Farrah and Sinead Christmas Update

Merry Christmas from the RedHead!

Last weekend I got to go up and see how Farrah and Sinead were getting on.  The Redhead has never looked more relaxed and happy in her work.  Sinead is pleased with their partnership so far and we are all so excited for the upcoming season!  

Sinead will be jetting off to Mexico (there's a pesky little thing like a wedding occurring in early January) but I can't wait to see these two competing this winter!  Have a great New Year's everyone and the Redhead sends her love!

And so the whirl wind weekend begins!

The Redhead looking very red.

I always look forward to December....for me it typically means that the work load at my day job is a bit lighter, the ponies are all freshly clipped and we get to enjoy riding in cooler temperatures.  I was rather envisioning that packing up all of Farrah's finery and assorted gear would happen in nice cool weather at a pace I could enjoy.  Apparently the gods above want to make sure I am way off base, because that is not what has transpired this December.

I booked one Dressage TD gig at White Fences (14/15), but I didn't really worry as Farrah was scheduled to leave the 5th of December to join Sinead Halpin Eventing in Ocala.  After a few phone emails and calls we realized Sinead will be at the USEA convention, and moved  Farrah's trip to Ocala to the 9th. No problem, everything was still trucking along as I slowly wash and pack various items in the trailer so that nothing super important gets left behind.

I booked a clinic with Lisa Barry for my farm on December 8th.  I was super excited to ride with Lisa and managed to fill the clinic with 12 rides!  Then I get a phone call from a friend in Orlando, the TD that she hired can't come because they worked the same dates for the past two years and USEF requires show managers to vary their TD's, so by the way can you come to Clarcona to work 7/8?  Now I have to miss my own clinic and there goes the weekend time I had set aside to finish packing for Farrah!

I was still feeling super organized on Wednesday, while working on a lovely property in south Florida (field biologist), when I got a phone call from Canada.  Lee (a dressage rider and person interested in one of my young horses) called and had found out a friend was going to FL and oh, by the way, they could transport Connor back to Canada with them on the 15th.  Could I possibly get the export papers together and arrange vetting and get him to Port Canaveral for a 6am departure on the 15th?  I am pretty sure I answered "Sure, no problem" but in reality I was thinking "Wait, what and OMG!  This will never happen in time."

My fantastic vet met me that night at 8pm to fill out USDA paperwork for a one way equine border crossing. Thankfully, Connor's coggins is less than six months old and with luck, his USDA paperwork will be back by Wednesday of next week.  At this point, I was still wondering how on earth I am going to get a yearling from my farm in Plant City to Port Canaveral (or some close by farm) while working in Loxahatchee, not to mention I have yet to finish packing Farrah's stuff or laundering her blankets!  I was already using some vacation time on Monday to deliver Farrah, and asking my non-horsey husband to load and deliver a baby who has trailered a whopping three times in his life seemed like a lot to ask!  Once again, I totally lucked out in that one of my college aged boarders has a birthday the weekend of the 14/15 and is planning on going home to visit family.  She also owns a truck and trailer and lives 20 minutes from the Port!  Another college boarder at the farm dates a young man whose mother just happens to have a quarter horse breeding facility also near the Port, so not only does Connor have a ride to the east side of the state, he has overnight lodging!  I am still not sure how we managed to pull all this together, but it actually looks like it might work!

Now all I have to do is finish packing the Redhead's gear, with a Christmas Parade tonight (daughter is singing on a float) and working the Clarcona show all day Saturday and Sunday, while missing out on my own clinic with Lisa.  When we hit the road with Farrah around noon on Monday it will be short of a miracle if I don't leave something behind.

Somehow next week I need to find time to remind a yearling he does actually load in a trailer, after delivering the Redhead to Sinead.  I get to work something like 20 straight days by working the White Fences show, so if you see me after the 15th and are wondering where the farm Christmas decorations are, I hope to get around to it before the New Year!

I am looking forward to meeting Sinead and crew, seeing friends at the Clarcona and White Fences shows, and as my daughter says, "GAME ON".

New Beginnings for the RedHead

So last month I told everyone about the juggling I started:  I threw some things out there to see what kind of response I would get if I offered Farrah for sale/lease/syndication/sponsorship on Sport Horse Nation (Thanks!).  I am not sure what kind of response I was expecting, but let me say I was overwhelmed!  In a good way; qualified riders with a lot to offer contacted me from all over.  I asked myself, this is a pony, my pony, not a full sized horse, and I have all these riders interested?   It was so awesome and thrilling and kinda scary at the same time.  

I had some excellent offers, from 4* riders down to 15 year olds wanting to ride their first preliminary......foreign and domestic riders.  In the end, I chose the rider who I thought would fit Farrah's personality and riding style best and who impressed me with their professionalism.  Even though she couldn't come for a test ride due to a bum ankle, she sent her good friend Lisa Barry (who did a great job on Farrah) to test ride Farrah and called me that night with a proposal I could not refuse.  

I am so proud to say that Forrest Nymph, aka Farrah or the Red Head, will be ridden by Sinead Halpin (SHE) beginning in December.   Farrah's former owner, Lynn Simpson, and breeder, Leslie Feakins of Trevelyan Farm, are super excited as well.  Black Dog Farm (where Farrah resides) will miss her Highness, but we will have a great team to cheer on this winter. 

