Below - "News Page" from summer of 2002

August 24^th:

Stoney left last night after Meghan RODE again! I thought she was just going down to the barn to take care of him, but when she got there she was having so much fun with him that she tacked up all by herself and rode for the second time in five years! The first was three days ago when both Meghan and I rode with the counselors in the moonlight! Yeah, you guys from the regular session missed seeing us on horseback.

So now all the horses and people are gone from Longacres. Meghan and I slept late this morning and went to watch a festival parade in town. I went to breakfast, and suddenly wondered if I was going to be late to teach my 11am lesson! I am not the only one who has withdrawal symptoms: Erika and Nora each wrote to me that they have woke up to their alarm clocks, looked over, and thought they were late for Longacres horsecare! Erika woke up her first morning at home and didn't know where she was!

I thanked our great staff for all their good work the other day on this page. I should also thank Nora Whelan, a full season student at Longacres this year. Half way through the summer Nora taught a guest lesson in the morning and liked it so much she asked if she could teach more. I gave her a regular hour to teach, and her lesson was one of the more popular ones on our schedule. Nora is an honorary member of the 2002 staff, and contributed greatly to this summer's success!

August 23^rd:

Longacres is very quiet today - Meghan is down feeding and grooming (and petting) Stoney, our last horse. Stoney will leave about 5pm and then we have no more horses until next spring. Brandon will be living with his dad here at Longacres this winter and going to school in East Aurora, so I spoke with im as I walked around this morning. (A few of you have written and said you wish you could live at Longacres all year and ride. - It's actually an idea that we flirt with from time to time; opening the barn year round and having a few of you live and ride horses here, while going to school locally. Sort of a boarding school that doesn't do the "school" part! Maybe one of you will take the initiative to start a program like that here - it could be Tovah, Lauren, and Erika's little "riding commune"!

Merlin Available:

I visited Merlin this morning. He was his usual friendly self, but pretty stiff where his right front leg is all bandaged up. The family who has him is nervous about him maybe jumping their fence again, and do not want him for the rest of the winter. So, if you know anyone who does, we have to find a home for him. With good luck, his stitches will hold and he will be ridable in two to three weeks. With bad luck, some of the skin will die and it might take 6 or 8 weeks to heal in. We're keeping our fingers crossed for him.

By the way, there was a little exaggeration in the first report that he jumped a 6 foot fence - turns out it is more like 4'6", but that is still almost as high as Quantum and Bella jumped here at Longacres last week!

August 22^nd Update:

The very, very last day! Marce left an hour ago with her aunt and uncle, and only Tovah remains - for two more hours, and then Longacres will be empty! Tovah and Marce spent much of their final night and morning writing a "straight from the horse's mouth" column of gossip and quotations from the summer of 2002. See if you can find it! It is posted somewhere on the extensive Longacres website at the end of a long file. Considering some of the "personal" and "you had to be there" quotes, it is probably good that you will have to go looking for it! Tovah will give you a hint if you get in touch with her.

I will write more about my memories of the summer after a few days of rest, but I will say here and now that we had in 2002 the best staff we've had in ten years at Longacres. Thank you Marce, Tovah, Lisa, Erika, Lauren, Meghan, Joyce, and the rest of our part time maintenance and support staff!

Although I can rest and not worry about problems here at the farm, the responsibility of running a riding school NEVER really stops - the phone rang at 6am this morning and the lady who owns the barn where Merlin went for the winter said, "He jumped over a six foot round pen fence and cut half his knee off!" Well, the vet was already on the way, and thankfully, it turned out to be only a cut through his skin, not damaging any muscle or tendon tissue. Twenty-two stitches later, and with our fingers crossed that there is no infection, he is happily munching hay again. I hope that is all the horse excitement we get for a little while. (By the way, you read correctly - he jumped over a SIX FOOT fence!)

- Tom

August 20^th Update:

20,559 Website "Hits";

With all of you and your families and friends as well as old time Longacres students checking in to the website during fair week, our website had an all-time record number of hits last week. 20,559 as noted above! That counts each file downloaded as a hit, including photo files, but it is still a LOT of attention for Longacres riders.

August 18^th, 5pm:

Every year, this time on this day is one of very mixed emotions. Nearly everyone has left for home and we are putting the jumps away for the year. And I can S-L-E-E-P all day tomorrow if I want! But it looks very lonely and empty with no dressage letters on the field, and no riders jumping around the ring. This year is a little different than most, since we have a great staff, and many of them have actually volunteered to stay extra days to help us put the farm to bed for the winter. Big thanks to Tovah, Erika, and Marce!

Aug 17^th - midnight:

We got back a little while ago from a final visit to the fair where we had our dinner and the kids took in a few games. Erika is definitely the "queen" of the bull riding machine! She beat all the guys who tried it and is becoming quite a celebrity over there. After we dropped everyone off at the barn, they all went to do their final packing. Our first trip to the airport leaves at 6:15 am with Niki. Final trip to the airport is about 5pm with Lauren and Mary, so it will be a long day, including shipping out many of the horses to their winter homes. Actually, camp is ending very gradually this year, with Danielle staying over until her horse is shipped Monday morning, and Erika, Tovah, and Marce all staying four extra days to ride a little and help us close up the farm for the winter. Some of the horses will be staying for them to ride and train, and Stoney will actually be leaving next weekend, two days after ALL of you have gone home. (Wow! - I get to do horsecare myself for a few days - don't worry, I practiced some today helping empty wheelbarrows of manure!)

August 17^th - 11AM:

It is a quiet morning at Longacres - more quiet than usual because our enthusiastic Jess is gone and boarding a plane soon at the airport! Meghan and Niki went in to see Jess and Rachel off as early departures - have a good trip and we will miss you two!

Also quiet because we're recovering from the excitement of having two of our riders jump 4'9" last night - (the staff are recovering from a quiet end of summer staff party and gossip session ).

We will soon be having another jumping session for everyone who got shut off because of darkness last night. How soon depends on how hard they all work cleaning up the barn. I had to issue a gentle reminder this morning that good horsemanship and responsible stable management does not end 24 hours BEFORE the end of our riding program. We have had a great staff and good students this summer, but it is only human to get a little sloppy at the end of the last week; but it is not our way. The gentle reminder was cheerfully accepted, and all are looking forward to the jumping session before lunch.

August 16^th, noon:

NOTE to Parents - I think that Meghan is in pretty good control of when and how everyone is leaving; as we quickly passed one another running in different directions on errands this morning she said, "I know when almost everyone is leaving."

Just to make it easier for us to double check and confirm our airport schedules, please e-mail or leave a message on our answering machine telling us exactly when you plan to be here if you are picking your student up by car, or confirming with us their flight information if they are leaving by plane. This will save us valuable time in case we need to reconfirm one of your travel plans.

"Swing Astair" another star! We'll keep adding little stories of the show as I have time. Danielle had a good show working with her young horse all week, getting better each class. Her shining moment came on the last day in an under saddle hunter hack class against all the top show horses from the best stables in the area - about 30 horses in the class. Danielle was called back to work with the top eight, and was pinned 2^nd place! Then pulled in another ribbon in the next class out of that bug group. This is going to be a fine show ring hunter after a little more experience at shows!

FLASH!!! 9PM - We got in half of "high jumping night" before we had to call it off on account of darkness, but what a half! Rachel and Jess set "personal bests" with Rachel jumping three feet and Jess jumping 2'9". The rest of our riders will do more tomorrow, since these two are leaving for home early in the morning.

Quantum and Bella TIED for high jumping honors, with Tovah and Lisa each CLEARING 4'9", and each pulling a rail down hard at five feet! The agonizing thing for both riders is that Quantum and Bella looked very solid at 4'9", and both willingly attempted five feet - but both Lisa and Tovah got cold feet themselves staring straight between their horse's ears at the top rail of the jump in front of them. I don't blame them - five feet is a very imposing jump. Each rider sat back and hesitated just when they needed to push and be with their mount - hence the knock-downs. We quit when we get to an uncertain point when we do high jumping, so it stays a tie!

It should be pointed out that NO ONE has jumped as high as 4'9" at Longacres since Sarah Pistone did it on lacey in 1998! Lisa and Tovah are cool!

