Why Hello Summer.

   Everyone is saying that the days get shorter now. I beg to differ, my days are getting much longer....

    I think people sometimes think my life is simple. They are so wrong. I have started getting a little burnt out, between doing all my barn chores on my own, working four TOTALLY different horses, and somehow fitting school work and sleep in there somewhere. BAH, it crazy. I have been slacking on my school work because I am to worried about keeping my horses going and studying for my H-B. (which is in 10 days!)So, my non-horsey education is slacking, so I need to get my ass in gear! Our town Drivers Ed Coordinator won't call us back ethier. I'm 16, I should have my licence. :P

  I have been SO happy with all four of my mares. (Go figure). Keiko got June 13th- the 16th off due to a puncture wound on her left front forearm, it is all healed now. Thank god! I wanted it to heal before Keiko's first
Beg. Novice 3 phase. Yes, it was only MeCTA, but it is a big deal for a horse who did NOT want to move and crashed through any jump you took her over. She did AMAZING @ the Carmel HTS. We got a (not easy) 24 on our dressage, clear cross country, and clear stadium! (Dressage Video)  I am so proud of her. This mare is such a packer on the cross country course. I cannot believe how far she's come.
   Dixie got a few days off because her back was getting  sore again! So she was snuggled in her stall @ night with her Back on Track sheet :) I rode her yesterday and she was okay, not bad just still a little sore. I guess it is not a bad thing for a hard working horse to get a break sometimes. :) Although we did have a dressage show on the 18th, before she started getting sore. It went GREAT. We did 1st lvl test 1 and go a 64. Then did 1st lvl test 3, twice and the first one we got a 59, and the second one we got a 60! So, it improved :)
  Ryn has been doing AMAZING. We had the farrier out to Peppergrass before she came home (she came home on the 19th) He trimmed and shod her front feet, no problem. Then he went to the left hind, looked and went "Hmmmmm...". Walked over to the right hind, picked it up and was like "HMMMMMM....." I was like..."Uh oh! whats wrong!" It was weird both shoes were put on crooked. (That or her foot grew out crooked) If you looked at her feet like    U   U  the outside of each shoe was almost an inch and a half higher than the inside. So, that was not helping her movement at all, nor the odd tripping. So he took them off and trimmed them, and she has NICE feet so she didn't need back shoes. About an hour later Debbie rode her and there was a 150% difference in her movement, and her hitch in her right stifle was almost nonexistent. YAY! :) So I guess taking those back shoes off was a good thing. Most horses you take off their shoes and they can't walk. Every ride on her since I got her home has been so so good. I was super worried to bring her home, but I guess now she has her "peep". She is such a one person horse, so it might be hard to sell her in a year or two.  
   Duelli has been great lately. We did have a lesson with Gail last Friday, and we found some "holes" in her training. She is the type of horse that breezes through anything you teach her so you forget about the small things. This time it was something so simple as giving to the pressure of my left leg. We have not really worked on much lateral stuff, we just wanted to get her stretching, going straight and learning basic stuff. Now, we start to get her moving off my leg. :) She'll get it.
   On the 25th FPC went to Show Jumping Rally and they got 5th in riding and 8th in Horse Management. YAY. They did really good for a team with only 1 person that had been to SJ rally before. :) I think this weekend will be the 1st weekend for a while where I have nothing going on :) Next weekend is H-B testing, and Jessica and I are freaking out! Partly because they changed the location of our rating, so it is not on familiar grounds anymore. But.....the weekend after is the Stuart Pitman Clinic!!! I am so excited. I'm doing a lesson with Keiko and Duellsa. I can't wait. I think I am going crazy, but I want to take Keiko to the GMHA event in August. She is such a great mare, I think she can do it with flying colors :) 


Now off to ride some horses :)
-Ashley Shaffer

I'm not dead!

