Warrington back in California

March 9th, 10th, and 11th Danny Warrington will be working with Havarah at El Enchanto Stables and Ram Tap. This is a great prep for April Ram Tap, if you haven't signed up yet email Molly ASAP otherwise go watch! El Enchanto, Sue Rice's new facility is Saturday and Ram Tap 8-4 on Sunday.

FVE up-date

So remember Foothill View Equestrian out in Madera...it is still there but new and improved operation status has changed it to FVE GOATS! Check out my mom's new kids, they're so cute! These things have more toys than they know what to do with, stop by and play some time...

GO John!

John and his super handsome Cutamo canter around the SJ course to take home the blue in the Sr. Beg Novice division. Not a bad way to START his Combined Training career!

Every girl needs a little...

DISCO in her life :)

Rollin rollin rollin...

On Friday night the 23rd at 10:00pm EST I made to my home in Elkton! Although I have no desire to do it again in the close proximity, it was a very, very cool trip. Just watching the countryside change as I drove east was amazing, New Mexico deserves it's name the "Enchanted State" and AZ doesn't get enough credit for how beatiful Flagstaff is. Tennessee might have been a favorite of mine....lots of trees :)

I took some pictures from the "drivers view" so that you could see a bit of what my road trip looked like... California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Arkansas, Tennessee, Virginia and home to Maryland...

The big trip

Blair has a new horse :)

Congradulations Blair! Blair and Willy are one of the Havarah hot new items...now living at Silver Rose Ranch Willy promises to get Blair hooked on eventing as the two become real Havarah rockstars!

Western half of the United States...

California to MD; 2800 miles!

Monday the 18th was the D day; departure was delayed due to wiring issues...errr and late packing on my part! 1:50 pm finally on the road.
This left me in Needles, Ca for my first overnight stay, but before I got there I had my hopefully scariest moment of the trip. The "needs fuel desparetely" light had come on in the middle of the desert with no fuel in sight. 33 miles Bubba had to drive on pure hope of diesel, so when I finally came across the "Oasis" (this isn't even sarcasm, they actually named this station that) I was happy to pay OVER $3.00 a gallon so Bubba could carry me along to a hotel!

TUESDAY I set out ready to drive and hopefully get myself out of California... just to get a call from the trailers owner saying I was going to wear out the bolts unless I found someone to get the air compressor to work. SOoooooooooo Flagstaff, AZ turned out to be a great place to get RV help. Some nice boys at a shop called "Bubba's" rigged up a fuse for me and then enjoyed watching me back up the "Big Rig" to get out of their forest filled RV shop. Hmmmph. Oh and so this fuse is supposed to be removed each evening so it doesn't run out the battery, well I continue to get shocked upon removing and re-entering this fuse, so next time you see me if all my hair is standing on end you'll know why!
Sleep location... Santa Rosa, NM

WEDNESDAY a fairly uneventful day; lots of driving. I did however think that Bubba and his Pegasus deserved a bath after their 7+ month hibernation. This bath took place in NM and apparently the truck washers there don't have the sense of urgency that the Ca washers do...
sleep local; Sallisaw, OK

Any ideas on the fuse issue, feel free to call!

Feb Ram Tap results

For Havarah's first show of the year I thought our group did a remarkable job. Dressage and show jumping seemed to be our strengths this time out; which shows just how much work everyone has put in because it used to be that the central valley could jump clean but never be placed after the first phase.

After dressage we had two leaders; Rosella hunter leading the Sr. Training group and Cheryl Gentzler leading the Sr. Beg Novice class. In a close second was Laurel George followed by John Marshall in third. Alyssa Hatai was also in third in her Jr. Beg Novice class. In fact it was even noted by one of the dressage judges that our entire group appeared very "prepared" for the day.

Our group of riders looked very safe and well mounted for cross country, however we still have some cobwebs to clean up :) Clean rounds by John Marshall and Alyssa Hatai ....

Sunday was the day that really made me smile; In Sr. Beg Novice we had 3 riders go and 1 in Jr. Beg Novice; everyone produced not only double clear rounds but also rounds that were smooth, accurate and overall very polished. John brought home the blue ribbon and Alyssa grabbed second place from the Jr's.

A few chose to retire from the weekend and I'd like to note that this takes tremendous horsemanship to know when it just isn't your weekend, don't worry I know all of you will have your blue show as well!

