Annie Eldridge Updates Us On Her Keltic Lion Youngsters!

We recently received an update from our friend and client Annie Eldridge, who has a small breeding farm in Massachusetts.  We love keeping in touch with Annie and getting the updates on her 2 Charlie babies, who are pictured here below with excerpts from her fun emails.  Thanks Annie!!

"Here is Cora at one day old(!) marching over to say hi to the photographer!"

"How lucky am I to have another Charlie baby!  Here is my filly,  "Encore Lion," "Encore" or "Cora" for short, who is one week old in these photos.  Like her full brother, "Fools Lion," Cora is amazingly personable, friendly, brave and curious."

" Here is big brother "Fools Lion", now a yearling, saying hello to some visitors in the paddock next to his little sister."

"Here is one week old Cora, brave enough to leave her mom and investigate the gentleman feeding the horses, pictured here. Cora will crawl into your lap if you give her a chance -- this astonishingly outgoing friendliness in a foal so young is a uniquely Charlie-esque trait!"

"Oh dear I'm getting carried away ... Can you tell how much Iove my filly? Here she is pictured with her mom, "Fabulous Jada"(TB), and in the other photo, you can see Cora staring purposely ahead to check out the photographer."

"Again, how many week-old fillies turn away from mom to check out the automatic waterer? Only a Charlie baby shows this kind of outgoing curiosity at such a young age!  Surely this little girl won't be shy as she matures!"

Thanks again Annie for all the fun emails and comments on your Charlie babies.  We look forward to chronicling their growth as they turn from precocious youngsters into true performance horses!

Winter Update From Eva Crossman at Chesterland South!!

We hope that Chesterland has an eventing prodigy in the making, with our youngest rider in training, 14 year old Eva Crossman!  Eva is the daughter of Denise Richmond and Curt Crossman, and currently attends Unionville High School while balancing an ambitious training program with Bruce.  Both of Eva's parents are avid horse people, with her father, Curt being a lifelong horseman who previously was on the hunt staff with Cheshire Foxhounds. 

Eva has ridden primarily in the hunter/jumpers until coming to join the crew at Chesterland last September.  She has two horses of her own, Wylie, a 15.2h Hanoverian cross, who she herself backed as a 4 year old, and Summer Patriot, a grey OTTB gelding who was at Chesterland for sale when Eva arrived. 

Eva, a freshman at Unionville, was able to get permission from the school to take her studies on the road, and she's currently down at Chesterland South, in Ocala, for the entire month of February!  I asked Eva to be my guest blogger and roving reporter while down in Florida training with Bruce for the month.  This is the first of several reports she will be sending throughout the month. 

Eva and Summer Patriot

Thank you Eva for this fun report!

"So to catch you up on Chesterland South it's probably most important to know what all the horses are doing. The Fonz, or "Happy Days", is out of one of Bruce's mares Whoopee and by Charlie. He is an incredible mover and jumper, and currently resides as Bruce's favorite. Bruce has been working hard with the 5 year old to improve his dressage knowledge and help him become more experienced over fences. Fonz did great in the Training at Rocking Horse and all week long Bruce has been saying how much he would love to take him to Badminton.

 

 

 

Bruce and Happy Days, aka The Fonz!

Christine Pitcairn, or Pitty as she is affectionately called, has her top horse Oliver in training with Bruce and the two rocked the Training at Ocala a few weekends ago.

We also have two four year old superstars in the making. Ephraim, who is by Charlie and out of Memorial Cap, and Moses, who is Jam's first baby and by Charlie as well.  Ephraim has jumped only a few times now but was incredible at the Rocking Horse schooling day last week. Holy Moses, who is everyone's favorite to work with, has never looked better.  While he spends almost all of his time in the barn getting his beauty sleep, we all agree it's working!  Moses has jumped a few times down here and is a prodigy just like his mom!

And let us not forget the only Princess of the barn, the ever beautiful Lola.  Lo is doing great and is my personal favorite. She jumps with springs and moves like a Disney Princess strutting across the dance floor.  She charms everyone she meets and is loving her time down in Florida.

Last, but certainly not least, there's Ms. Susie's beloved Tuf. Susie and Tuf have been going sorting with Chuckie Walters and Tuf has been perfect as always."

And on to Recent Competition Updates:



Last weekend Kelly Prather also showed solidly at the Ocala Horse Properties Winter II HT, Winning the Open Prelim on Blackfoot Mystery and placing 4th in the same division on D. A. Duras!  She also finished 7th on Flagmount's Nightcap, in the Open Prelim B division to round out a productive weekend. 

Keep an eye on Event Entries for all the seasonal events in Florida, and also remember to follow us on Facebook for more updates and PHOTOS!

And for those who think Bruce is all work and no play...........he did give the girls in the barn - Sasha, Pitty, and Eva - the day off to go to Disney World over the weekend!!  Their plan, like true eventers, was to get up as early as possible and get on all the rides in the park!

USEA Press Coverage of YEH East Coast Championships!

