08.09.10
Posted in Uncategorized at 3:38 pm by Lori
Happy August to Everyone,
So the horse flies are horribly, the heat is ridiculous but the horses have been great! Since the last message board post we took Vasi to Georgetown MT where she finished in 9th. 1 silly little issue on XC, argh. We have since been XC school and Vasi has taken on a whole new attitude about it. She is more determined than ever and even jumped a couple novice fences and a training one! She is the ditch and bank master as well. Because of this excellent school she is signed up for her first USEA recognized event next weekend at Flying Cross! I am sure her and Jade will do great.
We also took Stephanie to Penny Oaks HT where she had an AWESOME weekend. In her huge division she finished on a great dressage score of 41.5 to put her in a tie (that they didn’t break) for 6th. The dressage scores were very tough with first place being only 37. Stephanie will also be attending Flying Cross!
Rio went to visit Dr. Foster Northrup at Church Hill on August 4th. We got the go to start trot work. 5 mins of trot work at a time, slow and steady!!!! Foster though Rio might be lame the first couple of rides but his trot feels great. Nice and big….I think Rio was really ready to start doing something again. He is still sad that he doesn’t get to go out with his friends, but darn it we won’t ruin three months of time off because he wants to gallop around like a nut. :-) Maybe by winter he can go out with his buddies.
Nuzzle will unfortunately be leaving us soon, but Stephanie so kindly took a quick video of her for me. She is such a wonderful little mare. A bit cranky in the video but for a 2 year old if that is all cranky is then that is fine for me. :-) Check it out on FB.
We want to welcome a couple new students. Stephanie and her horse William, Marie and her horse (omg can’t remember his name) and Cindy. Cindy’s horse Slew will be arriving when Nuzzle heads out. Lots of new horses and faces so be sure to introduce yourselves if you run into each other.
Mango is back for a brief stay to get new shoes and a little leg up while Jodi is on vacation. Say hi while she is her, she is going out with Lilly and Ali and they are all too cute together.
On other topics: I am taking a vacation - I will be away Sept 4-12. No lessons that week.
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06.03.10
Posted in Uncategorized at 5:43 pm by Lori
I feel like it has been forever since I did a post but that the cold temperatures of winter weren’t that long ago. We just had the first day of June not even into real summer yet but have already hit 90 degrees multiple times this year. We are also swamped with FLIES!!!! YUCK. We have never had flies so bad at the farm since we moved in but for some reason this year they are out in force. I know fly masks are hard to keep up with as the horses tend to get them off out in the field rolling and playing, but I think everyone should have one this year. Please also invest in lots of fly spray. This will make your rides more pleasant for you and your horse.
At the farm we are taking drastic measures to cut down on the fly population. We will be installing an automatic spray system in the barn, and are trying to keep the aisles, stalls, feed room, indoor and wash rack as clean as possible. Please help us do this by cleaning up after yourself and others. If we all do our part it will be much easier.
On to other topics, we went to Virginia for the VA Horse Trials. Stephanie competed and was thrilled to score a 37.5 in dressage. We came out with a great video taken by Emily F to help figure out how to get that score even lower! From there all went well with 2 (yes I said 2) double clear rounds. Finishing on her dressage score in a huge division in 7th place. This show is huge every year with tons of upper level rider, so Stephanie was very excited she was able to compete here. We were really in VA to drop off Emily F with Emily Beshear. Emily F will be doing a month as a working student with Emily B. Emily F was able to take Grady with her and we are glad she did as Jeff Beshear, Emily’s vet husband, was able to find some things with Grady that needed to be addressed to help him reach his potential in eventing!
In KY news, we have TeamCeo Horse Trial coming up quickly (July 3), those interested in attending need to get their entry in by June 23rd. I will also need to know by then who is going. :-) In July their is Flying Cross Big Mini Trial. Vasi did this show last year and was a very nice show. The last week in July we also have Penny Oaks Horse Trials up in Indiana.
