GHF/Collecting Gates Dressage Show

I just wanted to jot a quick blurb about this show real quick as it was Samson's first time competing in the USEF Young Horse class, while he was super super in the warm up he got very tense when we entered the indoor arena at The Georgia Horse Park (Conyers) so we did not quite get the high score we were hoping for and only received a 72.4% or 7.24 this gave us a qualifying score however for nationals. He did impress the judges outside though in his Training Level Test and he was Reserve High Point Champion of the entire show that weekend! So at the end of the day it was a pretty good show!

Dressage Across The Lakes

What an AMAZING weekend this was!
Samson competed at Training Level as well as First Level and he also did his USEF 4yr Old Young Horse Test....and he was spectacular and the judges were highly impressed with a 76.5 on his First Level 1 Test and he knocked the Young Horse Test out with an 85.5% (8.55) this put him in 6th for the 4yr olds and qualifies us for nationals! This horse never ceases to amaze me, he just continues to impress and impress and get better and better love him!!!
I was fortunate enough to get his First Level Test on video and he nailed every movement so check it out (unfortunately blogger no longer allows you to upload videos so follow the link to youtube)
San City First Level Test 1

Aquataine oh Aquataine what a weekend full of reaching our goals for the both of us! We did Third Level 2 and Third Level 3 and we nailed them walking away with scores in the upper 60's in all three classes (this was both mine and Tainy's first time ever riding these test) this success meant two things for us. First we are qualified for regionals at Third Level woo hoo! But BEST of all I can now get my USDF Bronze Meedal!!  So all and all it was a fabulous weekend! Below is a link to a video of our Third Level 3 Test on Sunday
EM Aquataine Third Level Test 3

UPDATE

So while it has been almost a year sense my last post I will not spend too much time reliving the past by trying to catch up with all the old post that I should have posted (thanks to a couple of tough semesters in school and a wedding I have been left with very little free time) so I figured I would just do a buleted recap of the past 7 months here at Dream Acres.

• March 2010 All 3 of Samsons hit the ground
• March 2010 NWFL Classic Dressage Samson Competed both In Hand and at Training Level in which he was both the High Point of both the Breed Show and the Dressage Show as well as High Point for the Hanoverian and High Point Training Level Horse
• February 2010 Samson did the YEH at Rocking Horse getting around a %73 and Tainy ran around her first Intermediate cross country course in the Derby.
• Sollte found himself a new home with a young event rider in Maryland we wish them both the best and hope to see great things from that pair
• Gia is now living the good life in West Palm Beach, FL with Samantha Altieri a young ambitious jumper rider and we will definitely be hearing and seeing great things from this pair!
• New edition to the farm was the purchase of the pony Gretta
  

Year End Awards:

• Samson

1. 2009 NWFL Material and 3yr Old Sport Horse Champion
2. 2009 ECC Material and 3yr Old Sport Horse Champion
3. 2009 USDF 3rd place HOY 3yr Old Material
   
4. 2009 USDF 3rd Place HOY 3yr Old Sport Horse Colts In-Hand
   
5. 2009 Reserve Champion AHS 3yr Old Material
6. 2009 AHS Reserve Champion 3yr Old Sport Horse In-Hand
   

• Tainy

1. 2009 NWFL and ECC Preliminary Champion
2. 2009 DSDCTA Preliminary Champion
3. 2009 NWFL Jumper High Point Horse
4. 2009 CEC Jumper Reserve High Point Horse

• Indy

1. Recieved a USEA Blue Ribbon Award for Novice Horse
2. 2009 Area 3 Novice High Point Horse Champion
   
3. 2009 ECC Novice Horse Champion
4. 2009 NWFL Novice Horse Champion
5. 2009 DSDCTA Novice Horse Champion

I think that gives a pretty good brief summary of all the blogs I missed posting! Sorry guys, will definitely keep the website up to date for all you Dream Acre Followers!

USDF Sport Horse Breeders Region 3 Championships Sept 19-20

Samson showed his stuff at the 2009 Region 3 USDF Sporthorse Championships. We arrived Friday evening and while he did not compete on Saturday I was busy running 4 other horses in hand in 2 horses who were owned by Donna Nita whom I handled for last championships as well, she has a super 3 year old and this is my 2nd year handling Basil MG he was colt champion on Staurday and Reserve Champion overall. Congratulations Donna!
On Sunday Samson competed in the regular classes and was Colt Champion with Basil in Reserve. Samson was also Reserve Champion overall! He also competed in his Material Class for 3yr Old Colts and he of course won!

