Stable Days

DANDY JUMPS HER FIRST TRIPLE BOUNCE

HI Horse Pals ~

Dandy and I have been having some fabulous jumping days.  I am having so much fun with her and I love her more every time I ride her!

 

This week we worked on a triple bounce sequence where the first 2 jumps had no strides in between.  It helped her rhythm and was a fun line to add to our jumping courses.

As always, we are enjoying our summer rides with all of our friends at the barn.  It has been over 100 degrees at the barn!  It is quite intense, especially on the days when Avery and I ride more than one horse. 

We would love to hear about your horse adventures!  Write and tell us all about them.

Your Horse Pals,

@raya and Avery

P.S.  We're still waiting for your ideas for a contest!  Let us know what you think ....

DANDY THE JUMPER!

Hi Horse Pals,

As you know, when I first started riding Dandy last year she was a green horse and had never jumped.  I have spent the past 10 months teaching Dandy to jump.  It has taken a lot of patience and dedication on the part of my trainer Lisa and I and Dandy, of course.   All of the work has gotten her in good shape and in the past few weeks, we have all noticed how she has finally got her jumping rhythm!  It has been so fun to jump with her!  She is now doing long courses with 10 or more jumps and is balanced and beautiful over the jumps.  She is coming off on the right leads and I have been able to control her rhythm with varying stride counts.

Congratulations, Dandy on all of your hard work ... it is paying off!  I love you lots!

We would love to hear about your horse adventures!  Send us photos and your story of things you've accomplished with your horse and we'll post it to share with all of our Horse Pals. Also, if you subscribe to our blog, you'll keep up to date with the goings on around the stable.

Happy riding,

@raya

A TRAIL RIDING WE'LL GO!

Hi Horse Pals,

This week Avy and I went on a trail ride with our trainer, Lisa.  It is a beautiful mountain trail with beautiful views.  It was Avy's 1st time on the trail and she loved it so much.  Her favorite part was cantering in the mountains.

It was the perfect day to go on the trail because the weather was so beautiful and it was so green because it had just rained.  Avy rode Remy, I rode Dandy and Lisa rode Schmidt.  We walked and trotted and cantered.  

I love love love to trail ride! I love to ride fast on the trail, ride with other people and see all of the beautiful sights.  It is one of my favorite things to do!

I would love to hear about your trail rides.

Happy trails,

Your Horse Pal,

@raya

A GREAT WEEK OF FLAT WORK WITH JIMMY

Hi Horse Pals,

This week Avy and I had a great time working Jimmy on the flat after our training sessions with Lisa.

Avy walked and trotted figure 8s and serpentines and practiced her sitting trot.  She really loved riding him.

I also gave him a great workout this week.  I worked on circling in the canter and figure 8s at the trot.  He is getting good at staying at a nice pace at the canter.  I love riding him.

Your Horse Pals,

@raya and @very

P.S. Jimmy is an Arab Clydesdale cross!  Isn't he cute?!

A SUPER JUMPING WEEK!

Hi Horse Pals ~

This week we had a fabulous jumping week.

  

Dandy and I specifically worked on the turns into the jumps and staying straight.  There was one turn in particular that was really challenging - it was a single diagonal that Dandy and I spent a good part of a lesson working on.  We had excellent workouts and Dandy really worked hard; she was really sweating!  We did courses with an oxer, a one stride line, a cross rail and 3 verticals.

I had a lot of fun riding Jimmy this week.  I had GREAT flatwork - we did fabulous circles and had great rhythm.  We went over trot polls and then we jumped cross rails.  He did great.  He had a great rhythm (sometimes he goes too fast) and his turns were perfect and he went straight down the middle. 

Avery LOVES LOVES LOVES riding so much!! She wants to ride every horse in the barn EVERY day!  But who doesn't love to ride?!  Last week, she had her first canter in the rain and she loved it.

Avery jumped OB this week and did great.  She had been trotting to and over the jumps and this week she cantered them.  She had great lessons all week.

As always, we had fun playing with our Horse Pals at the barn.  We hope you had a great riding week, too.  Happy trails!