Rio is still on vacation for at least another month. Healing is going well but Dr. Northrup didn’t want to rush putting him back into work. Darn that systemic infection last year. It is amazing how one issue can turn into so many. We should be able to start back into trot work at the end of June. With constant walk hopefully he keeps his fitness level up. We worked so hard to get him to were he was it is a shame to loose it. Rio just wants to go back out with his friends.
With Rio taking it easy, I am working mostly with babies. Nuzzle (2yr old TB owned by Jim McMillan) already walk, trot, cantering under saddle. She may be the most naturally balanced horse I have ever ridden. I can not believe how balanced her canter is at this point. Truly amazing. Fancy (3yr old Friesian cross owned by Theresa Lever) just starting with ground work. This huge 3yr old was out on 3000 acres of pasture when purchased last month by Theresa. She has taken to work extremely well and is learning very quickly. With her calm, eager to learn attitude I am sure she will progress at a great rate. Bella (5yr old TB) was pulled out of her pasture this week and reminded that she actually does need to have a job. I got Bella at 6months old to replace Flower when I would retire her, however, with so many other horses to work with Bella got passed over year after year. She has done ground work and lunging before, has been saddled and had a bridle on but never been mounted. We started from scratch again this week, working on her tying issue first. Then we will bend and lunge, then saddle, and wait for it……..mount (buy your tickets now for the rodeo). Bacon (Yearling TB owned by Jim McMillan) is working on his ground manners. He is still a full male but may not stay that way much longer. This little boy has come a long way in the time he has been at the farm. From not having much of anything, to leading, tying, having his feet done. He will start some bending and lunging work, then return to being a baby. Last but not least the youngest on the farm Sarg (2 month old TB owned by Jim McMillan). Sarg, as I have taken to calling him (short for Sargent Sandals) was brought with his momma, Sliced, a month after being born. He had not been handled and you could tell. He wanted NOTHING to do with people. We have at this point gotten a halter on him and taught him how to lead. He even whinnies and comes running when he knows he gets to come in for morning feeding. What a drastic change! Love to see that. We are working on pick up feet and continue to work on our leading skills, tying may come next, better they learn when they are young. So needless to say even though Rio is out of commission I am keeping busy. 
Get our there and RIDE!
Picture of Sarg after first week at BVEC, he wasn’t too keen on having his picture taken.
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04.16.10
Posted in Uncategorized at 7:49 pm by Lori
It is really hard for me to type this as Merlin has only been gone for a day. But I thought it might help. At this point I believe everyone knows that Brian and I had to make the tough choice to put Merlin down. He hurt himself about a month ago. The injury was so acute and he didn’t cry at all we just assumed it was a sprain. It swelled horribly and our local vet though hairline fracture that was calcifying over. So we continued to keep him quiet, giving him calcium and aspirin. It proceed to get worse and the swelling became more and softer. We went back into the vet who didn’t see anything worth worrying about on his xrays and decided it was tendon/ligament related. We loved this news thinking all would get better soon. That weekend I was away at Spring Bay, Brian called to let me know Merlin wasn’t doing very well. He had become depressed and was not eating. He barely wanted to get up out of bed and was horribly lame.
After talking to my brothers friend who is a small animal vet, we decided it was time for a second opinion. I brought him to Owensboro to Kentuckiana Animal Clinic. There Dr. Bryant said he would be out of town and couldn’t follow up and would prefer to send me to Louisville. This was amazing to me that a vet would be so kind and honest. He got on the phone with Dr. Neat at Metropolitan Veterinary Specialist in Louisville and worked it out for Merlin and I to drive there an be seen immediately.