Thanks so much to Lauren DeNeve for putting the excellent preliminary miles on Farrah.  A special shout out to Nataly Pacheco for helping me keep Farrah ridden well and to Lauren DeLalla for helping make this connection to Sinead.

Go Red Head and Team SHE!

The Red Head's Future Will Be?

Farrah is probably wondering what the H*** I am doing, riding her in the dressage arena instead of just doing some of the fitness work.  I am trying not to undo all the lovely work Lauren has put into the pony. Sometimes life doesn't go the way you had it all mapped out; we all know with horses that happens more often than not.   Horses can get injured, lose interest or get soured.  In Farrah's case, mom ran out of money to spend campaigning a horse at the upper levels. :-(

It's not that the unplanned is always bad, often times change is good and leads to new and exciting opportunities.  While I can't say much right now, I can let everyone know that I threw up a bunch of juggling balls.  They are still up in the air, but if I manage to catch them all (or even just some of them!) then I will have news for you.  To keep Farrah competing at the upper levels, Farrah will be moving on to both a new rider/ownership for the 2014 season.  While I will miss Her Highness in my barn, rest assured you will still hear regularly about the Red Head's exploits in eventing.  Farrah's meant for bigger and better things than I can offer her on my own.  Farrah wouldn't have gotten so far in this journey without Lauren taking the reins and showing her at Preliminary, so thank you very much for the lovely riding!

Back in the Groove

It has been a hot summer in Florida.  While most of the rest of the country spends their summers out riding and competing, here in the land of wilting humidity we use summer as our down season.  Translation for the Farrah pony - working on dressage.  If you recall from previous posts, while Farrah is quite talented at dressage, the entire reason she is now eventing is that she flunked out of a super posh Dressage Barn at the age of 5.

I am sure Farrah thinks this is the summer from h*ll, as Lauren and Farrah worked on submission and all things dressage.  The pair have even attended a clinic or two and while their dressage is greatly improving, Farrah still lets Lauren know that dressage is still Farrah's least favorite phase.

Now that fall is in the air (we get a whiff from time to time of slightly drier, cooler weather) we decided some of us should go school cross country at Longwood Farm in Ocala.  Longwood boasts lots of shade trees, hills and big jumps at a spectacular farm two hours north of us.  What more could we ask for?  Farrah and some of her barn mates made the journey on Monday.

Farrah had an absolute BLAST!  While she did try to bolt off after a jump (or 3, or 5??!!) Farrah gamely took whatever jump was presented and clearly thought we had been withholding all the fun stuff for far too long.  Good thing for Farrah she gets to go to the Florida Horse Park this weekend.  Farrah will be subjected to a Prelim A dressage test before she gets to jump a few stadium rounds, but Sunday they will head out to school cross country again.  Here's to next Sunday, when I am sure Farrah will once again show us why she likes to event so much!



The Red Head as a Ponying Pony?

Who Knew?

Take a fit CCI* pony, give her some time off for R&R, and then make her the lead pony for ponying a six year old on her own pony......does that sound like a recipe for disaster?  I'll admit, at first I was hesitant, but Brylie REALLY wanted to have me take her on a trail ride, mounted, and Anneke was already on Lucy (who I thought might make a better lead pony than my four year old Mia).  When I couldn't come up with a really good reason not to at least try (sans child, of course) and it worked quite well, I took Brylie out on Tara and it was FUN.  And I think Farrah actually thought it was mildly entertaining.  I was too busy watching Tara/Brylie to prevent Farrah from turning the trail ride into a never ending buffet at 4', so Farrah thought the whole thing was simply loads of fun.  The leadline tow strap also provided Farrah with plenty of opportunity for her to reinforce to Tara that the Red Head is #1.

It is now July and time for Farrah to buckle down and go back to work.  How to figure out a way to assist with the $$ for future shows/training/travel?  Anyone want some embryos or have any other great sponsorship ideas?  The fabulous Red Head needs some break out ideas to rejoin the competition fray; the bank of Beth is out of money.  Any Eventing Pony Supporters out there or fundraising ideas for Lauren and I?  Feel free to email us and let us know if you have a great idea to get this superstar eventing pony back in the competition arena and aimed at a Two Star!

Summer Doldrums

I think Farrah despises summer as much as I do.  The oppressive heat and humidity of Florida in the summer time is bad enough, but add to that spending rides working on getting Farrah fit enough to tackle some serious dressage work come July 1 with Lauren and well, you have a Red Head who is really bored.  Seriously, Farrah is thinking she must have died and gone to some horsey hell where there is simply no.jumping.ever.again.

No jumping (and I am trail riding her a bit, not drilling her in the arena) is like taking her to an amusement park with all kinds of great rides but instead of riding them, Farrah has to watch the other kids playing.  Farrah has made it abundantly clear to me that as far as the red head is concerned, this has to Stop Now, or I risk complete meltdown.  I admit, I caved.

Cantering past a small fence I thought, oh what the hell, why not?  I presented the next one to Farrah and I had the most fun loving pony back, joyfully taking small fences and being so good!!  I know Farrah was barely able to contain her enthusiasm, but I swear if I could have seen her face going over the jumps, she would have been smiling!

From Farrah to Lauren, I can just about hear her say "where the hell have you been" when Lauren gets the fit pony back in July!