Your Horse Pal,

@raya

BACK IN THE SADDLE AGAIN!

Hi Horse Pals ~

We had a fantastic trip but we were so happy to get back to the barn and in the saddle again! We missed our horses and barn friends and of course, our trainer Lisa. 

Avy and I had a great jumping week! Avy jumped OB and Remington (AKA Remy).  Remy is our friend Chris' chestnut Thoroughbred and he is really sweet.  Avery is really loving jumping - she can't wait to get to the barn!!

   

Dandy and I had an excellent jumping week!  We jumped long courses with 3 verticals, 1 oxer, a 1 stride line and a flower box.  Dandy jumped the highest she's ever jumped!!!  She seems to be getting better every time we jump.  I think she's a fast learner!!  

   

I also had great time riding Jimmy this week.  We worked on slowing down in the canter and circling.  He had a good workout and so did I.

  

As always, we had a great time riding with our friends this week.  We rode in the arena and did some trail riding.  It is so cute to see Samuel and his miniature Zero next to our horses!!

  

Our friend, Gretchen has brought her vaulting horse Snoopy to our barn now and he's really cute.  We're having fun riding with her, too!

Glad to be back at the barn!  Have a great riding week!!

Your Horse Pal,

@raya

THE PA NATIONAL HORSE SHOW - GRAND PRIX!

Avery and I were SO excited to go to our first Grand Prix!  And so, after a long day of shooting, we were ready to go!!  I took some photos of the stadium outside before we went in for our first ever indoor horse show! 

It was so awesome because we arrived early and were able to watch the entire set up for the show - there were a ton of people working in the arena, all with their own special job and it was really cool to see them set up the jumps. 

 

 

The highest jump was 5'3" and it was SO fun to watch the riders jump - we had seen it on TV but it was SO amazing to see up close and live! 

A ton of our favorite riders were there - tons of Olympians and Grand Prix winners.  It was SO cool!!

Beezie Madden (2 shots below)

I had fun taking photos and cheering all of the riders on!  It was a really incredible experience and one I will never forget!

History repeated itself when Kent Farrington and 11 year old Belgium Warm blood Upchiqui won the Grand Prix for a second year in a row. 

PHOTO SHOOT AT HARMONY HILL FARM IN YORK SPRINGS, PA

Our next shoot location was another gorgeous East Coast farm, Harmony Hill Farm in York Springs, PA.  We took a beautiful winding road that went up and down like a roller coaster to get to the farm and saw lots of cows and horses along the way.  It is so beautiful here! 

When you drive up to this farm, you see a cross country course before reaching the barn and show arena. They have hunt/jump shows here and a creek flows along the property.  

We had a lot of fun here, too!  We met an adorable horse named Ozzy who was used in part of our shoot.  He's 6 years old and super handsome!  He liked being the star of the show and got to show off bridles.

The house on the property was built in the 1800's and is so cool.  I love how they have screened porch rooms back East.  The barn itself looked like a house and there was a lounge that looked into a large indoor arena.  The pastures and turnouts were beautiful fields of green here, too.  Very lucky horses!!

TuffRider/JPC is coming out with a line of Western gear so this was our first time wearing and modeling Western clothes!  It was so funny because when we put those outfits on the cowgirl came out in us and we were so silly.

We had another really fun shoot and look forward to seeing all of our friends at JPC again next year!

JPC PHOTO SHOOT AT HERON HILLS IN GRANTVILLE, PA

Our first shoot location for JPC was in Grantville, PA at Heron Hills.  It was such a beautiful facility - you can see more gorgeous pictures of it on their website www.heron-hills.com.

We had so much fun wandering around the over 100 acres of gorgeous land! They have 3 ponds and the most amazing cross country jumping courses in HUGE fields.  The pastures and fields were so green - the horses could turn out and graze and enjoy the sunshine all day.   When we first arrived, we were greeted by an adorable boxer puppy named Parker.  He was 5 months old and so playful - he would bring us sticks of wood to throw and tug.  

What's so great about modeling in these locations is we get to explore the entire facility - we take pictures in arenas, fields, next to cross country jumps and here we took them near the ponds, too.  We really get a chance to see every part of the barns we visit!

