Happy New Year!

I hope everyone is enjoying a fabulous 2009 so far. I know I am! I'm certainly staying busy- between riding, teaching, running the barn, and oh yeah, did I mention I bought a house! It's beautiful two-story townhome in Wellington- 3 bedroom, 2 1/2 bath. Just lovely.

Fizzy is doing very well. We have a horse show coming up, and I will let you all know how it goes. It's just a small show, to get our feet wet again. Guess I need to learn the new Grand Prix! Unfortunately, Fizzy is "pregnant." I'm not kidding.

Exhibit A:

He's never been a particularly "hard keeper," but this is ridiculous. I cut his grain down in November seeing that he was getting a bit portly at his new home. I just cut it again, so now he's only eating 5 quarts of grain a day. Most of the Grand Prix horses, espicially breeding stallions, eat at least 7 or 8 quarts a day!

My sales horse, Advokat, is wonderful. He is much better than in the videos I posted a few months ago, and I have five people set to come see him this month! Fingers crossed he finds a new home- he really is just TOO big for his petite Amateur owner. I sure am going to miss him though- he is one of the most beautiful horses I've ever seen!

Tweakie is great, as well. I've been jumping him a little bit which is very fun. He has so much talent for it, and by nature a very good eye for distances. My vet wants me to bring him to his farm to do a jumping school, which I think would be very fun! He is also doing very well in his dressage work, just getting stronger and able to carry more each day. He is such a treat to ride.

In November I got a new sales horse in- a Dutch mare by Jazz out of a Zeoliet dam. She was a broodmare for the last few years, after being lightly started as a three-year-old, so she's just now starting back as a riding horse. She is phenomenal, and I think could really make a big time horse for someone. She is sensitive, forward and incredibly smart. She's quickly becoming one of my favorite rides. She obviously still needs to build more muscle and put on some more weight, but she's really a diamond in the rough I think!

In other news- I have a few new students and horses in training which is always fun. What started as a cute, 5-acre, 6-stall barn farm has turned into 12 stalls- 6 temporary (courtsey of my wonderful boyfriend and Stacey's husband) and 6 permanent. We also have some temporary pastures set up for horses like Tweakie and Stacey's old polo mare- the "well behaved" residents. For everyone else, we have three large fenced pastures, two of which are divided, so we have five permanent turnouts and four temporary.

I am super busy most days now, but am loving every minute of it! My working student comes next week, which I am super excited about! She comes very highly recommended from one of my best friends, and I think we'll have a lot of fun.

I am working on starting a new webpage for my training, sales and clinics, which hopefully will be up and running within the next few months. Keep checking back.