Castle Farm held it's second week of summer camp last week! This time, the campers ranged from a little experience in both jumping and cantering up through several years experience jumping and cantering. The following campers attended:

Intermediates (Appllejacks)
-Camille Sullivan on Dover
-Grace DiNardo on Patti
-Alexis Hartman on Jett

Advanced (No Name Necessary)
-Gabrielle Navarro on Cisco
-Katie Powell on Cheerio
-Elizabeth Hilmar on Gypsy

The theme for camp this week was "Castle Farm Sporting Days." All week long, the campers played various non-horse sports on horseback. Sports included soccer, hockey, jousting, fencing, water basketball, and minigolf. They also worked on team performances. The Appllejacks worked very hard to come up with a Pas du Trois - a synchronized dressage test for three horses and riders. NNN worked very hard on a synchronized Prix Caprilli test (a dressage test with jumps). In the middle of the week, we had a scavenger hunt. The results follow:

-Team 1: Camille and Gabby - 1st place (free lease ride and a $5 gift card to Triangle Horse Sports)
-Team 2: Lizzy and Grace - 2nd place ($5 gift card to Triangle Horse Sports)
-Team 3: Katie and Alexis - 3rd place ($5 gift card to Triangle Horse Sports)

We also had a sleepover Wednesday night, and ordered pizza and stayed up watching horse movies. We hope to incorporate this into future camps.

Friday, we had a camp-wide competition. We started the day off with the team demonstrations - the Prix Caprilli and the Pas du Trois. Then the games began. The results follow:

Soccer - Tie
Jousting - No Name Necessary
Hockey - No Name Necessary

Final: No Name Necessary - Gold, Appllejacks - Silver

Everyone (horses and riders!) had a great time at camp and we can't wait for camp to start again next summer!

Castle Farm headed out to Hillsborough a couple of weekends ago for our favorite hunter schooling show - Sharon Oaks! The following horse and rider teams attended:

Camille Sullivan and Jett
Zoe Downey and Schuyler
Randie Rowland and Boomer
Gabrielle Navarro and Boomer
Heather King and Butch (schooling in the warm up ring)

Heather King and Butch started off the day with a brief riding session in the schooling ring. This was the first time Heather has ridden Butch away from home, and even with a pony mare in the ring with him, he was very well behaved for this first time out! It was a great confidence booster for both horse and rider!

Camille and Jett started off the show with her debut in the walk/trot/canter (12&under) division. Zoe and Sky competed in the walk/trot (12&under) division. Gabby and Boomer competed in the walk/trot (open) division. Also, Randie made her Castle Farm show debut competing in the leadline division on her pony Boomer.

Results for the show follow:

Randie & Boomer:
-Leadline 1st out of 2!

Camille & Jett:
-WTC Eq 4th out of 4!
-WTC Hunter 3rd out of 4!
-WTC Pleasure 1st out of 3!
-WTC 75% payback 2nd out of 3!
-W/T ground poles 1st out of 2!
-W/T ground poles 1st out of 4!

Zoe & Sky:
-W/T Eq 3rd out of 3!
-W/T Hunter 1st out of 3!
-W/T Pleasure 1st out of 2!

Gabby & Boomer:
-W/T Eq 3rd out of 6!
-W/T Hunter 5th out of 6!
-W/T Pleasure 2nd out of 5!

Castle Farm hosted Week 1 of it's first ever split-level summer camp the first week of August. The first week of camp catered more towards riders who have never ridden before through riders who have ridden but have not cantered or jumped yet.

Our beginners for the week were:
Emily Powell on Dover
Allison Keys on Jett
Cassidy Narron on Cisco
Kayla Petroski on Schuyler
Randie Rowland on Boomer

Our intermediates for the week were:
Allie Powell on Patti
Zoe Downey on Schuyler
Katherine Zinn on Dover
Kacey Rodier on Gypsy
(and sometimes Randie Rowland on Cisco, but only when Boomer was being a brat

The theme for the week was "Fun at the Circus." All week long the campers worked hard on perfecting their circus skills on horseback. These skills ranged from "aerials," vaulting, clowning around, balancing acts, and strong-man acts. At the end of the week, the campers put on a circus performance for their friends and families. To start the event off, the campers presented their horses in the costume parade. They'd worked hard all week long on making their horses the best they could be in the following disguises:

Jett (Kayla, Allison, and Zoe) - a jet plane
Gypsy (Kacey, Allie, and Katherine) - a pirate
Schuyler (Emily, Cassidy, and Randie) - SuperSky (the super pony!)

