I'm sure it will be no surprise to most of you to hear that we have chosen Tovah Abrams as our 2001 Camper - Student of the Year. Tovah was a first year student at Longacres this summer and spent the full 8 week season with us. She is from New York City.

If we had wanted to choose a Camper of the Year who was helpful, popular, and fun to have at Longacres, a dozen or more of you would have tied for that honor. Tovah would have been one of the finalists.

If we had based our choice on students who showed exceptional maturity and who welcomed responsibility and who could be trusted to help us run a safe program, perhaps 6 or 8 of you would have been given very serious consideration for the honor. Tovah would have been one of the finalists.

We are proud to honor Tovah because she is the above things and more. Tovah Abrams earned my respect and admiration over the past summer most of all because from the very start of the season she sought out challenging horses and worked hours on end to make them better. She was one of the very first to volunteer to help train our unbroken three year old, Merlin, when we bought him last spring. Tovah and Joetta did an outstanding job with Merlin and he is going to be one of our bright stars for years to come because of the good start they gave him.

Tovah took an early interest in Wizard, our big gray green thoroughbred project horse. She spent many hours working with him, and chose to show him when there was little hope of winning ribbons, simply for the experience of watching him learn.

When another green horse, Majic, showed up at Longacres in the middle of the summer, Tovah was right there working with him until he became a reliable jumper.

By honoring Tovah Abrams, I am not ignoring the fact that many more of you also helped train these and other horses, or that many of you were hard working students. But Tovah more than anyone else was willing to give up chances to show horses with a better chance of winning so that she could work with an inexperienced animal.

All former Longacres students know how much importance I place on training you to always be "riding your horse" rather than "going for a ride on a horse". Almost anytime I came to the barn and watched the group riding in free time before a lesson or in the evening, Tovah would be off in a corner of the field by herself sitting up, paying close attention to her horse, and riding carefully planned patterns. The only rider at Longacres in recent times to equal or surpass Tovah in dedication to careful riding and determination to improve their horses has been Meghan Duthie, and Meg is nearly a professional rider now. You are in good company, Tovah!

During the final days of the 2001 season, I was well aware that Tovah had proven herself a responsible and capable person, and I began to give her responsibilities for helping run the program. I would often ask, "Are you sure you don't mind me making you responsible for this?"

She would answer, "I like it."

The last few days of the summer, I asked Tovah to assign horses, a job which Meg Duthie had done so well all summer. Tovah showed the kind of sensitivity to safety issues, to the need to rest certain horses, and to the preferences of the other students that I knew she would.

It is my hope that Tovah will join us again in 2002 as one of our dedicated riding students, and that she will continue to give us the kind of leadership and care that she showed in 2001 as our CAMPER OF THE YEAR!

Fine job, Tovah!!!!

- Tom Kranz & Meghan Marie