August 15^th:

The 2002 ECF Show is history and - -

At 4PM we are back at Longacres unloading and taking a deep breath after three days of tension, anticipation, and excitement. Much news and many pictures to come later tonight. Longacres won 29 ribbons this year, one of our best showings ever! Peppermint Patti is the story of the year as well as this show: She was Champion in Hopeful Jumper division, and Champion again in Training Jumper Division! Tovah rode her to three blues, and Marce to a 1^st and a 2^nd in those two divisions. Tovah rode Quantum Leap to the Reserve Championship in Hopeful Jumpers as well.

Many more stories later - all the girls rode their hearts out, and in giving their very best effort, five out of our 12 riders joined the dusty bottoms club at one time or another during the fair week. Interestingly, those five all won good ribbons after falling, so their great effort paid off!

Jess was one of our high-lites! She did not ride until the third day of the show, and she was the last of our group to go today, so everyone from Longacres was ayt ringside cheering her on. When she went in the ring for the first time, there was a huge cheer from all the Longacres crowd! Jess went off course in her first class, and fell off in her second. She is NOT a quitter! With great encouragement from the rest of our crew, she climbed back on, and won a 6^th in her next class, and then a 4^th in her final jumping class against some riders from very good show stables. Great job, Jess!

Pictures to be posted in a few hours.

- Tom

August 14^th:

Tovah Abrams & Longacres "owned" the Jumper Ring Today!

At least in the two lower sections - Tovah won the first class on Quantum and won the second class on Peppermint Patti. Tovah has now won three out of the four classes in these two sections over the first two days of the fair. That's against about 30 other horse and rider combinations, including many professional riders (Leigh Fischer, Jaime Bates, Debbie Healy, and others!) To be completely honest, I have to tell you that Tovah has also entered two classes with bigger fences, and we are still working out the differences in seeing distances and having proper pace. We pulled a few rails in those classes today - guess which classes Tovah wants tomorrow to try to redeem herself?

AND, Tovah is far from our only ribbon winner today. Marce seemed to have the first jumper class locked up herself with a blistering 30.80 second time on peppermint Patti. Then MEAN Tovah came in as the last horse on Quantum and turned in a 30.65 time to take over the top spot! Patti, who is being ridden by Marce in two classes in her division (by Tovah just yesterday), and Quantum, ridden by Tovah are now tied for the Championship with one more class to go tomorrow. They are having a friendly, but intense, rivalry over who will be Champion tomorrow!

Other ribbons won today are 4^th in novice hunter by Danielle, 2^nd in children's pony hunters by Rachel, 5^th in children's pony hunter by Rachel, 6^th in hopeful jumper by Lisa & Bella, and 2^nd in Hopeful jumpers by marce and Patti!

Full results from yesterday are 4^th in special junior by Rachel, 2^nd in eq. Over fences by Rachel, 5^th in novice adult by Marce, 1^st in jumpers by Tovah, 2^nd in jumpers by Tovah, two 6^th places by Erika in special hunters, 5^th in training jumper by Tovah, and 5^th in novice hunter by Erika! That's 16 ribbons in two days, on track to be one of our best years ever at the Fair (our best was 33 ribbons a few years back!)

I will post this update right now, and try to add a few pictures in an hour or so - it is 8:45 now.

- Tom

August 13^th:

A good first day!

Tovah also won a 5^th, Erica won a 5^th, Marce got a 5^th on this first day at a BIG show! More details tomorrow (and more reports of wins I HOPE!)

PS: Tovah also had the second class won and - - - oh, well. Quantum and Tovah were F-A-S-T!!!

AND - - - - roll of drums - - - - - "Bella" made it around two big show jumper courses looking very much like a jumper - - an excitable jumper, but not a totally crazy jumper - good job, Lisa!

August 12^th:

August 12^th - very late at night:

We just got back from taking all the horses to the fair and practicing in the show rings for tomorrow's big show. Mostly it went very well - Tovah and Quantum looked very good in the big ring, and Marce looked sharp on Sha-bang and in hacking Patti. Danielle's private horse, Freddie, was excitable at first, but she did a good job, and had him going quietly and well by the end of the evening. Mary Kate and Nora did a good job calming Justin down for his first big show. Niki and Mary both had Bobert moving smartly and wide awake in his practice rounds. Lauren rode two horses over fences, doing well on both Sierra and Merlin. Jess also rode Merlin and had him listening well. Lisa had her hands full with Bella, but felt the horse was listening to her. Erika "bam-bam" Attoma also rode Sha-bang smoothly over jumps. Poor Rachel had a tough evening - her own pony, Benny, who won a big class at the Longacres show on Thursday, was a bad pony, acting up all night and finally tossing Rachel in the dirt twice. A friend of Rachel's from back in Long Island happened to be at the show. Katherine is also a former Longacres student, and she got on Rachel's pony and rode the bucks out of him. Rachel got back on at the end of the evening, and then we put Big Bad Benny away for the night, hoping that these bad ideas are far from his mind tomorrow morning!

Lisa, Rachel, Mary, and mary Kate are staying in the Winnie at the fair with the horses tonight, and the rest of us are headed back to the show starting at 7:15 am. We hope to have news of some ribbons won by tomorrow night!

- tsk

11am: We sent everyone to bed a little early last night to get rested up for fair week. All were laughing, joking, and cheerful at breakfast this morning. Most are putting the last minute touches on cleaning their saddles and packing for fair week. A few who are here for only two weeks are getting in an extra ride this morning; Jess, Niki, and Mary Kate so they don't lose a full day of riding. (Our long term students don't care, since they have been riding and riding and riding all summer!)

The horses are getting baths, and manes are being puilled short and readied for braiding for this "A" rated horse show.

Below is an "UPDATED 11AM" posting of the best guess on when each of us will be riding at the fair. The fair horse show starts at 8am each day, and it is possible for some classes to be cancelled, so this is only an educated guess on when you will ride>

August 11^th:

PS - About half the group are sleeping out under the stars on the show field tonight watching the meteor shower. I went down and chatted with them while they were still awake, and checked on them again about half an hour ago (sound asleep!). Rachel, Jess, Marce, Lisa, Mary, and Mary Kate were sleeping out. Tovah, Erika, Lauren, and the rest were the wimps, snug and warm in their own beds!

August 9^th:

Below is a pic taken about 5:30 this afternoon just as we piled out of the "Winnie" and Meghan's car for our mall trip.

August 8^th:

We'll post some results tomorrow - Rachel Nussbaum rode her own pony, Benjamin, to a blue ribbon over 20 thoroughbreds in the Special Hunter class on the outside course!!!!!! Fine job, Rachel!!!!

Danielle Napoli rode her hunter, Freddie, to a number of blues and other good ribbons, and took home a big championship! Marce Evans rode Patti to one of her best rides of the year, and a third place in the big Bold Jumper Derby.

Many other good wins! (Nora winning a jumper class on Missy, for one!)

More tomorrow!

- Tom & Meghan

August 5^th:

We're really in the groove getting ready for our big Longacres show on Thursday, and then for the "A" rated Erie County Fair show next week. Just 12 more days of camp left - I am relieved and sad at the same time. It has been a good summer. Meghan and I were talking yesterday and decided this year we have the best staff Longacres has enjoyed in 10 years! Good job, Marce, Lisa, Lauren, Tovah, Meghan, Erika, and Joyce (and me!).

- Tom

August 1^st late night:

Hi all,

We just got home from our traditional late dinner out after a horse show. Many of our girls did very well today. Danielle Napoli, Rachel Nussbaum, Erica, and Marce were some of our biggest winners. We'll try to post a full list of ribbons won tomorrow or Saturday. Tovah had a couple of mistakes and one bad luck rail falling, but did win one of the three jumper classes on Quantum. (Marce was right behind her in 2^nd on Patti)

More tomorrow.

- Tom

July 30^th:

Tom's day today: - I usually give you some news about our students in my regulr updates. Today I'll tell you about MY day today, to give you another view of life at Longacres.

I woke up just before 8am and watched Bruce Springsteen debut his new music on TV. I'm normally a fairly late riser in the morning, but work late at the end of the day. During the next hour I returned a few phone calls, checked and printed out some e-mails for the kids, then left for breakfast a little later than usual. Breakfast is private time for me - I go into town and read the morning paper from cover to cover for an hour. That's my time to clear my mind and get ready for the day.

