January 28, 2010

Wow, it's already almost February. It's amazing how fast time goes by when life is full of adventures. With this beautiful weather all the horses are shedding and the daffodils are popping their heads up. Bacchus is on his way to becoming a riding horse with the help of Gilbert Roy and Frank. He is learning very fast. He's been backed 3 times now and is already walking and trotting confidently around the arena. He is very handsome too, at least 16.2, black and wow can he move. He looks about 18hh in the Western Saddle.Frank is planning on trail riding and having fun with him all summer and I'll start his dressage career with him next year.

At the Canadian Andalusian National show in 09 I got the opportunity to show a beautiful stallion for Cecilia Mcluskey of Deer Lake Washington. Lorenzo is black, five years old and a dream to ride. We got along very well at the show and Cecilia sent him up to me for further training in December 09. Lorenzo and I have been having a great time getting to know each other and he is coming along wonderfully in his dressage training . I am hoping to compete with him in some of the open shows this year as well as taking him back to the Andalusian Nationals in July. It's amazing how fast those horses learn and how naturally dressage comes to them. They are very sensitive and don't take any strength to put together. Once they understand what you are asking for, they give you 150%.
Lorenzo will be standing at stud at Willow Acres in South Surrey for the 2010 season.

2009 proved to be a great year for some up and coming dressage riders. The Rising Stars Dressage Show in Chilliwack in August was a very successful show for all 7 of my riders with Cassandra Hillyer and Sandy winning Reserve Champion Walk Trot and Lena and Cassie winning the Training Level Reserve championship.Everyone came away with lots of ribbons and a great time was had by all.

I got the opportunity to ride in 2 wonderful dressage clinics in 2009 with Dr Sherry Ackermann from Mt Shasta ,California. Sherry wrote the book "dressage in the fourth dimension" and her clinics are well worth attending. She will be back in June 2010 and I can't wait for another inspiring clinic.

Based on some of Sherry's work and my own experiences over the past 30+ years of studying dressage, I have developed a dressage clinic called "Coming Full Circle" The dressage Connection. It consists of 2 eight hour days with 1hr mounted lessons each day and a lot of theory exploring the Art of Classical Dressage and how to maintain a healthy mind,body, spirit connection between horse and rider. I will be offering this clinic throughout the summermonths in different areas, so please contact me if you are interested in attending one.

_________________________________________

February 12, 2009

After a long and snowy winter its wonderful to see the sunshine and molehills in the pasture. The birds are starting to sing in the morning, the days are getting longer and spring is in the air.
Congratulations go out to Diana Kronenberg on her purchase of Absolut. He was her Christmas gift and its great to see he makes her so happy! They will have a wonderful dressage career ahead of them and its a treat to watch them progress together.
Frank and Burgi attended the B.C. Sporthorse banquet on February 8th and were thrilled to find out that our homebred Bacchus received the year end reserve championship award for his agegroup. Bacchus is almost 2 years old now and becoming more and more handsome. It's been fun to watch him grow up and makes it very tempting to breed his mom again. With so many horses starving and needing homes and attention, its probably better just to enjoy the ones we have and not breeding any more at this time.
The horse community lost a very special man on December 25th with the passing of Jim Hall. Jim had a gift with horses. He was an equine chiropractor and communicator and kept our horses in top physical condition for many years.
He will be sadly missed. He left with a very important message that he passed on to Ann Turner from Wits End Farms a few days before he passed over, about regrets he had in his life. One very important one was that he wished he had told the truth more on behalf of horses. He saw alot of sore, unhappy horses throughout his career and fear kept him from speaking their truths. That really hit home, as throughout my career I have seen alot of abuse, both intentional and unintentional and haven't adressed it.With Jim's message I need to honour the horses integrity and speak the truth on their behalf, even if it isn't something their owner or trainer is ready to hear. Horses have given me so much and I need to honour their voices.
We want to welcome Vicky and her beautiful Casey to H&R farm and want to say good-bye to Chopper who spent all of his childhood here with Bacchus and is off to his career as a racehorse. Cruiser is also a new addition to our farm. He is recuperating from an eye injury and enjoying his time here with us until he moves to Vancouver island with his owner Linda.
H&R stables also aquired 2 very, very cute barn kittens from Pam McCrae. Midnight and Stewart Little are 12 weeks old now and are having lots of fun exploring and teasing our Jack Russell Ralph, who is petrified of cats.
During the spring and summer months we offer childrens riding lessons here at H&R stables. We have two wonderful POA ponies and great coaches to start the children on their journey with horses the right way. Please contact Burgi to register.