February California trip

Saturday @ Riverland Farms

9:00 Rosella

10:00 Maddy
********** Sienna ride

11:00 Louise
Clara

12:00 Sharon W. ?

12:45 John

1:30 Val
Laurel w/ Dior

2:30 Blair w/ Aruba
Alyssa H

3:30 Cheryl
Laurel w/ Caleb

Blair and "Ce Simple" @ Davis's... 5pm?




Sunday @ El Enchanto
Sue Rice's Facility

9:00 Christy
Cheryl

10:00 John
Laurel w/ Caleb

11:00 Meghan G

11:45 Clara
Laurel w/ Dior
Val

12:45 Maddy
Alyssa H

2:00 Kelcey
Jestine

3:00 Rosella
Jessi

Monday - all day horse shopping, bay area; Lauren, Amy, Alyssa, Blair?, parents?
Tuesday - all day horse shopping, Irvine; Lauren, Amy
Wednesday
7:30 am John @ Silver Rose
8:15 Megan G?
9:00 Rosella
**** Val aat Riverland Ranch?
****Jestine at Riverland Ranch?
6:00 PM Cheryl @ Silver Rose

THURSDAY RAM TAP
1:30 Cheryl & Christy
2:30 Rosella & Meghan G?
3:15 John & Laurel
4:15 Jestine & Alyssa H
***** Please ride up to the warm-up with your partner, less stress the better :)

Friday- Sunday Coaching at Ram Tap;
Rosella - Training
Meghan - Training ?
Jestine - Novice
Laurel - BN
John - BN
Cheryl - BN
Christy - BN
Alyssa H - BN


Sunday XC schooling after show (around 2:00 pm, KIT)
Val?
Maddy
Kelcey
Amy- horse try outs?
Lauren- horse try outs?
Blair- horse try outs?

Long over-due up date

My favorite news I get to deliver to you is about Charly's tail... For
all of you that don't know, I love tails, no doubt about it. Charly has
a great one, therefore all the more fun to spend time making it the best
it can possibly be! So this winter (from the day after his last horse
show in
October) I let the top part of the tail grow out; usually I had it
clipped up so it would look neat and show off his handsome rear end....
NOW it is even better :) After it grew out I decided that I would have
Charly looking "proper" which means that his tail needs to be pulled and
not clipped, sounds funny, I know, but it's a big difference and it is a
definite time envolved plan. The pulling makes it look as if Charly
naturally has a perfectly shaped tail (at the top) instead of the whole
world knowing that it has been clipped to give the illusion of it being
"cute".... so now he is "proper" and believe me he likes to show off his
tail; he's conceited and I'm ok with that :)

Another cool topic is the fact that on the east coast there is truely
winter "training" time; on the west coast as soon as the holidays are
over you need to be getting fit b/c your first show is just a few weeks
away. Our first show isn't until April (schedule to follow). As I
stated before for Charly to be as competitive in Intermediate as he was
at Prelim we have to make him longitudinally more supple and that will
make his canter more active and light. All of January Charly has been
learning to be forward while stretching while being soft "like butter"
in your hands... he looks so happy and limber it's unreal... I'm very
excited! I've been lucky to have Danny around to help me out with his
Charly times, because Charly will always be Charly!

On Tuesday Danny was riding Charly while I was on Mark (did I mention
yet that it is time for Mark to get sold :(... ) The ride had finished
and we were on the way back to the barn when out came the super scary
BAG....Charly thought it was EVIL... proceeding to do some very quick
footwork, nearly un-glueing Danny (which is unheard of) therefore being
a very bad idea on Charly's part. Needless to say with Danny's "super
horseman" talented lik ways soon our boy was standing on top of the
scary BAG; it was impressive and should have been video taped!

Below is a tentative 2007 schedule for Charly; our plan is to get myself
and the boy out at Prelim to start out super confident and BECOME
precise before moving up to Intermediate. Perfect it at the lower level
to lessen the stress on Charly...

