The spring was spent doing repairs to the fences, painting jumps, and all the other maintenance that goes on around here. We did manage to find some horses to purchase and now have Cloe, Dodge, and Flicka as part of the herd. Most of you that attended camp this summer are familiar with these horses. Cloe is an Appy about 14’3 hands, Dodge is Paint about 15’1, and Flicka is a 15 hand Quarter horse. They have all worked well for us and except for Flicka, who needs a little more schooling, got used almost every week as well as for the weekend camps. Finding suitable horses is always such a task, very time consuming, cruising the countryside. The horses we select must be very tolerant, have a fair bit of training and have a stable mind.
The spring camps were very well attended with most filled to capacity. It is great to have so many returning the same time each year, making it an annual occurrence for them and us.
The summer went very smoothly. We had Erica, who was schooling and conditioning horses for me in the spring, instructing as well as Angie. Nell from down the road was barn manager as Alisha is still in Calgary. Alisha did come home in June to do a training of the barn staff for me. Barn staff this year was Hailey, Tamara, Amelie, Ellen, Jessie, Rebecca, Stephanie, and Amber with Ally from Kamloops as stable management teacher.
A great job was done by all making it a very successful summer. Thanks guys for all your efforts. Donna was back helping me in the kitchen. I think this is her 12th year. Her chicken noodle soup is well known throughout the world, but we don’t give out the secret ingredients to anyone.
This September we decided to set up a booth at Spruce Meadows for the Masters. We attend every year so this time we thought we might go and get some exposure for our camp programs. Alisha who lives in Calgary helped man the booth. We would also like to thank Jillian Bently-Lobban and Victoria Cox for their help at the booth as well. We had a lot of visitors to the booth, many had already heard of us, so it was good to put some faces to Aspengrove and look at the many pictures we had on display. A lot of the people who stopped by expressed interest so hopefully we will see some new campers this year. I saw many previous summer camp kids who were now all grown up, after all this was my 14th year. It was good to hear that most of them are still involved in horses; of course that is probably why they were attending Spruce Meadows. They all told me they how much they learned at our camps and all the fun they had and how they still have their ribbons. Makes me feel good that we can provide such good memories. We had a draw for a big stuffed pony for all those that stopped by the booth. The winner was Shelby Schan from Golden. We delivered it on the way home and have a picture of the mother accepting it as Shelby was in school at that time. We have another big stuffed pony and will be giving it away by offering a raffle for all campers joining us this year.
We had a couple of very upsetting losses this year. Midnight died in October. It was a sunny day and I looked out onto the field and saw him. We have never lost a horse that way. He just lay down and died. Usually they get ill and we have the vet up a couple of times and still have to put them down. Midnight had a special place in our hearts as he has been here since year one and has taught hundreds of children the basics of riding. If you attended camp this year you would have seen him just hanging around free in the yard or over in the camp area. The children who rode him this year would have to catch him from where ever he was, which was never to far away from the rest of the horses. We decided to have Christie euthanized. She was quite old and had a knee injury that just wasn’t ever going to get better. It saddened me to see her limping around in pain. We try to give horses away to retirement homes if they are somewhat still usable and not in constant pain. We found a real good home for Jackspot, also now retired. He went to live in Oliver with a horse person who needed a starter pony for her 4 year old. We gave Cocoa to Lorie the evening activities coordinator. She moved to Alberta and as Cocoa is still quite rideable; she is enjoying lots of leisurely riding with her. Storm, who has been an active Aspengrove horse since year one is also retiring this year. He is going to go back to his original owner in February as she is just getting her acreage ready for horses. Leah, the half halflinger horse was sold to a camper who fell in love with her. Laura from Fruitvale is really enjoying having her own mount just out the door.
We decided to buy our extra horses for the 2005 season this winter. Spring is always so busy and too short. We also find that buying horses in the spring can sometimes be misleading as you never really know what they are like as most have not been ridden since fall and quite often you get tricked thinking they are a little fresh for that reason and then find out that they are always like that. So far we purchased Peaches – 14’1 hand Palomino, Bandit – 16’ hand Appy/thoroughbred, Profit - 16’1 hand Thoroughbred, Rosie – 15’ Quarter horse, Shaun – 15’2 half Arabian and a small Midnight replacement named Parfait. As I am putting this all down on paper I realize I have purchased a lot of horses this year. We are feeding approximately 50 for the winter. Hay consumption is well over a ton every 2 days. You can do the math as to the cost per day with hay being about $200. per ton.. With all these new horses we should have a better selection for 2005. We hopefully will be able to use our 4 year old Halflingers this year as they were started this year and are coming along very well. Halfingers are a very unique breed known for they calmness and patience.
Some of you have been emailing regarding Pal and his bout with impaction colic. After having the vet out a couple of times to do the mineral oil tubing he has made a full recovery. On the other hand Oh’s is still not doing well. For those that don’t know about this Oh’s was kicked and injured her fetlock. It became very infected and because there is not much circulation in that area the antibiotics didn’t seem to work so surgery had to be done and tubes put in to get drainage. Well the infection has cleared and she still has a lot of swelling and does not put any weight on her foot. The next procedure is to have any surgery to cut her tendon sheath as recommend by the vet. This will be done about the middle of December. I don’t have much hope that she will ever be totally sound so I have someone lined up to take her for a brood mare. She is only 10 and has real good Quarter horse blood lines. We are trying everything to get her out of pain. We have been trying all kinds of herbs, teas and other holistic things but nothing is making much of an impact on her pain.
Seems once I get started writing it comes a quite easy. I always put this updates off as I never think there is enough going on to report.
We will be sending out our registration forms for the 2005 season in the next couple of days. I have extended the $100 off early registration discount until December 15 from the expiry of December 1st as indicated on the web site and registration form as I was late getting the information out. We have been getting registrations for the 2005 season and it looks like some weeks in July are going to fill quickly again. So if you require a special week and want to take advantage of the discount you can do the online registration to hold your space while the paper work gets done and mailed.
On behalf of my family, Angie, Alisha and Lorne and myself, I would like to take this time to wish you all a great festive season and look forward to having you join us for the 2005 year.
All the best,
Hilda
P.S. For those of you waiting for videos, Lorne is now working full time and is finding it hard to get these done. We are in the process and will get them out to you as soon as we can. If you do not wish to wait and want your money refunded let us know. Thanks for your patience.