In Louisville, they were so nice. They took Merlin in and did more xrays. Their machines produced much better images and showed much worse results. It clearly showed major deterioration in his whole leg bone, not just the spot that was swollen. You could see the swelling containing whispy coloring as well. At this point Dr. Neat informed me he was 95% sure it was osteosarcoma, aka bone cancer. I couldn’t and didn’t want to believe him. Being the quality control scientist that I am, I proceed to question him on how sure he was and the other options it could be, and whether him being so young and having this was normal and why it happened so acutely. He was very patient with me and had an answer for everything. Apparently the bone had been deteriorating for some time and the quick turn Merlin probably took caused the hairline fracture because the bone was so weak. Once this happened cancer cells were able to spread more quickly into surrounding tissue. Even though Merlin was so young, it is a common disease of the Giant breed dogs.
So our options were, amputate the leg and do nothing else. With cancer like this the cells tend to metastasize to the lung. There were no tumor in the lungs yet, but Dr. Neat gave him 6 months. We could also amputate and do Chemo, which would probably give Merlin a year to a year and half to live. Although I would have liked to choose one of these options, Merlin was already having problems with his left hind leg. Being suck a big dog, the weight he carries on a regular basis was hard on his legs. He already had a hard time going down stairs without falling. During this time when he barely had use of his left front leg, he had to have use help him up many times because his hind legs couldnt do it. With this in mind we could not watch them take his front leg away and him try and live on three legs. A smaller dog would have little problem with this. It just wouldn’t be fair to Merlin. I couldnt do it to him and then have him be depressed for the rest of his life because he cant get around like he could before. It would have been too hard to watch my dog that loved his life begin to hate it. I wanted to keep him around so badly for us, but that just isn’t right. We made the choice for him and will forever miss him.
We feel so blessed to have had him in our lives and will be happy to see him again when we die because I know he will be waiting for us where ever it is we go. Thank you all for your warm wishes, thoughts and prayers. The best thing we can do is remember how he lived his life; he enjoyed everyday to the fullest, playing hard, enjoying his friendships, protecting his family, giving unconditional love and not worrying about the past or the future - I could only be so lucky to learn how to live how he always knew.
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03.29.10
Posted in Uncategorized at 6:56 pm by Lori
Hooray Hooray Spring has Spring. We have pushed the clocks forward, which I must say I don’t really enjoy but I do like the warmer weather and the longer daylight hours that generally come with it. We did our first Spring Shows; Spring Run Dressage Show and Hidden Bridge Jumper Show. For the dressage show we had Hope Farrar and Stoli, Emily Farrarand Grady, Meredith Dubree and Dixie and myself on Shannon Roger’s Crystal City (CC). I thought everyone did a great job for the first show coming out of winter. See the Show details web page, www.bellavistaequestriancenter.com/showresultsfor more details. Girls if I have things wrong about the places you got, just let me know and I will update it. I still need everyone to work on those new 2010 USEA dressage tests as they are tough to remember, myself included!!!!! Argh.
Hidden Bridge jumpers show had spring shows, yuck, but we still rode! It was a wonderful show, Emily Ragan and her team did a great job putting together a fun and relax show that helped us work on our coming out of winter challenges! The 2 Farrar girls took their horses and Stephanie with her Willie and Vasi with her Jade made up the BVEC team. This show brought on more challenges with people moving up to bigger division, scary indoor arena noises and freaky looking jumps! Again check out the webpage for details.
I am very proud of how hard everyone works and I got comments about how nice our horses our and how much these riders have improved over the winter!! I love getting comments like that at the shows. Excellent work team.
The next couple of weeks will be very challenging for me to get in lesson on Saturdays. We have sold Angel to a loving home with Ashley Duvall, so I will be delivering her on Saturday April 3rd. For those who do not mind having a lesson on Easter Sunday, I will be available in the AM and early afternoon. I may be back in time to get some afternoon lessons in on Saturday but am currently waiting to find out what time I need to drop off Angel.
The weekend of April 10th we will have a team up at Spring Bay Horse Trials in Lexington, KY. We are leaving Friday and will be home on Sunday. I won’t be able to do lessons at all that weekend. I should be able to work some week day lessons in that week though. We are taking Emily and Grady, Stephanie and Willie and of course Rio. We would love to see some BVEC supporters out there! Saturday we are doing dressage and stadium at KY Horse Park and Sunday is XC at Masterson Station.
