Haven Farm has moved! We are now at Cottingham Farms, in Derby Downs. The old Haven is being remodeled, so we will be at Cottingham for 1-2 years. The pastures are so nice, and it is all very clean. The arena is HUGE.

Bareback jumping at Claire’s house! Lea came along too.

It ’s been so nice these past couple days, so I took the opportunity to take some pictures.

Here ya go.

Hello! Last weekend, Blitzen and I went to a show in Olympia, called Jumpernite. It was really fun! It was my first show without Mollie, and It was a good experiance having Phil as my trainer for once. The first class I went in, Blitzen was being stupid and was scared of the first fence, so he refused it and I almost fell off! Then I made him jump it, and we did the rest of the course. On fence three, we came to the fence at a bad angle and weird distance, so I flew up in the saddle, but luckily landed back down. I jumped the next fence without my stirrup

The next class I had, I got to use Mr. Wacky, Jenni’s jockey whip. Hehe… That got Blitzen going! It was a speed round, I needed Blitzen’s energy out. We had a time of 46 seconds, but not fast enought to be placed. Oh well, the show was SO fun anyways!

After I was finished, we watched the High Jump class. Its where you only jump two fences- the first a warm up fence to get the horse going, and the second is the High Jump. If all the horses in tha class clear the jump, it keeps getting higher, and higher, and higher. I don’t want to explain the whole thing, so here is a video I made of it…

Here are also some videos of my two rounds at Jumpernite…

And my friend Claire… 

Some pictures!

It’s been a while since I posted something, and a lot has happened since then. I have ridden two different horses, the first one was Princess, my trainer’s horse. She had not been ridden for a very long time, and got out of shape, so I was riding her to get her fit.  Now my friend Jacqueline rides her, and they do well together.  Now I ride Blitzen, a cherry bay gelding, who enjoys bucking. He was being really bad for his old rider, Maria, and so she doesn’t ride him anymore. He is a very fun horse, and he can be lazy sometimes, but in the winter, he can be complete insanity.
I will try and get some pictures soon.

Saturday’s Playday was very small, much much smaller that we thought, being it the last Playday of the year!
On Friday, it said 90% of rain, but did it rain on Saturday? NO! I was very greatful.
I rode Taffy this time, for there was no one else to ride. We got to the barn late, because someone slept in…(Jacqueline), so we had to hurry and get ready to make it to our classes in time! I practically trotted down to Saddle Club, worrying that my class had already started. But it hadn’t yet, so I had just enough time to put my number on and walk into the ring. Because the show was awarding double points, (you get points for each place you get, 1st place getting the most points) my goal was to do well. It turns out, I got 2nd place for every single one of my classes! I was very satisfied. Then I went and bought a bunch of cool stuff from a big tack sale next door! It was a good day. Sorry I don’t have any pictures, I forgot to tell someone to take them.

Well, the day started out raining, and I had hoped that it would stop before the show. But, to our disappointment, it rained the whole day. Snickers was a little wound-up when I warmed him up, and I could tell that today would be interesting… The first two classes were not what I had hoped for, and we came in 7th for both classes. While waiting for the nest class, Cross Rails, (Snicker’s first jumping class! He was finally starting to do well in jumping!) Snickers would not settle down, and he would not stop moving. We were all miserable already because of the rain, but this made everything worse. I turned the bad pony in a circle, and told him to stand near the rail. Suddenly he rose up on his hind legs, and backed up against the rail. I could tell we were falling backwards, because I heard the rail creak/crack with Snicker’s weight on it. He kept backing up, and my ankle was pushed between his leg and the rail, which hurt a lot. I fell off, and then he finally came back down on all fours. Of course, after that I was not going to enter my Cross Rail class. I was pissed at him after that…
So then Leslie Cox drove me back up to the barn, while Jenni took care of Evil Pony. After I put ice on my ankle, it hurt even worse! So then I sat in a chair in the tack room while Claire and Whitney amused me.
Unfortunately, because that was the second time Snickers has reared out-of-the-blue, Jenni will not put any of her beginner kids on him. So this means that Snickers has to return to Canada. Yes, it is a sad tale, because even after all our hard work to get him trained, he was not cured of his rearing problems.
Farewell Snickers, and I do pray that you are not sent to the Glue Factory…

