Gigi's Film Selected For Equus Film Festival in NYC!!

Dear Friends and Supporters!

Gigi is delighted to report that her very moving mini-documentary, The Fork in the Road, has been chosen for screening at the Equus Film Festival on Friday, November 21, 2014 at 2:30 at Theater B. in New York City!!

(More information at Equusfilmfestival.com)

Congratulations to the crew:

directed by: Cindy Connors & Brian Troy

director of photography: Brian Troy

field producer & 2nd unit camera: Bethany Ditnes

field producer: Julia Fisher

editor: Brian Troy

audio engineer: Donna Weinsteiger

Many thanks again to Brian McIntosh, Charlotte, Colin, Cameron and Melissa

Bruce Davidson, Rachel Gross, Mary Hazzard, Pari Nurrish, Jessica Ransehousen, Missy Ransehousen, Lauren Sara, Jan Smith, Lisa Thomas, Susie Tuckerman and the Blue Hill Farm Staff!

If you haven't had the pleasure of viewing this amazing documentary, please take the time to watch!  It is under 15 minutes in length, but gives such insight into the human determination and spirit of our friend Gigi McIntosh.  

We will be scheduling local viewings and fund raising parties in the region in the near future!

Fork in the Road

Maggie Deatrick Conquers Fair Hill International's 2*!!

It was an impressive weekend for Blue Hill Farm's client Maggie Deatrick and her own Divine Comedy, who took their turn around the tough international 2* track at Fair Hill!  Not only did this pair earn an impressive 52.2 in the dressage, but they also cranked around the XC, posting one of the cleanest double clear rounds of the day.

Dante and Maggie over the first!

What a treat to listen and observe the coaching/client relationship between Missy and Maggie in the warmup before watching Maggie take that advice onto the XC course.  I think all of our hearts were pounding as they headed out of the start box, but to hear the course commentary on the loud speaker as they progressed throughout the more difficult questions on course (brilliantly, I might add) was just thrilling!  Dante and Maggie just tore up the course and handled the brush combination and second water like seasoned pros.

After XC they leapt up the score board to sit 11th in the standings heading into stadium.  Dante tried his heart out, but unfortunately pulled 4 rails, proving that the XC at Fair Hill International always results in a tired horse for Sunday.  Regardless of the rails, Maggie has to be so proud of her awesome thoroughbred gelding - and Missy is so happy with their performance.

As Maggie has already expressed on Facebook and through her chronicle of the weekend on Eventing Nation (yes, she writes for EN too) pulling off the weekend at Fair Hill wouldn't have been possible without the entire team at Blue Hill Farm!  Many thanks go out to working student extraordinaire Brigitte Aikelin for making Dante sparkle and shine.  Dante also thanks Brigitte for making him happy and comfortable post FHI, b/c that boy deserves some serious TLC now that the big weekend is in the rear view mirror!

Photo Credit Lisa Thomas, Mid-Atlantic Equestrian Services

Unveiling of Fork In The Road - A Short Film on Margaret McIntosh!!

Over this past summer, a very special film was in production, a film short documenting the equestrian voyage of our friend Gigi McIntosh.  There was a wonderful collaboration of area notables, such as Jessica, Missy and the Blue Hill Farm team, as well as clips from other influential people in Gigi's career (Bruce Davidson, Mary Hazzard, Jan Smith) from Chesterland.

The end result is the wonderful mini-documentary on our resident para-equestrian, Margaret "Gigi" McIntosh, who during an event in 1999 suffered a life-threatening crash. Through unexpected odds, Gigi battled her way back to do the one thing she's loved doing her whole life...riding horses.

Many thanks go out to the film crew who created this beautiful story.

Crew:
directed by: Cindy Connors & Brian Troy
director of photography: Brian Troy
field producer & 2nd unit camera: Bethany Ditnes
field producer: Julia Fisher
editor: Brian Troy
audio engineer: Donna Weinsteiger


Fork in the Road from Brian Troy on Vimeo.

Gigi also wanted to express her gratitude to all of those involved on this project.  Below is her note that I received yesterday.

"Once again, Blue Hill Farm has rallied around a special project. Missy and Jessica, thank you so much for your enthusiastic support for this effort!