But the most exciting of the weekend was the Championships held after the show. Samson and Basil were both qualified and imagine how excited was as they named the 3rd place horse and it was neither Basil or Samson.........
Basil came in Reserve Champion and my boy San City (Samson) was named the USDF Region 3 Sporthorse Champion!!!! He was amazing! Everyone was extremely impressed and wanted some of his man juices! We are so excited for him and the possibilities that lie ahead for this SUPER stallion!

NWFL Classic II

This was Samson in his Material Class at his 2nd show ever! He's such a good boy!!! Just thought I would share a quick clip of him undersaddle because I don't think I have any up and I am so proud of him! And how well he has come along I can not wait to see the foals he produces we are off to the stallion inspection this weekend so hopefully he will get approved!!!

GIA....Gia Bo Bia

On June 6, 2009 Gia made her show debut, knocking it out Dream Acres styles by WINNING! With a score of a 77% she was Champion of the mares and foals! We are so proud of our little one here are some pictures...

With no surprise we already have people interested in our little champion so last night my mom and I set sail to taking pictures of the little one to send off to people, so of course I had to share them with y'all! And a little video so you can see what a fancy little mover she turned out to be considering she was bred to be a jumper!!! As you can see she is full of sass as well!

Full Gallop Farm 5-30-09

So I entered this show last minute and the Preliminary division was full so we had to enter IP which is Intermediate Prelim she does Intermediate (a level higher) dressage and stadium but still did Prelim cross country. This was officially my first Intermediate dressage test ever! We scored a 38% that was with an error so really she scored a 36% not freaking bad at all!! We had 1 rail in Stadium and seeing how it was a 1 day show we had to do all 3 phases on Saturday by the 3rd jump on cross country I was beat I just gave Tainy the reins and she took me around that course like never before...we did have one silly run out which was more less because I missed the turn to the jump....but this was probably the most emotional show ever, i needed that bond with her, I had never trusted her completely on cross country before and she proved to me that day I could and that together we can make our dreams come true! Love you Aquataine! Thank You Melissa for letting us stay at your place which made the show way more affordable for me! I had a blast, we're almost ready to make the move up to Intermediate for good:) I loved this picure and just had to have it, isn't she amazing?

Chattahoochee Hell....(Hills) 5/15-17/09

So you can imagine how thrilled I was that all 3 of my mares were qualified for Area 3 Championships....and how devastated I was when I found out it fell over the same weekend as my brothers graduation! After much thought and who knows probably the worst but best decision ever I decided to go trench through Championships all by myself! I think I was even a little more crushed when Fanny came up with a severe stone bruise and I had to pull her out of the competition and so it was just up to Indy and Tainy!

We arrived their with not much complication besides a little traffic that had us delayed but I was able to ride, teach Emily and bath and braid all the horses.
Friday was not a bad day, all the championship classes rode their dressage and Indy of course being Indy knocked them all dead with a 24% right in front of Jonathan on his super nice Trekhaner gelding as usual just barely though, Tainy's dressage was nothing to write home about but their were 25 riders in her Prelim Champ class and after Dressage she was in 13th so I really couldn't complain if I would have been a little more demanding she would have been in the top 6 atleast!
Saturday was a wet and ugly day and even though I had walked the Prelim course 3 times I was still so nervous and I missed my mom terribly:( I called her balling before my ride it was the toughest course Tainy had seen and I wasn't sure how she would react so my neice Grace said a prayer for me and I did a lot of praying myself and had the BEST ride of our lives the pictures say it all!!!
She was perfect at every jump!!! This moved her up to 10th place not bad out of 26 in a championship class:)
I was not to concerned on Indy's course she's pretty solid around cross country but she was actually a little sticky in fact she jumped one jump saw the water on the other side and stopped jumping, and just sat on top of the jump I kicked and screamd and sure enough she went over and through the water keeping us in 1st place!!





My little rider Em had a decent dressage test on Saturday but shocked them all with 1 of the only double clean Stadium rounds I was SO proud of her and the rider she is becoming, she was also double clean on Sunday and ended up 4th!!! Go EM!!