There was a pony that was wandering all over the land wherever he wanted to go.  It was so cool to see him pop up in all different places.  One time when he was near some miniatures, I was able to pet him - his coat was so furry and soft; he was like a bear!  And he was so sweet!

It definitely felt like fall weather - it was in the low 50's and Avery and I ran around a lot to keep warm!

 

Here's the wandering pony again behind Avy!  We had fun seeing where he would end up next!

We always have a lot of fun modeling for JPC!  We love wearing all of the new outfits each season - it's fun to see what's new.  We really love riding in their clothes, too - they are so comfy!   And of course, we love to hear from all of you when you see us in horse magazines like Young Rider!  hehe!  

We can't wait to see where our next location will be!  Stay tuned!

A VISIT TO AMISH COUNTRY - LANCASTER, PA

We had an incredible time on our trip back East and we will be making a photo album of all of our adventures. My sister and I had fun taking lots of the photos and hope you enjoy them. Check back as there will be more posts to follow from our trip!

We began our trip back East visiting Lancaster, Pennsylvania as my sister and I really wanted to visit and experience the Amish country.  We have had so much fun reading the entire Little House in the Prairie series (the Laura, Rose and Caroline years) that we really wanted to see what life was like in this country a long time ago.  Visiting the Amish country, we really felt like we were going back in time.  It was a really cool experience. 

 

It was so incredible to see how big a part animals play in their daily lives.  As we first entered the town, we were welcomed by a huge herd of beautiful black and white cows who were literally grazing freely near the road in a green, green pasture.  As we ventured further along, we found cows in lots and lots of fields and yards. 

When we continued down the road, we turned and saw an Amish man shucking corn with four horses pulling an old fashioned shucking machine.  We watched them for the longest time, amazed at how the corn was popping out into a bin so quickly.  If you look at the photo carefully, you can see corn coming out the shute!  On our entire trip throughout Pennsylvania, we saw fields and fields and fields of corn!  And lots of pumpkin patches!

Everywhere we turned, we saw horses pulling buggies on the road which was so cool!  The Amish literally use them as their mode of transportation - they even have signals on the buggies!  We also saw lots of kids on bike-like scooters zipping around town doing errands. 

Everyone seemed busy from the men working in the fields to an old woman sitting quilting a quilt.  We even saw a girl mowing her huge lawn with a hand held manual lawn mower!  And as we continued along the winding roads, we stumbled upon a little boy sitting in a wagon full of corn who was putting corn up into a barn. 

We stopped at a family run stand that sold vegetables and baked goods where a young girl helped us.  Avy and I tried our first whoopie pie, a favorite of the Amish and us too, now!  A whoopie pie is a cake form of a cookie sandwich ... the middle is vanilla frosting sandwiched between chocolate cakes.  Avy thought it tasted like a Ding Dong.  

Avy and I loved looking in all of the Amish shops ... Avy bought a little porcelain Amish boy and 2 beautiful stone eggs.  I bought a brass horse and wagon, a brass barn and a black horse statue.  

We went on an Amish garden walking trail and enjoyed all of the beautiful scenery ... it was so green and we hit perfect Fall weather.  On the trail, we found the most beautiful, unique caterpillar we had ever seen!  

It was really a fun day visiting Amish country - we felt like we spent a day back in time and we loved every minute of it, especially all of the animals and beautiful farms, and of course, the Amish people!

FUN IN PENNSYLVANIA!

We just got back from our trip back East and we had an incredible time!  We visited the Amish country, went to the Grand Prix and visited 2 beautiful barns for our TuffRider/JPC photo shoot!

In this post, we thought we'd show you some behind the scenes photos of our trip!!  And there's lots more to come, so stay tuned!!

We had a lot of fun flying across the country - Avery and I both love to fly - we especially like the take offs and landings because they're fast!!  And Avery loves when we have bumpy moments; she says she feels like she's on a roller coaster!  We got up before the sun and here we are getting ready for take off VERY early in the morning!

