Rolex, Soggy May, and a Few Events with Greenies....

It's been a very busy couple of weeks around here...not surprising! Here's the latest scoop:

1. Josh and I went out to Rolex Kentucky to do a little schmoozing with some clients. Josh and Frankie Thieriot (of Athletux) also produced all of the rider interview videos for the Rolex Kentucky 3DE website. We started a new "lounge" this year, which was really neat... it created a relaxed atmosphere with comfy chairs and an awesome decor. It helped the riders feel a little more at home, and plus they had a "live audience" who were really interactive and asked a lot of questions. They chatted with David O'Connor, Allison Springer, Hawley Bennett-Awad, Andrew Nicholson, and a ton of other amazing riders and coaches. Our goal is to bring this set-up to a lot of these big events...just need to get some sponsors on board! (hint, hint?)

(Top right photo: Josh and I were working out of "The Tower" at Rolex...pretty sweet view!)
(Bottom photo: Josh filming Frankie Thieriot interviewing Andrew Nicholson in the awesome Rolex lounge. You can't really see it in this photo, but there was a huge crowd that had gathered to watch, listen, and ask questions.)


2.On April 20th, we took a handful of young horses over to compete at Wavertree Farm HT - a really neat facility just below Charlottesville. Mom was disappointed with her and Artie's dressage test, but she ended up with a 24!!! Too funny. So, of course, they won the Novice, after jumping around cleanly. I moved Teddy up to Beginner Novice at this event... he decided dressage wasn't the worst thing in the world (after an hour of hacking...), and put in a pretty good test... he was super in the show jumping, and a little peeky at a pony-eating brush jump on xc, but overall I was very very pleased with his progress. Josh did a nice job in the Green division with Patrick, and they had a really educational day - Patty showed off his scope and learned to gallop like a proper Irish horse! Here are some more pics from Wavertree. 

(Right: Go Patty, go! Patty and Josh having a blast at Wavertree.) 

3. Two weeks later on May 4th, our same merry group of baby horses toddled off to the event at
Green Hill Park for another outing. Josh, Mom, Billie Bryant, and a few other stoic volunteers spent the day sweating and weedwacking and hauling jumps around the facility the week before to prepare the courses for the event....so we were relieved that they received rave reviews on Saturday! We all had a really nice outing, and it was quite nice to see progress in all three horses. Caitlin East also joined us on her young Tag baby, Fred, and put in a great performance in Novice, picking up a stellar dressage score to top our Novice group.

(Right: Artie over The Big Corner at BREA HT...woo woo!)

4. On May 5th, I coached a half-dozen of our Pony Clubbers in a cross-country clinic at Billie's gorgeous farm in Bedford. The kids and ponies got their feet wet in the water jump, learned about ditches and banks...we all had a good time, and no one fell off. Success! Thank you to the Bryant family for letting us come play! This was a great opportunity for the kids to get in a good schooling before their rating at our farm next week.

(Right: Kids + ponies + xc = awesome happy fun time.)

5. We have a massive group of sales horses right now! The list is growing every day... We have
several nice purebred and halfbred Connemaras, amongst other various breeds. Lots of youngsters priced very reasonably as well. Looking for a nice Tag baby? Get 'em now while they're cheap!

(Right: Look how cute this pony is? A Moxley Duncan halfbred mare - foxhunter extraordinaire! Jubilee has been hunting with a child first flight in northern VA for the past several years, and is ready to show another rider the ropes. Only $7500...what a deal!)

6. We've had the soggiest week on record here at the farm...today there's finally a glimmer of sunlight
on the horizon! Thank God! After completely taking over our basement, and earning the title of world's most spoiled birds, the baby chickens have been relocated to their fancy schmancy covered coop outside.

(Right: Freeloading teenager cheep cheeps are punted out of their parent's basement and forced to get their own apartment. The partying has already begun.)

Be sure to check out our Facebook pages for the latest!

Cady O'Daly Farm on Facebook

Bright Horse Communications on Facebook

All for now!

 Cheers,
Emily

Okay, I Promise to Keep This Updated.... Big Changes Lately!

