Love This Father's Day Tribute from EN

Bruce and Buck Davidson with Buck's Land Rover. Photo courtesy of Land Rover.

Better late than never!  Thanks to EN for this great Father's Day tribute!!

From Buck Davidson: I’m thankful for everything my Dad taught me and everything he’s done for me. He’s been the best Dad I could ask for. It hasn’t always been easy, but he’s been amazing to me and taught me some tough lessons. There aren’t a lot of warm and fuzzy moments with my Dad, but there are a lot of great memories.

A moment that sticks out to me with my Dad is at Kentucky this year when I won the Land Rover. We had to take pictures with the Land Rover, and my Dad was going through the car looking in the front seat and back seat seeing how it would work for him to drive it. As he was sitting in the back seat, he asked, “This is your car? You won this at Kentucky?”

We were standing right by his statue at the Kentucky Horse Park, which made it so funny when he said, “Man, I need to get back into this sport!” He’s done so much more than me in this sport, but he never won a car at Kentucky. It shows how far the sport has come, and that’s a moment I’ll never forget.

Dancing Queen!

We recently received a great email from Jocelyn Hawe, a trainer who has one of our Chesterland home breds up in New England.

Dancing Queen and Jocelyn Hawe

"Just a quick note and a photo... Billie (that is what we call her) won her division at GMHA on a 22!  She will go Novice at Groton House, and then will move up to Training. She is fabulous!"

Jocelyn has been training Billie for the past year and last year she won the YEH 4 y.o. competition at GMHA HT as well.

"She is a highly intelligent, confident horse, and an incredibly fast learner. She is a lovely gal and I feel very lucky to have her in my barn. There is a brightness to her that makes you love her."

We love getting this feedback from clients who have purchased a Chesterland prospect, and we look forward to watching Billie rise up through the levels!

Photo reproduced with permission from Joan Davis and Flatlandsfoto.com

It's Full Steam Ahead at Chesterland!

I had the opportunity to spend most of the day at Chesterland yesterday, catching up with Bruce and Susie, and enjoying the busy pace of life at the farm.

Upon arriving, Bruce was teaching several riders, including Rock on Rose's current owner, Whitney Weston, who's taken up residence in Chester County.  Whitney was here to lesson on her newest 4 legged interest, a big Holsteiner gelding who she found in Aaron Vale's barn in Ocala.  Elvis' previous life was as a jumper, but Whitney saw eventing talent and is now retraining him to love eventing, with Bruce's help.  Boy does this horse have a great gallop!

Whitney Weston and Elvis!

The "left coasters" were also out in full force, with Kelly Prather and Frankie Thieriot out in the stadium field.  Kelly has relocated to train out of Chesterland and Frankie has joined her during the spring/summer season while her beau, none other than Mike Stutes, pitches for the Phillies!  We'll have more on Kelly and Frankie as the season progresses.

Maddie and Sabrina

Maddie Blackman has her horses in the upper barn while working for Bruce and bringing along one of Keltic Lion's most talented young horses.  Sabrina is a big boned filly by Charlie, who is going to her first event this weekend at Plantation Field.  We're hoping for some great photos and a full report after the weekend.  We're also happy to say that Gordanstown, after being pulled up at Rolex, is on the road to full recovery and will be back on the circuit shortly.  Their plan is to run Millbrook, Richland and Plantation before tackling the Fair Hill 3* in October!

Maddie also has Khoi Traveler in her line-up, an 8 year old OTTB who just finished his first 1* at the Va Horse Trials, finishing 9th.  He's on the same schedule as Gordy, and is scheduled to do a couple intermediates before Millbrook in August.

Bruce Leading the Youngsters Through the Ring

Zach Leamer and Jan Smith continue to make the barn run like clockwork and are keeping all the babies on schedule with their training program.  We plan to get some more formal pictures of the young horses in a week or two for the website, but they are all in work and looking fabulous!

Rolex had a beautiful and feisty little filly 3 days ago and they were out in the small paddock during the day.  The new filly was enjoying the use of her long legs and keeping Rolex on her toes.  The other foals who were born about a month ago (2 filles and a colt out of Jam) were out in the big field with all the other mares, enjoying their time playing in the pond.  All of Charlie's babies are such curious and personable creatures!

Rolex's New Filly!

Safe travels to Bruce and Susie, who headed north today for Bromont.  Please take the time to look at the candid photos from the farm on the Facebook Photo Album, and don't forget to "like" Mid-Atlantic Equestrian Services on Facebook so you can follow all the adventures at Chesterland!!