Back to Longacres at about 10:15 where I check the answering machine, return a few calls, and check e-mail again. Check in on a few maintenance projects and check with Meghan about the meal schedule for the evening, and winter horse home meetings set up for the day. Call the vet about scheduling blood tests and rabies shots for the horses.

The second formal lesson is started by Erika, and after my first lesson finishes, Marce takes over with me watching and making comments to the kids that I think might help them. I give a little talk about keeping your horse alert and awake all the time, as gently as I can while still getting the point across to these less experienced riders. I also take pictures of all of them jumping. Near the end of the lesson, I take Rachel and Benny out in the big field and let her jump the bigger course and take pictures - they do very well.

After this lesson (ends late at about 1:15, since we got a late start) I head down to the barn and check in with the blacksmith and talk about some shoeing options with him. Arrange for the instructors to take turns helping him, and then I go to the house for a few minutes to check phone and e-mail messages. I have a few business calls to return and then drive down to lunch outside the dining hall with the girls. We discuss the horse show at Long Snap Farms this Thursday, and Marce signs the girls up for horses and their classes. They ask me a few questions about suitable horses, etc.

After lunch Meghan and I drive over to the farm where we will be showing, check on their jump course, deliver some trophies we got for them, and arrange some stalls for our horses on Thursday. We take a break on the way home to stop for an ice cream cone and milkshake (first milkshake I've had in a few years, and it was good!)

Back at Longacres I check with the blacksmith again, talk to Tovah and Marce about the lessons for the afternoon and ask Tovah about one of the horses she is training. I watch the girls ride with Lisa and Marce in the afternoon lesson for a few minutes and head back to the house. I plan to lie down for a short nap, but end up doing the new webpage photo gallery and posting it for you during the next hour. I discuss a few questions about horse show charges and canteen accounts with Meghan and then we head down to dinenr with the girls. It is a lively dinner, with the usual amount of food and drink spills and chatter. I make sure that there will be formal lessons tonight (sometimes there are less structured practice rides), and ask Tovah a few questions about who is riding certain horses.

After dinner I check on some maintenance stuff, check e-mails and answering machine and return a call from California (hi Niki). Then down to the barn where I watch the instructors teach - including Marce's "french dressage instructor" imitation. I work with Danielle on getting Fressie to do a good flying change, and we succeed on the third try. Then I give her a pointer on a good dressage corner turn. She is working hard with this slightly green but very promising horse. I watch Tovah and Quantum from a distance and check on everyone else from the sidelines. While I watch the girls I am moving all the heavy jumps in the big line by the road and lining them up carefully so there will not be bare spots in the grass before and after the jumps. Danielle asks me why I have moved the middle of the three jumps several times - I explain that it just makes me happy to drive in the driveway past those jumps and know that they are set up EXACTLY right. I'm not sure if she completely gets it, but she does tell me that her dad said they look good when he drove in last week (thanks for noticing, John).

I help unload Dipper, who is returning to Longacres for a visit after being with an animal rehabilitator for most of the summer. Meghan checks with me about the vet visit for tomorrow, and we decide to ask Tovah to go to the office with Meghan to help go through all of last year's vet records to make sure we don't test anyone who doesn't need it. It's about 9:00, and I get to take a shower and then sit at the computer answering e-mails and phone calls for about an hour. I often work until about 11:30, but I don't make it tonight, since I missed my nap - I fade out about 10:30, then wake up just long enough to write this description of my day at Longacres!

- Tom

July 29^th:

Note: Our computer has been at least temporarily cleaned of the "Klez" virus, and we are running the latest version of an anti virus program that checks our outgoing email to see that we don't send the virus out. But many of you who have emailed us in the past few weeks may be infected. We suggest you update your anti-virus software to the latest version.

We had a fun night at the barn with mounted games, races, and "name that stride" contests. Jess Nash showed great talent as a gymkhana rider - she has done it before western style! Marce was a double champion in two events, tied with Erika and Lady for one of those championships. Lauren rode VERY strongly on her horse tonight, impressing us all. Final plans being made tonight and tomorrow for Erie County Fair. We are doing the shoeing on the horses going to the fair tomorrow, getting some vet tests done, and putting in the entries next Monday as soon as our new riders come in on the weekend.

July 27^th:

July 26^th:

We had a great show at Longacres today. We'll post many more details tomorrow - highlite for me was Tovah winning three out of the four jumper classes on Quantum with lots of riders from other stables competing. The final class Tovah rode perfectly - I thought there was no way anyone would beat her, but katie "Leach" from Long Snap put in an incredible ride in the jump-off and beat Tovah's time by less than a second! So Tovah finishes as Champion with three 1^st's and a 2^nd. Rachel Nussbaum won a class on Benjamin and got a trophy. Full results tomorrow, including other Longacres 1^st places and trophies. - - Mary won a trophy in the very first class of the day!

We all went out to dinner after the show, where everyone was pretty high - lots of adrenalin and excitement. We're all sleeping late tomorrow morning!

• Tom
• PS - Our computer is infected with the "Klez" virus, so we are probably spreading it with our e-mail file. Check your computer. Ours will be disinfected tomorrow afternoon, hopefully. Sorry for the inconvenience.

July 24^th - Opening Day 2^nd session:

7:00 PM:

We rode and rode this afternoon, switching horses every 15 or 20 minutes so that most of our new students have ridden four or five different horses already during their first day here. And we have lots of video to watch after evening ride - that's where I'm going in a few minutes.

We have two ten year old students this session, and I am enjoying their unique brand of enthusiasm! We have had an older than usual student group this year, so it is a welcome change to have younger riders in the lessons. But along with that we are suddenly reminded that we have to keep track of whether someone is eating enough "real food" before going for the brownies! (Gee, does that sound familiar to any parents at home??)

It's been a good opening day, and the great weather is expected to last for a few days.

2PM:

Everyone has safely arrived and all riders have ridden at least two horses and been video taped. We'll be riding again this afternoon, holding a meeting to start planning Erie County Fair showing assignments, and then we'll be watching and reviewing video this evening. It is great riding weather - cool and partly cloudy. A good start to the second session.

- Tom

July 23^rd Update:

Welcome 2^nd session riders!

We think we're all ready for the arrival of a new group of students to join the four already here for the full season. AND for the arrival of two private horses!! (Your stalls are ready and waiting, Kim and Rachel)

After three solid weeks of drought, we have had about 14 hours of steady rain and finally falling temperature and humidity. Fantastic! Finally we will have green grass again and softer ground for the horses. We have wonderful riding weather forcast for the rest of the week and the beginning of our new session. And the first horse show of the session on Friday evening is looking to be a popular one with several outside stables already making reservations to take part.

We are almost done with your canteen and showing bills; you should get a refund check or a bill within a week. We just have to add the shipping charges for sending home your leftover packages and trunks. About half of you will get a refund and have money left over, and about half of you will owe us a little money - especially those of you who had your own horses here and had extra expenses for your horse.

All the trunks and boxes you left for us to ship were sent off first thing Monday morning via UPS or Fedex, and should get to you in three to five days. We have receipts and tracking numbers in case something does not show up in a reasonable time.

Tovah, Nora, Erika, and Lauren have been just relaxing for two days, and they are beginning to get eager to ride again. They will join all of our new students in the saddle tomorrow afternoon. We'll video all of you on the first day of the session, and you'll all be video'd again at the show on Friday night.

See you tomorrow,

- Tom & Meghan

July 22^nd:

But we miss all of you who have gone home. There were lots of hugs, kisses, and even a few tears as everyone said "goodbye" yesterday. Phoebe was the last to go, heading out to New Mexico late in the afternoon.

It was a good group first session. Emilie did great things with her own horse, Jake, finally winning big at the last show - - - and then her ride on Quantum!!!!!

Kim and Brianna both got stronger and stronger and did a fine job improving their ability to see leads and ride round organized courses.

Kim only got to ride her beloved Stoney on the last day, but was her usual helpful self during her stay. Niki finally got to show jumper, even though there were frustrations.

Alex told me her goal was to ride faster horses and become a stronger rider this summer - she did! Her last day she rode Star in the tricky tunnel of love cross country jump, and Star tried to take her into the woods and refuse - - - SMACK, SMACK went Alex's crop, and Star got with the program!

Lillian came to us as a once-a-week rider with good position, but weak control, and showed great improvement over her two weeks, as well as being one of the most pleasant people to have around camp (I heard unsubstantiated rumors that she can be a little wilder late in the evening in the bunk!)

