Blue Hill Farm: BHF's Newest Team Member

Blue Hill Farm’s newest recruit is Carli McGinley, a 21 year old event rider from Louisville Kentucky who started riding as a 5yr old kid. Carli competed her first pony, a wild Arab X by the name of Rocket, through training level. Since then she’s mostly ridden OTTBs and spent a summer galloping race horses which really solidified her love for the Thoroughbred breed.   She attended Centre College in Kentucky and graduated a year early with degrees in History and Spanish. She has been a working student for Martha Lambert in Ky and Stephen Bradley in Va.

Carli came to Blue Hill on a recommendation from a friend, and so the adventure begins..............

  “My adventures with Blue Hill Farm, Southern Edition, began with an estimated 13 hour road-trip down I-75 South which resulted in a traumatic 16 hours on the road.  Just ask Steph, as she received many an aggravated/panicked phone call from me, as I struggled to make my way down through traffic jam after traffic jam. I arrived at our base camp, Hot Corner Farm, in the dark and was suffering from a driving hangover and serious caffeine crash.

I can now happily report that things have only improved since my initial attempts to get down south. Everyone associated with Blue Hill has been completely wonderful and welcoming, from showing me around Ocala to helping me settle my horse into the new barn.  

The main barn at Hot Corner Farms is beautiful and spacious, home to nine Blue Hill horses, while a few others are housed on equally beautiful neighboring farms. My trusty stead, an 11 year old TB named Kaiser, seems to be enjoying his first Florida experience, from the (mostly) warmer weather to the large stall and generous turnout. He is settling in and has become good friends with Steph’s OTTB mare, Bell, and Missy’s big Irish horse, Ike. They have the run of Tim Petty’s neighboring farm and seem to enjoy the quiet atmosphere. A short hack down the road or across the woods and we have access to the ring and hacking offered at Hot Corner.

While I am in Florida I plan on attending some of the local events with Kaiser. My horse is small but mighty, topping out at a delicate 15 hands and our goals while with the Blue Hill team includes moving back up to Intermediate and possibly aiming for a CIC/CCI**. Kaiser and I had a little bit of a rocky 2013, but we’ve gained a lot of experience points and I’m looking forward to getting some great instruction from Missy and Jessica. I had my very first lesson with Missy and it was very helpful and instructive!

Stay tuned and Happy New Year!” ~ Carli

Thanks Carli for all these pics from Ocala!!