April 17th BVEC is hosting a Pennyrile Pony Club Spring Camp. I won’t be able to do lessons this day, but could do lessons on Sunday the 18th or during the week.
April 24th weekend is ROLEX Three Day. I will be attending XC on the 24th so I won’t be available for lessons, but will be available on Sunday and throughout the week.
May 1st I am available for Saturday lessons. Wow, I can’t believe the whole month of April is booked up for Saturdays.
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02.16.10
Posted in Uncategorized at 6:08 pm by Lori
I don’t know about the rest of you but I am very very very done with Winter and SNOW. I know I wasn’t happy last year with the ice, but this amount of snow is just crazy. Thank gosh we are not on the east coast though where they have gotten even more snow. It is just a hard winter for everyone! Spring has to be right around the corner. I know this because next week is the opening date for SPRING BAY HORSE TRIALS!!!! Wow, time really flies.
As of right now I am planning on taking Rio to Spring Bay in April, VAHT in May and maybe IEA in June. I know Stephanie is planning on at least Spring Bay and VAHT. I know Emily F is in for at least VAHT and is a maybe on Spring Bay as of right now. Still waiting to hear on Vasi for Spring Bay and VAHT. If you do want to go to Spring Bay, open date is Feb 23!!! Get your entry in and put Stable with Bella Vista.
For those of you looking for non-recognized events this spring, we have a bunch on the schedule starting this weekend. We have a slew of people going this weekend to Snowbird! It looks like the weather will hold out and maybe even see the 40s. WooHoo. We have Meridith Weedman taking BVECs Sunny in her first show ever! Very exciting. This pair should do wonderfully!!!! We also have Vasi and Jade, and Stephanie and Wilbur attending. I will be riding Shannon Roger’s awesome mare Crystal City. Should be very exciting, hopefully I can remember the 1st level test. Argh.
In March we have Spring Run Dressage show which Meredith Dubree will be taking Dixie and I will be taking Rio. That same weekend we will be attending Hidden Bridge Jumper show, again we have a large crowd going to this. Denise Elliot will be taking Ali, Morgan Thomas and Luke, Stephanie and Wilbur, Vasi and Jade, Emily F and Grady and Hope and Stoli. Wow. Two trailers going! Fun.
I am hoping we can squeeze in a XC schooling session in March. Tenatively I am thinking about March 14th. I really hope the weather is okay for this as I would like to get there before Spring Bay. Masterson is already closed from schooling for Spring Bay but maybe we can hit up Flying Cross. If you are interested in doing this schooling let me know.
Keep praying for warm weather!!!
Lori
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01.22.10
Posted in Uncategorized at 7:41 pm by Lori
Hi Everyone,
I just stumbled upon this website. For those of you who will be doing USDF/USEF dressage tests and are having a hard time understanding the pattern without actually seeing the movements, this site is for you. I love to see things and have to draw things to be able to learn them, so you are not alone. http://www.dressage.net.au/natestdia.html#firsttests scroll down and you will find Training through 4th Level tests with diagrams!!!! Best of all they are free! Woo hoo. Now I wish I could find the same thing for the new 2010 USEA Dressage Tests.
Here is a link to the 2010 USEA Dressage Tests….they are different from last year so start memorizing, I don’t want any last minute cram sessions at the ring.
