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
