Virginia Appaloosa Horse Club

Saturday, July 11th is our trail ride at Kelly’s Ford.  We will be starting our ride at 10:00 and should be back around 1:00 to have lunch at the pub.  If you’d like to join us for our ride, we will meet and park at the upper barn nearer the pub and pool.   If you’d just like to come for lunch, we hear the food is excellent!   Our hosts at Kelly’s ford have also invited us to  enjoy their pool and will have several stalls and paddocks available for our use while we are there.    They also have horses for “rent” if you need at extra mount.  For more information, or to see their facilities and directions, you may visit their website at www.innatkellysford.com .   See you there!

YEE HAW!   A handful of adventurous riders braved the raindrops and tried our hand at Team Penning.   The nice folks at Andora Farm took the time to teach us beginners how to team pen.  We got to expose our horses to cattle and everyone did great!  Ok, so if we were timed, it might have been a bit embarrassing.   But everyone, including the horses seemed to have fun.   See the Photos on the PHOTO tab - under online photo album.   Thanks to the photographer and all you railsitters, who cheered (laughed) us on and who will  be joining us next time…. right?   Andora Farms is home to the Seay family who is doing the “Ride Across America” which will air on RDF-TV this fall.   Maybe we will join them for their “cattle drive” coming up.  Stay tuned.

It was good to see everyone at the BBQ  & meeting last sunday.  We had a good turnout, and welcomed some new members.  The Food was great (Ron can really turn those burgers) and everyone seemed to enjoy the demo on equine massage.  Thank-you Jill Deming, MA for donating her time and helping us learn techniques we can use on our horses. 

The newsletter should soon be in your mailboxes.  You can contact Debbie Conley with any adds you’d like to include in the newsletter, or any news items you’d like to share with the members.  We’d love to hear of your new arrivals, or successes. 

We’d like to give back to our members and have several clinics and demo’s in the works.  Saturday June 20 at 9am, we will be learning team penning at Andora Farm.   The farm is located on route 3 just a few miles from Magnolia Equestrian Center.   July 11 we will be riding at Kelly’s Ford.  will meet at 10 - 10:30.   We will have lunch at the pub after the ride.   In Aug we should be having an equine Chiropractic/Accupuncture demo; this fall an information session on barefoot performance.   So Stay tuned and come joins us!  As always, we have spots for everyone.

General Membership Meeting and BBQ - Sunday June 7 at 11:30 until-?  We’ll have a meeting, grill some burgers and at 1:00 an equine massage therapist will be giving a demonstration.   Bring your favorite dish, BYOB and stay awhile!  It will be at Ron and Sharon’s Dark Starz Farm in spotsylvania. 

For those of you not attending the Shenandoah-Blue Ridge Appaloosa Horse club’s spring show in Lexington on May 16-17, the Rusty Stirrups Club is having their Judged Trail Ride at Sandy Point State Forest on Saturday May 16.   For more information you can visit their website www.rustystirrups.com 

Also on May 16th, our favorite 4H’rs will be holding their annual Tack Swap at the Tractor Supply Store on Route 3 in Frederiscksburg.  Stop by and shop, or if you have things to sell contact them and rent a table.  www.stablemates4h.org

The final updates on the Division Winners for the trail ride have been uploaded (see previous post).  We will be busy stuffing envelopes to send everyone their ribbons and awards.  Congratulations to all!!

Good luck to everyone attending the SBRAA, Delaware, or Keystone App club shows for the month of May.  Hope to see many of you there, it will be a busy month. 

The next club meeting will be on June 7 at Ron and Sharon’s Dark Starz Farm.  This will be a general membership meeting and all are welcome.  We will be having a cookout, meeting, and a demonstration and hands-on learning of equine massage.  Sharon’s lucky horses will be the demo horses.  We can welcome our new members: Paul Phillips, Ashley Mcleod, and Amanda Sisson.   

Mark your calendars for club team penning day on Saturday June 20.  In July we’ll meet up at Kelly’s Ford and ride the trails and have lunch at the pub for any that wish to enjoy the day.

The overall Hi-Point and winning a $50  Visa Gift Card:

Marty Geottler riding “Mattaponi Bay” with 91 Points 

Susan Hartman riding “Jest Dancin” was Reserve with 91 Points

These two were so close, even the tie-breaker had to have a tie breaker!    Hi-point was sponsored by Sisson Excavating.

Hi-Point Appaloosa and winning an Appaloosa Painted Pony was:  

“Oreo Galaxy” riden by Debbie Bader with 89 points.     (Sponsoring Hi-Point Appaloosa was Snow Hill Farm)

Hi-Point Club Award and winning $25 Cash :

Nokesville Horse Society.   These great riding and kind ladies at Nokesville donated their winnings back to The VaApHC so that we may give it to our sponsored charity!   More on that in another posting…

below are the total scores for horse and rider:

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The Listing of Division Hi-points:

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Its Sunday evening and we’d like to thank all the riders for coming out and supporting our trail ride!   We’ll keep working on that darn computer glitch and get those categories for the breed divisions in order, so we can get those awards out to the winners.   Check back for the score sheet and placing to be posted.

Some PICTURES are posted on the Photo Tab - scroll to the bottom of page and click on “online photo album” to see if we got you and your horse!

Its Sunday morning - for anybody checking on the status of the Trail Ride all is a go.  The weather guys all say no rain until late evening, so lets Ride!

Hope everyone has been getting a chance to ride and will be out to join us at the Judged or Non-judged Trail ride at Magnolia Equestrian Center Sunday April 19th.   We’re watching the weather and have ordered a sunny warm day!  A passing shower won’t stop us, but we do have a rain date of May 3 if we get bad weather.  Check here for upates on sunday morning if you have questions.  We have many sponors this year so have some nice prizes for participants.   Our sponsors so far are:   Sisson Excavating; The Better Hearing Center of VA;  Snow Hill Farm; Tractor Supply; Double L Tack Shop; Skeeter’s Custom Leather & Tack;  The Horse Barn Tack Shop; The Hitching Post Tack Shop.  Thank you All!   I’ll work on getting their business cards on our sponsor page so everyone can see and visit their businesses. 

The information, directions and sign up forms for the trail ride are in the previous post.  So scroll down for information.  SEE YOU THERE!!

We finally have some warm weather!  I hope you all are starting to get the fuzzies off the horses and those saddles and getting some riding time in.  The board has been planning events, finding a new place for our trail rides, and getting organized.   Everybody get your memberships in and bring your horse loving friends!   We are looking into some clinic ideas - so if you have any you would be interested in, drop us a note and we’ll check it out.

The big news is the upcoming trail ride:  The SPOTS OR NOT Open, Judged/Non-judged Trail Ride will be April 19, 2009 at the Magnolia Equestrian Center.   The Equestrian Center is on Route 3 between Culpeper and Fredericksburg.  There will be food, awards,  prizes and as always, a Friendly and Fun atmosphere!  Remember that members entries fees are discounted and year-end awards are available to members, so join us.

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Just a reminder that the board will be meeting this saturday February 28 at the Golden Corral in Massaponax (Fredericksburg) at 11:30.  All members are invited to attend.  If any body has any agenda items please email or call any board member.  We will be discussing and planning our spring trail ride at the new venue - so stayed tuned!