GREETINGS FROM OCALA
Greetings at last from Ocala, our home away from home during the winter season. Once again we are wintering at Mary Alice Malone's wonderful Iron Spring Farm South. In the barn, in addition to our own string, we are showing 3 of the Iron Spring stallions: Sir Sinclair (Lord Sinclair x Flemmingh), UB40 (Olivi x Michelangelo), and the latest addition to the Iron Spring roster, Riverman ISF (Kenwood x Voltaire).
To say that Sir is well represented in our barn would be a mild understatement. In addition to Sir himself we also brought 5 offspring to show. His 4yo son Ziggouras (Sir Sinclair x Krack C) went to his first show already and exceeded our high expectations. In his first test, under his regular rider Alex Robertson, he won handily with a score of 73.6% at Training Level. We used this show, Twice as Nice Dressage at Canterbury in Newberry, FL to get his feet wet before he starts his FEI 4yo campaign. Ziggy is a very special one, and we hope that he can follow in the footsteps of Watch Me (Sir Sinclair x Wolkentanz II) and make the trip to Lexington, KY later this summer. Alex also took Ruth Anne Liebman's Divali, a horse that Alex had very good results with last summer, and won both the PSG and the I-1 with scores of 66% and 69% . Showing John and Audrey Shoemaker's MVP (Amethist x Ariban) for the first time, Amber Trainor had a very good go in the PSG for a 3rd Place finish. If not for the nice row of one tempis that MVP very proudly laid down during the 4's and 3's, she would have challenged Alex for first. I think he's trying to tell us something.
Ocala Winter Dressage
Well, It didn't take long for for Ziggy to show that his first show was not a fluke. At the Florida Horse Park Ziggy turned in two more winning Training Level tests, scoring 69.28% and 70.4%. His second test on Saturday was also the High Score for the show.
Watch Me (Sir Sinclair x Wolkentanz II) has started her 5yo campaign with good results, as well. Belinda and Watch Me were 1st in a First Level 2 class with a score of 65.5%, and was 2nd in First Level 4 with a 64.2%. Her legion of fans continues to grow at each show.
Amber and MVP continue to have a very good season, racking up another win at I-1 with a score of 64.5%. Amber also won the Third Level 1 with Ate (Teunis x Oepke) the wonder Friesian, who is owned by A.J. Stapleton a retired gentleman of leisure from Lytle-Five Points, OH.
MVP and Amber winning the I-1
On to other news. A couple of weeks ago Nancy Smith came up to Ocala to look at a couple of our young horses for sale. As always, we asked her about one of our very favorite mares that we ever sold, Donatella aka Dolly. Caroline Ashton from NJ is the owner, and Nancy the lucky rider. We last saw Dolly at a show at Fox Lea a couple of years ago and hadn't heard much since then. In the meantime Nancy has been training in Germany with Hubertus Schmidt and Dolly came home a fledgling GP horse. That makes us very proud and happy for Nancy, Caroline, Dolly and their whole crew. It is, after all, no small feat.
Since coming home, Nancy and Dolly have done very well at I-2 and GP during the tough Florida Winter Circuit. Congrats to all.
Scenes From Ocala 2008
People ask us all the time why we prefer Ocala to other parts of Florida for our winter show season, notably Wellington or Loxahatchee, so I thought we should put up some pictures of life here in Slowcala.
As you can see in these pictures of UB40 and his rider Alex Robertson, the horses here are not confined to arenas and small paddocks, but rather Big Ass Fields with super footing and plenty of nature.
Belinda and Sir Sinclair
Belinda and Sir and Assistant Trainer Janni.
Sir and his son Ziggouras TAR aka "Ziggy".
After their ride, Sir and Ziggy discussed life in Ocala.
We were lucky to find a place to live that has not been affected by the current housing crisis.
Here is our friend who keeps us safe from attack rodents.