I was truly touched by the tears and cheers accompanying our tack room screening yesterday and the collective, "Awwww..." at Hobbs' appearance on-screen.

Many thanks to the on-screen talents of Jessica, Missy, Brian McIntosh and Mary Hazzard at Blue Hill and, across the road at Chesterland, to Bruce Davidson and Jan Smith!

Devon and David, Carli and Brigitte produced an immaculate barn as a back-drop and Rachel turned Rio out beautifully as well as wrangling Hobbs in the flower garden!  The farm, itself, played a central role in the cinematography and never looked more beautiful with many thanks to Margarito, Oscar and Ignatio!

Many thanks to Pari Nurrish for the still photography at Blue Hill and to Lisa Thomas and Susie Tuckerman for the Chesterland photographs!"  ~  Gigi

Gigi Inducted Into Equestrian Hall of Fame at Stoneleigh Burnham!!

On September 27th, I had the great honor of being inducted into my high school alma mater's, Equestrian Hall of Fame at the Stoneleigh Burnham School in Greenfield, Mass.  Of course, our first stop on campus was the barn where we were greeted by the current Director of Riding, Mina Payne (a classmate of my sister Ricki's at Stoneleigh) and shown to the "Wall".

With my niece, Michele, Charlotte and my sister, Ricki

My introduction to the following panel discussion included the premier of 'A Fork in the Road', the moving mini-documentary about my equestrian career. (Very well-received with a few tears and a standing ovation!)   Great questions ensued from the students and faculty, regarding: one's favorite school horse, balancing college level academics with sport and goals before retirement. I told them that I had no intention of retiring and would be riding off into the sunset....

Before we set off for cocktails, my family surprised me with a lovely portrait given by an old family friend and superb equine artist, Susan Sponenberg!


















Cocktails and a surprisingly (not what I expected after four years of boarding school "cuisine") delicious dinner were followed by the award ceremony itself.

My tribute, delivered by the current Headmistress, Sally Mixsell, had my brother (a retired Chief of Police) in tears. Stoneleigh Burnham was very important to my mother, a 1946 graduate and a long time member of the board of directors, and Sally's heartfelt comments regarding my family's close ties to the school and my equestrian experience just overwhelmed him.

My "back to my roots" weekend continued with a quick visit to May and Denny Emerson in Strafford, VT.  Susan McLean and I spent a beautiful afternoon talking to May and Mimi Leslie and watching Denny ride and teach.  I worked for the Emerson's for seven summers when I was in high school and college, including 1974 and 1976 when Denny won a team Gold Medal at the World Championships at Burghley and was an alternate for the Bromont Olympic team.

In a fitting commemoration of the weekend, I asked Denny to autograph my copy of "How Good Riders get Good". His sage advice on becoming a  successful International competitor certainly worked for me....twice!



Once again, I marvel at the good fortune I have enjoyed in my life! Thanks, again, to all of you, my family, friends, teachers and supporters who have made it all possible!

David Ziegler and Topper Make A Clean Sweep at DAD 2014!!

Now that the champagne has once again been replaced with coffee I can reflect on what a great weekend my team and I had.

The plan had always been to compete at in the Young Riders division at Devon following the NAYRC.  Jess has been very involved with Dressage at Devon since its inception (Competing, judging, commentating, and retiring Orpheus), so its a very sentimental competition to us here at Blue Hill and we are all proud to have the most prestigious CDI in our backyard.

Thursday night was our first experience in the atmospheric Dixon Oval under the lights for ring familiarization, Topper was barraged with decorations that we may or may not have made scarier by shaking (corn stalks).  That certainly set us up for competing in the ring the following day.

Friday was the Young Rider Prix St George, Topper was laying down one hell of a test until he thought he'd make it interesting and kick out in the 3 tempi's. Despite that, we still scored 67% to win he class.

Saturday we moved rings to the side Gold Ring, we rode very quietly for a fault free test to score a 71%, again taking home the blue.

Sunday was the day we were all waiting for, Freestyle test day. Topper was the last to go in the Dixon Oval, giving us his best freestyle in competition yet, dancing his way to the Sound of Music to 71.7%.

