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Phyllis and Viatar at Morven
Park.
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April 16, 2007
Springtime is coming around slowly this year.
Warm days have been scarce. Today the winds were over 50 mph, and when it wasn't raining it was snowing.
The daffodils that poked their heads up weeks ago have long since frozen to death, and I think the robins are booking plane tickets back south.
The good news is, we have some excellent new horses here at Windchase.
My two new four-year-olds from Ireland have arrived, and I am really excited about them.
One of them is quite green, and the other is well schooled and about ready to start competing; I think both are exceptional!
Additionally, we have several really special recently-imported horses from New Zealand with competition experience.
Between these new arrivals and the nice group of youngsters I already had, we have a really outstanding group of youngsters.
But the bad news is, they all have the flu.
Oh well, you can't have everything! We have a little virus going around, nothing serious but just a nuisance, and most of the youngsters seem to have caught it.
So they are all on vacation for a week or two; but contact me after Rolex if you want to come see them!
Until next time,
Phyllis
April 1, 2007
After a long cold winter, what fun it is to be back out on the cross country course again!
I rode Viatar in the Open Intermediate division at Morven Park this weekend, and we both had a blast.
Viatar went very well in the dressage, and he show jumped nicely, putting in a clean round.
But it was the cross-country that was the best - he flew around the course, foot perfect at every fence, and jumping for fun.
We finished in 5th place, but more importantly, both Viatar and I had a great time.
A nice way to start our season!
Melissa Hunsberger was successful on her thoroughbred mare Expedience, jumping beautifully and finishing 2nd in the Advanced-Intermediate division.
Dana Bivens also had a good weekend, finishing well placed on her nice mare Carpe Diem in the Young Riders Preliminary.
Last weekend I was in Mexico for an Instructor's Certification Program assessment.
The Mexican Federation is very dedicated to improving the quality of teaching and riding in their country, and they are participating in the USEA's program of training and certifying Eventing instructors.
I taught an Instructors Workshop in Mexico City in December of 2005, and this past week Don Sachey, Sue Hershey and I went down to Mexico to hold an ICP testing for those teachers.
It was very gratifying to see the improvement in them, and to observe their high standard of teaching.
The enthusiasm and dedication of this talented group of trainers was very evident, and all five of the participants became certified by the USEA.
Mexico is a really great place, and the area we were in was quite beautiful.
We were in Cholula, near Puebla. It was a beautiful town, surrounded by
volcanoes, several of them currently active. This relatively small city is said to have about 365 churches, one for every day of the year.
I would wake in the mornings to the sounds of bird songs and church bells.
The weather was clear and sunny, with highs in the seventies. The people we met couldn't have been nicer, and we saw good horses, good riders and good teaching.
The whole experience was a delight, and I hope to go back in the future.
Until next time,
Phyllis
March 20, 2007
Windchase got off to a good start to the 2007 Event Season at the Southern Pines Horse Trials in NC this past weekend.
Melissa Hunsberger put in a good run with a clear XC in the Advanced division with Just Fun Stuff; an important step in their preparation for the four-star at Rolex.
Pedro Gutierrez had a great competition in the Advanced with his New Zealand horse Mitchell, also jumping cross-country clear and gaining a qualifying competition.
And a new arrival at Windchase, Escipion Mendivil, also had a successful outing and a qualifying Advanced run with his talented young horse Azteca.
Windchase was proud to be so well represented!
Pedro also won the Open Training division with Orujo, with a ridiculously good score of only 17 penalties in the dressage.
This extremely talented young TB stallion is being offered at stud.
Meanwhile, the snow has mostly melted and the grass is starting to turn green. Dare
I hope that Spring is here at last?
Until next time,
Phyllis
March 18, 2007
At long last, I have finished the travel journal for my December 2006 trip to New
Zealand. Sorry it took so long, but I have been busy, and it is hard to find the time to write.
Jineen and I spent two weeks exploring the South Island, and we really had a terrific time.
The theme of our trip was 'The Road Less Traveled.' I wrote this account of it mostly for myself, so that I will remember all the details and be able to relive the experience; but I am posting it here for those that may want to read it.
I am not sure if it will be interesting to anyone who wasn't on the trip, but at least you may want to look at the pictures!
Until next time,
Phyllis
March 11, 2007
As you may have gathered from my last several entries on this page, the long cold winter has gotten me feeling a little bit down.