We were lucky on the flight home to see the movie "Kit Kittridge: An American Girl" which we had wanted to see!  We really enjoyed the movie and the trip home flew by!

When we arrived in Newark, NJ, we went to a popular family restaurant there called Perkins and it was so cool because it was Kids Night.  A magician came to our table and did an incredible magic show - he did a really cool ball trick where he put one ball in our hand and then 2 appeared!  We've never had a magic show table side and it was so fun!  We also decorated cookies and if you're ever in the Newark, NJ Perkins, you'll see our photo hanging in the restaurant.

We then drove 3 hours to Carlisle, PA which is where we stayed for the photo shoot.  It is near Harrisburg, the capitol of Pennsylvania.  We arrived at our hotel around midnight so it was pitch dark!  In the morning, we looked out our windows and saw this beautiful sight ... we ran down and explored the area - Avery picked wild berries that she's going to use to make her homemade inks.  We also saw insects we've never seen in California.

When we weren't sightseeing or shooting, we had a blast swimming in the indoor pool and jacuzzi and playing tennis and basketball.  Avery and I LOVE to swim and swim all of the time but we had never swam indoors before!  It was pretty cool!

On one of our sightseeing trips, we visited Harrisburg, Pennsylvania's capitol ... it was named the capitol in 1812 and there were so many beautiful old buildings.  This is right in front of the state capitol building - Avery and I loved the pink fountain! 

Harrisburg has a beautiful waterfront and the water looked like glass; it was really beautiful, especially with all of the trees in their fall colors!!  We were really happy to visit such a beautiful city!

OFF TO THE GRAND PRIX!

Hi Everyone ~

I'm excited to tell you all that Avery and I have been invited back East again to do a photo shoot for JPC/Tuff Rider!  We are going to shoot at the National Horse Show in Harrisburg, PA and another farm in the area.  We were thrilled to find out that we have tickets to the Grand Prix finale show!  We are SO excited!  It will be our first Grand Prix show and we can't wait!  We'll take lots of pictures and tell you all about our adventures when we get home.

Happy riding!

Love,

@raya

FABULOUS JUMPING FUN!

Hi Horse Pals ~

I had a fabulous jumping day today!  We did a triple no stride line and Dandy did great. 

Dandy was listening really well and we had fun also jumping a flower box and single diagonals.

The weather was perfect for riding and jumping, it was beautiful out with a nice cool breeze.  It definitely felt like fall at the barn today.

And other exciting news ... Avery had her very first jumping lesson today on OB and she LOVED it!  She was cantering around and around the arena at a great rhythm and then Lisa gave her a few jumping tips and she was off!  Her tips were go straight to the middle of the jump, keep a good rhythm and hold the horse's mane over the jump.   She jumped a flower cross rail over and over and did excellent for her first time! She can't wait to jump again!

I ended the day with a trail ride with my friend, Gretchen and her horse, Snoopy.  Snoopy and Dandy looked so cute together because they both have great colors.

  

Happy trails, 

@raya

AMAZING JUMPING DAYS!

Hi Everyone ~ I've have been having so much fun jumping with Dandy!  This weekend, Avery and I rode with some of our friends and we had a blast!  We were playing 'follow the leader' and all kinds of fun games.  Lisa even gave us jumping courses and we took turns and watched each other. The weather was perfect and it was so nice to ride in cooler weather.

Dandy is really improving with her jumping ... she's doing great on her lines and verticals.  We have a lot of new jumps in our arena with new flowers and colors and she has been fine with all of the changes.  This week I jumped courses at the trot and then jumped them at the canter and she did great at both gaits!  I'm really working on keeping her pace consistent through the entire course.  I can't wait for another fun week of jumping. 

Until next time, keep your heels down, your eyes up and remember, it's all about horses!!

Your horse pal,

@raya

TRAINING A NEW HORSE!

 As you know by now, I LOVE to ride and I can never get enough of it!  Recently, my trainer Lisa asked me if I'd like to start training another horse in our barn, Jimmy Mac.  I love training horses and giving them extra work so I jumped at the opportunity to start regularly riding Jimmy.  Jimmy is an Arabian cross and a good boy ... he has recently started jumping.  I was actually using him in lessons before I found Dandy.  I'm in my 2nd week of training him and it's going really well.

