Swimming with the Horses at Malibu Creek

On Sunday the available Camp Staff (Julia, Hannah, and Brooke) were taken to Malibu Creek State Park for a fun day of swimming with the horses. Malibu Creek is one our favorite places to visit - both for its incredible history and beauty and also for the water. Who I am kidding? The kids go there for the water!

This trip was no exception and it was one of the busiest days ever. The horses had to navigate through dozens of people who were having a party at the Park entrance. There was even a band! Tiko led the way and Dessa & Angel were equally solid.

We headed straight for the water and it was inviting and refreshing. The horses were great - Angel is our deep diver, Tiko prefers the shallow end and Dessa was all over the place!

After a few dips in the pool the girls cantered on the walking path and enjoyed jumping a few logs and cantering with no hands. We finished the day with the traditional run up the grassland trail which offers spectacular views.

I would also like to take this moment to thank the camp staff who went. Julia is as enjoyable as she is reliable and she always offers to help. Hannah is tireless is spreading her knowledge about Parelli's work & is loved by every horse in our barn - including Bella's Baby! Brooke is the most improved; she has complety stepped up and earned her postion in addition to taking such good care of Tiko & Lola. This trip was well earned!

Our Beautiful New Mares from Jeff & Teri

Saturday was a great day at our barn. We rode, washed the horses, grabbed Subway and hurried out to Santa Rosa Valley to pick up two mares from Jeff & Teri Reichman (Teri-Jef Partnership).

The first mare for Julia is PA Precocious (Coco). She is a Hucklebey Berry daughter out of a BOH Bit O Bask daughter and is a gorgeous, forward moving, athletic mare that has show & trail experience.

The second mare is Bride Rose X (Rosie). She is by SFA War Chief out of the incomparable mare, Barbary Rose. She is very sweet and is unbroke though we look forward to riding her one day.

Both mares came home, were turned loose, went for a walk on the trail (which they loved), got a bath, did some Parelli work at the direction of Hannah and were tucked in with dinner, which they seemed to really enjoy.

We are thrilled, honored, touched, excited, and overwhlemed with joy in having these beautiful mares in our barn.

Ashley Lane & Gracie Present the National Flag at Region 2 Show

Ashley Lane & Gracie were invited by the Region 2 Director to present the Star Spangled Banner during the opening presentation on Saturday evening's formal classes.

Ashley received support from friends Hannah & Jennie and Hannah even schooled Poe for the practice run she would be completing with Jim Lowe's rider Lizzie Haven and Lillian Holt showed her support and came out to photograph the entire process start to finish. Ashley's family was there too which made the whole thing more special!
It was heartwarming to see Ashley do such a great job and the crowd was so pleased to see the girls out there on their old show horses. The show manager even remembered watching both Gracie and Poe show back in the day!

Following the presentation we watched some classes and saw Jim Lowe earn a Top 5 in the Half-Arabian Hunter Pleasure class, which was filled with beautiful horses.
After catching some classes, we all headed to Viva Fresh Mexican restaurant for some virgin margaritas and great Mexican food.

What is most exciting is that this event has opened so many doors for the youth in Region 2 and people are hoping that will build on its success to have more presentations at future events!en.n.

Congratulations to Our Fantastic First Time Show Girls!

So the day started off very interestingly - there was a rat in the horse trailer! We screamed, called for help (Cefarino & Heather) waited for the little sucker to vacate. We recruited Dakota and finally the 2' long rodent left through an open window - can you imagine the horror?! You guys know how I feel about rats!

We loaded the horses and headed out to Simi. A quick stop for coffee and we arrived in time to wash the horse's socks and give Kaia a full bath. We have a new favorite spot at the Simi showgrounds, by the way - it is near the grass, in the shade, by the hose and we have our own picnic table! This location is so centrally located that we got more visitors than ever and the girls made me so proud promoting Arabians with the families that stopped by to visit.

Our day started off with Liberty, of course. Gracie was in full force and ran to Kanye's (Conway) song "Faster" in honor of his birthday. She must have heard the words because all she did was run around the huge arena - it was great to watch and we had groups of people following us back to the trailer to meet her and take pictures with her! Even a reporter from The Acorn stopped the girls for a special interest story she is working on.

Kaia was also beautiful in the Liberty and will only get better with more practice. She sure can trot and took every one's breath away.

