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Mercury home and driving! Summer '08

Mercury is back from his winter training and is now driving like a star. While I am of course sad that I could not be here this winter to start him myself, I am so grateful to Tom O'Carrol and the Good Hands Training Center for giving him such a phenomenal beginning! They are wonderful trainers and I could not be more pleased with how well Mercury is doing after his time there. We have been driving him almost daily since his return on the roads around here and he is building confidence with every step. On off days when I feel more like riding, I hop on bareback and take him a spin that way instead! He is a fairytale stallion with his shining white color and loads of feather--there is nothing more thrilling than being around this gorgeous pony. I cannot believe he is our own!

Babies! June 2008.

Spring '08 sees the birth of our first foals! James the Fell pony and Josie's Filly (unnamed) can be seen on our new YOUNGSTOCK page! Click the link on the top bar to see pictures and read more about them.

Mercury and Lauren! November 2007.

I would like to announce the recent acquisition of an absolutely phenomenal breeding pair, Lunesdale Mercury and Lune Valley Lauren! These ponies herald the end of Ambleside Farm's long and rather frustrating search for quality breeding ponies. They are more than I could have dreamed of asking for!  A huge thank you goes out to Melissa Kreuzer of DreamHayven Farm for parting with her beautiful and carefully-chosen imported ponies. This transfer of ownership was a difficult but much-considered decision made jointly by both farms involved. The changes in plan and direction that DreamHayven Farm recently underwent amazingly coincided perfectly with Ambleside (formerly Gig-on-the-Fell) Farm's decision to move from primarily training ponies into breeding as well, with fortunate results for both farms.

While I know that Melissa will miss Mercury and Lauren, I am so happy that myself and my family were able to provide a new home for them where they will continue to be used and enjoyed to their potential. I hope that I can continue the good work Melissa has begun with these ponies and that the public transition will not be an obstacle to their roles as breeding ponies and Fell Pony ambassadors. Lauren and Mercury will be arriving around Thanksgiving and will be LOVED here at Ambleside Farm as our Foundation Ponies.

Plum Creek CDE Spring, 2007
Midnightvalley Poppy: 3rd Place Training Pony

Huh, well...every pony has her off days :-) Poppy and I did kind of terrible at this show, but had a great time anyhow! It was extremely bittersweet, however, in that this was the last show that Poppy and I will likely ever participate in together. I have never cried so much over the sale of a horse as I did for Poppy. She is terribly, terribly missed and is possibly the only intentional sale of a horse that I continue to regret. And we didn't even get to end on a smashingly good performance....

Plum Creek CDE October 13-15th, 2006
Midnightvalley Poppy: 2nd Place Training Pony

I can't possibly rave about this event more! It was our first full-blown CDE and Poppy was amazing. What was particularly difficult for us at this event was, ironically, school. I had class early Friday and even Thursday night, so Poppy and I didn't get any practice time in before the event. However, although this definitely played to our detriment in dressage (the first time I got to drive her :-p), the conditioning that my mother had done in my absence and the warming up that Dwain had done before I arrived really showed--Poppy was responsive and happy in harness! The marathon was the tightest I'd ever driven and we had some very (VERY) close calls in amongst the trees and such. It was a challenge, but Poppy, Dwain and I had a blast! In fact, the marathon was still the event in which we performed the best: with some expert gatoring, we came in with a double zero! Cones was quite fantastic as well, with Poppy and I putting on some steam. For some reason I had it in my head that we would need to hurry to make our time, so I pretty much let Poppy do her big marathon trot the entire time. Despite this, we had only two balls down and we were both exhilarated. To our amusement, I later was going over results with Dwain when he pointed out that I had made the fastest time of ANY (cross divisions!) of the other competitors. HINT HINT: Slow down and shoot for accuracy! Next time...

All in all, this was more fun I could have even asked for--and a much-appreciated break from schoolwork and classes!

ADT at Covenant Ranch (North Texas Whips) May 6th, 2006
MidnightValley Poppy: 3rd place Training Pony

No elaborate write-up on Poppy's (very successful!) second event. Needless to say, we had a blast, the weather was beautiful, and the company excellent! :-) I was very proud of our third place against the present competition and Poppy's behavior was much improved since our debut. Also of note was our clinic on Sunday! Under the instruction of a respectable judge/instructor, we worked with Poppy's head-tossing issues with surprisingly positive results. I am looking forward to this summer, as I will be able to put more miles on Poppy in harness as well as spend time refining our art. It was a splendid weekend all in all.

