CBF fall USEA horse trials photo montage!

The second-annual fall CBF USEA-recognized horse trials was a huge success this year! We were fully subscribed with entries, lucked out with fantastic weather, and everyone had a smile on their face at the end of the day.

We're already looking ahead to 2012 and thinking about what worked this year and what can be improved for the future. Our number one priority for our next competition will be to improve the footing in our grass show jumping field to make it firmer and hold up better under heavy use. We'll be sure to keep you updated on this and other improvements and additions to the plan for our third-annual recognized horse trials, tentatively scheduled for October, 2012.

For now, enjoy these photos of the day, courtesy of our own Lauren Murphy, Janet Sinclair, and Rica Trujillo…

A new addition to our show jumping course this year

One of our two dressage arenas

Don't forget to have your bit checked!

Our intrepid secretary, Erin.

She returned for a repeat performance this year, so she must like us at least a little bit!

One view of the show jumping track

Show jumping on the left, warm up on the right, spectators in the middle

One of our bank complexes on the left

A fabulous runner, doing what he does best

New last fences for novice and training

Our own Paige G. and her horse Sam

clearing the last fencing on the training course with room to spare

See you next year!

Karen W. steps into the hot seat

In my last post, I challenged CBF boarder Karen W. to try to sneak a guest blog post about her trailer-buying experiences by me. Well, I am nothing if not gracious, so here you have the first installment of what promises to be an informative series of articles on buying a new rig (Spoiler alert: the story has a happy ending). Take it away, Karen!

Hello, I’ve been asked to write something from my horsey experiences for the Course Brook Blog. I’m a fifty-something, female boarder at CBF who is mostly interested in dressage and trail riding.

My most recent experience was this fall when I attempted to buy a used horse trailer.

Part 1: the Search

I talked to a few trailer experienced friends and read a few articles. Here is the link to a particularly good one: http://www.equispirit.com/info/articles.htm which stated that one should get the trailer before getting the tow vehicle, because you need to know the weight of the trailer plus horses and luggage in order to get a vehicle powerful enough to haul safely. It’s a lot of math so have a calculator handy. I also needed a trailer to show my husband that I was serious when said I needed a truck to replace my aging Jeep Cherokee.

Then I got on my computer and searched “used horse trailers”. I found many fine sites and then there is of course Craig’s List. I found some bargains, but remember if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. I emailed a few—three to be precise—and the replies were almost identical: These trailers were purportedly owned by military personnel and even though were advertised as being in the Boston area, they were not. According to the email the military would ship the trailer to me for free and all I had to do was give them lots of personal information. On Craig’s List there is advice on how to avoid scams and apparently this is a typical one. Who knew that people would prey upon our patriotism and current love for the armed forces to scam prospective buyers of horse trailers? I do now. Fortunately I didn’t give out any info other than my email address.

Local sites like Equinesite.com were very helpful and I did not encounter any scams. But I did not move fast enough for many of the ads that I thought were good deals. By the time I made arrangements to go out and see them, usually more than an hour away, they had already been sold.

I stuck with Equinesite.com because they had the most listings in my location. One had listed several trailers and I inquired why. The reason was she turned out to be a consignment dealer so had a choice on hand. She was located in NH about three miles from my brother’s house where I was going the day before Thanksgiving to pick up my mother. How convenient for me! But the day before I went someone posted an ad for a ten-year-old Kingston with a dressing room and it was just one mile off Route 95, which is my path to NH. Since I ran out of time picking up Mom, I did not go to the consignment place. I ended up only seeing the one trailer, which I ended up buying the day after Thanksgiving, for better or for worse.

Stay turned for Part 2: Getting the trailer home.

And... we're back!

After something of an extended summer vacation, the Course Brook Farm blog is back in action! As for the renegade post from March, if Karen wants to write about buying a horse trailer, she’s going to have to get through me first and I’m bigger than she is…

The most exciting piece of non-vehicular news around here is the fact that our October 8^th USEA-recognized horse trials are right around the corner. It seems like just yesterday that we were gathered around the back of the Gator, celebrating Erika’s birthday after the last competitor had gone home and eating cake with our fingers, but September is NEXT WEEK and that means horse show preparations are ramping up all over again. We’re offering BN-T levels again this year and entries are open now!

As the cross country course comes together over the next few weeks, I’ll be posting photos of some of the jumps, and maybe even a jump-by-jump course walk. The new footing in the large outdoor area that we added before last year’s horse trials is riding even better after wintering over, so no matter what the weatherman is calling for there will be good footing for dressage. Ozias has been building new stadium jumps, too. I can testify that the wings are incredibly fancy, and also incredibly heavy.

Also back and better than ever is volunteer coordinator, Janet Sinclair. You may remember her as the woman with the clipboard and purposeful walk if you volunteered at last year’s event. She’s basically a one-woman coordinating machine and thanks to her, all of last year’s volunteers were organized and deployed appropriately. I can attest to that since I was one. I can also attest to the awesomeness of the gift bags that Janet puts together for every volunteer.

If you’d like to come and volunteer, Janet has lots of jobs to fill, even for those who aren’t horsey. For instance, if you’re a kid who is planning on competing at the show, why not volunteer your parents? That will get them and their cameras away from the trailer on show day and maybe they’ll give you one of their free volunteer t-shirts when the day is over. That’s even better than a ribbon! If you want to volunteer yourself or a loved one, you can reach Janet at janetsinclair1@live.com. Operators are standing by.

That’s it for today. Stay tuned for photos, highlights of the boarders’ achievements through the summer show season, and some special guest bloggers in the coming weeks.

--Casy

News at the Farm

Hi Everyone!

Well, we're finally heading out of winter towards spring (I hope!) and it's time to start thinking about our summer schedule.

The big news is that we have booked Bobby Costello to come do a 2-day clinic on July 9th and 10th. Day one will be show jumping/gymnastics and day two will be x-country. Bobby is a Massachusetts native and currently resides in Southern Pines, NC. Bobby was a member of the 2000 Eventing Team at the Sydney Olympic Games and was part of the team that won gold at the 2003 Pan American Games. He is heavily involved in the governance of both the USEA and USEF. We look forward to having him and will have more info on signing up soon.

We will be running a Combined Test and Dressage Schooling Show on May 1st. This will be a great opportunity to get ready for your first recognized event or just to get out and do something fun!

And don't forget our annual Memorial Day X-Country Clinic with advanced level rider Stephie Baer. This is a chance to get quality instruction while schooling our x-country course before our sanctioned event.

Our next blog post will be written by one of our boarders, Karen, who will talk about the trailer buying process. Keep a look out for that!