Mr. Bojangles & Mr. Davidson, Sr. Win the 2013 YEH East Coast Championships

Posted

Fri, 2013-10-18 22:49

Authored By: 

• USEA

Mr. Bojangles and Bruce Davidson, Sr. winners of the USEA YEH East Coast 5 Yr Old Championships. Photo by Sarah Connell-Spriggs

Fair Hill NRMA, MD - It was a beautiful crisp fall day at the USEA Young Event Horse (YEH) Championships at the Fair Hill International Festival in the Country, but perhaps the day was most beautiful for Mr. Bojangles and his rider Bruce Davidson, Sr.  The Davidson homebred Thoroughbred owned by Buck Davidson and Carl Segal showed ample future potential throughout the competition.
Mr. Bojangles and Davidson found themselves in the lead after a lovely Dressage test and a solid showing in the Conformation phase of the YEH Five-Year-Old Championships. 

While Friday’s 43.35 jumping score was not the highest of the day, it was more than enough to solidify his cumulative point total to win on a final score of 82.53.  In the words of judge Susan Graham White, “[Mr. Bojangles] had a lovely Dressage ride, forward, fresh, which showed off his gaits”, while his jumping exhibited his “quickness from behind, and scope.”  The highest jumping score of the five-year-olds, a 43.95, came from the 2012 USEA YEH East Coast Four-Year-Old Champion Esccord RGS (a.k.a. Garth). Garth is a Hanoverian bred by Page Brook Farms by Escudo I out of the dam EM Arabella RGS, and ridden and owned by Katie Murphy.   Their superb jumping performance enabled Garth and Katie to finish the competition as the reserve champions in the division.

In the Four-Year-Old Division Championship, two horses bred by Dr. Laurie Cameron of Clear Blue Farm in Stockton, NJ proved themselves to be the top mounts.  Rider Lillian Heard won the Championship aboard Cameron-bred Quarlotta, an Oldenburg by the stallion Quite Capitol out of the mare Merging.  Then, Cameron-bred Early Review, a Hanoverian by the sire Earl out of the dam Lois Lane, received the Safe Harbor Award.  That award is given to a horse that the judges view as exhibiting the most graceful and rider friendly performance throughout the competition.  As a "small time" breeder, Dr. Cameron noted that it is “very exciting that the YEH is now a part of the USEA record on these horses…hopefully more people will be riding American bred horses in the future.”


Breeders, owners, and competitors had a sense of optimism regarding the quality of the field of YEH entrants in the competition this year.  Marilyn Payne, the Chair of the USEA’s YEH Task Force, noted that there was not only a “phenomenal number of horses” but also the highest “quality of horses” that they have seen at a USEA YEH Championships to date. 

She attributed much of that success to the lure of the Holekamp/Turner YEH Lion d’ Angers Grant.  The grant, made possible through the work of Timothy Holekamp of New Spring Farm in Columbia, MO and Christine Turner of Indian Creek Farm in Spring Branch, TX, supports costs associated with competing the highest scoring USEA YEH Champion as a 7 year old at the FEI World Young Horse Championships at Le Lion d’Angers in France. 

The owners of Mr. Bojangles will now have to wait on the results of the USEA YEH West Coast Championships taking place later this month at Galway Downs in Temecula, CA to see which of the YEH Champions will have the highest score to be awarded the grant.

For information on the Holekamp/Turner Lion d’ Angers Grant visit the following link.
For the full results of the USEA YEH East Coast Championships visit the following link.

News From Maddie Blackman!

Many thanks to Maddie Blackman for sending in her Plantation wrap up and plans for the finish of the 2013 season.  We plan to keep our blog and Facebook page lively with updates....so stay tuned!!

Maddie on Gordonstown

"Plantation was a great weekend all around. I had both my horses competing, Gordonstown and Khoi Traveler.

"Gordy" started the weekend out by doing his last prep before Fair Hill in the Advanced division.  His dressage was ok (as it usually is), maybe a little less opinionated than usual, which was refreshing. He show jumped in lovely form and had an unlucky rail, but was double clear XC for a very exciting finish with 7th overall.   Our eyes are set in Fair Hill now!

Randy and Maddie heading to the start box

"Khoi" was competing in the one star that weekend. He had a very steady dressage and a great SJ round with just one rail.  Around noon he went out XC and put in a double clear, so I was very excited to have this horse go so well, as we are still getting to know each other.   He is just getting better and better with each event and has such a bright future!  Khoi's plans include the prelim at the NJ horse park before finishing the year at the VA horse park before moving up to intermediate.

Khoi at the Startbox!

It was so nice to be on home turf and to have all of us from Chesterland there to support and help eachother over the weekend.  The best part was having both my Mom and Dad be able to watch Gordy go on Saturday. They are such big supporters and it was nice to share  such a great day with them!"

Kelly Prather Impresses in the Prelim Futurity at PFI!

We've been able to catch up with another resident BDE rider, Kelly Prather, who's relocated from the west coast to be based out of Chesterland as well. Kelly and several of her young Chesterland bred horses had a very good showing at the recent Plantation International Event!

