Life on a Farm

As I've mentioned before, the Oak Hollow Spring Shows -- a gymkhanna and the equitation show -- are on the Sunday after vacation and the following Sunday. That gave us the idea to do something different with the riding program during school vacation.

We are going to do Monday, Wednesday and Friday for riders of all abilities. The lessons on Monday and Wednesday will focus on the patterns and commands in an equitation show or on the fun events in the gymkhanna so that riders and horses can get a little practice. Then, Friday, we are going to have our own "show" which will really be akin to a dress rehearsal (and FUN!).

Even if you don't plan to do the show or aren't sure you're ready yet this will be a fun, low-key way to get some experience of it. If you do plan to do either or both events, it will be a great time to practice.

We will have time during the non-riding if anyone wants to work on the costume class ... and our other activities will be the typical fun stuff we do at our riding programs.

All riders will come the same days from 10 - 3 pm. If you want to do double riding to practice gymkhana AND equitation, we will do that too!

For a single program (only one hour of riding instruction M and W -- Friday will be the 'events') it will be $200. For both (two hours of riding on M and W and lots of riding on Friday!) it will be $250.

Sending out a blast email to those emails I have but make sure to tell your friends!!!

For Pine Cobble riders -- shoot me an email (farmerswife@cobblehillfarm or info@cobblehillfarm) if you'd like to do two Saturday sessions ... I am sure we could figure that out.

Every year our riders look forward to the Oak Hollow spring and fall shows. Last year several of us also participated in the Gymkhanna. We just got the dates for the Spring Show and Gymkhanna, and I wanted to make sure everyone put the dates on their calendar because despite what Pawxatuwney Phil says, we really will have Spring sooner than we know!

Gymkhanna: SUNDAY April 25th
Spring Show: SUNDAY May 2nd

Last year we began to perfect a process of preparing the riders who wanted to show and to assigning horses. We will build on that success this year by facilitating early communication. To start with:

For ANY rider who has NEVER participated in a show, you MUST get Linda's permission to compete and her sign off by event. We have had a lot of fun with these low-key shows, but even still the horses and the riders are more keyed up than usual and Linda is the BEST judge as to what will result in the best possible experience. The spring show can be particularly challenging for those who (reasonably!!!) take the winter off from riding. As a guideline, Linda would like beginner riders to have had 12 lessons directly proceeding the show. February 14th is 12 weeks from the show!!!! Please spread the word to those that are not riding this winter. Perhaps they would like to sign up for February riding during WES vacation? Also, if you don't want to start riding till later in March, you will need to get some extra sessions in with Linda and we will have to plan those now.

We are also planning to dedicate the week of April WES vacation to riding experiences that build in preparation for both events. For all our Pine Cobble riders, let us know if you'd like to do something similar in March .... Stay tuned for the April info.

Lastly, for our JUMPERS. We are going to announce the new sessions of jumping with Karrie soon. If you want to JUMP in the show, you should also discuss with Linda and Karrie their recommendations for a preparation schedule that will have you ready to compete! (And we will make sure that we get a CLEAR understanding from the judge and organizers whether you can compete at different levels or not!!!)

The Gymkhanna events aren't generally stuff we do in lessons. Again, we'll do some special stuff right before the event in April during school vacation, but if you think you want to do barrels or poles or some such activity, remember to have a conversation soon with Linda!

Finally, Oak Hollow may not do a Fall show. We will consider doing one at Cobble Hill if that is the case. We will wait to hear from them. And, I know several riders would like to do additional shows/events this year. We will begin to post here some good opportunities. Just remember, if you pick an 0ff-site show, we need to insure you have transportation for your horse and if you are using a CHF horse, that it is available. Chuck, Jeannie and Karrie all have trailering capacity so if we plan ahead we should be golden. As I mentioned to one of my daughters, a legendary Drury basketball coach (Frank Zoltek) used to preach the four Ps. Poise & Planning Prevent Panic!

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.