After the costume parade, Heather, who was dressed as a ringmaster - special thanks to her dressage instructor, Suzin Daly, who let Heather borrow her coat and tails!- started the events for the Castle Farm big top.

Everyone had a great time during camp and during the final performance. We can't wait to see all the campers back for camp next year!

Castle Farm headed out to Mebane, NC the first day of July for a fun day filled with XC schooling! The following horses attended:

Annie (with rider Ashley Godfrey)
Cisco (with rider Gabby Navarro)
Cassie (with rider Heather King)
Butch (no rider, just there for the experience!)
Shadow (with rider Heather King - no jumping, just there for the experience)

And...Jo! Heather's former show horse, Jo is actually boarded at Fenridge, and her new owner wanted Heather to school her over a few XC fences before hopping on and trying them out herself. What a great way to start the day! After Heather and Laurie schooled Jo, Heather (this time on Shadow) and Ashley and Gabby headed out to school. Gabby passed her XC audition (allowing her to show at the Foxtrack HT at the end of this month), and it was Ashley's first time schooling XC with Annie as her new owner. Both horses and riders did great and had a blast! While everyone was cooling off, Heather headed back out on the course - this time with Cassidy! Cassidy was feeling exceptionally brave, and they had a great time schooling the course. The event was a great confidence booster for Cassidy! She even jumped the scary ditch (her arch nemesis) in the woods on the first try!

Finally, while everyone was packing up, Heather hand-walked Butch around and he played over some of the jumps as well. Look for him on course in the next couple of years!

Everyone had a great time and we can't wait to head out for the next event!

Castle Farm headed down to the Moss Foundation in Southern Pines the last weekend in August for a much deserved trail ride! Two trailers packed full of horses made the trip. The following horse and rider pairs attended:

Heather King and Cassidy
Lois Mercer and Patti
Amanda Guffey and Sandi
Ashley Godfrey and Annie
Gabrielle Navarro on Cisco
Jordyn Dunson on Shadow
Elena Freedman-Scott on Jett
Katie Powell on Cheerio
Elizabeth Hilmar on Gypsy

Everyone had a great time on the trail ride. It was a GREAT change of scenery, as the only horse who had been there before was Cheerio (before he came to Castle Farm), and NONE of the riders had been there before. Despite getting 'lost' and having to be 'rescued' by park staff, and despite riding for two hours longer than we'd intended, we can't wait to head back to the Moss Foundation to explore more trails! However, you can bet that we'll be making our OWN map next time . Also, we'd like to thank Gregory Scott (Elena's dad), for hauling the second trailer!

Castle Farm would like to offer a huge congratulations to veteran rider Ashley Godfrey on her purchase of Anastasia! After deciding her last horse wasn't cut out for the thrill and speed of eventing that Ashley desires, she decided to sell him and look for a new mount. After about 6 months of searching, she finally found the perfect horse, and believe it or not, Ashley decided to buy a mare! Annie is a 9yo Thoroughbred mare who has evented up through training and been schooled up to prelim. Her dressage is fabulous, her jumping is just what Ashley's been looking for, and we can't wait to see what the future holds for this pair!

Castle Farm headed down to Southern Pines this past Saturday for a day of dressage, cross country, and stadium. Three horse and rider teams attended: Heather King on Cassidy, Dominique Major on Sandi, and Heather Mercer on Patti! This was the first time Heather King has only ridden one horse at a show in a LONG time, so we were all happy that it was an easy, relaxing show (compared to others we've been to)! This was also Heather Mercer's first horse trial on Patti, as well as her first show as Patti's new owner. Heather and Cassie competed in Open Beginner Novice, Heather Mercer and Dominique competed in Sr. Maiden.

Heather and Cassie started the day off with a 34.8% after Beg. Novice test B. This put them in 2nd place out of 4 entries. They headed off to what was probably one of the best cross country rides they've had together! Unfortunately, Heather was a little TOO confident with their ride, and accidentally jumped the wrong last jump, which resulted in a technical elimination for the team. Since it was a schooling show, they were still able to continue on to stadium. The show organizers must have been super busy, because they forgot to lower the stadium heights for the beginner novice division, and Heather and Cassie actually ended up jumping novice height stadium (2'11")! This was the first time Cassie had jumped a course of that height, and she did GREAT for her first time! Overall, Heather said she was EXTREMELY pleased with Cassidy and their rides for the show!

