Hello there,

It is officially spring and so much has happened at the barn! Our Friendship Series season opener last Saturday was a great success with over 50 entrants. So far this year we have the highest number of members we have ever had! Thank you to everyone for their support and friendship. It was a fun day in spite of a few weather related issues. The Shortacres and Big Dog contingent was in full force-you guys ROCK! And, we had some fantastic derby hats! Congratulation to Claudia Brown for her most creative and winning hat. Special mention to Heidi Curley with her handmade rose hat that classed up the place. Thank you to the hard working Battle Ground High School Equestrian Team volunteers who supplied all the cafe and ring staff for a fund raising effort.

Other happenings:

Kathy Everman was just here for another inspiring and enriching dressage clinic. We hope to have her back this summer.

Jane Fennessy, Carriage Hill Farm in Del Ray Beach, Florida will be conducting her first west coast clinic here on May 30-31 for hunters and jumpers. Call the office for details and her bio or google her farm to check out her website. Jane is a very successful south Florida trainer who runs with the big dogs at the WEF, Devon and qualifies riders for the east coast indoor shows. She trains from the S/S's to the 2nd years and A/O's and jumpers up to GP's. We are really looking forward to having her here.

Most of all we are anxiously awaiting the arrival of Julia Kubicek back from her stint in Florida in less than 2 weeks. We have a full-schedule for her to begin training and coaching here at the Q and lots of big plans.
Julia brings a wealth of experience from her junior hunter years competing at Madison Square Gardens in the Macleay Finals (9th in the nation) to her years as a successful trainer in Del Mar, CA and Vancouver. Other credentials include qualifying and coaching riders to hunter and equitation finals including zone finals and National Pony Finals at the Kentucky Horse Park. Those of you who don't know Julia are in for a treat. She brings the most focused energy and creative exercises to her lessons and training. She constantly reads, clinics and networks for fresh ideas to bring to her life's work. On top of all that she is fun, fun, FUN and I am proud to call her one of my best friends.

We are full-steam ahead on property improvements. We have new fencing, bridge crossings, log jumps and brush clearing for the upcoming Quarry Ridge Overland Hunter course. Our next show is Saturday August 1.

Please let me know if you would like to see some other content or just your thoughts/ideas about our lives with horses.

Happy Riding,

Julia