December 10, 2007 Congratulations to Pat Blume who bought the 3yo Hanoverian gelding, Georgio. This gelding is a fun character who really wants to please and I'm sure he and Pat will be cleaning up in the dressage ring before too long. The last month or so has brought some needed downtime from competing and time to work on fine-tuning some training with my horses and several new horses that have come in to prepare for the 2008 season. October 28, 2007 Yesterday was the American Warmblood Society inspection at Cross Creek Stables in Hamilton, Ohio. I took my 6yo mare Piccolo and she performed really well. She earned the gold medal for having the best score of 73.1 and earned her Red Preferred status and AWS branding. It was an informative day as the inspector took the time to discuss the conformation and movement of every horse presented. Congrats to Stephanie Williamson who easily passed her Pony Club D3 rating yesterday on her horse, Spy. October 23, 2007 This past weekend, Podge and I competed on a novice team with Marsha Roush, Susie Gertz, and Monica Vollmer at Hagyard's Team Challenge. It was great fun to have the camaraderie of being on a team and, while we may not have ended up at the top of the final standings, we all had a great weekend to finish out the eventing season. Podge and I had a solid dressage test, an unfortunate and unusual two rails in stadium, but finished with a double clean on XC to end up 10th our individual division. Monica Vollmer and Yankee Wonder added just one time penalty in stadium to their dressage score to end up in 9th place. Susie Gertz and Practical Magic ended up 13th in their division and Marsha Roush made the hard decision to withdraw The Piano Man before XC knowing that he wasn't quite up to his best that day.   October 8, 2007 Sorry for the lack of updates but it's been a busy couple of months! First of all, congrats to Sarah Krings for purchasing Antea and Shannon Dempich on her purchase of Paprika. These are two great mares who have found fantastic homes. Also, congrats to Susie Gertz and Practical Magic for finishing 16th out of 70-something horses at the AECs at Beginner Novice. Paloma (sold in November '06) and Taylor Reynolds finished 18th in the Beginner Novice division. Way to go everyone! Over Labor Day weekend, I headed up to South Farm with Podge and Paprika. Podge made a great showing the Novice Championship division and Paprika ended up 8th - a great outing for her first event! This past weekend, we went to Jumpstart HT where I moved Podge up to Training level. It's been a great season with this horse as we get to know each other and I see a lot of success in our future once we get the dressage worked out! Marsha Roush and The Piano Man finished up 3rd in a large and competitive Open Novice division finishing on their dressage score. There are some nice young horses for sale here and a couple more that will be put on the website in weeks to come so keep your eye on the site if you're in the market for a winter project or a new competitive partner for the 2008 season! July 29, 2007 Other than a storm blowing through on Friday evening during our course walks, this year's Gemwood horse trials had wonderful weather and perfect footing which is a hard feat for the end of August in an area that has been plagued with lack of rain this year. Everyone had a great time and had fantastic rides. I took Podge in the Novice horse division and he finished in 2nd place on his dressage score. As always, there are things to work on in all three phases but he has really improved since last month's event and proved he was ready for his move-up to Training after we go to the Novice Championships at South Farm. Marsha Roush and The Piano Man finished in 4th place in the Novice rider division with just a few time penalties picked up from XC. Susie Gertz and Practical Magic had a good first outing at novice finishing in 8th place. Monica Vollmer ended up in 6th place in the with her young guy, Yankee Wonder, in the BN division and in 13th in the novice division with James Murphy. Lee Kirkpatrick ended up in 3rd in the BN division. Everyone really did a fantastic job this weekend!  It's always nice going to this event. Not only is it practically in my backyard but the volunteers and officials always make it an enjoyable weekend. Laura Beaver and her staff did a great job changing up the XC courses this year. July 2, 2007 What a beautiful weekend in Lexington at the MSPC horse trials. A big congratulations to Susie Gertz and Practical Magic who have proved that they are ready to move up to novice by finishing once again on their dressage score in 4th place. All three phases were outstanding and it's nice to see their hard work really paying off. I took Podge in the novice division and he was suprisingly on the muscle for his dressage test to score in the mid-40s. He tore around the XC course with the confidence of a much more experienced horse until we got to the water where we had a brief hesitation to pick up 20 penalties. He show jumped great on Sunday but our stop on XC really knocked us down in the standings. Next up is Gemwood Horse Trials right here practically in our backyard and then we'll use the heat in August to take a break from competing and work on improving our skills to move up in the fall. June 11, 2007 On Saturday, I took Paprika to her first dressage show at the Riding Centre in Yellow Springs. It's hard to believe that this mare has only been under saddle for a couple of months. We had the typical "greenie" moments but, overall, she maintained her usual laid-back attitude about it all. She brought home a 2nd place at Training Level 1 and a 5th at Training Level 2 with a score of 60% in the second class. There are some new pictures on her page of this fantastic young mare for sale. This is a terrific amateur mount for dressage or jumping. On Sunday, Podge competed at the Eventing Derby at Twin Towers. This was another fundraiser to improve the facities over there and they had a great turnout. It was fun to try something a little different. We had to ride a dressage test and then did a jumping course of cross-country and stadium jumps together. Podge did great finishing on his dressage score in 3rd place at the novice level. Kudos to Susie Gertz and Elvis