Sunday was the day of Chatt Hell! But I am going to make this long story short, loaded all 3 horses to head over to the show for the final phase of stadium (I was takin Sollte along as a spectator) and the truck wouldn't start, jumped it, it died, jumped it again and it went but Margaret (who knows where I would be in this world without her she is the most amazing friend in the whole world!) she thought it was the alternator so she hooked her trailer up and decided to follow along, good thing cause she was right the alternator went out! So we unloaded Indy and Tainy on the side of the road in her trailer and she stayed with Sollte waiting for help, who came in the form of another amazing friend Melissa you rock my world!
I was able to make it there in time to ride my score would not be pinned and counted but I would be able to use it for qualifications for later competitions (3-Day) She had no warm up but she was a freakin rockstar in show jumping as well with only 1 rail! Love that horse! She is the best thing sense sliced bread and iPods!

So after a great ride on Tainy Indy went in for what was a rather ugly Stadium ride (I'm sure rider error as Mike told me as I came out of the ring) We pulled 1 rail giving us 4 penalty points that I didn't have to give so Jonathan went into the ring with a smile on his face 'knowing' he had just won, only to pull the exact smae rail I did! (Thanks Jonathan) So Indy is now officially the 2009 USEA Area 3 Novice Horse Champion! (No real surprise there:)
Sorry it took me 2 months to get this posted I had to wait till I could afford the pictures and find time to do it all:)


Let's just say that Indy winning was the only highlight of the weekend with a broken alternator, wreck on the way home and an oil leak! What a nightmare, maybe I should have gone to the graduation lol!

wHaT a WeeKeND!!!

So this officially had to be one of the craziest weekends I have had in a while. While packing for the show (Poplar Place) I got a call Thursday night from a lady in GA that was interested in buying Hilmi and wanted to see him; therefor, I had to unload things in my trailer and make room for him.
I picked up Kelly and her enormous horse (18'2hh) Bella in AL after getting a late start Friday morning, due to the extra horse and a dead truck battery. So my poor truck and breaks amazingly got us to Poplar in one peice; although, there were some close calls, in which I thought for sure Bella was going to have to get out and pull us up the hill;)
I showed Hilmi to Sally and she liked him, rode him, paid me, and loaded him up, I wish all horse sales were that easy!
I rode bright and early Sat morning 8am and sense I was too tired to braid the night before I was up at the crack of dawn Saturday morning. Stressed for time I got all tense and started off the weekend with Tainy and I having a horrendous dressage test leaving us in 8th place ugh! Not to worry though cause Indy still had her chance and scored my lowest dressage score ever of a 22.0 and of course Miss America was in first place after that ride. They both had 1 rail in SJ moving Indy down to 2nd and Tainy stayed in 8th, but I was pleased with the rides non the less. Sunday was Cross Country and Tainy and I headed out at 9 in the morning to finish the show off with a stop at the coffin combination (rider error, collected her too much and forgot to kick and say GO and the same time:( Unfortunately that finished Tainys weekend up with 10th place . But Ashley's camera caught a stellar sequence of Tainy and I through the Preliminary water.








Indy of course zoomed around cross country like an old pro (she could teach her mom a thing or two) and bumped us back up to 1st winning once again! Giles was there riding Indy's nephew at his first show and she took 2nd in the BN division which was quite exciting as well! It runs in the family the whole winning thing or being in the top 3, you'd have to be a Gotthard to understand:)
So as the show wrapped up and Kelly and I went to hook up the truck and trailer, the trailer battery was dead, and we couldn't hook up, needless to say after an hour or so we broke down and Kelly went hiking for help. Finally getting us hooked up and being nearly the last person to leave. The ride home was rather uneventful and we made it home safe and sound with one less horse in the trailer and another blue ribbon to add to Indy's wall:)

ScHoOl NeWs!!!!!

I came home from the horse show to the best news about school! First of all I aced my College Algebra Class and got a B in English! But the best part is that I received a grant to go to school so my tuition and books are going to be covered! WHAT A RELIEF! I am so excited not only to be back in school but even more so to know that it will not be a financial burden! I am so fortunate and blessed! I have also decided that I am going to go into secondary education for Math which is 9th-12th grade! And through FSU I will be able to get both a teaching major and a math major at the same time, so I could always do something else if I decide not to teach. So that's it for school, as for the summer I've got a full load with American History, English, Pre-Calc, and Speech Class I'm totally stoked and can't wait for classes to start back up!

LeT's gO fLy A kItE.......

While my brother and his family were out here, the kids got kites in their Easter Baskets and we happen to have a perfect day for kite flying. It had been so long sense I had flown a kite and in fact I don't even remember being able to get my kite in the air as a kid but with much perseverance and I hate to admit it but help from my brother, Grace and I were able to get Hannah flying and out flew Clint and Garrett with Spidey! It was a blast we get so busy in our adult lives that we forget how much fun some of the simplest things in life can be.