Julia being the leader that she is, was the first to show. Dessa presented her with a few challenges, such as bucking, but Julez rode her like the champion she is and held her own in some big classes.

She switched to Gracie for the final 3 classes and earned 2 seconds and reserve in a huge class with adult and open riders. Her enthusiasm, positive attitude and hard working nature make her the one to watch this season.

She will only improve with each show and she made us all so proud in every one of her classes.

Heather showed the Gellman's horse Kaia in several classes and looked amazing! It was very special when the girls were in the same class with Heather and Kaia looked beautiful in Holly's special braids!

Grace was the next to show in the Walk/Trot Division and looked all decked out in the purple show outfit. She was getting compliments all day! We are so proud of Grace for as quickly as she has gained her confidence and improved her riding.

She rode better with each class and ended the day on a fantastic note earning second place in a huge open class with adult riders. It was nice that her family was able to come out and watch her classes.

Jenny was also there for her very first show. She has only been riding with us a few months so we are excited with her desire to get out there and gain this experience.

She also proved to get better with time and maintained a positive attitude through each of her classes. Her hard work paid off when she won the Obedience Class with Dessa and won the High Point of the Day Award in the Walk Trot Division!

All in all the day was wonderful and we left around 2pm. The traditional stop at 7-11 for Slurpees was in order and the horses were all tucked in and fed by 4pm. It was a great day and I can't believe we have another show next week! I better go get some rest.

June Mare of the Month - Gracie Rose (Khlassy Lass+)

Celebrating her 25th Birthday on June 2nd, Gracie is our obvious choice for June Mare of the Month. Khlassy Lass or as affectionately known around the barn as "Gracie Rose", is a First Class daughter out of a Real McCoy daughter - thank you, Kit Hall for breeding such a wonderful mare!

She is true to her pedigree and looks so much like *Bask++ with the coloring from Khemo. Real McCoy just complimented everything. She still trots level and easily did the 15 mile Ahmanson trip with Jordan.

Gracie has been invaluable in our barn - she is definitely The Queen and rules the roost but is gentle enough to pony the puppy-dog and always calms down when Geffen rides her double. She is a Liberty winner at age 24 and recently took first in a Mares Sport Horse in Hand class.

I thank my lucky stars everytime I see this mare in our barn! She also shares Sapphire's birthday (and Adam's!).

Congratulations to all the riders at the Hidden Hills English Show!

All of the riders at the Hidden Hills Horse Show did a beautiful job presenting their horses and cheering on their friends! Bliss organzied another amazing event and the day was positive, fun and enjoyable!

There were a lot of debuts at this show which always adds to the excitement level. Jordan did an incredible job presenting Crimson in her first show ever at the age of 20 and winning the Walk/Trot Reserve Champion High Point.

Since Poe is now enjoying retirement life, Alexa showed Persjaa and did an amazing job. Her Poles classes were some of my favorite of the day!

Ashley & Sonnet and Hannah & Jade were racing around but it didn't stop them from an incredible performance in the Obedience Class - I love that "Counter-Canter", girls! Hannah's integrity shined in and out of the ring.

Ashley & Sonnet also won the Reserve High Point of the Day and dazzled the crowd with the fastest jumper course of the entire day! 31 Seconds!

Alexandra also showed in the Walk/Trot Division on Gracie and took home the High Point Championship - getting those diagonals really pays off!

Tallulah & Triana also debuted together in and got better with each class in the Walk/Trot Division - their poles class was spectacular!

Brooke & Lola impressed everyone when she tied with a trainer in the toughest class, Gambler's Choice! It was a hold-your-breath race to the finish. Brooke also won the High point Championship in her division with Dessa!

Mandy rode Snapper with ease & grace despite not being able to practice. Both girls did well and made us all proud! Next show - jumping!

Baylee was there in True Blue fashion and showed support for all of her friends. She also rode Angel over which gave Kristin a horse to play on as well.

We missed having Lilian's love and support at this show and hope she is feeling better soon! A sincere thanks to Bliss for another memorable event, to Angel for all his help in and outside the arena, and also to our wonderful judge Courtney who was blown away by all of the kids.

Also, thanks to Glen for breakfast and to the smiling faces in the snack shack that keep us going all day long! Junk in the trunk!