http://useventing.com/competitions.php?section=docs
For those of you doing Into A and B here are links
http://www.usdf.org/docs/tests/dressage/introa.pdf
http://www.usdf.org/docs/tests/dressage/introb.pdf
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01.19.10
Posted in Uncategorized at 9:28 pm by Lori
We went up to our first show of 2010. Lakeside is usually freezing and miserable but for a first time ever it was very comfortable in the arena. We took Stephanie and Willie, Vasi and Jade, Rio and Angel. Vasi and Jade, and Angel and myself went in the 2ft Beginner Jumper Division. Angel and I went first and wow that little pony is awesome. She didn’t question any of the jumps and when I asked her to move forward and then come back and turn tight she did just what I asked. She had not been in work for a couple of months and hadn’t been off the farm in over a year. She was great. She was just beat out by a large horse that could make super tight turns. Can’t complain though 2nd place isn’t too shabby! Jade and Vasi followed me and boy did they have a good round. Vasi just didn’t quite get Jade up to Angel’s speed and came in 4th! Still a great round for the two of them. Well Vasi was bound and determined to beat Angel and myself in the second class. I went in and pushed little Angel to make even tighter turns and did it very well. Again impressing the heck out of me. Vasi went into that ring with a look in her eye that I have never seen before. I loved it!!!! She had that pony going to every jump, balanced her back for the roll back turns and then pushed her onto the next fence. It was great too see. Unfortunately, she was so wrapped up in riding she forgot which of the two identical single diagonals she had to go to for her last jump and had to make a circle to get back to it which gave her 4 pts. It was still an amazing round!! I hope to see Vasi trying to beat me more often. Angel again took second to that bigger horse (most horses are bigger than she) and took home the Reserve Champion!
Stephanie and Willie had decided just to do the 2′6-3′0 Hopeful Jumpers. They went into their first class and looked great. Stephanie made a miscalculation on a turn and Willie just didn’t think he could make the jump. Circling around they got right over it and had a beautiful course. The 4pts kept them out of the jump off though. In the second round she was ready to ride Willie over anything and again they looked great. The last part of the course was very similar to course number 1 and caught her off guard, instead of jumping jump 7 from course 2 she went to jump 8 from course 1. 
Darn and it had been so good up to that point. Vasi decided to do this second class of the 2′6-3′ division to make up for her missed jump in the 2′ class. She went in and rode great. She happened to snag a rail though, but was still able to pull out 6th place.
Stephanie and Vasi both went in the Gamblers Choice. Again they both had awesome rides getting all the jumps worth 50pts multiple times. Stephanie then went for the Joker and about 3 strides out they blew the whistle again, she didn’t stop which was good but she was distracted enough to let Willie’s canter get flat, so he knock the rail and that took 100pts from their amazing score of 350pts, this placed her 4th. Vasi also decided to try for the Joker but Jade had other plans and decided she wasn’t into jumping anymore. With a stop they didnt have the 100pts taken off so vasi finished with 275 placing her second in the round.
After everyone else, I finally got to get Rio out of his stall for the 3′ -3′3 Schooling Jumper Division. He would have preferred the freezing temps as his coat has grown out from his clip job in November. We went right into the first round picked up a canter and started over the first Oxer. I think he thought I was crazy, he was totally not awake for that first jump and probably took a good two more jumps to realize that he was doing a round at a show. He jumped great and was on the money with his lead changes. With a clear first round he went into the jump off and I decided to push him a little bit and see what he could give me. I asked for the inside line on the turns and pushed his speed a bit more and he did it!!! I was thrilled. I don’t think he was thrilled but I know I was. He came out of that round in 3rd competing against some very skilled jumpers. Second round we went in and started out great. We got a little flat to a vertical and pulled a rail but he finished out the course nicely still getting every lead change with no issues what so ever.
It was a good day in all with everyone riding really well. The horses were well behaved and some ribbons were won. A pretty darn good start to the season not we just move up from here! Good Job Girls!
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01.12.10
Posted in Uncategorized at 8:41 pm by Lori
Happy New Year everyone!!! I am a little late with the new year wishes but I have been so busy with holiday get togethers, travel and the regular craziness it has been hard to find time to do a post.
This week marks the end of our vacation period. We did almost three months vacations from horse shows this year!!! It has give many of us time to catch our breath and to work on things we discovered while showing last year. We will make our first trip to Lakeside this year on Friday. It will be Vasi and Jade, Stephanie and Wilbur, and I will take Angel and Rio. We may meet up with our friend Anne and her two horses there depending on how the weather holds. It looks like it might be warm and dry, which would be great. When I say warm I mean in the 40s. Don’t get your hopes up for 70 degree weather. Bundle up and be ready to freeze all day like usual. It should be fun to get back out there.