Phoebe probably gets the "most improved rider" award for the session. She arrived at Longacres never having posted or ridden English. She left us as a competent rider over jumps and won two championships in her final two shows here! Fine job!!

Mandy and I talked about having her as a staff member next year - she will be very good if she does it, I am sure. Mandy, you were a great help this summer - - thank you!

And Sam was a talented, careful rider right from her first day. She just got stronger and better as the month went along. As she said "goodbye" at the airport, I told her she would be a definite prospect for the Longacres #1 Rider position next year if for some reason Tovah can't come back - a nice honor for Sam.

Update July 20^th:

Sam Parsons finishes the session with a BIG jump!

We did lots of fun stuff on the final day of the session, culminating with a moonlight ride on the field. Just before the sun went down, Sam rode Quantum Leap over the big triple jump line by the road, setting her personal best jump of 3'6", including a wide oxer! We'll post a pic later! Sam was an outstanding student this session and well earned the right to ride the big fences on Quantum.

We also cleaned up by the stairway-to-heaven cross country jump and the "tunnel of love" jumps, and everyone got to do them this afternoon. Then we went out to Schoonies for ice cream and sandwiches and got show pictures from Uncle Billy. (Lunch was also special, with a picnic at the creek and wading in the 'ole swimming hole. It's late, but we still have video's from this week and the show to watch so, parents, expect your loved ones to be a little tired when they get home tomorrow!

More later - -

- Tom

Update July 19^th, 11PM:

Hi everyone at home - You will be seeing your friends and children who are leaving us Sunday very soon. Things are going well, and nearly everyone had a great show today. After 4 weeks at Longacres, the improvements really show. I looked at video taken at our first show three weeks ago last night, and then watching everyone ride this afternoon, I was very proud and pleased. The show was smaller than our first one, but several outside stables gave us real competition. Emilie was one of our biggest winners, being Champion in her hunter division and winning numerous ribbons. Tovah was jumper champion, winning two out of her four classes. Sam did a fantastic job with Majic, putting in a very good round on the big outside course in one of the higher jumper classes. Mandy took a second on Miscellaneous in a jumper class, with an excellent ride. Phoebe won two of the beginner division classes, and was Champion in Ring One!!!!! Those are just a few of the highlites - like I said, most everyone did well today and rode their best.

You will all hear much more about it on Sunday night when your students get home, I bet. (Of course, almost half are staying with us for the rest of the summer, and they can look forward to even better things during the second session!)

A whole new group is coming in next week, two of you bringing your own horses with you. We also look forward to having three younger students this next session - we like trying our best to give younger students a good time, since if you like it, you stand a better chance of returning to Longacres than some of our 15 year olds who are more likely to have summer jobs or other opportunities next year that will keep them from coming back to us.

We are excited about meeting you second session students on Wednesday, (along with your horses!). In the meantime, we have one more exciting day of first session left, with some special exercises with the horses tomorrow and a chance for all of us to ride our favorites one last time and try some special jumps.

- Tom

July 16^th:

Our horse show is postponed until Friday at 4:00 PM, as it is supposed to be over 90 tomorrow and much cooler Friday.

- Tom

July 15^th:

We're getting ready for our final horse show of the first session here at Longacres this Wednesday afternoon. Everyone will be able to ride their favorite horses, since at this show, one of the rings allows more than one rider to jump the same horse. It should be a fun day. Although outside stables are coming, there will be fewer than last time since there is a huge horse show in Elmira, NY this weekend and many local stables go there. That means MORE RIBBONS for us! Yippee! (actually, I like the competition and knowing how well we did when there is a bigger turnout - but ribbons are nice!)

During this final week of our first session, we are doing lots of special things - jumping a little bigger in our lessons, working on things like a 4 jump gymnastic today, and "grid" jumping tomorrow. Thursday after the show we will have pond jumping day, which everyone is looking forward to!

Today's lesson over the combination was tough for most horse and rider combinations. Almost everyone had trouble getting the striding right the first time through, but all worked hard, and I think everyone got it right by the end of the lesson. I hope the same is true for tomorrow's grid jump (a long line of jumps taken one after another).

More news tomorrow - Tom

July 13^th:

Mounted Game Excitement!!!!

We had some big surprises in today's results! "Los Tostito's" with Marce, Sam, Kim, and Niki were the big winners and get to go out to the movies Monday or Tuesday!!! "Trailer Park Girls" with Lisa, Alex, and Phoebe were second, "The Scammers" with Erika, Mandy, Emilie, and Lillian were very close behind, and perhaps the pre-event favorites, "Team Extra-Creamy", with Tovah, Nora, and Lauren came in last - a surprise! But anything can happen in mounted games and it did. Niki beat everyone in barrel racing with a surprisingly quick ride of 22.10

The "Top Bad-butt Rider" award went to Princess Lisa, with 18 points, followed closely by Tovah with 16. Every rider got points in one or more events, so all contributed to their team efforts. We will try to post pictures tomorrow night.

- Tom

July 11^th:

We went out for ice cream and sandwiches tonight and everyone was in good spirits when we got back to Longacres for after dinner drill team practice. The drill team, led by Mandy and Sam, is turning out to be one of the best we have had in years. I watched them as I mowed grass on the other side of the field tonight. They have their patterns down very well, and they did a good job as they practiced to music for the first time tonight. We will have dress rehearsals early next week, and then the drill team will perform for the public to open our horse show here at Longacres next Wednesday.

Saturday afternoon we're holding a big gymkhana event (mounted games). We have four teams, led by Marce, Tovah, Erika, and Lisa. We assigned teams to have as equal riding talent as we could in each group; everyone's ride will count and it should be an exciting competition! Some of the events will be just silly fun, and others fiercely competitive!

It seems hard to believe that the summer will be half over in another week. Except when I watch everyone ride and remember how they looked when they got here three weeks ago. I don't think there's anyone who hasn't shown marked improvement! I hope you folks at home will agree when you see the results soon! More and more often we're now jumping bigger fences and tougher courses than we did in the first two weeks. Just this afternoon, Sam was working with her beloved Justin and I stopped by to set up some bigger jumps for her and let her go through the big "show jump line" along the driveway. She got all the striding right after just one practice run through. She is a good combination with Justin (hint, hint).

We also had a practice event this morning to warm-up for the gymkhana - a tricky obstacle course including jumping, tight turns, dismounting and mounting again, and picking up strings off the fence, all for time. Our barn manager, Princess Lisa, had the best time through most of the morning, though Lauren on Star did a fantastic job and was close behind. On Tovah's first ride, she came within 2 tenths of a second of Lisa. On her second round, Tovah finally took over the top spot. An interesting comment on how many good horse and rider combinations we have here is that after the first group rode, I asked them to predict who would ultimately be the fastest in the second group. FIVE DIFFERENT riders were picked by the six people in the first group as likely winners! That shows how deep a talent pool we have this session.

More tomorrow!

- Tom

July 10^th, late:

- Tom

July 9^th:

Today was an interesting test of riding "enthusiasm". It was a gray, dreary morning with intermittent showers and dark skies. A perfect morning for taking a long nap and catching up on SLEEP! And we gave everyone that option. When the group came up for my first lesson, Phoebe, Alex, Lillian, and Lauren were present and ready to work in the mist. An hour later, it was Sam, Tovah, Marce, and Erika. We were working on hard stuff - over and over trying to change leads in a straight line and tell right away if you are on the correct lead. Sam and Tovah are probably the best at this right now, though even they had a few mistakes.

Hats off to the the crew who "rode in the mist" this morning! (Please note that it was definitely ok to skip this lesson! - - and I am sure the well rested group who didn't ride will be ready to go this afternoon.

We are hoping to all ride this afternoon in spite of the threatening weather, then go to a movie this evening for a break. It will be our first time out in the evening - every other "mall trip" has been in the mid afternoon. Parents can expect to hear from your students between 6 and 10 this evening.

Great Weather Coming!

Once this cool front passes we are expecting cool, dry, sunny weather the rest of the week - perfect for riding! We have no show scheduled this weekend, after riding in three shows the first two weeks. Our next show is here at Longacres on Wednesday during the final week of this session. It is also possible that we will hold an unscheduled jumper rally with a couple of other stables this weekend. We'll keep you posted.

