New Year - New Goals For Brigitte and Harper!!

Schooling at Windurra USA

Each year I ask the working students to sit down and think about their goals for the upcoming year.  We are blessed with a hard working and talented young staff here at Blue Hill Farm, and it's important that they take the time to reflect on the prior year and set personal goals for 2015.

Brigitte has been an enthusiastic addition to our program and has worked diligently day in and day out, always with a positive attitude and determination.  2015 is her year to be down in Ocala with Missy, so we know (as I sit here listening to 30 MPH winds) that she is grateful for that opportunity.  Thank you Brigitte for all that you do and good luck with the 2015 show season!!

Brigitte and Harper 2014 wrap-up:

"Harper and I have had a busy but wonderful year!! It started off with a horrible winter with hardly any showing until the end of April. We did 2 Dressage schooling shows at Dunmovin and Blue Goose in January before the weather turned for the worse and shut down much of our winter competition back here in Pa.

Our Eventing season began when the crew returned from Florida and we hit the ground running. Our first event was Fair Hill May 17th where we started out again in BN just to get Harper back in the groove. We scored a 33.5 in Dressage, had a stop at the "evil" water on XC and a rail (my fault) in SJ. We then planned the rest of the year to do Novice because he just needed to try harder.

Our next event was Seneca in Maryland where Harper scored his all time best in dressage with a 28.7 under Missy's watchful eye. We moved onto SJ with high hopes and had a "green" rail but otherwise a beautiful round, only adding some time on XC to finish his first event at Novice on a 49.5 in 10th place.

We then had a fun adventure at our first trip to the Jersey Horse Park.  We went into dressage with  "scary gnomes" at K, earning a respectful 39.0, went double clear SJ and XC, successfully finishing our first Novice on our dressage score to earn 6th place. We finally thought we had figured things out.

Onto Fair Hill, my birthday weekend, and we had a game plan! Dressage we earned a 36.5, with the "scary gnomes" still in the arena but at C this time.  Another refusal and a rail would put us back to where we started, the drawing board.  Try, try again Missy said, so we headed to Seneca once again, but had a repeat of Fair Hill, except the little booger stopped at the first fence!  It was time to rethink our strategy.

Galloping Home at Fair Hill

Now onto the "big boy" event. Missy said he was bored at Novice so we decided to try him at Training.  Onto Radnor Hunt we went where it was raining and cold the entire show! We scored a 32.3 putting us in 2nd after dressage and stadium was really really sloppy.  We didn't have a rail but incurred some time before heading Straight to XC after a quick bridle change. We were going out for a positive experience and NOT a refusal at the 1st fence. He was a complete rock star and we finished 4th overall, not bad for a green horse in the rain and mud with only front shoes!  What a great way to end our 2014 season.

My baby boy has grown up really fast in just the year I've had him. We are now happily settled into our new Ocala location and it's our first trip to Florida with Blue Hill Farm.  We hope to compete and hopefully move up to Prelim in a few short months, as he's going fantastically and is learning quickly. All he needed was a bit more of a challenge!

Thank you to EVERYONE who has helped us get to where we are today and where we are going. I couldn't have done it without any of you, most importantly, my 2 amazing trainers, Missy and Jessica. 2015 is going to be our year for a clean and clear record with amazing dressage scores! Here's to 2015!!!!"

Photo credits Lisa Thomas