure out that there are paths up into the woods that might be interesting to take ....  Waking up at 5 or 6 am to a phone call that a horse is loose is NOT a good way to start the day.  And fence posts don't go into the soil easily or straight once there is deep frost in the ground.

If the fencing is done and the weather holds we REALLY want to finish staining the boards and then putting them up on the exterior of the building.  I am sure our neighbors would be happy about that too.  In addition to simply a lot to do and not enough time to do it I will let all readers of this blog entry in on the real reason that we (Chuck) hasn't done this yet.  Risking my questioning of his sanity, he is seriously entertaining a further barn expansion to add four more stalls (see the math above).  He can actually make the whole thing sound really really sane and reasonable which probably means I've gone to the dark horsey side myself.

Excuses, excuses

I haven't blogged at all in more than 2 weeks. In that time we've continued to welcome new riders, new boarders and new horses. Almost too much to catch up on. We are running programs every day of the week now and in addition to Linda's full time instruction, Karrie and Jeannie are each offering lessons several days a week. Chuck has two outdoor run-in sheds built in the two main paddocks as we have more horses than stalls.

Ginger has been doing so well at Jeannie's that she is coming back to see if she can get back in the school horse rotation! Her many fans will love that.

Prime is going to take her 'job' as a pasture pet/companion at Jeannie's. Kind of bittersweet for the Hunt family as Prime was the first horse we welcomed as ours on the farm almost 10 years ago. Mr. Tee is also getting a break with a sore back. Luckily, Reno and Ben have arrived and Boo is doing great in lessons. Also, Zeus is coming along really well and even though he is still only ridden by Lizzie in lessons, I am told that Annie took him on a trail ride and he was quite good.

For all of you who are Cobble Hill-ers you know that alot of my distraction has been my mom's bi-lateral knee replacements last week. I am happy to report that she will be released early next week from rehab and will be coming to the farm for a while to continue her recovery. One of her goals with those 'shiny new knees' is to be able to start riding .... with her remarkable recovery so far, that is probably not too far off. Thanks to everyone for their good wishes and for helping Chuck around the farm during my many absences of late. (And this picture of Ginger was taken by my mom who was a huge help this summer)

Do you want to jump like this?

It has been increasingly obvious that quite a few of our riders -- particularly the young ones -- are really excited about the jumping. The hunter pace that a few riders did had a jumping component and riders or visitors have likely noticed the beautiful fall-themed course on the lower track here at the farm.

Luckily for us, Karrie Holbrooke has cleared her schedule (just like she is shown here clearing this jump!) and is excited to offer a day of jumping on Sundays. We are going to start October 25th. The structure will be that beginner jumpers will be able to sign up for half hour slots of private jumping instruction. Some of the more advanced jumpers will be able to do two or three students to a class. I am posting (hopefully today!) a sign up sheet in the barn. A half hour private jumping class will be $40 and the hour class for two or three students will also be $40 each. We will offer the ability to sign up for a four class package at $150 for either.

Please sign up in the barn or send me an email at info@cobblehillfarm.com.

Comment! Zeus and Sammee

Not sure if I have ever done a shout out to John Albano who is the tech friend/wizard who has helped me set up the website, do our on line marketing, google adwords, etc.... And as of NOW you can comment on the blog!

You have to have a google account but it is pretty easy to achieve. Also, I will moderate all comments. So, content will continue to be appropriate for the multiple ages that visit our site. And, there may be a delay when I am traveling for your posts to go up.

We have welcomed a new horse to the barn! Zeus is an almost five year old gelding half quarter horse, half paint. He is Elizabeth's birthday present -- she turns 11 this week. He is certainly a little green, but really friendly and good natured. Karrie did his first ever jumping today. He was good -- not a natural, but went over everything she pointed him at. His worst habit is backing up so Elizabeth needs to be really firm with him and not let him do that at all. He also can't canter from a walk, so she will have to work him into a canter from a trot. He won't be a school horse for a while and only Karrie will jump him for now ... but hopefully he will develop like Jay and Hercules into a solid horse for the intermediate riders. Here he is making friends with Buck in the pasture. He has the white spot on his neck. Cute, huh?

Sammee (the cat) is obviously the perfect Halloween cat!

Going to post some new programs coming up .... stay tuned!

.... and happy riders

At the end of a long day when my feet are killing me and I think we are nuts to have taken on so much work with the riding school, I happen upon a few pictures like this .....

And Chuck and I went out to feed Bradley his late grain and the sky was so clear and the big dipper was hanging low in the sky ......

not a bad life.

Cobble Hill Riders

Better late than never. At the hunter pace Linda and Karrie placed fourth in their division! And Annie & Junie won the Junior Sportsmanship award. Probably because of the outfits -- shown here with the full team including Katie. Great shirts and great inspirational message!

Welcome MCLA riders!

This week we have started welcoming two classes of riders from the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts. Jeannie is doing an early evening class that had four students in it on Monday and they all seemed to have a great time. This Friday afternoon Linda will do the second class.

This is exciting for us for several reasons. First, it is a different kind of class. Most of our classes are filled with riders of similar ability levels. Because the first priority for these riders is college class work, their schedule dictates that they come when there is a driver available in a slot that works with their other commitments. The Monday class had a very experienced rider, an intermediate rider, and advanced beginner and a true beginner. This is great from the barn's perspective because we can mix up the horses we are using. So Boo, Mr. Tee, Dixie and Hercules were used Monday -- I don't think we have ever used that combination in another class! And because these are young adults, it is easier to manage the different ability levels and have everyone enjoy their experience.

The other reason I am so excited is that it is just fabulous to have these young women in the barn to set a great example for our younger riders. I have seen this phenomenon in other sports in town where the Williams teams come and assist -- kids in elementary school just respond so positively to college students.

So, Welcome MCLA. We are delighted to have you riding at our barn! (And if you want your pictures on the blog, sign a photo release!)

Birthday Party pictures as promised

I posted pictures from the birthday party. Tell your friends to have their party here at the farm!

You can find the pictures and the details under BIRTHDAY PARTY on the website, or follow this link:
http://www.cobblehillfarm.com/services/birthday

Rain Rain Stay Away (at least till afternoon)

Quite a few CHF riders have been preparing for events this weekend. Annie and Junie (above with Linda's birthday cake in the barn earlier this summer) are doing their first Hunter/Pace along with Karrie and Linda. There is a dressage show in Shelburne Falls (Biscuit Hill).

The rain will definitely postpone or wipe out the hunter/pace. Hopefully, the rain will wait till the afternoon and the riders will have a great time.

Also, the farmer's wife is in New Orleans earning some hay money and I really want to get home tonight!