So I did what I usually do when I get depressed; I went shopping! But I don't go shopping for clothing at Bloomingdales; I go shopping for horses.
I hopped on a plane last Tuesday for a quick trip to Ireland.
I spent three days there, and in that time I looked at a large selection of talented young horses.
I found two that I think are exceptional! Pending vet checks and such, they should soon be arriving at Windchase.
Aside from finding lovely horses, it is always fun to visit Ireland.
I had forgotten how green the grass stays all winter! A full day of looking at horses, then dinner and a pint of Smithwicks in the pub; what could be better?
And I had a fabulous view of 'the Rock of Cashel' from the front lawn of my B&B!
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The Rock of Cashel,
County Tipperary
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And upon returning home, I found that spring seems to have arrived at last!
Until next time,
Phyllis
February 25, 2007
Time to whine a little more. We are all really sick of winter here!
I know, all you folks who went to Florida or to South Carolina are feeling a very smug.
We have a theory here, about the weathermen.
They keep telling us that it will be warmer - the day after tomorrow!
As in, "Its bitter cold with a wind-chill factor in the single digits today and tomorrow, but it will be in the low 50s the day after tomorrow."
Well of course, the day after tomorrow never comes, because by then they have
amended the forecast; "Its freezing and windy and snowing again, but wait until day after tomorrow when it will be warm!"
This has been going on for almost two months now.
We have decided that the weathermen are doing a great community service, because they are preventing us all from committing suicide.
If they had been telling us how long it was really going to stay cold all winter, we would have felt that we had no reason to live!
Of course, every once in a while, just when we are getting used to the cold, we get a warm day or two just to give us a taste of it; then it is all that much worse when reality hits and it turns frigid again.
This is the actual weather forecast for the next 24 hours:
Sunday: A wintry mix in the morning.
It will change to a rain and snow mix in the afternoon.
Sunday night: Cloudy with a mixture of winter precipitation.
So what the heck is the difference between 'a wintery mix,' and 'a rain and snow mix,' and 'a mixture of winter precipitation'?
But enough whining now. It's going to warm up. The day after tomorrow.
Until next time,
Phyllis
February 14, 2007
Happy Valentine's Day!
A mixture of snow and sleet last night left us with about four inches of snow, with such a thick crust that you could walk on top of it.
Every branch and twig was coated in ice, which glistened like crystal when the sun finally came out.
The snow and ice was beautiful, but frankly I'm sick of the stuff.
I'm ready for spring!
Until next time,
Phyllis
February 3, 2007
Well they tell me that old Punxsutawney Phil the Groundhog did not see is shadow, so spring should be just around the
corner; but frankly I haven't seen much evidence of that. Not to whine or anything, but I am really sick of frigid temperatures, frozen ground, and these little smatterings of snow we keep
getting - it seems to snow a little bit every day! It is supposed to be in the single digits all week!
I have never been one to go off to Florida for the winter, but occasionally in weather like this I can see the point!
But even with the cold, it is a treat to ride around the farm and watch how nature handles the winter.
The Canadian geese are working overtime to prevent the lake from freezing completely over; every day they swim back and forth like little ice-breaking barges to break up the ice that formed in the night.
We see red foxes hunting in the fields almost every time we go out, and the herd of deer that roams the farm has little fear of horses.
If you watch the woods and hedgerows there is an endless variety of birds; a pair of rare red-headed woodpeckers were spotted today!
So even though the cold weather makes everything tougher, I do appreciate the change of seasons.
But remind me I said that on Tuesday when it is six degrees!
Until next time,
Phyllis
January 17, 2007
We have been enjoying a warm and balmy winter until now, with temperatures often in the 60s and even the 70s - a real treat for January!
But that seems to be all over now, as the thermometer has plummeted to the teens and we are finally experiencing the chill of winter.
Oh well, it was nice while it lasted, and hopefully the cold snap will be brief!
Horse sales have been going well lately; you might notice if you go to my horses for sale page that most of the ones listed have been sold.
But never fear, I won't run out of nice horses to show; I went shopping this week!
I have bought five excellent new horses, and a couple of other really nice ones have come in on consignment. I also have some really top quality youngsters that have not been listed on the website yet because they are a bit green. I will be taking photos of them and putting them up on the website over the next few
weeks and months, but in the meantime, contact me if you are looking for a nice horse, I still have a good selection!