who finished in 4th place in their Beginner Novice division and Brooke Lundberg and Honey who finished in 8th at Starter. May 28, 2007 What a great weekend in Lexington. I left on Thursday with JJ and Podge so that JJ could compete in Friday's classes in the KDA dressage show. This was his first time back to the Horse Park since finishing his career as an event horse and I had some concerns he would think he would be going cross country after his dressage. However, he was pretty well behaved in his First Level tests holding his own against all the big warmbloods and coming home with a 4th place. Podge proved that he likes being an event horse by finishing his first event. We had a nice steady dressage test to score a 35 and put us in 14th in a very competitive novice horse division! This was followed by a double clean stadium round. He was great across country on Sunday and a blast to ride. Unfortunately, one stop at the water, in spite of my efforts to to school water before this event, added 20 penalties to our final score. I'm very excited about the future of this guy and enjoying every minute of bringing him along. Susie Gertz and Elvis had a fantastic weekend and ended up 4th in their Beginner Novice division. They started out with a great dressage test and went on to finish on their dressage score. Way to go Susie! Taylor Reynolds and Paloma (bought from Fairwind in November) came all the way from Illinois to finish their first horse trial together. They ended up 3rd out of a very large division of 28!  It's great to see that they are already forming a great partnership that I'm sure will only get stronger as time goes on. This mare is very special to me and I'm overjoyed that she's ended up in such a good home. April 22, 2003 Yesterday, we were blessed with fantastic weather for the fundraiser at Twin Towers. Five students rode in the fix-a-test and fix-a-round and I everyone had a great time and learned a lot. Brooke Lundberg and Bill Rollins competed in the Starter division and tied for fourth. Both had great rides and Bill didn't have to use his line "If you think it's bad now, you should have seen us in December!" Juli Piovesan and Ames took home a third in their starter division. Their jumping has really improved over the last year and they'll be tackling their first Beginner Novice event later this season. Susie Gertz with Elvis and Lee Kirkpatrick also competed in the Beginner Novice division and, even though I unfortunately missed their rides while I was out on XC, sounds like they were both very pleased. Susie Gertz took home a blue ribbon for her division finishing on her dressage score of 31! In the afternoon, I took several groups out to school the cross country course at Twin Towers. This is a great facility with jumps from Beginner Novice to Preliminary and practically right in my backyard. All the horses and riders did great especially considering they had already ridden two dressage tests and two stadium rounds and it's early in the season. I had a lot of fun meeting new people and helping riders improve their cross-country skills.  Hopefully, everyone came away with some new tools and lots of confidence. The fundraiser was to help build stalls at Twin Towers and there will be another one in June. If you'd like more information, check out www.gemwoodevents.com April 16, 2007 Spring Bay was this past weekend and I think, in spite of the rain (and lots of it) and the cold temps, we all had a great time. Podge really stepped up the plate and performed the best I could expect of him at this point. After 6 weeks of hard work, he scored a 34.5 in the dressage to place him in 2nd. He was steady and fluid as he trotted around through the puddles. I have to give praise to the volunteers and organizers who did a great job trying to maintain the footing, especially on the cross country course, in the horrible weather conditions this weekend. We started out great on XC and he was really looking for the next fence which astonished me for as green as he is! It was an absolute blast and I just sat along for the ride. That is, until we came to the rushing creek that was our water crossing. Unfortunately, he'd never schooled water (short of splashing through puddles) and it was just too much for him so we finished our ride there. However, I was grinning ear to ear as I walked back to the trailer and was overjoyed with our ride to that point. He'll be moving up to novice next month and we'll be sure to get out and school some water before then! Susie Gertz also had a great weekend on Practical Magic (Elvis). Susie has been working very hard, taking lessons up to 3 times a week with me over the last year, and it definitely paid off this weekend. They had a nice dressage test in a muddy dressage ring. They cruised around the XC course easily but, unfortunately due to jumping one of the novice instead of beginner novice, they were eliminated. However, she was able to jump on Sunday and had a beautiful, clean round. They would have finished in 4th but probably won't be making that mistake again! April 3, 2007 A couple of new sales horses have arrived in the past couple of weeks. The first, Paprika, is already listed on the sales page. She is a 5yo Oldenburg mare by Parabol. Although she is very green and just starting under saddle, she has a lovely temperament and is progressing very quickly under saddle. This mare would be competitive in any discipline with a temperament suitable for an amateur. The newest arrival is Gypsy from Tasse Trak Farm in Kentucky. She is a 4 yo mare by Guarantor. She hasn't been started under saddle yet but also has a very easy-going disposition. Pictures will be available on the sales page in the near future. Now there are 3 very nice, well-mannered Warmblood mares for sale at Fairwind Stables looking for homes! In other news around the farm, we had a clinic with Lexi Myers this past weekend and several riders turned out to improve their dressage. The weather held out for us most of the day and everyone had a great time. Finally, congratulations to Melanie Sudetic and Faith (sold by Fairwind in January) on two blue ribbons at their first dressage show this past weekend. These two are a great pair and I'm sure they will have many more successful outings together in the future.