Home safe and sound, with a top ten placing!

Hi everyone, we are home!!
Everyone is safe and sound, 25 hour drive on the way home was long but uneventful.
Yesterday we showed 48th out of 65 competitors in the Adequan Championship Arena and scored a 203.5 to take home 10th place! Peanut tried her very best and it was the best run we have ever had, what a blast.
I'm told show pictures will take about 2 weeks to be posted online, so hopefully we can get those up A.S.A.P.
Looking forward to seeing everyone this week for lessons, I've brought back all kinds of publications and bits and pieces to show you. Thanks again for all your support!

Your tour of the Oklahoma State Fair Grounds

The warm, sunny weather continued today as Peanut settled into her stall in Barn 8.

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We even had the opportunity to ride outside....in t-shirts! Notice the red dirt?

SUPERSTAR SIGHTING! There's Peanut in her sexy leopard print slinky checking out her new surroundings.

Here we are riding in the Adequan arena where we will show *gulp tomorrow!

Here is one of the warm up rings.

And this is the Coliseum arena where the Futurity go rounds are being held until the finals next weekend.

The bar...

Almost looks like a hockey arena doesn't it?

This is a pretty neat trailer. It hosts some of the prominant equine health care specialists and equipment. Almost anything that can be done in a vets office can be done in this trailer.

Here's the warm up ring outide of the championship arena. The major sponsors and leaders of the reining horse industry are stalled around the warm up ring.

And you thought they went crazy with stall decorations at Congress? Check some of these out...

Hey girls who attended the tack makeover: remember the dvd we watched advertising the ranch? This was their stall set up.

A considerable part of the farm, stallion and trainers promotion is the freebies they offer to passersby. Coffee and bottled water with the farm name or stallions name we quite popular. Candy, keychains, twine cutters, tire pressure guages... all personalized and set out to encourage people to come over and have a look.

Here is the huge wall of results (printed in size 10 font...seriously?).

Trailer sales

And finally the prizes for the winners: a saddle, vest, bronze trophy, belt buckle, ring, ribbon...what else could you want? Oh yeah, a trailer?

That's all for now, tomorrow is the big day! Time has flown by, I hope to give everyone a full update next week. See you soon! GO PEANUT!

OKC here we come!

Part one of the trip to the Adequan North American Affiliate Championship 2009 starts with the 24 hour drive to Oklahoma City! We got off on time on Wednesday at 4pm from London. We had one horse to pick up on our way and all went smoothly in Windsor with that pickup. We drive through a lot of rain through Michigan.... and Indiana......and Illinois and finally when the sun started to come up the cloud disappeared. Missouri was the sunny and the landscape started to change dramatically.

Here's Peanut wondering what the heck she's doing at a gas station... "Are we there yet?!"

I'm not sure why Indiana is called the "Crossroads of America" and Oklahoma is called "America's Corner"......???

This is about all I saw of Chicago...

Finally in Missouri, the sun!

A terrile picture of the Oklahoma sign! See it?

And the State Fair Arena!

The trophy trailer...

That's all so far....promise to write in ASAP with more pictures and info from Friday and Saturday. Hope all is well at home, thanks Nicole for taking care of everything!

Thank YOU!

Thanks to everyone who supported the trip with sponsorships and t-shirt purchases. The absolutely overwhelming amount of support from clients and students have been phenomenal and made the experience even more amazing for me!

Special thanks to the Ferguson family for use of their trailer, a monetary sponsorship AND purchase of t-shirts. Thanks to the Levin family, Teresa Corrigan and family, Bob Hannaford and the Bridgecreek Stables crew for their additional sponsorship. These sponsorships will go a long way in covering the enormous expense of this trip.

I promise to post pictures and information as soon as I am able.

For now you can visit www.nrhafuturity.com

It looks like the live feed is set up and at no charge! I will be showing in the Adequan Arena on Sunday Nov. 29th in the Rookie Professional class.