Until next time,
Phyllis
January 5, 2007
Happy New Year! I can't believe its 2007 already! Time Flies, and all that.
We celebrated with our annual Windchase New Years Eve Party; this year's theme was a Scavenger Hunt, but one with a bit of a twist.
Teams were asked to present items ranging from fluglebinders to chastity belts, and in the course of the competition
men's legs and women's eyebrows were shaved. I have photographs, but I won't post them here; it was not a pretty sight!
But all in good fun.
Until next time,
Phyllis
December 19, 2006
Jineen and I just returned from a great two week trip in New Zealand.
We went all over the South Island. We put well over 2000 miles on our rental car, took hundreds of photos, did a lot of hiking, and explored little back roads that hardly anyone goes down.
As soon as I have time, I will write up a more detailed report, and post it with pictures.
Watch this space! But don't hold your breath; with Christmas around the corner, and being behind in business matters after being away for two weeks, it may take me a while to get it done.
In the meantime, here's wishing everyone a great Holiday Season!
Until next time,
Phyllis
December 1, 2006
It's vacation time! I had accumulated enough frequent flier miles for two business-class tickets to anywhere in the world, so Jineen and I are headed off to New Zealand tomorrow for two weeks.
I'll tell you all about it when I get back!
Until next time,
Phyllis
November 22, 2006
Happy Thanksgiving!
Technology is a wonderful thing. Assuming you know what you are doing with it, that is!
I recently had an opportunity to appreciate its stunning complexity.
I am pretty good at using a computer, but not so much at setting up the system and connecting everything that is supposed to be connected; for that I have depended on help and expert advice from my nephew Nick.
I have accumulated my computer equipment and miscellaneous accessories over a
number of years; it has been situated on an old antique desk that is not really appropriate for the task, and spilling over onto a table in the corner.
So recently I purchased a new desk, a really nice large corner one that is
especially designed for computer equipment. But then came the daunting task of getting everything moved onto this new desk!
I was terrified that I would end up mucking up the system so that it wouldn't work at all.
My consolation was that in a few days Nick would be here for Thanksgiving, so hopefully he could fix whatever I screwed up.
The first step was to clean up all of the papers, notes, and extraneous odds and ends that had accumulated in and
around the old desk. Time consuming, but that was the easy part.
Then it was time to actually move the equipment. It was a pretty impressive labyrinth of connections, with all of the cables and cords tangled and intertwined, somewhat resembling a bowl of well-stirred
spaghetti. There was no logistical way to move everything as once without taking it apart, so I started carefully writing down what was connected to what, before
cautiously unhooking as many of the appliances as I dared. I was determined to not only get everything moved, but to tame that incredible knot of cords behind the computer into some
semblance of order!
Midway through the task, my friend Kate came in and made
exclamations of amazement at the tangle of cables. I told her, "This is nothing!
You should have seen it before I disconnected and removed the monitor, the mouse, the keyboard, the printer, the scanner, the phone line, the digital camera cables and the two speakers!
Now all that is left is the computer itself, the router, the external hard drive, the satellite receiver, the firewall and the two surge protectors!"
Now don't ask me what all of these things do, but eventually I did manage to get everything transferred to the new desk and hooked back together again, hopefully in the same configuration as when I started.
Then came the moment of truth: time to turn the computer back on.
And it worked! Amazing. Nick will be so proud!
Until next time,
Phyllis
November 18, 2006
The Event season is winding to a close.
Melissa ended up on a good note by riding Pedro's nice young New Zealand horse Thunder in the Open Preliminary at Rubicon last weekend; he put in an excellent performance and jumped clear cross-country.
This was just his second Preliminary, as he moved up a few weeks ago at Waredaca, also with a clear round.
He is a talented horse that shows excellent potential; look for him on the
Horses for Sale page!
It has been a good Event season for
Windchase. Melissa's two horses competed successfully at the Advanced level, and capped off the season with clear cross-country rounds at the CCI*** at Fair Hill, MD.
Both Pedro on Mitchell and myself on Viatar put in good performances in the CCI** at the Virginia Horse Trials.
Many of our up-and-coming prospects have gone well at the lower levels, with young horses like Thunder and Doppler Effect showing great promise.
And we have one of the nicest groups of 3 and 4 year olds coming along that I can remember!