A few more comments on Sunday's show - Sam Parsons did a great job on Majic in one of the highest "Jumper" classes he has done in his career. He got better in his second class. Sam also rode Justin in the hunter ring. Erika and Marce each rode Shabang in a hunter ring class, and he looked good for a young horse.

As mentioned below, Phoebe and Kim both won ribbons in the walk-trot division; Lauren started slowly, and then got good and aggressive in her later classes on Missy and Bobert. Mandy also rode Justin in one of his first show events, and Niki won a 4^th out of about 18 horses in a low jumping class with a very smooth ride.

More Later - Tom

July 7^th:

Peppermint Patti won two 1^st's in jumper's, one at a lower height with Nora and one at in the higher schooling jumpers with Tovah. Tovah was also 2^nd out of 15 horses in another jumper class on Quantum. Nora also won a jumper ribbon on Patti! Patti is BACK!!!!!! (Joetta, you've got to come visit some weekend and ride her!)

Many more good rides. We bought two new thoroughbreds last night after a four day trial, and "Shabang" and "Justin" both showed in beginner jumping classes and looked good. We think they will be very useful for us over the coming weeks.

More details tomorrow - every Longacres rider showed this week, and all had some good experiences.

- Tom

July 4^th:

OK - six girls chose to show at this "extra" show about 50 miles from Longacres. Tovah, Erika, Marce, Brianna, Emilie, and Nora all got up at 5:30 in the morning to load horses and travel to Chestnut Ridge Farms for their annual 4^th of July show. The hunter and equitation ring began first, and Brianna, riding Bobert instead of her usual "Treek", took a 1^st and two seconds!!!! Great job! Emilie rode Majic in this show, and took a 2^nd and two 3^rd's. Then it was time for jumpers - - - wow! Longacres horses won five out of the 7 classes! PEPPERMINT PATTI IS BACK!!!!!! Patti won 3 out of the 4 classes she entered, one with Nora and two with Marce - and BIG classes, with 12 or 13 in each class. Another way to look at it is that all the rest of western New York had to take about 45 attempts before they could beat Patti once!!

In her first jumper class on Quantum, "Tovah Toasted them"! She was almost 6 seconds faster than the next best in winning her first class. That was a warm-up for her over lower fences. She waited until three classes later to try again over higher jumps. Quantum knocked down a rail on the first jump, then did pretty well, but got a low ribbon. The next class was higher Open Jumpers - adults, trainers, and so forth. 15 horses in the class. "Tovah Toasted them" again, doing a beautiful jump-off round about 4 seconds faster than anyone else.

Tovah was also in the very last class of the day. It was nearly 90 degrees and it had been a long day. Half way through the course, Tovah pulled up and yelled, "Where do I go next?" Things went down hill from there. Tovah and Quantum had already had a great day and we are proud of her - I guess it is good to get a little dose of humility now and then!

FIREWORKS:

- Tom

July 3^rd:

We had a great time in my first lesson today, running a special combined event with a hunter class and then a fun gymkhana event. Faults in the hunter class were converted into time penalties for the gymkhana. Niki Patire on Ebony was the blue ribbon winner, and we presented horse show ribbons! After the first round, our least experienced rider, Phoebe Toole was actually tied for first after a very careful ride.

We are all taking a break from the heat this afternoon to get ready for the show tomorrow in Gasport, NY. It is a long drive and we will be up very early.

- Tom

July 2^nd:

For the first time in quite a while we had an accident requiring a doctor's checkup. Alex took a tumble and has a mild concussion that will keep her on the ground for a couple of days. Otherwise she is feeling fine and joking with everyone. Welcome back from your quick ER visit, Alex!

We had "game night" in my second lesson today. Lots of slow and fast trotting and slow cantering contests and a mini-jumper class. Tovah did quite a bit of winning, but Nora on Missy was the Champion fast trotter!!

Good job by all the girls who got together this morning and wrote up a set of reasonable bed time rules. (Now we'll see if they stick to them?!?!??)

We made it through another day - Tom

PS - Tomorrow afternoon is a movie break at the mall before Thursday's show, so parents can expect to get some phone calls between 1 and 5pm

July 1^st:

We had a good day today, in spite of 90 degree heat. We modified our lesson schedule to have an early dinner and ride two hours in the cooler evening. I spent my lesson time today evaluating each rider individually and having personal discussions with each student about their progress this week. We had a video taping session with the evening ride.

All were in fine spirits as the horses were put out to pasture. Perhaps too fine spirits!

I sensed that it was time for me to make my first late evening bed check of the season and after dark tour of the camp. What I found did not surprise me, young people being as they are, but disappointed me. Longacres goes a long way towards allowing our students a significant degree of "self government". I try to let the girls, the counselors, and student leaders sort out bedtime procedures and similar rules each season as an exercise in responsible independence. I am sorry to report that the structure or lack-thereof for bedtime does not meet my standards. It will be improved tomorrow morning at a meeting of the girls before I coach them any further.

Some of you parents reading this may not want to hear about it, but it has always been my policy to share with you our little tribulations as well as our triumphs. Moral here is generally very high as we enter our second week. I expect the girls to respond positively to my insistence that they organize their bedtime plans better, just as they have to my requirements for a neat, organized barn and show grounds.

Running a camp is such fun!

So long for now - Tom

June 28^th - Midnight:

You'll have to wait until tomorrow for a more thorough update. It's midnight and we only got back an hour ago from going out to dinner with the whole group after a LONG and wonderful horse show day! Spirits are high, not so much because of what we won or didn't win, but because everyone knows that we did VERY respectably against some of the best show stables in western New York at a BIG horse show! Our field was full of horse trailers and vans, and most of the classes had from 14 to 20 entries. Typically three or four in one class might be from Longacres. We won perhaps two dozen ribbons during the day, and not everyone has one to show for their effort.

But the efforts of our riders were terrific. Everyone looked like they BELONGED at this level of competition, and many of our girls put in some of their best ever riding today. Niki Patire rode Ebony very carefully - one of her best rides this week. Brianna Altieri went into the ring with Treek in a higher hunter class with a DETERMINED look on her face - and went around the course with no refusals or hesitations, and took a 6^th place ribbon out of about a dozen very nice horses! I won't go on too long tonight, since I might leave someone out.

Oh, well maybe just a second more! Marce Evans rode the rejuvinated Peppermint Patti to a 1^st place in one of the jumper classes to great cheers. Our #1 rider, Tovah Abrams, rode Quantum Leap to grand champion Jumper, with one convincing outright win, and finishing in the top three in every class to gain the high point award. Her win was 4 full seconds faster than the next best, out of 13 jumpers in the class!

Sam Parsons did so well on Majic (a horse loaned to us for the summer) that she brought tears to the eyes of the owner, who was visiting for the day! Wendy (Majic's owner) is sending us some of her professional digital pics, which we may post in the coming days.

More tomorrow - everyone but me is sound asleep right now - and will sleep a little later than usual tomorrow. Great good spirit on our dinner outing tonight. This group is clicking as they get to know one another!

Enjoy!

- Tom

June 27^th:

Longacres horse show tomorrow! Quite a few outside stables coming! Hopefully, Longacres will win a few of our own ribbons. It will be tough competition.

We took everyone to the mall this afternoon, and most were in fine spirits when we returned to the farm. Everyone helped set up the jump courses for the show tomorrow, and then they TURNED DOWN A CHANCE TO RIDE! They were having so much fun "pretending" to be horses and going over the jumps themselves, that they chose to have a mini-horseless horse show instead of riding. Lots of laughing and joking! We'll report on the show tomorrow night. The weather report is for the best weather in two weeks for riding. Cool and dry, finally!

- Tom

June 25^th, 10PM:

I just got back from the barn, where the girls are really getting the hang of the horsecare routines. The barn looks good! Meghan and I sat for a while this evening and watched the girls work on their 2002 drill team routine. This is something we leave up to them to work out among themselves. Drill team is great training for the horses with all the shortening and lengthening of stride, the pairs riding, and precision routines. It is also great group dynamics for the girls to find leadership, and to work together coming up with patterns and routines. Tonight, Mandy and Sam were taking the lead for the time that we watched, with many others contributing ideas and asking questions. Tovah was a primary leader of last year's drill team, and contributed tonight (I had asked her to spread the lead around, and she did).

We have two charter members of the 2002 "Dusty Bottoms Club" - our two Senior Instructors! Marce and Lisa both took tumbles today, much to their embarrassment, and the joy of the rest of the kids. Fortunately neither was really hurt, though both will have some nice black and blue bruises.

Mandy Bartlett and Sam Parsons are turning out to be two of the stronger new riders this year. Both are riding carefully and with strength, and I expect good things at the coming shows for them.

I get most of my smiles from the group in Dark Stranger bunk with Marce as counselor. Brianna, Kim, and Phoebe are three of our younger students, and Alex who is a little older is a big help to Marce in that bunk. This group is VERY full of energy!

Emilie is the envy of the barn, having her own very nice horse, "Jake", here at Longacres with her. Jake is doing very well. He's a practically made horse with all the work Emilie has put into him at home, but still needs work on getting the proper striding in lines consistently. We're working on that!

Lauren is doing very well training the new pony, Sierra, who was green when she came and already very well broke. Niki seems happy on Magic, (as do many others!)

Nora is President of "Nora's Club" - you will have to ask her what you need to do to win admission!

More tomorrow -

- Tom

June 23^rd - Opening Day Updates:

 Late Sunday Night:

STUDENTS OF THE DAY - FIRST DAY:

I don't give the "gold star" every day, but I would like to recognize Sam Parsons for her diligence in riding straight through her lines when jumping courses, straight after the jumps and taking great care to properly change leads at every turn. She was the best of all the students new to Longacres! Since one of my pet-peeves is proper follow-through after jumps, you can see that I am pleased with Sam.

Just as impressive was the success of Phoebe Toole, who came to us with some western riding experience, but completely new to English. NOT ONLY did Phoebe learn to post on her first afternoon at Longacres, but she successfully did a small jump. First I snapped a lead line to her horse's bridle and lead her over the cross rail, but then she did it on her own. Pretty good for someone who has never even ridden English! Below is Phoebe's smile right after the jump she took by herself:

5:00 PM Update: - Now all have arrived and ridden. The girls are down at the barn putting the horses away and feeding them before dinner. We took short videos of almost everyone today. We will try to get in a very short ride after dinner and take some more video, then put the horses out to pasture and come up to the main house to watch the first day's video tapes. It will be a little late to bed tonight, so we will sleep in on the first morning and have a relaxed start tomorrow. We should be in a normal schedule by Tuesday morning!

- Tom

2:00 PM Update - Everyone is now here, safe, and has been on a horse, except for Kim who just arrived and is with Meghan and her family getting ready to ride, and Niki, who is arriving at the airport in 45 minutes - I am OUT THE DOOR now to pick her up!

- Tom

10:15 am - I'll try to make several updates today. All our early arrivals from Saturday are fine and working with the horses. They will start riding different horses for short sessions to check them out before lunch. Lisa Kaminski is in at the airport picking up Brianna right now. Tom is going in this afternoon to pick up Niki. Weather looking sunny and good (possible scattered thunderstorms, which we could use!) I'll keep you posted and put up a longer report tonight.

- Tom

June 22^nd, late:

Great Preparation of the Show Field:

We'll post an update around 9PM tomorrow night to let all you worrying parents know that everyone is OK here!

- Tom & Meghan

June 21^st:

Without caretaker James Carlson and his son, Brandon, we would never have finished our maintenance work. Emily and Beth, our pre-camp exercise riders from Wisconsin, contributed greatly to having the horses ready and the barn cleaned up. "On Wisconsin!"

Tovah spent a week here recently helping with everything, and Erika has brow-beaten her parents into letting her spend frequent weekends helping open the farm. Lauren just arrived and has been a great worker. And, of course, Joyce our food service provider and her very competant son, Dave, have taken care of their end.

I am something of a perfectionist, so I always see more things to do, but I am pleased with the look of Longacres for those of you arriving Sunday. Good job, staff!

Stuff For YOU to Check:

1. Make sure you have sent us your formal enrollment contract. We are missing a few.
2. Make sure you have sent or are bringing your health form with you and that the "emergency authorization" is signed.
3. Make sure we know when you are arriving if you are coming this weekend. We will be phoning you if we don't know, but one way or another make sure we know.
4. Although it is listed on our info sheets, every year someone shows up not realizing that you have to bring your own blankets or sleeping bag. Just a reminder!
5. Driving Directions: There is a detour and bridge out, which makes it a little tricky. When you get to East Aurora, from the east end of town, take 20A (Main Street) west and watch for Center Street on your left. Turn left onto Center Street. Coming the other way from the west end of town, take Main Street (20A) east and turn right onto Center Street.

Once on Center Street, go about three miles and turn right on Blakeley Road. Follow Blakeley about a mile to the end and bear left on Mill Street. Our office entrance is on the right less than half a mile down.

I may post more stuff tomorrow. Most of our horses look great. Lucky, Ty, and especially Dipper had poor care and are thin. Bad people! They are on double rations and TLC. Lots of new horse faces to introduce to you returning students, two more thoroughbreds coming in for trial on Tuesday, and two others we are looking at to bring in on lease- training programs. LOTS of horses!

Tom

June 18^th:

Made a "flying" trip to Connecticut this afternoon to visit with my parents for the last time until fall. Just got back to LOTS of messages from many of you, including a long message from former #1 rider, Meg Duthie, who will be showing her own horse in Connecticut this summer. She says "hello" to all of you and the horses.

I guess that I really know that it's summer riding camp time now - I got my traffic report from my website service provider and we had 11,500 hits on "longacres.com" this week!

Many more announcements coming tomorrow night. We'll see you all soon!

- Tom

June 16^th:

Thanks and "Goodbye" to Beth and Emily who helped us so much getting the horses in shape during pre-camp week. You guys did a good job! Lots to do this week, but things are starting to really look sharp. We'll post some pics SOON now!

- Tom & Meghan

June 14^th:

More rain off and on today, but we got in a good jumping lesson and training session just before lunch and plan to ride all the horses between showers this afternoon.

Last night Longacres hosted a "Horseman's Happy Hour" party at the inn down at the end of our street. About 40 riders and trainers from the various stables that show with us during the summer showed up at various times during the evening to network with each other and talk about horse shows. We made a video of highlites from last year's shows and had it running during the party. All of us, including the young riders, went down early for Pizza and to say hello. Lisa brought Emily, Tovah, and Beth back to ride, while the rest of us stayed at the party for a while. Meghan, Billy, and I did NOT stay until the bitter end! We will have to wait and find out who gets the "last man/woman standing" trophy for partying late into the night!

From the gossip and talk at the party, it sounds like Longacres first show here at the farm on June 28^th is going to be a very big show! We will have to work hard during the first week to get ready. We have added classes to our prize list for this year's shows, so there will be a little more variety, more low jumping classes, and a separate "hack" championship for those who don't want to jump.

Parents or other visitors are always welcome at our shows. Please check with us before making a long trip, since we sometimes postpone the shows if there is bad weather.

In just two more days we will be saying "goodbye" to Beth and Emily as they head home to Wisconsin from their week with us during pre-camp horse training. They have done a great job working with our young and our out-of-shape horses. Thanks to them, the horses will be in much better shape for the rest of you when you all get here soon.

- Tom

June 11^th:

Hi guys. Rain off and on today, but still lots of riding. Instructor, Lisa, joined the dusty bottoms club today off Bella - her first unintentional dismount in over two years! No damage but to pride.

I got an email from an old camp friend today asking if there were no pet mice at Longacres this year since Meghan's mice have not been mentioned in this space for a while. Here was my quick response:

You have heard us mention "Star" the past couple of days. Star is a five year old paint mare that we've had here on trial for four days. We just decided to buy her. She's a large pony, and fairly new to jumping and English riding, but seems to learn very fast. Emily has done a lot of work this week training her, and Tovah rode her and did some training today. I like her, and I think you all will also! Pictures to come soon! I will try to take a picture of several of the new horses tomorrow and post it here.

- Tom

June 10^th:

Lots happens every two days at this time of year. Emily and Beth, our pre-camp riders from the midwest are doing a great job riding and conditioning and helping train some of our new horses, along with instructor, Lisa. Tovah will be here in a couple of hours, to pitch in getting things ready.

Believe it or not, Lisa, Emily, and Beth actually found time to go canoeing on this hot afternoon! And I advertise that no one ever takes time for nature!