It's been an awfully long time since I sat down and blogged about our latest happenings at the farm...I just scurried in from the feeding the ponies and barely escaped being soaked with our first big thunderstorm of the year (Repeat mantra..."I will not complain about rain, rain brings grass! And good footing! And peeper frogs!")

So here are some juicy news tidbits:

1. Neither Josh nor I are working for the U.S. Eventing Association anymore. We both worked there for about six years or so, made some amazing connections, and really enjoyed promoting the sport of eventing. Together, Josh and I produced  the monthly magazine, Eventing USA, and after I left in 2011, he launched Eventing TV, which was really unique (we're still hoping to continue on with this project).   During that time we had a small company that we created called The Red Horse, which was mainly focused on photography and other little media projects. But because of our full-time commitments, we weren't able to give it the TLC to succeed. Josh and I are both pretty creative, outside-the-box thinkers and this year we'd really been itching to give it another try... so, long story short... 

2. Josh and I created a new marketing & production company called Bright Horse Communications. In a nutshell, we do a lot of promotional things for businesses....ad & website design, videos, e-newsletters, photography, sponsorships, social media management, and a bunch of other neat stuff. So far, we have several fabulous clients that we're extremely excited to be representing... we have such a wide variety, though most tend to be equestrians or of that genre. We head to Rolex next week to meet with some clients and hopefully get some more projects going.

3. Horses and ponies have been selling like hotcakes! We knew the market for purebred and halfbred Connemaras was pretty strong, but we had no idea we'd be able to sell so many horses in such a short amount of time. Since the spring of 2012, we've sold 27 horses. Most of them have been Connemaras, though we've also sold a Friesian, Haflinger, Welsh ponies, and Irish Sport Horses. Our business grows every day, and some horses have sold in as little as two weeks, though it takes most about 60 days. Right now, our current inventory is interesting... from a seasoned Irish Draught, to a "pony packer," to some youngsters...it's quite a variety. Check out the latest roster.

4. Josh and I relocated down to the family farm in Lynchburg last year since we outgrew our adorable, but alas too small, farm up near Charles Town, WV. We're very eager to get this thing sold (what seller ISN'T eager to sell quickly??).  We put a lot of work into the place, and God knows it looks a million times better now than it did when we bought it a few years ago. Hopefully some nice family will fall in love with it, much like we did...

5. In Cady O'Daly horse news...
- Artie, Mom's flashy dun halfbred mare by Tag, is doing well at Novice this year, schooling Training, and getting fancier each day. Talk about a jumping bean!
- Marco, my "child", is sidelined for a bit recovering from an injury he sustained during our early-spring trip down to Ocala and Aiken in February. Forever after, Marco shall be known as "The Money Pit."
- Patrick, Josh's prodigy, is turning out to be the coolest horse...he spent the winter hilltopping and now he's getting ready to launch his eventing career. One day Josh will learn to sit that huge trot...
- Teddy, the brumby-look alike and hunt pony extraordinaire, is dabbling in eventing this year...he treats dressage with the utmost disdain, but thankfully is showing boldness in the jumping phases.
- The 3yos - Amigo, Tink, and Ethel have all been backed. Without a fuss. What a fun group to bring along! I do have Amigo listed for sale, but he's so easy-going and athletic that I'm tempted to hang onto him for a few years and play with him a bit more.
- Colleen, the grand matriarch, is approximately 32 this year! And still going strong, bossing around my yearling, Louie (my amazing Claire de LuneSE x Cady cross...powerhouse!).
- Tag is on HIGH ALERT with all the spring hormones in the air...you can usually find him strutting across his field, long mane flapping in the wind, his faithful mini-donkeys close behind... Since he's retired from competition, we've let him go "au natural"...he really does look like he's fresh off the boat from Ireland! He's expecting a few offspring next year...fingers crossed we have a safe and successful breeding season. 

There are several other horses here for training and sales, but these are the "family members"... 

All for now... off to brave the elements and pack the trailer for one of our favorite little local horse trials at Wavertree Farm. Mom will take Artie in the Novice, I'm attempting Beginner Novice with Teddy the Toad, and Josh is doing Advanced Green with Patty.

Cheers -
Emily