March 31-April 1 Morven Park - Preliminary

April 20-22nd Fair Hill (MD) - Preliminary

June 2-3rd Waredaca - INTERMEDIATE :)

July 12-15th MAUI JIM CIC ** (Wayne, Ill) Two Star CIC - no steeplecase

August 9-12th Millbrook (NY) INTERMEDIATE

September 9-12th Seneca Valley INTERMEDIATE (unless he goes to the
AEC's)

September 12-16th American Eventing Championships, Wayne, Ill (if
qualified)

October ----- CCI ** .... at the time of planning this schedule, Radnor
was our end destination, however the very next day Radnor gave notice of
terminating their event; supposedly there is a new 2 star at the
Virginia Horse Park... I believe it is the 24th-28th of October.

Charly and I always welcome vistors (he really welcomes them if they
come with anything edible for him, and him only); We'd especially love
to see you guys at some of his "parties"... I think that's what he
thinks the shows are. If you are interested let me know and I'll help
figure out which ones would be best for you and where and when to fly
into.

Chiropractic opportunity

On my last visit to California I had a fortunate opportunity to meet and use Michael Agrella's chiropractic skills. Michael has agreed to come back to the area during our Havarah clinics to help keep the horses and people well alligned. His next visit will be Saturday the 10th of Feb at Riverland Farms in Sanger.

I asked Michael to give us a bit of his background...

" About me, I have 8 years experience with humans and 5
years exp with horses, dogs, and cats (I have even
adjusted a ferret...once!). Chiropractic is my
passion, and my life. For undergraduate studies, I
went to UC Davis, and studied Biology. My
professional license and certification is from Life
Chiropractic College West, and is called "Doctor of
chiropractic", or chiropractor. I am also licensed by
the AVCA- the American Veterinary Chiropractic
Association (which is a separate one year post
graduate degree program).
Chiropractic for humans and animals covers a very
broad spectrum as far as benefits, uses, and
treatments."

At that visit a few of us humans had adjustments and I believe at least 4 horses were treated. All of us had nothing but great things to say afterwards.

Anyways just thought I'd share this with you, if you are interested let me know so that I can arrange your lesson time with a work-out from Michael to follow.

Snow white

I've been waiting and waiting and it finally happened! Last week we had our first snow flurries and it was soooo pretty :) Then this week we actually had enough that it made the ground white; Mark didn't like it very much, he thought his world was captivated by ghoasts... however I don't think I've ever seen Quiggley happier, he played ALL DAY! Charly just continues to terrorize all his pasturemates and destroy as many of his clothes as he can, if I do have children I think I'll request a girl! Supposedly the next few days are going to be COLD and produce "measurable" amounts of snow; we'll see how excited I am after that!
Oddly enough I still give California huge props for the snow skiing/snowboarding areas... I had my first trip on Sunday and I did have a great time HOWEVER it was nothing like the slopes at home.

Ram Tap Combined Test, volunteers

Saturdays schedule

For this coming Saturday at Ram Tap; please show up at the metal container by the "tower" 7:30am or earlier; Judy Rosin will be there to check you in and give you a Ram Tap buck.


Val Burch, scribe @ arena #1 all day ending at 2:24
Rosella Hunter, scribe @ arena #2 morning shift, arena #5 12:00-1:40pm
Natalie Pitts, scribe @ arena #2 12:40-2:40
Blair Rotert scribe @ arena #4 all day
John Marshall scribe @ arena #5 morning shift RING STEWARD arena #2 12:30-1:50; #3 1:50-2:40
Terry Vaughter ring steward arena #1 all day
Judy Rosin ring steward arena #2 morning shift ending at 11:42
Cassie Harkins ring steward arena #4/#5 all day

Thank you all soooo much!

Sunday is still in progress, I am looking for more helpers... if you can help 7:30-1pm please let me know :)

Filling out event entry forms

www.evententries.com SAVE this to your favorites, it will be your favorite, I promise :)

This year the eventing comittee changed the entry forms, so it is now a new learning experience for everyone...not only the first time competitors. However if you use the above website (which is free) you only have to go through this once. Go to evententries and become a new user, get a username, password and it is completely self explanatory from there (however you can still call if you have questions)

** IF you are going to be competing at the Beginner Novice level your horse does NOT need to be registered with any of the event affiliations, nor do you. BUT is cost effective for you to become a member (as a rider) so you don't have to pay non-member fees all year...plus there's lots of perks! To do this go to www.eventingusa.com and find the become a member page, dowload and fill in, send in and on your horse show entry form write that your "number" is pending.