Now most of you are probably thinking “What’s Octoberfest?” “Why, what ever it is, is it in September?”
Well, those are good questions, but Octoberfest is a horse show, that took place last weekend! I took a horse named Reuben, and we did the Low Children’s Jumpers 3′-3′3″ together. Reuben first came to the barn for my friend Jacqueline to try out as a horse to buy, but he was too crazy at first, so a few people rode him before he came to her. She rode him for a while, until he bucked her off. Then I started riding him, and we fit well together, so my trainer said I could take him to the show. Reuben would be perfect if he didn’t buck. He spokes at random things, and usually his bucks are not of happiness, but to get you off his back! He tried a few times to get me off, but he didn’t succeed.

At the show, we didn’t know how he would behave, so we were going to have Erin ride him, who had ridden him before Jacqueline. But to our surprise, he was fine, but with a little crow-hop on the way back to the stable. That night a bunch of barn girls and I went to the Puyallup Fair! We all went on two roller coasters together, and that was very very fun.

The next day was the beginning of the show. I was showing with Jackie, Danielle, Erin, and Sam. Our first round was all speed, so I needed to go as fast as I could. It was a very nice round, my best of that weekend, but we were too slow to place. At least I rode well. The second round of that day was not as good, we had lots of bad distances to the fences. Oh well, I should be glad that Reuben behaved himself.
That same day was the $2000 Mini Prix! Amelia, Layne, and Laura were all competing in it from our barn. Laura had already won twice in a row! It began, and Amelia had a fantastic round, and with all of our Haven group cheering at the end, he gave us a few bucks of joy Layne had a great round as well, except she, well, almost destroyed the 6th fence… A lot more people went, and the times were pretty fast. Could Laura win this again? Well, she did. She won again! For the third time in a row! Wow, our barn was cheering very very loud after her round! We were all so proud.

The next day was the last day of showing. I came early to take pictures of my friends. After a long long wait, it was time for me to get on Reuben. We warmed up, and his owner was watching us. She had come to take him home, because no one wanted to buy him. Jackie, Erin and Sam all knocked down a rail or had refusals, but Danielle had a great course. So it was my turn to go.
Reuben was tired, and so he was very lazy getting up to the fences. I had a hard time getting him going! On the 6th fence, I was kicking and kicking him up to the jump, but he didn’t speed up, and he scrambled over the fence, but landing on top of it. His head came up and hit my head, and I blacked out for a few seconds. Then, my trainer yelled for me to use my crop, and then I looked around, and Reuben was walking! I had to finished the course! So I hit him with my crop to get him going, and crawled over the last fence.
Afterwords I had a bad headache and my eye and pinky hurt, but thats it. At least I didn’t fall off!

Reuben and I’s first round

Amelia in the Mini Prix

Last week on Friday, I went with a friend of mine to visit the show grounds of the Evergreen Classic Horse Show. People from my barn where there, so I was with them the whole time. My friends Erin and Emma got Champion and Reserve Champion! Here are many of the pictures I took those two days.

Rich Fellers in the Grand Prix!

The August 2nd Playday has come and gone, and things went pretty well! Snickers and I entered two flat classes, and ended up with a 4th and 5th place. We also did two trot pole classes, and won 1st and 2nd, once again! He has gotten so much better. Then I rode Taffy (I have written about Taffy in previous posts), and entered in three jumping classes. The first class we ended up with 6th. Taffy was very fired up, and later I learned that she hadn’t been jumped in a month… The second didn’t go as well, all the jumps were really good, but I forgot the course. The last class went well, and we ended up with 3rd place.

Here are some pictures of Snicky and I: