Welcome "Polar Vortex"

I have been threatening all winter to name a horse Polar Vortex in honor of this snowy, icy never ending winter and here she is....I think we will call her V or Vee ?? for short. She is turning 9, about 16h, wide bodied with a beautiful feminine head. Welcome to the event team Miss V!

Remiss blogger with some photos (that makes it all better right??)

I have been the worst blogger ever. So much so that I am going to recruit my lovely employees to guest blog for me a few times so we can keep this thing more up to date.

Winter has been brutal this year. We are surviving but man or man I cannot wait for Spring! Its been a rough winter as we had Lance succumb to kidney failure and our darling Rouge re-developed fistula of the withers from her prior surgery (before we got her) we lost them within two weeks of each other. Was a rough few weeks at the farm. However as life goes on, we have had some new pony faces join the Penwick team, we welcome Stormy, Vee, Bond, Lad, Tahoe and 2 new ponies who need names! On the human front, Kathleen’s twin sister Erin joined our team and the twins are officially in charge of making the barn run like clock work, Chloe will continue to help with the barn and take on more riding and helping Chelsea with the babies.

A week ago we welcomed Morgan and her boy Tahoe, who I am looking forward to helping enter the world of eventing, they have talent I cannot wait to help develop! Alysha and her lease wonder pony Lad will also be staying on with us beyond winter, I expect to see great things out of them as well, this pony can jump and Alysha has been working hard on her homework and there are some big improvements in a short period of time.  Penwick may have 1 stall available once this snow melts off, so if you or anyone you know is interested in joining our program contact Chelsea.

Fusaichi headed to Aiken to get some more XC miles since I was afraid this never ending winter would limit me from getting him enough exposure before the Sping season hits. He is just coming 5 and doesn’t seem to stop growing and gets sassier by the day, ie I am 200% in love. I will drive down in early April to pick him up and ride for a few days in the warm, woohoo.

The Penwick team is working hard, we are all looking forward to our first outing a hunter pace on April 6^th as we kick into show season. There will be lots of new faces and I am looking forward to our second season in our new home. Feeling pretty lucky and happy these days.

-          Chelsea

Change is in the air

Any change, even a change for the better, is always accompanied by drawbacks and discomforts. - Arnold Bennett 

Life has been rapidly changing around Penwick, we have welcomed many new clients and horses said goodbye to a few. One of the biggest changes is I have sold my longtime partner, Regal, to Susan so he can show her the ropes of dressage and do a little bit of jumping, hunter pacing. She has been greatly enjoying getting to know him and the only thing that makes it easier is that I know Regal now has an awesome home with her and will be a rock star for her needs. She spoils Regal’s now little brother Reagan like no other horse in the barn, though Leyla and Spiderman may be tied (hello hand cut apples and carrots). The other great part is he will stay in the barn and I get to keep him tuned up for her, look out for their dressage debut this weekend at Burgundy Hollow!

Our new school horses are settling in well, Bucks Co HT saw Chloe and Phoenix kick butt with a 32 on their dressage score and some awesome jumping. Natalia will now take her to Burgundy and starting in November lease the flashy red mare. Heidi and Rouge finished off their season with a move up to Beginner Novice and clenched 3^rd place. Rouge really has the jumping thing down now and Heidi and Rouge will work on lots of dressage and gymnastics this winter to come out in the Spring in full swing. Amanda and Fiddy are schooling well at home and will try their hand at Novice this weekend. Fiddy while all TB, rides and goes like a WB, which has meant some tweaks in riding style. However, they are going to be a force to be reckoned with next year after some intense dressage work this winter. This horse jumps like a pogo stick, but is not so sure dressage is his favorite thing, he will learn! Stay tuned for an update on my own plans now that I only own 1 competition horse...

Farr is coming along really well and has even proved his chops as a husband/boyfriend horse. So if anyone is looking for a lovely big gelding who has a nice relaxed demeanor get in touch! We want to find this boy his own person soon!

Fusaichi, Fusaichi, Fusaichi

So life is chugging along at Penwick there can never be too much time, daylight or money when it comes to the horse world and that is how I feel recently. Penwick loaded up and took 7 riders to Bucks County Horse Park 2 weekends ago, it was our most mixed results horse show of the year, with 1 fall, 1 retire, 1 horse getting hurt in a silly accident by the trailers (thankfully not serious, but enough to cancel the day). Beth and Teddy continue to improve and place yet again after their move up to BN, Heidi and Rouge rocked around, Heidi just signed a 6 month lease on the big red mare, so look for great things to come. Rouge is trying to convince Heidi she is ready for 3’ and over, no matter what height the jump is actually set these days. She continues to make us laugh and is still the non-mariest mare I have ever met. Leigh Ann was a star with Valor at his first horse show, placing in the top 5, woohoo! Amanda and Noble rocked around novice and placed in the middle of the pack in a very large division, not too shabby for their second time at this level!