The clean sweep at Devon would not have been possible without coach extraordinaire, Jessica Ransehousen, physio Doug Hannum Equine Therapy making sure Topper had everything in him to bring us the blue (all of them!),  my sponsors Nupafeed, APF, & Icehorse, Rachel Gross for making Topper look spectacular and to everyone who came to cheer me on.

What a great way to finish my Young Rider career.

Future plans?  We're going to continue to work on the one changes, the piaffe and the passage to hopefully rise up to GP next spring!  Stay tuned..........
Check out the DAD photo album on Facebook!

Photo credits Lisa Thomas
Mid-Atlantic Equestrian Services.

Gigi's Making Of A Para-Equestrian Documentary For USPEA Global Awareness!!!

Video Shoot at Blue Hill Farm

LINK TO PHOTO ALBUM AT BLUE HILL FARM
Photo Credits Pari Nurrish

Monday, July 28th started with a flurry of activity that snowballed into two days of mad cob-webbing, dusting, sweeping and mowing in anticipation of filming a short video chronicling Margaret "Gigi" McIntosh's equestrian career. Blue Hill sparkled in the crisp morning light on Wednesday when producers Cindy Connors and Julia Fisher (Live Well Network/ABC/Disney), camera man Brian Troy (also from Live Well) and his assistant, Bethany Ditnes arrived.

Quiet descended on the farm as Cindy interviewed Gigi McIntosh, Missy and Jessica Ransehousen and Mary Hazzard with the intention of documenting Gigi's long-term passion for horses and raising awareness of the Para Equestrian discipline. Cindy's direction elicited insightful discussion of the financial challenges facing Paralympic hopefuls.

An exceptionally beautifully turned-out Rio Rio had her moment in the spotlight with both Gigi and Rachel Gross as Missy and Jessica trained them for the cameras!

DAY TWO - BLUE HILL FARM & CHESTERLAND

Setting Up With Bruce at Chesterland

Visitors On The Set!

LINK TO PHOTO ALBUM AT CHESTERLAND
Photo Credits Lisa Thomas, Mid-Atlantic Equestrian Svcs.

The second day of shooting began back at Blue Hill Farm with Brian McIntosh's interview and Hobbs' Rose Garden press conference, continuing onward to Bruce Davidson's Chesterland Farm, just over the hill.  Bruce's film set included a panoramic view of Chester County hunt country and a herd of very curious young home bred Chesterland horses! Jan Smith, Hobbs' owner and long time young horse manager at Chesterland, had the last word in shepherding the herd! Thankfully, Brian Troy's camera equipment survived the Unionville safari!

We are looking forward to the great Premiere of this fabulous video documentary sometime in late September! Until then, please enjoy the two days chronicled in pictures, provided by Pari Nurrish (Blue Hill Farm) and Lisa Thomas (Chesterland)!

Many thanks to the Blue Hill and Chesterland support staff for their hard work and Blue Hill boarders for nobly suffering the disruption!

Update From Brigitte and Harper!

Brigitte and Harper Schooling at Windurra USA

While David, BG and Topper bask in the glory of Young Riders, the crew back at BHF have been hard at work developing their own future event horses!  Brigitte has been kind enough to send along an update on her green horse Harper, who came to Blue Hill last fall.  They are making quick progress and I was able to capture some of their developing jumping skills at Boyd and Silva's jumper just show a few weeks ago. 

Here's a link to the photo album on Facebook.

"Harper and I  have completed multiple Novice Horse Trials and schooling trials since the spring season has started. He has always been in the top 5 after dressage with scores no higher than 36.0.
I'm super excited to see how he progresses at each show. I feel like each time we go out, he gets more and more settled and figures out his job quicker and quicker.

Our next few shows consist of Fair Hill and the New Jersey Horse Park, where we will remain in the Novice division. We are striving to become very competitive at the novice level before moving up to training by early fall.

He has grown up A TON since I got him in September 2013.  At 5 years old, he already knows more than enough to be super competitive at Novice and Training, producing a very steady and consistent dressage test and jumping around stadium and cross country with no problems.   If all goes well and he's still gaining confidence, our near term goal is to progress well and aim to compete at the Waradaca 3 Day Event!" 

Photo Credits Lisa Thomas
Mid-Atlantic Equestrian Services