News from Kelly:

"It was a very good day for all 3 horses at Plantation Field, with all performing well in dressage, with only a couple of minor mistakes, still I was very happy with them. Show jumping was the biggest, brightest international ring with cars and decorations which none of them had seen, and they still performed very well. It was a challenging course with lots of turns and technical questions.  

Truly Wiley

Truly Wiley, one of Bruce’s homebreds out of his Irish TB mare “Tears of a Loss” by “Salute the Truth”, jumped a great round. We had 2 unlucky rails but overall he jumped really well. Both he and St. Laurent, who's owned by Valerie Mackey, had fantastic X-C rounds. Truly Wiley placed 5th and St. Laurent was 8th in the Prelim Futurity.

Truly Wiley

Flagmount’s Nightcap, aka “Simon”, is another of Chesterland’s homebreds out of Bruce's “Memorial Cap” and sired by Flagmount Freedom, won the Prelim Futurity going double clean in both the challenging show jump and XC courses!  

Flagmount's Nightcap

Thanks to Charles Owens and Dover Saddlery for their great gifts and sponsorship of the Futurity Division."

Photo credits Susie Tuckerman

Annie Eldridge Reports On Her Stunning Keltic Lion Foal!

Just received a recent email from Annie Eldridge, a friend and breeding client who splits her time between Duxbury, MA and Southern Pines, NC.  

We were able to catch up with Annie recently while she was down to watch all the action at Plantation Field International, and then schedule a visit over at Chesterland to see Charlie and all the young horses.
Annie is a lifelong horse woman who competed in 3 Day Eventing until an unexpected illness sidelined her from getting in the tack.  She continues to work on her recovery while being a huge supporter of the sport, whether it's cheering for her hometown rider, Ariel Grald, or continuing to breed and produce classic sport horses!

Annie has one Charlie colt on the ground and one due in 2014.  Here is her gorgeous colt at 5 months.

Fabulous Lion at 5 Months!

"I have been running a small breeding program for 7 years but I have never seen a weanling that looks
this strong and handsome at such a young age. His mother, Fabulous Jada, is a beautiful,
sweet, talented TB with excellent bloodlines, and of course Keltic Lion is his sire, so I'm calling
the colt "Fabulous Lion" with the nickname of Lion. 

The colt was so stunning, even as a tiny foal, that I had an easy choice picking a sire for Jada's next baby ... I bred her right back to Charlie.  So, how lucky am I -- I have another Jada/Charlie baby on the way ,May 2014 (fingers crossed,always)."

"My Lion is so sweet and friendly that he practically crawls into your lap when you visit
him. He is loving and kind and such a beautiful, athletic mover, even as a weanling! So I am
absolutely thrilled to have this wonderful colt as a "Setters' Run Farm " (SRF) homebred. I
am lucky that he wil be raised, as are all my homebreds, under the careful guidance of
Mona  Gardella at Rough Diamonds Farm in Aberdeen, NC -- Mona specializes in breeding and
she just has a magic touch when it comes to raising foals. 

My heart is broken because I cannot ride now due to illness but I am working hard to recover and my new  goal will be to ride Lion someday!"  ~ Annie Eldridge, Duxbury, MA and So. Pines, NC

Thanks so much to Annie for sending in this recent update and good luck in your continued recovery.   We love to hear from our Chesterland friends and can't wait to see keep track of both youngster's progress!!

Whitney and Lusty Rock On at Plantation!!

This past weekend at Plantation Field International, Whitney Weston, riding Chesterland produced favorite, Rock on Rose, competed with other international level event riders, and came home with great results! Whitney has solidified a fabulous relationship with Lusty and we couldn't be happier with her result from this past weekend.  Whitney was kind enough to send along the following commentary on her weekend at PFI.



"Plantation Field held many thrills and spills this weekend, luckily I had only thrills this time! Lusty (Rock on Rose) was fab and relaxed in the dressage, scoring a 35, a record for us at Advanced. Friday was a "free day", giving me plenty of time to learn the tricky X-C course and walk with my students.

Saturday was the big day, not only did we have to focus on the huge show jumping course, but half an hour later we were expected to change gears and mindset to run around cross country! Show jumping went great, adding only one rail to our dressage score before quickly changing it up for the XC course. Bruce Davidson, my mentor and coach, gave me great advice throughout, saying that if there were ever a horse for this course, it was Lusty. She runs bold and fast, and the advice was to not take too much time in the turns, setting up my lines more off the eye, in order to make the time.

Plantation Advanced offered maxed out tables, technical lines, and tricky lighting at spots. We ran around clear and 8 seconds inside the time to finish on a score of 39 in 6th place! Many thanks to everyone at Chesterland for their support leading up to and during the event. 

I'd also like to thank my good friend David Frechette who caught most of the course on video, while Cindy Lawler captured some of the most exciting moments of our day on camera."

Jump like you mean it! ~ Whitney and Lusty

Cross Country