** IF you are going to compete novice or training, your horse does need to be registered and it is ONLY $25.00; again www.eventingusa.com

** IF you have not done any competitions yet, write that in the section that asks for experience... event secretaries do not like un-marked sections

** One the back page of your printed out entryform there are slots for lots of signatures...
1) you are the rider, sign that
2) whoever owns the horse or is responsible for the horse signs as owner (or agent for the owner)... don't worry about the USEF registration number if you don't have one (and are competing at the lower levels)
3) trainer.... as odd as this sounds.... I don't need to sign for you ... this slot is in need of someone over 18 years old that will be held accountable for how your horse is presented at the show (in terms of legality.. no drugs on board :) )... since I am not at your home barn to witness daily feeding it is best that I don't sign this... if you are over 18 you can sign for yourself, otherwise have a parent be your "trainer"
4) coach ... this slot is optional, so we don't need to worry about it

******* Make sure to put down a phone number that will be reachable the weekend of the event under the "emergency" section.... SUPER important!!!!
_______________________________________________________
As for lingo for the entry form...
BN = Beginner Novice
N= Novice
T = Training
jr = 18 and under
yr = 21 and under
sr = 18 and over
O = open
A = amateur
_______________________________________________________
I think that this should cover most of your questions, I've been known to forget important details so really call if you're confused... secretaries really do not like bad entries :)
ALSO if you have not already started, it would be a great idea to look over a "rulebook"... I think they have them online www.eventingusa.com or you could also get a hard copy by request.
For instance do you know that you can now wear smooth leather half chaps? (only do this if you show them to me first and DO NOT have tall boots)
Dressage whips MAY be carried in a test, if it is not a championship class. BUT not any leg wear on your horse.
DO you know what bits are legal for dressage?
There's TONS of rules to this sport; read up!

Winter training sessions...

The first week of January kicked off "HE"'s first of our series of winter training...it was quite a success and we should all be thanking mother nature for the week of good weather! I appreciate all of you who stuck around during your vacation time and hopefully you found it well worth your while. I was so impressed with the riding that I saw that I am making a change to our show schedule; we will be starting out the year at RAM TAP's FEB horse trials. This will be the first event for many of you, so there are a few things you'll need to know about;

1) How to enter
2) Dress codes
3) Registration requirements
LOOK for all of this on the next blog...

All of you competing in the Feb Ram Tap should plan on volunteering at the January combined test (also at Ram Tap)...Jan 27 and 28th...Mark it down :)

Should be an exciting group; we have enough for a very strong adult team and almost enough for a junior team...
Laurel, Val, John, Cheryl ----Adult BN
Bianca, Alyssa H --- Junior BN (find one more for a team)
Jestine ---- novice
Rosella - training
**** If anymore of you are interested let me know, the next schooling session will be set up before the end of the week.

Giving thanks...

Holidays are fabulous, good food and good friends... what more could you want? This Thanksgiving to me brought sadness as well as great happiness. For the first time in my life I felt extremely homesick; Turkey day just isnt the same without my mom and all her FABulous food...! The homesickness was eased by realizing how much I have to be thankfull for; a good part of that is due to all of the wonderful people I have come across on my journey. My roomate is a great friend and has been here through so much, always being able to spin everything to the optimistic side....thanks girl! My bosses and co-workers are such knowledgeable yet light hearted people...they all make each day worthy of waking up before dark... THANKS crew! Of course there's the boot camp leader who I've realize isn't as tough as he may sometimes seem; but more just completely eager to see me and my horses do our best than I could ever hope for out of any coach....Thanks Mr D! Leading from that are the two fabulous four legged creatures that I am so blessed to go visit on a daily basis and have given me their all for this whole trip...Marky Mark and Chucky you rock!!! We then have our teams that help keep my great horses going, and have really taken us Cali girls under their wings and helped us in many ways...so much thanks to Chuck, Kathy and Vance, you are all amazing! If there wasn't a wagging tail greeting me at every possible moment, what would I constantly have to look forward to??? THANKS WIGGLE MONSTER! Then there's my team back home...the MINYAN owners, you have stuck by my side with so many big decisions with Charly this year...so MUCH thanks, I hope him and I can keep smiles on all of your faces for years to come! Then there are all of the HAVARAH equestrian group riders, vets, farriers, parents and family members who have dealt with a less than easy travel schedule on my part and kept up with great effort in my absence and been available on all of my visits.. YOU are all truely ROCKSTARS!!! VerY, VerY thankful for the group of friends I have been fortunate enough over the years to meet, and lucky enough that as large as the miles apart we may get, the visits we get are always as great as ever. Without this last person my life would never have been the same; always supportive, always available for advice (never mind the day or time), and the best rolemodel a daughter could ever ask for...I love you and thank you so much .... mama you're the best! TO ALL thank you so much for all of your help, you are all fabulous!