Lots of horses here now. Missy, Patti, Ciera, Star, Eboney, Kit-Kat, Lucky, Stoney, Quantum, Merlin, Majic and I know I am forgetting some. We always have good news and some bad at this time of year when the horses are coming back from winter homes. The worst so far is that Lucky had a bad home, and is very, very thin. We are angry, but looking to the future and not crying over spilt milk. He is on a careful diet to not put too much rich feed in his thin body too quickly. But we are going out tomorrow to get special feed supplements and rich feed to do the best we can for him. It's a shame some people treat animals like this.

There is also great news. First, "Missy" is thriving after a winter at a great home. She is prancing around the pasture and moving like a youngster when ridden. Now in her late 20's, this fine old show horse seems like she may have one more summer of show jumping in her career. We had pretty much thought last summer might be her last.

Ready for even more good news? Peppermint Patti who had arthritus last summer and could only be used very lightly, looks like her old self. We are not fooling ourselves - she may well be only having a couple of good days, but we are exercising her very slowly and carefully to build up muscle tissue and not stress her joints that were so irritated last year. Sometimes horses with Arthritic hocks have the hock joints fuse together after a bad year or two and are then sound for several more years. We are crossing our fingers that this is happening with Patti, one of the all-time most winning jumpers in Western New York!!!!!!

The rest of the herd is looking very good. I'll try to post a pasture pic tonight!

Rain coming the next two days, but not continuously, so we should be able to post some more horse training stories soon. Bye for now!

- Tom

June 9^th, late:

Longacres is open, kind of!

- Tom

June 4^th - mid day:

A quick update - we did get up early enough to wash all the jump stands before the rain hit an hour ago. We should be able to have them fresh and white before Beth and Emily get here this weekend!

Everyone but me is down at the dining hall cleaning and scrubbing and fixing stuff while it rains. I'm holding down the office this morning.

• Tom
• Late Tuesday; it was rainy most of the day, but Lisa got the horses exercised by riding up and down the isle inside the barn. She said Gala and Bella liked it - Quantum was pretty jumpy as he REALLY looked at all the scary things inside the barn!

June 3^rd - Late:

Thanks to Erika and Mary for writing nice long notes to "Lonely Lisa" so quickly! You cheered her up a lot!

We all had a busy day here at Longacres. It's supposed to rain the next two days, so we had two tractors running all day mowing grass to get a little bit ahead. Things are starting to look good here. Which is a good thing, since Beth and Emily will be arriving this weekend to work with Lisa getting the horses in shape during pre-camp week. Tovah will be getting here next Tuesday for a special week of training. We won't be in "show shape" this weekend, but we will try to have things trimmed up pretty well for Beth and Emily. We're bringing a half dozen horses in for them to start riding, and more will be coming in the middle of next week. I hope you are in shape, girls!

Meghan, Joyce, and Lisa are cleaning up the kitchen and dining room tomorrow morning; James and Lisa will be scrubbing the jumps to get ready for painting them all tomorrow also. Lisa painted the trim on the front of the barn today, in between all kinds of horsecare work and training her own horses. Meghan has the flu, so we made her stay in bed most of the day, but she has insisted she is going to work tomorrow even though I wish she would take another day off!

June 3^rd:

So - do a good deed today. Write Lisa a letter (Lisa Kaminski % Longacres), or even easier, send an e-mail to her at my email address with Lisa as the subject line and I will print it out and give it to her right away. Tell her some exciting horse story about you recently, or just tell her that soon you will be here at Longacres to bother her and ask her questions and keep her from being lonely.

Thanks,

Tom

May 28^th:

Quantum Leap is Back!!!!

Use the "New May 27^th pics" link in the next paragraph to see a new pic of Quantum taken today and a nice pic of one of our trails taken today.

The first day Quantum was back at Longacres, he must have been tired from the trip or just laid back for some reason. He was so calm and so easy to ride that I was a little worried that he might have lost his competitive edge over the winter when he had ten months off from work. Well, boy was I wrong! When Lisa rode him yesterday, he was chomping at the bit and ready to go. He showed her one or two of his patented "Quantum Leaps" where he suddenly takes a leap forward as he canters! Then James was leading him to his stall and he broke free and pranced out of the barn and ran back and forth along the edge of the pasture. When I caught him he was standing snorting and looking about with his head about ten feet in the air and those huge muscles of his quivering like steel, just as they did in the shows last summer! Yes, the "Real" Quantum showed up at Longacres yesterday.

Other announcements:

URGENT: Please check to see if you have sent in your signed enrollment contracts and your permission slips that were sent to you with your information packets last month. Some of you have not, and we NEED TO KNOW the information on those forms. If you have lost one of the forms, please call us right away. You should have an "Enrollment Contract" form and a form which has a spot for your parents to sign-off on buddy riding, and to tell us if you have your own saddle or not.

Thanks - Tom

May 27^th:

May 26^th, late night:

I just got home from a weekend trip. Lisa and Erika got lots done here at the farm and we will have our first four horses living happily in the barn by tomorrow night. I'll let Lisa and Erika write more details for you all tomorrow morning. More news soon!

• Tom
• PS Below is our 2002 Horse Show schedule. Dates are always subject to weather changes, etc, so before making arrangements to travel to see a show, confirm the date with us.

May 24^th:

Back to a rainy day again, but at least it is still warm. We got the electricity on at the barn, the water running, and hay delivered - guess we are ready for the horses that will be coming this weekend! Meghan and I will be away working Saturday and Sunday, but Lisa and Erika will be holding down the farm. We'll have lots more news for you all when we return on Monday.

May 23^rd:

VAST progress was made on this beautiful day at Longacres. All fields and riding areas are mowed, all the trails have been trimmed and mowed and four or five big fallen trees blocking trails cut up and stacked. Lisa and Meghan were wonderful working right along side me as I cut trees with a chain saw, they dragged the limbs and logs off and stacked them. Lisa also got the stalls ready for the first horses arriving this weekend, Meghan and I went to the feed store and stocked up on feed and bedding. AND to top it all off, Lisa, Erika, and Meghan drove around and Lisa rode four possible new horses!

Did I say that we are exhausted?

More tomorrow - Erika "Chickie" is here for the weekend helping Lisa and Meghan get things ready.

May 22^nd Update:

Here's the horse news from Meghan and Lisa:

May 21^st:

Got LOTS done today! Lisa and Meghan got started on cleaning up and organizing the barn and the dining hall while I mowed the dressage ring and all the trails for the first time this spring. We made arrangements for our first hay delivery and feed drop-off.

May 20^th Update:

Although this three week period of recent awful weather has set us way behind schedule in getting the farm ready for you guys, we should have no trouble in catching up on most of the work. Perhaps the only thing you will notice when you arrive is that the grass on the big show field will still have some clumps of dead grass here and there. We have not been able to get the mowers on that field during these steadily rainy weeks, so when we finally mow it for the first time later this week (hopefully!), there will be clumps of grass left by the mower - even mowing it over two more times before you get here, it is never quite as perfect as I like it once you get this far behind.

But we will get everything painted, all the fences broken by winter storms will be fixed, and the bunks will be all freshly spruced up.

Here's a note from Lisa, who just arrived:

- Tom

May 17^th:

The high point from the past two days was getting a long "get acquainted" email from Nora, who will be here for the full season as a first time Longacres student. Nora writes very well! Perhaps you can help me write articles for the website during the summer, Nora.

The low point? Well during this time of year, that would naturally be maintenance and plumbing problems. But we are making progress - maybe Lisa will even be able to take a shower in camp when she gets here on Monday! But she will be staying up here at the house most of the first week she is here.

Great horse news! We ARE getting Wizard and majic back on loan again this year, and Sierra will be coming for training. We also just got a call from an old friend of the camp who owns a fairly young green broke horse that needs more training. The mare got hurt several years ago and was laid up for more than a year, so lost a lot of time in her training plan. But she is all better now and ready to learn the fine points!

Lisa and Meghan have many horses to look at to buy next week. We hope to have news on that front for you by the end of next week.

More coming soon!

- Tom

May 14^th:

So Whazzzz-up with the weather? When I was on my boat in the Bahamas last month there was a week when it was warmer in new York City than it was in the Bahamas, and I couldn't wait to get back to New York to work around the farm at Longacres. Now it is like winter in the middle of May! Not nice! But I am sure it will get better soon so we can finish all our painting and preparations. We are just trying to finish getting the kitchen and showers open this week so that Lisa can cook and take showers when she gets here in only one more week.

