Tuesday, 10:30 PM:

Tuesday, Sept. 16, 9PM:

When I was a child at Longacres (half a century ago!!), we used to sing a song on camp fire night and I still remember some of the words. Maybe you know them?

"I see the moon

And the moon sees me

And the moon sees the one

That I want to see - - - "

I thought of those lyrics tonight as Meghan and I drove up from the barn under a brilliant harvest moon. We were thinking about some of the lovely moonlight rides Meghan and I shared with some of you this past summer, especially Kelly, Ruby, and the rest of you younger kids from our first session.

If any of you are checking the website tonight and get this message, go outside for just a moment and look up at that moon which sees us and will see you, too! Write in and tell me if you have a chance to share our Longacres Harvest Moon tonight. I am going outside again at 10:15 and looking up at that moon, and it will be joyful to hear that one or more of you shared the moment with me even if it is from hundreds or even thousands of miles away from Longacres, but very close in spirit.

I don't know how many of you will be checking in tonight - in the summer hundreds of you read this website every night, but vastly fewer at this time of year. Greetings if you are thinking of us!

Monday, 11PM:

Monday, September 15, 11AM:

What a difference a day makes! It was quite warm and a bit too humid yesterday, but the passage of what was left of tropical storm "Ike" last night has brought us much cooler fall like weather. "Ike" also gave us a taste of his fierce winds with gale force winds blasting through our Longacres trees for a few hours late last night. There were hundreds of small tree branches down just in the driveway to our main house this morning and thousands in the woods. It would have been much worse, but for the fact that Mother Nature sent us her tree trimming crew in the form of two very strong wind storms last winter that took out most of our weak trees and rotten tree branches.

The horses survived the storm fine, though they were all pleased to see Meghan when she showed up to feed this morning!

Canteen Refunds: We owe most of you who were at Lazy Days week small refunds on your spending money accounts and we mean to get those out to you in the next few days now that we are caught up to date on many other Longacres book keeping jobs. We mailed in our federal and state tax returns for the past fiscal year this morning. That's a load off our backs!

We are also pretty well caught up on confirming 2009 enrollment requests. If any of you out there sent in a request and have not heard from Meghan in the past two weeks, call us - we think we've spoken to all of you.

We are full for mother - daughter week and we are full for students older than 12 for the July 12 to 26th session. We do have two spots available that session for girls age 12 and under. All other sessions have two or three spots still available.

More to come tomorrow!

Sunday, 8PM:

It was a warm and humid but pleasant day at Longacres even though the remnants of "Ike" are passing close to our north in Canada as I write. We've had a good, soaking rain the past few days so our grass will be really shooting up the next week. I'll be busy on the mower!

You all know that we've still got lots of horses that need winter homes. What is ironic is that the first three we found homes for since the end of our season were the three that are usually hardest to place, ShaBang, Quantum, and Diesel. The horses that still need homes are some of our most calm and versatile. Brody, Boo, Bobert, Brownie, and Patti are still looking to be adopted for the winter by someone.

Sunday, Sept. 14th:

So far so good - Diesel is trying to put his best (big) foot forward during his trial at his possible winter home with sheriff's lieutenant, JoAnne. She gave us an update and told us he was perfect in the trailer on his way home with her. They groomed him, put "show sheen" on, and played with braiding his mane. They tell us he is easier to handle than some of their mini horses! He is a good guy. He did get in a little mischief this morning knocking over a temporary fence while he tried to get at some especially yummy hay. I hope they forgive him for that - he DOES like his food! We'll put together a little picture album and video tribute to Diesel in the next day or so.

Saturday, 6PM:

This has been a great day at Longacres, but a very sad one at the same time. We do think we have found a very appropriate home for Diesel, and he left a few minutes ago for a week's trial. We can't imagine a better use for Diesel than as a "good will ambassador" for a County Sheriff's mounted division officer! They do all sorts of special events where there are crowds and people come up to them and pet the horses. Diesel will love it, as all Longacres regulars know!

But it is hard saying "goodbye" to him even for a few months. I deeply respect and care about horses like Brownie (greatest pony in the world), Merlin (perhaps the most versatile and talented Longacres horse), Patti (greatest all time record as a show jumper of all Longacres jumpers, and there have been many!), Quantum (what more can be said about THIS great jumper!!!!!), and more of them. But something about Diesel has really grabbed me this summer. Most 2008 students know how much joy I got watching him each time he learned something new. And the past few weeks when we've had half a dozen horses left here from the summer, there's not a day that goes by that I don't visit the barn and say "hi, Big Boy"!!!! This is one horse I will enjoy visiting during the winter.

I find myself almost hoping that the Sheriff's officer doesn't like him after all and sends him back so we can enjoy him a while longer this fall!

- a sad Tom, already missing Diesel!

Saturday, Sept. 13th:

Some of our horses have new "loves". We visited Becka and Quantum last night and she definitely has fallen for him in a big way. It is now confirmed that Quantum will be staying with Becka for the winter at Brookfield, one of the nicest new stables in western New York. Really nice place! Becka is a very soft rider and a good fit for Quantum. She will be working him on the flat six days a week and will take jumping lessons with a good trainer twice a week. Just about the perfect work load to keep Quantum in good shape for next summer!

And this afternoon we had visitors from another stable. They came first to look at Bobert, but when they got here they all fell in love with Diesel. They all road him and the first thing each one said when they climbed up the stump and got on was, "Whoa!!!!!" Diesel was great both with adults and with little kids. If they take him for the winter he will be both a farm pet and he will work in a Sheriff's mounted patrol - we think he will like that!

Friday, Sept. 12th Update:

6 Horses Still NEED Winter Homes!

Help!

Do you know anyone who might be interested in a free horse loan for the winter? Spread the word at your stable or consider taking one of our remaining guys to keep your horse company! Brownie, Brody, Bobert, Boo (all the "B's"), Patti, and Diesel are still here at the farm with no winter home prospects.

This is the first time in 25 years that we've had horses with no homes for the winter by the middle of September. It is an interesting insight on the state of the economy in western New York. More upscale families that own their own horses are generally doing fine and certainly are keeping their horses. But the middle class families who often take advantage of our offer of a "free" horse loan for the winter have largely vanished from the horse world in our part of New York. We have now spent almost three times as much advertising for "winter horse homes" as last year, but few people even call for information. One family that considered taking a horse talked with us and said flat out that not putting the money into taking a horse for the winter would pay for Christmas and a vacation for the family. They couldn't afford both.

So pass the word. These are some of our best horses left. If we don't find loan homes for them, we'll be looking for opportunities to board the remaining horses someplace during November through mid April. So if you know a stable with lots of pasture and even just run in shelter so the horses can live mostly outside over the winter, let us know. Cost is a factor, obviously, if we have to pay to board four to six horses!

Thursday, Sept. 11, Update:

Working on Jumps Already!

Joel and Meghan were busy checking out each and every jump stand when they were put away last week. They set aside 18 of our old stands that had loose or worn "feet" which made some of the jumps uneven or wobbly. This week Joel made new foot pieces for all 18 of these jumps and we'll have them repaired to like new condition before winter sets in. We'll begin next season with all our present jumps in great shape AND we plan to build many more new jumps next spring. We're ordering 20 new jump rails this week so they'll be able to dry out over the winter and be ready for paint in the spring.

"What Goes Up Must Come Down - Eventually!"

or

"It's All Derrick's Fault!"

We're talking about model airplanes here. For two years radio control model planes were a big time part of my life and my main hobby outside of Longacres work. But I set them aside about a year ago after busting up one of my favorite planes in a hard crash.

Fast forward to this year when one of our favorite students, Danita, brought her brother to our special "Lazy Days" week. Turns out Derrick is really interested in radio control planes. So I figured it would be nice to get one of my old slow beginner planes out of storage, charge up the batteries, and give Derrick a flying demonstration while he was at Longacres in August. Just one flight, of course, and then put the plane away in the attic again.

Well, that's not what happened. I got hooked again! That's why what happened yesterday and today is "Derrick's fault".

Not only did I begin practicing with and flying my old beginner plane, but I got out all the broken parts of my high performance plane and glued them back together. Then I began flying that for more practice and THEN I went to my favorite Hobby Shop and bought a really, really fast high performance plane (brushless Stryker, if any of you readers follow this stuff).

I was doing pretty well flying all three planes. I did have one "hard landing" with the new plane. And flying the old high performance plane is tricky since it weighs about half again what it should with all the Epoxy glue and tape repairs I've had to make over two years of learning to fly through the school of hard knocks. It is like a brick to get going and barely flies if I am careful. So it is not surprising that I made a turn too wide up near the small show ring and the plane went into a clump of trees in a neighbor's back yard.

First I used a bow and arrow with a bow fishing line attached. That's a good way to get planes out of trees usually. You shoot the arrow up over a branch near the stuck airplane and it pulls a heavy fishing line behind the arrow so you can shake the branches causing the plane to fall back to the ground. But the plane was stuck so high in this tree that I could barely reach it with the bow and arrow. So we got the tractor high lift and Meghan picked me up in the air about fifteen feet and I tried with the bow and arrow again. I got close several times and we shook the tree branches like a storm would - but the plane was stuck tight. Then we tried throwing apples at the plane! No kidding, and I hit it twice. But it was stuck tight. Then I got mad and tried shooting arrows with no fishing line at the plane, thinking that if I got a direct hit, it would surely knock it down. Well, I "wounded" it, all right, but the plane stayed in the tree with an arrow stuck sticking out of the fusilage. Finally Joel brought tall ladders from the shop and he was able to get about half way up the tree and standing on the top of the ladder (dangerous!) he reached out with three pieces of plastic pipe he fastened together and was able to move the plane slightly, just as it got too fark to work safely. We gave up for the night, and then Joel brought a lighter, longer plastic pipe from home today and he was able to finally knock my plane out of the tree.

By this time, between myself, Meghan, and Joel, we had invested enough valuable labor time for me to just go out and buy a new plane and leave this one in Norm's tree over the winter as a decoration. So much for sensible time budgeting!

Other Real Work

We have done some real work this week. We're concentrating on our farm roads and drainage after enduring quite a wet season. At least we know where all the mud puddles form! We have the spot where the main camp road crosses the little creek between the dining hall and cabins all torn up as we prepare to pour concrete over the drain culverts. And every morning after breakfast I'm driving to the building supply place in town and bringing home a truckload of gravel to fill in a new drainage area next to the office driveway. As usual, quite a bit of our annual budget is spent "under ground".

AND just for Fun!

Meghan and I did do something this week just for fun. We drove all the way to Wooster, Ohio to see one of our favorite country music groups at the Wayne County Fair. (The Oakridge Boys) We also had a chance to see the Budweiser 8 horse hitch - we think our Diesel is just as gorgeous as the Bud Clydsdales!

Wednesday, September 10th:

It's been a busy day at Longacres as we finished up our 2008 accounting and dropped our tax info off at the accountant's office. Phew!

Welcome to Andrea who sent in her 2009 enrollment today! We've got a great group planning to be here for the second half of the summer and the big shows! We've got a few more spots open in August if YOU are interested.

Tomorrow we're beginning to work on the creek crossing down near the big creek on the road from the cabins to the dining hall. Lots of concrete forms to build and cement and stone to lay down. This has been a big year for bridges, road building, and landscaping at Longacres. More to come.

Sunday, Sept. 7th:

A quiet day at Longacres and, yes, Meghan slept well last night after I took her out for Pizza and a glass of wine to celebrate getting ALL the jumps put away neatly in the barn in just one long day! We're still working this afternoon on accounting, since our taxes are due at the end of next week. But we're watching some football, playing with my new model plane (which I crashed for the first time this morning!), and other things to relax a bit. We even picked up a Sunday Times on the way home from breakfast to relax with over the next day or two. We don't even think about trying to read the Times during the summer!

Taylor is working today doing a really good clean up of the barn, cleaning all the bridles and bits, and other stuff to put Longacres "to bed" for the off season.

Brownie is getting a head start of his own preparing for winter. He's already growing in his winter coat! Meghan tells me he has a cute little patch of white hair coming in over his left eye.

We have the mattresses in the bunks all stacked on one bed to keep them out of reach of the mice, and the the mattress cover sheets are collected for the laundry. There's lots to do, but we're enjoying the more relaxed schedule of the fall.

Saturday, 7PM:

Saturday, September 6, 1PM:

Meghan has a really good system. I am always amazed that with just a few good helpers she can get all our jumps put away in one weekend. In fact, she may be nearly done by the end of today. And it's a rather dreary, overcast day at Longacres - but good for heavy work, I guess.

I guess. You see, I am banished from the barn for this project. Meghan always has considered me too old and frail for this job, and especially so since my "false alarm" health scare a couple of weeks ago. So I am not supposed to show up at the barn today except to take pictures for the Blog.

But I have tricked Meghan and I'm getting some good exercise behind her back! I'm starting a project to improve drainage along the driveway to the office and it requires a 12" deep ditch across the road for a new drain pipe. It's hard digging since I have to cut through gravel that has been packed down for 60 years from vehicle traffic. Every time I drive down to the barn or back to innocently take pictures of Meghan and her crew working, I stop and take 10 or 12 good swings with my pick axe on the ditch project. I know that she'll figure out what I'm up to soon, but in the meantime I'm having fun digging up the driveway!

We'd like to send out a Longacres welcome to Shaina, a friend of Alexa's who has just signed up for "Lazy Days" 2009. We're glad to have you as part of the Longacres family, Shaina, and we liked you note with the enrollment.

Meghan wants me to report that Bobert has a nice home for the winter with a family that has been working on his stable for two weeks getting ready for him, and has collected some toys for his stall. After Bobert leaves, we'll have only Brownie, Brody, Boo, Patti, and Diesel left here waiting to be adopted for the winter. Just in case we do not find homes for all of them we're beginning to look at the possibility of keeping our barn open all winter this year, or at least through Christmas. We'd probably put up a little extra fence around the back of the barn and partition off about 40' at the back of the barn so the horses could run in and out as they pleased for shelter but live mostly in pasture. But we prefer to find everyone a good "winter horse home" so they get daily personal attention from some loving family.

Friday, Sept. 5, 3PM:

Thursday evening, 9PM:

"It's Like Riding a Bicycle" update - It's been two days now since I jumped Quantum - my thigh muscles are still pretty sore! How long does this last, guys?

Thursday, September 4, 4PM Update:

Hi again,

We've had some pleasant days this week and are beginning to feel well rested after the summer action! And we're getting busy again. We do relax for a while every morning and then enjoy taking care of the horses that still don't have homes for the winter. Pass the word if you know anyone who might like Brody, Boo, Brownie, Patti, Bobert, or Diesel. They are all getting lots of rest and LOTS of feed. Except for Patti and Bobert, they are looking fat as little pigs (BIG pig in Diesel's case!)

We're still working to keep the farm mowed and trimmed, so if you are interested in stopping by to look at Longacres, you're very welcome. I even mowed inside the pasture today so that the healthy grasses would grow in better after I cut down some of the weeds.

Meghan and her crew are working this weekend to take down the big jump course and put the jumps away in the barn for the winter. We'll be working from about 9 AM on Saturday and again on Sunday. Feel free to stop by and give us a hand if you like! Or just stop by to say "goodbye" to the Longacres jumps until next year.

We continue to hear from returning and new students daily and we're getting our confirmation messages out this week for those of you who have reserved 2009 sessions.

Mother - Daughter week is full for 2009 and we now have only one spot in the July 12 to July 26 session, available for a student age 9 to 12. We have no space left for older teens in that session.

Most other sessions have several spots still open. Some of our "regulars" have told us they plan to attend next year, but have not sent in registrations. We are not counting any of those folks in our formal 2009 roster yet.

I have been taking time most days to fly my model airplanes. Derrick may be interested to know that I have had two major crashes, involving a LOT of Epoxy glue! I have successfully flown the new and very fast Brushless Stryker five or six times being very careful. No crashes with that one YET!

Joel has spent most of the week doing concrete and stone work on the old swimming hole bridge and dam. It is looking much better and should now last for many more years even if we get a major flood. We'll publish a list of some of our other maintenance projects for the fall as soon as Meghan and I can face writing the list - it is pretty scary how much we plan to try to get done.

September is also the end of our accounting year and Meghan and Cheryl are busy with book keeping and tax records so our accountant can file tax returns at the end of next week. We're also reviewing our website and planning on some changes here and there, as well as finishing this year's new "Meet the Horses" page.

Lots to do. But plenty of time to do most of it now that the farm is closing down for the fall.

Tuesday, Sept. 2nd, Midnight:

"It's like riding a bicycle!"

OK, here's how it started out this afternoon. We were making arrangements for Quantum to leave for a week's trial with Becka, who may give him a winter home if she gets along with him. (I think she will!)

It will be the first time Quantum has ever spent the winter with someone who is not a regular Longacres rider. We are happy for Becka and we think she's a good rider for Quantum - but we were feeling a little sad about Quantum leaving. And it got me thinking. In the almost 8 years I've owned this great horse, I've never once been on his back. I don't ride much anymore and when I do it's usually a casual walk on a trail or a very specific and controlled training exercise or demonstration. I haven't jumped a real fence in almost 15 years.

Well, there I was on the back of this great horse, and I said to myself, "You know what, Tom - this horse isn't meant to be an easy chair, he's a jumper. You once upon a time were pretty good at that jumping stuff. Maybe it has been 15 years since you jumped more than a cross rail, but how hard can it be?"

So we rode up the hill to the field, picked up a little canter and popped over a cross rail. Kinda fun! Meghan was following along with the camera,

"Just like Riding a Bicycle!"

That's what I told myself as I walked across the road to the big field, picked up another canter, and - - - - - -

And, do you know what? I wasn't half bad! My heels weren't down over the jump, and I got a little ahead of the motion for a couple of strides after the jump. But I felt my leads without looking as I approached the jumps, and I saw my spots clearly (riding conservatively for close spots four times and seeing the longer more forward distance to my last fence.) I was kind to the horse with my seat and hands and felt in good control. It was good to be on a horse again with wind in my face and feeling him reach under me and settle into the bit.

I really kind of think I could do this again if I set my mind to it! It helps that I'm in better physical condition than I've been for a few years. And it helps to have just watched 61 year old Ian Miller ride in the Olympics for Canada!

Oh, I don't think I could still show at five feet like I used to on China Heart, Yorke Springs, and Tip-Off. But I think maybe I could jump at 3'6" like we do around this part of the country these days. I felt fine jumping the 2'6" or so I did this afternoon and I thought of doing 3" or 3'6" which would not have felt any different on this fine horse. But he is missing a shoe, and I didn't want to send him over to Becka tonight foot sore.

Tuesday, Sept. 2nd, 10PM:

Hint:

"It's like riding a bicycle!"

An interesting update will come very late tonight or tomorrow morning. Check back later - you may enjoy it.

That said, Meghan and I drove home from the State Fair in Syracuse today in really lovely late summer weather. It was one of those days when it's just great to be alive and in the outdoors! We went to lunch on the porch of the Roycroft when we got home to East Aurora, and then did some horse business. And had some fun.

We are able to confirm that everyone who was a student this summer and who put in a deposit for 2009 will get the session you requested. Most sessions now have two to four spots left. We heard from Maggie, Michelle, Catherine, Rhiannon, Deb, Sydney, Sam, and several others in the past two days who were not sure until this week that they could return for 2009. Keep those enrollment messages coming!

First choice on 2009 sessions goes to this year's students until the end of this week. Then we will confirm the requests of first time students with the same priority as returning students. (Those of you who already sent in deposits to come to Longacres for the first time in 2009 ARE confirmed now.)

Remember - "It's like riding a bicycle!"

Friday, August 29, 1PM:

Hello everyone. Monday is September 1st and we will be confirming our early 2009 enrollments then. We will confirm the enrollments of students who have sent us their deposit checks over the summer, with preference given in the order that deposits arrived. As of today, Mother - Daughter week is full and most other sessions have between 2 and 4 vacancies. This counts only firm, paid deposits, and does not count any of the "the check is in the mail" messages we've been given. If everyone who has said they plan to sign up actually sends in a deposit, we will be full or nearly full in most sessions. We have some enrollments in all sessions, including the early Clinics in June and Lazy days, but those sessions have the most openings.

Several of you have switched your first choice of sessions since you sent in your deposit check. On Monday we will be confirming enrollments based on the last we heard from each of you. If you are in doubt, call us right away.

Wait List: We will soon have a wait list for at least some of our 2009 sessions. Last year several people did get a spot at Longacres after being on the wait list, and we expect that to happen again this year. It is a long time until the 2009 season and we are in a tight economy - some people will change their minds. Don't be discouraged if we are already full for your first choice session.

Horse News:

Thursday, August 28, 3PM:

Repeating the story from last night, I feel fine. And in fact, I am getting through "Meghan's flu bug" quicker than she did. I am much better already today after an uncomfortable night. Meghan and I are really both very healthy people, but we get worn out by the end of our four month summer season and our resistance is lower.

We're planning to visit State Fair this weekend just to have some fun as tourists - no responsibilities at all!

We hope you are all getting ready for a FUN school year! You are probably shopping this week for school. Write and tell us about your riding plans for the winter.

We are already getting inquiries about Longacres 2009 from new students, and some of them are asking to talk with experienced Longacres families. If you have time to take a call now and then, let us know. We don't publish phone numbers, but give them out on a limited basis if there is a serious inquiry from a new student.

Wednesday, August 27th, 10PM:

Out of an abundance of caution, we drove to the emergency room and spent all day today having needles poked in me, stress tests, every kind of cardiac test, and special X-rays and scans. After all that, I have a clean bill of health and a very sound heart. Best guess of the doctors is exactly what I expected - a tight chest because of all the stress from the tooth extraction and the exhaustion of the summer season. But better safe than sorry.

Thanks to some of our friends in the area who gave us advice on Cardiologists just in case. Glad we're not going to need them soon! I wouldn't even mention all this, except that several of our friends in the area were aware of my hospital trip and I did not want anyone hearing only half the story and worrying about me unnecessarily. I am fine (except for Meghan's crummy flu bug!)

Our apologies to those of you who we did not call back or meet for your horse appointments. Now you understand why.

Tuesday, August 26, 10PM:

Hi everyone,

First Meghan got the flu the day after our season ended (good timing!), then Tom went in to the dentist for a simple filling and ended up having a wisdom tooth extracted today. Ouch! Fortunately, Meghan is feeling quite a bit better now that Tom is out of commission for a day or two. We've been trading off expressing sympathy for one another!

We are rather having fun taking care of the horses all by ourselves this week. Slowly they are finding winter homes. Becka is coming tomorrow to try Quantum a second time, and may take him for the winter. She is a soft rider with good hands and would keep him at a very nice stable.

ShaBang left today to spend the winter with Sara, who Alexa met when she came to ride him the last day of our season.

We have Brownie, Bobert, Kingsley (who has a home and will leave in a few days), Quantum, Patti, Diesel, Boo, and Brody still here at the farm. It's funny to watch horses learn new routines. During our regular season, of course, we bring all the horses in from pasture to feed them and ride. But with just Meghan and I to take care of them all, we are feeding them in pasture and leaving them turned out all the time. We move quickly along the side of the pasture with a wheelbarrow of feed and put little piles just inside the fence. The first two days there was a lot of fighting between the horses as they challenged each other for the "best" piles of feed. But by tonight they were figuring out the new system and quickly found their own special pile of feed and quietly ate. The first horses to get to a pile were the more dominant ones. Patti, then Quantum and Brody, and very last was Diesel! Amazing that the biggest and strongest is the least aggressive.

We took the gate off between main and little pastures so the remaining horses can go back and forth as they please. The days and nights are cool this week and the horses seem very content. They are getting LOTS to eat!

August 25, 11AM:

ZZ-zzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzz

We have several people coming to try horses as winter horse loans this afternoon, but generally this will be a very quiet day.

- Tom

August 24, 8PM:

Meghan is still sick with a flu like bug, but she's working away. I'm forcing her to go to bed early tonight and sleep most of the day tomorrow. We're hoping she'll feel well enough to take a vacation trip to the State Fair later in the week!

August 23, 6PM:

August 23, 5PM:

And so it was, looking not much different than she did ^%%$&#@ years ago! I said, "Of course I remember you."

Janie said, "How could you remember from so long ago, you do not!"

And then I told her, "Your hair is almost exactly the same as it was back then." Which amazed her, but she and her husband confirmed that indeed, her hair now is much the same as it was in the 1970's - oops! - I guess that lets the cat out of the bag about how long ago Janie was here. We talked about her favorite horse, "Tarball", and other Longacres memories and sent her off on a walk through time.

At one point, Janie practically jumped up and down as we remembered some event, and said, "I was SO HAPPY here!" Well, that always does it for me. And perfect timing, too, as we just finished our 2008 season today with many sad farewells. It is really fitting to be so clearly reminded that what we do here at Longacres is often remembered and valued for a lifetime. Thank you for those words, Janie!

Janie and her husband now live in Ossining, NY, and were in the Buffalo area to drop her son off at college this weekend. Janie will try to find time to write up her impressions of her visit to Longacres.

August 23, 3PM:

We said an early "goodbye" to Derrick and Danita who had to leave before dinner yesterday. Then it was "farewell" to Deb, Sydney, and Sam who drove out after Kone King last night.

Now it's only Meghan, Peggy, about half the horses, and me left at Longacres! Meghan has had a constant stream of people in and out of the barn trucking horses to their winter homes, trying out horses they might want to board for the winter, and closing up the barn. Taylor is there now stripping stalls.

First to leave this morning was Jenn and Kate headed back to Montreal. Then it was David, then Carly, then Alexa, and finally Casey. Many tears were shed as everyone realized Longacres is done until 2009.

Casey, his mom Debbie, Jaclyn, her mom, Martha, and Peggy went for a trail this morning on their own horses. It was the first chance for Deb and Martha to see the "back side" of Longacres.

We have a dozen or so horses still in the pasture. Some of them, like Horatio and Rocky, have winter homes and are just waiting to be trucked to their winter riders - good Longacres riders like Hannah, Laura, and Sharon. But others have no winter home yet. If you know a stable looking for excellent school horses or a friend who's looking to lease a horse, have them call us. Quantum, Brody, Boo, Brownie, Bobert, Diesel, and perhaps one or two more still have no homes. We're finding that in this year's tight economy, families that would normally be interested in leasing a horse for the winter are often saying, "Gee, that money could pay for Christmas for the family instead". We need a few more die hard horse lovers.

You'd think Meghan and I would just be sleeping this afternoon. But actually, I feel very empty with nobody here who needs checking on, and no need to plan an evening ride or offer a trip to Kone King. It's more comfortable to keep busy than to sit around or take a nap. We've been cleaning up and organizing everything and planning fall maintenance projects. Joel just left for the building supply store to get sand and concrete to finish the stone work by the old pool dam. We have roofing repairs to do, more concrete work, and then we have to take down all the jumps and put them away for the winter. THAT is a depressing job! Maybe we'll make it more interesting this year by doing a time lapse movie showing the jumps disappear during the course of a long day!

Once again, thanks to our Lazy Days students for giving us a great final week of the 2008 season!

August 22, 11PM:

Thanks to the Bennett family for hosting a great pool party this evening after Kone King. Everyone had a grand time!

Some of our crew from this week are already on the road to home, and the rest are all leaving in the morning. By 1PM, nobody will be at Longacres but horses, Tom, Meghan, and Peggy for one more day.

Several of our local families are bringing their horses over tomorrow when they pick up the kids and going on a trail ride through our woods. It should be fun!

We may not post updates every day the next few days as we get some long overdue rest. On the other hand, I might just keep on updating daily - I am already feeling withdrawal symptoms! We will certainly be writing some longer articles commenting on the ups and downs of the 2008 season and letting you in on some of our new ideas for 2009.

And it is just 9 days until we formally accept enrollments for 2009. We have 23 paid deposits already. The requests for 2009 sessions are quite evenly spread out through the summer at this point, with some enrollment requests for each session, but a few spaces still left in most sessions. (Mother - Daughter week is sold out.) We'll keep you all updated.

Many thanks to all who contributed to a rewarding and successful 2008 Longacres Riding Camp. Thank you.

- Tom & Meghan

August 22, 5PM:

Goodbye, Danita and Derrick!

Our final show and our final rides of the 2008 season are done. Danita and Derrick's dad drove up to watch the show and brought the horse trailer to take their private horses home - so we had to say "goodbye" to these two fine students this afternoon. Deb, Sydney, and Sam are leaving late tonight after "Kone King", and the rest tomorrow morning. The horses are also beginning to leave for their winter homes. Jack left a few minutes ago.

Some of us are going over to Andrea's house for a pool party after dinner and Kone King while the rest pack their things for the trip home.

Even on the final night of Longacres 2008 season there's lots to do!

David won the "high Derby" on Quantum, with Kate also putting in a clean performance, but with a few time faults. Alexa had one rail down, as did Carly.

August 21, 9PM:

Tom, Carly, and Alexa are in charge tonight while Meghan and the adults head to town for "Ladies Night Out". I'm sure they'll have fun while getting home in time to be rested for the horse show tomorrow!

By the way, if you are reading this and planning to come to the show tomorrow, show clothes are "OUT" - it's wacky rding attire day at the fun show!! Anything goes! Decorate yourself with imagination; baling twine is a good theme!

August 21, 2PM:

No pictures yet today - we're just enjoying working with a great group of people! Maybe tonight. Farley Bridgeman arrives for a special clinic in an hour.

August 21, 10 AM:

With the horse show tomorrow, today is the last full day of our 2008 season for riding lessons. We're in a panic because we have so many special horses we want various people to have a chance to ride and some unfinished business on what we'd like to teach. It's part of having such a fine group of students - it makes us want to give them all our best and more. I wish this group could suddenly, magically have another week suspended in time before they have to go home to school and work!!!!!!!!

August 20, 11PM:

When things are going well at Longacres, it's a very rewarding occupation. After building the fire for the smores party, I just sat for a half hour and enjoyed the good spirits and happy chatter and the charm of the fire on a cool, still night. I wasn't quite ready to call it a night when I left the girls, so after updating the website I drove down to the barn with my good camera and experimented with moon pictures. It was just pleasant to be out and about on a night like this, and playing with photography was icing on the cake for me.

August 20, 10 PM:

Everyone is still down at the campfire circle roasting marshmellows and making "smores". Or at least eating chocolate and graham crackers like me!

Did I say already that this is a great group? Yes, I believe I did, but it bears repeating. Everyone is on the same page and trying to help each other all the time. The older kids are looking out for the youngest just the way they should. Our adults are acting like "kids going to horse camp" which is exactly what we want. A very good week.

Derrick and I went to fly one of my radio control planes this afternoon and he took a turn at the controls. I haven't been using my planes much lately even though it was my most avid hobby two summers ago. But I flew again tonight over the barn. Thanks, Derrick - - - you're getting me hooked again!

Tomorrow is Thursday, which means we have only two more full days of Longacres Riding Camp for 2008. We will miss it when it's over - especially this group!

August 20, 5PM:

August 20, 3PM:

Leslie Anne McCullough and "Finis" visited this afternoon and it was nice to see her riding on our show field again. We showed her a bit of our trails also. Maybe we'll have a trail tour on Friday after the fun show for some of our visitors at the show.

August 20th, 8AM:

MY GOSH, IT'S WEDNESDAY!!!!!!!

This week is flying by, with only three days left in our season now. With three adult students, three young girls, and three teen boys, you'd think this would be a really tough group of students to work with. But it's been perhaps our favorite week of the entire season. The adults are all good friends of Longacres, the boys are wonderful, and the young girls - well, we just love the fresh enthusiasm for EVERYTHING that they bring to Longacres!

It was great fun giving the young girls and their moms the moonlight ride last night!

Linda Reading (Reading Thoroughbred Farm) visited us last night and she and I worked together teaching David on Knight and Kate on Eva. These young thoroughbreds are really getting it now! It's been fun for some of us to watch them relax and progress over the summer. At first they were simply hard work. But the reason we take in young horses for training every year is to give us the opportunity to see how a young horse responds to consistent training and slowly but steadily learn to be a real horse.

We have lots planned for our final three days. A short trip to town tonight for Pizza Hut and "KONE KING", then a smores party and bonfire, more jumping, maybe another moonlight ride for the older kids, the fun horse show on Friday, "girls night out" for the adults, and more.

Oh, the weather. You haven't heard me talk about the weather much this week. It's b-o-r-i-n-g! Just perfect every day. Maybe a little warm by Friday after last night's near record cold.

Friday Horse Show, 11AM:

We might add or change a class, but here's our tentative class list for the Friday show:

1) Partner lead line barrel racing!

2) Walk - trot equitation

3) Swat the can race

4) adult equitation on the flat

5) cross rails jumping

6) barrel racing

7) pole bending

8) Junior with an adult pair tandem hunter

9) Outside course eq. o.f. (open)

10) short course jumper class

11) pleasure horse

12) pairs class pleasure horse (walk - trot)

13) pairs class pleasure horse (W-T-C)

14) On & Off the horse obstacle run!

15) Side by side Trot Serpentine Sprint Eliminations!

16) Surprise!

17) Jumper Derby Redo - three heights, one class!

August 19, 7PM:

We've got wonderful weather this week! We were out with the horses and the riders all day with good jumping lessons and great trails. (Well, after a few trails got LOST finding their way back to the barn!)

Later tonight the younger girls and their moms are going on a moonlight ride on the field. Kate, Sam, and Sydney should enjoy that so long as they dress very well - it is going to be in the 40's tonight.

David and Casey are doing very well working with Knight. They both really like his smooth gaits. David is riding him tonight for his owner who is planning to visit. Kate is getting her first chance to ride Eva, also.

August 18, 9PM:

Everyone is finishing up horse care right now and then heading up to the house to watch video we took of them all riding today. When we're done with that we'll watch some of the Olympic Team Jumping event that I recorded during dinner.

David really likes Knight! He did a good job working with him tonight.

August 18, 2PM:

My group worked on planning striding for offset lines of jumps and bending lines, as well as a "ten stride" turn to a jump. Kate, Alexa, Carly, David, and Casey all did very well!

August 18, 11AM:

Hi everyone. It's a very busy first day of a completely full week of riding camp, but I have a few minutes for this update while the horses eat before the first lesson. I'm headed down to the barn to teach a lesson in a few minutes. I'll be doing more teaching myself this week than last session, partly because we're less busy with planning for big horse shows this week than the last few weeks.

Ashley is working in the office closing out spending money accounts for the last session, so if you have a refund coming, it will be mailed out soon, along with some of the stuff (lots) that you left behind.

More to come later.

August 18, 9AM:

We're under way with "Lazy Days" week, 2008! We officially begin the week at 9am. Casey arrived at 8:30, but he has a good excuse - his horse was dropped off last night and he needed to be here for horsecare - AND Casey is always helpful and welcome early at Longacres! Kate arrived at 8:59 and one half!!!!!! Not wanting to miss a second of Longacres!

August 17, 10 PM:

Welcome "Lazy Days" Riders!

We're posting a YouTube video of the Friday pond riding in a few minutes. Scroll up this page just a little for the link!

We'll have another update late tomorrow that should have pictures of everyone in Lazy Days.

August 17, 11AM:

We'll have a couple of real over fences classes for both hunter and jumper, some game classes, several adult only classes for the mom's, pairs class and tandem hunter class!

THEN we'll have a redo of the Derby at multiple heights from beginner on up, all judged as one class, so if you missed the Derby or want to try the course again, come on out. The Derby will start not before 1PM. We have left over Medals from the team jumping last week and we'll give them away along with ribbons in the Derby event.

August 16, 7PM:

It looks like a week of nice riding weather for "Lazy Days" students. There's a chance of scattered rain Monday afternoon and evening, but then a long streak of great weather through the end of next week. The remnants of Hurricane "Fay" may impact us by next Saturday, but that's a long way off and the storm system may stay in the southeast. Looks like a good week!

August 16, 2PM:

This afternoon will feature a trail ride to condition some of the horses that weren't used during fair week. Then we're all going out to dinner together tonight, and then RELAXING time all day tomorrow, with maybe another informal trail ride.

Meghan and I will sleep late tomorrow, then maybe go over to the fair on the final day just for fun with no responsibilities!

The farm looks lovely for you folks coming in Monday.

A Tribute to the Butterflies!

Gina, we've thanked you before for all the work you put in painting the incredible Butterfly jump. Thanks also to Martha and Shannon who gave helping hands. You know how many people have complimented the gorgeous paint job - we've passed on many of the good comments.

But here's something you may not have been told. Meghan and I go out for breakfast most mornings early. But instead of turning left out our driveway to go to town the past two weeks, we turn right and go down to the barn entrance. We drive in the driveway and go part way back to the barn. Then we just stop - - - and sit there looking at your Butterfly Jump! We soak in the fact that Longacres really has such an incredible jump and then we turn around and go to breakfast.

AND - we repeat that ritual just before dark every day before turning in for the night. We're sad that we'll only have one more week to enjoy the Butterfly Jump and the rest of the Derby jump course before putting the jumps safely away for the winter.

One more nice Butterfly Jump story; Gary Husted did the wood work building the Sunburst and Butterly jumps. He dropped them off with us in early June unpainted. He stopped by today for the first time since they have been painted. He is amazed and pleased with the way they turned out!

Thanks, Gina!

August 16, Noon:

Goodbye!

Only a couple of girls are still waiting for their families to pick them up. Camp seems empty! But not for long - we'll be completely full again Monday morning for our final session of the 2008 season, Lazy Days.

We've already found a few things some of you have left behind - call us if you forgot something and we'll try to send it to you.

We are pleased that even some of our older girls who may be too busy to return to Longacres for a full session next year are thinking about us. Marta and Michelle both signed up for Lazy Days week, 2009 before they left today.

August 15, 11PM:

As we approach midnight, it is truly the end of the 2008 regular season. Most sessions we would be enforcing "lights out" and curfew by now even on the final night of a session. But with all teenage girls this session, "forget it"! Meghan is down in one of the bunks chaperoning a last night cabin party. I doubt lights out or sleep will come anytime soon. Expect your kids to be tired when they get home tomorrow!

Although there are scattered bands of cloudy sky, it is mostly crisp, clear, and cool under the full moon with not a breath of wind - a fine night for the end of camp. (except for Lazy Days - we're not forgetting you guys!) Many of the girls enjoyed a fine moonlight ride.

August 15, 9:30 PM:

Robyn and Shelly just finished watching the last part of the video from the fair while everyone else has been on the big show field under the light of a nearly full moon. Maddy and Peyton were "clean" from dinner and Kone King and chose to stay that way, but everyone else rode in the moonlight. What a great final memory of Longacres 2008! We'll miss the girls from this session when they're all gone tomorrow.

All except Alexa and Carly who stay on as full junior counselors for Lazy Days week, along with Mary and Peggy as adult staff. We're looking forward to seeing a full crew of riders for next week's relaxed and hopefully fun and achievement filled week of riding. We know everyone who will be here next week either directly as former students or as the "mom" or "brother" of a former student. You are all friends and we welcome you back to Longacres on Monday!

Speaking of Junior Counselors, they are one of the real bright spots of our 2008 Longacres season. We have had several senior staff changes during this season, some planned in advance and some not. But our 2008 Junior Counselors and CIT's have been wonderful. We would love to have all of them back in more responsible positions next year, and several of them have already indicated an interest. We are off to a good start in planning the 2009 staff!

August 15, 2PM:

OK - You knew this was coming - - -

If you're a regular reader of this blog or a frequent visitor to Longacres, you knew this moment would come sometime this summer. You've watched Tom nursing his flowers - you've seen him pre-occupied with the landscaping - - you've heard him talk about it now and then in a wistful way.

NO - we're not retiring and closing Longacres!

August 15th, 8 AM Update:

August 14, 11PM:

The girls got home from the fair a little while ago in high spirits. Lots of bags of cotton candy and other goodies from the midway came with them! We'll have a late sleep-in tomorrow morning to get rested up from all the excitement of the week. Tomorrow will be a pretty laid back day with lots of chances to take short rides on different horses to have a chance to say "goodbye" to all our favorites until next year.

There was a bright near full moon out tonight. We considered a moonlight ride tonight, but it was quite late when we got home. We'll hope for a clear night tomorrow night and maybe have a short moonlight ride for those who never did one before.

Speaking of the moon, Meghan and I had 20 minutes of peace and enjoying mother nature's bounty after the girls went to bed. Much of the year, that's a regular part of each day and week - it is one of the fringe benefits of farm life. But we get so snowed under with work during the summer season that sometimes we take the beauty around us for granted for weeks at a time. Not tonight.

As we sat on the show field talking after dropping the girls at the barn we noticed the bright nearly full moon to our east, and two separate lightning storms well off to our west. I was quite a contrast. And so soon after this afternoon's unusual weather when it rained quite hard during our big jumping ride while the sun was still shining brightly on us!

August 14, 8PM:

Tomorrow we'll do some pond riding, some more special rides on horses that are a little above each riders normal limit, watch the video of the fair, then have a Pasquale's final dinner and final Kone King. Then this regular camp season will be over - - - but NOT for us! We have one more very fun week which we call "Lazy Days of August" for good reason. We just have fun this week. We get up a little later than regular camp, have some good lessons, some small intimate trail rides, a field trip or two, and much more. We can't wait to see our many good friends arriving on Monday - we know everyone who is coming except Danita's brother, Derek, and we have met him. It is going to be lots of fun next week!

August 14, 3PM:

Everyone who was so nervous the first two days of the show settled down today and rode their best. Christina who had a tough time jumping the first two days got on Merlin and won a 2nd and a 3rd jumping! Alexa on ShaBang WON a big jumper class!!!!!!!! Marta had a great day on both Karen and Merlin.

Amanda is one of my favorite stories from the whole second session and especially her fine job at the fair with "Boo". We bought Boo this spring with almost no jumping experience. Many riders had a hand in training Boo this summer, but Amanda really put the work into him leading up to the Derby and the fair. She had him completely relaxed and bending around his turns at the fair and winning ribbons almost every time out! Meghan is very proud of this horse and rider combination, since she chose the horse when we were horse shopping in the spring. Boo will be a valued member of the Longacres show team for many years, thanks in a big part to Amanda's good riding and training!

More news later.

August 13, 6PM:

Bulliten: Marta wins Blue on Karen in under saddle class!

August 13, 3PM Update:

It has been a difficult show for all of us some of the time, and some of us more of the time. I am especially proud of Christina and Michelle who chose to try a very challenging show that includes difficult jumping. They have had some tough rides over fences. Fortunately they both have won ribbons and done very well in their flat classes.

We did not win a class today, but we did win lots of ribbons. In fact we are on pace to tie last year's all time record of 66 ribbons at the fair! Alexa was spoil sport enough to point out that the fair did not offer 7th and 8th place ribbons last year, and we have a few of those in this year's total. Boo, Alexa! But the girls are riding well and getting ribbons.

We finished a little early today and sent the girls out on the fair with the counselors to just have fun and forget any riding challenges for a few hours! Then we'll get to bed early and all be ready for a good final show day tomorrow.

Robyn has a shot at Training Jumper Champion - she is leading in points!

August 12, 10:30 PM:

Usually we do things all together as a group, but we're split into smaller sub groups this week. Some are staying overnight at the fair, some are taking showers and heading to bed early, and four were at the barn late cleaning up. Meghan and I had an urge for a "Micro Kone King" trip, so we piled Peyton, Carly, Christina, and Marta into the truck with us and headed out for a small group Kone King trip. Yummy!

August 12, 8 PM:

Meghan called from the fair and said that everyone is in good spirits and shrugging off some of the memories of riding problems from early in the day. We're all looking forward to doing our best tomorrow and Thursday.

August 12, 6PM Update:

I just got home from the fair, but Meghan is still there feeding the girls, horses, and organizing for tomorrow morning's show.

Robyn and Quantum were the big winners for Longacres today, taking first place in a very competitive jumper class at 2'9". They were FAST! Alexa on ShaBang and Amanda on Boo were also very good, with just one or two mistakes each, and figure to do really well tomorrow. Amanda got two 4th's in jumpers.

In the hunter ring we were a little nervous at the first day of this big show and there were mistakes. Most of the girls won ribbons in the 3rd to 6th range, and I am sure we will do better tomorrow. This is a big scary show with all the distractions of the fair.

When I got back to the farm I stopped at the barn to see how Shelly, Carly, Maddy, and Peyton were doing. They are not showing and they came back early to ride and take care of the horses. They rode this afternoon and may again tonight. But just when I drove in, they were all laughing and trying to untangle the bailing twine ball. They had been throwing it around and it slowly "accidentally on purpose" came undone and got wrapped around tree stumps, up in the branches of the pine tree, and probably all around people! It looked like fun, but they were having trouble getting it all out of the trees.

More news to come later tonight. Our big hope is that Robyn and Quantum can win the Training Jumper Championship after winning the first class.

August 11, 6PM:

August 11, 2:13 PM:

We are about to pull out the driveway to go over to the fair. We'll update you later with first night schooling news!

August 10, 10PM:

We just finished a careful review of the Derby video as preparation for the Fair horse show. The girls all had a chance to see this video at the Awards Party the other night, but this was an ptional extra where we ran a lot of tape back in slow motion. The girls had the option of getting to bed early or coming up and watching tape. Hannah, Alexa, Carly, Robyn, and Shelly chose to review video and we learned a lot!

Now junior counselors Hannah, Carly, and Alexa are working downstairs with Meghan organizing horse medical records and filling out entry forms for the big show this week.

Above: Junior counselors Alexa, Carly, (then Meghan), and Hannah work together tonight doing the entries for the Erie County Fair. Get used to these faces. Some of these fine hard working junior counselors will be back as the core of our 2008 senior staff next year!

August 10, 12:30 Update:

Here's an interesting phenomena for you weather junkies who share my interest in unusual weather events. All morning a nearly stationary and very tight low pressure system has been hovering just to our northwest. Intense heavy rain has been falling along a very narrow band just 8 miles to our west. More than two inches came down in the past two hours and another inch may be still to come. There is widespread local flooding. Here at Longacres we've had only a few showers so far. We may still get the heavy rain, but maybe not. Fingers are crossed - we haven't really had any flooding here since early June.

August 10th, Noon:

It's a good day for our weekly "day of rest" for the girls and the horses. They slept in yesterday after the Derby and did get some rest. Then they rode all afternoon and evening. But we're all still tired in that deep down kind of way from all the emotion of putting on the Derby and the big awards party after. We have an off and on rain day today, which is good. It will promote a restful afternoon and evening.

We do have to finalize all our plans for another HUGE week coming up as many of us show at the Erie County Fair. We'll be up late tonight filling out entry forms. Then tomorrow after lunch we're off to the fair with nine horses, at least.

It is an odd session this month at Longacres for showing. We have several girls who love horses and riding but just aren't into the pressure of big shows. More are sitting out the fair this year than in any year in the past decade. That will make it quite nice for the eight girls who are showing. They'll have lots of help and we can really concentrate on getting good photo's and video of all of them, as well as preparing them well for their events.

But it presents us with a scheduling problem since we also owe a good riding experience to the girls who have chosen not to go to the fair show. We have three good junior counselors who are not showing themselves, so we will be able to staff Longacres back at the farm while we also coach the girls at the fair. Meghan and I will be flitting back and forth.

All of us will go to the fair tomorrow afternoon to set up the stabling and enjoy the excitement of the fair. Then we'll likely all spend a good part of Tuesday cheering on our riders during their first day of showing. Wednesday some will spend the whole day at Longacres and others may choose to watch the show half the day and ride at Longacres the other half.

I had a meeting with the girls this morning after horse care and told them to try to each pick some special project or goal that would make this week special for them, especially if they are part of the group choosing not to show. Maddy, for instance, will have exclusive use of Eva and Jack to train and ride for the week and Eva's owner, Linda Reading of Reading Thoroughbred Farms, will be coming every evening to give Maddy a private lesson on this young thoroughbred mare.

We're setting up time for Shelly to have some long semi private "buddy trails" at the end of the week before she goes back to Maryland. Peyton's special request was "lots of sleep in mornings!". Our other non-showers are thinking up good ideas and we'll try to work them in. We might book a good outside guest instructor for one of the days we're at the fair.

It's going to be an interesting week.

August 9th, 9PM:

Today was "Emily and Hannah Day". These two very hard working junior counselors knocked themselves out helping to build the Derby course and help us run the Derbies. Neither of them officially rode in the Derby, so today we all worked to set the course up for them and they both rode Brody around the course. They both had clean rounds!!!!! The pictures at the above link include shots of Emily and Hannah doing some nice riding. We also scheduled both of them to ride nearly every hour today as a "thank you" for all their hard work the past week. Thanks again girls. You have been wonderful!

August 9th, 1PM Update:

More good memories are coming back as I get to feeling a little more rested on this relaxing "post Derby" day. Meghan and I had breakfast, went to the barn to clean up some of the mess from the party, had a meeting with the girls about the Fair show next week, and then we took a half hour drive in the country. Very mentally refreshing.

Amanda was another of our riders putting in an excellent performance yesterday on "Boo". We just bought Boo this spring and his training for english jumping has been progressing slowly but surely over the summer. He was always willing, but spent a lot of time looking around and not paying attention to where he is going. Amanda has been working hard with him and it really paid off at this show! He never won a class in the two days of the show, but he was solid and looked very willing, making only one small mistake in each class. Amanda is showing him at the fair next week and I expect some good results after he gets used to all the distractions at the fair.

Rachael also put in excellent rides on Justin and Zany. When Rachael really puts her mind to something, she is VERY competitive! Good riding.

More news later.

11AM, Saturday Update:

I am only slowly waking up and fully remembering everything that we've done in the past two days! We'll post full results of the Derby later, but I need to add another special credit to Carly for her outstanding performance. Carly is a third year Longacres student, has her own horse at home and is a good rider. But she had a small accident with her horse at home this spring and was pretty cautious about riding when she arrived at Longacres a few weeks ago. Not only has she gotten her boldness back; not only has she got a good fold and release; but she WON both of the first two Jumper Derbies yesterday on Ginger! Carly is one of the big Championship Cooler winners and I am very proud of her riding this entire summer as well as yesterday - Bravo!

8AM, Saturday, Aug. 9th:

We'll try to keep posting updates over the coming week, but we are shifting into an even higher speed if that is possible after "Derby Week". Today will be low key to rest up after the frantic pace of the two day Derby and the big party last night. We'll be doing casual trail rides and training our young horses. But then we go, go, go as we head to the "A" rated Erie County Fair show on Monday. We have a couple of girls who prefer not to show at this exciting, but stressful event. We'll try to work out a plan that will allow us to be in two places at once and balance the girls desire to be at the show to support their friends, while still getting in at least a reduced schedule of riding.

So forgive us if we don't update this website every day! We will post a few pictures and a quick report late at night when we can.

We'll get all caught up next weekend, and should be back to regular updates during the much more relaxed and well named "Lazy Days of August" clinic the following week.

We will post lots more pictures from the past two days today and tomorrow. See the links below. Only the first two work now.

11 PM, Friday, August 8th:

We'd like to share some of the images from the past two days of showing with you all at home. But where to start? We took almost 800 pictures the past two days! We'll soon upload some or many of them. Try these links. I'll post at least a few in the next hour, and many more tomorrow.

I'll close for tonight by telling you about a talk I had with the girls this afternoon. I don't know how many of them really "got it", but I meant it from the bottom of my heart. I had Meghan gather all our girls together near the end of the show this afternoon. And I asked them if they understood what a fine riding job they had done as a whole - as a group and as a team. I told them that many fancy show stables would be proud to field a team of even four riders who could do the kind of challenging jump course that we hold at the Longacres Derby. Here at Longacres, we aren't really a "show stable" - we're a kids summer camp. But a very special summer camp. Here at Longacres nearly all our students took part in the Derby and they did either respectably well or superbly well. There were other very fine riders, including professionals competing. Our girls not only "held their own", but kicked some serious butt! Shelly and Robyn were awesome, and Alexa on ShaBang rose to the occasion and put in great clean jumping rounds over the very difficult course. I was and am very proud of our riders. The progress this group has shown in the past two weeks is amazing!

8 AM Friday:

The weather has not been kind to the Derby this year but we are making the best of it. See details below. Come join us during the day today between 10:30 AM and 5:00 PM to see the jumping as we fit the classes in between rain storms.

The Awards Party in the barn with two bands will be from 6 to 9 this evening with Awards at about 7:30. Don't miss it!!!!

Thursday night Update, 10PM:

The girls were in great spirits for the traditional Pasquale's dinner after the show and our trip to Kone King. We "adopted" a couple of riders from the Summer Series at Longacres today. Andrea spent the day with us, and rode Quantum in the High Derby after Robyn passed on that class. Andrea is in second place in the high Derby as of tonight, with more horses to go tomorrow! Andrea went to dinner and Kone King with us.

Robyn did very well on Quantum in the 2'9" class, and Shelly had a perfect double clear in the same 2'9" class.

Amanda and Rachael also had double clear rounds today in the Beginner and Puddle Jumper classes. Marta had a great ride, but 2 time faults in a heartbreaker! Maddy didn't feel well , but may ride tomorrow. The rest of the girls all rode well and either had one rail down or a refusal or two, but good, solid riding.

Longacres has also semi-adopted Summer Series jumper rider Bethany Scarlata, who is staying overnight with our girls tonight so she can be at the show first thing tomorrow.

ATTENTION ALL SUMMER SERIES PEOPLE:

Don't miss the "barn dance" and barn party tomorrow night along with the Awards Party. We have the bagpipe band AND "Little Louis Band" playing music along with all the awards!

Thursday, 1:30 pm Update:

Thursday, 6AM:

8 PM Wednesday: 

Derby Day - "The Both Days Solution"

Many of you have other commitments either Thursday or Friday. We are going to run the Derby classes both days, much as we did a few weeks ago for our August 25th - 26th shows.

We will run all five Derby Classes each day and keep the score cards open until the classes have been run Friday. You may ride either day or both days. Your best score will count for your ribbons or prize money in each class. Look at it as a two round competition with your best round to count. Call me if you have any questions on how this will work. (652-9495)

This way everyone who wants to come and ride the very nicely done Derby course can do so, either day - or both days (One entry fee covers both days if you come both - you do not have to come both.)

We will begin at 11AM on Thursday and again at 11AM Friday. We'll run through the classes in order, and we will take breaks if it rains. We will try to wait to hold the two highest classes until 4PM on Friday, but will not wait if rain is coming on the radar.

No party on Thursday night. All Awards and the Party from 6 to 9 PM Friday!

There will be only one change in class specifications. The "Team Jumping Event" at 2'9" will be a separate class and the team medals (if we have any teams besides Longacres!) will be awarded for that class, including a jump-off. Not a speed class as previously announced.

The $1000 2'9" class will be for the Individual medals and money. We WILL PAY the money regardless of number of entries.

Because of the likely poorer footing Friday, the High Derby will be limited to 3'6" and will not go higher in the Jump-off. We WILL PAY the $1000 in the high Derby regardless of number of entries.

Will this be fair? Will the conditions be the same both days? No - conditions always change during a class, sometimes dramatically if a sudden rain storm hits. If you come, you agree to take your chances on what the weather will be, especially if you plan to ride Friday. We will set the course as nearly the same as possible each day.

Thursday, 6AM:

At 6 AM a line of strong thunderstorms is passing just to our south - we're getting only a light shower, and then clearing for at least several hours, so conditions still may be quite good for the start of today's show at 11 AM. Our girls are all quite excited about getting two chances to show between today and tomorrow, and hoping we'll have enough breaks in the weather to ride rain free.

We're all sorry that some of the drama and excitement of the 39th annual Longacres Jumper Derby will be diluted by spreading it over two days. But we are looking forward to a rip-roaring barn party and awards ceremony tomorrow night!!!!!

Wednesday, August 6, 10 PM:

The top four in each division get trophies at the Party - If you see someone listed who might not know they are getting a trophy, pass the word!

- Tom & Meghan

Wednesday, August 6, 8AM:

We know that many of you out there are frustrated by the back and forth changes on which day is "more likely" for the final Derby Day show and Awards Party. Some would prefer to stick to planned dates and then just do the shows or cancel them completely. We understand.

The only ones more frustrated by this summer of unsettled weather and changed horse show dates than you readers (exhibitors and parents), would be those of us trying to put on the shows for you. It has been the summer from hell for managing horse shows! More than once, Meghan and I have thrown up our hands and been tempted to just cancel the next show completely and wait for show days later in the summer.

But we haven't. We have a big group of riders who come from all over the country to show with us every week. And many other followers of the Longacres Summer Series enjoy showing as much as possible. So we watch the weather and we improvise. And we try to change our schedule ahead of time so you won't often go to a show associated with us and get rained out and have made the drive for nothing.

We are proud that we were able to plan a series of nine shows this summer and we ran nine shows, not counting Derby Day. On three of those nine show days, we changed the date (and once the location for the June Quakerfield make-up show). But we had good weather on the changed days, and we ran a horse show.

Now we're down to the very last event of the 2008 Summer Series and Mother Nature is frowning on us again. We will make a decision tonight on the "least bad" of several poor options. We will have a 2008 Derby and we will give out many great, well earned Championship Awards. And we will breath a sigh of relief when this summer is all over!

Tuesday, 8:30 PM:

Alexa and Hannah were teaching the two lessons this evening and concentrated on flat work to save the horses jumping for the final practice tomorrow and then the Derby.

Which day is the Derby you ask? I wish I knew. A decision for Thursday will be made about 8 PM tomorrow night. The weather Thursday is looking even better now. But we'd dearly love to go on Friday when all the bands can come! The decision tomorrow night will be based on what we know about Friday's weather. If the rain on Friday is predicted to be scattered and not widespread, we may take our chances and go on Friday, rain or shine. Stay tuned until tomorrow.

Our weather luck is pretty good at the moment - strong thunderstorms are passing by both to the north and south of us as I write! Only a few drops here. But I expect we will get wet later tonight. Tomorow's weather still looks great for most of the day.

Meghan is out working with Joel in the dark decorating the jump course. Our favorite camper mom of the month, Gina Bennett, is down in the dark painting the last of the Butterfly jump stands. Everyone available is pitching in!

Tuesday, Aug. 5th, 7PM:

If you're curious about weather, go to the Buffalo area weather radar right now. Strong to severe thunderstorms are passing all around us, including to the north of Buffalo and just a few miles south of us just before dinner. They are producing flash flood conditions just to our east. Because of "lake shadowing" which I have written about in this space, we've seen only a few drops here at Longacres. It didn't bother our riding at all or our guests who visited to school for the show this afternoon.

Tuesday, 11AM:

The girls are practicing the more difficult parts of the Derby course this morning. Marta on Ebony and Carly on Ginger had especially good training rides. Marta looks like a possible ribbon or cooler winner! We post more comments after everyone has a chance to ride this morning.

Hannah arrived and dove right into working with Meghan on the jumps. You are great, Hannah!

Tuesday, August 5, 10AM:

Monday, August 4th, midnight:

We're still up tweaking a balky computer file to make sure the horse show points are accurate when we post them - which we hope will be soon. Some of the girls were up at the hosue with us late watching the video from Saturday's show. Everyone has now seen themselves ride at that show.

Monday, 11PM:

Monday, Aug. 4th, 7PM:

Meghan and Emily have done a superhuman job of putting up most of the Derby course in one day! Everyone helped for an hour after lunch, but it was mostly Emily and Meghan. We have a full time outside maintenance worker doing nothing but repainting and touching up the jumps all week. The course is looking very good already.

To give you an idea of how much Longacres has put into new jumps this year alone, we have the course set up with four more jumps than last summer. Last summer we had to borrow jumps from Quakerfield to finish the course. This year we have about 12 jumps left over for practice and spares!

We are also reaping a reward for putting up with a very rainy wet summer. The field was pretty brown at this time last year. Not this week - it is bright green and a lovely backdrop for all the colorful jumps.

Our girls all practiced triple combination jumps this morning trying to make final decisions on which horses they will ride and what height they will jump in the Derby. We will make the final decision after seeking each girl's input. Everyone will have a chance to participate if they like. We are putting a four person team in the New York State Junior Amatuer Team Jumping Championships, including Alexa, Robyn, Shelly, and one more rider still to be designated.

More news later.

Monday, 8AM:

Sunday, 10:30 PM:

Sunday, 10 PM:

The day of rest was wonderful for everyone! The girls actually cheered when we announced four hours of free time after dinner for showers and then an early curfew.

Meghan and I did go out to dinner ourselves, but we're not really very good at just relaxing during the summer. When we got home about 7:30 I started mowing the show field and worked with the tractor headlights until just a few minutes ago. Now I'm uploading all Marta's pictures telling the story of a "day off" at Longacres with Sleep In and Town Day thrown in.

Meghan has been gone now for two hours making some changes in the work list to account for our two new junior counselors here this week, with the arrival of Emily yesterday and Hannah in another day. She is also having a staff meeting to get Robyn into the list of responsibilities, since she has taken on the position of CIT for the final two weeks. We offered Robyn a CIT spot last winter based on her outstanding work ethic and the good things she did here the past two summers as a student. She chose to come just as a student for most of this summer so she could concentrate on her riding, but today she came to us and said she wanted to have the CIT experience the final two weeks. We're glad.

There will be lots of stories this week about Derby Day preparations.

Sunday, August 3, 3PM:

Blessed rest! All of us at Longacres are enjoying a laid back day of rest. We moved some jumps for the Derby this morning and have some of our maintenance people hard at work cleaning, repainting, and repairing jumps. But the rest of us just took care of the horses, watched some video from the show, and the girls are now in town on Town Day doing their laundry and shopping. Meghan and I might even get to sneak off to dinner by ourselves when Mary comes in this evening! Then we'll all be fresh and ready for a VERY busy week preparing for the Derby!

Saturday, August 2, 11PM:

We got home a little while ago from the traditional post horse show dinner at Pasquale's restaurant. Everyone was in high spirits. It is fun this session when I am driving the girls in the RV and they have their cell phones and are making calls to their parents. I get to listen to the blended sound of excited conversations about horse shows and other news in three languages. We have girls here this session who often talk to their families in Greek and Polish, as well as all our english speakers. It makes for interesting background noise as I drive!

The show today was very competitive and many of the season championship high score awards went right down to the final class of this show in each division. Unofficially, it looks like Andrea Bennett locked up the Horse of the Year cooler today in Pony Hunter. Jumper Horse of the Year is much too tight to call until we tabulate every point in every class. We'll know by Monday night - maybe tomorrow night. Since we give out trophies four places back in 13 different divisions, MANY riders will get awards next weekend.

Saturday, August 2, 8PM:

THANKS to Quakerfield Stables for hosting a really terrific final show in the 2008 Summer Series! Noreen and all her staff were wonderful to work with. The weather started out early this morning with strong thunderstorms but the show grounds were only a bit wet. The rain then stopped about 7 AM and the ground began to dry. By the time the show began at 11 it was still slippery but the sun was out and it was improving by the minute. By the end of the first few classes, the footing was very good and it was excellent by the end of the day. Thunderstorms passed very close to us several times and the sky got dark. But it only sprinkled a bit a few times. A great day for a show!

We will post points tomorrow night or Monday night. We're headed out for Pasquale's dinner and Kone King - then home to SLEEEEEP!!!!!!!!

August 1st, Midnight:

We are home from running the Monster Truck show at the Cattaraugus Fair this evening. We send a big "thank you" to Cheryl, our food service director, Mary our senior counselor, and Alexa, one of our CIT's who was terrific today keeping in touch with Meghan while we were gone from the farm. They handled the routine night before show preparations very well, a few unexpected horse care issues, and most significantly getting Junior Counselor Jenn to the clinic with a sudden and unpleasant sore throat that is likely "mono". We can't seem to catch a break this summer with staff turnover. Just when Jenn was doing some of her best work of the summer as a junior counselor, she will likely have to go home to get well. We'll hope nobody else comes down with this!

Returning junior counselor, Emily, arrived just at the right time today to take over for Jenn. We knew that Emily would be good for Longacres spirit coming in "fresh" for our final two weeks, but we did not know how perfect the timing would be!

We are off at 8:30 AM for the Quakerfield horse show. The show is scheduled to begin at 11AM - we may start a few classes a little early if it looks like rain is on the way - there is a good chance of scattered showers. We'll make the best of it.

July 31, 11PM:

We had dinner with Uncle Billy at the mall while the girls had their recreation and shopping time. We kept passing them in the halls in good spirits!

We will be light on updates for the next 48 hours as we prepare for the show on Saturday and Meghan and I run another county fair event tomorrow night. Mary and Cheryl will hold down the fort while we're gone. Wish us luck in the show and hope for a dry day, which is a 50-50 proposition at this point.

I'm not sure if I mentioned that Rachael did a great job jumping Diesel this morning. Someone is very soon going to claim the $50 cash prize and trophy I have put up for the first person to ride Diesel around a cross rails jumping course without knocking down a rail!

July 31, 1PM:

July 31 Quakerfield Horse Show update:

Noreen at Quakerfield says their show on Saturday will be run rain or shine, so bring your poncho's and rain gear. We'll hope for the best on the weather. Only if the great flood itself comes will the show be put off until Sunday! You can check in at this website and at 716-652-9495 for last minute information early Saturday morning.

July 30, 10PM:

July 30, 5:30 PM

July 30, 12:30 PM:

All shows during the season count for the High Score Awards in each division. Only your best eight shows out of nine count for the "Horse of the Year" awards. If you have missed one or more shows, this does not matter to you. If you have attended every single show, we will drop the points from your worst show for Horse of the Year Awards. We THINK that every horse that is up for Horse of the Year has missed at least one show.

July 30, 11AM:

The rest of the girls had a very good morning ride! See the pictures.

Oh, one more thing - Meghan read my list of all the things we're trying to do this week and next and asked me, "What about finding winter homes for ALL the horses? Huh - Huh, Tom!" Sorry Meghan - I know that is a huge job that hovers over everything else the entire second session at Longacres!

July 30, 7 AM:

We've been quite lucky in having no serious accidents at Longacres for quite a few years now. That luck continues after taking Robyn to the emergency room last night for X-rays after she fell training a young horse and got her foot caught under the horse briefly. The X-rays are negative and Robyn should be back in action soon after the swelling and pain go down a bit.

But any accident scare makes you go back and review all safety issues. We do that all the time here. You can browse back through the spring and winter "Updates" to find several discussions on riding safety. We have them here at the beginning of every session and we'll have one again today. When I write, "We've been lucky in having no serious accidents", I really mean, "We've been pretty careful - - - - - - - - - - AND lucky." We do serious, advanced riding at Longacres. There are risks, and people do get hurt from time to time. We are grateful for our long streak of no major accidents and do not take it for granted. We will continue to work very hard to continue the streak of safe riding which now goes back ten to 15 years, depending on what you count as an accident. Much longer than that for anything serious.

Points!

Multi-tasking at Longacres:

This is a fun time of year for us! (semi sarcastic) We are running the farm with all it's complicated little ways. We're preparing for a major event here at the farm next week when we host the "Derby Day" celebrations here on the 8th. We're working with Quakerfield to help put on their horse show this Saturday. We're managing a big Monster Truck show for the Cattaraugus County Fair in two days as the last remnant of Tom's former career as a sports promoter. (Shelly, Peyton, and Robyn want to go!) We're beginning to organize our show team for the "A" rated Erie County Fair show in two weeks (Which is a BIG deal!). And as a final little exclamation point at the end of August, we see the last of you off on the final day of our Lazy Days week and the next morning we manage a Cheerleading event at Fantasy Island Theme Park. Yes, we are busy. But we feel fulfilled. As you can see, our schedule is top heavy with organizing and managing special events - it's something we do pretty well and we're flattered that other organizations hire us to help with their events.

Longacres 2009 Enrollments:

The deposits are steadily coming in for 2009. When formal "Acceptance Day" comes on September 1st, we are likely to have space available in Early Bird adult week, in the first Pro-Clinic week, and only a few spots left in the second Pro-Clinic week. Mother Daughter week is wait list already. The June 28 two week session will be almost or completely sold out and wait list; the July 12 two week session may still have a few spots open. The August 3 1/2 week session will be wait list or nearly wait list. There will likely be spots open for Lazy Days of August. We hope this information will help you make your plans if you have not already signed up for next year.

July 29, Noon:

I went to the barn during the 11:00 AM lesson and began building a very wierd jump. "What is he DOING?", I heard several of the girls whispering. Alexa was the first to figure out that it was an extra wide jump intended for side by side jumping exercises. It was very fun!

Maddy and Amanda told me they wanted a picture just of the two of them for mom and dad, and I got one that is just about perfect. If you like it, Alan and Sandy, I can make you a copy of the full size picture file.

July 29, 7:30 AM Update:

Shelly has done an outstanding job as Longacres barn manager this summer while she is still a "junior" counselor. She has been cheerful, shown great responsibility planning ahead and seeing the big picture, and worked tirelessly. We mentioned her good work in this blog a couple of days ago.

Hannah has also tentatively committed to returning next year as part of our regular riding staff. Shelly and Hannah are a pretty solid beginning on putting together the 2009 staff.

We mentioned last night that CJ is leaving a week earlier than planned. She is working this morning cheerfully and carefully with our new senior counselor, Mary, passing on the details of her daily routine to make for a smooth transition when CJ leaves tomorrow. We thank CJ for her good work during her six weeks at Longacres this summer. We wish there were never any turnover in camp staff during the summer. Continuity is good. But now that the Longacres season is 13 weeks long, it is nearly impossible to find a full staff available that entire time. We have to hire girls in shifts that overlap to keep the farm running all summer. That's why Emily Peterman has been scheduled since last winter to come in this coming weekend as a late season reinforcement, and why Hannah has been scheduled to return next week for the rest of the summer. It's not that we necessarily knew that we would have other counselors who would get burned out and might leave early, but it was a possibility that we prepared for.

But if we are tempted to get depressed about the admitted ripple in morale that accompanies any staff change during the season, we will remind ourselves of our dinner conversation last night when we met with a good friend who manages a theme park not far from us. He has 200 teenagers working at a time to staff the theme park. He goes through 400 kids in a summer to cover the employees who don't work out or change their minds about wanting to work during the summer. Yikes!

July 28, Midnight:

July 28, 10PM:

There was a pleasant, relaxed evening lesson tonight at the barn. Counselor in Training (CIT) Alexa has been giving good lessons and was working with Christina one on one while Jenn taught Marta and Rachael. Rachael rode the mighty Diesel and only once had to duck under a tree branch!

Tom worked with Marta on the grid a couple of times and schooled Robyn and Quantum over some very big jumps. Shelly gave her own horse a light work out. Maddy was training our youngest training project, Starfire. A couple of girls took the opportunity to clean tack or just hang out with the lessons.

We are very pleased at the good teaching being done part time by our two CIT's for this session, Alexa and Carly. They are both showing good aptitude for teaching and are enjoying it. They are each doing just one hour a day right now, but they will be here as full junior counselors during Lazy Days week. We think the moms and daughters will like them! Good job, girls!

And speaking more of counselors, today would be a good time to introduce Mary Kunz, who is working full time for us as a senior instructor now. She has been working with the girls for most of this current session, but we didn't want to introduce her until she was sure she would like Longacres. She does, and we like Mary. She is 23 years old and a graduate student who is going back to work in the fall while she pursues her advanced degree part time. She was glancing through the paper a couple of weeks ago looking for something part time until her full time job starts in the fall and saw our ad for a riding instructor. Mary said to herself, "I could do that.", and gave us a call. Mary rode for many years when she was young and worked for several very good show stables in our area. She is proving herself both competent as a teacher and organized as a manager of the program when Meghan or I are not at the barn. Mary will be with us until the end of the season except for a four day stint during the fair when she has previous family plans. We count ourselves lucky to have her.

We also gain two proven staff members this weekend when what we like to call our "late season reinforcements" arrive. Hannah returns for the final weeks of the summer, and Emily Petermann, alias "Emil-I-us", returns for a special two week job helping us with the big shows during Derby Week and Fair week!

July 28, 3PM:

A mixed day:

AMANDA & DIESEL STAR!!

The real star was Amanda on Diesel. After several tries and some creative jump wings, she rode Diesel all the way through the grid at a canter and he got the full horse strides just as well as Quantum or the other good horses! It was unbelievable. We hope to post a YouTube video of Amanda later tonight. Enjoy the still pictures for now.

The Not so Good:

Teenagers - aaaaargh! As some very nice girls who have been with us for years grow older, they want to return to Longacres for the horse fun, but they are growing up, spreading their wings, and challenging authority. Longacres is not a good place to challenge authority. We are an informal place that works only when we fully trust everyone at the farm.

Two junior counselors who had been twice warned previously violated our no cell phones but in emergencies rule today in front of campers. We and they are discussing the options with their parents.

Meghan just walked into the room to tell me we got two more 2009 deposits for returning younger students. Let's hear it for enthusiastic, cooperative young riders!!!!!! Yeah!!!!!

July 28, 7:30 AM:

Everyone was at least five minutes early for horse care this morning. Good. It was sort of funny to see them looking at their watches as they ran across the lawn to the barn. We'll keep on top of it for the next week to make sure it lasts!

July 27, 7PM:

Late for Horse Care

Long time readers of this website know that we report little problems in addition to all the pleasant good news at Longacres. We have such a little problem - one that we are going to deal with clearly and firmly.

In the past week we've had more and more girls late for morning horse care. I wonder if it is because all the girls this session know each other and get along with each other so well. There are many older teenage students working with junior counselors who are their friends. There may be less of a sense of having to follow the rules of the farm, since all the girls are working with their good friends - it may have gotten a little too casual around the barn this week when it comes to getting the work done.

I spoke softly at lunch, but I made it very clear that this tardiness was going to end as of today. I'm not usually at the barn in the early morning, but I will be tomorrow at 7:30 AM when everyone is supposed to have arrived to help. If anyone is late there will be reprimands and sanctions.

Longacres is a very nurturing and informal place in many ways. But being on time and doing your share of the work is important to us.

In closing this discussion, I'd like to commend Robyn and Shelly who are always on time or early. When I thanked them this afternoon, Shelly joked, "Yeah - if I'm late I have to wait for a wheelbarrow!" Well, it is more than that. Shelly has been outstandingly responsible this summer, as have many others. Starting tomorrow morning everyone will be, at least in the matter of being on time for horse care.

July 27, 4PM:

I just got back from the barn where I watched Maddy, Robyn, and Michelle in one of Shelly's lessons and then I took part in Claire's lesson helping Peyton, Rachael, and Marta.

Marta and Alexa have taken on the "I won't look down to check my leads" pledge. I'm very excited and pleased that they are taking on this difficult challenge. There is no one thing that will move these two promising riders to the next level more than learning to feel their leads without looking. That is a good goal for all riders - it's especially important for Alexa and Marta because they are already very talented in many other ways and this will really move them to another level if we are successful.

July 27, 1PM:

After a whirlwind of activity the first four days of this session, it's nice to have a routine day of riding with perfect weather! We dealt with rain and improvising a schedule the first day, then a frantic one day of show practice, then two days of horse shows. We are off to a good start this session and everyone is getting along well and working pretty hard - more on that in a minute. All the girls know each other from previous years except Christine, and she has already bonded very well with the girls in her bunk.

We spent this morning making individualized plans for what each rider at Longacres most needs to achieve during their stay and how we'll help them work towards their own goals.

Speaking of pictures, we had a letter from one of our parents requesting that in this day of creepy internet stories we not publish any closeup identifiable pictures of her daughter on the website. We understand that concern, and if anyone else feels the same way, jsut send us a note or email and we'll do our best to limit pictures of your student to a good distance. Most of you like to see the smiling faces, so our general policy will continue to be publishing all kinds of pictures. But do tell us if you prefer a great anonymity.

And as luck would have it, the VERY NEXT email was from Ruby's mom, Diana, giving us a link to a pertinent New York Times story about summer camps, pictures, and parent relations. We are not the only "high end camp" to post pictures and try to give good personalized customer service. It is hard enough for us with only nine girls at a time. According to the Times article, some of the old traditional large New England camps hire one or more full time people just to handle parent relations, email, and pictures during the summer!

We plan to take a quick field trip to a Carriage Driving event after lunch, then lots more riding this afternoon!

(Paul - the bridge has been christened! Details soon)

July 27, 9AM:

Usually Sundays are the horses day of rest and our kids have a low key day of rest, horse care, and a trip to town. But with the horse shows covering two days Friday and Saturday this week. We're only having a late sleep in this morning and then a full day of riding. It's a fine summer day here, so we're looking forward to getting in some very good lessons, as well as doing some serious training on our young horses that are here for experience and schooling. More later.

July 26, 6PM:

July 26, 1PM Update:

We had great luck with the weather! We just finished the second day of our show that was split because of weather worries. It has been great all morning, in spite of dark clouds off in the distance and a few scattered rain drops. Hunters Ridge, Quakerfield, and several other barns came to our second day this morning and a number of our girls rode for the fun of it. It was a fun show.

We're off to "Town Day" and shopping and laundry very soon so the girls will have their cell phones and you'll have a chance to talk with them. More later!

(At 2:30 PM a line of strong thunderstorms has broken out just to the north of us, but the "lake shadow effect" may keep them all a few miles from us as they pass to the north.)

July 25, 10:30 PM:

Special mention of Christina who rode in her very first ever horse show today and did very well, winning good ribbons. Atta girl, Christina!

Some of the biggest excitement was the battle in Special Jumpers over the biggest fences of the season. Bethany Scarlata and Joc-A-Bee, Alyssa Willoughby and Wee Bit of Rust, Shelly Kearney and Devil Horns, and Robyn Low and Quantum Leap had very close competition in one class all four were within three seconds of each other and the top three were within 1/2 second of each other in the jump off!!!!! Shelly and Robyn came out on top riding for Longacres, but we had to push it to the limit to finish ahead of Alyssa and Bethany!

If the rain holds off we're holding round #2 of the show tomorrow at 10 AM - call us in the morning if you are in doubt about the weather, or call us tonight if you definitely are not coming but would like to try again Sunday or Tuesday, the next really good weather days.

July 25, 9PM:

July 25, 3AM:

We'll add some classes at the Friday show later today, as needed and requested, to suit the needs of exhibitors who really want to compete for points in the smaller classes they have been used to in most previous series shows. Likely Special Hunter and Pony Hunter would be two of them.

Although we thought we had worked out a pretty good way to let everyone have fun at a show today and still have a chance to earn Series Points, we did not appreciate how important it is to some to have the usual small classes with not many other competitors. We'll do our best within the time we have to make the Friday show as much like a normal Series show as possible.

The Saturday show will be run as we have explained on this website, as a shortened version that is a convenience to those who can't or don't want to come on Friday.

July 24, 9:30 PM:

The girls did an early evening horse care and planned to get to bed early and rested for a long day of training and our first show of this session tomorrow afternoon. Just as they finished putting the horses out we had a severe thunderstorm alert. Meghan made sure everyone was inside since the storm was forecast to pass right over East Aurora. Indeed it did, but it was a bullseye on the village three miles north of us. We got only scattered showers here, so it won't hurt our show field for tomorrow afternoon. Meghan and I did drive into town to watch the storm and sure enough there were buckets of rain coming down, high winds, and lots of hail. We parked for ten minutes along a side street under a big shade tree to break the force of the hail on our car!

On our way home as the rain tapered off, we drove down Main Street in town and there were rivers of water from curb to curb. We actually turned around at the traffic circle because the cars going around looked like boats. I am glad we didn't get that three miles away at the farm.

This will probably be our last update until tomorrow night after the show. We'll be very busy preparing the girls and getting ready for the show tomorrow!

July 24, 7PM:

Thanks to the families who have been sending in 2009 deposits recently. We hope we can give most or all of you your first choice on 2009 sessions.

July 24, 5PM Update:

Marta tough!

The sun was out for a while this afternoon and nearly everyone got on to ride a bit. Special credit goes to Marta and several other girls including Michelle who were up doing a dressage test with Claire as the rain began again. Did they run to the barn? No! They took turns finishing their dressage rides in the increasing rain and only headed for the barn when I shoed them down as thunder started to get closer.

Actually, a severe thunder storm with nickel size hail passed just a few miles to the south of us. We heard lots of thunder and had a brief downpour here, but the worst of it passed us by this time! More rain is headed our way on what is proving the wettest day of the summer at Longacres. We're especially pleased with our staff, Mary, Claire, Jenn, and Shelly to have managed so many horsey activities both in the barn and actually riding on such an unsettled weather day.

But tomorrow looks like wonderful riding weather and our show field should be in good shape by the time of the show in the afternoon.

July 24, 4PM:

The Maddy Story!

July 24, 1PM:

Weather is very crummy today, with steady rain all morning. It looks to taper off later this afternoon, so we should be able to ride later. This morning we had braiding practice (see pictures), talks about horse care and ailments, and indoor horse leading races!! Tom tried to lead Diesel, but I got my butt kicked. Marta was the fastest leading ShaBang the length of the barn in 9 seconds! (For comparison, I took about 50 seconds to lead Diesel before I cheated and tried using a longe whip to get him started.

Horse show prospects still look wet for Saturday. We are likely to do at least the jumpers and maybe all the show tomorrow afternoon.

July 24, 8AM:

How about a Friday afternoon Show?

The latest weather forecast is not kind to our show prospects Saturday, with a 50% chance of showers and thunderstorms. BUT - - tomorrow (Friday) is going to be a dry pleasant day. How about starting the show at 3PM Friday afternoon? Call us if you could make that. And let us know if there's no way you can. We don't like bouncing show dates around any more than you do, but we like dry days for horse shows! Call soon with your input. We'd hate to have people drive here from all over on Saturday and then have to cancel and send everyone home.

July 23, 11PM Update:

The girls all participated in a great video review tonight. We took a couple of hours to watch about 50 minutes of video doing frequent rewinds and slow motion analysis. Everyone was being very good about paying attention, which made me want to take the time to do all the slow motion. Good job, girls!

July 23, 8:30 PM:

After the late morning heavy rain, it cleared up nicely and we got in our full schedule of three hours of riding in the afternoon and evening. The girls are just finishing horse care and will soon be up at the house to watch an hour of video we took of them riding this morning.

During dinner we were telling the story of Griffin showing up yesterday evening with a surprise care package for Peyton, Robyn, Jenn, Claire, and Shelly. Griffin came without warning and with my permission snuck into the house where the girls were watching video on break. What a great surprise - food is always a good surprise for Longacres girls!!!! THANK YOU, Griffin!

And just as I finished telling this story at dinner, Andrea burst into the dining hall all out of breath. Her mom had come over to help paint the Butterfly jump and Andrea had RUN all the way from the barn to the dining hall to say "hello". Man, was she puffing.

July 23, 4PM:

Everyone scheduled for the second session has arrived safely - but you parents know that, since you all dropped your kids off yourselves. No airport arrivals this session!

We got in a good lesson this morning including jumping and it was all on video. You won't see much, if any, jumping this afternoon in these albums because there was a torrential downpour just before lunch and the ground is still a bit slippery. But we are getting in valuable work on the flat.

We briefed everyone on the many coming events for this session. We'll be doing a big "grid jumping" exercise on Friday - wait for the pictures! Then shows Saturday and next week, the Derby on August 8th, the Erie County Fair August 12, 13, and 14th, pond day, big jumping day, training the two new thoroughbreds on loan from Reading Thoroughbred farm, and much more!!!!!!

We'll do a deluxe photo shoot of each rider jumping their favorite horse on Friday, also. AND Kone King, of course!!!!!!!!!!!

We miss all our excited and enthusiastic little people from the previous two sessions. Griffin, Andrea, Jaclyn, Lydia, Stephanie, Ruby, Kelly, and all the rest of the younger students from the beginning of the summer. There's something very "camp like" about having so many younger girls around the barn.

This session we have mostly older girls - young women, really. Having so many strong bodies will make horse care go very quickly. That's the bonus. And we do have some 12, 13, and 14 year olds in Rachael, Christina, and Michelle. But it is mostly older girls. But look at the pictures - they are smiling and having a good time with horses - just like they have all the years they've grown from little horse loving Longacres girls to bigger horse loving Longacres girls!

July 22, 10PM:

Many of you know that I'm a "weather junkie" - I've been a student of weather phenomena and forecasting for years. I got quite a show from mother nature tonight.

Meghan and I were driving home from shopping and were watching a display of cloud to cloud lightning some distance off ahead of us as we drove south near the farm. I considered driving on south to get closer to see more lightning, since it looked like the storm was five or ten miles away. But we had to get home, so we turned in at our farm. A few minutes later I was moving the RV and looked out to see even more lightning off to the south from the same storm.

I shut off the RV next to our show field and opened the window so I could hear some of the distant thunder along with watching the lightning show. Guess what? Not a sound!

It dawned on me that this might be a very large storm a very long way off. I pulled out my iPhone and called up the weather radar. Sure enough, what I was seeing was a severe thunder storm about fifty miles south of us not far from the Pennsylvania border! A clear night and a very tall storm for us to see it so clearly that far away.

We're really looking forward to meeting all our returning students and our one new student for this next session. It looks like a great group.

We've been interviewing several riding instructors and Mary is starting to work for us part time tomorrow. We may have others do some teaching this week as we look for the right person to help us as a senior counselor next year.

July 22, 8AM:

Horse Show Important News:

One more day of intercession break at Longacres. We're sleeping in this morning and taking the girls out to civilization this evening. Meghan and I will be trimming grass and cleaning up most of the day so the place will look good for our new arrivals tomorrow morning. We can't wait to see you all! Alexa and Marta may be the first arrivals.

July 21, 7PM:

Meghan and I were back at work around the farm today, catching up on paper work, cutting trees along the barn drive, arranging for the horses to have winter homes, and more. We did drive the girls into the mall, went to a movie (Wall-E), and had dinner with Uncle Billy. So it was sort of a vacation day!

And it will be early to bed - for me, at least. Meghan was up until 12:30 last night making her bunk assignments for second session. I'll try to get her to bed early tonight!

July 20, 10 PM:

- - - and Tom has a few "issues", too!

But after you had all left this morning and Meghan had taken the remaining staff and girls into town for their afternoon off, I couldn't help taking one final look around the farm. I noticed that the grass was a little long down the pasture side of the barn and the rose bush next to the porch was a little overgrown. I couldn't help myself. I pulled out the trimming shears and cut back the rose bush before starting up the Gravely walk behind tractor and mowing the grass beside the barn and under the fences.

Crazy when what we really need to do is get rested up for second session. But it is nice to have a job that makes you want to put your best foot forward all the time. I hope that a few of you learn that lesson from your time at Longacres, along with having a good time and getting to be better riders.

July 20, 7PM:

Meghan's idea of fun on the first afternoon of her relaxing intercession break time:

Drive the counselors to town to have their "town day". Drive around the camp in the pickup truck collecting garbage for the weekly garbage pickup in the morning. Watch a box of trash fall off the back of the truck driving down the highway. Pull over and collect the trash. Have her cell phone get snagged on a box of trash and have the battery come flying out into the weeds beside the road. Spend the next hour looking for the battery in the weeds. Finish collecting trash while a semi-sympathetic Tom looks through more weeds. Give up on finding cell phone battery.

But at least it was a break from the routine barn problems!

July 20, 1PM:

We miss you too, Griffin!

We said "see ya later" (not goodbye) to all our first session students who left this morning. We're now on 3 days of rest for horses and riders during our intercession break.

Usually we start getting emails from our departed students by tonight or tomorrow, but Griffin lives five minutes from Longacres and she already sent us our first email from her batch of students gone home. Thanks, Griffin!

There were many tears shed during the long packing and parting session this morning. A golden lining to the story for us is that four of the departing students put in their deposits for our longer 3 1/2 week second session of 2009. It now appears that session will be full and wait listed by September 1st.

It was also easier to say goodbye since Andrea, Jaclyn, and Griffin live near Longacres and all will see us at the shows during the next month. They're likely to all visit Longacres again during the coming weeks! See ya all soon!

July 19, 11PM:

Sorry for no update since yesterday! We were fully involved in preparing for and taking part in the great and huge show at Hasty Hills Farms today. Congratulations to Becky and Jaime for their fine preparation and the biggest turnout at one of their shows in nine or ten years. Good job.

It was good for our girls, also, since they had really tough competition at this big show. We didn't win as many ribbons as usual, but many of our girls did win - and they were really good ribbons since they were EARNED against tough competition in big classes.

Shelly won the first Special Jumper class at the end of the show, with Robyn second, and Robyn was second with Shelly third in the final Stakes class. (Bethany Scarlatta won!).

We'll bid a sad "goodbye" to most of the girls from this session tomorrow, and then we have three days of glorious rest before the new session begins on Wednesday!

July 18, 11PM:

Welcome Peyton, who arrived safely tonight!

July 17, 10PM:

Good cheer tonight and an early rise tomorrow. The girls are in a great mood after their night out at the mall. Just as a precaution, I walked down to the cabins ahead of them after last night's "noises". I have walked the trails all my life in the dark, so I don't use any light and I am very quiet. There was no one anywhere to be seen or heard.

The girls knew I was down at the cabins checking, but they still screeched when they saw me walking back! It had crossed my mind that I was in a position to give them a really "fun" scare, but it was too close to something really scary, so I passed up a good opportunity!

It is going to be steamy hot tomorrow, so we're getting up at 6:30 AM and running the whole morning schedule an hour early so we'll get in two lessons before it gets too hot. Then we'll watch video of the girls riding during lunch period to help them prepare for the show. Pond riding will be in the afternoon and then show prep. Early to bed tomorrow night to be rested for the show Saturday.

July 17, 4PM:

We're just finishing up a drill team practice, doing horse care, then some showers and off to a night out on the town at the mall.

Tomorrow is the day we try to ride the horses into the pond. Some like it - some don't. The pond is filled with sea weed and algae - it is pretty funny if someone falls off their horse.

Thanks to Kathy from Quakerfield who gave a popular guest lesson today!

July 17, 8AM:

Noises in the Night:

There should be no reason to be alarmed by this story, but we report anything unusual here so you get the information first hand and not through gossip. During the moonlight ride last night, some of the girls at the cabins reported to the counselors hearing "noises and voices" outside one of the cabins and "a short distance away". Meghan responded immediately and found nothing. But we had two fine East Aurora police officers stop out anyway. We thank them for taking almost an hour of their valuable time to walk through the camp with Meghan checking all the empty buildings and places someone could be lost, etc. There were no vehicles parked anywhere near the camp and nobody ever actually saw any person lurking around. Just "noises".

Our best guess is that it was a combination of animal noises near the cabins and voices carrying a distance on a very still night. Or, perhaps, a neighbor out for a walk on a nice night who made a wrong turn and got lost in our woods near the cabins. The police discussed with us their knowledge of any neighborhood kids who have done mischief recently, and none are active in our area.

We take this kind of thing very seriously. We do not think this was a threatening incident but will increase our own and police night patrols for a few nights. We tested cell phone communication between Meghan and the counselors. We are equipped to bring any necessary level of force to bear in case there ever were a real and immediate threat. Which there had not been for sixty years at Longacres.

June 16, 11PM:

We got video of almost everyone today, except Ofelia and Robyn. The horses they were on tonight went out of commision at the beginning of the ride and there wasn't time to find good replacements. Horatio was ever so slightly lame, so we immediately put him away to rest him for the show. Quantum picked up a mouth sore sometime today, so he too will get rest until the show.

All our horses have worked extra hard the past two weeks, so we'll ease up a bit on the hardest riding and do more relaxing trails the next two days to conserve the horses' energy for the show on Saturday. Then the horses all get three full days of rest during intercession break. It will be well deserved.

June 16, 11AM:

A surprise shower is passing through as I write (and wait to see if I'm still teaching a partial lesson in a few minutes). The weather report is still very good for today and the rest of this week except for this and possibly a few other brief showers.

I also just toured all our trails on the ATV to supervise the crew trimming back the fast growing "jungle".

July 15, 11PM:

A Magical Longacres Moment!

I just got back to the house after supervising a near perfect moonlight ride. Claire (Brody), Ofelia (Merlin), Peggy (Star), Laura (Rocky), Griffin (Kingsley), Lydia (Brownie), and Stephanie (Bobert) joined Meghan and I on the show fields for a ride under the near full moon. There was not a cloud in the sky, nor a breath of wind. It was an absolutely still night and just perfect for this ride!

We walked near the barn to give the horses their night vision and get them used to their order. Then we rode up top, first walking all around the fields, then doing some trotting.

And then we jumped! Don't be nervous, parents, conditions were perfect, the horses were behaving well, and the moon was nearly bright as day shining on a pair of white jump stands with white crossed rails. The girls took turns trotting over the jumps and then cantering down the "Avenues" one at a time.

Then came the crowning moment, my favorite part of a moonlight ride on a still night. We lined up way at the back of the field looking up at the full moon. Then we had two minutes of complete silence just looking up at the moon and listening to the horses breath and occasionally stomp a foot, chew on the bit, or let out a muffled snicker. Sometimes this is interrupted by the sound of traffic out on the road, but not tonight. This ride was blessed! There was not a sound during the entire two minutes of silence but the subtle horse noises and a few frogs croaking off to the side in the little creek. It was wonderful. After two minutes I asked the girls for another 30 seconds of silence and suggested that they make a wish on this perfect moonlight ride.

Great stuff!

July 15, 9PM:

The moon is up and we're just waiting for it to get dark before holding our first moonlight ride tonight. There will be another tomorrow night for the kids who didn't ride tonight. We like to keep these night rides small for safety's sake.

Meghan took 145 pictures today and we'll be posting many of them at the links below very soon now.

Tom's lesson tonight was interesting - we walked the distance around a long corner of a jump course and tried to predict how many strides each horse would get. In theory it should have been 22 to 24. Shelly did one 24. Jaclyn did one 27 and one 28 and was most consistent. Claire predicted a 28 and got a 28 for the most accurate (after two tries!).

Meghan had a great time giving Stephanie a lesson on Diesel! She actually could steer him!!!!!!

July 15, 6PM:

There were lots of smiles when they got off. Jaclyn summed it up when she had finished her turn by saying, "That was FUN!"

July 15, 11AM Update:

Farley Bridgeman has become a regular guest instructor at Longacres this summer and she's here again this morning teaching both groups. We'll also be having a new guest instructor later in the week, Kathy from Quakerfield, and Amy Friedman as guest teachers.

July 14, 11PM:

Sorry we have relatively few pictures today besides the ones of Jenn jumping big and a few informals. Meghan and I were pretty busy with hands on lessons with the girls, checking horse assignments, and more. The girls just recently headed back to their bunks from a raucous camp fire with smores and ghost stories. They are wondering whether I'm hiding on the way to their cabins to scare them, but I'm not - I'm snug and warm up at the house doing this update!

Besides Jenn's big jump on Calypso, Ofelia jumped three feet or a little more on Quantum and Andrea did some good size jumps on Horatio. Lydia rode with the big girls in Tom's evening lesson and finally got her horse really straight to the jumps which was a triumph!

Tomorrow and or Wednesday night we will be doing moonlight rides on the field. All is good at Longacres.

July 14, 4PM:

July 14, 1PM:

Yesterday was a crummy day. Even though the show the day before and the boisterous dinner and Kone King trip after the show were wonderful with great spirits, we seemed to have one little problem after another on Sunday.

It was rainy and dreary in the morning, some of the teenage junior counselors were bickering during the town day experience in the afternoon, and I disciplined the whole group as well as two individuals for talking while I was trying to talk during the evening video session. Two parents wrote in reference to some of these and related issues. It was just not our day.

Well, a few private meetings and a sunny day later, Longacres again has a good feel. I just got done teaching a small lesson to Laura, Ofelia, Robyn, and Emily. And we had two other small group lessons going on at the same time. On the way to breakfast two of the junior counselors who had been "at each other" yesterday were walking arm in arm like best of friends. Such are the variables in teen social interaction.

I'm teaching another small group tonight, Peggy is leading small group trail rides all day and the other lessons seem to be going well.

We've got nice weather for riding most of this week, so we're feeling positive.

Thanks to Gina Bennett who is here this week as a "friend of Longacres" painting Betterfly jumps!

July 13, midnight:

There are also a few pictures of all the ribbons and trophies the girls won on Saturday. Enjoy.

July 13, 4PM:

The girls are back from town with clean laundry. They're quickly doing their afternoon horse care and then it is time for THE HORSE WEDDING!!!

We'll have an album of wedding pictures this evening.

After dinner we're gathering to watch the video from yesterday's show.

July 13, 10AM:

Meghan leaves for the airport in a few minutes to pick up Peggy, our adult guest senior counselor for this week. Peggy is in her late 20's, and was a student at our Adult Week last year. We liked her so much that we invited her back to be a counselor during last summer's Lazy Days Week. She is already scheduled to be here for this year's Lazy Days of August and she has been able to make time in her schedule to help us out this week, too. She's fun and has a good eye for safety. She'll be leading trail rides and helping the younger girls get tacked up for lessons and generally working with Meghan to keep the good spirit of this week rolling on to the end of the session next weekend!

The has been rain on and off all morning and more to come. Great timing for it to fall on the horses' day off! Tomorrow will be bright and sunny, as will most of this coming week. A dull wet day like this is great for resting up, and that's what we plan to do! (AND clean up some messy tack rooms in the barn!)

July 13, 7:30 AM:

Everyone else is still asleep. We're all going to enjoy today's "rest day" - so are the horses!

The horses were great in the show yesterday. I've been a little concerned with how they were holding up recently since we've been doing a lot of jumping. But there were very few refusals or other disobedient horse behaviors in the show. And the next few days look to be cool and sunny - great riding weather.

Speaking of the show, we don't run horse shows to make money. We run them so that we can be assured of a nice showing environment for our students. BUT - - it makes us feel we must be doing a good job when the shows are successful. We have run three shows at Longacres this summer and each has had more entries and made more profit than the one before. They're not big shows. By running two rings at once with two judges we finish in about seven hours. But that's just about the right size for our needs.

We send out a heart felt "thank you" to all the stables and riders who came and supported our biggest show of the summer yesterday!

July 12, 11PM:

There were exceptional spirits at the Pasquale's post-show dinner and at Kone King tonight. This is a well bonded group of girls, with all ages getting along wonderfully! We are proud of them.

Check out the picture a little above on this page of Robyn jumping Quantum this morning.

July 12, 4PM:

Emily has one of the great rides on Merlin and won lots of stuff. Dani looked very good on Karen. Ofelia is riding strong on the outside course and getting better and tougher every day! Stephanie, Lydia, Griffin, and Jaclyn all did well and got good ribbons. Jenn and Claire jumped VERY big in the high hunters and high Medal. Hannah showed Ho-ho and was a little tentative her first two rides, then very good on her last one over BIG jumps! Laura had a fine day on Rocky! Shelly is on bee sting meds and did not ride.

Andrea was super on Brody and on her own pony Copper!

Maybe the biggest star of the day was Robyn on Quantum. She kicked butt bigtime in Special Jumpers!!!!!!!!

Meghan and I did survive the day, but we are going to sleep all day tomorrow! Oops - I guess we have to drive the girls to town and back - and plan next weeks program - and update the website - oh, well, the fanatasy of a real day off at least is nice!

July 11, 11PM:

Meghan and I usually get along extremely well, so when you hear us getting a little "snippy" to each other, you know we're nearing exhaustion. We were a little short handed today so it was a long one getting ready for tomorrow's horse show. Then if the normal horse show prep wasn't enough we had to take someone over to the medical clinic with a bee sting reaction. None of the backup people who normally help us out with this kind of thing were available, so Meghan is gone for the evening and I'm trying to do my work and what she usually does before a show (which is a LOT!!!!).

Somehow we'll muddle through tomorrow, even in near 90 degree heat. And we'll make it look like we're having a great time. But the horses' and riders' day of rest Sunday is coming none too soon. Don't worry - we're on top of it (barely). We'll be rejuvenated by Monday morning for what looks to be a solid week of great riding weather to finish out this session. Yippee!

Tom = 2; Jaclyn = 0 (STILL!)

Just to show you that we're still giving the kids a good time while we deal with little crisis in the background, I'll tell you a fun little story from earlier tonight. Browse down a couple of paragraphs first and read about the Jaclyn Challenge. After I "dusted her" in the bareback horse mounting contest the other day, she's been challenging me to lots of contests. Tonight she said, "Want to foot race? You wouldn't have a chance!"

OK. Andrea, Lydia, Emily, and Stephanie eagerly jumped up to join Jaclyn in a foot race against the old man. I said, "How about over to that stump 20 yards away?"

They eagerly lined up, leaning over for a fast sprinters start. "Wait a sec", I said. "Here's how we'll do this. When I say 'go', it's the start."

"GO!!", I shouted as I took off leaving them in the dust! There was much merriment as even Jaclyn admitted that I had got her again pretty good. We raced again, with me cheating only slightly less egregiously.

So, Jaclyn - 0, Tom - 2, with the dance contest still to go.

(Full disclosure: I was a sprinter and distance runner in my younger days - and after my big diet this past spring, I'm only 3 pounds over my high school training weight. BUT - - - the girls would have blown by me if the race had been 22 yards instead of 20 yards! And my calf muscles are going to be cramped for a week - - - along with the other injuries I suffered when I had the bareback mounting contest with Jaclyn the other day. She's wearing me down.)

July 11, 3:30 PM:

Short updates today. We're in our preparing for a horse show mode and it is a bit hectic!

It hasn't rained a drop since early this morning and we've got all our riding in. The ground is soft and green but not muddy. Great for the show! More later.

July 11, 8am:

Scattered rain showers have been passing through the area all morning. The girls called hopefully from their bunks early this morning to see if they could "sleep in". We considered it, but told them to get up and do horse care at the normal time in hopes that we'll get in a full day of riding between showers. So far so good - most of the rain has passed slightly north of us. Horse show judge Michelle Malcom is coming as a guest instructor today.

July 10, late evening:

No more student to student email:

Because email messages are delivered to our students at meal time and are often passed around the table and then left lying around, we have often noted that there is no expectation of privacy. We have further noted that we screen incoming emails for inappropriate content, for the above reason.

Several times in recent weeks we have declined to deliver messages with inappropriate content. It is no fun reading young people's email and acting as censors. We have better things to do. It is always too bad when the bad judgement of some inconveniences many.

Until further notice there will be no more delivery of personal email to Longacres students or staff unless it comes directly from their parents. Friends will have to use regular US mail.

To accommodate messages from grandparents, etc, have them email you, the parent, and paste it into a message from the parent's email address.

We welcome comments from parents on this policy, but we don't see any other uncomplicated solution.

We certainly continue to welcome emails from students to Meghan and I!

July 10, 11PM:

A Rowdy Ride Home!

This group of girls has now really bonded well. They had a good time at the mall and arrived back at the RV for the ride home smelling heavily of lotions and cosmetic samples. Any mosquitoes that may have been lurking in the seat cushions were quickly overwhelmed by the fumes. The driver kept his window open for the ride home. Between cell phone conversations, jokes and ribbing, and Jaclyn's imitation of a chicken laying an egg (you heard right) it was rowdy, indeed!

We have another guest clinic tomorrow and some more practice for the horse show on Saturday (it's going to be HOT!).

More tomorrow.

July 10, 3PM Update:

Olympic Rider Autographs!!!!

Thn we loaded up and took our lunch around the corner to a benefit horse show for a good friend of Longacres. We had planned to watch a class or two, pay our respects, and have lunch before coming home to ride.

Back at Longacres now, the girls are all carefully tucking the signed papers away (hopefully carefully!).

July 9th, Midnight:

Horse Show Decision

The longacres show will run on the originally scheduled day, Saturday, July 12th. We will start with the jumpers at a special start time of 8AM. Inside ring will also begin at 8AM with the normal order of classes.

We seriously considered moving the show date to Monday when it will be cooler and many approved. But a number would have been badly inconvenienced. In that case, the decision must be to stick with the original date. We will start early to try to "Beat the Heat".

July 9, 9:30 PM:

Great weather forecast for tomorrow. We'll have good jumping lessons all day. Then a field trip to the mall for a movie and some fun. The girls will have their cell phones with them so you can expect to get calls or be able to call them from about 6 to 9:30.

Meghan's Gymkhana!!!!!

July 9, 3PM:

Jaclyn vs. Tom - Round #1

Jaclyn Steele is a very feisty 12 year old young lady! We know her well and there is a good rapport; lots of joking back and forth year round. Since last spring, Jaclyn has challenged Tom to a "dance contest" sometime during her stay at Longacres. It will be to Kenny Loggins "Foot Loose". That has yet to take place, and may the best man / girl win.

But we had a preliminary round of competition today. The girls were practicing a few minutes ago getting on their horses bareback for a mounted game event Meghan is running. Jaclyn is short and couldn't quite make it on Zany without help. Tom was giving her a little bit of teasing over that and she said, "Let's see YOU try, Tom!"

So, I walked over, reached deep down in my memory bank for the best bareback mounting technique from my youth, grabbed some mane, and jumped. - - - - - well, sort of - I don't know if you could call it a jump. More like a little old man's "hop"! Jaclyn was peeling with laughter. I tried twice more, to great merriment from all the girls, and I dare say there will be pictures tonight. Failure.

But I am nothing, if not determined and competitive. One more try. This time I used every ounce of willpower and every gram of energy in this 63 year old body. Bounce, bounce, UP, stiff arm and fold over the back - - - YES!!!!! Swing the legs over and throw up my hands in victory.

Jaclyn and the rest of the girls were amazed (me too!). Score = Jaclyn zero, Tom one, with the dance off still to come.

PS - I now have a lightly sprained left ankle, a pain in my right side, and a tender left wrist. But I got on the horse. Eat your heart out, Jaclyn!

July 9, 11:30 AM:

The rains came this morning, harder and later than forecast! So it was a good thing that we already had a late sleep-in scheduled this morning. Meghan and I actually had one hour all to ourselves after breakfast - believe it or not. We went for a little drive in the country before returning to help with late horse care and plan some fun mounted games that can be done on wet ground for later this afternoon.

You know us - even when we were taking our relaxing drive, we spent nearly the whole time talking about camp and the plans for the rest of the week! But we did enjoy our rare time alone.

The rain is tapering off as I write, so we should have no problem getting some kind of riding in this afternoon, whether it is the fun 'n games, or a regular lesson.

And all of us (including Meghan & I) got much needed rest this morning!

July 8, 10PM:

July 8th, 9PM:

As for me, I just had a good time this evening teaching the youngest kids myself. Hannah was working with Andrea, Jaclyn, Griffin, Stephanie, and Lydia. I set up a gymnastic exercise for them where they had to do bending turns over ground poles and through a fanned set of ground poles before a jump. It was HARD! At first they were not very enthusiastic about having to work so hard just going over poles on the ground - and being told they were not doing it very well! But as I kept working them they began to get what I was after and they started to rise to the challenge. They even kept me late at the end of the lesson asking what each of them did best and worst. I do like younger girls for their enthusiasm.

July 8, 5PM:

I underestimated how horse crazy this group really is. Some had talked of a creek walk or other rest this afternoon when we were at lunch, but there was new enthusiasm when we returned from the Reading Farm trip. Meghan spent the afternoon at the barn personally arranging horse and teaching assignments, and everyone rode both hours. No sit outs for rest for these girls!

July 8th, 3PM:

July 8th, noon:

My assessment of the "rest dilemma" last night was accurate. Laura and Ofelia were beat after their morning clinic ride and opted out of a second lesson. But new students Dani and Emily are still full of "newby" Longacres enthusiasm, so they took advantage of having a semi private lesson after their formal clinic.

Everyone should get a good chance to catch up on rest during the next 24 hours. We'll have a relaxing ride when we come back from seeing the young foal this afternoon, and will also have an optional "sneaker creeking" walk in the vary warm waters of the Cazanovia. Another ride after dinner looks like it's in the cards, as the rain is holding off until later tonight (hopefully!). We are likely to have rain until mid morning which will permit us a much needed sleep-in to get fully rested for the balance of the week's busy schedule. Tomorrow will likely offer 3 to 4 hours of riding including the special guest instructor.

Pictures later.

July 8th, 1AM Update:

The "Rest" Dilemma:

Longacres is tiring under the best of circumstances. Taking care of a barn full of horses, then riding five hours, and then having some kind of evening activity and then watching video tape is a hard pace to sustain day after day. In fact, it's impossible without some occasional extra rest. Once a week on Sundays we do have a day off. But we need to find other little breaks to keep from tiring everyone out.

Yet we promise our famous ration of five hours of daily riding and we are committed to meeting that quota more often than not, especially during the first few days of a students session. All our girls worked and rode hard today and were up late both last night and again tonight watching video. Normally we might plan a sleep-in tomorrow morning to let them catch up on their sleep. But we have an excellent guest instructor scheduled at 10AM tomorrow, so sleeping in is not in the cards.

We might take a nap time break after visiting the thoroughbred farm tomorrow afternoon. But there is rain in the forecast for tomorrow night through mid morning Wednesday. So it might make the best sense to ride all tomorrow afternoon even though we'll be getting pretty tired. Then plan a sleep in to get caught up on rest for Wednesday morning when it will be at least wet, and perhaps raining still. This is one of those balancing acts that we have to keep on top of to keep the program on track. Thought you might be interested in how we think.

July 7, 8:30 PM:

Also a picture of Diesel jumping his most impressive jump of the summer, the new log jump by the woods. Check out his knees - he has knees!!!!! Also a picture of Griffin riding Diesel - she looks pretty small! The girls were in a good mood tonight, partly because it was cooler to ride after dinner.

This SHOULD be our last update of the day and there will be fewer tomorrow.

July 7, 5PM:

We have a well known professional coming in as a guest instructor tomorrow morning to give a special clinic. Farley Bridgeman will be teaching tomorrow. Michelle Malcolm, a frequent horse show judge for Longacres, will be our guest instructor on Wednesday and Pam Mobius will be here Thursday.

We're going just around the corner to the Reading thoroughbred farm tomorrow during lunch hour to see a foal that was born just last night, as well as several that are a couple of months old.

July 7, 1PM:

Everyone had video taken of two jumping rounds which we'll review tonight. A compliment to all the new girls came last night when I sat down with Jenn and Claire to go over our teaching plans for the week. The first thing they said was, "This is a group of RIDERS!" Even the youngest in this group have done quite a bit of jumping. All of them can ride in most any grouping and do similar exercises. (Don't worry, parents - the youngest will not be jumping 3'6" anytime soon!)

But most of our new riders have not trained to the standards that we expect here. There's a lot of cutting corners and bad approaches to jumps. We worked on that especially at the lower jumping heights today.

For the more advanced riders, I had some rather demanding words about my old favorite topics - sitting up and paying attention, having your horse ready to work all the time, and getting leads correct all the time. They were better by the end of the lesson when I was video taping and commenting.

July 7, 11AM:

Our staff for this session is right on top of the schedule. Everyone was mounted for the ride exactly on time. Bravo counselors!

Some of our returning students who were here last year have forgotten quite what I expect in terms of sitting up on your horse and paying attention. They are being reminded by me. You get out of Longacres what you put into Longacres in terms of effort and attention to detail. I am going to be pretty "hands on" this week with the girls training, which is good, but I expect 99% effort in return from them.

Don't let the previous paragraph make you nervous, parents. The girls were having a good time in the lesson this morning. But the best riders are expected to make their best effort. Some were only at 60% this morning.

July 7, 7AM:

We do have some mid week rain coming and then quite hot weather for our show next weekend. We'll make the best of it as usual. Spirit is good.

2009 Enrollment:

July 6, 8PM:

July 6, 5PM:

Everyone has arrived now for the session and they've all been on more than one horse! Dani got to do a mini jumper round with Jaclyn and Andrea. Andrea won if you don't count her going off course on the first try. Dani won otherwise!

Everyone seems to be bonding well and they are all helpful taking care of the horses. Griffin put in "dibs" for first ride on Diesel this week. We took video of everyone which we'll show tonight or tomorrow. We will have guest instructors most days this week, with Farley Bridgeman coming Tuesday, horse show judge Michelle Malcomb coming Wednesday, and more.

July 6, 1PM:

We're already underway with our next two week session. Griffin, Lydia, and Emily arrived early and they all have ridden three different horses during their "get acquainted" ride this morning. We'll soon be welcoming Andrea, Jaclyn, Stephanie, and Dani after lunch. We'll all work together on some mid day horse care and then the new girls will ride briefly this afternoon.

This is the horses' day of rest, so we'll mostly get acquainted today and then have a full day of riding tomorrow.

July 5th, midnight:

Sorry for no updates today. The show was wonderful and exhausting all at once. We only finished at nearly 8PM and then left for the traditional Pasquale's dinner in town and Kone King. Then watched video of the show until most of us were falling asleep! There is an incredible good spirit among the kids who are leaving at the end of this good session. Especially all the little kids who were in high spirits at the restaurant - I pity the nearby tables of adults!

Only now are some of them packing and thinking about cleaning up the bunks in the morning so they will be at least partially civilized for our new group to move in tomorrow. Seven girls are leaving tomorrow and eight new ones coming in. Of those, three have been here before and five are first timers. (Although Griffin knows us well from attending our horse shows!)

New Instructors:

We also said "goodbye" to Claire sr this evening. Claire signed on last winter to work as a senior counselor for the 2008 season. It has not been a good fit, and we mutually agreed that it was not going to work out. We thank Claire for teaching some excellent lessons in the time she was here, and especially for being nice to the older girls. We wish her well.

We were not completely surprised at this turn of events, and we had stocked up on an outstanding group of teenagers who are here as Junior Counselors and counselors in training. We are comfortable that we can run our program with their help, a little extra hands on work from Meghan and I, and the help of some good "Friends of Longacres" as guest instructors this week. Next week, "Peggy Sue", an adult counselor from part of last summer comes in to give us an extra adult in the barn. And in two weeks we have two more excellent Counselors in Training (Alexa and Carly) returning for the rest of the summer. Jenn Levy, a fine rider and teacher, returns tomorrow. We will be fine.

There were many pictures taken today. You'll have to wait until tomorrow to see them.

July 3rd, 11PM:

You'll be getting pretty sparse updates the next two days as we get ready for the show tomorrow and run the show on Saturday. We'll post more extensivc information and pictures late Saturday night after the show.

July 3rd, 2PM:

The rain has ended, so we'll ride later this afternoon. We had a long talk at lunch about the importance of thoroughly grooming horses daily and properly picking out their feet. We're going to do a good grooming job on every horse in the barn before we ride this afternoon, and check them all carefully for any cuts or skin problems. This is more about learning proper stable management than about getting the horses clean just because they look better. I think all the girls understand that.

(ALL of us were very impressed with Laura's giant popcorn barrel!!!!!!) Thanks to Sharon!

Latest Quiz:

July 3, Noon:

For those of you who are "weather junkies" like me, try logging onto the National Weather service site, Buffalo area. Click on the radar image. You'll see a classical well defined wide area cold front passage. It's almost like there's something wrong with the radar, the way the line between the rain and the clear weather is so sharp.

It has rained all morning here, but it will end in an hour or so and then we should have nice weather right through the weekend. Our ground dries quickly, so it should be good by the time the show starts Saturday morning.

We did have the girls do morning horsecare today before the rain started so they wouldn't have to bring the horses in through the mud. We might have had them stay up and try to hop on for a bareback ride between heavier rain showers, but conditions have been so good here the past two days and will be so good for the next two that we had everyone go back to bed for a sleep in morning during the rain. We should get in a full riding schedule this afternoon.

Then tonight is our traditional 4th of July weekend trip to the town park for dancing to a band and the annual East Aurora fireworks display. We'll probably leave about 7:30. Looks like Ruby's mom, Diana, will be able to join us in town for the outing. It'll be fun to see you again, Diana!

I'm watching the weather radar loop as I write this - it appears that heavy rain showers are passing just to the north and just to the south of us right now as we maintain just a light shower. But it did rain hard for an hour this morning. It will be muddy again, just after everything dried out well the past two days.

Making Allowances:

One of the things we try to do at Longacres is teach good standards of horsemanship and horsecare. I am normally the kind of person who will ask a rider to get off their horse and take it back to the barn for more grooming if there's a big mud patch on the rump or a leg. But with the mud we've had the past week, I have found myself letting dirty horses slide. I don't like it. It's not the "Longacres Standard" of horse care. But there is just so much time you can put in preparing and getting ready for a ride without hurting morale. As dirty as some of the horses are coming in from pasture, it might take us two thirds of our lesson time to get them all as clean as I normally would demand. Ah, the complications of running a riding school.

We will be having a talk at lunch about this and other compromises we are making TEMPORARILY as we make ends meet under difficult conditions. It is important for our students to learn good lessons about proper stable management even when we're operating with frequent rain and more mud than usual this month!

I wish I could send all our horses to "the mall" for a day to be clean and civilized, instead of taking the campers to town!

New Conditions for 2009 Sign-Ups:

We have made a slight change to our conditions for reserving spaces at Longacres in 2009. Because our calendar is changing by a week next year, it has become confusing how to give 2008 students first choice on "the same session" in 2009.

Our policy now will be that for the week from September 1st to 7th when we first formally consider reservations for 2009, first choice will go to any student who was here in 2008 over those applying for the first time, no matter which session you attended this year. Of those requests, first choice will go to those who send in their deposits earliest. First come, first serve.

After September 7th, reservations will be granted to those with the earliest post mark on their deposit check, with equal preference to existing or new students. Be sure to pass on this information to the "check writer" in your family!

Pictures coming very soon. We enjoyed watching the girls have a good practice for the Drill Team presentation they'll be doing Saturday at the show. We also got a LOT of work done today on preparing for the show and for 7 new students to come into Longacres this weekend. AND we're excited to meet Jenn's new horse, Calypso.

July 2, 7PM Update:

There is rain in the forecast overnight and tomorrow morning, but then drying conditions and great weather for our show on Saturday, and right on into early next week. Further update coming later tonight with the pictures from our field trip to Trilogy Farms! This is the place that bred Squirt, a great pony that the farm sent to us for work last year, and they sent "Tuxedo" to us this year. Mary is a good friend to Longacres. She also was involved in finding Dakota Gold for Andrea years ago.

July 1, 10PM:

We welcome Susan back to Longacres next month when she returns for Lazy Days, taking that last empty spot. We can't wait to see you again, Susan!

And here's a "hello" to Andrea, Gina, and Jaclyn who drove by us at Kone King and DIDN'T stop! We thought of you all at the smores party since you were with us for that last summer.

July 1, 5PM:

July 1st, 11AM:

Bright sun has come to Longacres again after several days of off and on rain. We've got two days in a row now of good riding weather, then some rain on Thursday morning, then five straight days of great summer weather in a row to look forward to! And none too soon.

The ground is getting very soggy and the turn out paddocks are always wet when it rains this frequently. That makes the horses susceptible to thrush and bad feet, it is much harder to keep the horses clean, and many other little problems. All aspects of horse care are harder to do well in the mud. Next week will be a joy and should help with some of the horses that are showing early signs of foot problems.

The one good thing about our early season weather is that the turf is green and soft, so we're not having any problems with impact lameness!

We're giving the official show rings a breather today to dry out, but we should have them back in full use for our training tomorrow. We'll be setting the courses for Saturday's show tomorrow and mowing the rest of the week. A number of you parents are planning to be here for this show so we're glad the weather looks good this weekend!

June 30, 7PM:

June 30, 11AM Update:

So far the rough weather is sliding to our north and south - good old "lake shadow".

Of course I'll give you some tidbits about your children. But mostly tonight's update will be about us - about Meghan and I getting ourselves refreshed a bit for the coming weeks.

First about the kids and the horses having their day of rest. They really enjoyed their sleep in and late horsecare this morning. Then it was off to East Aurora for Town Day and laundry and shopping. We continue to have a well bonded group that's getting along well. One girl who was very reserved for the first four days is really opening up and smiling and laughing with the group. That's nice to see. And one who has been homesick off and on, but generally very happy has now crossed a bridge and been able to tell her mom she's having a good time and looks forward to the rest of her stay. We think last night's very informal bareback mounted games really helped bring this group together.

Meghan and I needed this "day of rest" as much as the kids and the horses! Amen to that! So we enjoyed sleeping a little later than usual (not as late as the kids). Then after breakfast we helped Joel bolt new beams under the old pool bridge so he could work on the new railings which will match the ones on Paul's bridge.

We drove the kids to town for their laundry trip and then treated ourselves to a nice lunch on the porch of the Roycroft Inn. Drank Pepsi since we were driving the kids home in a couple of hours, but it was a pleasant lunch. We especially enjoyed listening to a bagpipe band in the background at the annual East Aurora Art Festival. (You know us - our minds never totally at rest, the bagpipe band reminded us that the Derby Day celebrations at Longacres are only 5 or 6 weeks away and we have to confirm our bagpipe band and get working on all THAT!) Then we drove home and actually took a short NAP before going to pick up the girls in town. And we brought them back to the barn and took ANOTHER short nap!

Meghan then had dinner with the girls while Tom slept through dinner to catch up on his Z's. By this time we were feeling almost human again after the non-stop work of the past two months.

So when Meghan told me she was leaving the house after dinner to do her Sunday night chores, I said, "Let me come with you and help." Now you have to understand something about Meghan. She is a workaholic, of course, but more than that she likes some of her little work routines and would often rather work alone than have help. Especially from me, since I must admit that sometimes when I work with others I offer my opinions on ways to do the job, well, "differently". Anyway, I promised to be on my best behavior and just keep Meghan company and give her a hand.

So we were off on the Sunday evening rounds collecting garbage from the dining hall, the main house, and the barn to put out for pickup tomorrow morning. Meghan warned me she "gets down and dirty" on Sunday nights, and sure enough, I learned that she practically crawls inside the big blue barn barrels to pack the weeks trash down enough so it doesn't blow out of the pickup truck on the way to our main driveway. Then we drove to town to recycle cans and bottles and pick up some groceries for the dining hall. On the way we noticed that the girls hadn't checked the pasture for hay in the evening, and rather than bother them we put out the extra hay ourselves.

(We miss you, Mandy and Lillian. Our new staff are good people who work hard but they haven't yet got in the groove and started thinking like we do and double checking things like whether there is extra hay in the pastures when the horses are turned out all day on their day of rest. Mandy and Lillian never missed this kind of thing. It will come in time.)

Just as we were putting the extra hay out in pasture a terrific rainbow appeared to the north behind the pasture and just behind our own "sunburst jump". Enjoy the scenes of nature as we did today. We'll go back to pictures of horses and riders tomorrow. We feel refreshed.

June 29, 9AM:

Today is the horses' day of rest and sleep in day for our riders! After a late horse care we'll be having Town Day where we do our laundry and some shopping and generally have a relaxing, rest up day. And in spite of previous forecasts, it looks like much of today will be decent weather, which is good for some of our friends who went to the horse show in Marilla.

The long range forecast is also improving for the 4th of July weekend and our next show. Yesterday they were expecting 40% chance of rain for our show, but now the long range is for sunny and mid 70's Saturday. We hope this one is right!

There will be some off and on rain this week, continuing a pattern of unsettled weather this season. But no day looks like a complete washout and we have lots of special events planned for fun rain or shine.

And we'll be RESTED by tomorrow morning! Even Meghan and I who usually work all day on the Sunday day off plan to take some time off today and start the new week refreshed and recuperated.

June 28, 9 PM:

I was correct in guessing that the squeals of delight were from a bareback gymkhana event. The girls were divided into teams with a younger rider paired with one of the older girls - or in one case, the "mini and maxi" team of Ruby and Laura! They had to mount, dismount, change riders, and lead each other around an obstacle course bareback in just a halter and lead rope.

Winners were Hannah & Leslie, 2nd place to Kelly & Ofelia, 3rd to Robyn and Rhiannon. EVERYBODY did well and EVERYONE got at least a ribbon, and some won trophies and medals. Some of the pictures are priceless! We also have some nice pictures of the hunt course ride.

June 28, 8PM:

Remember the "lake shadow" talk a few days ago? We benefitted again today from this phenomena. The sun came out for a couple of hours this afternoon and we all went out and jumped on the hunt course. More rain is moving through now but the severe thunderstorms in the forecast are all sliding by 30 to 40 miles to our south, thanks to Lake Erie.

We've been trying to get in our mounted games all day and the girls are at the barn with Meghan now doing some of them. I called Meghan's cell phone a few minutes ago and all I could hear were cheers and laughter, so I think they are playing strange horse games in the barn while it rains outside. Having fun, anyway!

June 28, 12:30:

Thankfully the "Great Flood" lasted only 12 to 15 minutes, but boy did the water come down for that short time! Even though the rain seems to be over for a while we're continuing with plan "B" and letting everyone get dried out and watching video inside for a few hours. If the weather holds off, we'll still try to ride again later in the afternoon.

June 28, Noon: Monsoon!

Well, we made the right call to not send the whole group out on the trails to the hunt course! Even though the sun popped out again as we were mounting up for the gymkhana, we barely got everyone on horses and headed up towards the show ring for the games when the sky opened up. The rain came down in a deluge, effectively ending the nice dry spell we've had the past few days.

The girls got soaked to the skin as they rode slowly and carefully back to the barn in the rain. We're putting the horses away for the morning, going back to the cabins to get dry clothes, and scheduling lunch for up at the main house while we watch all the video from the horse show on Wednesday and all our jumping yesterday. We're still hoping for another dry slot in this afternoon's weather to get in that ride to the hunt course if it's not too wet.

The girls have been agitating to watch the video for three days, so this will make most of them very happy.

June 28, 11AM:

We got in a good lesson at 10AM, then just as we got off to change horses there was a short rain shower. With the weather looking iffy we postponed our trail ride to the hunt course until this afternoon and we're about to do our gymkhana of mounted games this hour. Lots of video still to watch today, and then we're all eager for our "day off" and horses' day of rest tomorrow. With the muddy conditions, I'm sure the laundromat is going to get a good workout on Town Day tomorrow!

Some Horse Care Issues:

We always tell you on this website when we have any problems. We've had several horses show signs of dehydration the past few days and when we checked all our horsecare procedures closely, we think they have not been adequately watered during the day. Part of the problem is that we have more 9, 10, and 11 year old riders this session than usual and they just aren't big enough to do some of the water bucket checks and so forth as thoroughly as needed. Claire & Claire are still pretty new to the Longacres barn management, so it leaves Shelly as the only staff person really familiar with what needs to be done every hour. Yesterday was Shelly's "day off", and we really missed her quickly. (Good job, Shelly!)

So we've readjusted some of the responsibilities for checking on the horse's hay and water, and hopefully all will go smoothly the next week.

Remember that Diesel had signs of a foot abscess last week and then it seemed to get better? Well, he does have one and it began to drain this morning. He is very tender, but once they open and start to drain you are usually in good shape after a few days. The vet will probably stop by to check him for infection.

Are you guys at home done looking at the 100 picture album from yesterday?????

June 27, 5PM:

This opens a one week spot in case any of the girls who were on our waiting list this spring would like to try us out for a week this summer, or in case someone planning to come in next week wants to come a week early. Give us a call if you're interested.

Tom spent most of the day working with the girls, which felt good. I've been busy taking care of horse show preparations and other things too often in recent days. I gave a private lesson for a while to Leslie on her own horse, Max, and I put some of the younger girls on Diesel. Some of the pictures are priceless.

This afternoon we all jumped the "Pulverman", or sunken road jump. Jack was a little nervous about it at first, but boy, oh boy, did he jump it big after he got the idea! We have many pictures of this activity along with video.

June 26, 10PM:

We did get in two rides this afternoon as the rain held off all day. Thank you!

Then in to the mall for a dinner out and a movie, and on the way home we watched lightning off in the distance. We may yet get rain overnight, but there is only a slight chance of rain tomorrow, so we should have a full day's riding schedule.

We announced some of our coming special events when we got home from the movie. Last, but not least, we told them we had one more special surprise - "A cabin inspection tomorrow morning!"

There were some shocked looks - I think there is going to be some frantic organizing in the bunks tonight and after breakfast tomorrow.

I haven't seen Meghan for a while so I'm not sure if she has any pictures to post - all I got today are the ones I posted this morning of the drill team practice.

One fun event tomorrow is that we're going to put our youngest rider, 9 year old Ruby, on our biggest horse, Diesel! We'll post pictures of that tomorrow, you can be sure! We plan to have Ruby ride Diesel in the lead line class at the next show with Laura as leader. (By the way, Diesel is fine now after having a slightly sore foot last week. Laura and Robyn are doing especially well training him, along with Hannah.)

We have one girl very homesick for her show horse at her home stable. That's not a bad reason to be homesick!

June 26, 3PM:

Forced Riding! Well, it wasn't too hard to force them, but we did have to insist that lessons be held this afternoon. Everyone was still tired from yesterday's great show experience, even after a late horse care session this morning. At lunch the girls presented us with a vote that they give up riding this afternoon to rest more and watch the horse show video's. Normally we might have gone along with this, but we have another four or five day period of very unsettled weather heading our way and we feel it is important in the "big picture" to get in as much riding while the weather is good as we can. So they are riding for another hour or two this afternoon before their night out tonight. We are afraid that there is going to be plenty of "video watching weather" in the next four or five days!

Change of Dates for 2009:

June 26, 1PM:

The sun is popping in and out of the clouds, and it looks like good riding weather for the next few hours. The girls are still a bit tired even after their "sleep in" and late horsecare this morning, but they had a practice ride for their Drill Team presentation before lunch.

The Longacres Mounted Drill Team will give a performance to open our July 5th horse show. All the girls will be on the team and we'll practice an hour a day for the next week, with an extra practice or two the day before the show. We often post video of this drill on YouTube.

We should get in a full riding schedule this afternoon before our field trip to dinner and a movie.

Other special events coming in the next week include the Drill Team, a trip to a nearby thoroughbred farm to see the babies, a mounted gymkhana games event this weekend, and lots more video sessions. A guest instructor or two is also likely! Stay tuned.

June 26, 9 AM:

We got some more rain overnight, but it's good timing. We had already scheduled a "sleep in" for the girls after the long day at the show. (Great cheers when we announced that last night!)

The weather will clear a bit during the day and we should get in good riding before our planned trip to the mall and a movie late today. Your lovely students will have their cell phones from dinner time on so you should hear from them.

Looks like another good riding day tomorrow, then an unsettled weekend. We'll try to ride off and on over the weekend, even on the normal horses' day of rest if we get rained out part of Saturday. Hopefully it will be like last week when we had frequent rain but frequent dry spells and got in nearly all of our scheduled riding!

Check the end of last night's update below for a few additions!

June 25, 9:30 PM Update:

What a great show! The jumper ring was huge and very competitive. We had to work for our ribbons. Shelley won the highest jumper class, with Robyn on Quantum a close second.

The hunter ring show was smaller with several horses in each class. It was small enough so that all our younger kids got LOTS of ribbons! We'll post a list later. I drove home with Ruby, Skyler, Olivia, and Hannah in the RV. They were bouncing off the walls with excitement and playing with all the ribbons and trophies.

We only got home half an hour ago. It's too late for our traditional after show restaurant dinner, but we're making a few sandwiches for those that are really hungry and then topping it off with KONE KING!!!!!!!!!!

We won slightly over 100 ribbons at the show today and every Longacres rider won more than one ribbon. Some had frustrating or "nerves" moments at the start of the show but everyone did well and felt good about themselves and their horses by the end of the show.

A few high lights:

Leslie did a fine job keeping her horse "Max" quiet and calm. She said he acted as though the whole show thing was no big deal and she was very happy with him.