The fabulous sights...

I've been meaning to catch up everyone on the ways of the east coast world for awhile now, so here's my best shot.

The commumity of horse people is like nothing you could imagine, or at least it is completely different than anything I've ever been around. Everyone somehow knows of everyone, in some shape or form. There is an Irish Pub that is totally dedicated to the racing community, quiantly named "The Whip". On Sunday just as some would go and watch a soccer game, us girls went and watched the famous "Pennsylvania Horse Cup"; a horse from my work was ridden (and finished 2nd) in the youth race, and 3 horses from Asia's work were ridden in the real races, one in the actual "Cup" race. The cup race is 4 miles long and was finished in 8 and half minutes, you do the math, it's fast... oh ya the timber fences are outrageously huge.... Green grass and rolling hills, many fancy ladies in funny hats wearing breeches and boots or the men often seen in tall boots and vests on, a very different fashion statement than home! The horses get grain morning and evening, some places they recieve 3 feedings of grain... hay is just a filler. The woods have hack trails, filled wih various log jumps; the fields have mowed edges for "gallops", and the farms have jumps in all the fence lines.

Charly is currently found out in a big pasture trying to be the top dog, mainly everyone really is into eating and could care less; he has basically sucomb to this idea that he should enjoy vacation. His last outing wasn't his best of the year on paper, only due to a error in judgement on my part in XC, but a fabulous showing by him that he does have what it takes to be a great eventing horse. His dressage had improved from the previous one star by three points, this put him in second by just a hair... the rain came again and the steeplechase had to be removed, but we were left with a long and fairly difficult XC course; Charly came out of the start box like an animal I hadn't yet met! I guess the steeplechase from Morven left an impression on him :) Charly felt like a racing machine and was so on, I was having the time of my life. Unfortunately my watch decided to fog up and I couldn't read it until 2/3 of the way through! I knew that on all the gallop parts I would need to boogie; there were a lot of gate crossings with sharp turns in them, there were also 3 waters; with all of those places needing a bit of a balancing I was pretty sure to need some flying time... I was right, when my watch finally came to I put the petal down and asked for even more speed, Charly was right there and very happy to give it to me (that was at over 7 minutes into the course!), however then we had two very big and wide tables on a turn; he flew over the first and we just couldn't get back to the second... I couldn't believe it was happening, trying to not let it get to me we quickly made a half circle to this huge table and flew on; Charly was amazing I just couldn't be disapointed, I was sooooo excited about him and his ability AND desire to run fast for a long course and handle all the technical questions. He is such a great horse. Sunday was no exeption, he put in one of his fabulous clear rounds that had everyone's jaw dropped. Without our, or mine, XC penalty he would have won the CCI *, instead he finished 6th... still a very great accomplishment.

Malibu has become a stellar eventing horse as well; his last event was at Waredaca, training level with cross country been timed at 470 mpm... Malibu finished 20 seconds early... I'm soooo proud of him! Even more exciting, after getting a tour of the country Malibu will return home to eat Sanger grass and have the love and admiration of not one but 3 riders... he'll be in complete heaven with cookies and carrots from Betsy, Jestine and Val... however I made him promise to give them all fun and enjoyable rides so that he deserves all his treats!

Mark, my fiesty little bay TB, is also enjoying some vacation time in pasture. He will be starting back up in December and is currenlty looking for a partial owner, or owners to help get him out into the limelight this next year. Mark needed a few months to grow up; with some hacks in the woods and a few starter trials this horse should be better than ever and ready for some winning rounds.

With the horses on vacation I'll be hopping on a plane and getting to visit my Havarah group back in Cali...we've got a busy week filled with lessons and then finishing off the west coast season with the Ram Tap HT. Then I'll head back east and pack up out of the little Jethro place and head to the next destination of this tour.

Til next time....

AEC

Charly's AEC photos...

I also have an album of photos that I can send to you....if you want them then send me an email request :)