We also spent some time at our local springs which was FREEZING cold and the best part about being the aunt is your the one who is cool, so you have to be the one to do EVERYTHING with the kids including doing cannon balls into freezing water, only for Grace:)

Me trying to convince Grace to go first so I could weasel my way out of it!


It didn't work, but she was right behind me doin it cannon ball style!

When we came home from the springs the kids simply had not had enough water so we broke out the water balloons! It's so much fun to be a kid again!


Helpin the kids fill up the water balloons....

Ready, Set, Attack!

Goodbye Phillipe, Hello Sollte!

Just wanted to let everyone know that we sold my moms pony Phillipe. We found him the perfect home with his new owner Victoria Lanza, they are quite the perfect match. I know he will be doted on and loved to no end! He will now become a fancy, spoiled little dressage pony:) He was such a good pony and such a confidence builder for my mom, that he deserved a home where he was the only horse. I am very excited to see the pair together and everyone better keep their eyes out for them cause they will be competing soon!
In return we purchased her Oldenburg gelding Sollte who we have fallen in love with he is 16'3 and is built to be an event horse, he will be a fun little project to have. My mom looks forward to getting him out to some schooling shows over the summer and I'll look forward to possibly competing him in the fall or my mom possibly. He is a fancy little mover and a very cute and very careful jumper.
So while we say goodbye to Phillipe and wish him and his new owner well we are thrilled to have Sollte as a new addition to our farm!
I will get pics up of him soon as he comes along and matures a little more:)

Blue Angel Dressage April 25-26

Unfortunately I did not get any pictures of Fanny at the Dressage Show, but I just wanted to put in a note that she was wonderful, well for most of it:) She was the High Point Horse for 2nd level with a 63% which we needed to count as a score for my Bronze Medal. So next show we will definitely be doing 3rd level to get our final 2 scores so that I can get my Bronze Medal!

EASTER

Easter was great, my brother and his family were here and we celebrated it a little different then I was used to. They do Easter baskets and the Easter egg hunt on Saturday so that on Easter Sunday they can all focus on the meaning of true meaning of Easter. I really liked their way of doing this. So Saturday morning the kids woke up bright and early, I think I had almost as much fun getting ready for Easter morning and hiding the eggs as the kids did tearing through their baskets and hunting the eggs down.

As for Easter Sunday it was one of the best not only did we hear some amazing talks in sacrament but I even talked my mom into going to church with us. It was so special to go to church on Easter Sunday as a family. (I believe it was a first for us.) So thank you mom for going it really meant a lot to me:)

This was definitely one of the best Easter Sundays EVER!

My Sidekick

I am so behind on my blog so I will slowly but surely try and get everyone updated. We were so fortunate to have my brother and his family come visit and liven up the farm in April over Spring Break and Easter.

For me it was just great to have my sidekick with me for a week, Grace was by my side helping me feed, ride, and care for all the horses all week long. Every horse I rode Grace rode; although, she fell in love with Fanny and I think the feeling was mutual because Fanny helped babysit her all week both on the ground and on her back. As you can see below they were quite the pair.....

Grace and Fanny I love this picture of Grace, The Pony, and Bella. See the smile?

I can't believe how fast she has grown up but it just gets more and more fun to have her around with the horses, she is like a sponge I taught her, parts of the horse, colors, gender of horses, and she was so eager to learn. She's just like her aunt we both prefer to spend most our time on a horse or in the barn! I taught her how to do Around-The-World on the horse, back flips off the horse, and we galloped around on the pony bareback:)

Grace also helped in showing Garrett the ropes around the horses as well. As you can see from the video below Garrett may take after his aunt and sister too:)

She's Related To ME!

So my sister-in-law sent me the link to this picture of my niece.....Unbelievable, not only is she absolutely beautiful, she looks like an angel and is unbelievably gorgeous and this picture needs to be published somewhere! So I'll start with my blog! WoW nice job Amy Leigh (Photographer)
Grace Lauryn Wooten 2009
I love this child so much she truly is an angel and this picture just goes to show it! She told her mom the other day while I was on the phone "Tell Katie she needs to go to church more." I let her know that I do go to church every week now. But Grace your spirit is truly something else, and you have and will continue to touch so many lives. I am so blessed to have this Angel in my life. I love you Gracie Lou Hoo!