On my own personal front Regal had a week off, I pulled his shoes and his feet are looking be more in balance I am hoping that this may be a partial solution to our last rail slaughter. Fingers crossed. Regal is going to hit his first recognized dressage show at the end of the month at Second level. Cant hurt in case I do sell him as a dressage horse, he scored 65% at the level in an unrecognized setting a week ago.

Penwick also welcomed Kathleen to the team, she arrived from California just over a week ago and seems to be getting settled in. This week she gets the full shebang by helping Amanda with our last week of camp and 9 kids. Kathleen is looking to improve her riding skills, learn to retrain OTTBS and event at the Training level. Welcome to the team!

Lastly I acquired a 4yo TB called Fusaichi on Sunday. He is just my type, tall leggy and a little attitude. I am very excited about the lasted addition. Stay tuned more updates and I am trying to get him out in Sept to something unrecognized. 

Just in case anyone is looking or knows anyone...

http://www.yardandgroom.com/Job/United-States/New-Jersey/Seeking-Right-Hand-To-Busy-Eventing-Farm-Owner/221228

HorseShowHorseShowHorseShow

Bad blogger checking in again. Promise to give a real long update soon but for now I leave you will a photo from this past weekend's show. 10 riders, 8 horses and a lot of fun. This was by far the largest group I have taken to a show, complete with the semi-tractor trailer. It was a lot of fun. Amanda's mom Jill made us a pasta party at my house (like real athletes - Emily) and it was a big sleepover.

The new barn is coming along well, we have 30 horses currently living on property and 25 stalls (how did that happen!?) We just welcomed a new training client Susan and her 5yo. Dave is shopping fort a second horse, Irina became Lucky's (now Lance) mom thanks to some wonderful people at the barn and Leigh Ann has purchased Zone. Lots of horse activity.

I am off to NJHP this weekend with Regal and back again on Sunday with Ceara and Rayo. I may or may not be coming home with a 3yo as my second horse...

Life in the fast lane

Yet again I have been completely lax on this blog. I have been in high gear building the barn, managing contractors and the like. Things are coming along, we moved all the horses over May 15^th. Tomorrow the floors will be poured and the Amish are expected back on Friday to finish up the wood work.

Regal made his move to Training, with a great dressage test in the pouring rain on grass, his score was 27.7 and we scored mostly 8s with a couple of 9s. He was clean XC but unimpressed with stadium pulling 3 rails at all the easier fences, jumped the hard fences well, I can only hope that as he continues to move up and get move impressed with his job this habit will resolve itself. In the meantime I will continue to work on strength and developing the best possible uphill canter to make stadium as easy as possible.

Training horses is coming along well, right now my challenge is finding time to sleep and then ride everyone, but it is going well and all the horses and riders are making good progress. Lily is starting baby jumps. I am really focusing on her canter and head shyness right now. I think she will be slow to mature but, watch out for her when she does! i have enjoyed having some time to school Spiderman again and of course the baby OTTB parade has been fun!

Peri is going for her Pony Club rating this weekend and we will look to move her to Beginner Novice in July.  As the end of the school year rolls around I suspect my teenagers will get into the full swing of show season. Amanda is graduating *sniff* she grew up so fast and will be heading with scholarships to Monmouth in the fall. She will be missed but we are all happy that she will be close enough to come home frequently. 

About 3 runs from being done moving horses and everyone's stuff from the old barn to the new, my truck started making awful noises and I was barely able to drive. Thankfully I was not going fast and was able to pull over with Regal and Lily in tow and get some assistance from friends to get the horses home safe. Turns out my bearings were unhappy, so while in the shop with Kyle and Jim the truck got all new breaks. I hope she is happy as my purse was not...Now if I could only give her a bath we'd be good as new.

The barn has been busy we are welcoming many new boarders and students to the new location and I recently sold Top Position, but he will stay with us as a boarder. This of course means I was free to find another horse to bring in to train and compete. My lovely calm bay gelding was replaced with a red headed mare. She and I got along rather well on our meeting and I am looking forward to turning La Rouge into a top eventer. For those of you that don’t know me, my first horse was a little spitfire red mare called Scolly Square. So this is really just coming full circle just bigger and my training tool box has many more tools.