Sunrise Ridge Driving Trial March 20th, 2006

Midnightvalley Poppy: 3rd place Training Novice

The morning of the trial dawned clear and slightly chilly. Poppy, who had spent the greater part of the previous evening covering herself with hay, was given a cursory brush-over and taken down to the trailer to clean up and hitch. The show atmosphere worried her slightly and her reaction to this was to act bratty. I wasn’t concerned, however, as I knew she was ready and was invigorated by the idea of showing her at last. My buoyant spirits were ill-fated, unfortunately, pierced cruelly by the news awaiting me at the trailer. My mother kindly tried to break it to me with a cheerful, offhand air.

“Dwain might be a little late,” she said gently.

My ears pricked with a sense of foreboding. “Why?” I queried, trying not to sound as suspicious as I was. Dwain, who had helped me start Poppy and who was also responsible for getting us ready to show in the very first place, had assumed the role of trainer and mentor and was scheduled to be my gator at this show.

“Well, they’re having some car troubles…accidentally put regular gas into their new diesel.” Still a bit too airy for my liking.

“But they’ll be here,” I said with a certainty I no longer felt. Statement, not question. The word equivalent to crossed fingers.

“Well, they will try. They said they’d drive all night if they had to….” She trailed off, face making a little wince of anticipation.

She’d known since last night! “They might not make it! Why didn’t you warn me?” I said, sounding younger than my years.

“I didn’t want to worry you until I knew for sure…they’ll probably make it in time. He’s going to try really hard to be here for the marathon.” A beat. “Do you think you’ll be all right with her even if it turns out that he can’t make it?

Noooo. “Yes,” I said, glancing at the tautly-muscled black form of Miss Poppy. True, I had not shown anything taller than 36 inches at a carriage driving event in about two years and had never had a marathon that was not safely enclosed in an arena, but I was confident and…and my trainer might not be there! Car troubles! What car would dare be trouble when Poppy’s first show was at stake? If I may take a bit of writer’s license here, I will say that despite the formidable dilemma I remained suberbly calm inside and out.

Poppy didn’t even pause to notice that I was being calm. She was looking everywhere, and was a handful to harness. I decided to take her into the practice field and warm up before dressage. After trotting some eights and working on walking without being speedy, it was nearly our turn to enter the arena. Of course there was a mix up with our bell. I heard the distant jingle and we picked up a nice trot straight towards the arena when I heard shouting from the sidelines: “Wait, that’s not your bell! Stop, don’t go into the arena!” With visions of elimination and red flags hurtling through my imagination’s eye, I reflexively asked for a quick stop, whirling my gaze with desperation to the gatekeeper, who was waving me on in, saying “Hurry, that was your bell, go!” Needless to say, Poppy was mad at me and I was flustered (understatement). We entered the arena crooked with Poppy wiggling along at an uneven trot. I could have died. Things went downhill from there, with a stop that involved unscheduled backing and crooked lines. I regret to say that I was so disoriented after our clumsy stop that I went off pattern shortly after and found it necessary to start from the halt again. We executed the pattern decently after that, the one condemning factor being Poppy’s head, which she tossed liberally. I exited in shame and humiliation.

An interesting fact is that even after our twilight zone dressage test we still had admirers. As we were standing around waiting for our shot at the cones course, my family and I were approached by all manner of fascinated people, and I was comforted that perhaps despite our test we would still ambassador the breed. Better yet, maybe we would redeem ourselves during the next two phases. Whatever the case, I enjoyed discussing fell ponies with Poppy’s new fan club.

The bell rang for us to enter the cones course. Poppy had never seen so many of those goofy orange things in her life and lifted her knees high as she squirted through the start set. Knowing Poppy’s inexperience and the complicated course, I took it slow, aiming carefully and working on maintaining our impulsion through the cones. After the first five sets, Poppy stopped looking and we cruised through on our way to finish, feeling pretty peachy about ourselves. Poppy then happened to look down again. She saw that she was fast approaching two—what were those things? Cones??!!! What could cones be doing in this field?! She wove sharply in her surprise. It was too late to redirect, and we took out the hapless cone in a spectacular way. It was our only fault, however, and we were both pleased. Best of all we were informed that my trainer would make it in time to gator (navigate) for me on the marathon. Hal-lelujah and a sigh of relief. I really had had no clue how to run a marathon.