I know it is really hard to motivate yourselves to get out there and ride right now seeing that the temps have been in the teens for a majority of the past two weeks and we have had a coating of snow on the ground, but this time of year is great to work on our dressage and to get out there and do some bonding with our horses. Many of you plan on doing a show in Feb, whether it is Snowbird or Hidden Bridge. Our horses are definately not in the shape they were in October and we might not be either. Start thinking about this and how an extra ride a week will help you and your horse get prepared for Feb and into spring. Even to bundle up and come take your horse for a long walk is a great way to get them in shape.
If anyone thinks their horse needs a trace or body clip before the shows start let me know. I won’t do it the day before the show, I need to be able to do it on a weekend and you want your horse to get a little use to his/her new hairdo. If you want to learn how to do it we can arrange something.
Lori
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12.22.09
Posted in Uncategorized at 4:46 pm by Lori
I just wanted to send a quick greeting to everyone. I am leaving tonight and will return Monday the 28th. Lessons will resume after my return. If you do not plan on coming for your regular lesson time that Saturday please do let me know. I have off on the 1st if anyone is interested in doing a lesson then.
The ring seems to be holding up really well. We have been trying to keep it from freezing but it seems to be draining nicely. It should be great to ride in over the holidays, so take advantage of the time off from school and work to get out there and ride, winter is the perfect time to work on our dressage. Seeing that the tests are new for this year there is plenty to work on!!!!!
In Jan we are going to Lakeside with Vasi, Stephanie and Morgan on the 16th, and Hidden Bridge with Hope and Emily on the 24th. (If those entries get sent in and accepted ;-))
In Feb we are heading to Snowbird with Meridith, Stephanie and all three Farrars on the 20th and looks like Hidden Bridge on the 21st with Denise. (BTW for snowbird, Laura and I concur that the %CT class will be any USEA 2010 dressage test of your choice, if you are eventing this year I suggest picking one and signing up for that class.)
If anyone else would like to go to any of these shows let me know ASAP.
Happy Holidays (If you are out at the farm be sure to stop in and meet Lyn’s new puppy who will grow up to challenge Merlin for biggest dog on the farm!!!!)
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12.07.09
Posted in Uncategorized at 4:09 pm by Lori
Hooray just in time for the first freeze of our arena we were able to get new sand footing put in it. It is wonderful. Vasi had the honor of the first ride on the new footing. Jade liked it so much she decided to poop in it like 4 times. Thanks Jade for breaking in the arena. :-) I rode on it after that and it feels great, nice and supportive. Next time you are out and see Francis be sure to thank him because it was he who got the job done!!!!!!
We also got all the water heaters in the troughs just in the nick of time as the weather took a serious cold turn this weekend. Francis was also able to get electric out to the troughs so there aren’t 80,000 extension cords running up the aisle this year. Again Hooray for Francis, what the heck did we do without him?!
Ok enough kudos for Francis, onto horse show stuff…. I need a head count for the Jan Lakeside so I can arrange for stalls and figure out the trailering. We can either go up on Friday the 15th, school and show on Saturday the 16th, or go up on Saturday, school Sunday AM and show on Sunday. Please place your vote.
Also, the following Sunday (24th) is Hidden Bridge Jumper show, the show bill is posted on the schedule page as a link. We need to preregister for that so let me know if you want to do that. The driveway there is a bit tight, I haven’t taken the big trailer in it yet but I am told it can make it. I am thinking we will just go up the day of that show, it is in Prospect.
Keep in mind I would like to attend a dressage show this winter, Feb is Snowbird at the horse park in lexington.
Heads up- I will be out of town for Christmas this year, leaving the 23rd and will return on the 28th. I will have lessons on the weekend of Jan. 2nd though.
Stay safe with the wintry weather
Lori
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