Next to go were Heather M and Dominique. Heather M came out of dressage with a 36.5% (after Heather K found a scoring error, which bumped her overall placing up at the end of the day!) Dominique and Sandi came out of dressage with a 32%. They headed out to jump, where Heather Mercer and Patti went double clear cross country and stadium, and finished the day on their dressage score with 4th place out of 13 entries! Way to go! Dominique and Sandi went double clear cross country, but unfortunately the sun plank got the better of them in stadium, and they incurred 4 jumping faults, bumping their score to 36%; however, they still finished 3rd out of 13! Way to go!

Everyone had a great time and we can't wait to go back next month for their next horse trial!

Another addition to the Castle Farm team was made official this week - we now own Dover! Castle Farm's been leasing Dover from our wonderful farrier, Rusty Castleberry, since November, and after falling in love with the (tied for second with Schuyler, of course) cutest pony ever, Heather gave in and purchased him, making him an official Castle Farm owned pony!

After many combined years of riding, mother/daughter riding team Lois and Heather Mercer finally fulfilled the ultimate horse-lover's goal: they bought their first horse! Not only is this FABULOUS news for the Mercer family, but it's great news for everyone all around, because the horse they purchased is none other than the wonderful Patti! Patti's been at Castle Farm for awhile in training with Heather, and several months ago the Mercers started leasing her and riding/competing her. They fell in love with her, and were finally able to purchase her last week! Heather and Lois look forward to many years of riding and showing Patti, and Castle Farm looks forward to the newest addition to the lesson program! Congrats!

Heather King headed down to the Carolina Horse Park this past weekend for the third recognized horse trial of the year (for us anyway - this time with two horses in tow! Heather and Sunny Side (Patti) competed in the Open Beginner Novice division this time, and Heather and CF Baltic Royal Flush (Cassidy) competed in the Starter division for Cassie's first recognized horse trial ever!

Friday:
We arrived midday Friday, and already the sun was forecasting the weather to come. It was HOT! After getting their stalls ready and unpacking and setting up, Heather rode Patti and Cassie before we all headed out to walk her cross country courses. The beginner novice course was laid out very differently from anything we'd ever seen at the horse park, and the starter course was entirely in the infield of the steeplechase track. Both courses looked like fun and we couldn't wait for the competition to start the next day!

Saturday:
Luckily, Heather had late ride times with both of her horses, and thanks to very generous stablemates who fed our horses breakfast both mornings, we didn't have to get to the show grounds until 8:00! After braiding both horses and watching some of the prelim riders go cross country, it was finally time for Heather to compete. Heather rode Patti first as they headed over to the dressage ring to ride Beginner Novice Test B. They left the ring with a score of 35.7%, which put them in 5th place out of 9. Immediately after hopping off Patti, Heather had to get on Cassie for their dressage test. They rode Beginner Novice A and left the ring with a score of 32.5%, which put them in 2nd place out of 13. With less than 10 minutes of downtime after hopping off Cassie, Heather had to mount right back up again - this time on Patti for cross country! They had a GREAT run cross country and finished double clear! This moved them up to 1st place! Immediately after Patti's cross country, Heather hopped back on Cassidy for their cross country run. The course was actually tougher than everyone thought it would be, with tight turns, max heights, and a LONG optimum time, and in combination with the heat and being tired from earlier in the day, they had one refusal cross country. When they came to the jump the second time however, Cassie had no problems and sailed over it! Unfortunately, their refusal bumped them down to 7th place.

Sunday:
Again, thanks to our very generous stablemates, we didn't have to wake up early to be at the show grounds Sunday morning either. Heather didn't ride until 1pm, so we had a lot of time in the morning to relax, watch other riders go, and walk the stadium course. Finally, when 1:00 rolled around, Heather and Patti entered the ring for the final phase of the weekend. Unfortunately, they pulled one rail, which dropped them to 2nd place. Definitely not bad for her second recognized show at Beginner Novice! Not too long after finishing her victory lap on Patti, Heather got on Cassie for their stadium round. They went double clear, and moved up to 4th place! Definitely not bad for Cassie's first ever recognized horse trial!

All in all, everyone had a great time - horses, rider, and volunteers! We can't wait to go back for the next overnight show!