Well, despite our success in the cones field, we were still very firmly in last place. I wasn’t concerned, having not had any intentions of “playing to win” with my green-as-grass pony, but that didn’t change the fact that I was seized with the desire to cast my dressage notes into some handy inferno. With the marathon looming ahead after lunch, I began to fret again. I had never done a cross country type of course and how was I to navigate without getting lost? It was too long to walk. And the obstacles! I hadn’t gotten to walk any of them and they were complicated! I wouldn’t even make it through A. I would crash. I would….

At last, I anxiously walked the course with my priceless trainer to ingrain in my head just where I’d be going for each obstacle. There were a few tight corners that I was truly worried about putting Poppy through. I still lacked a proper awareness of the size of my buggy—it was so much larger than those of my miniatures! My relief at the safe arrival of my trainer overwhelmed my doubts, however, and as my nerves wore off I felt them replaced by a genuine excitement for our turn to come.

Beginning the marathon was the most indescribably fantastic feeling. We set off at Poppy’s favorite trot and headed for the first obstacle, one with a sharp right turn entrance and a swooping downhill exit. I was at my most nervous, and Poppy at her most interested. We swung in and though I held my breath as we threaded ourselves through the very solid wooden pillars, we made it with no bobbles. I was ecstatic. The rest of the marathon was as smooth and invigorating as the start and we came through with wild success, and right on time! Poppy passed the vet exam with no issues and was lovingly walked and returned to her stall with hay and a good brushing. She had the same content, pleased expression on her face that I can guarantee was in residence on mine.

The marathon had been so much fun that I had completely forgotten about placing—after all, with our dressage score I had ruled out the possibility of getting a ribbon. However, I was very excited to see the marathon results—I was almost positive that we had come in at optimum time and hadn’t had a single fault. When the final scores were up, I was shocked to find that after our clean marathon run we had been bumped up to third place. I was still flabbergasted some time later when I was handed the ribbon. Poppy took in all in stride, and admittedly looks quite good in yellow.

Spring Fling Play Day in Bowie
Daegn: 2nd
Traveler: 6th (despite having entered only afternoon classes :-) )

Traveller and Daegn both came along to this show--I was interested to see who would be the quicker of my two darlings. Traveller did not participate in the morning events due an accident in the first class, so I gave him the morning off and drove just Daegn. The show list consisted of speed games much like a western riding playday but with carriages instead! Daegn took an overall second in quite stiff competition (there were at least seven minis) and proved his steady nature yet again by being even more stable and reliable than Traveller. Traveller, however, was not to be put down as a slowpoke. In the afternoon of barrel racing, pole weaving, marathon obstacle, and "golf," Traveller, as if to make up for being naughty, flashed along with the best time in each class he entered. He wasn't driven the first half of the show, however, and placed overall sixth.

ADT at the Collin County Youth Barn
Daegn: 1st in VSE division

Daegn's first show was a Northeast Texas Whips show held at the Collin County Youth Barn. We brought little Daegn with his huge eyes out to an ADT (Arena Driving Trial) today and he surprised us all! I brought him with the intentions of acclimating him to show activity. Although standing still seemed to Daegn to be a waste of time, he behaved himself politely and took things in stride. I warmed him up with all the big buggies rolling past and steered him around the cars in the parking lot, painted lines, flags, and the lot and Daegn didn't bat an ear. The judge commented on his steady gaits during our dressage test and we got an overall nice score (50-something...I will have to look up the exact number), though we need to practice backing in a straight line and walking on a loose rein. In the marathon section Daegn may as well have been born to be a CDE pony! He took it so well and got the fastest speed and no penalties. I took it slower on the cones course because we hadn't practiced with them as close together, but we made a clean round and were just barely over the target time. Overall, Daegn took home the first prize in his division, best in cones and obstacles, second in dressage when broken down. I was so proud of him!

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