What a Season!

Ben inspecting one of the training level tables

Greetings from chilly Sherborn! I can’t complain too much since it’s been lovely weather recently and particularly because we miraculously never lost power or suffered any major damage during Super Storm Sandy. I wish I could say the same for everyone else. All I can say is how thankful we are to have come out the other side unscathed and that our thoughts are with everyone in the Northeast that was affected. A few of our boarders had major damage inflicted on their houses and we hope that that their lives can go back to normal sooner rather than later. 

The fact that life at CBF has been blissfully uneventful (pardon the pun) since the beginning of November is a stark contrast to the month of October, which is always our busiest month since that's when we have our recognized horse trials. This year it was even more hectic since we decided to add an unrecognized horse trials at the end of October to make use of the cross country course that was already up and, more importantly, to give people an excuse to dress themselves and their horses up in totally bizarre costumes. More on that in a minute.

Our October 13 recognized horse trials went off beautifully. We can’t say it enough, but THANK YOU to all of our tireless volunteers! I’m not just saying this: we really couldn’t do it without you. A special thanks to some of our younger boarders, who had a particularly good time painting stadium jumps…

And then there was a temporary lack of focus... :)

And, of course, none of this would be possible without Matt and Nancy Mayo, the owners of Course Brook, who put their hearts and souls into this place. Without them, it just wouldn’t exist! Another thank you must go to Stephie Baer, who held a fundraiser clinic at CBF to help us raise money for improvements to the cross country course. Stephie has been a part of the CBF family for decades and we are all so grateful for her support. 

A Stephie's-eye-view of the little drop log

Apparently this happened at the clinic, too.

Thanks to fundraisers like Stephie's, a lot of improvements have been made over the past year, from firming up the footing on parts of the cross country track, to a new location for dressage so that stadium could be held in our large outdoor sand arena. The changes really paid off; it’s been a pleasure to see this event grow and evolve every year. Thanks to our competitors for supporting us and, in turn, the sport of eventing.

Now, about the costumes. For our unrecognized horse trials October 27, the organizers naturally chose a Halloween theme and invited riders to dress up themselves and their horses for the dressage phase of the show. Who would have imagined the effort and imagination that went into these costumes. I think the pictures speak for themselves...

You can find professional photos of both horse shows at www.prestigesportshots.com and at http://www.amandasylvia.com/Equine-Events/Course-Brook-Farm-Halloween. Thanks to both photographers for doing such a great job of capturing the events.

So, now that the horse show season is over, everyone is sitting back, taking a deep breath, and… planning for 2013! Keep an eye on our website (www.coursebrookfarm.com) as we post information about new clinics and shows. Knowing Sharon and Erika, it won’t be long before they’re cooking up something else!

Finally, the word on the street is that Matt will be selling Christmas trees this year. There will also be hay rides at the farm every weekend between Thanksgiving and Christmas. If you’re interested in taking part, or in purchasing a tree from Matt, he can be reached at coursebrookfarm@aol.com.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

-- Casy

P.S. Special thanks to Lauren Murphy for all of the photos used in this post. I promised her I'd include a photo of her horse, so here's Ami (ridden here by Caitlin Calder), heading to cross country at our October 13 recognized horse trials: