October 12:

You're probably familiar with the old saying, "If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it, did a tree fall?"

Likewise, if Tom mows all the grass on all the fields at Longacres so it is a luscious manicured green, but none of you are here to ride on it and appreciate it, did Tom really do anything?

Maybe or maybe not, but at least Meghan and I can drive around the farm and admire our riding fields!

Besides mowing the past two days, we had a long visit with Beck Bates over at Hasty Hills this morning and went over all kinds of things regarding next year's Summer Series shows. We also talked about some interesting news concerning horse shows and new alignments of students and trainers and how that will affect next year's shows.

We also discussed some very interesting new ideas for training programs involving Summer Series show participants. We may have some announcements soon!

More news tomorrow!

PS: It is still very much up in the air whether Claire will be working at Longacres next summer. But as I said yesterday, she and I had a very good talk and think alike about many training issues. When I'm interviewing someone, one of my questions usually includes something like, "How far apart do you set two fences for a five stride line?"

Claire gave the best answer that I can ever remember. Many people either get it wrong all together, or take a minute to think and calculate the proper answer. Not Claire. "Seventy-two feet," she answered instantly. But then she added, "Of course not neccessarily if the fences are only two feet, when it's hard for many horses to make the distance." And then she added, "I was just home recently and judged a small show where the lines were all set for 12' strides. All the trainers were coming up to me and asking, 'You're not going to take off if our kids add strides, are you?'"

That's a very thorough and proper answer to the question about striding. There is no doubt about Claire's technical qualifications for the job. We just have to get to know her a little better before we all commit to a summer working together at Longacres.

October 11:

I just had a long talk on the phone with Claire Taylor who we are considering for next year's head instructor. We have a lot in common and had a great talk. Claire is in the Washington, DC - Maryland area. I know that several of you regular Longacres people are having a get together in that area in the next few weeks. I'd love to have some of you get together with Claire for a visit to fill her in on your point of view on what you want in a riding instructor. Drop me a line if you think that might work out for you.

- Tom

October 10:

It does not look like a group will be able to get together at the Toronto horse show on November 10th. There are too many other things going on.

Griffin Sullivan and some friends are going to the Sport Horse Tournament in Syracuse the week before, and a group of Longacres girls are meeting in Maryland at the end of this month.

If any of you want us to post news about your reunion or horse related field trips, send us the information and we'll post it here.

By the way, Hannah's dad, Mike equaled Susan Sahai for a quick solution of the mountain pass "where in the world" quiz, and Tovah Abrams also came up with the correct answer (Independance Pass in Colorado).

Sept. 16, 9PM:

My favorite picture is of Danita running her big tractor! I like these informal pictures of Longacres people doing their thing at home. I was at first just going to do this album as a special thing for tonight and leave it up only a few days. But I now plan to leave it up all year and keep adding pictures as you send them in to me! Keep them coming. I can't promise that we'll use them all, but we'll post lots of them.

Poor Olivia and her mom have spent a couple of hours sending in some nice pictures, but they came through in a format we can't download for the website. Don't worry, Olivia, we'll post them when you get them to us as .jpg's!

Sept. 16, 3PM:

Hoofprints: If you're working on the trivia quiz, let's assume that in the average lesson on the field there were five horses; that the whole group worked for 20% of the time; and that the rest of the time individuals were working on a course or jumping exercise.

Speaking of lesson plans:

We are always evaluating our riding program in the off season and thinking of ways we can improve. We've thought of something new we can include in many of our lessons. As you know, our lessons often include some time where we take turns riding a jumping exercise. In an ideal lesson, between your turns to jump, you're paying close attention to the rider on course and talking with the instructor and other riders about what's going on with the active rider. But sometimes our attention wanders.

Next summer, our instructors and CIT's will be trained to include a variety of simple dressage, leg yielding, and other simple control exercises for those waiting their turn to ride the jumping exercise. These could be as simple as backing your horse three steps, standing square for a ten count, and walking forward again three steps. More challenging variations would include walking a careful circle from one end of the line to the other with smooth bending turns all the way. Also leg yielding exercises where the whole group in line move their horses a step sideways to the left or the right. These are simple things that will require you to be constantly working and paying attention between jumping rounds (gee, where have you heard that before?!?).

This lesson format will add lots of challenge and make the horses better and it will keep you from getting bored while you wait for your next jumping turn. We might not do this every single lesson or for all of a lesson. But we'll do it a lot.

We're working on your lesson plans year round!

PS - You could do this at home in many of your riding lessons. The most fundamental leg yielding and collection - extension exercises can be done with such subtlety that your instructor might not even realize that you are actively working while you are waiting a turn.

Sept. 15, 6PM:

Claire was here for the Pro-Clinics this year and is interested in one of our final CIT spots for 2008. As you can see from the pictures, she likes ponies! Annie was also here for this year's Pro-Clinics in June, is returning for five weeks next summer, and plans to be a CIT for part of that time. She sent in pictures of Bremmy, one of her favorites at home. Check out her creative jumps! Alexa is a veteran at Longacres, returning for her third season in 2008, and also interested in CIT possibilities.

Keep the pictures coming!

PS - Meghan paid me a nice compliment today. During the summer we seldom work together, since we're each taking care of different responsibilities. But we often work together in the fall when it is just us and a few helpers putting the camp to sleep for the winter. We were draining and closing up the water system with Joel today. When we finished, Meghan told me, "You didn't seem like any 62 year old man today. You were charging around in the lead and I didn't hear you huffing and puffing like you were in the spring!"

Well, Meghan is right. I did feel pretty good today and I was able to do a lot of work. I am in pretty good shape after a season of moving jumps around and helping Meghan run Longacres. I'm about 8 or 9 pounds lighter than back in May and just feel fit.

Sadly, it takes all summer now until I finally feel this good, when I used to get fit after perhaps a month's outdoor work in the spring. And it doesn't last as long in the fall as it once did! But, hey - today I was the man!

Sept. 14, 10PM:

Regarding our "Sept 15 & 16" weekend horse and rider pics album, we'd love to also get pictures from some of our new riders who are coming to Longacres next summer for the first time. Just email us a picture by Sunday night (read about it below).

As promised, below is a picture taken this afternoon on our big show field, with all the jumps put away.

New Trivia Contest:

How many individual separate hoofprints were laid down on our big jumping field during all of the 2007 season? There will be no exact correct answer, but for those of you who like puzzles and math, it presents an interesting problem. We'll leave this one open for a couple of weeks.

Send us not just a number, but your thinking in how to arrive at a good estimate. I'll bet you could do this for a math or science project or report in school.

I will be glad to answer specific questions you may have. Such as, "In addition to all Longacres lessons and practice, there were three horse shows, two small fun shows, and the Bold Jumper Derby held on the field during this season."

Have at it - it's a good challenge! (I'm just beginning to work on my own estimate!)

Sept. 14, 2PM:

News from Longacres today includes the GOOD news that Tom's hayfever season is finally winding down and he is finally feeling human again! We're busy putting things away from the summer, filing our tax returns, and starting to organize the 2008 waiting list, now that all regular season spots are filled. We will take at least two on wait list for each session, since there is always the possibility that some family plans will change over a long winter.

(Did I say "long winter"? Actually, Alexa wrote two days ago and told us that as of that moment, there were 7629 hours left until she returns for her session next summer. And it is less than that for many of you!)

I'll try to post a picture of the show field with no jumps, as I promised Hannah the other day - thanks for your updates on your riding and your favorite horses at home, Hannah!

Picture Album of you guys riding at home this weekend? If some of you can take pictures of yourselves riding or just standing with your favorite horse at home this weekend, we'll post an album on Sunday night or Monday morning. Send us some pictures!

September 13, 1AM:

Good to be home!

September 4, 3PM:

11 PM:

Some big changes in the 2008 Roster just since this afternoon! Check below for the updated roster.

In the meantime, here is a tentative roster for 2008, to give you a good idea of who will be here in each session. A few of these might change, since the following include second choice sessions for some of you, and some may not be able to come at these times. We are trying to email everyone today with an acceptance for 2008 or to tell you that you will have to take a second choice of sessions.

Please note that we have had to decline a couple of requests for the June 22 session even though we do have a spot open for a student age 10 to 12. It is very important to us to keep a quota of spaces open for younger students each year. They are the future of Longacres.

June 9 Pro Clinic Week: Maggie H; Annie H; Hannah S; Regan D; Diana & Ruby D; Kay & Kellie H; Katherine S -

June 16 Mother - Daughter Week: Annie & Paul H; Martha & Ofelia E; Debbie & Shelly K (CIT); Sanna & Robyn L; Kay & Kellie H; Regan D (Hannah?)

July 6 Regular Camp: Hannah S; Emily R; Ofelia E; Andrea B; Shelly K (CIT); Jaclyn S; Robyn L; Griffin S; Laura F; Peyton U

July 23 Second Session: Shelly K (CIT); Robyn L; Rachael E; Michelle K; Alexa R; Carly F; Marta T; Peyton U; Maddie & Amanda R

September 3, noon:

Hi everyone. We hope you're all enjoying a fun holiday. We've had a nice four day break and are feeling much better rested. If it weren't for the fact that this is one of my worst hayfever seasons in many years, I'd be feeling pretty darn good right now! Meghan says she feels like a new person after four days of taking it easy and vacation!

So now it's back to work. We're beginning to put all the jumps away for the winter in the barn. A BIG job! Just from the Jumper Derby decorations, we have 60 bales of hay and the pine boughs from three large trees to move off the field! If I have time today, I'll take a "before" picture of the show field, and then next week an "after" picture after the field is cleared. It's always a sad moment when the final jump leaves the field - we know that the season is over then.

We're also busy back in the office evaluating everyone's 2008 enrollment requests. Some will be very simple. But there are a few sessions in July where we are going to have to look up who registered earlier last year. We're working on it. Also, SOMEONE sent us an express mail over the weekend. We weren't here, so it wasn't delivered, but when we get it tomorrow, it will count as though it was here on September 1st, whoever you are!

We've been behind on answering your emails the past couple of days. Thanks to Peyton for her message - you're going to have to wait another day or so to find out, Peyton! And to Jaclyn who is already worrying about what to pack for camp next summer and who reads the website every day!

And to Hannah who is working on making "RJ" more adjustable. And to Peggy, who is back sleeping to the sounds of midtown Manhatten and hoping to work something out to be at Longacres next summer. And to Robyn and her mom, who have put Ginger in a new barn. And t Ofelia's friend, Emily, who hopes "her spot" in July is safe! And to Mike, who always checks the website and hopes to see pictures of pond day. And to Kim Schwartz from Texas who would be glad to give Quantum a good home for the winter if trucking did not cost so much! And to Uncle Billy who is such a good friend to us and Longacres that he keeps us sane when it seems the world is spinning out of control. We had our first "post season" dinner with Billy last night! And to Emmy, who misses "Q sooooo much" and has watched the online video of herself jumping 4'3" "a few" times! - - - and, yes, Meghan is getting ready to be her "ahem" self - - - - and, NO, Tom is not out of hey-fever-land yet :(

News on formal enrollment acceptances will begin coming soon.

August 31, noon:

We have mucked out the RV from all the hay, horse manure, and junk it collected during the summer transporting you all to horse shows, the mall, and "KONE KING"!! We're heading out for two days at New York State Fair this afternoon. For the first time in five months, we'll be at an event where we have no responsibilities. We just plan to see things and have fun.

We'll be back here Sunday night or Monday and will dive into the pile of 2008 reservation requests. We'll be able to tell you by next Saturday if we are able to give you your first choice of 2008 reservations.

Remember that Quantum has no home. Talk to your friends if you know someone who might want to board him for the winter. Several of you would be excellent prospects, but you already took other horses home when we thought Quantum was going to Tovah where he spends every winter until now.

More news coming Monday.

August 29, 9PM:

Meghan and I did not do much useful work today, besides taking care of Kingsley. We got up late, went out to lunch, and went to a movie. (The one Carly wanted to see - some of it was hilarious, but both of us slept through parts of it, as we always do when we see movies during and immediately after our summer season!)

Quantum:

A stunning change in Tovah's plans may make it impossible for her to take Quantum for the winter, which is what we have been planning on all summer. If her arrangements fall through, Quantum has no winter home, and not everyone is qualified to ride him. If you are interested in having this great horse to ride over the winter, get in touch with us right away. This is a real monkey wrench thrown in our winter horse plans at the last minute.

Hey Peyton,

Nobody told us about the lovely letter you left us at the barn on the day you left until we found it in the office today. Thank you for the nice thoughts! We miss you.

2008 Enrollments:

To give you an idea of where we likely are based on requests with deposit checks already in our office, here is an unofficial list of 2008 availability:

August 28, 1PM:

Meghan is out and about closing up the farm and sending lost clothes home. Tom is trying to cope with a really crummy allergy week :(

August 27, 10PM:

August 27, 4PM:

Nearly all the horses will be gone to their winter homes by tonight. Only Kingsley will be here for a couple more days.

We are very glad to announce that Merlin is going to spend this winter with our good friends at Quakerfield Stables in Orchard Park. If any of our new readers live in the western NY area, we highly recommend Quakerfield for their lesson program. They are outstanding with younger riders and offer great training for all levels of riding. Merlin will be well loved while he is there!

Emmy sets 2007 Longacres Jumping Record!

Check the picture above this article! On her last day at Longacres, Emmy rode Quantum Leap over a 4'3" oxer, the highest any Longacres horse jumped in 2007. A nice end to a summer of great work from Emmy.

August 25, noon:

Everyone has left - sniff, sniff. Carly was the last to pull out a few minutes ago, just behind Andrea. Peggy, Emmy, Meghan, and Tom are the final ones at Longacres. We're busy shipping horses out to their winter homes today and tomorrow, and we'll be packing up all the jumps over the next week. Soon Longacres will be just a memory until we open for the 2008 season at the end of May next spring.

This has been the best season ever at Longacres in many ways. We miss all our 2007 students already. Keep the emails and calls coming!

Emmy will be here until Tuesday morning helping close the barn. Tuesday, Tom and Meghan will sleep - maybe go to a movie - and SLEEP some more!

If you forgot something, email us and we'll see if it's turned up. Final refunds of unused spending and horse show money will be sent out during the next two weeks. Watch the website for the availability of CD's or DVD's of pictures from the summer. And remember that registration for the 2008 season opens in earnest on September 1st. That would be next Saturday, one week from today.

August 23, 7PM:

Tomorrow is the fun show at 11am. We'll see some of you there. Then Longacres is all done for 2007.

August 23, noon:

Our great luck with the weather this week finally ran out. We finished horsecare and mounted for the morning ride, but just then heavy thunder came too close and we got off just before the rain and stormy weather hit. We'll be having a discussion of all we learned in the three guest clinics this week at the barn before lunch.

The rain is supposed to end by three pm, so we should get in afternoon and evening rides.

August 23, 9am:

Our luck with weather continues - severe thunder storms passed just to our south this morning and we heard the heavy thunder, but just got a few drops of rain here. We may still get a line of storms through later this morning.

The weather is turning very hot and humid today - but guess what? Today is our scheduled day for swimming the horses in the pond, so what could be better but a hot day?

It will be hot and sticky for our fun horse show tomorrow, so we may finally be impacted by weather, but this has been a fine week for riding considering the forecast we were looking at back on Monday.

Hard to believe we just have two days left of our 2007 season and that we have to face up to the unpleasant task of telling a few of you we don't have space for you in 2008 at least in your first choice of sessions. We're up to 20 paid deposits for 2008. Be sure to get yours in by Sept. 1st if you want to be considered for a space next summer.

August 22, 9:30 PM:

This picture album is especially noteworthy for the pictures of ten year old Kelly having a reunion with Merlin. Kelly was here with her mom for a week back in June, and fell in love with Merlin then. Kelly's mom gave Kelly the surprise birthday present of a lifetime by flying the two of them all the way from Dallas, Texas just to see Merlin on Kelly's birthday this week!!

In other news, some of us had a special "trotting only high jump" where you had to trot up to the fence and you were eliminated if you cantered more than two strides, knocked the jump down, or had a refusal. Quantum and Ebony tied for the win a 3'3"!!!!! Carly rode Quantum and Hannah rode Ebony. Great rides!

August 22, 1PM:

August 22, 11am:

The big event today is the Becky Bates / Jaime George clinic at 2PM. The girls have been looking forward to this for a long time! Becky is owner and trainer at Hasty Hills show stables, and her daughter, Jaime, is one of the leading professional riders in New York State. Jaime won the high section of the Longacres Jumper Derby a few weeks ago. This should be a fun clinic.

August 21, 9PM:

And on it goes - -

This week was supposed to be pretty rainy, but has been dry instead. We got in five hours of riding today, including the guest clinics and an evening ride where lots of people had a chance to ride Patty, Quantum, ShaBang, and the other difficult horses. One of the features of Lazy Days week is that we're using our best show horses a lot more in regular lessons since we don't have to "save them" for any more shows.

Casey jumped Peppermint Patty, Brianna rode ShaBang, and many others got on horses and ponies they might not normally ride in a lesson. It was a fun night!

I taught a good lesson this morning and part of another with Emmy this afternoon. But I left the evening ride under Meghan's supervision since I'm having a pretty crummy hayfever attack tonight. I took a hot shower, extra medication, and I'm tuning out for the evening. I hope Meghan gets the extra pictures posted for you, and I'll check in with you again with tomorrow morning's "Update".

Weather looks even better tomorrow when Becky and Jaime Bates are giving their guest clinic. More then.

- Tom (cough, sneeze, wheeze!)

August 21, 3PM:

Still no rain - we got in two hours of guest instruction from Barb Glica this morning and the girls are mounting up for the afternoon ride now.

August 21, 11am:

Good luck with weather continues! We had a bareback ride after dinner last night before all heading to Kone King. It is a grey day out now, but no rain and the Barb Glica clinic is right on schedule. She's teaching two small groups this morning. I just got back from the barn where I worked with Jen, Hannah, Jaclyn, and Regan and Carly on "elevated cavaletti". We raised our long line of trotting poles (see yesterday's photo's) about 8 inches off the ground and trotter through them. Brody took to it right away. The rest were all kicking poles and tripping at first, but by the time we did a variety of extension and collection exercises, every rider made a perfect pass through! We had a good time with that exercise! More later - maybe only a few pictures today, since the heavy cloud cover makes for poor photography.

August 20, 4PM:

OK, we are a little damp now! The heavy rain continues all around Longacres, to the south mostly, and we have still not had more than sprinkles here. But they have become continuous, and we got a little wet doing the guest clinic this afternoon. But do it we did! Diane gave a good lesson, and we have lost no riding time yet today. We'll wait and see what happens after dinner, though. We might end up with an alternate activity for the evening. (Kone King, anyone??!??)

Actually, Diane has stayed after the riding portion of the guest clinic, and she and Meghan are leading a discussion on careers in horsemanship after the horses are put away for the afternoon.

The weather for the rest of the week looks promising. There is 70% chance of rain overnight, but then only 30% each day for the rest of the week. We should have no trouble getting in most of our scheduled rides and guest clinics.

August 20, 2PM:

Really weird weather! But so far to our advantage. Radar shows moderate to heavy rain in every direction now - BUT not here at Longacres. I suppose we're bound to get it soon, but our afternoon guest clinic begins in just 30 minutes, and it looks like we're going to get in at least part of the schedule! Keep your fingers crossed - we've had better luck than we could hope for so far today!

August 20, 11:30 AM:

With luck, the weather will hold and we'll get in our guest clinic this afternoon.

We jumped some pretty good size oxers in the lesson this morning (check out the Dakota picture!). The girls are taking advantage of the unexpectedly good weather (sun is actually poking through as I write) to go on an extra trail ride after this morning's lesson.

All the girls (and guys!) are doing well so far. The group is getting along well together and after watching the video last night of everyone, we're getting a good idea of what each rider should be working on this week.

- Tom

August 19, 4PM:

Lazy Days is under way.

Hi Diane,

If you're reading this, your Quakerfield students are representing you well! Casey and David are fitting in just as you said they would, and Andrea and Jaclyn are mischievous as usual between rides, but working hard in their lessons!

Regan drove in to Longacres herself in her convertible, and Hannah and her dad arrived at the same time. Tom just got back from the airport with Brianna, and she is getting on with everyone else for the afternoon lesson as I write. Jen and Emmy are getting used to doing things without Mandy watching over them.

I've been at the airport for several hours, but Meghan tells me everyone was bonding very well at lunch, and as I walked into the barn a few minutes ago, I was greeted by squeels of fun and excitement as a large "sword fight" with crops was just winding down before the afternoon ride. High spirits, indeed!

More later!

August 18, 1PM:

Most of the girls from this past session have gone, though Emily and Peyton are hanging around an extra day to help us over the weekend. Carly arrived a few minutes ago, to hugs and shouts from the girls who knew her last summer!

Uncle Billy is taking us all out to a Pizza Hut dinner tonight and we may have a big bonfire when we get back to the farm - it's going to be a cold night, and the fire sounds good!

The horses from the Quakerfield crew are arriving to get used to their stalls in an hour or so, and their riders will be here tomorrow, along with the rest of the "Lazy Days" crew. Except for Peggy, who will be coming in on Monday. And we have a surprise visitor in the middle of the week coming from FAR away just to prove she belongs in the ILMFC!

Meghan and I do get to relax a bit this afternoon before charging ourselves up for one more great week at Longacres before we put all the jumps away for the winter.

Oh, yeah - one more thing: How lucky do you think a girl is if her parents show up at Longacres on the last day to pick her up and say, "Well, sure, we could take your favorite horse home for the winter." Carolyn is taking Brody home for the winter to continue the good training she and the rest of you gave him this summer. Brody will be spending the winter about 50 miles north of NYC. Way to go, "C.C."!

August 18, 8AM:

Check the new picture at the top of the page with all but two of the ribbons from the fair up. Today is "goodbye day" for most of you. The only thing that keeps it from being too sad is that many are returning for next year. We already have 16 paid deposits on file for the September 1st opening of the 2008 enrollment season.

We likely will not post here again until Sunday evening when our new students for Lazy Days week are all here.

August 17, 10PM:

We had a fun last day, with all the girls jumping pretty big this morning, and then an EXCITING (Carolyn and Marta!!!!!) pond riding afternoon! We just got back from a final trip to the fair with no horses - just for fun on the midway and at the exhibits.

Big jumping went well, and convinced us more than ever that when Quantum has to retire as our top-gun jumper, we have worthy replacements in Brody and Horatio. Brody and Horatio both jumped between 3'9" and 4', and they made it look effortless. Horatio could easily have jumped 4'6", but I did not want to push him since he has been so wonderful this summer. Same with Brody - - I am sure he can jump well over 4'.

Quantum and ShaBang also jumped the big heights. How many summer riding camps can boast at least four solid 4' jumpers in their string of horses?

Pond riding was exciting as always - first Marta lost her balance trotting through deep water and rode out of the pond hanging on around Merlin's neck and with one foot hooked over his back like a trick rider! It was hilarious! She let go and fell gently after she was safely back on dry ground. Carolyn knew that Brody might jump in suddenly, and sure enough, he did. She went off with a big splash and came up out of the pond scum with a big grin on her face shouting, I have first dibs on the showers!!!!!!

The girls are doing a good job on the four cabin placques to hang permanently in the dining hall. One for the girls who were here in May and June early bird weeks; one for the July sessions; and one for each Esserress and Pegasus bunks for this session. The girls here next week for Lazy Days can add their names and finish them off.

It was a full and exciting last day of our regular season. It's sad to be saying "goodbye" to 11 girls tomorrow and Sunday, but we're looking forward to a relaxed and fun filled week coming up. The Quakerfield Crew is moving in over the weekend, and we welcome back Peggy, Hannah, and Regan from the beginning of the summer, along with Carly from last year, and one new student. Sounds like a fun week, with lots of special rides, and three Pro Guest Clinics. Diane from Quakerfield will be here Monday; Barb Glica from BZG Stables on Tuesday, and Jaime AND Becky Bates on Wednesday. We expect some rain on and off, which we desparately need, but no total washouts on any one day.

August 16, 11PM:

A new Record!

Longacres won 62 ribbons at this year's Erie County Fair, 7 more than ever before! Great riding, girls.

Following is a list of the various ribbon winners at the three day show, thanks to Carolyn for the reporting and typing!

August 16, 1PM:

A quick mid-day bulletin from the Fair:

Longacres OWNED the jumper ring this morning! We won three out of the four jumper classes we entered, and with 52 ribbons on the banner, we're within a handful of breaking our all time record of 55 set last year. We had five classes to go when I came home to get the tack trailer a half hour ago, so there's a good chance of a new record.

Peppermint Patti is Beginner Jumper champion one more time, winning two 1st's and a 2nd in her division. Way to go, Robyn!

Jen Levy had a great show, but some bad luck with a rail falling here and there the first two days. Not today - she won her first class on ShaBang, then came back and won her second on Quantum! You go, girl!

More news to come later - I have to get back to the fair.

- Tom

August 15, 7PM:

We had another great day at the fair. We've won six blues, six seconds, and many more ribbons. I think 32 in all for two days of showing. We may not break out all time high of 55 or so set last year, but we should come very close! We're in a good position to win at least the Beginner Jumper Championship, and perhaps more.

We'll try again to post a smaller picture album here later tonight. Keep your fingers crossed that I get it right!

August 14, 9PM:

We just finished a laughter filled video session, watching the tapes of today's show. There were serious moments as we studied today's jumping mistakes in slow motion. But there was plenty of light hearted banter and good spirits! We should be ready to go first thing tomorrow morning at the show. Everyone is getting to bed early tonight, so we'll also be better rested than we were today. More tomorrow!

- Tom & Meghan

PS - pictures coming soon tonight

August 14, 7PM:

Just last night - which seems like forever ago - I was writing to you about how nervous all our horses and riders were their first night practicing at the fair. And about how I said aloud to myself, "Maybe this just won't be our year at the fair." Brody and Horatio were the worst last night, with Brody scooting all over spooking from everything new, and Horatio just terrified of the whole fair experience.

But I shouldn't have worried. We put lots of special effort into schooling Brody and Horatio as well as all the other horses. And wouldn't you know it, today Brody and Horatio were two of our biggest stars!!!!! Other stables and trainers were asking, "Who are those two neat new horses you have at Longacres?"

Brody won two seconds, one in a hunter class and one in a BIG jumper class, with Carolyn Costa - GO "CC"!!!!!!!! Horatio did not win ribbons, but was superb in both the hunter and jumper rings with Emily Petermann. Honest to goodness, people were asking us where we got these two horses!!!!

Oh, Yeah - Robyn won a first in Jumpers on Peppermint Patti - About the millionth blue in Patti's long history. And Peyton won blue on Brownie in pleasure horse. We'll post the rest of Longacres' wins in a couple of hours.

All in all, another GREAT show day for Longacres riders!!!!!!!!!

August 13, 11PM:

Things are looking up as I write this. The horses were a little nervous when they got to the fair this afternoon as they reacted to all the people, all the noise from the midway, and all the other hundreds of new horses around them. And our riders were very nervous! The combination made for some bad rides when we first mounted up, and I said to myself, "Oh, my! This year may be a disaster at the show for us."

But I remember saying that to myself almost every year when we first get to the fair. But we try not to panick. We patiently work the horses around and around and trot over fence after fence until the horses and riders both calm down and realize that all we're doing is more of the same thing we've trained at all summer long. It's jsut that the surroundings are very different. And slowly at first, and then more easily, everyone begins to calm down and ride.

Horatio was the worst. He was absolutely trembling with nerves and fright. We put Jen on him, and I worked with her closely for almost an hour. By the time we were finished, he was almost back to the honest, bold young thoroughbred he is at Longacres. Peyton got back on and had him go pretty well, and then Emily rode him some more. Emily finally put in a terrific round jumping him at the end of the evening.

The same with most of the other horses and riders to a lesser degree. Most started rough, and finished relaxed and smooth. Things look promising for the first day of the show tomorrow!

We won't be surprised if there are some rough edges the first day. But I fully expect everyone to have good rides and success before the end of the show on Thursday! More news coming tomorrow - I predict some ribbons, even at this big "A" show!!!

- Tom

August 13, 3:30PM:

Great excitement as the first load of horses and riders pulled away in the horse vans a few minutes ago. The Erie County Fair is one of the largest fairs in the USA, with just over or under 1,000,000 people coming through the gates during the 12 day fair! There is too much to see and do to possibly experience everything in the few days we are there, but the girls will try.

Tom put a little extra pressure on Meghan and the girls today, by insisting that we finish the traditional cabin plaques this week that we've been putting off again and again until "next week" all summer long. Those of you who have gone home know what I'm talking about - - - the signs on the walls of the dining hall with the names of everyone who was here each year, along with a themed bit of art work. We took the bare wood plaques to the fair and I am insisting the basic art be penciled in while we are at the show. We'll finish painting and decorating when we get back on Thursday. It is an extra thing to have to schedule time for the next three days, but everyone will be very glad that we did when they are done and when you come back to Longacres to visit in future years.

We are doing four plaques; one for those of you who came in May and June; one for the June 24 to July 19 sessions; and one for each bunk this session. (I wish "artists" Hannah and Regan were here now to help!!!! They're good at art work! They will be here for Lazy Days next week, and perhaps they can add something when they get here.) If any of you at home want to contribute, take a little piece of card stock, 1 inch by 2 inches, put your name on it and any art wqork you can fit, and send it in this week. We can glue your contribution onto the plaque for your session!

- Tom

August 13, noon:

We won't have time to give you long updates during the fair the next three days, but I will try to post some pictures and a very short bulliten about midnight every night after we get home from final horse check in the barns at the fair. A few of the girls will be staying at the fair in the motor home every night so they can get up early to feed the horses.

The rest will get up early to take care of the horses still here at Longacres and then ride over with Meghan or I to the show. It takes some complicated scheduling!

The weather looks great for the week. Mostly sunny skies with lower humidity and steadily dropping temperatures, mostly in the 70's and down to a high of only 70 by the end of the week. Possibly a scattered shower, mostly at night Tuesday night and Thursday night. All in all, fine fair weather!

A Big Thank You to Quakerfield!

Thanks to all the customers from Quakerfield Stables who were sponsors of all the horse show divisions at this year's Summer Series Awards Party!!!! Thanks to Quakerfield for loaning us some of their jumps for the Derby. And especially to Diane, who tirelessly keeps Quakerfield the friendly, relaxed place that it is. You guys have all been great partners in the 2007 Summer Series and we look forward to showing with you all again next year. I was returning jumps to Quakerfield this morning and watched Diane do what she does so well - - work with really young riders who will be showing with us before you know it in the coming years.

Longacres closes before Labor Day. Quakerfield is open all year round, and we highly recommend their lesson program for any of our readers who live in the Buffalo area. They often have a waiting list, but get you name on it! They run a fine operation in Orchard Park!

- Tom Kranz

August 12, noon:

And here are results of our very impressive showing effort at the Derby:

More News Later Today!!!

- Tom

August 10 , midnight:

Many other Longacres riders did VERY well, and we'll discuss them in tomorrow's update. There are many great stories from the day. One of the most impressive statistics is about the success of the NYS Team Jumping Championship that was part of our program. We had 28 horses entered in the one class, probably the largest single jumper class in Western New York in many years!!!!!!

More details and winners names tomorrow.

Good night.

- Tom & Meghan

August 9, 11PM:

Don't expect any news tomorrow, but we should have lots of pictures, and with some luck, news of Longacres girls winning Derby ribbons on Saturday. During the day on Saturday we'll take a deep breath, a short rest, and dive into preparations for Erie County Fair coming up in just a couple more days! Yikes, what a week!

August 8, 9PM:

August 8, 1:30 PM:

Of all the luck, I came down with a nasty sinus infection yesterday morning. It knocked me right down yesterday and especially last night. But I quickly got on medication and I am feeling better all ready. I managed to climb out of bed and teach the girls a Derby prep lesson this morning, with a lot of joking about watching out for my judgement because of all the drugs I'm on! Meghan is being magnificent, as always, handling all the arrangements setting up for the Derby and watching out for the girls while I rest to try to get in shape for the big Show.

August 7, 7PM:

Longacres wierd weather experience for 2007 continues. Widespread rain crossed western NY today, but we had only widely scattered showers. Barely enough to soften the ground and green up our grass. We hope we get some more over night. The girls rode all day. They were in great spirits just before dinner. Meghan went down to the barn to give them a message, and as she walked down the hill to the barn, loud, funky music was playing. She turned the corner in the barn door, and there were seven of the girls in a circle on the cement dancing their hearts out!

August 6, 10PM:

Just got home from a WILD trip to Kone King! Talk about "sugar highs!!"

Great spirits all the way around in spite of some difficulties riding the course in tonight's practice. More coming tomorrow. Be sure to read the above weather discussion if you are considering coming to the Derby.

Aug. 6, 5PM:

- Tom

And in riding news, I report that we're at the time of year when we have a real balancing act to pull off. We try hard to give our students as close to the promised five hours a day as possible. But in this second session, we put a lot of importance on numerous special events like the Derby this week and the Erie County Fair show next week. There is often a need to rest and preserve horses for these big events. That's why we have nearly two horses for every rider at Longacres. We're doing more trail rides, more training sessions with the young horses, and more drills on certain skills for each individual this week.

Last night the girls were up very late watching their horse show videos, so we let them sleep in this morning and skip the first ride. The decision was very popular with the girls, but Meghan always worries when they don't get their full schedule of riding in. Meghan is especially sensitive to any suggestion that we don't deliver everything we promise in our advertising! So cut her a little slack if you sense in our daily news that we haven't ridden a full five hours. The girls seem happy and we are trying to keep them and the horses from wearing out with all the special events this month.

And there will be many more special events in the coming weeks. The Derby, Erie County Fair, Big Jumping day, pond jumping, and much more. Stay tuned.

Aug. 6, 2PM:

Hope you all enjoyed Meghan's big picture album from last night. Pictures will be a littl sparce this week, since we are working dawn til dusk getting ready for the show. We'll try to post an update at least daily.

We've got the Derby course set up now and will be doing our dress rehearsal ride tonight after dinner. Everyone practiced little bits of it this morning. Meghan and her team of helpers will be doing lots more work dressing up and decorating all the jumps every day until the show.

Check the red announcement above: looks quite likely that the show date will change due to weather.

Aug. 5, 5:45 PM:

The girls are back from town and we had some good talks. Everyone wants to stay here and has pledged to follow the rules. We will be offering a little tighter supervision over the next few days to reinforce those good intentions.

Derby horse assignments will be given out at dinner. Nearly everyone will ride in at least two Derbies and will be on horses they have done well with this week.

Aug. 5, 2PM:

The sun will still come up tomorrow and the world will still go around if two teenagers get caught sneaking a cell phone where they're not supposed to have it. No big deal about using a cell phone.

The big deal is trust, and at a small family farm like Longacres we rely heavily on trust that the older girls will be cooperative with our policies and set a positive example for the rest of our little family. It is a big deal to Meghan and I when that trust is broken.

We dropped the girls off at the laundromat, explained the problem without naming those who are suspected of breaking the rules, and asked them to have a group discussion after they started their laundry. Robyn just phoned us and said that, "The two girls who used the phone wish to speak to us when we pick them up in two hours." We will evaluate what they have to say.

Parents should take note that our no cell phones between field trips policy is fully explained in our welcome packets. We have had parents in the past who really wanted their kids to have their phones with them while they are here. We make no exceptions to this rule for any reason.

Aug. 5, noon:

2) This afternoon will not be the most cheerful at Longacres. We are a family and we pride ourselves on letting the kids have fun and simply enjoy their summer around horses. But we are also educators, and when the fun goes too far and some of the girls lose sight of the ground rules for running a good and safe program, we need to go back to basics and set the limits more clearly. That will be done in a half hour and the girls will be given the afternoon to think about the next two weeks. - - - and to consult with their parents if they feel they need guidance. This is a good group of girls who try hard and get along well with each other. But I will expect them to do better at a few things for the rest of the summer.

As you may guess, there is a specific rules infraction that lead to this moment - but it is more than the two or three involved in this one situation. We are a family at Longacres, and all members of the family bear some responsibility if some go astray. I will give you more details later, but want parents at home to have a heads up that morale may vary during this afternoon's phone calls.

August 5, 8am:

August 4th, 11:30 PM:

More tomorrow!

August 4th, after midnight:

We just got back from running the Monster Truck show at Cattaraugus County Fair - something we once did often, but now only once or twice a year. It was a huge success! Thanks to Shelly, Emily, and Peyton for coming and helping us - they got free rides in a Monster Truck and lots of souvineers.

We had no messages from Mandy about any problems so we assume all went well on the farm today. We'll get the details on the way to the show tomorrow morning. We'll give you folks at home a report on the show tomorrow evening.

Good Night.

August 3rd. noon:

August 2, 11:30am:

August 2, 9am:

Then it's off to air conditioned mall and dinner out! Tomorrow the temperature and humidity let up just a little and we will be over the worst of this heat wave. Lake Erie breeze also helps us out the rest of the week.

August 1, 1PM:

It's a hot one today! We got both lessons in this morning, including everyone practicing the bank jump for the Derby. We'll be going to Kone King after lunch and then watchng a lot of video from the past two days in the air conditioned video room. We'll have a relaxed ride to the hunt course later this afternoon and ride again after dinner.

The featured riders of the day ar Cara and Carolyn, who have been doing a good job riding Harmony and Brody respectively. I kept them both after the morning lesson finished and set up a good size line with solid three foot jumps. They both did very weel, getting the striding right their first try. They may show these horses in one of the high Derbies! Check the picture album from today.

July 31, 9PM:

Longacres sends out a "hello" to Nadine Rappaport Pillinger, an alumni from 1972 - 73 who wrote in a "do you remember me?" tonight. I do for sure, although for a moment I had her confused with another Rappaport (Octavia) from about the same period in Longacres history. We've had a run of Longacres Alumni messages recently including old pictures from Joanna Schaefer and Dena Merlin, also from quite a few years ago. It is strange to remember these young girls - girls who were teens when I was quite a young man myself. I am now old, so that makes them - - what would we say, "in the prime of their lives?" Nadine, Joanna, and Dena, you will always be vibrant young teenagers to me!

- Tom

PS - Nadine - I only just sold the old Corvette last fall!

July 31, 11am:

POSSIBLE VACANCY: One of this session's students may be leaving early this weekend, which would open up a spot for the final two weeks of the season. If any of our readers out there are in a position to make plans quickly to come for a two week session including the Jumper Derby and Erie County Fair, give us a call. If we fill the spot, we can give the family with changed plans a refund, and help them out, along with offering a fun two weeks to someone else.

We've had great riding weather here for most of the summer, but this is shaping up to be our first really warm week, with temperatures in the 90's expected for Thursday. We're toughing it out today with our full riding schedule. Tomorrow we'll shorten our mid day rides a little and have a longer evening ride with more jumping after dinner. Thursday we may go to a "plan B" day, getting up very early for a cooler before breakfast ride, and we have a long planned field trip in the hot afternoon already, as luck would have it.

July 31, 8am:

The younger girls from Pegasus bunk had a special ride last night under a brilliant full moon. They had a chance to canter and to jump a small white cross rail that seemed as bright as day in the moonlight. Some of the older girls may have a chance to do the same thing tonight, but for the older girls, a little more sleep is sometimes more attractive than the night rides!

While on the subject of vacancies, we welcome Andrea who has just signed up to return to Longacres for a second time this summer. Andrea will be joining us again for the Lazy Days week. That leaves us just two more spots for that week in August.

July 30, 6PM:

How many jobs or places around Longacres can you describe where we have made a repair this season that is underground, part of the ground, or new ground (gravel or dirt put someplace)?

I am betting on Mike and Hannah to come up with an impressive list! Winner to be announced in two days.

July 30, 2PM:

We're also beginning to do quite a few two and three person "buddy trail rides" this week, once the girls get to know the trails and the horses well enough and we feel we can trust them to ride safely.

July 29, 9PM:

We had a very relaxing day at Longacres, with some of our new girls doing their laundry by themselves for the first time in their lives. I cracked up listening to older teenagers calling their moms and saying, "HELP! - Can I put my britches with my colored load?" The girls who've been here and are Laundromat experts helped the newcomers and everything worked out. We went to "Town Day" earlier than usual and got back with plenty of time to relax and a few went creek swimming. They were in fine spirits after dinner. Meghan gave them an earlier than usual curfew, so we should be well rested to begin the new week tomorrow morning.

Derby Day, August 10th:

A number of you are planning to visit Longacres for the Derby Day festivities and Summer Series horse show Awards Party. It's a great time for parents to experience Longacres, with a very special Jumper Derby horse show and lots of pageantry. We have a Bagpipe band for the ceremony, and a country music band for the party. It is a BIG social event in the western New York horse world.

If you come, bring a few extra dollars in "play money". We hold a Calcutta Auction with one of the high jumping classes in the evening, where we auction off the winners rights of each horse. All the money goes in a jackpot, and if you were the high bidder on the winning horse, you get the pot! Families often band together in "syndicates" and share the bidding cost and split any winnings. It's a fun part of the night, with the winner usually taking home well over $1000.

If you can make it, we'd love to have you see Longacres at it's most exciting time!

July 28, 10PM:

We had a laughter filled traditional dinner at Pasquale's and then came home to watch the videos. Meghan is serving a "Cookie Cake" party downstairs right now as I write this update. Many of you have talked with your students on the phone tonight when they had their cell phones, and a couple of you even exchanged real time emails with a couple of the girls who used my iPhone at the restaurant!

More coming tomorrow!

- Tom

July 27, 8PM:

We've had more of Longacres' 2007 good luck with the weather. We heard thunder passing all around us, but no thunder storms hit here, and only a few brief light showers. The show is on as planned at Quakerfield tomorrow. We will post something again late tomorrow night after the show and our traditional "show day dinner" out at Pasquale's. Wish us good luck!

July 27, 9AM:

Except for the pictures coming soon from the party, we won't be taking so many today. First of all, we really spoiled you all yesterday! And second, it is going to be a rather dreary day today. The good news is that most of the rain will have moved through overnight, and we expect decent weather for the horse show tomorrow.

If we were to get this weather next week, we'd probably head for town in the afternoon for a movie and some civilization fun. But it's only the third day of this session, so we'll stay at Longacres to get all our new students more fully settled in and if it rains too hard to ride, we'll hold some seminars on horsemanship, and perhaps hold the barn olympics that we planned last month.

More later.

July 26, 8PM:

The skies are already brightening to the southwest, so I think the worst of the rain has passed through. The fire is all stacked with a tarp over it, so Smores are still in the cards!

July 26, 6:30 PM:

Hey, Andrea and Jaclyn,

If you're reading this, we're still planning the party, even if it rains a little. We'll only cancel it if it is raining hard right at 8:45 to 9 when we're planning to start the fire. If the rain is tapering off then, we're having fire, smores, and CHOCOLATE!!!!!!! See you guys in a couple of hours! (Rain is coming in as I write this, but there is a good chance it will be over by 9PM.

July 26, Noon:

We had good lessons in both rings this morning with Tom and Mandy working together to further evaluate our new second session riders while giving a few challenges to the girls who have been here all summer. Some of the more experienced riders did an exercise jumping with no reins right before and over the jump - harder than you might think!

Cara is planning to begin working with the young thoroughbreds and the new grey Percheron mare soon.

July 25, 11PM:

July 25, 10PM:

We finished watching today's videos just a little while ago and said "good night" to the girls as they walked back to the cabins under a bright moon. Everyone was connecting with someone at dinner and during evening ride. Some of the jitters of the first ride on new horses at a new place had worn off by tonight, and I saw some nice riding as I sat on my tractor and watched both lessons after dinner. Meghan and I feel good about this session. We do miss the little girls we had last month. Andrea, Kate, Olivia, and Laura gave us great spirit and enthusiasm. Except for Michelle (who is nearly a teen), all the girls this session are older.

July 25, 1PM:

July 24, 10PM:

Well, we enjoyed a day and a half of rest, but now back to work! We drove the girls up to Niagara Falls today for a quick look. We didn't do any touristy stuff - just watched a lot of water go over a cliff!

A business friend of mine is a manager at an amusement park near the falls, Fantasy Island. I had to stop for a short meeting with him on the way. When I told him I couldn't stay long because I was driving 6 kids up to the falls, he said, "Oh, here's some free passes." Great. So on the way home from the falls we stopped back and the girls spent an hour going on free amusement park rides and so forth!

We can't wait to see the three girls who are first timers at Longacres tomorrow, along with returning students Alexa, Michelle, and Cara.

And, yes, I am back at work. The grass is looking great with the rain we've had recently, so I decided I better have it all trimmed for tomorrow and I ran the mower until after dark. Back here to the house where Meghan is making "lists", and I'm sitting here updating the website.

July 24, 7am:

This is one more example of the great team work in the Summer Series in western NY, especially between Longacres and Quakerfield. There is a huge group of great customers and staff at Quakerfield that has supported the Summer Series in every possible way this summer. Just check the Sponsors page on the show news web page - it is almost all Quakerfield people! And they are always out in force at all the shows, riding great and showing good sportsmanship. Good people to have in a show series partnership! And we are all good friends off the show field. The whole Quakerfield crew is coming to Longacres Thursday night for a bonfire and smores party! See you guys then!!!!!

NOTE: If this show is moved and becomes a Longacres show, we plan a non-points fun show at Quakerfield late in the week of August 18 to 25th.

July 23, 11am:

Check out the great picture of Jen and ShaBang at the top of this page! 

Well, ok - I couldn't stay away from the computer for a full day! The girls are on their own relaxed schedule for three days. All they have to do is feed the horses when they choose and sleep as late as they choose. I'm driving them over to the Border's Plaza and movie theater this afternoon when they tell me, and we're all having dinner at Friday's with Uncle Billy tonight. Tomorrow another "BIG SLEEP", then maybe a quick trip to Niagara Falls. At least three of the girls have never been there. And then on Wednesday we get to meet our new crew for second session and two new horses!!!!!!!!!!

Thursday night is a joint bonfire and smores party with Quakerfield Stables, then just two more days until the next horse show on Saturday.

- back to relaxing now for me!

July 22, noon:

Sad "goodbyes" have been said to Olivia, Danita, Laura, Andrea, Kate, and Maddie. You guys were wonderful at Longacres and first session 2007 will always be remembered with you as part of it. We do not plan to update the website regularly during mid session break over the next three days - it will include a lot of SLEEPING for all of us! I will probably have withdrawal symptoms and post something from time to time, but the next regular update will be Wednesday night when our second session students arrive.

Also, a special "hello" to an old friend from my younger days at Longacres, Laurie Christiansen, who was at Longacres in a memorable way in 1971 to 1974. She saw us on the internet and called to say hello and share old memories. Thanks, Laurie!!!!!!

- Tom

Special: Longacres - Quakerfield bonfire and Smores party here Thursday night!

July 21 midnight:

It was a LONG day of horse show! We left first thing in the morning and did not get home until after dark. Many of our riders did great things! Olivia, Kate, and Andrea all did jumpers for their first or second time ever. There were lots of jumper courses to learn in a hurry. The girls did a fine job learning their first course, but there was confusion by the time we got into our second or third rounds. Still, we won lots! Jen and Shabang won a big Schooling Jumper class with lots of competition!

July 20, 10PM:

July 20, 7PM:

After practicing for the show this afternoon and many of them jumping Patti, ShaBang, and Quantum this morning, the girls were in a GRAND mood at dinner tonight. Shelly's dad, Rick, was visiting and he was a very good sport about all the hooting and hollering and other exuberence in the dining hall!

They ar down at the barn now having mounted games to relax them before the show tomorrow.

We worked with Andrea and "Dakota Gold" ( see picture above) this afternoon doing all kinds of things to make him want to run out on the practice jumps while Andrea rode her hardest to keep him from running out. She got it done pretty well. I told her that tomorrow in the Pony Hunter classes, she is supposed to ride at every jump imagining Tom standing in front of it jumping up and down and waving his sweater in the air! Hopefully that will give her the Gr-r-r-r-r she needs to have clean rounds with no refusals.

July 19 - 1PM:

During this second ride, we had our annual chance for some of our younger and smaller less experienced riders to get on what Laura and her mom call, "The Big Three", Patti, Quantum, and ShaBang. Laura rode all three of them! So did Jaclyn, Olivia, and Danita rode Quantum. Andrea, Kate, Peyton, and Maddie will be riding them tomorrow. (Maddie already rides them some, but will get an extra chance tomorrow before she leaves.)

How tough are Longacres girls? 11 year old Jaclyn came to visit just overnight and through noon today to get to know us a little before she returns for Lazy Days week in August. With the dreary weather and the horse care work in the rain this morning, I was worried that Jaclyn's first taste of Longacres would be tempered a bit by the bad weather and she might have second thoughts about coming back for Lazy Days. I shouldn't have worried. When I showed up at the barn in the rain between morning rides, Jaclyn came up to me and asked, "Can I stay here with you guys all day today?" Our answer was, "Yes", of course - Jaclyn is our kind of horse person!

July 18th - 11PM:

July 18, 10PM:

WE welcomed Jaclyn today for a short overnight visit to get acquainted with everyone before she returns for Lazy Days week in August. She already seems right at home. She should - like Andrea, she shows at Longacres all the time and lives nearby!

Tomorrow morning we'll have a special chance for the less experienced riders to get on "the Big Three" as they have come to be known. Quantum, ShaBang, and Patti will show their stuff to riders who do not usually have a chance to be on this kind of horse! There is excitement in the air! You can bet that our cameras will be there!

July 18, Noon:

July 18, 11 AM:

I am especially pleased with the progress of Danita, and Kate rode very well this morning. The others, also, but special mention of Kate and Danita - check out Kate on the BIG horse!

July 17, 8PM:

We're getting some needed rain this evening. We got in a full day of lessons and the girls were just beginning the after dinner ride to finish today's in camp combined training event as the drizzle began.

I hope you''ll forgive us for not posting any pictures today - we put up a ton of them yesterday. I spent this morning taking video instead. I taught for two hours in a row this morning and was able to work extensively with all the girls. We did a fun timed ride over a serpentine course, as I video taped so they will later be able to analyze their form while they are riding hard for time. It was also an exercise in leads.

The weather here will be unsettled for the next three days. We expect only spotty showers tomorrow and should get in most of our riding. We likely will be able to ride Thursday morning, as well. Thursday afternoon looks like the heaviest steady rain period. Fortunately we had already scheduled a field trip that afternoon to see the Harry Potter movie, so we'll keep our fingers crossed that it pours while we are out of camp anyway. Friday will be a little better, and there is a good prospect of nice weather on the weekend for the next show.

After working with the kids all morning, I spent the afternoon getting caught up on office and computer work. That stuff continues to go on while we run our riding program.

We also manage the South Towns Summer Series of horse shows and we keep track of all the points and plan the high score awards party. Meghan spent the afternoon checking points for all our leading riders on the circuit. Busy day! You see why there aren't any pictures!

More tomorrow! (See you tomorrow PM, Jaclyn!)

July 16, midnight:

Everyone has been in bed a while now, except us. It's been a long day, but a good one. We feel blessed that Longacres is doing so well, with so many happy girls here and so many families at home eager to make plans for next year. As you regular readers know, we've made many improvements around the farm this year, and it is a joy to us sometimes to take a late night drive around the farm after everyone is in bed, just looking at the results of all the work we've put into the place. It is rewarding.

July 16, 1PM:

Expect more updates today and lots of fun news this week. This is the last week of the first half summer session, and we're piling on a lot of special events. We'll have pond riding, a combined training event, and this morning we had a high speed gymkhana out on the galloping field where the girls had a chance to really turn their horses loose!!!! Fun, wow, whooo-hoooooo!

For the Events, we have two ability groups, temporarily called the "Speed Merchants" and the "Death Riders"!

In today's timed event they ran 100 yards leading their horses, mounted, trotted back 100 yards without cantering (or a five second penalty), then turned and GALLOPED 100 yards to the finish!

For the "Speed Merchants", the total times, including a warm up trotting only race were as follows:

Emmie on Quantum - 97.88 seconds

Robyn on Ginger - 100.91

Shelly on Jenna - 103.66

Mandy on Brody - 109.08

Maddy on Ho-ho - 110.05

Jen on Aleeta - 115.08

Emily on Patti - 116.94

For the "Death Riders":

Olivia on Ebony - 101.44

Kate on Merlin - 119.34

Laura on Rocky - 125.34

Peyton on Brownie - 131.93

Danita on Bobert - 134.26

Andrea on Dakota Gold - 135.88 )penalty for cantering)

Great job to all!

July 15, 10PM:

This was a quiet relaxing day at Longacres, with the horses having the day off while we did town day and our laundry. We got together after dinner to watch the video's from the show yesterday. I was really impressed by the riding level - even more watching it on video tonight!

We have a good week ahead of us, with cool, pleasant riding weather all week and just a few scattered showers in the forecast.

Meghan is out collecting the garbage for tomorrow's trash pickup as I do the website update. I actually went out and mowed the "galloping field" with my tractor headlights on after watching the video with the girls, so I've done my share of outside work today, also. I have in mind perhaps letting the girls have one of our rare real "galloping sessions" this week, and I want the long field smooth.

It also gives me a head start on all the grass trimming we'll be taking care of this week as we prepare for the mid season break. It seems hard to believe that the 2007 season will be two thirds over this coming Sunday, as we get ready for the mid-term break and the arrival of our second to last group of students. The group coming in next week are all here for a solid 3 1/2 weeks and will be working mostly towards "Derby Day" here at Longacres and the Erie County Fair. Then one final week with many good friends and a few new students for "Lazy Days", and we are done until 2008.

July 14th, midnight:

And there was plenty to cheer about. We'll post results tomorrow when we have more time, but Longacres kicked some butt. Shelly and her own horse, "Devil Horns", were the stars of the show, winning several classes and Championship ribbons. And Jen was outstanding at remembering her courses and riding very, very well in the bigger jumping classes on ShaBang.. Way to go, girl!

Robyn and Emmie both did well on Quantum, Maddie continued to ride above herself and was very pleased with Horatio. Emily was the hit of the show for most of the crowd with her very vocal rounds on Ginger, and Andrea earned the right for the whole camp to go to Kone King by sitting up well and getting Ebony around a full course with no refusals!

Congrats to Sugar Brook Farms and High Time Stable for one of the biggest and most successful jumper shows of the year! Zillions of jumpers in all classes, especially the high jumping events!

Many stables are planning to come to Longacres for Derby Day on August 10th - hope some of you at home will join us for the festivities!

Much more news to come tomorrow. We need SLEEP!!!! We go to bed now!

Night - night

July 13, 11PM:

We just finished a video session an hour ago (quieter this time!) We went over the arrangements for the special High Time Stable jumper show tomorrow afternoon. Seven riders are showing in this jumper only event. The rest of the girls will be getting full lessons tomorrow morning before we all go across town to the show. We hope to have time to update the website again tomorrow night with our results, but we might not get to it until Sunday morning.

(Mandy: If you are checking in on us, SHAME on you! You are on vacation and should be resting or having FUN!)

Mandy is on a two day mid season break for well deserved R&R.

Danita and her own horse, Magic, are the story of the day. Danita is a first time Longacres student this year. She's an eager to learn beginner - intermediate rider who thirsts after all kinds of horse knowledge. Danita is 18, and older than most Longacres students, but she has been welcomed to the Longacres family and everyone enjoys watching her progress. She did well in the show yesterday on Longacres horses, winning a trophy and a number of ribbons.

Danita also brought her own horse to Longacres, hoping to get some help in teaching him how to jump. She spent the first two days this week just getting him used to riding near all the colorful Longacres jumps.

July 13, 2PM:

An old fashioned standard of behavior.

That was the lesson to be learned after lunch today. We love to see our girls having fun, and being exuberant and cheerful. But we are also a bit old fashioned in demanding that children show a proper respect for adults.

We were showing the video's from yesterday's horse show, and the girls were in fine spirits, laughing and joking as they watched each other have good moments and not so good. I am there to comment on the video and play certain sections in slow motion so our riders can learn from their mistakes. During my first couple of comments, some of the girls kept chattering while I tried to comment. The third time this happened, I quieted everyone and calmly told them I didn't want to have to tell anyone again to be quiet and listen if I began to make a comment.

Moments later I started to make another comment on the video and a couple of the girls kept talking. I quietly got up and left. Meghan went back in and stopped the video and told the girls there would be another opportunity later today for students who wanted to pay attention to come back for the rest of the video.

These are tough little situations to handle well at camp. The girls were in great spirits and not meaning to be ill mannered. I know that I dampened their spirits by making an issue of this. But I believe one of the most important rules of parenting or of supervising children is to be absolutely consistent in following through and enforcing a rule or sticking to a decision, if you decide to make one in the first place. Many of the problems young people have today come from very inconsistent application of rules and consequences of breaking them.

I never raised my voice above a conversational tone this afternoon. But I'm sure I made the point.

We have a great group of kids who are having a grand time. They can still have a good time, while treating older gentlemen respectfully.

July 12, midnight:

This group really hit it's stride tonight as they celebrated after the show at Pasquale's restaurant and then at the barn party. What Meghan and I especially like about this group of kids is that they are widely separated in age, yet all joke, laugh, and work together seamlessly. The youngest at ten is Kate, and she holds her own with the 15 to 18 year olds just fine. And the older kids are great with the four youngest. At dinner tonight every single one of them was joking and talking animatedly with all the rest. It was one boisterous after show dinner, I'll tell you.

Below is the list of winners from the show, typed in by two of our great CIT's, Emily and Jen.

PS - Yes, we got up at the crack of dawn; Yes, it is now nearly 12:30 AM and we're still working posting these show results. Some of you call in and ask us what keeps us going?

Well, look at the smiles on the girls' faces in the pictures, and try to imagine the joy we saw among all the girls at the victory dinner tonight. - - THAT's what keeps us going!

- Tom & Meghan

July 12th show winners:

July 12, 10:30 PM:

It was a FANTASTIC horse show! Good riding all the way around the table. We just got back from the barn where Meghan hosted a "Cookie Cake Victory Party!" Yummie.

More coming later.

- Tom

July 11, 11PM:

Even though we did most of the course setup on Tuesday, we're still working putting together the weekly Show News, getting the ribbons ready, organizing entry forms, and all the rest of what goes on producing a horse show. Hopefully the girls are all sleeping now, but probably not quite yet in Esseress Cabin!

Everyone had a good practice today, and we're expecting great things in the show. Jen is happy because her favorite, ShaBang, was lame much of the week and seems better tonight. She plans to show him tomorrow.

Robyn Low jumped Quantum higher than she has since the Big Jumping day after the fair last summer, and looked rock solid doing it. She may get to try Special Jumpers tomorrow. Robyn and Quantum are leading in points for Jumper Horse of the Year on the STSS circuit by one point over Windullah and Meghan Fuller from Fuller Stables near Rochester. Keep it up, Robyn!

Emmy did a good job schooling Quantum earlier in the day, and will show him in Schooling Jumpers, as usual.

AND - ROLL OF DRUMS - our two tiniest riders this session, Andrea and Kate, will be trying out Puddle Jumpers for the first time ever on Ebony and Merlin.

There's news about the rest of our riders, but I'm getting tired. We'll post news after the show tomorrow night!

July 11, 5PM:

July 11, 5:30PM:

June 25, Noon:

June 24, 8PM:

June 24, 1PM:

June 23, 5PM:

June 22, 9PM:

June 22, 7PM:

June 22, 2PM:

June 22, 8AM:

June 21, 8:30 PM:

June 21, 4PM:

June 21, 8AM:

Shelly's on the way! And Peyton will be here tomorrow! Thank goodness for early arrivals.

PS - Good News!

June 20, 10PM:

Happy Birthday, Carly!

June 20, 5PM:

June 20, Noon:

Sad News about a neighbor and good friend:

June 19, 5:15PM:

June 19, 4:20 PM:

June 19, 3PM:

June 19, Noon:

June 18, 9PM:

June 18, 10 AM:

June 18, 8AM:

June 17, 9PM:

June 17, 1PM:

June 17, 1:30 AM:

June 16, midnight!

June 15, 10PM:

June 14, 11PM:

June 14, 5PM:

June 14, noon:

June 13, 11:43 PM:

June 13, 8:30 PM:

June 13, 5PM:

Happy Birthday, Gramps, from Mandy!!!!!!

June 13, 1PM:

"We should lunge them" - saying of the day from Jackie:

June 12, 2PM:

June 11, 11PM:

June 11, 5PM:

June 11, 2:30:

June 11, 1PM:

June 10, 11:30PM:

June 10, 8:55 PM:

June 10, 7PM:

June 10, 1PM:

June 10, 9AM:

GIRL POWER!!!!!!

"Rags to Riches" Wins the Belmont Stakes!!!!!!!

June 9, 5PM:

June 9, 8AM:

June 9th, 1 AM:

June 8, 10PM:

June 8, 8 AM:

June 7, 11:30 PM:

June 7, 10:30 PM:

June 7th, 7PM:

June 6, 1PM:

June 5th, 7PM:

June 5th, Noon:

June 4 - 9PM:

June 4th, 2PM:

June 4th, 10AM:

June 3rd, 9:45 PM:

June 2nd, late:

June 2nd, 6PM:

June 2nd. Lunchtime:

June 1st, 7PM:

June 1st, 5PM:

June 1st, 1 PM:

May 31, 11PM:

May 31, 7PM:

May 31, 8AM:

May 30th, 9:30PM:

May 29th, 9PM:

May 29th, noon:

May 28, late night:

May 28th:

May 27, 9PM:

Saturday, 9:40 PM:

May 26, 9PM:

May 25th, 8:30 PM:

May 23rd, 9PM:

May 23rd:

May 21, 9:30 PM:

May 21, 11am:

May 20th, late:

May 20th:

May 19th:

May 18th, 10PM:

May 18th:

May 17th:

May 16th, noon:

May 15th:

May 14th:

Hey, You've GOT to see this!

May 13th:

May 10th:

New Breakfast Cooks

May 9th, 9PM:

May 9th:

May 8th:

May 6th, 5PM:

May 4th:

May 2nd, later:

May 2nd:

May 1st:

April 30th:

April 29, 5PM:

April 28, evening:

April 28th:

April 23rd:

April 20th:

April 19th:

April 17th:

April 9th:

Final Tuition payments are due April 10th - tomorrow

April 5th:

For those of you who are still checking in while we are traveling, HELLO! We're having a good time vacationing (for the last time probably until next fall!). When we get home to the Farm at the end of next week, we'll be burning the midnight oil working on Longacres until we close up at the end of August. But we're having a good time sleeping late and site seeing this trip. I'm giving a talk about my book, "Boating and Cruising Guide to the St Johns River" tonight at a yacht club.

New girls are burning up the internet sending in inquiries about coming to Longacres, now that the weather is warmer (well, I guess not this week up north!), but most of them want the sessions that are already full for this year. We're getting lots of people who want to come in 2008, so most July and August sessions will probably be full by September 2nd this year, the day after we begin accepting enrollments for next year. You guys from this summer will get first choice.

HORSE NEWS:

Justin has been enjoying quite a relaxed winter with some light rides. He has been apparently been enjoying the spring mud and rolling a fair amount. . . . . We are escatic to hear that our "greenie" Aleeta has been making steady good progress and being spoiled to death! It will be fascinating to see what she is like upon her return. Pattie looked quite good for her age and is slowly starting to being ridden more with the weather changing. Star will be having fun teaching a 17 year old to jump now that spring has sprung again! She will have to burn a little of her winter weight though! Zanzibar has a new nickname; are you ready for this???!!!!! She is now being called a "A Porsche" for how wonderfully she "handles" like that kind of car!!! Sharon and Laura (Longacres enrolled mother and daughter) have been really putting a lot of time into her to really perfect her training. They sound very pleased - - - hope all of you notice the difference this summer. She always was a great mare to ride, I can't even imagine how much better she will be by everything we have been hearing!

Danita is one of our good email correspondents. She is coming for the first time to one of our July sessions, and bringing her own horse. Here is a cute email she just sent:

Hi Tom and Meghan,

I just had to share the news that my dog Samantha had her puppies!!! She had them Mon. afternoon, a litter of six....

Êpretty good for her first time...

She had two ruby, which are reddish brownish, and two Blenheim which are white and brown,

I attached a couple of pics.

They areÊsoooo cute. :Ê )

Danita

March 26:

We're leaving in the morning for our Florida trip. We won't be updating the website as often until we get home, but we will check our phone messages and email almost every day while we travel. So if you have a question or just want to say, "hi", we will get your message!

- Tom & Meghan

March 23:

So tonight I'll tell you that we're also working on some new things that you WILL notice and that will add to your riding fun. We just ordered 18 new jump rails this week, and Meghan has some interesting ideas for new paint schemes that will add interest to our 2007 jump courses. We're also putting in a big order for new jump cups, building a couple of new panel jumps, building several new sets of jump standards, and getting LOTS and LOTS of new flowers and flower boxes to put around the jumps. There - that was a long sentence about new toys you guys will have fun with this summer. (And, by the way, Longacres already has some of the best jumps you'll find at any riding school!)

March 22:

Brownie & Alex

We had a little scare last night. When we got home we had a message on the machine from Alex, who takes her beloved friend, "Brownie", with her to college for the winter every year. The message just said, "Hi, this is Alex - call me please."

Well, Brownie is a healthy and wonderful pony, but he is getting old. And we have to admit, that the worst fears went through our minds as Meghan dialed and waited for Alex to answer. Turned out that Alex was just calling to chat, which she does every few months, and Brownie is doing fine! (Aren't you relieved, Peyton?) When Meghan confessed to Alex that she had a few nervous moments, Alex laughed and said, "Yeah, I'm the same way. Every time the people from the barn happen to call me for some routine thing like 'should we get more shavings', I say to myself, 'oh no, is something wrong?'"

Of course one of the hard things about having animal friends of any kind is that they don't live forever. At Longacres we know that from time to time we are going to lose great horses to accidents or old age. It is always hard, but in the case of our greatest horses, like Brownie, and like Stoney who died earlier this year after a long and wonderful Longacres career, we try to think more of their great careers than of their loss. We hope Brownie has quite a few more good years, but he has already given nearly 20 years to teaching 2 generations of Longacres riders about jumping and showing. Great pony!!!!!

March 21:

Alexa came to Longacres for the first time last summer and was with us for just a short session. But she made her mark and learned a lot. Alexa particpated in the Jumper Derby and the "A" rated Erie County Fair show during her short stay. Alexa returns for the full second session this August, and she's been one of our most frequent penpals over the winter.

And if you like the photo collage posted above, just wait until you see Alexa's video presentation with video and photo's set to music! Alexa has sent us an advance copy, but says she's still working on it. It already looks pretty good to us, Alexa. As soon as she tells me it is ready to b viewed, we'll post the link here on our website so you can all see it. GREAT job, Alexa!

March 15th:

Brody was a little more expensive than most horses we buy for Longacres (we tend to get great deals and then train them ourselves). So we made an offer at the end of the summer, but the owners would not accept it. So sadly we let him leave Longacres at the end of August - sniff- sniff!

But with Longacres' 2007 season only 10 weeks away, Meghan and Tom talked this week and decided that a horse with Brody's potential was worth more than we have paid ever before. So we called and said, Is he still for sale?" An hour ago Meghan got a phone call that left her jumping up and down!!!!!!!!

Brody's picture is at the top of this page. He is now a "Longacres horse". The most expensive Longacres horse we've ever purchased, but we think he's worth it. You will too!

March 14:

Please change our address in your email program and start using the new address. We'll be checking the old email address for about another month, and will then switch entirely.

March 12, 8PM:

Hi everyone. Tom has discovered something kind of fun. Have you heard about Google Maps? They have many satellite and aerial photos of much of the country. Click on the link below to see a Google Map showing the Longacres riding fields and horse barn. You can click one more time to zoom in even further! The part of the camp with the office, dining hall, and cabins is just off the map to the right, and Google does not have high resolution photos of that part of the camp, but the barn area is shown in great detail. Enjoy! Note that the pictures were taken in the spring or fall with our jumps all put away.

Possible wait list vacancy for first half of summer: One of our students has possible summer school problems, which could open up a space in the July session. We're keeping our fingers crossed for her academic success but you guys on the wait list, take note. We'll know early in April.

March 12th:

We've put a couple of new pictures on the rotating pictures at the top of this page, with one of Meghan's favorite pictures showing Laura on "Zaney". The other is of Maddy and Emily - - - - - well, having fun!

The huge snowdrifts around the farm are rapidly shrinking with the current warm spell, and the ice on the creeks is beginning to go out. Soon we'll be able to start working outside getting ready for the 2007 season!

PS: Alexa, Marta, and Annie have had the most emails to us for much of the winter, but Peyton has taken over as "email queen" this month. It's great to hear from you so often, Peyton! - And everyone else, also! Keep them coming, we love to hear from you all in the off season.

March 10:

Hi everyone. Meghan has been pestering me for a long time to put the video of last summer's Drill Team on YouTube, so we did last night. Check it out by clicking the image above.

Also, later this morning I'll be posting a link to a video file of the Jumper Derby course that we've posted on an alternate video host, "Revver". On Revver, if you click on the "Quicktime" option under the video, it takes a little longer to download the file, but it is much better quality. Try it out and if it looks better to you and you guys think it does not take too long to download, we'll put all our videos on there.

March 8th:

Speaking of you guys sending us messages, we'd like to thank again Peyton and Alexa, who are the most prolific message writers from last year's students. It is always great to hear from both of you, as well as everyone else who writes.

We also have some good corresponders who are new to Longacres this year. Marta is NUMBER ONE! She is our most frequent penpal lately - you Go, girl! We also get a lot of mail from Danita, Annie, and Hannah. Good letter writers all. Keep the messages coming. Both Meghan and I read them all!

- Tom

March 6:

Sometimes grown-ups have to take a few minutes to just be kids again and play! Check out the picture above of Tom jumping his snowmobile today. More often, Tom and Meghan use their snowmobiles to take long trail rides and enjoy beautiful scenery and wildlife. We got to take a close up picture of a moose next to a trail in Canada last week!

But today we were riding the snowmobiles not far from Hasty Hills farm and there was this big soft powdery series of snow drifts next to the trail. Well, the little boy hidden in Tom just KNEW that these drifts were meant for what is called "drift busting". You find a snow drift that has blown powder snow into a steep bank and you drive at it pretty fast (hopefully after checking to be sure there isn't hard pack snow or ice under the powder!) and you get an explosion of snow like in the picture as you soar into the air and land on a hopefully soft snow bank. Tom is slowly returning to the land of responsible adults, but he enjoyed his trip to childhood this afternoon!

March 5^th:

This is an interesting time of year at Longacres. We're beginning to get busy making plans for opening the farm for the season and Meghan is beginning to read ads for new horses. But we still have some spare time to go off snowmobiling or to take a long lunch hour in town. Soon, when the snow melts, we'll be working long hours every day! In a way we look forward to being outdoors every day and busy.

And as camp time gets closer, we're hearing more from you guys out there. Alexa can tell us exactly how many days and hours remain before the start of her session! And it was nice to hear Peyton's voice on the answering machine the other day - sorry we missed your call, Peyton!

There is one big change in our lives this year. And we're making it partly because we are so busy at Longacres and we will be devoting so much time to running the riding program for more weeks in June than previously.

For nearly forty years Tom has been very involved in planning and running four wheel drive truck races as a business, mostly in the spring months before the riding camp opens. We are quitting that business this year so we can devote full time to Longacres. Well, not completely quitting. We have one good contract to manage a big Monster Truck show at a nearby county fair in August. Some of the girls, especially Shelly and Peyton, wished they could have gone to the show last summer after they heard about it. Maybe you guys can come and watch this year.

March 3^rd:

We've been away from the farm for a few days on a "snowmobiling vacation" in Canada. We had a great time zooming around the north woods in bright, sunny weather. (Check the picture above!) Then on the way home we got caught in a near blizzard in Toronto and had to pull off and get a motel for an extra night to be off the dangerous highways!

BULLITEN: Peyton and Alexa each are now the proud owners of their own saddles! Yahooo! Woooo-hoooooooo!

February 27^th:

March Tuition Due day after tomorrow:

Almost all of you have already made your March 1^st tuition payments, but we're still waiting on four or five of you. You have until the end of this week, so double check and make sure you have sent in this payment. Just give us a call if you forgot, and we'll give you a couple of extra days to get it in.

- Tom & Meghan

February 25:

Thanks to those of you who have written wishing me a happy birthday. I had a fun day yesterday, including a long snowmobile ride in the country and a nice dinner out!

Exciting news for those of you coming in August. On Derby Day, August 10^th, Longacres will be hosting the Western New York Junior - Amateur Team Jumping Championships. This event will be run as part of the 2'6" to 2'9" Derby. Teams may include 3 or 4 riders, and the best three scores from team members will be combined to determine team awards. We will have gold, silver, and bronze medallions for the riders on the top three teams. All riders will also be scored as individuals and the best will earn individual medals, as well as ribbons.

Longacres will enter at least one team, and perhaps two or three. This will add a lot of fun to an already very exciting day of show jumping at Longacres!

February 23:

Hi everyone. Tomorrow is Tom's birthday; too bad we can't have a cake - it would burn the house down if we put on enough candles! (Just kidding, Tom - LOL!)

• Meghan

February 22:

Hello everyone. It's been a few days since an update and lots is happening at Longacres. We're getting many inquiries from mother - daughter pairs after filling our regular June 18 mother - daughter week. So we're planning to run programs welcoming to mom's on two additional weeks. We welcome Kay and Kellie from Dallas, and Diana and Ruby from Iowa to the June 11^th Clinic week, which now has only one more spot open. Also coming for that Pro Clinic week are sisters Jacki and Alex from near St. Louis. We also welcome mother and daughter Karen and Kate from Maryland to the June 18 mother - daughter week. Also Hannah from Maryland!

The "Lazy Days of August" clinic week from August 18 to 25 will also be open to mom's as well as any old friends of Longacres who are busy the rest of the summer but who would like to have a relaxed week at Longacres in August.

The only weeks left that really have many vacancies are the two weeks from May 28 to June 10^th, and the "Lazy Days of August" week.

Above: We had a big crew of men working in 3 to 4 foot snow drifts beginning to put the new roof on our barn today!

February 15^th:

If not, you have a tuition payment due March 1^st.

The packet includes a statement of your account and the amount of the final tuition payment which will be due on April 10^th.

The packet also includes general information about preparing for the summer, and a health form. The health form must be filled out (does NOT need a doctor); the health form does not need to be here until you arrive at Longacres.

There is a suggested amount to deposit for horse shows and spending money; this does not need to be here until you arrive at Longacres.

There is a form for you to send back by April 10^th telling Meghan whether you have your own saddle, and if you have "Buddy Riding" permission.

This should all be clear when you open the packet, but this is an extra "head's up" that it is coming and not to feel rushed.

- Meghan

February 14^th:

Happy Valentines Day!!

We at Longacres send you our valentine greetings, for what they are worth. And we're sorry we haven't done a website update in a few days. Meghan has had a nasty throat infection, and for a change Tom was busy taking care of her - mostly telling her to "STAY IN BED!" "Stop Working!" At her worst I did not have to tell her, but she always begins work again too soon after she is sick. Anyway, she's better now.

We've also been very busy just staying warm and keeping the 900' driveway clear of snow so we can get out. We are not as snowed in as badly as Oswego, NY which is in the news every night. But we are "the other lake effect belt" here in East Aurora. Last week one night we were watching ABC World News and suddenly Charley Gibson said, "And live from East Aurora, NY - - -", and proceeded to give our (exagerated) snow totals. We do have piles of snow - see the pic above. As a matter of fact, Meghan likes to check on the buildings in the camp by snowmobile in the winter and the snow is too deep for her to go out without getting stuck.

More news coming tomorrow along with details on your "enrollment packet" which Meghan mailed out today. It is stuffed with information about preparing for your camp stay!

February 9^th, noon:

February 7, later:

There is a flurry of phone activity this afternoon to see if someone already on the wait list will take Carly's spot from July 25 to August 18. Several of those officially on the wait list are looking for sessions in July, but we have two recent emails from girls who might take this open spot. Call us if YOU are interested - but it may be taken by tonight.

February 7, noon:

February 6:

We had a flurry of enrollment contracts come in this morning. Thank you. Only a few remain outstanding, and we'll give you a couple more days to get them in before we call with a reminder. (Hold on, wait list people - if there is a cancellation we will let you know right away!)

February 5:

Hi everyone! We're hunkered down at home trying to stay warm in the zero degree temps and with the blowing and drifting lake snows. Meghan also came down with a bad cold (bad timing in this weather!), and she sends any of you who she owes an email her apologies. She'll write to you in a couple of days when she's back on her feet.

ENROLLMENT CONTRACTS - are due back here tomorrow. If yours will be late, just give us a phone call or email us and we'll be glad to hold your spot for a few extra days.

Horsecare in Winter:

With the very cold weather across much of the country, this is a good time to send out a reminder that your horses need special attention in the winter. Part of the "special attention" is just reminding yourself to give your horse the same care he gets year round, even though it is difficult in bad weather. Be sure your horse is watered regularly, especially if the barn is unheated and the buckets freeze. Clean the feet often - it is easy to put off using the hoof pick in harsh winter weather. If your horse has grown a winter coat, be sure to groom often and check carefully for any injuries or skin conditions that might be harder to notice under the long thick winter coat. Likewise, a thick winter coat can mask weight loss. Be aware of your horse's general condition.

If you board your horse at a stable, check to see that their staff is doing this stuff responsibly.

Feb. 3, 6PM:

SNOW - SNOW - SNOW!

We'll post some snow pictures tomorrow. Do we ever have snow! Also, a Longacres "Welcome" to Jackie and Alex from near St. Louis, who are joining us for the Pro-Clinic week beginning June 11. Welcome to Longacres! There are now only four spaces left in that week.

Feb. 3, 8PM:

Hey, Our fine Junior Counselor, Emmy, is the first to officially sign on for the "Lazy Days of August Clinic". Emmy says "guest instructor Clinic weeks are one of her favorite things about Longacres!

February 3^rd:

Something New!

"Lazy Days of August Clinic"

- August 19 to August 25

By the end of the summer, we're always looking forward to slowing the pace and having a less pressured schedule at Longacres. Sometimes in the past junior counselors or students or adults we know well have stayed a few days after the regular season for a very laid back couple of days of riding before we put away all the jumps and close up the barn for the season. It's always been a very fun time. FOR 2007, we're offering this week as an option , by special arrangement, to all our customers.

The title, "Lazy Days of August Clinic" says it all! Lazy Days? Every day will be a "sleep in" day, much beloved by all our riding friends at the end of a summer of 7:30 AM horsecare. We'll start the days after breakfast. There will be a formal lesson every day, with several very nice guest clinics, and we'll ride in the evening as we do all summer. There will be less than five hours a day of riding with the late start and casual schedule, but still as much saddle time as most of you want.

We welcome any of our regular season students who might like to stay on and unwind with a very fun and relaxed extra week in August. We also welcome, by special arrangement, any parents or other adults who'd like a week at Longacres without the pressure of our regular sessions in the earlier part of the summer.

February 2^nd: - Don't Panic!

We have had several urgent calls from families that suddenly realized the enrollment contracts are due on Monday. Don't panic! If the date snuck up on you, just call us and confirm that you are sending the form this weekend and we'll give you a couple of extra days for the mail to get to us. (Kids - be nice to your parents about this - they have other things on their minds, too!)

February 1^st:

This is a SPECIAL update, just for "<3 impatient Peyton!" There is SNOW in Dallas!

IMPORTANT: Your enrollment contracts are due in our office next Monday - about half have been returned so far. We do have people on the wait list, and we have to let them know if anyone is canceling their reservation.

January 29^th:

Barbaro now shares that pasture of the greenest grass with Stoney and all the other fine horses that have gone before. He was put to sleep this morning after further complications in his treatment. As we discussed in this space last spring, it was always a very long shot that he would survive, and we're still not so sure it was a kind thing to put this horse through so many surgeries. The good that may have come of this extraordinary effort is what was learned about treating catastrophic equine injuries. Certainly the vets on Barbaro's team tried everything and spared no expense. That probably gives vets important new knowledge.

IMPORTANT! - Make sure you and your parents know that your enrollment contracts must be filled in and returned to us by the beginning of next week. You should have got them in the mail during the past couple of days. You do not owe any more money until March 1^st, though you are welcome to make that payment early if you like.

January 27, noon:

January 25^th, evening:

Mandy

Returns!

Longacres is very proud to announce that Miranda Bartlett (Mandy) is returning to Longacres after a two year absence to head our 2007 riding department.

Mandy spent several years at Longacres in her teens as a student and then as a senior instructor. College and other obligations have kept Mandy busy with other things the past two summers. Not that we haven't been trying to lure her back each year! But she has kept active with horses while she was away. She owns two and she is majoring in Equine Science at the University of Vermont. Mandy has decided that she's going to make a career in the horse world so she can "go to work looking forward to what she's doing in her job every day".

We have joked with Mandy that she is a "waste of great talent" this year at Longacres! That's because we already have a great junior counselor in Emmy, and three excellent CIT's with good experience at Longacres in Jenn, Emily, and Shelly. Emmy, Jenn, Shelly, and Emily could easily run Longacres by themselves, and we had been considering employing someone new to Longacres as a senior counselor, since we have such a very experienced and talented group of young staff this year. But Mandy, with her years of experience at Longacres, and her advanced training and experience with horses at home, is icing on the cake this year. In a way, we wish we could "put Mandy in storage" and bring her back in another year when we didn't already have such a great young staff. But we're sure glad to have her!

Mandy is already corresponding with Emmy, and we look forward to working with both of them and the CIT's to run what we expect will be one of the best riding programs we've ever had this coming season!! I think that Shelly is the only student coming this year who was at Longacres the last time Mandy was at here. To give the rest of you a little bit of an idea of what Mandy is like, I can say that she has the same talent for being very organized that Lillian has shown in her time as head counselor the past two years. And she has the same kind of year round experience with her own horses that Sarah brought to us last summer. Beyond that, she has a sometimes slightly mischievous sense of fun that only Mandy can pull off. Oh, she's very responsible - but with a twinkle in her eye! And Mandy, along with Emmy, will be at Longacres for our full 12 week season. It's going to be a good year!

January 22, later:

Enrollment Contracts:

Watch your mailbox for your official enrollment contract which we're mailing to most of you tomorrow. This will be due back in our office February 5^th to keep your enrollment in effect. Your next tuition payment is due on March 1^st.

In addition to Shelly who was first (and the WINNER!), Marta, and Emily W. from Tennessee all guessed correctly that the picture shows new construction at Galleria Mall of the all new movie theaters. They are hoping everything will open in time for summer. We're keeping our fingers crossed. Most of you know that Galleria Mall is like the Longacres "rec room" for those hot days when we want to take a break from riding. It was already a pretty good double level mall for a small city like Buffalo. But since last summer it has been undergoing a major remodeling and expansion. The movie theaters that closed for most of last summer will be modern and state of the art. There is already a "Cheese Factory Restaurant" open, and other restaurants and a Barnes & Noble bookstore are also opening, along with Best Buy and other cool places for you to visit on a hot afternoon sometimes. Keep your fingers crossed that they finish construction in time for this summer!

January 22:

Shelly from Maryland was the first person to identify the significance of the picture posted in the paragraph from yesterday. I won't give you the answer until tomorrow so we can see if anyone else figures it out!

January 21^st:

Alexa sent the following message:

Alexa

Thanks, Alexa, we LOVE that kind of enthusiasm from our riding students!

Quiz of the week: What do you think the picture below is all about? No, it is NOT a new Longacres indoor arena! But it is of real interest to you guys coming to Longacres this summer.

January 17, even later:

January 17, later:

January 17:

We are busy this week talking with other stable managers who sponsor the various horse shows in our "South Towns Summer Series". It is a negotiation about which weekends each member show will be held during the summer. Some years this process goes more smoothly than others. This is one of those years when it is going to be difficult. Some of the "A" show dates in our part of the country have changed and that makes our scheduling for local shows more difficult.

When all is said and done, Longacres will host several shows during the season as always. And we'll be attending shows at most of the stables that have been members of our association in the past. But some of the dates may be traded back and forth and someone's going to end up without their first choice of dates and with hurt feelings. Because we run quite a few horse shows and take a lot of riders to other stables' shows, we can't just sit on the sidelines and politely go along with what someone else decides. (Oh, how we wish we could!) We are forced to be players in this bruising scrimmage. We thought you readers of this page would be interested in how we're spending our time this week!

January 16 Update:

Tovah sent another little memory of Meghan's last ride on "Stoney", which is posted on the alumni page.

Otherwise, things are finally looking like a pretty winter scene outside our office windows. Light snow is falling after months of non-winter. Not quite enough to patrol the Longacres trails by snowmobile yet, but getting close!

- Tom & Meghan in finally sort of snowy East Aurora!

January 15:

Because of the ice storm one of our power and phone poles on the farm snapped this afternoon. So far we have internet and phone still but we expect to lose it soon and may be out of touch for a day or two. Hope we don't freeze!!!! We'll be back in touch soon!

January 14:

We at Longacres think first of our students when we lose a horse. You guys are the ones we watched ride and care for our horses over the years and we know how much our students have bonded with the horses at Longacres. But there are others who have known the horses at Longacres equally well. Below is another tribute to Stoney from a family that cared for him last winter.

High speed internet is finally coming to Longacres in a day or two. We'll make a big announcement when it is hooked up and working, and then you'll be welcome to send us picture files with your emails!

January 12, 2007:

Some news is both very sad and very heartwarming all at once. This is one of those times.

Our great old gelding, "Stoney", aka "Teacher's Pet", died peacefully yesterday of old age. He seemed fine and had a good appetite the night before, and yesterday morning he ate his grain eagerly. He was dead when his winter "family" checked on him a few hours later.

Stoney was an important part of the Longacres show team for many years. He was a bomb proof gelding that never bucked or did a mean or unpredictable thing in his life. At the same time, he had plenty of spirit and loved to jump. Even in his older years you had to be careful that he didn't get too fast on a jump course!

Stoney had some issues with being lame from time to time over the years, and many summers we used him sparingly. It was always worth the trouble to keep him sound since he was such a willing jumper and had such a great, friendly barn personality. There wasn't a better horse to handle around the barn - except perhaps trying to keep him in a stall! He was famous for having lips that were as good as a person's fingers at opening any kind of stall door latch. If we put a new kind of latch on the stall, he would figure it out in an hour and be walking down the barn aisle unless we carefully tied or safety chained the latch! And many Longacres students over the years were entertained by the sight of Stoney drinking coke out of a can. What a character!

Stoney was weaker this past summer of 2006 and we didn't ride him much. He went home for the winter with a local horsewoman, Marge Meyer, who kept him as a pet for her grandchildren. Her four boys, age 6 to 13 enjoyed visiting and pampering Stoney. Ashton, Braiden, Kaiden and especially 11 year old Colton miss Stoney already. We at Longacres are very glad that this great kid's horse was with young children introducing them to good horsemanship during the final months of his life. In a way we have to feel very happy for both the good long happy life Stoney lead, and for the quick peaceful way he died.

Rest in peace, Stoney!

Also in the news:

The very nice East Aurora Pony Club sponsored horse show that has previously been held over Memorial Day weekend will be moved to one week later this year and will be on Sunday, June 3^rd. Now all the "Summer Series" horse shows will take place while Longacres is in session for the summer. Riders attending our first "Early Bird" week will be able to ride in this show to kick off the summer show season.

January 8^th Update:

I guess Christmas and the other holiday activities are over - check out the below picture of Meghan cutting up our upstairs tree after putting her special ornaments away for the year.

We've had LOTS of emails from all of you in the past couple of days. We've been momentarily overwhelmed answering you all but we should be caught up by this evening! Thanks for all the attention to Longacres.

After finalizing a new mother-daughter week enrollment, it looks like that week is now full and wait-list only. Our only vacancies will now be in the three "Pre-Camp" weeks and the Pro-Clinics in early June.

More to come soon!

January 4^th:

Newest message is from Uncle Billy who says "Happy New Year" to Quantum and Tovah!

Plans for Improvements:

Coming up with the money for major repair projects in a small business like Longacres is a big challenge. Fortunately, the routine annual budget for fence repairs, new hay shelters, new water line to the "anorexic pasture", trail maintenance, new jumps, new cross country jumps, and all that kind of thing is in good shape. We did have a tuition increase this year, and with our full enrollment, we are able to easily cover the cost of many small improvements - AND some new horses, of course! Our routine annual budget is in balance.

It's just those major maintenance projects that are killers. If a guardian angel from the thousands of Longacres alumni over the years were to step up and help with one of these two big projects, the camp would be forever in their debt.

January 1, 2007: "Happy New Year" to the horses!

Peyton says "Happy New Year" to BROWNIE!!!

Alexa says "Happy New Year" to STAR.

Olivia sends "Happy new Year" to Zany and Merlin!

Emily says "Happy New Year" to her beloved MERLIN!

Marta, who doesn't know all the horses yet since she is coming to Longacres for the first time next summer says "Happy New Year" to ALL the horses she has gotten to know on the website!

Emmy says "Happy New Year" to Quantum, Aleeta, and Merlin!

December 31^st:

- Tom & Meghan

December 28:

December 27:

December 26^th:

December 25^th:

Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays!

AND

DANIELLE!!!!!!

The final opening for a regular camp session at Longacres next summer was reserved for 11 year old Danielle from Amherst, NY several weeks ago by her parents. But it was kept as a surprise until today, Christmas Day!

So Merry Christmas, Danielle!

There is something very special about Danielle's enrollment at Longacres. She is a second generation Longacres student, which always pleases us. But there is more - Danielle is the very first ever student to attend Longacres who is the daughter of a MALE Longacres camper. Several times over the past sixty-eight years, Longacres has run small programs for boys, or has taken a few boys as riding students in special programs. Danielle's dad, Scott, is one of those rare men who is a Longacres alumni! When Scott first contacted me this fall about Danielle coming to Longacres he and I shared memories of some great old Longacres horses from - well, a few years ago.

Danielle, we really look forward to having you at Longacres riding with us and helping us with all the horses. Maybe we can get your dad on a horse sometime for old times sake!!!

December 23 Update:

New picture of the month posted above of Peyton.

December 20^th:

NOTE on privacy: We are proud of the riders we're picking as video subjects. We want to acknowledge you by mentioning your first name and the horse name. But we will not post last names to protect your privacy. If any of you do not want to have any video of you posted, email and let us know. We'll be glad to take you off or not post you.

The general public can post comments about YouTube video's. We will monitor that and consider making the Longacres videos private just for Longacres if there are abusive comments posted. This is still a new experiment. We welcome your suggestions.

- Tom

December 18^th:

Who could be a more appropriate subject for our first video posting than one of our winningest horse and rider combinations from the 2006 show season, Shelley and her own great horse, "Devil Horns"! The clip we're posting is from one of the first Longacres shows last summer. Shelley won - of course! Let us know how well you can see the video. "YouTube" is an interesting resource, but does not provide the clearest video.

As I write this, Meghan is trimming the tree - a tree that I cut out in the Longacres woods yesterday. Friday was a lovely day here in East Aurora and I took advantage of the warm weather to spend several hours out on the trails and in the woods. I was supposed to take it easy after my fall vocal chord surgery, but I'm pretty much back to normal, talking normally, and feeling strong. So it was good to be out examining all our stream crossings and planning work around the farm for next spring. If we ever have any winter, that is!

Here in western New York we did make CNN national news for our record setting October blizzard, but recently it's been a very warm and dry December. It doesn't look good for a white Christmas here. But it was a good day on Friday for exploring the farm and scouting for a perfect X-mas tree on the ATV.

We enjoy the process of finding and cutting our tree here on the farm. We often scout out well shaped trees along the trails during the summer, sometimes keeping an eye on a promising tree for several years as it grows. This year it was a little harder than usual, since all the well shaped young trees we've been watching were still a little too small to use this season. You'd think that on 100 acres you would easily find a good Christmas tree, but I couldn't come up with a perfect candidate yesterday, even after a couple of hours out in the woods. I was sitting on the ATV, parked at a trail crossing and just enjoying the scenery, when my eyes wandered up a large evergreen. There it was, the perfect X-mas tree shape - but fifteen or twenty feet in the air. The top of a large tree looked like the perfect holiday season shape. It seemed very wasteful to cut down a beautiful big tree just to use the top eight feet for a holiday decoration, but then I thought of getting a ladder and taking just that well shaped top section. The bonus was that if I cut just the top of the tree, the rest of the tree would heal and continue to grow and keep it's place in the forest as cover for all the Longacres wildlife. So I went off to get a ladder and saw. After bringing our new Christmas tree down to ground level, the big tree still looked very healthy and bushy; just a little flat on top. (We'll have one of our little Longacres contests to see who is the first trail rider next summer to find the "topless tree" as you ride the trails!)

Meghan was very pleased with my choice. You can see the two of us with the tree at the top of this page as we took it off the tractor back at the house!

Hope you are all having a happy holiday at home.

- Tom Kranz

December 10^th:

We're back!

Meghan and Tom are back at work after a very nice vacation. We're available here at the office if any of you have any questions or need to talk with us. We'll be posting regular updates to the website over the holidays!

December 8^th update:

Gifts for the Holidays!

If you didn't order them after camp in the fall, you can still order copies of the "Jumper Derby Video" on DVD, or of the pictures from the summer on CD or DVD. The Derby or the full summer of still pictures are each $27.50 on DVD, or the first half or the second half of the summer's still pics on CD are $22.50. We can still get them to you by Christmas if you order before Dec. 18th.

We are still traveling in Florida, but we will be home in about two more weeks and will resume regular updates then. (December 10th) We have been corresponding with some of you via email, so feel free to send us email which we do check regularly while we travel. We welcome Annie from Washington, DC and Carolyn from New York to the June Pro-Clinic weeks. All the regular camp sessions in July and August are now full, and with Annie and Carolyn, the June sessions are beginning to fill also.

We also heard from Jenn who is taking care of our horse, ShaBang, for the winter. Jenn and ShaBang entered five classes last weekend and they got a first and three seconds. Great job!

Meghan and I are leaving the farm for a month in Florida tomorrow, so we won't be updating the website often - maybe once from the road, but that is tricky. We will be checking our email regularly, so feel free to keep in touch via email.

Health Update: Tom is feeling better all the time and it is killing him not to start talking regularly for two more weeks! He occasionally says a few words just to test how the voice works, and they come out fine.

(Meghan spent a lot of time putting all the new pictures on the "Meet the Horses" website page - write and tell her how cool they all look!!!!)

Keep the news coming in. We're really looking forward to working with a great group of riders next summer. Psssst - if you know someone who is in private school and gets out in May, tell them about our early bird June sessions. They are the only weeks we have left open.

November 4^th:

Welcome Marta (officially!); we got the tentative enrollment from Marta (New York, age 12 going on 13) last week but weren't sure which of our final remaining sessions she would choose. She's decided to come for the full second session including the Fair at the end of the summer and our big Jumper Derby event. I think you'll really enjoy all the special events that session, Marta.

November 2^nd:

Nov. 1^st late night -

Meghan has posted some of the new pictures now on meet the horses and more are coming later tonight and again tomorrow morning.

November 1^st:

Hi everyone! Meghan worked all afternoon labeling and preparing about thirty new pictures for the "meet the horses" webpage. We'll be uploading them late tonight, so sign on late or tomorrow and check out the updated and revised page. We're adding many horse pictures taken with YOU last summer!

October 31 update:

Welcome to Marta from the new York city area. For the past few weeks we have had very little action in our email inbox what with everyone getting back to school and next summer a long way off. But suddenly this week there is a fresh buzz of new interest in Longacres. In addition to Marta taking one of the final spots in the regular sessions, we've had inquiries from two separate families with connections to Longacres students from a generation ago. We're hoping they will be able to fit in one of our June sessions, since that's all that's still available.

October 24^th:

One more piece of Longacres "history" or "junk", depending on whether you're talking to Meghan or Tom left today. A truck came and took away the old bulldozer that has been parked on the way to the barn for many years. Meghan scores one more point in her long campaign to clean up Tom's sentimental trash piles that are still gathering dust here and there around the farm!

Tom had a minor surgery this week to remove a polyp on his vocal chord. It went well and he should be fully recovered long before next teaching season, but he is not talking this month. It is quiet around the house!

We had two new inquiries today. One from one of our few male alumni! Scott was here 28 years ago when we had a small group of boys in the riding program. He has three daughters now, and one is interested in Longacres. We also got an enrollment in the mail for the first four weeks, but we have no space for part of that session, so we'll be talking with the family to see if they want just the first two weeks that are available. Besides this session, we have one spot in the last half of the summer and space in our June early Bird weeks still available.

More news to come soon!

October 17 Update:

We do have one more spot for a junior age rider from June 24 to July 8^th, and one spot for any age rider from July 25 to August 18^th, as well as spots in our early June sessions.

October 15 Update:

1941 Tuition: Alexa and Peyton both kept responding to our hints and got down to approximately the correct answer on our 1941 tuition trivia question. Our tuition at Longacres for 2007 is 94 times as much as it was in 1941, just two years after Longacres was founded by Tom's grandmother and great aunt! Tuition for eight weeks of overnight camp including food, riding, and everything was $80!!!!! Ten bucks a week! This is a good lesson in understanding inflation and the historical rise in consumer cost of living. Tell your parents about this one; they'll be interested.

October 13 Update - SNOW!!

Check the picture above of Galloping Field. We did get several inches of snow here at Longacres, but as has happened so often this season, the worst western New York weather passed just a few miles away from us. All summer it seems that major thunder storms and flooding went just to our north or our south. Four inches of snow here at Longacres today, but Uncle Billy who lives just about five miles north of us spent the whole day shoveling out almost two feet of snow from his driveway! As many of you may have seen on the national news today, there was two feet at the Buffalo airport.

Oct. 11^th:

We've had our first inquiries about the pre-season adult week from some former Longacres students and their families. And we started up our Google advertising for the winter, so those early three weeks in June will begin to fill soon.

October 10^th:

Meghan and Tom just got back from a week long "fall foliage" trip through New England. It was Meghan's first time in Vermont and New Hampshire. We rode the old steam train up Mt. Washington.

Meghan is working to add her personal comments to the new and updated "Meet the Horses" page, while Tom fixes the links to all the pictures. We hope to post the new page soon. (I know, we said that two weeks ago!)

So far, Alexa is the closest on the trivia contest to guess what a full season's tuition at Longacres was back in 1941. Her guess is $500 to $600, but she is still too high!

We'll post some more news soon!

Sept. 29, noon:

We'll share the trivia prize between Peyton and Alexa, two of our most regular email correspondents. They both kept noticing that higher numbers were appearing in our responses, so they "guessed" the highest numbers. But not high enough.

Correct answer is TEN flush toilets installed in Longacres buildings. 3 in the girls room you all use; 1 in the men's room next door that you all walk past daily; 1 in the Pixie-Oakwood cottage where some of our guests stay near the dining hall; 1 in the old Director's cabin across the stream from that; 3 in an old red building that used to serve "tent city" on the way to the barn near the old swimming pond; and 1 in the old green building in the woods near the "tunnel of love" jump!

Sept. 26, noon:

hiya,
Ok, so I'm gonna give this a shot... 7 Toilets.
-Three in our normal bathroom
-One in the cottage James stayed in (I'm not sure if you wanted to
count this one... it's a tenant cottage but its not up on grover rd.)
-I believe there is one in the old "counselor hang out barn thing"
that is hidden behind the tunnel of love. I know I've seen a toilet in
there... not sure if its installed though or just sitting there.
-And here is where it gets fuzzy... I know there is an old bathroom up
behind the cabin brandon stayed in. And I can't remember how many
toilets it has. I think I'm going to say two. And I can't quite
remember if that is the only old bathroom up there or if there's
another. It's been a while since i've been exploring back there! But
I'm going to go with just the one bathroom with two toilets up there.
OK... so that brings my total to 7 toilets... 3 in our bathroom, 1 in
james' cabin, 1 in the barn behind the tunnel of love, and 2 in an old
bathroom behind brandon's cabin. But like I said, I'm not too sure
about this, it's a tough question!!
Tovah :)

Regarding the new trivia question about our eight week full season tuition in 1941, ask your parents what they think it might have been in 1941 dollars, since it is $7500.00 now.

Sept. 25, late:

We're going to leave the answer to the trivia quiz in limbo for a while and see if anyone comes up with the correct answer and the locations. Alexa is closest so far.

In the meantime, here is another trivia question. In 1941 during the Second World War, which was during Longacres' third season, what was our tuition for eight weeks of camp? Hint: the answer might actually be posted on this website deep in some old pages!

September 25^th:

We got home this morning from a weekend visit with Tom's mother in Connecticut and a side trip to the Adirondack Hot Air Balloon Festival. It was interesting.

We're back to work closing up Longacres for the season, getting bids for the new barn roof, and planning more updates to the website. "Meet the Horses" page comes first, of course. The new listings are about half done and will be posted soon.

We enjoyed hearing from Alissa M. from Delaware. Alissa is 12 and is thinking about Longacres for next summer. If she comes, she would be our first "3^rd generation" Longacres student! We hope it works out for Alissa.

Trivia Quiz:

I won't give the answer yet, but the answer is NOT "3" or "4". I would have thought some of you who like exploring the farm would have come closer to the right answer. Even Brianna and Shelly who have some years of Longacres experience between them answered "four". To her credit, Shelly added, "maybe"!!!!!

Sept. 21^st, later:

We're going out of town to visit my family for the rest of this week and won't be updating the website. To keep you busy mentally, we'll offer - Ta Da -the first 2006-2007 Longacres Trivia contest. Here's the question: "How many flush toilets are installed at Camp Longacres?" Do not count the ones at Tom & Meghan's house or at any of the tenant cottages up along Grover Road that you guys never see anyway. All others count, and the answer is not so obvious as you might first think! There will be a small prize, nearly worthless, but with great prestige value to the first one to email in the correct answer, along with locations of the commodes in question. How well do YOU know Longacres? You are encouraged to collaborate with long time Longacres campers and former campers to arrive at the answer!

Sept. 21^st:

At this point, with our regular season nearly full for 2007, we did a little math. 70% of all Longacres 2006 students have signed up to return for 2007, many of them for longer sessions, and none for shorter sessions. In fact, as you can see, that 70% of last year's students fills the new season. And what a great group of people to work with. Next summer is going to be a lot of fun for us - I was about to say, "Like a vacation", but there is always endless work running the riding program, even with great people! Check the new picture above of Meghan putting away jumps and clearing the show field!

Sept. 20^th:

Sept. 19^th:

Hello everyone,

At this time of year our "daily updates" will be more like weekly updates for a while as we go into our slow fall season. But this is an active week at Longacres. Meghan and a new maintenance helper, Sam, were busy as beavers yesterday putting the jumps away in the barn for the winter. It looks very lonely down on the big field with only a few lone standards left to put away this afternoon. We'll try to take a picture and post it of the "last jump left standing" until you guys begin returning for the 2007 season next May.

We welcome Hannah S. to the wait list for the first session next July. As of right now we have only a space open in July for a student age 10 to 12 coming to Longacres for the first time. We also have space in the three weeks in early June, especially planned for private school girls or students from southern states who get out of school very early.

We are working on the "Meet the Horses" page and should have it well updated by the end of this week. Here is a nice description of Star sent in by Kim:

Hey Guys!! Here is a description of your BEST pony at the camp! I thought she deserved a nice long on. I tried not to be biased when writing it eaither. hahaha...that didnt go to well though! Hope you guys enjoy reading it and I didnt leave anything out! Hope everything is going well around the farm! -Kim

-Kim

Sept. 16^th:

Thanks to Emmy for being first to send in new horse descriptions for the "meet the horses page" and to Alexa for being first on the 2007 reference list!! Thanks, Alexa!

Also, thanks to Peyton for volunteering for thereference list!

Sept. 15^th:

It's been a rainy week here at Longacres and there's not much new to report here. The grass has been growing like you wouldn't believe, and is emerald green!!

We are about to update both our "meet the horses" page and our "Penpals and references" page. Take a few moments to write some comments and descriptions of your favorite horses to add to the "Meet the Horses" descriptions. Especially about the horses not on the page yet. We're picking pictures this week to post.

Also, if you don't mind answering emails from new people asking about Longacres, we would REALLY like to include you and your family on the references list. You folks all know how reassuring it was to communicate with Shelly and her mom. Debbie, and other Longacres people when you were choosing a riding camp. We hope you can contribute a little of your time answering questions from families considering Longacres for 2007. It won't be too hard, since the regular season is almost full already! But we do have to fill the "Early Bird" weeks in June, and those people will have questions. Please email us with permission to list your email address. Thanks in advance! - Tom & Meghan

Sept. 11, late:

Shelly confirmed her reservation today for the full season.

DVD's of the Derby:

We produced quite a nice DVD of the Longacres Bold Jumper Derby showing all of our student's rides (plus Beth and Baxter). You can order a copy for our reproduction and shipping costs of $22.50

Sept. 9^th, noon:

Carly confirmed her reservation for the full August session today. That gets us very close to being full for all but the Early Bird weeks in June for 2007. We're waiting to hear final word from Mary and Shelly on their family plans and schedules.

IF all the reservations that have been called in or emailed are finalized this coming week, here is our 2007 roster!

Full season: Emmy H. - Jenn L. - Emily P. - Shelly K. - Peyton U. - Robyn L.

Additional for First Half Season: Laura F. - Maddie R. - Amanda R. - Ofelia D. - Olivia S. - Amanda E. - Andrea B.

Additional for Second Half Season: Alexa R. - Michelle K. - Cara M. - Mary M. (?) - Carly F.

Mother - Daughter Week: Some of these are still checking their plans, but likely are "New Jersey Sharon/Laura"; "Maryland Debbie/Shelly"; "New Jersey Martha/Ofelia"; and Jenn L. and Emmy H. That leaves one spot for another mother/daughter pair and one extra spot for an early bird camper!

Remaining Vacancies:

There is still one spot open during the June 24 to July 8 and July 8 to July 22^nd sessions for a first time Longacres student age 10 to 12 - a very important spot to fill for the future of Longacres! New blood! There could be an opening during regular camp if one of our pre-registration people has a change of plans - do call in if you want to be on the wait list. It is a long time until next summer and you'd have to think at least one family might have to change plans over that time.

We are just beginning to get interest in the three Early Bird weeks, beginning May 28^th. Go to our "schedule page" for details.

Did everyone enjoy their first three days of school?!??

- Tom & Meghan

Sept. 8^th, 11am:

2007 Counselors and CIT's

We are pleased to announce that Emmy Hammand from Alaska will be at Longacres for the entire 12 week season as our #1 Junior Counselor and one of our Instructors. Emmy proved herself in 2006 as an outstanding CIT and then stayed on extra weeks as a Junior Counselor. When I report that Emmy is from Alaska, she is REALLY from Alaska! She sent us fascinating pictures of where she lives and of her dad's gold mine. Her house has all sorts of solar arrays for generating electricity, various satellite dishes for internet and stuff, several kinds of radio antenna's and LOTS of snow in the picture! Emmy reports that it is already getting down to 20 to 25 degrees at night, and snow is only a month away.

We also can officially announce that Jen Levi and Emily Petermann are both confirmed as CIT's on the staff for the full eight week regular camp season. We may soon have another confirmed CIT. This crew of Emmy, Jen, and Emily has so much experience at Longacres and so much talent and proven capacity for hard work that we could easily run Longacres for the full season with only these three fine girls on the staff. We won't, of course. We will also have an older senior counselor on the staff, still to be determined. But it makes our job of filling that senior staff position MUCH easier, knowing that we can tell her, "Hey, your CIT's and Junior Counselor are capable of running the barn. Your job is providing that extra knowledge, judgment, maturity, and experience that we need to run a safe and responsible riding program."

Lillian and Sarah, our 2006 Senior Counselors, were excellent and are both invited to return. But college girls are faced with many options and choices and we won't know for several months if one or both of them can return or if we need to widen our talent search. We will keep you all posted.

Florida: Jenn wants to do the reunion in Florida. Let us know if any of the rest of you can; we think five is the minimum to make it fun and workable.

Sept. 7, noon:

A peaceful day - we're taking a break from all the frantic emails about which spots are still open and how many are on waiting list. Many of you go back to the "S" word today. We hope you enjoy your classes and seeing your winter friends again! We posted above a picture of the grass in our pasture, which is growing quickly now that the horses are gone to their winter homes. Remember how brown the pasture gets during the summer when the horses eat all the grass? But boy oh boy does the grass grow in the fall. It is VERY fertile ground!

Thanksgiving Weekend Florida Reunion?

We casually talked about a possible Longacres reunion in Florida with some of you this past summer. If you would be interested, talk to your parents and let us know if it is a real possibility for any of you.

It's a long shot that many of you could really make a late fall trip like that, but we'll throw out the idea and see if it works for any of you. We will be there anyway. It's a Thanksgiving weekend tradition for us to be in north Florida. We publish a boating book about the St. Johns river in north Florida, so we are very familiar with the area. If we did this, you would fly into Jacksonville, Florida on Friday afternoon, November 24, the day after Thanksgiving (spent with your families, of course!) We would pick you up at the airport and take you to a hotel in Jacksonville on the waterfront where there is an annual lighted boat parade and a huge fireworks display on Friday night, right in front of the hotel. Saturday we would drive you in the RV to Orlando, several hours away and check into another hotel. Bright and early on Sunday morning we would take you to Disney World for a day of park-hopping and fun. Back to the hotel on Sunday night, and we would check you in at the Orlando airport to fly home on Monday morning. We would charge you just $50 for the cost of fuel driving you around and such. The big cost to you all would be the airfare and three nights of hotels (shared 4 to a room). It is also possible you could skip the night in Jacksonville and fly into Orlando Saturday afternoon for the Disney part of the reunion, only. Let us know if you're interested. We'd need a minimum of five, and no more than eight.

- Tom & Meghan

Sept. 6, 9PM:

One spot is still being saved for a younger first time Longacres student in July. Our reasoning is that it is important for us to have a small but steady stream of "new blood" entering the Longacres student body. What is happening with this year's terrific early enrollment is a perfect example of the need for new younger students. In the late '90's we had a similar group of very good friends who all began returning to Longacres together year after year. Then suddenly in 2005 they all got too old at the same time and all went off to summer jobs and college. We did not fill our enrollment for that 2005 season. We had a good year in 2005 with a smaller group and then again filled completely this season. This is why we are so determined to save a couple of spots for first time younger riders.

Aleeta Has a Great Home!

OK, you have all been very patient reading about who is signing up and what sessions are full for the past week! Time for a little horse news. Some of you know that we were very worried about finding a good home for Aleeta. We even thought we might have to sell her. Which was too bad because she was getting better and better every week of our 2006 season. She had not done much for a few years before we bought her. But Mary did good work with her in first session and Danielle did even more in second session. We finally did find a great winter home for her with a family of good english riders. The girl who took her and her mom LOVE Aleeta! She has a big new indoor arena for her training for the winter and she is doing very well. She even has a gelding that is following her all around the pasture!!!! Yeah!!!!!

Sept. 6, 7PM:

Emily is very interested in the CIT program; Emmy is VERY interested in returning as a junior counselor; Danita is definitely coming for July 8 to 22^nd and probably bringing her own horse; Sharon and Laura definite now for mother-daughter week; those are some of the big news stories from September 6, 2006! We are waiting to hear a final decision from three girls all considering the full season. If they all come and make their plans final this week, Longacres will be full for 2007 except for the Early Bird weeks in June. If one or more of these girls are not able to make a final decision this week, we will announce the availability of several sessions again this weekend.

As of tonight, we will place a "hold" on ANY new registrations for 2007, except for one spot for a first time student age 10 to 12 during July.

You may request to be on a waiting list for any session. Since 2007 is so far away and since some plans are bound to change, the first person on wait list for most sessions will stand a good chance of getting in.

Sept. 5^th, late:

We've been away at State Fair on "vacation" over the long weekend. There was a lot of good news waiting for us on our return to the farm. Amanda is returning for the first two weeks in July; "Dakota Gold" Andrea is coming for the second two weeks in July; Cara wants a spot in the second session; Carly wants a spot in the second session; Mary is asking about which spots are left; whew!!

We are keeping a running tally, and if everyone on our tentative reservation list actually signs up, we now have only one spot open in each of the July two week sessions for a first time student in the 10 to 12 age group. And one spot for a full season student (which according to one rumor might be filled very soon); and two spots left during the second half of the summer.

We also have spots in the Early Bird weeks in June. Mother-Daughter week is about half full.

Some of the reservations we're counting include families that have told us informally during the past two weeks to save them a space, so it is possible one or more might change their minds. Keep checking this page and the rate and schedule page if you want a session that we're now listing as full. And send in your request to be put on a waiting list. We already have a wait list for July two week sessions for girls older than 12.

We'll be posting regularly here over the coming week.

- Tom & Meghan

Sept. 2^nd, 2PM:

The second half of the summer now has only four spaces left for the July 25 to August 18 session. Michelle K. (little Michelle) and Alexa R. both signed up for the full second session, and along with our full season students, there are not many spaces left. It's going to be great having Michelle back for her third season at Longacres and for a longer stay this year! (Hi Michelle!!!!)

Sept. 1^st, 9PM:

It's been a busy day with our email. At the end of the day, we are now putting a "hold" on the June 24 to July 8^th session. We're holding onto one spot for someone who would like to sign up for the full eight weeks, and two spots for first time Longacres students age 10 to 12. If everyone on our email list actually signs up, we will have no more space in that two week session. You are welcome to ask to be on a wait list for that session in case someone changes their mind.

We have some spaces in all other sessions, though the July 8 to July 22 session may be the next to fill. Sleep tight and enjoy your last weekend before SCHOOL!!!!!

Sept. 1^st, 2PM update:

Two more! We welcome officially, Robyn L. as 2007 Student #2 for the full season. (Might have been #1 Robyn, if Peyton hadn't shelled out for the FedEx overnight!) We also have a deposit from Danita who has been corresponding with us since early spring about next year. There's still some question which session Danita will choose, so we'll post the numbers later on. Glad to have some brand new students signing up along with returning riders!

September 1^st:

We also got an email reservation from Madeleine for the first four weeks next year, plus the first two weeks for her sister, Amanda. If everyone who has at least informally told us during the past two weeks that they want to be here for the July sessions at the beginning of next summer actually signs up, we will have only three spots left for the opening session next year! Wow! That does not include those of you who told us during the summer that you would see us next year, so don't wait too long if you plan to reserve a spot for 2007.

(And our regular mail delivery for today comes in a few minutes - perhaps there will be more news in half an hour!)

August 31, 8PM:

And we know that Robyn's is on the way; so we'll just have to wait to see who's reg. Form gets here first!

August 31, noon:

Hello everyone,

We have heard from Robyn, Shelley, Peyton, Jenn, and Laura with email that they plan to sign up for 2007. The first four for full season, and Laura for the first four weeks in July. We do not have an official enrollment form or deposit from anyone yet, so the honorary "Student #1" title is up for grabs!

We might have some official announcements tomorrow, since Sept. 1^st is the first day we are formally accepting 2007 enrollments. If the above five do enroll, we will have only 3 spots left in the June 24 to July 22 two and four week periods for other returning students, since we save two of those spots for first timers.

We do not want to sound pushy or like we're trying to pressure anyone to sign up early. But when we are full in a session, we are full and can't take any more students. So spread the word to anyone who you think wants to return, and keep an eye on this space to see if we are about to reach our enrollment limit in any other sessions.

Hope you are all enjoying GETTING READY FOR SCHOOL!!!!!

August 30^th, early:

- Tom & Meghan

August 29^{th noon}:

Just a note to those of you writing in requesting the DVD ROM with all the pictures from the summer. Be sure you have a DVD ROM drive built into your computer that can read data like a disk drive. Most recent computers have one. The DVD is not one that you can put in a regular DVD player and watch on TV. The DVD has almost 800 high resolution pictures. If you need a regular CD, the two available CD's have about 150 pictures each chosen from the bigger selection on the DVD.

The schedule for 2007 will probably be posted tomorrow, so early birds can request specific sessions for next year. Early June and the August sessions will probably not fill until later in the year. The regular camp sessions between June 24 and July 22 may fill very quickly.

Who will be "Student #1"?

There's always a little informal recognition given to the first officially enrolled student for each season. For 2006, Student #1 was Madeleine from Maryland, and for 2005 it was Shelley, also from Maryland. We've heard casually from several of you saying you're returning. We'll announce here sometime after September 1st who's the official early bird for 2007!

August 28, noon:

Picture CD's???

We've spent the last hour and a half choosing pictures for the picture CD's or DVD's some of you will want. If you want one of the picture CD's from this summer, email us or phone us right away. You can always send us a check later in the fall if you don't order one now, but if you order now we'll deduct from your account before we send out refund checks and we'll mail the cd's or dvd's this week. Here are your choices for picture collections - there are a LOT of pictures!

You will have a choice of ordering a DVD disc with all available pictures (788 high resolution pictures) or a choice of CD discs that each contain selections of about 140 of the best pictures from June 10 to July 22 on CD "A" or July 25 to August 19 on CD "B".

Prices include shipping:

DVD with 788 pictures - $26 for DVD

CD "A" - selected pics from 1^st session - $22

CD "B" - selected pics from 2^nd session - $22

Horse Gone:

All the horses are now gone from the barn. A few are still at Frank's waiting to be trucked to their winter homes over the next few days. Two lucky Longacres students are taking one of our horses over the winter. Jenn will have her beloved ShaBang near New York City, and Laura and Sharon will have Zanzibar in New Jersey for the winter.

Refunds Coming:

We do expect to have all checks mailed out to those of you who have money coming back to you from your show accounts by the end of this week at the latest. We THINK we have sent out all the forgotten stuff some of you left. Cheap stuff like dirty towels or laundry will be thrown out unless you call and make a special request to have something mailed back.

Schedule for 2007:

The 2007 schedule will be posted in the next day or two so you can make definite plans if you want to be one of the early birds on our 2007 registration list. Reservations for the June 24 to July 22^nd sessions in 2007 will go very fast, since we will be reserving a couple of spots in that session for first time students in the 10 to 12 age group, leaving only 7 spots for returning students. You will likely have more time to make up your mind if you want early June or August sessions.

August 25^th, noon:

Today I'd like to acknowledge some of the very good friends from the western New York horse world who in quiet (and NOT so quiet!) ways do a lot to make the Longacres experience what it is. Longacres is lucky to have the friendship and support of these people who enhance our riding program and showing experiences beyond what we do ourselves with out own counselors and staff.

The letters below from Uncle Billy and Dr. Leslie Anne McCulloch give you an idea of the support for our girls and our show program from adult horse people in our area. Barbie G. from BZG Stables is an unforgettable and big hearted personality who does much to make the Longacres program and South Towns Summer Show Series what they are. Thanks also to Diane from Quakerfield and Leigh from High Time and Becky and Jaime from Hasty Hills who give special clinics here and help at shows whenever we need it. Without the help of these fine people and many more that sponsor portions of the Summer Series and cheer on our girls, the Longacres Riding experience would be nowhere near what it is. THANK YOU ALL!!!!!!

About 2007 Tuition:

With registration for next year opening next week on Sept. 1^st, and several of you already emailing "early reservation requests", you are surely interested in what it will cost to come to Longacres next season. It will cost more.

We have had no increase in tuition for several years, and none for quite a few years before that. We are taking our time to examine carefully both our own budgeting needs, and tuitions charged by other good riding camps.

Our own budgeting needs are substantial. In addition to continually improving our string of horses, our riding facilities, and the things you riders use every day, we spent thousands on repairing our nearly 70 year old infrastructure this year, and will spend tens of thousands more in the coming two years for a new barn roof, new foundations for the dining hall, new road and bridge repairs, and much more.

For many years people have asked, "How can you afford to run such an elaborate riding program on the tuition from so few students and cover your costs?"

We have been surfing the internet checking what the competition charges for riding camp. Part of the problem is that there are no other riding camps quite like Longacres to compare. But we've made a list of 16 camps that provide decent riding programs for more than just the casual rider. In 2006 Longacres, at $1730, was the second to least expensive of the 16 for a two-week session. Prices ranged from $1640 at Sprucelands (not far from us) to $2835 at International Riding Camp, which appears near the top of all Web search pages. (Don't worry, the world can only afford one International Riding Camp, and we don't plan to price ourselves at their level!)

The average two week tuition for the fifteen other riding camps was just over $2100. You can expect our tuition when it is published next week to be close to this figure.

We hope it is helpful to all of you at home to know our thinking on camp cost as you begin to make your own plans for 2007. We hope Longacres is once again a part of your plans.

- Tom & Meghan

August 24^th:

Check "Mary's Photo of the Day" above, AND

A little message from the "Second biggest kid at the shows!":

Many parents probably don't realize how difficult this type of horse back riding & jumping is that their daughters are attempting to do. I have played just about every sport there is, and none of them are as difficult, as challenging, or rewarding as jumping horses over fences. These big, powerful animals do have a mind of their own, and some times have their own ideas about what they want to do. It is a special bond though as horse and rider compete together as a team. After spending a number of years as a horse show photographer and watching my nieces do it, I decided to give it a try. Besides, how hard could it be, as these little kids make it look so easy. Well, after my first lesson, I realized just how much work I had to do to get to their level! Actually, after realizing how much work it was going to be, I never thought I would get to do jumper classes. It took me awhile to get in the horse show ring, but I finally made it. I still remember the cheers from Longacres when I competed in baby hunters a few years ago. And after another period of time, I finally made it to the jumper division. As a rider, I had my "dream come true" moment this summer, as I competed in my first ever A rated horse show in Elmira, NY. It was a low training jumper class with about 21 horses. And, my worst nightmare, a pouring rain and a very muddy jumper ring. Some how, and I don't know how, I got around clear with a good time and ended up winning the class! I think my trainer was more excited than I was. It was a moment I'll never forget and makes all those rides during the cold winter months well worth it.

To the parents who might read this, you should be proud of your daughters for doing this. It takes real nerve and a mental toughness to ride these big, strong horses around at quick speeds, jumping challenging coarses, and riding against tough competition.

Tom & Meghan put in an awful lot of hours to make camp a good experience for all their riders (and how do I know this? Because I hardly ever see my friends during camp unless its at a horse show!). Also, their efforts to make the South Towns Summer Horse Show Series a success are a big benefit to local riders who want to put their training to the test.

August 23^rd:

NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Our air conditioning has died and we are stuck in the Texas heat.
I am not a happy camper.
I really want to go back to LA.
cool weather. green trees. cool creek.
But NOOOO I have to be in Texas.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO *pant,pant* NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Anyway got to go.

Lots of luv and overheated Peyton
<3
Peyton

One of our summer "show buddies, aka "the biggest kid at the show" writes:

AKA "The biggest kid at the shows"

Mary from Utah writes:

Hi girls! I miss you all sooo much! I'm really sorry i didn't send you a
care package, i was all ready to and then i figured it would probably take
really long to get there from utah and you all might be gone by then.
Hopefully someone else who lives closer loved you enough to send you some
candy and magazines! Peyton I heard you got 1ST at the Derby!!! that is
soooo awesome! I hope you are all having a great time at the eerie county
fair... it sounds like a great way to end the summer. my horse is currently
lame so I haven't been riding very much, just really slow easy trail rides.
I hope to see you guys again sometime soon! either at a reunion or next
summer!
xoxox
Mary

Jenn writes:

HI tom and megan!!!

I was so sad after leaving i almost forgot how good it felt to sit and do nothing. Vermont is good and

relaxing, but no horses= very depressing. Longacres was so great and I am deffinetely planning on

returning for maybe even longer,(maybe i will have a chance to beat shelly for that cooler). My Summer

was such a great experience thanks to you i enjoyed it immensly and am looking so forward of the arrival

of Sha bang, I miss him so much!! The riding oppurtunities you gave me made me a stronger more

accomplished rider and i am very grateful. Miss you guysssss!

YOUR NUMBER 1 CAMPER (ha)
*JENN*

August 22:

August 21^st, late:

As night falls and we know that Sarah and Danielle will be gone in the morning, we have only eight remaining horses to keep us company. And most of them will be gone in another day or two. Keep the emails coming - we love to hear how you are all settling in back at home. (Jenn wrote that she really misses camp, but she has forgotten how nice it is to "just do nothing"!)

August 20^th, noon - or somewhere's around noon - who cares now?!?

Yes, we slept in this morning! But not so very long, and just out of habit I started mowing some grass that was getting long on the show field. But I quit after just a quarter of the field was done, because who's going to look at it, but me?

Sign-ups for 2007:

We will be posting the 2007 schedule and rates in a few days. We will accept reservations beginning September 1^st. You may send an email reservation request, but your space will not be confirmed until we have an enrollment form and a deposit. What an email reservation request will do is put you on the "probably" list, and we will notify you by email when the session you request looks like it will fill soon.

If our past experience holds true, the first four weeks of "regular camp" from the last week in June until July 22^nd will fill very early. The early June sessions and the August session will fill late in the year or during the early spring of 2007.

Hope you are all getting REST!

- Tom & Meghan

August 19, noon:

We Miss You Too, Peyton!

Oh, My! I just turned on the answering machine and heard a message from Peyton saying she had arrived safely at the airport in Dallas, and that she missed us all and that she wants to come back next year - along with a few quiet sobs. My eyes blurred a little listening, Peyton. And we can't wait to see you again in 2007 or at a reunion this winter.

Same goes to all the rest of you who made 2006 a banner year at Longacres! We'll be posting a few little "memories" from 2006 season here from time to time over the coming weeks. One of my best memories was watching Robyn come out of the ring at the Fair after she had gone last in the jumper class on Quantum and turned the best time to win the class and clinch the Championship. To say she was grinning from ear to ear would not begin to convey the joy that emanated from her! Leigh Fischer and Becky Bates, two of the more successful trainers in western New York, were standing next to me at the in gate. Becky said, "The look on that girl's face is what keeps us all working so hard in this business." Amen!

August 18, 8PM:

It does not diminish the great riding and work of all our other 2006 students to remark once again on the extraordinary achievements of Peyton from Dallas! As most of you know, Peyton signed up for the full eight week season at Longacres never having once so much as sat on a horse. We've been reporting Peyton's progress all summer, and it has been remarkable. In the picture above, you see Peyton jumping our strongest jumper, Quantum, at the barn tonight. Remarkable!

It is with sadness that we are saying, "Goodbye" to all our students tonight and tomorrow morning. Kahley and Becka are leaving tonight, Payton at 4:30am for an early flight to Dallas, and Shelley about 9am; Robyn and Alexa will be here until noon and our counselors a couple of days longer to close up the barn. Then Meghan and I SLEEP!!!!! - - - - and just a few days later we begin planning for Longacres, 2007. Registrations for the 2007 season open on September 1^st.

August 17, 7PM:

A Record Performance!!!!!!!

According to our records, the most ribbons a Longacres show team has ever won at the fair is 49 - - - until NOW!!!! Going into the last few classes of the day we had won 46 ribbons at this show. We needed three more to tie the record and four to break it. Enter Peyton: Peyton was next to ride in the Short Stirrup hunter division where she promptly won 2 seconds and a third to tie the record and then Reserve Championship to break the record! We still had the Pleasure horse hack class to go with five of our riders. All won ribbons, bringing our total to 55 ribbons for the show - a record that may stand for some years. Oh, yeah - that last hack class - who won? Peyton took the blue on Brownie!!!!!!!!!

The Robin Low Show:

Well, this year it was certainly a team effort, with all the girls winning awards and working hard to get better every day. But the final day of the fair belonged to Robin Low, who rode both Peppermint Patti and Quantum Leap. Robyn won Champion of Beginner Jumpers on Patti, Champion of Puddle Jumpers on Quantum, Reserve Champion of Puddle Jumpers on Patti, won the first place blue in Training Jumpers on Quantum, and then she went on to do well on Ginger in hunters in the other ring. Great job, Robyn!!!!

Shelley won Hopeful Jumpers on Jenna.

August 16, 9PM:

The girls have now won 36 ribbons at the fair in two days, which is on a pace to set an all time record for the number of ribbons won in any previous year. The current record stands at 49 ribbons!

Everyone won ribbons today. Shelley has had some bad luck on her mare, "Devil Horns" in the past week. Not today! She lit up the scoreboard with a blistering fast jump off round taking first place.

- Tom

August 15^th, 11PM:

- Tom

August 14, 1pm:

- Tom

August 14, 8am:

I'm trying to decide whether to do the jumping on the old hunt course this morning or wait to the end of the week. If we do it this morning we take the very slight risk of one of the show horses twisting an ankle or something on the trail to the hunt course. If we wait til the end of the week, Jen will miss it, since she has to leave a day early and is going to miss all our traditional last day activities. What to do?

A report probably will come again late tonight, but perhaps not until Tuesday night after the first day of the fair.

Til then - - -

August 13, 1:30PM:

The rest of us are busy preparing for the big show at the Fair this week. The girls are in town doing laundry right now, then a trip to the tack shop, and a late afternoon mall visit to relax before this busy week of showing.

$$Money for the Fair! Most of the girls are close to being on budget for their spending and showing money for the summer. But some of the costs for the show at the fair are higher this year and that, along with a few girls wanting to ride two horses in different events, means that some of you at home will be getting calls today to see if a little more money is available for the show. I think we've reached most of you already, but if you happened not to be home this morning and you get a message about money, that's what it is all about. Meghan will be available tonight to answer any questions you may have.

We're also having a campfire and "smores" tonight and watching video of the Derby show.

August 12, 10am:

One good story from last night; we gave Peyton a special award at the start of the awards ceremony for outstanding accomplishment in her season here at Longacres. Everyone in the western New York show world knows that Peyton went from a never-ever rider 7 weeks ago to winning the beginner jumper Derby yesterday morning. Peyton got a big ovation from the crowd as we presented her with her "special award", a box of Godiva chocolates. Peyton likes the Forrest Gump saying that "life is like a box of chocolates" - she also REALLY likes chocolate! The mayor of East Aurora was here to help give out the awards to all the Summer Series riders. He had another surprise for Peyton. He pulled out an envelope and gave Peyton the "keys to the city" of East Aurora!!!!!! Peyton was shedding tears of happiness. She also has been living wrapped in the Championship Cooler she won in the Derby nearly constantly since yesterday morning!

We are making final decisions on which horses we'll be using at the Fair this morning. It looks like Jen will be showing both ShaBang and Quantum in jumpers, Sarah on Stolle, Alexa on Star, Robyn on Patti and Star (and perhaps Quantum!) in various events, Peyton on Brownie, Kahley on both ShaBang and Justin, and Becca on Kingsley.

August 11^th 11PM:

So, I will post another report tomorrow with more details. But the high lits of Derby day include two big wins for Longacres and a couple of other awards. Shelley Kearney won the high score Jumper award; Peyton won a cooler and the Beginner Jumper Derby championsip!!!!!

Danielle Pederson won the Training Jumper Derby and a cooler on Quantum. Jen rode ShaBang to third place in the 3'6" high jumper Derby!!!

More details tomorrow!!!!

- Tom (a little woozey after a fine awards party!!!)

August 10, late:

It did rain hard right about the time the high Derby would have been starting, so we made the right decision to postpone the show until tomorrow. We'll be getting under way at noon. Lots of news to come tomorrow night!

August 10^th:

August 9^th, 10PM:

It has been an exciting day at Longacres finishing decorating the big Derby course and practicing over the gorgeous jumps. We have high class visitors this week, too. Shelley's big sister, Beth, brought her horse all the way from Maryland to show in the Derby and I had a good time giving her a lesson tonight. Former Longacres student from the 1980's, Debbie Seife, trailered her jumper all the way from new Jersey and is spending several days with us practicing and then showing in the Derby. Jessie Carr rides on our show circuit and has gottan to know the girls well - she is stabling her horse here for a couple of days and staying with the girls in the cabins and practicing with us.

Leigh Fisher brought all her jumper riders over to practice on the course today and it was fun to watch her training methods. Amy Friedman and Accord were here with Noreen Laks and their two Championship horses yesterday. We are learning in our own Longacres training sessions and learning some more by watching these experienced riders who visit to train at Longacres.

We will try to take some good pictures of the Derby jumper course tomorrow and post them on the website. All the girls practiced for the Derby tonight and all plan to ride. Alexa got "GRRRRR" tonight and really got Star going well. Peyton is definitely showing Brownie in the Derby and you would never guess she has only been riding for seven weeks! Danielle had her best ride of the summer on Quantum in tonight's lesson. Shelley was good as always, and her sister's horse is nearly as good as Jenna. Kahley rode Patty very well and looks like a good one to bet on in the 2'3" or 2'6" height . Alex had a good session on Justin, Becka did the whole course on Kingsley, and Jen put in a good ride on ShaBang. Robyn took a BIG jump on Merlin and ended up with a little bruise on here chin, but she is OK - and finished the course with no faults. Let's hope it's that way in the show!

More to come tomorrow!

August 9, 5am:

Yes, I am up working on points for the horse show series! Final standings are now posted, and Horse of the Year is "Fini" owned and ridden by Leslie Anne McCullough. Trivia - nearly 500 separate horse and riders took part in this year's show series.

August 8^th, 11PM:

August 8, 11:45 am:

Becka had the fastest time of all on the very maneuverable "Kingsley", and Alex was second with "Zaney". The two of them had a side by side race at the end, which was won by Alex on "Zaney", but Becka was closing in fast at the finish. Fun!!!!!!

Tonight will be moonlight riding night at the barn. More later!

August 8^th, 8am:

Lovely, cool riding weather today and tomorrow for us to practice for the Derby on Thursday - or will it be FRIDAY? Some chance of rain on Thursday afternoon, so our rain date of Friday is possible. Check back on Wednesday night if you are planning to travel a distance. Odds are that we will go on Thursday, but the forecast will be more clearly defined by tomorrow night and we'll make a final decision.

August 7^th, late:

August 6^th, 5PM:

We said "goodbye" to Sam last night, who left after her special 12 day stay and her fine job showing both Star and "Groovey" at two shows. We said, "Hello" to Alexa who arrived this afternoon and did a good job on her evaluation test on Star. Alexa is a solid rider who knows her leads and diagonals solid, has great form over fences, and is ready to profit by the many hours in the saddle at Longacres to get a little stronger and gain a bit more "Gr-r-r-r-r-r"! We're glad to have Alexa on the team. We do still have the openings from the two girls who cancelled this session, so if anyone wants to join us for part of this week and "fair week", give us a call.

We began setting up the Derby course today, picking up an overflowing truck load of evergreen bows to decorate the Pulverman and the bank jumps. We'll have the course pretty well set by Tuesday and do the last minute decorating on Wednesday. We'll get some informal pictures of us setting the special jumps on Tuesday and try to post a photo album Tuesday night.

More later -

Tom

August 5^th, 11PM:

The girls just left the house for bed after watching video of today's show.

Headline:

Shelley enters four jumper classes;

Shelley WINS four jumper classes;

Shelley clinches Season Jumper Championship Cooler!!

Peyton won two trophies and a reserve Championship.

Those are just a few hi-lites, with everyone else doing good riding and winning many ribbons. We went out to dinner as usual to celebrate after the show and a high time was had by all! Lots of laughter in the RV on the way home! Jessie Carr ("Another Good Thing" rider) went to dinner with us along with Barb and Ashley Glica. It was a good party! Barb entertained her table with good gossip about when Tom was younger and showing jumpers.

August 5^th, 1:30 am:

We've been in touch with the counselors by phone while we were away from the farm this evening, and all is well. Everyone is looking forward to the horse show here at Longacres in the morning.

The Monster Truck show we ran this evening went spectacularly well. Sold out grandstand and great action. We were very pleased - and can now afford to buy another horse!

We returned to Longacres from the fair a little after midnight and went to work in the headlights of our cars checking the jump courses and using the tractor to put the loudspeakers up for the show. A few other odds and ends, and off to sleep (soon!).

Perfect weather is here for the show tomorrow, and we're really looking forward to the event. We will also be ready for sleep tomorrow night after these two long days in a row running special events! (Did I mention that with the rain we've had lately, the grass has grown an inch or two in two days, and I have to get up at 6:00 am to mow again before the show?)

• Good night,
• Tom

August 4^th, 10am:

Blessed sunny and cool weather, finally! But a grueling weekend schedule for Meghan and I. I teach my lesson in a few minutes and then we leave to run a big Monster Truck show this evening at a nearby county fair. Big event with lots of stress. Back to Longacres tonight where we'll work late into the night making sure all is set for tomorrow's horse show (which should have been yesterday, but for weather). It sounds like it is going to be a huge show with all stables from our area coming!

You will not get another update from me until late tomorrow night or Sunday morning. I'm off to my lesson where I'll be setting up a special gymnastic combination jump. - bye

August 3^rd, 12:45:

Peyton was riding Brownie, who is usually slow and very good for girls just beginning to jump. He was too slow this morning and did not care very much even when Peyton gave him a few pretty good kicks. So I gave Peyton a refresher on how and when to use a crop - and Brownie WOKE UP! And Peyton was ready. The girls had to announce the striding they would gt down one of the horse show lines in advance and then make the horse do the number they planned. Peyton watched the other girls and said, "Eight strides." I thought Brownie would get 9 or ten, but I responded, "OK, but you better push him."

Peyton picked up her canter and slam, bang, boom, rode right down the line of jumps in eight strides! - - and she was just getting started. A little later in the lesson she told us she was going to get seven strides like the big horses. Around the corner she came at a canter, lined up perfectly for the first jump, perfect jump and strong canter down the line in SEVEN, thank you very much, AND - - - - finsihed off with a perfect flying lead change after the line of fences - that's right, on BROWNIE!!!!!!! Everyone on the field broke into big grins and aplause, Peyton with a big grin, too!!!!

Rain, yeah!

It's not often that I am glad when there is a heavy shower on a show day. But it was a tough call to postpone the show today with only scattered morning showers. So when a heavy rain came down about a half hour ago in what would have been the middle of the first few special hunter classes, I breathed a sigh of relief that we weren't going to look stupid for putting the show off until Saturday. Phew!

The rain did hold off most of the morning, allowing us to get in the good lesson for everyone, and then Danielle ran a second lesson just before this little shower for some of the girls. Most of the heavy rain this afternoon looks like it will pass just south of us, so I don't think we'll see any flooding damage. Great riding weather still forecast for the show on Saturday.

- Tom

August 3^rd, 9am:

The weather "bubble" saved us again! Although we did get enough rain last night so that we postponed the show, we again just missed a line of violent thunderstorms. They moved through Buffalo and towards us with urgent violent storm warnings on all local TV stations. Meghan and I made sure the girls were in their cabins. The final warning came at midnight calling for the squall line to reach East Aurora at 12:15. We went outside and drove to the top of a nearby hill to watch the light show. Sure enough, the sky was lit up like the 4^th of July to our northwest as the storm approached right on schedule! The national weather service "discussion page" for other weathermen which I read regularly said, "eastern U.S. computer lightning strike display shows truly amazing lightning activity associated with this storm".

We saw the storm move over the village of East Aurora and block out the lights from town; the wind suddenly whipped up and some huge rain drops hit our car - - - and then it just died out, not three miles from Longacres. We have had this kind of near miss with major storms frequently this summer. We did get hit with a strong thunderstorm about 2am, but it was over in ten minutes with no flooding or other damage except to wake up the girls. (Alex says she didn't even bother to go sit next to a counselor like she often does in a thunder storm!)

News from yesterday includes an ill fated ride in the strong heat of the afternoon. I had wanted the girls to only do quiet trails in the very hot afternoon and there was some miscommunication; some rode and jumped and they were not at their best and the horses, especially Brody, resentful about the conditions. Refusals and bad riding, which I stopped when I realized what was happening. We rode and jumped in the cooler evening air as planned and everyone in that session did very well. It was one of my best lessons this session and I was able to really help everyone who rode with me. We're beginning to see some real improvement in this session's riders.

More to come tonight.

- Tom

August 2^nd, lunchtime:

We're in the final day of this long and oppressive heat wave; thunderstorms should come through with a cold front tonight and tomorrow will be 10 to 14 degrees cooler and less humid! Yeah!!!!! We are hoping the rain will end early so that our horse show can run as planned beginning at 11 in the morning, If worst comes to worst, the rain date is Saturday.

The girls got up early and rode a good lesson at 7:45 am. During the day we are having voluntary cool (relatively) trail rides in the woods - a few are riding, most waiting until our late evening practice session for the horse show. There's a surprise "Kone King" trip planned for after lunch, then a rest hour, some work helping set up for the show, more trail rides, a creek walk, and watching the rest of our video from the past few days in the air conditioned video room.

Coming Soon at Longacres:

Pond riding day, "big jump" day, the Derby August 10^th, Dressage test day, cross country jumping day (the girls have not been to the Grover Road hunt course all this season), a guest instructor clinic, ERIE COUNTY FAIR!!!! , and more!

August 1, 2PM:

July 31, late:

The predicted brutal heat wave did not arrive until much later in the day than forecast, but it is here, with oppressive overnight temps!

We did get up early and had an early morning ride. Then it turned out to be really quite pleasant for the mid morning ride, so we did a long session with lots of video and practice jumping courses. The girls went to town after morning ride and then watched many of the video's from the past few days in the newly air conditioned video room. (good timing on getting that installed, Tom!)

We had a late evening ride, which some of the girls sat out since it was beginning to get very humid, even after 8PM. We're having the weekly horses' day of rest tomorrow, so we will not really fall behind our scheduled number of lessons until Wednesday, when it is still expected to be quite hot. We'll likely ride early morning and late evening on Wednesday, before the cold front comes through giving us some relief on Thursday.

Most of the girls are doing very well this session. But we had two new students who came from a stable with quite different teaching ideas and methods than we have at Longacres, and they did not stay. We are sorry. We fail to meet the needs of a student only rarely, and it has been several years since someone did not like our program and went home early. As our long term readers know, we provide you with news about our problems on this page, as well as our successes.

July 30^th, 10PM:

The rain stayed away all day, but the barn where the show was held got hit hard by the storm that just missed Longacres last night! We were lucky.

The big weather story for the next few days will be record heat - not good for horses. We will get up extra early tomorrow morning to ride two lessons before the real heat of the day sets in. We'll ride again late tomorrow evening when it begins to cool off. We'll take the "town trip" and laundry day that is normally on Sundays tomorrow afternoon when it is hottest and the girls can hang out in some air conditioned fast food places next to the laundry and deli. We'll also watch the video's of the show tomorrow afternoon. Normally the horses get Sunday off. We'll change that rest day this week to Tuesday when temperatures may break into the high ninety's and set records for the date. Sounds like a mall and movie day to me!

A cold front is expected midweek and we'll be back to much more comfortable riding weather by Wednesday night

July 29, 9:30 PM:

I just got in from the barn where I helped the girls run mounted games. Danielle's "Rainbow Riders" edged out Sarah's "Chargers" for the most points tonight. We had a pole bending event where riders went in and out between water buckets as a relay, with the Rainbow Riders finishing in 2:32.90 to the Charger's 2:33.12!!!!! Winning by just two tenths of a second!!!

Event number two was Jen's which she got at another camp. We lined up buckets side by side to make a jump six buckets wide. Each rider on each team attempted to jump the buckets. One point if your horse jumped them, and no points if your horse ran out or knocked the bucket over. Simple - UNTIL after the first round we took one bucket away and you jumped a narrower jump only five buckets wide - and then four buckets wide - and finally down to a single bucket!!!!!!

Peppermint Patti, that grand old mare, jumped her bucket with Danielle in the saddle every single time! She was the only horse willing to jump over a single bucket. (Although Kahley rode Brody and managed to jump over the very edge of the single bucket for partial credit!) The Rainbow Riders won this event by the narrow margin of 11 good jumps to ten for the Chargers.

The event finished with an old fashioned cloverleaf barrel racing event. Kelsey had the top time of 19.80 seconds on Joker. Kahley and Brody were second with 19.96. We took the middle four times and summed them for the team wins, and the Chargers came out on top with 93 seconds to 97 for the Rainbow Riders.

We had another in our series of lucky breaks with the weather tonight. Severe storm warnings came on TV and the computer and an alert predicted hail and heavy winds to hit East Aurora at 7:10 PM. We got all the girls into the barn to wait out the storm. We watched the pitch darm clouds swirl just to our north and some distant lightning and thunder - but the squall line passed just a few miles to our north leaving us with just a drop or two of rain at the very end of the Gymkhana. We watched the clouds for quite a while and I went up to log onto the computer and check the radar images of the squall line. When it appeared it was just skimming by us we mounted up and rode.

The show looks like a go for tomorrow. The worst of the weather passed through tonight and we'll have only scattered rain tomorrow. Check in here tomorrow night for a show report - it will be a late report.

July 29^th, dinner time:

July 28, late night:

Rainy this morning, but we have eager riders in this session's group so the girls rode in a drizzle for the first lesson this morning. Tom taught and had the girls trot towards a jump and announce exactly how many cantering strides they would get from the time they ask for a canter until they take the jump. It was hard at first! Lindsey and Jen were the first ones to figure out that it is easier to try to judge when you can fit in six or seven strides than it is to judge when you can do two or three. More strides makes it easier to shorten or lengthen to adjust. Once everyone else figured that out, they began to do quite well. Alex Softness was the most successful at this exercise, judging exactly correctly several times while she was riding "Gus".

Those of you following the "Peyton Story" at home will be impressed to hear that after riding with the younger girls and the more beginner group for the first four weeks of camp, she is now "mainstreamed" with all the rest of the quite advanced riders we have this session. Peyton does everything the other girls do, though sometimes a notch or two lower on the jump stands. Good job, Peyton!!

To be honest, this is one of the very rare nights that I can't give you a full detailed report of the afternoon and evening rides. Meghan and I had an appointment to run an event away from Longacres for the afternoon and evening. We did keep in touch with our counselors by phone and got reports that all was going smoothly and everyone was "safe"!!

More to come tomorrow, and welcome back Michelle!

July 27, very late:

I designated Peyton, Robyn, and Becky as a committee to decide when to take our first "Kone King" trip of the session. They were told to choose sometime between lunch today and Saturday night - they did not wait long! They announced "Kone King Time" right after evening ride and horsecare - so off we went to town. BUT - not before Samantha entertained us all at dinner with her horse whinny! Accompanied by Jen's "barking dog imitations".

Kelsey was in fine spirits at dinner and full of energy at Kone King. She'd seemed subdued early in the day and I asked about the sudden change - she and Lindsey said they'd just needed a few hours to get rested and used to the time change after flying from out west. Also, Kelsey says she's "not a morning person"! Lindsey has "jumped" right into Longacres, pardon the pun, quickly taking on some of our hardest jumping challenges. She seems a perfect fit for Quantum, and will be taking over Emmy's roll from first session as the designated "Quantum Leaper". It took her only a day until I turned her loose on the famous "road line" of jumps - she looked right at home! We'll post pictures of her jumping big soon.

Shelley, who always means well, but has a LOUD voice is practicing softly spoken horse care COMMANDS around the barn so as not to intimidate all our new students!

Kahley seems to be an especially good match for "Gus Because" and may show him this week. Kahley won our informal contest in my lesson this morning for getting the striding on a course perfectly correct with all the right leads on "Gus". Samantha was almost as good, with all the correct strides and one wrong lead on "Ebony".

As of last night after only one full day of the new session I asked how many new horses each rider had tried. Kelsey was champ, having ridden seven different horses on the first day!

Just so you know that we haven't forgotten our loyal full season students, Jen taught a good lesson tonight as a guest instructor, and Peyton jumped Justin, a big thoroughbred, for the first time! As most of you at home know, Peyton NEVER rode a horse at all until four weeks and one day ago. She has been jumping the quiet ponies for several weeks, but this is the first time she's tried a big horse with a big jump - she did just fine!!!!!

A few riders in my first formal lesson of the session this morning ran afoul of Tom's obsession with paying attention to your position, form, and exact spacing while waiting your turn to perform in the lesson. (Does that sound familiar to you guys reading from home?) There were some gentle reminders at first, followed by a few more vigorous reminders. Everyone reads about our formal lessons before they sign up for Longacres, but few are prepared for the level of commitment I expect in my lesson until you arrive and actually experience the eyes I have in the back of my head catching you slouching in your saddle! But I will tell you what pleased me very much - the rider who I most harshly came down on in the morning lesson had been considering sitting out the after dinner ride to relax. When I mentioned that I planned to be at the barn after dinner, she asked, "Oh, are you teaching again?" And she did ride, and well.

Well, this has been a long report to catch up on second day news. This group is ahead of schedule - they began to "get it" and bond with each other by lunch time on the second day and were all in high spirits by dinner and "Kone King" time. All the new girls seem to have made new friends and found someone of a kindred spirit to sit with at meals and walk with on the way to the barn. We are off to a good start for this final session of 2006!

- Tom (signing off at 2:34 am - I fell asleep while getting the pictures ready to post and just woke up a half hour ago to write this update!!!!)

July 27, 7am:

July 26, 6:15 PM:

Kahley's bags have been found and are on their way here from the airport!

July 26, 5PM:

Everyone has now arrived safely for second session. Kahley was the last to arrive from the airport (one lost suitcase!). All the girls have been on several horses already (Kahley just getting on for the first time a few minutes ago). We have many very good riders this session. We should have a strong show team for the Erie County Fair. Our first show is at High Time in just four days, so we'll be working hard to get used to the new horse and rider combinations. Meghan is down at the barn now taking video of everyone to show tonight and still pictures to post on the website late tonight. We'll post again about 9 or 10 PM.

- Tom

July 25^th, 9PM:

Danielle and Sarah are our instructors for second session. They were both at Longacres last year and return with experience. Sarah spent a week here with Lillian in June opening the barn so that she is already well prepared with our 2006 procedures. When Lillian drove away from the barn at 5 this afternoon, the torch was passed.

Kelsey and Lindsey arrived safely from California and met us all at the mall for dinner before coming out to the farm to join the team. They are the "advance guard" - the rest of our second session students arrive tomorrow morning.

Meghan and I will be up until nearly midnight tonight, so if any of you who are traveling to Longacres tomorrow have any last minute questions, feel free to phone! We'll meet you all tomorrow for the real beginning of second session, 2006.

- Tom

July 24^th:

The girls slept in until 11am this morning! Lillian had several meetings with Meghan and with Sarah and Danielle, our second session instructors to go over all the barn procedures and plan a smooth transition to the second session which opens Wednesday. There was a quiet ride this afternoon on some of the horses that need work while most of our hard working horses continue their four days of mid-term rest.

One of the big events of the coming session is the Longacres Bold Jumper Derby on August 10^th. We watched video of last year's Derby to see what's coming. The girls are excited!

July 23, 2PM:

After six straight weeks of continuous horse and riding activity at Longacres, a brief period of calm has descended on the barn! We are in the first of three days of our intercession break. All the first session-only girls have left for home. Meghan is on her way back from the airport where she dropped off Mary to fly home to Utah, and Emily W. to meet her mom for her flight home to Tennessee. Emily P. has left by car for Maryland; Olivia by car for New Jersey; and Michelle by car for Rochester, NY - but not for long! Michelle may be returning for a special two day visit this weekend. Michelle was shedding a few large tears of sadness about leaving her human and horse friends at Longacres, and we were already missing her, so we invited her back for a visit since she lives closer than any other camper. And she might come this weekend!

For the next three days, we'll be vegetating - resting up to start all over again with our second session and big plans for more horse shows, the August 10^th Longacres Jumper Derby, and the Erie County Fair. Lillian and Emmie are here for a few more days to pass the reins of the riding program over to Sarah and Danielle, our second session counselors and instructors. Sarah came in with her horse last night, and Danielle is arriving later today.

We probably won't post many pictures or updates during the next couple of days - I am on "rest and recuperation" leave along with the horses! But we'll have a big update on Wednesday night after all the new riders come in and have been on horses. Two of our California girls are arriving on Tuesday evening and the rest on Wednesday. More later - nappy time now!!!!!!!!! - Tom

July 22, very late:

A busy day watching video and riding between rain showers on the final day of the session. We'll try to post again tomorrow after the girls from first session leave. The pond pictures are now posted.

July 21, late:

July 21 - High Jumping!

Below: Various Links to other Longacres information

Above - On the Show Field with ECF show ribbons!

General information about the 2007 schedule and rates is now posted.