His trot has been great and I'm working on slowing him down in the canter a bit.  He's another reason why I can't wait to get to the barn!  You can see some photos of him in the photo albums.

See ya around the barn!

Your horse pal,

@raya

OUR VISIT TO AN OLYMPIC BARN - BEACON HILL SHOW STABLES

In celebration  of the Olympics, I thought it would be fun to make a photo album from our amazing trip to Beacon Hill Stables!  My sister and I had the once in a lifetime opportunity to do a photo shoot for JPC Equestrian/Tuff Rider last fall at Beacon Hill Show Stables.  It is a gorgeous barn owned by Frank and Stacia Madden who train Olympic riders.  Beezie Madden who is riding Authentic in China is their sister-in-law.  It was so incredible ... I was so happy to go there.  The horses were beautiful beyond words and the stables were amazing.  So were the courses!!  Beacon Hill is located in Colts Neck, NJ and it is such a beautiful area ... we definitely want to visit again!

I hope you all are having as much fun watching the Olympics as I am!  Go USA!

A MAGICAL JUMPING DAY

It has been a lot of fun to teach Dandy, my green horse, to jump! This week Dandy and I had an incredible jumping lesson! Dandy did her first jumping course with 5 jumps and did really well. The course included a cross rail, single vertical and a 3 jump vertical line and we did a few different courses with the five jumps. It was Dandy's first time doing 3 jumps in one row and I couldn't have asked her to do a better job. I had a great pace throughout the courses. I felt like I could ride forever! I can't wait to jump again!
love,
@raya

JUMPING FUN!

This week Dandy did great on the flat. She was really responsive to my cues. She's now stopping perfect and she's slowing down in the canter and making perfect circles. We were ready to start jumping (see photos in Dandy's photo album). We warmed up trotting over trot poles and then we did cross rails and then verticals. It felt great and I think Dandy is going to become a great jumper. I am enjoying training her to jump. See ya around the barn,
@raya

SUMMER FUN!

I'm really enjoying having my own horse. It's been really hot (we are definitely in summer!) but it has not stopped me from going to the barn. I love getting up early and going to the barn and giving Dandy special care. First off, I run her and then I give her a really good grooming. This week Dandy and I worked on more flat work. We had a very long lesson working on stopping and now she's stopping great. We've also been working on cantering slower and keeping a good pace through my circles. After every lesson, Dandy's been really sweaty and I love giving her a great bath and feeding her apples. Oh, and she has the cutest new fly mask ... it's pink and grey and has a pink ribbon for breast cancer research and she looks too cute in it. Another thing that's great about summer is all of my friends are at the barn every day. We have so much fun riding and playing together ... after a good ride, we like to cool off the horses with a short trail ride. We also have a clubhouse with a cool tire swing under a huge old oak tree. It's always hard to get my sister and I to leave the barn - even the grooms know we never want to leave!! Okay, I'm off to see Dandy. See ya around the barn!
love, @raya

DANDY'S NEW TACK

Hi Everybody ~ Last week we got Dandy all new gear and she looks so cute! You can see the photos in her photo album ... the theme is chocolate brown and pink. She has a brown and pink halter and lead rope and saddle pad and a new martingale, bridle and girth. She looked so adorable and we had a great week of riding. Dandy must like her new tack, too!! See ya around the barn!
love,
@raya

ARAYA'S NEW HORSE

Hi Everyone ~ I'm very, very, very excited to tell you that I got a horse! I thought it would be fun to journal my adventures with her and share the journey with you. Her name is Dandy; she's 6 years old and she's a beautiful paint and mostly white. The first time I rode her, I loved her! Her trot is so graceful ... I feel like I'm trotting in the air! She's a green horse so my trainer, Lisa and I are going to train her. I can't wait to teach her how to jump ... we've had a few jumping lessons and she did good. This week I'm working on the flat - I'm working on her not bulging in her circles and slowing down in the canter. So far, so good. See you around the barn!
love
@raya