- tsk

May 13^th:

1) Hi Guys - (especially Erika - I got your emails, but it was a crazy week!),

2) Cold and rainy here for a few days, so we should get caught up on our office work.

4) I got back to the farm last night from a weekend working out of town to hear from James that there is a leak in the gas line to the dining hall. Goody! That's why we start getting things ready for you all six weeks ahead of time. So we can have fun fixing things like this and have everything all ready when you get here.

Lots of you have asked to be involved with training some of the new horses we'll have on the farm. That is becoming a more interesting and important part of the program every year and I am glad that you are looking forward to it!

Camp Nowhere! - I turned on the TV last night and stumbled on an HBO showing of the old movie, "Camp Nowhere". A bunch of kids trick their parents into sending them to an abandoned camp where there are no adults, and the fun begins. Well, Longacres is not a place where there are NO adults, and we do have pretty definite structure to the formal instruction part of the riding program. But one of my favorite parent comments from last summer was that, "At Longacres you let the girls have a lot of freedom to work things out among themselves and take responsibility for themselves with adults watching over to step in only as needed". I had similar letters from two different moms of last year's students, and I think it is a good summary of how we work things out. Our Student-Leaders take a lot of responsibility to work with the other kids to plan and take care of the daily schedule and the horses. Our college age instructors this year will be riding and enjoying the horses right along with the rest of the students and working shoulder to shoulder with you. There will be jealousies, little conflicts over who rides what horse, little feuds over who is supposed to take out the bunk trash today, and more. But you will work it out, more often than not without my interference. That's one of the good things about Longacres.

- TSK

May 10^th:

We have heard from just about everyone about their tuition and stuff this week, You all should have gottan packets with your statements and health forms and camp info sheets this week. If anyone did NOT get one, please email or phone and leave a message.

Joyce is Back!!!!

Greatest news for us is that Joyce C. ,our very fine food service provider, has agreed to feed you for a third summer in a row. That was the very last staff question mark hanging over our heads, and we are EXTREMELY pleased to have her at Longacres for another summer!

- Tom

May 9^th Update:

This week has been busy, but it doesn't seem like we've been accomplishing much. It's the kind of week where we spend a lot of time lining up who is going to mow the grass on the big fields, where we're getting hay this year, and fixing leaky water pipes. Nothing that really makes for visible changes around the farm or for more fun riding!

Instructional Video Project:

We are seriously considering making a commercial riding instruction video at Longacres this summer. Some of you would be involved in doing riding demonstrations, and in planning the script and commentary for the video. We have often thought that with the thousands of people who visit our website every year we ought to offer a good horse video for sale. We do quite well with one of our boating books, and ought to take more advantage of our riding experience in the off season. Are any of you interested in working on this?

Who Wants to Train Greenies?

I want to start planning who will be assigned to supervise the training of some of the new young horses we will have in the barn this summer. All of you who are interested will be able to help with training green horses, but several of you will be delegated as primary trainers of one of the horses, like Joetta and Tovah were for Merlin last year. Let me know if you are interested.

- Tom

May 8^th Update:

Hi all,

I've been visiting my parents for the past two days so I wasn't here to answer calls. I am catching up tomorrow. I'm back at the farm and you can reach me all day today (Wednesday) or tomorrow.

• Tom
• PS - Thanks to all of you who left messages about your tuition checks being on the way. No problem, so long as you have left me a message! Thank you!

May 4^th Update:

When Meghan and I were still down south we heard about the very warm spring you were having up here. One week it was warmer in New York than it was for me in the Bahamas! So imagine my shock when I drove across the New York border at the beginning of this week in snow showers! But finally today is a bright, sunny spring day. Just the right kind of day for walking around the farm and planning the spring clean-up fix-up projects. One of the things I enjoy about running Longacres is the project of transforming what is always a beautiful piece of land, but with buildings and fences that always suffer wear and tear during the winter into a showbarn and grounds by the time you all arrive in June.

It's almost like painting a picture. We're very proud of how Longacres looks on opening day with all the brightly colored jumps set up on freshly mowed fields; the barn trim freshly painted, and the horses grazing in the pasture or looking out the dutch door windows of the front stalls. But there is a lot of painting to be done before June 23^rd, both literally, and in organization and repairs. Hurry up and get here Lisa! We can use your help.

May 3^rd Update:

Tuition Payments - JUST CALL!

We've had some frantic phone calls and fed-ex packets as a few of you realized the deadline had passed on you for getting your final tuition payment to us. Don't worry! If you haven't sent the check yet, just give me a call and let me know it is on its way. I am a nice guy, kind of.

May 2^nd Update:

Tuition is due now.

Please remember that tuition was due yesterday, and several have not contacted us. We will save your spots until the end of next week on May 10^th. Please make sure we have received your payment or that you have spoken with us by then. We will be sending reminders along with your 2002 info sheets this weekend.

Instructor Lisa is arriving in only 2 1/2 weeks to help us shop for new horses and start getting the barn ready for the summer. Lisa is bringing two of her own horses up with her for training. I know that she will enjoy talking with everyone who is interested about her training project!

Many of you know Beth Hacket who has judged or announced at many of our horse shows over the years. She has an interesting young horse that we may lease for the summer, so you can see that we are making progress towards adding interesting new mounts to our stable for this season.

Two spots left in second session:

We are full for the first half of the summer, but still have two spots for second session, and space in the pre-season weeks. Several girls are calling and asking me questions, so hopefully the final spots will be spoken for soon.

I'll write more soon.

- Tom

April 29^th Update:

Goodbye to Reggie -

The beginning of the new century is at once an exciting and a sad time for Longacres. It is a time of change.

At the beginning of the 1990's, we had a wonderful string of talented healthy horses. For some time there was no need to buy more. But time does march on and age takes a toll - - (on camp owners, as well as horses!). Over the past three years we have been adding new younger horses to our stable as some of our great stars age. We have welcomed Lucky, Ty, Quantum, Merlin, Bobert, and Kitty as permanent members of our herd, and leased or loaned horses like Wizard, Majic, and Ali.

But we have had to say goodbye to some wonderful old favorites. I have waited until I got home from my trip to announce the loss of "Reggie" aka "Regatta". Reggie showed signs of illness last winter. He got great care from his winter home during his final months, but died in his sleep a month ago. Reggie was such a great horse for us for so long, and so well known as a show horse in western New York that we plan a special memorial page as a tribute. I will put it together over the next couple of days. I'd like to ask some of you who knew Reggie at Longacres to write short paragraphs with your favorite Reggie memories. I'll post them on the Reggie Memorial Page.

Our first job when we returned to Longacres from our travels today was to open the Classified pages of the newspaper and browse the horses for sale column. We will be buying several new horses for Longacres this year, but it will take a long time to find another Reggie.

- Tom Kranz

Longacres is pleased to announce that third year student, LAUREN CYBULSKA, will be joining us this summer as a CIT.

If you happen to have friends who are interested in signing up, we have space in the second four weeks. We are also accepting two more students for short two week session during the last half of the summer. And we have space in the June 17 to 22^nd Clinic week, which now is also a "mother-daughter" week if you want to come and just hang out with horses. From June 23^rd to July 21^st, we are absolutely full.

When we return to Longacres on April 28^th, we will be working hard to find and buy several new horses as well as getting everything ready for the summer. We look forward to hearing from you all then (or SHORT hello's while we are away!)

- Tom

Update Jan. 14th:

UPDATE, January 8th:

UPDATE, January 1st:

UPDATE, Dec. 28, Friday:

10 PM Update:

Update Dec. 24th, 10PM:

Update, Dec. 22nd:

Update, Dec 17th 10PM:

Update December 17th:

Update December 16th:

Great News! Marce Evans agrees to join the Longacres 2002 staff as Instructor / Counselor.

Update December 15th:

Update December 14th:

Update December 13th:

Update December 4th:

Update October 24th:

Update Oct. 21st:

Update, October 20th:

Update October 10th:

Update Oct. 9th:

Update October 1st:

Update Sept 28th:

Update September 11th:

Pride in America

Update Sept. 10th:

Update Sept. 7th:

Update - Sept. 6th:

Want to Visit?

Update - Sept. 5th:

August 29th:

August 26th:

What a Horse Home!

2002 Season Plans:

Final Update August 20th: