A Christmas Break Love Affair

Here is a picture of Krissy Guthrie and Captain Jack with Sue and Shannon at the horse show on Thursday afternoon. This is the story of a Christmas break love affair...
Krissy came home from Lynchburg College and wanted to have a horse to ride and show if possible. Jack is a wonderful sale horse that needed to get out and about so that people could see him and want to buy him. Krissy and Jack met and fell in love. Krissy loves Jack's honesty and wonderful disposition and Jack loves Krissy's smooth ride. It was love at first sight. They showed in the Low Hunters on Tuesday morning and took home Reserve Champion. Then, in the Adults on Thursday late afternoon they cleaned up with the Champion Ribbon! Congratulations to you both! Both Krissy and Jack are having so much fun together! Thanks team for making this match happen!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Merry Christmas Everyone! We wish you the best in the New Year to come! Here's to health, love and happiness for both people and horses in 2011!

Pictures and "Welcomes"

Here are just a few pictures from the Christmas party!

We all had fun even though we missed our college girls! We welcome our girls home from college and are excited to see you all!

A few more "welcomes" to the BC Family...

We welcome Kit home from college... Magic sure did miss you!

We welcome to BC Guy and Daquiri Jou Lussier! We are excited to work with you this winter!

Stay warm everyone!

Updates and Happy Birthday to Kristin!

Here is the latest picture from Marsh Creek! Kristin went out with Karen Holl and Bella, Barbara Bendall and Harvey, Dan Doyle and Tucker, and Kathy Diciurcio and George! Again, everyone had a blast!

We had a great time at the BC Christmas party at The O'Connor's on Friday the 3rd! Thank you to everyone who brought such wonderful food and goodies! It was really nice to see everyone!

Today is Kristin's Birthday!!!!!!! Happy Birthday to you Kristin... are you 29, again?? Ha ha! We love you and hope you have a great day! Stay warm!!

There are some shows and other events coming up... look for them in the next blog posting!

STAY WARM!

Saturday at Marsh Creek!

Well first of all, it was so fun to see all of our college girls home on break over Thanksgiving! We can't wait to see more of you over the Christmas break!

We had a great time at Marsh Creek this past Saturday. Although it was cold, all the horses behaved wonderfully and each group stayed out for about 2 hours!

The first group consisted of Meredith Holl on Ben, Emily Borowiec on Tucker, Krissy Guthrie on Rosie, Caitlin Hunter on Andy, Cassandra Otis on Emma, and Kristin on Harvey! We were out for two hours, horses were perfect, and we had a blast!

Second group was Gabby Bendall on Early, Marybeth Fennelly on Bella, Shelby Wambold on Comanche, Kelly McEvoy on Doug, and Denise on George! They went down at the end and let the horses splash around in the water. So fun! Check out our pictures from the day!

We will see everyone on Friday at Denise's house for the Banbury Cross Christmas party! Yay!

CCHSA Medal Finals

The CCHSA Medal Finals were held at Wyndsor Farm yesterday. Our day started with Geneva and Doug getting ribbons in the novice equitation division. Then Shelby and Tommy and Sarah and Comanche all performed beautifully in the 14-17 equitation division. Next we had Krissy riding Smitty and Erin on Mojito in the adult eq. division. Both had so much fun and got good ribbons, Erin coming away with Reserve Champion for the division. Krissy and Smitty had an interesting course, adding an obstacle! Krissy was hoping for bonus points but the judge thought otherwise! ha ha!

Then after much waiting, it was time for the Adult Medal Finals. Both Erin and Krissy (pictured above) rode spectaculary over a tricky course with lots of options for striding. Krissy's score held her in the placings for a pretty light blue ribbon. After the second round, and a nail biting placing from last to first was announced, Erin ended up with the second place in the finals! Of course, the girls were #1 and #2 according to us!

Congratulations everyone who participated in the Medal Finals. Congrats to Susie Wetherill for another great horse show! It was another fun show with our wonderful students. Krissy gets the good sportsmanship award for the day!

Updates

Hi Friends! This is just a general update on what we've been up to the last two weekends. The first weekend in November we had a fantastic show at Wyndsor Farm.
Our competitors included Cindy and Jammer, Marybeth and Ben, Barbara and Harvey, Erin and Mojito, Susan Weaver and Bud (showing for the first time together in 8 years!), and Gabby with both Piper and Early. Smitty and Dede even came to play and behaved beautifully! We had a surprise visit from Shelby who was home for the weekend too!
Denise took a crew out to the pace event in Elverson on Sunday and everyone had fun!
This past weekend Denise took the Bendall crew to the horse show at Vince Dugan's in Unionville. Barbara and Harvey and Gabby and Piper cleaned up at the horse show and then they high-tailed it over to the pace event in Unionville for the afternoon! Carter rode Bella, Gabby took Early, and Denise rode Ben and just made it in time to go out. This was Carter's first time out and she loved it! Nina and Don on George and Tucker went out from Radnor on a different pace event. Wow, busy weekend. Way to take advantage of the beautiful weather!
This week Kristin is vacationing in the Caymen Islands! We wish her a very fun time in the sun! Hopefully we'll have some sun this week!
We look forward to seeing everyone at the CCHSA Medal Finals on Sunday at Wyndsor Farm!

Krissy Guthrie at Lynchburg College

Krissy, pictured with friend Haley Bagwell, is a sophomore on the equestrian team at Lynchburg College.
Here's an update from her:
Lynchburg's team has just finished its fall semester season and leads our region by about 19 points. In the first show I placed 4th in the intermediate fences and 5th in the novice flat. It was kind of a rough start but I came back at our second show winning my intermediate fences class and placing 2nd in my novice flat. Winning the intermediate flat allowed me to point out and go onto regionals in the spring. Our team finished reserve team for the day. At our third show I placed 4th in the open fences and won the novice flat and our team finished first.
Along with the school riding I have been riding a horse, Diplomat, at some of the local shows and doing very well in the Adults!! I also ride two horses, Ben and Chester, for a family at the barn when they can't make it out! I have been really busy riding along with school work but am having a great time!!

Today at Marsh Creek

Today we took two groups over to Marsh Creek to go trail riding. Denise, Karen Holl, Lee Peterson, Dick Weber, and Dan Doyle made up the first group. The second group to go out was Kristin, Barbara Bendall, Shiree Radie, Kathy Diciurcio, and Gabby Bendall. All but Kristin are pictured above in the second picture. The first picture is Gabby and Early looking out over Marsh Creek. Gorgeous! Everyone had such a great time, horses and riders alike! Thank you for making today such a fun day out on the trail. Let's do it again soon!

Weekend in Review

The Brass Ring Horse Show was HUGE on Saturday! Lots of people in every division from 8 am to after 8 pm! Congrats to Cindy and Jammer on a successful 1st hunter horse show! Marybeth and Ben took home a well earned Reserve Champion ribbon plus at least one blue! And Erin Skog and Mojito took home everything but the tack box offered for the Hunter Championship! They were Reserve Champion in the Adults, won the Medal, Champion in the Adult Eq. and placed 3rd in the Hunter Championship after 2 rounds.


On Sunday a group went to a paper chase at Marsh Creek and had a blast! Bella has become the pace event/paper chase queen! The Pickering Hunt Pace Event is this Sunday November 7th out of Great Marsh Farm in Elverson. We will have a crew going out for that one too along with a tailgate party afterwards! Come join in the festivities!


Also, this weekend are two shows on Saturday. The cchsa one at Wyndsor Farm and the rated one at Our Farm. Good luck to everyone! We look forward to another great fall weekend!

Molly Clark and Kit at Bucknell

Kit and I are halfway through fall semester of junior year at Bucknell. I am increasingly grateful each year that I am lucky enough to have Kit here at college with me. She is such a huge part of my schedule but more importantly a huge part of my life. We have been with each other for 7 1/2 years now and I know I would be lost without her.
It has been an invaluable experience learning and growing up with her and that has continued throughout our experiences here at Bucknell. But other than the learning experience it has been, she has saved my sanity on more than one occasion. Being able to escape from campus and school work and go spend time at the barn with her is the most amazing thing. I think I am so lucky to have riding as my escape.
I am doing a different, pilot program this semester called Bucknell on the Susquehanna. It is a domestic study abroad program in which we study the entire Susquehanna Valley and Watershed. So I live on campus but am technically abroad. I am an Environmental Science major and this program involves a lot of hands on field work as well as an in depth independent research project. It has been awesome however it is slightly more "stressful' as we are away all day some days and we have had a few overnight trips. I still do my best to be around for Kit, and we are certainly doing fine, it is just tough to keep it all balanced along with other commitments I have here on campus. But if I keep it in perspective it is just another way we are growing and handling new challenges and we will come out of it stronger.
Kit has made some friends here, including one ridiculously fat pony named Tasty Cakes, but I'm pretty sure she will always miss Magic. I hope everyone is doing well!

- Molly

What's going on?

Hi everyone! I just posted some highlights from some of our girls who are away at college. Read the following posts from Kelly, Caitlin and Andi at college and also about Cassandra who took part in a pre-college equestrian talent search.

We'll be going to Wyndsor Saturday for the Brass Ring horse show and then to a Pace Event on Sunday! We wish everyone lots of fun and good luck! See you then!

Kelly McEvoy at Virginia Tech

Ok so horse related I'm the Social Chair for the VT Equestrian Club. I also compete for the team in Novice Flat Equitation. We had a show here at Tech in the beginning of October and I won 5th (I picked up the wrong lead somehow, embarrassing and would not make you proud! haha but it won't happen again). My next show will be November 7th at UNC Greensboro/Elon (they share the show). I'll once again be doing Novice Flat.

Non-horse related there is so much! I'm a Communication Major. I'm in Delta Gamma sorority. I'm in the Honors program. I'm a Communication Coach for public speaking classes. An interesting fact is that I'll be studying abroad Spring 2011 in Switzerland for the semester.

Caitlin Hunter at Smith

In the world of Smith Equestrian, we had our first show (our home show!) this past Saturday. I got 2nd intermediate over fences and 5th on the intermediate flat. At our UMass show I pointed out into Open over fences and qualified for regionals this spring! The team is great, we're 20 strong this year, we're ranked 3rd in our region but then again we've only had one show.
Bubbles is doing fantastic, and is happily terrorizing the barn as usual. His eye looks great, and he's going wonderfully under saddle and was perfect the first time I jumped him around since August!
As far as college goes, I'm a biochemistry major and I'm also pre vet. I've started looking at vet schools, and would like to be some sort of exotic animal vet (either in zoos or wildlife rehabilitation centers). I'd like to be an anthropology minor if I have time for it, but I'm not sure if that will happen. I don't have time for much else besides riding and working, but I do manage to have fun.

Andrea Fieger at Colorado University

While staying in Colorado this summer, I tested out the jumper world on a borders horse at the CU coach's barn. Wise Guy (Romeo) and I did the low jumpers in the local Colorado circuit. We had some serious learning experiences and some very successful trips as well. I learned a lot in the jumpers and look forward to playing with it more!
In the college realm, I have had a busy year as President of the CU Equestrian team. Our first horse show Oct 1,2,3 included 3 shows in one weekend. I made my debut in open flat, placing 2, 3 and 4th. I won my intermediate fences class on one of the days as well. On the first day I tied for high point rider with two other people.
CU also made an awesome debut winning the show all three days.

Cassandra Otis at the Equestrian Talent Search

Banbury Cross would like to congratulate Cassandra Otis (pictured here at Ludwig's Corner on her horse Emma, photo taken by Spring Tree Photography) on a wonderful weekend at the Equestrian Talent Search at the Delaware Valley College Equestrian Center run by Beckett Run Inc. She was 2nd on the flat, 1st in jumping, and Champion for her division!! We are so proud!!
The first weekend in October, Middle and High school students from around the country participated in this college prepatory event. Friday evening was the informational session including explanations of the different collegiate riding associations, how to get recruited for college riding, what college coaches really want to see from prospects and a question and answer session with college coaches. Saturday's events were clinics given by the head clinician Jim Arrigon of Xavier University and Cory Kieschnick of DelVal. Also there was a college search seminar Saturday evening. Sunday was a collegiate format horse show for students to compete on DVC's horses, utilizing what they learned from their lessons the day before.

Horse Power for Life is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization, whose mission is to improve the physical and emotional quality of life for individuals affected by cancer by providing a 16-week educational and recreational horsemanship program for patients of all ages and one family member. Our goal is to help families living with cancer focus on their minds, bodies, and souls, rather than the disease while learning about horses in an atmosphere of professionalism, teamwork, and fun. Horse Power for Life's program is located in Chester County at Banbury Cross, Ltd, in Glenmoore, PA http://www.banburycrossltd.com/. This location allows us to target cancer patients from the Chester, Montgomery, Delaware and Philadelphia counties. Since its inception in August 2007, Horse Power for Life has positively impacted the lives of over 60 people. We are currently looking for new students to join the program. Horse Power for Life will be hosting its 4th annual Pink Horse Shoe Gala & Silent Auction on April 9, 2011 at the Sheraton Great Valley. 100% of the money raised will go back into the organization so we can continue to provide services to families living with cancer. Please call 484-341-8393 or visit our website http://www.horsepowerforlife.org/ for more information.

September Horse Shows!

Looking back at the September horse shows, we want to congratulate everyone on a really fun Ludwig's Corner Horse Show! There were many ribbons won by all but mostly everyone had so much fun! It was Casey's last time riding, until after her baby is born in January, and she went out with a bang placing 4th on Halaine Lussier's Special Kinda Guy in the Classic! Thank you Halaine for a fun last ride for a while!
Yesterday we spent the day at Radnor for the SPCA Benefit Horse Show. Although it rained for most of the day, we had fun as usual and received lots of ribbons. Gabby and Lord Nelson won a really neat schooling pad for being Reserve Champion in the Short Stirrup Hunters. Congratulations! Congrats to the rest of the BC Crew who showed; Shiree and Bobby, Barbara R and Jack, Barbara B and Harvey, Lynda and Barre, Denise and Guy, and Gabby and Early!
Look for new pictures coming to the website and new links as well! Happy Fall!

Recent Sales!

Congratulations to Tina Jemison on the purchase of Brodie (pictured here with Casey at Devon) and to Bonnie Warwick on the purchase of Frankie! We are so excited for the future of these two new relationships and are so glad that these wonderful horses are a part of the Banbury Cross Family.

We Will Miss You Becca!

Becca Smith has dedicated the last 10 years to teaching beginner and intermediate riders here at Banbury Cross. Her talents have helped many children and adults pursue their riding goals, whether that be learning to post or going to their first horse show.

Becca has also been instrumental in organizing our incredible summer camp at Banbury Cross, which has been a wonderful experience for so many children over the years. Our summer camp is such a big part of the family like atmosphere here at Banbury Cross!

Becca has recently made the decision to focus her energies towards her family and horses at her home, Stonecrop Farm. Even though Becca lives just around the corner, we will greatly miss Becca's wonderful, positive and fun personality at Banbury Cross. All of us at Banbury Cross wish Becca the best with her future endeavors at her Stonecrop Farm!

Announcing BC New Website & Blog!

We're very excited about putting the finishing touches on our new website & blog.  Over the past several months we have been working on making these updates so we can keep our clients, friends & family up to date on what's going on around the barn & at the shows.

Look for the re-launch of Banbury Cross Ltd. prior to the big Labor Day show at Ludwig's Corner!

- The Banbury Cross Team