So here we are, going flat out for the summer and loving every minute of it.  This past week has been outrageous, with all the horses working 6-7 days a week.  Last Saturday Kate Sykes and Watson’s Whistler went to a dressage schooling show at Steven’s Creek.  Kate was second level champion at her first […]

Yesterday was yet another gallop day. The days go by relentlessly and Bromont draws every closer. Today is a ‘day 8’ which means they all get a day off. By the looks of Woody when we trotted him up this morning, he doesn’t need a day off. I spend endless hours being the official barn […]

Selena is in Vermont giving a clinic this weekend. We have great group of friends there and Selena gives regular clinics throughout the year. It’s a lovely place to go and not too far from here. It’s difficult to find weekends that do not already have horse shows assigned to them and even if there […]

  Life goes on here at Balsam Hall, one thing when you work with horses, there are no days when you can slack. It doesn’t really matter if you are feeling great or not, the show must go on. Horses need fed, loved, turned out, groomed and mucked out no matter what. The only part […]

I tried to think what I was going to say but in the end I have sat down at my computer without a thought to work from and I am typing from the heart. I was all set Saturday with the blog written when the unbelievable news was released that Philippa Humphreys had died from […]

I have given up trying to think of anything to tell you about Mondays except that we do as little as possible. Selena rode Woody since that doesn’t count as work, one horse had to gallop and another had to be ridden because it wasn’t ridden on Sunday. We work pretty much everything in the […]

Well this weekend was very full of Badminton Horse Trials. We were excited to watch the North American contingent. The Apprentice just didn’t seem to have his head in the game from the start of cross country. Buck did everything he could to energize him but it wasn’t happening. Poor Boyd took a cropper at […]

So yesterday was my birthday.  Who the heck wants to go on having birthdays after you are fifty.  I mean if you reach half a century, you should just be considered ‘on your second half’ and let it go at that.  It was a lovely day and thank you everyone who made it special and […]

The days are running into each other.  Sunday was great, the live stream of the jog at Rolex on Sunday morning was a welcome time waster.  It’s very hard to know that the jog is on and not watch it.  It is heart stopping when someone is sent to the holding box and when it […]

It’s cross country morning at Rolex! There’s a certain feel to cross country morning especially at the big events. I’m very lucky to be staying on site thanks to the Camolio family, I got to know them this winter as Lee trained with Bruce and they have their beautiful motorcoach here in the campgrounds. when […]