Check out "2009 North American Affiliate Championship Qualifiers" for a list of people who qualified for this show and their designated affiliate. Or check out "Futurity Draws and Go-round Schedules" to see who will be competing. My class is listed under "Limited Open". I am draw number 48, and my class starts at 8am (Oklahoma time). So I should compete around noon (Oklahoma time).

The plan is to leave today at 3:30pm after my afternoon lesson, pick up one horse in Sarnia and drive 24 hours straight through to the show grounds to drop off Peanut and get her settled in her new stall before heading to the hotel to crash. Peanut will need lots of walking over the next couple days to stretch out sore tired muscles from the long haul. I will ride her in the arena that I will be showing in as much as possible before showing her on Sunday. We plan to let Peanut have a short rest after we show and then loading up and heading back home. A bit of a whirlwind trip, I know!

Thanks again to everyone,

See you next week!

Nov. 25th To Dec. 1st

I will be away from Wednesday, Nov. 25th until Monday Nov. 30th. Lessons scheduled between those days have either been rescheduled or scheduled with Nicole. If you have any questions or comments regarding lessons, or CANCELLATIONS, please contact Nicole at (519) 476-7712. I will be answering emails periodically for urgent messages, anything non-urgent I ask that you please wait to contact me on Monday or Tuesday.

Thanks and have a great week!

Holiday Rides

Holiday ride preparation has begun! Regular group lesson student (students taking lessons weekly or bi-weekly) are invited to create a pattern to perform for their parents, friends and family. It's not a horse show, just an individual presentation for whomever the student wishes to invite. Students are welcome to add props, costumes and music provided we have ample time to practice with the horse.
Holiday rides will take place during the normal lesson time the week before Christmas holidays unless otherwise requested.
Any further questions please be sure to ask. There is no additional fee to the regular lesson fee for this ride.

Come and get your T-shirts!

T-shirts are in and they are GLORIOUS!

Check em out in the pics, or out at the barn and order yours before we run out!

The picture is from the Eastern Canadian Affiliate Finals (the show that we placed fifth in, to earn our invitation to the North American Affiliate Championship).

The writing on the back reads:

Where in all the world is nobility found without conceit?

Where is there friendship without envy?

Where is there beauty without vanity?

Here one finds gracefulness couples with power, and strength tempered with gentleness.

A constant servant, yet no slave.

A fighter, ever without hostility.

The horse.

H.H. Eisenbart

T-shirts are being sold for $20 and any proceeds go to the expenses of the trip to Oklahoma (stall fees, registration, trailering etc.)

******special rate for Lindsay Hayes Equestrian Students of $16******

Sizes range from youth small to adult xxl, please send us your order so that we can ensure you get the correct sizes and before we run out!! 85% of t-shirts are sold already!

Thanks to our VERY generous sponsors, please stay updated for more information on the show and results.

Off we go...

It has been confirmed, entry forms are in, plans are being made - WE ARE GOING TO OKLAHOMA!

Our show package arrived this week for the North American Affiliate Championship, which is run concurrently with the NRHA Futurity. The Rookie Professional class that we qualified for will be run in the morning on November 29th. That means leaving some time on the 25th for the 24 hour drive, so that we can get there in time to let Peanut's little legs rest, ride a few times in the show arena, and maybe tour some farms in the area! Those of you who were around last time I went to this show, in 2007 as a spectator, may remember some of the sights I reported. Well I'm hoping to keep a picture diary of the trip this year for everyone to see when we return.

More information about the show can be found at http://www.nrha.com/

For the very generous people who have offerred their support, and for anyone else looking for an opportunity to be involved in this fabulous experience, I will have T-shirts for sale to support the trip. I'm hoping to get T-shirt info out in the next few days, but if you are interested in purchasing one please let me know what size, youth or adult you would like. Thank you so much for all your support throughout the show season, I'm looking forward to sharing this experience with everyone!!