_________________________________________

Congratulations to our "GREASE" team that consisted of Connor Madden, Jessica Marohn, Brianna Eytchisen and Danielle Bingsley for winning 2nd place with their Quadrille at the Canada Cup Dressage show . Pictures will be up soon. They scored 9.5 on their costumes, wow.Lots of individual ribbons were won as well, with Jessica coming home the 1st level Junior champion.
The weekend after Jessica proceeded to win the B.C. championship in pre-training eventing with Big Blue, the very special one eyed thoroughbred.
Congratulations also go to Connor Madden for winning the 3.6. jumper division at the Pony Club championships in July.
We proceeded on to the Rising Stars Dressage show with Jessica and Stephanie Golz, Cheena,
and Lauren Ross. It was the first dressage show for this team of juniors and everyone came home with a ribbon or two and great memories.  Thank you so much to Teresa Elsasser for letting Cheena take your beautiful horse Aries to the show. And thank you to the Rising Stars show committee,it's a great show and a wonderful opportunity to showcase the young talented  dressage riders in B.C.
On the home front H&R stables ran a very successful summer camp with Alicia Cannell and Kalani Watkins doing a wonderful job teaching our up and coming riders.
Our very own Bacchus, Beauty's yearling colt by Sagnol also started his show career winning the yearling hunter division and getting 2nd in the sport horse futurity under the capable handling of Frank Hillyer at the B.C.Sport horse show in September.
A busy summer is winding down. It's time to get to winter training and finding places to ride indoors.
Thank you to all my students out there for doing such a great job with your horses. Happy riding, everyone!

_________________________________________

H&R stables young equestrians attended their first horse show with Alicia at Brambly Hedge in April. A great time was had by all with everyone coming home with lots of ribbons. Check our photo gallery for pictures. Our Willow Acres quadrille team is busy practicing their routine for the 2008 Canada Cup competition. The show is on June28th in Maple Ridge and we need a big cheering commitee out there. This years team consists of Connor Madden, Jessica Marohn, Danielle Bingsley and Brianna Eytcison.

Burgi had the pleasure of watching all her eventing students perform their dressage at the Maple Ridge event June 7th. Congratulations to Jessica Marohn and Blue for winning the pre- training division .I was very impressed how professionally everyone was turned out and how disciplined your warm-ups for dressage were.I know its not easy for all you adrenalin junkies.

On June 8th Burgi gave a clinic on How to ride Hack classes at Willow Acres. It was put on by PAALH and very well received by everyone involved.
Our own little Ashia, a purebred black Arabian, owned by Carol Gabel went into the show for her very first show ring experience and under the capable hands of Jackie Thomas was a star. Bacchus, my yearling Sagnol colt is getting tuned up for his first horse show on June 22nd. He is going into the halter division at the Sport Horse summer show and Frank is busy tuning him up with his halter skills. Thank you Lise Burgher for giving Frank and Bacchus some wonderful halter lessons.

Show season is  well under way and stay tuned for more results and happenings over the summer. A big thank you to all my wonderful students making me proud out there in the dressage, hack and eventing rings. Enjoy ,and remember ,you always arrive and leave the show with the best horse there, regardless of your placings!!!
_________________________________________

On March 9th we had to cancel our schooling show due to lack of entries and instead had an impromptu clinic with our judge Kathy Lifton. It was well received by all and everyone had a great time.
 
Alicia Cannell Started teaching the kids lessons at H&R stables, the name of our farm, and kids and ponies are learning lots and having a great time. We are still taking registration for the spring break horse camp and are sure a good time will be had by all.
It's great to see spring is here, daffodils are blooming, cherry trees are budding and our dog Roxy had four puppies by an unknown dad. They all went to great homes and Roxy is off to get spayed.
 
On May 1st and 2nd Burgi is off to a judging clinic to learn to judge para- equestrians and really looking forward to it. Our para- equestrians are amazing athletes and it is always an inspiration to watch them perform. Burgi is judging the NFTRA dressage show in Maple Ridge on May 31,June 1st for the 3rd time, where alot of times able-bodied athletes compete against para-equestrians and it is an amazing experience for all involved.
_________________________________________

Despite the weather our schooling show on January 27th was a great success. Thank you to Linda Dieno,our judge for all the positive feedback and thank you to all the people who braved the weather trailering in to our show for supporting us.

_________________________________________

Childrens riding lessons at my home with Shelby Bennett teaching, who is working towards getting her level one certification.

Burgi is now taking applications for anyone wanting to learn to teach childrens riding lessons and she will mentor them toward their level I certification!

A big thank you to Daphne Seminiuk for leasing us her wonderful POA pony Sandy and to thank Kama Knight for the use of Anna Banana. 

After passing numerous exams and attending judges clinics in 2007 Burgi is now an "r" dressage judge for Equine Canada. She is excited about that certification ,as it gives her  opportunity to judge more and move up the levels within the Equine Canada judging system.  She is planning on competing with Absolut, a Canadian Warmblood gelding at training and First level this year and is looking forward to that partnership.