It has also been really great to watch some of the oldest offspring of our Irish stallion,
Brandenburg's Windstar, having success at the higher levels.
Allison Springer's talented Arthur has been extremely successful, winning the Open Intermediate at Seneca Valley, finishing 2nd in the American Eventing Championships, and placing 4th in the CCI** at Virginia Horse Trials.
Polar Storm, owned and ridden by Katie Willis, has also had a really great year, highlighted by a win at Waredaca, a 3rd at the Maryland Horse Trials, and finishing up 6th in the CCI* at Morven Park.
Some of Windstar's other younger progeny have been moving up the ranks also, and doing so in good form.
Windstar youngsters are becoming quite in demand, which makes our breeding program very rewarding!
Now that the Event season is over, it is nice to have a little bit of down time, and for things to be somewhat more low key for a while.
With the higher-level competition horses on vacation, we are enjoying working with the babies.
Thanksgiving is coming up and I look forward to spending time with my family, and after that I am off on a vacation myself!
Until next time,
Phyllis
November 10, 2006
Viatar and I topped off our autumn Event season by completing the CCI** at the Virginia Horse
Trials last weekend, and we had a really successful and fun outing.
Pedro Gutierrez also had a great competition with Mitchell, his talented new horse from New Zealand.
The Virginia Horse Trials are always an amazing example of great organization taking place at a super facility.
They ran every level from Novice to CCI**, and had close to 500 horses all told.
The Virginia Horse Park is a wonderful place to ride, and Brian and Penny Ross do an incredible job of hosting the competition.
Going to Events is one of Viatar's favorite things (second only to eating).
He enjoys the competitive atmosphere, the attention, and of course the extra carrots.
He was in a great mood just by being there, and he especially enjoyed the hack we went on down to the river the day we arrived.
I let him go hacking before doing flatwork each time we did a practice ride or warm-up, including before his test; we were out trail-riding in the top hat and tails!
It paid off, as he did the best dressage ride he has ever done, scoring a 51 (in penalty points, which equates to a 67%) on the FEI test, placing 8th in this phase out of nearly 50 starters.
I was thrilled with this result, and Viatar was thrilled with the carrots!
Pedro also did well in dressage; he had a really steady, correct and harmonious test with Mitchell, getting a good score of 55 from the judges.
This is particularly impressive because Pedro commutes to the competitions from Mexico City while his horses train here at Windchase, so he has only had the opportunity to practice on Mitchell a handful of times.
Cyndi Boughen was grooming for both Pedro and me; quite a challenge to do two horses at a CCI!
She did a great job and had both horses beautifully turned out all weekend.
Kathy Rienks was able to come up from school to help us on cross-country and show jumping days.
I would really like to thank both of them for doing such a wonderful job!
Without the hard work and dedication of the grooms it would not be possible to compete successfully.
Eventing is truly a team effort!
The cross-country course was lovely; quite challenging and technical, but very jumpable.
The weather was cool and the footing was excellent; I have been very lucky all autumn with the conditions for all of my competitions with Viatar!
I was particularly worried about the water jump; we had to jump a large canoe-shaped log into the water, then cross the water up on to a narrow spit of land in five long strides, and jump quite a large bounce back into the water.
Viatar had never jumped a bounce into water in competition before, and this was a difficult question.
But on cross-country day he went super, and jumped around the course with ease.
He was foot perfect at the water! We had one dicey moment on a downhill narrow fence where we ended up taking an unplanned and creative alternate route, but managed it without penalty, and finished with no jumping faults.
Time penalties moved us down in the standings, but I was happy with our performance!
Pedro and Mitchell also had a great ride on the cross-country.
Mitchell loves his job, and the two of them are really forming an excellent partnership.
They were also clear jumping, with just a few time penalties.
It was freezing cold the following morning preparing for vet check; the temperature was in the low 20s and our stalls were on the outside of the barn.
Cyndi and Kathy's fingers almost froze off while braiding! I thought I was going to freeze to death; that is until we went up for our turn to jog and Viatar managed to whack himself in the ankle with his opposite hoof and come up lame just before time to present him; then I was sweating big time!
But fortunately it was a temporary bobble, and we passed the jog-up so we could show jump.
Both Viatar and Mitchell completed the competition in good shape, and will now enjoy a well-deserved holiday.
It was a great way to cap off the Event season!
Until next time,
Phyllis
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