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A Newsletter!
(our very second!)
I had some news for you all and so this is my second "annual" Newsletter! I had intended to put one out more often but things do get in the way. The date of the last one was 2003 written on the occasion of the completion of Fantasy Lounge! Oh well, here goes...
The big news and the impetus for the newsletter is that we will be losing Tamsyn Kouwenberg in September. She has been offered the opportunity to manage and coach at Mardon Farm near Arva. We will all miss her cheerful voice, and Fergie of course. Some of you will be following Tamsyn in her move I am sure...just let me know so that I can make the stall available for new boarders.
In life, one door closes and another one opens...
Some of you will have met Tracey Roberts who has started to work here weekdays. She was in a car accident recently and so her work days have been a bit limited while she gets her body back up to speed. Tracey has been riding for 28 years. I first met Tracey about 20 years ago at Kilbyrne Farm where she spent 5 years as assistant trainer to Roger Seegert who was on Canada's Olympic team at that time. This gave her some wonderful opportunities for training and she participated in clinics with team members Ashley Nichol, Lorraine Stubs and the European coaches for the team as they came to work with Roger. She showed her own horse at Level 3 and 4 on the national circuit and has had her students showing at the LDA and the national shows. Since then she managed a Western show barn for 7 years and was responsible for breeding and looking after mares and foals. She conditioned the owner's horses for barrel racing in case any of you want to try that!! The owner has sold his farm and moved to Texas and so now Tracey finds herself here at Hearthstone. I really hope she will be happy here. I must warn you that she was trained in the German tradition so we had better all pick up after ourselves!
Today we had our first Parelli Clinic with Fawn Anderson. Fawn is a Level 3 instructor and was a great clinician. It was a small group of 6 riders, myself on Annett, Beth and Charcoal, Mary Lee and her chestnut, Diane Brooks and Chico and Wendy Johnson who is head instructor at Sari and Jay, one of her riders. The clinic went for over 6 hours and we each had a chance to address issues that were of importance to us and some we didn't even know we had!!! Fawn will be back on the 6th and 7th of August for a split clinic...6 riders from 5-8 on Monday the 6th and 6 riders from 8.30 - 11.30 on the 7th...come and watch and seen the changes in the horses' attitudes. Lazy horses wake up and disrespectful dominant horses grow calm and compliant.
Bonnie Schmidt is organising a clinic with Leslie Kennedy... I used to do this but got disheartened with lame riders, lame horses, etc... organising a clinic takes a lot of time...thanks Bonnie. Bonnie can be reached at 519 471 5164
And of course, Michelle Pisters is still trying to get me to "LET GO THAT LEFT REIN!" on Wednesday or Thursday evenings depending on my work and her schedule. Lindsey MacLean has joined me and this has given me the chance to get Rapport out and ride...he is awesome but don't tell Annett! (or Bruce!!!)
My son Bruce has moved up from Smithville (near Grimsby) with his family and have built a house across the river. Better than that that, he built a trail! We can ride down the side of the field on our side, cross the river, ride back along his trail on the other side of the river and cross again below the outdoor sand ring...thank you Bruce!
Bruce and Tori have taken over feeding for me when I need to be out of town and they have been a welcome set of strong hands when a horse gets cast as happened several times last winter.
Bruce and Dalwhinnie are playing Polo and Cappuccino occasionally goes along. Tori jumps Dalwhinne and has presented the barn with at least two pies this year.
On the show front, Tamsyn has been out with Soma and Arthur and brought back the usual red ribbons from LDA. She went to Palgrave (a national show) with Soma and rode in the Training Division : Open and was 3rd overall for the Division. Well done Tamsyn!
Looking forward to seeing you all over the coming fall and winter.
Gail Lamb
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