 I am still here! Just been WAYY to busy for my own good. But, still loving it :)

All the horses are doing GREAT! Dixie is developing back muscle and getting back into it! Keiko is excelling in her dressage and jumping, she is finally growing into her self! Oh, Baby draft horses :) Duelli got a week off (May 31-June 7th) Due to lack of weight, we've had a hard time keeping weight on her. It is driving me CRAZY. She gets Poulin E-tec and Poulin Promax, 5 flakes of hay @ night, soaked alfalfa cubes every other night, a multi Vitamin, Ulcer Supplement, and Pro-biotics. So, she gets plenty of food. It is not worms ethier. But we started her back in work a bit and she is just amazing, I CANNOT wait till she is good in the trailer so I can event her! :) Ryn is in "Rehab" with me and Debbie Place. We are working on just getting her to stretch down, and over her back to build muscle. It's weird, when we get her to that point she almost as a fear of moving correctly. She is a BIG mare wit BIG gaits when she gets moving, But she's fussy and going slow. But with Me and Debbie working her she is getting there.  She is not as sore in her back which is good. I kinda want to keep her @ Peppergrass farm with Debbie for a little bit :) It is like and hour and 15 mins away, but totally worth the gas money. She probably won't be jumping too much till her dressage is fixed. Morty is fat and happy! :)

So, the busy part. I went to the CNE Mock H-B (May 28th) with Jessica Champange, and that went GREAT. It was a good confidence builder for me since I am still iffy about taking my H-B rating :\. 

  On May 30th I took Duelli to a jumper show! She was such a superstar! NO refusals all day. Only two rails down. I was  so so proud of her. We did and 18inch course, 2ft, and 2"3. Although she could have gone much higher, I wanted to keep it simple for her 1st show EVER.(Jump show Video I think we need a running martingale) 

  June 4th I took Keiko and Dixie to a Mary O'Rourke clinic. I had a amazing dressage lesson with Dixie! Mary even got on her :). It was an eye opening lesson for me because I didn't realize how much Dixie was hollowing her back out. :( But we worked on it and I have some exercises to work on. I had a Cross country lesson on Keiko. I couldn't have asked her to be better! Keiko? Jumping Novice fences with ease? Yep you read it right! She such a "Steady Eddie" :)

    June 11th was NER Dressage Rally! That went REALLY well. Our two FPC teams did fabulous! On my team we had to kids get 71's! all our scores were great. I  had a tough time though :\ After being up there for 12 HOURS Friday setting up, I did not get home till like 9:00pm and still had to get Dixie ready, and clean tack so I was up till all hours. So running on 3 hours of sleep at Dressage Rally? Not fun. I went to do my 1st test (Training 3) and went of course. Still got a 64! Then the 2nd test......(First level test 1) I went of course not 1, but 2 times!! I was so pissed at my self. I just couldn't remember the tests!(got a 63)  Finally, did my 3rd test (First 1) and it was simply perfection. I remembered it, and Dixie was holy smokes good.(Got a 65!) She was fabulous all day it was her silly mommy and her sleep deprived brain was not so good.. Over all we got 11th in Horse Management (opps) and FIRST for the riding portion! I was so proud of my team. Our other FPC team did great as well! They got 6th in Horse Management and SECOND in the riding portion! GO FOXCROFT PONY CLUB! :D

   Today was the Infinity Farm 2-phase. I took Ms. Keiko! We did Beg. Novice and she was AWESOME, we got a 32 in dressage and a clear stadium course! We ended the day with..............(drum roll)..........FIRST! I am SO happy <3 

Now for two dressage shows this weekend with Dixie!

Oh, Also I want you guys (the people that actually read this) to keep a friend of mine in there prayers. She is going through a tough time at the moment, with her horse having to be put down. She has not had him very long, almost a year. They were an amazing pair <3 Ellie and her family did absolutely everything they could to save Blaze, after thousands of dollars and lots of prayers, her family and the vets at NEEVH decided to humanely euthanize Blaze considering he was very sick, and wouldn't even be pasture sound :(. So why keep the poor guy in pain? They made the right decision, and did everything they could. R.I.P Blaze's Black Magic <3

Ellie Demmons and Blaze's Black Magic forever <3 LOVE YOU ELLIE!