Rhiannon is very intense about her riding and quite the perfectionist. This leads to some stress and she had some stressed out moments early in the day. But her equitation is outstanding and she did a fine job on Zany. She got 2 Championships, three 1st's, and other ribbons. By the end of the day she was beginning to believe us when we told her how well she was riding!

Olivia got three 1st's, a reserve Championship, and a trophy. Skyler got 1st in walk-trot-canter, Reserve Champion in X-rails, and Reserve Champion in WTC. Ruby had four 1st's and two trophies!

Kelly was Champion in the walk-trot division with two 1st's.

Annie got four 1st places and the Equitation Medal and a Championship.

Claire Jr got a Reserve Championship, Claire Senior got a 5th in the highest Jumper division on Ho-ho, Robyn NEARLY won the highest jumping class, but Shelly just barely edged her out by half a second!

Ofelia road several horses in challenging divisions and did well. She is choosing big challenges this year and I am very proud of her!

I know I'm missing someone and we'll make additions to this report tomorrow - a great job by all!

Hannah rode her absolute favorite horse, Horatio, in the very competitive schooling jumper division. She rode well and paid close attention to distances and leads, but was not fast enough to win against very good horses and riders from Black North Stables and others.

Laura's primary show horse was Brody who she has long wanted to show. She got ribbons in nearly every class and never had a refusal (which he sometimes does). A very steady and consistent riding job which shows promise for further showing success as the summer goes on!

Thanks to Linda Rosenthal and Northfield Farms for a great show.

June 25th - 7AM Update:

There will be no further website updates until late this evening after we get home.

Parents, do not make plans to travel a long way to see your girls ride in a show without checking with us. There may be some changes in our show schedule.

June 24, 8:30 PM:

High spirits at Longacres as we prepare to ship 13 horses to the show at Northfield tomorrow afternoon. The 13 from Longacres will be joined by 3 to 5 from each of the several stables and private barns that most regularly support our shows, so we expect somewhere around 30 horses for a quiet afternoon of fun without any pressure (well without MUCH pressure!). Hope to see some of our friends there. We'll miss Andrea who has a trip of some kind planned and a few more, like Griffin, who are not yet out of school. We may also have a fun gymkhana one of the days this weekend for our own students and anyone else looking for a casual afternoon with horses.

June 24, 3PM:

Great weather, finally! We had good rides today and took lots of video which we just got done watching at the main house. It was the first time for some of our new riders seeing themselves on HD video and we all learned some things by watching.

We're doing some more practice for tomorrow's show this afternoon, then getting a little early to bed so we'll be well rested for a long day of travel and showing tomorrow.

The saga of running a horse farm continues. We've been out of horse bedding for more than a day and it was promised to be delivered today. Nothing. So we start scrambling to find a new source of what is a rather scarce commodity this year. With the tight economy and cost of diesel fuel, the lumber mills are cutting less and producing fewer shavings. We may go back to straw bedding for the rest of the summer. Anyway, it added to Meghan's stress level this afternoon, along with her todo list of arranging vanning for 13 horses to the show tomorrow.

The kids are doing wonderfully! Everyone who came in for the first time this week has bonded with the group and even the quietest among them are smiling and taking part in conversations. It's about the fastest group to "bond" that we've had in a while. Meghan and I especially enjoy the younger group in Claire's bunk!

June 23, 9PM:

June 23, 7:30 PM Update:

June 23, 5:30 PM:

Long Live Lake Shadow!

What's "Lake Shadow", you ask? It's a weatherman's term for the plume of stable or cooler air downwind of one of the Great Lakes, in our case Lake Erie. If there is a "Lake Shadow" effect, the weather immediately downwind of the end of the lake will be more stable than the weather just slightly to the north or south of the lake breeze boundary. All afternoon today there have been moderate to severe thunderstorms passing both to the north and the south of us. Not a drop of rain here at Longacres - just rumbles of distant thunder and very dark clouds not far away to our south.

June 23, 2PM:

We have confirmed that the "Make-up show" for last weekend's canceled Quakerfield show will be held on Wednesday, June 25, at 1PM at Northfield Farm in Clarence, NY. All Summer Series classes will be offered. Classes usually run in our "small ring" will go 1st at 1 PM. Hunter classes usually run on Longacres outside course will probably not begin before 2:30. Northfield has a great set of jumper fences and will run a separate jumper ring with Puddle Jumpers beginning about 1:20 or 1:30. Call Tom or Meghan at Longacres (716-652-9495) with any questions. Directions to the show will be posted here tonight.

Here at Longacres we got in both rides this morning and the weather is still good at 2:30 PM, but afternoon showers and thunderstorms are in the area. Keep your fingers crossed!

June 23, 10AM:

Sunshine so far today! Rain is forecast off and on later today, but we're off to a good start. Tuesday and Wednesday still look like great riding weather.

June 22nd 11pm:

June 22, 8PM:

Longacres has been open for a month now including adult week, the pro-guest clinics which included adult students, and we just finished mother - daughter week. We've gotten very used to having grown up horse lovers sitting around our dinner table and carrying hay bales during horse care. It's been fun. But today we began the regular summer season, and it's all young riders.

This story is about saying "goodbye" to some of those adult friends of Longacres. During the day we said goodbye at least temporarily to Martha, Kay, and Diana. All left with tears streaming down their faces just like some of our young students do when they have to leave Longacres. Diana was tearful partly at saying "goodbye" to Longacres and partly at leaving her daughter, Ruby. Same with Kay when Meghan talked with her as she got in her car to drive to the airport and fly back to Texas.

But the most heartwarming to me was when Martha stopped by the office to talk to me as she left. Her daughter, Ofelia, is staying the next four weeks after spending this past mother - daughter session here with Martha. I was talking with Martha about saving spaces for the two of them for next year, and she began to shed big crocodile tears. I reassured her that "we'll have space for you again - you'll be back". But Martha said, "No, I'm crying because my kid is SO darn happy here!"

Well, that just about choked me up. Meghan and I do love Martha & Ofelia after having them as students for three years. And we love many more of you more as family than as "customers". We're glad to see you when you arrive every summer and we're sad when you leave. But boy, oh boy, Martha - you really know how to get to us. Seeing that kind of emotion and appreciation for what we are able to do at Longacres for you and your children gives Meghan and I the strength to go on week after week when we're near exhaustion. With all the off and on rain the past week, this has been one of those weeks. After seeing the emotion and strong feelings for Longacres expressed by Diana, Kay, and (especially for me) Martha today, we feel refreshed and very, very grateful that we can do something for a living that we love very much and that makes others so happy. Thanks, Martha!

June 22, 6PM Update:

Everyone is here and has ridden two horses. We didn't get any pictures of Leslie and Max yet, but we may after dinner. Still no rain today, though we're not out of the woods yet! Showers are popping up here and there around western New York and there may be more tomorrow.

But it looks like great riding weather Tuesday and Wednesday, and we do plan to run the Quakerfield "make up" Summer Series horse show on Wednesday at 1PM. It is likely to be at Northfield Farms in Clarence - if not it will be at Longacres.

Summer Series "Make Up" Show for Quakerfield will be at Northfield Farms in Clarence or at Longacres at 1PM on Wednesday, June 25th.

Hope you all can make it. We'll hold all Summer Series classes, even if only one or two are in the class. The weather looks GREAT for Wednesday, maybe the best showing weather this week, so come on out and enjoy some sunshine FINALLY. Call Tom and Meghan if you have any questions.

June 22, 2PM:

We've heard our first rumbles of thunder from what is supposed to be an unsettled afternoon, but the storm passed five miles or more south of us. We have our fingers crossed for the rest of the afternoon.

All the new girls will have another short ride to get to know more of our horses in an hour. Then we plan to let everyone take a favorite horse out to graze on fresh green grass (one of the few benefits of all the rain we've had is fresh grass). We plan a few orientation and safety talks later and then maybe some video this evening.

June 22, noon:

June 22, 10AM Update:

Thanks to all our staff and in residence students for the great job they've done cleaning up and preparing the farm for our official opening day today. The place looks as good as it can look considering the wet ground and occasional mud holes from the persistent rains of the past 10 days.

It looks like today's "rain event" will mostly hold off until our new students have arrived and had a chance to get on horses. Then, since Sunday is the horses' day of rest anyway, we plan several horsemanship and riding safety discussions in the afternoon. We may find time this evening to watch some of our old "bloopers videos" up at the house! We'll post some informal pictures, especially showing our new students, later today to prove to friends and relatives at home that they have arrived safely at Longacres.

NOTE on 2009 Enrollments:

June 21, 10PM:

It's a funny feeling tonight. In one way, we're about half way through our 2008 season, including the pre-season prep work and all our special "early bird" clinics and adult weeks. Yet tomorrow is just the first day of our traditional summer camp season! We're eager to meet our first time students and returning second and third year riders (or 5 years in Shelly's case!) We'll see you very soon, Skyler, Leslie (and Max), and Rhiannon.

We had quite a light show in the sky this evening as a strong thunder storm passed within a couple of miles of Longacres. We had to suspend evening horse care and turn out for half a hour in the interest of safety. It was very pretty to watch (and hear!).

June 21, 5PM:

One more day with weather much better than the forecast predicted - yippee! We got in a full two hours of riding this morning, including the "Princess Regan Horse Show". Regan was the only student leaving this weekend who was really disappointed about the Quakerfield show being canceled, so we ran a special show here at Longacres with ribbons just for Regan. She rode four horses showing against herself and we were all her special grooms and assistants. It was fun for everyone, especially for Regan. Her eyes welled up with tears when it was time to leave for home. Can't wait to see you again, Regan!

We have the farm nicely cleaned up and groomed for our new arrivals tomorrow. If only the rain holds off! There's still a 60% chance of rain tomorrow. Then one more wet day and we get back to dry good riding weather for most of the rest of the week. We may spend extra time in the barn tomorrow and Monday having horsemanship seminars and ducking out to ride between showers. We have a stall all ready for "Max"!

June 20, 8:30 PM:

June 20, 6PM:

June 20, 3PM:

I am an addicted reader of the National Weather Service's internal memo's on "forecast discussion". They give the behind the scenes forecasts and talk quite frankly about when they have high or low confidence in a particular forecast. This afternoon even they are surprised at how nice the weather has been in our area today. The sun is out and we're getting in all our rides. Too bad about the wet ground washing out tomorrow's show.

The girls have all been in great spirits. Sometimes when I worry that they haven't jumped as often or as high as usual because of the wet ground I think they're all going to get depressed about the riding weather we've been having. I forget that the girls are here enjoying the company of other horse loving girls their age and they are enjoying taking care of a barn full of really nice horses. They're just having a good time being around horses.

But the frequent rain this week does bother Meghan and I. We're really proud of the work we put into the farm this year and how good everything looks. (Take a look at today's picture album - the last picture is of the fresh landscaping in and around the improved drainage ditch next to the barn. It's one of the many little things we've done this year to improve the appearance and operation of the farm.)

Even though we've managed to get in most of our riding lessons this week as we dodge rain showers, the ground just hasn't had time to dry out and we're seeing more and more mud holes on our trails and lawns. This afternoon we have a worker spending his day with a wheelbarrow moving fresh gravel to make a dry walking path next to the trail from the barn to the sleeping cabins. In normal weather there is no need for this - the trail is dry and pleasant. But this week the horses passing through on trail rides have created sticky mud puddles that you have to dodge or jump over on the way to and from the barn.

We have three new families bringing their children to Longacres this Sunday for their very first visit. The forecast for Sunday is rainy. We want our new students to see the beauty of Longacres, even with gray sky overhead and rain showers coming down. Muddy trails don't present that picture. So we're working on that today - along with everything else!

June 20, 1PM Update:

June 20, 10AM Update:

The "bad news" is that it is now very wet here, with more rain on the way, especially Sunday. We have three first time students and their families arriving Sunday, and we really like to put our best foot forward when we great new students. That's hard to do if the rain is pouring down! So, Skyler, Leslie (and Max!), and Rhiannon, we hope you're ready to be greated Sunday but some cheerful, friendly horse lovers on a rather soggy, wet farm!

Quakerfield is Canceled:

The bad news is that it rained steadily and hard all night, and the ground all over western New York is saturated. The Quakerfield horse show is canceled completely. They hope for better weather to run their show scheduled for the beginning of August.

Longacres now plans to host a "make-up" Summer Series show with a shortened class list here at Longacres on Wednesday or Thursday afternoon next week. The show will begin after noon (time to be announced). We hope you can make it!

June 19, 2PM Update:

Although we are still hoping to run the Quakerfield horse show on Saturday, the weather is looking very unsettled. Check back with us late Friday. If we cannot run the show because of wet ground or rainy weather, it will be held during next week, Thursday afternoon (maybe Wednesday depending on weather?).

June 18, 9PM:

We did get all our riding in today, including a very long afternoon session. Meghan even offered an extra afternoon ride before dinner, but everyone was pretty tired and in need of a break. Then we had a great ride after dinner with many of us doing two outside course rides on video. They had a fine time!

Kay and Kelly each jumped a line of three fences on Hilltop!

June 18. 3:30 PM:

Not bad after all!

This morning dawned with a steady drizzle and a forecast of 80% chance rain with showers and thunderstorms. The rain eqased up to a light mist and we got on about the normal time. Conditions have steadily improved all day and the sun is shining brightly right now. We're on our third ride of the day. We got in some jumping in the small show ring on the sand lanes this morning. The ground is pretty soggy still, but the girls are out on trails and having a lesson on "galloping field" and there is still no further rain in sight. We may get in all our riding as scheduled!

Don't know if I mentioned it, but one of our CIT's, Hannah, is "in charge" of the barn today. She's getting a good feel of what it would be like if she has a real instructors job here when she is a little older. Annie takes charge for tomorrow. Claire Taylor is doing a great job teaching the girls (don't worry, Mandy and Lillian, we DO miss you very much!).

June 18, 10AM:

Quakerfield Show could be postponed - stay tuned:

The very wet week threatens the show scheduled at Quakerfield Stables this Saturday. The actual forecast for Saturday is pretty good, but the problem will be the very wet ground. A decision on whether or not to run the show Saturday as scheduled will not be made until late Friday. Keep checking this website for updates. IF it is too wet to run the Show Saturday, it will tentatively be run Thursday afternoon, June 26 , at 2PM. The current forecast for the crucial next 48 hours is for scattered showers. In the best case, the ground may dry out enough by Saturday. But one good heavy rain Thursday night or Friday, and it may be too wet.

Here at Longacres, it is wet. Things are beginning to get muddy. We won't lie to you - a week (and maybe more) of frequent rain does put a "damper" on our kind of riding program. But we're making the most of it and are still getting in several hours of riding daily as we dodge the rain showers and thunderstorms. Today, Wednesday, looks like the worst day of the week. Very cold air is circulating around a deep, unusual for this time of year, low pressure system, and as the cold air crosses Lake Erie, we're getting "lake affect" rain showers. Similar to the "lake affect" snow we get so much of in our area in the winter. The low will move away by the weekend, although normal summer showers may linger.

Diesel's leg hurts! It seems odd that a huge, strong horse like Diesel would be one of the first to get hurt this summer. Looking at him and handling him, you'd think he is indestructible. But he is favoring his left hind and putting as little weight on it as he can. We see no obvious injury and suspect possibly an abscess in his hoof. We're treating it with soaks and keeping an eye on him for a day before taking further action. Tom is very concerned about one of his "favorites".

We are considering an out of camp field trip to someplace dry and cheerful this afternoon, but we'll be watching the weather closely. Our policy during a rainy week like this is to jump on the horses every time the rain stops, so we don't want to go out unless we're sure it is going to be rainy.

Stay tuned.

June 17, 9:30 PM:

We have to say, "Goodbye" to Lillian tomorrow. When we hired Claire Taylor as head counselor for the summer, we found that she could not come early to open the barn and teach in the Early Bird clinics. This worried us at first until we were able to sign up the "Dream Team" of Lillian and Mandy to open the barn, run the first three weeks of our program, and then hand off to Claire Sr. and Claire Jr. for the rest of the 2008 season.

They have been the "Dream Team" because each has been our head counselor in one or more previous seasons and each has six or more years experience at Longacres. It has been a wonderful month for Meghan and I to work with two young women at once, each of whom has proven they can run a fine program at Longacres all by themselves! Mandy had to leave a couple of days ago for a family emergency, and Lillian's agreed time is up and she has other summer obligations. We are sad to see her go!

Claire is off to a good start (Lillian stayed for Claire's first three days to help make a smooth transition). Shelly Kearney is now here as Barn Manager, with five years (at least?) of Longacres experience. Hannah and Annie are doing a great job as Counselors in Training. (Hannah is in charge of the camp tomorrow and Annie on Thursday, just to give them some interesting practice in decision making.) And Claire, Jr. arrives Friday.

June 17, 7PM:

Rain continues tonight and for much of tomorrow, though there will be dry periods and we'll jump on the horses anytime the rain stops. We did some mounted games during a brief dry spell this afternoon and have more games and control exercises planned for tomorrow, along with some jumping in the small show ring where we have sand lanes for jumping. Like today, it appears that we might get a break in the rain during the mid morning and get in regular morning lessons. Knock wood.

We have had very good luck with weather the past few years at Longacres. We're not used to a real rainy week! Go away, rain!

June 17, 5:30 PM Update:

Well, we were very lucky yesterday getting in all our riding. Less lucky today, but still not bad. Some of us got up early this morning to take advantage of the dry weather then and had a good ride. Everyone got in the second ride after a late horsecare and "sleep in" for the tired ones.

This afternoon it poured rain! Meghan spent much of the afternoon at the barn and we held two seminars on horse topics with lots of student participation. We MIGHT get in an after dinner ride - the sun was out a few minutes ago but it looks very dark right now.

Looks like a couple more days of off and on rain and then a nice Saturday for the next show at Quakerfield (fingers crossed for good luck!).

June 16, 11PM Update:

We had really good luck with the weather at Longacres today! There were rain storms all around us, including severe weather just 20 miles away. But most of it passed us by and we got in all our riding lessons. By the time the rain did come early this evening everyone was in a grand mood and there was lots of joking and fun during a "porch party" at the barn during the worst rain. Then it was up to the main house to watch video of the show. Some are sleeping in tomorrow morning, but a few hardy souls are getting up early to get in all their riding tomorrow.

June 16, 11am Update:

We took it easy this morning with horse care, but everyone is mounted for their first lesson of "Official Mother - Daughter Week". Everyone is here but Ofelia and Martha, and they're due soon.

It still looks like some rain this afternoon, so we're taking video of the second ride this morning and we'll watch that and show video this afternoon if it rains.

More Thanks:

To the great people at the show yesterday. I always walk the grounds the morning after a show picking up cigarette butts and any leftover trash. I had almost nothing to do this morning! You folks were great at leaving nothing behind - thank you again.

June 16, 8am:

We are about half way recovered from putting on the horse show after a long night's sleep. We need a long nap later today to finish the job!

We are honored that after postponing our horse show AND holding it on Father's Day, 63 horses turned out to take part. During the morning, the classes all seemed pretty small, but horses kept coming and coming, and nearly every class had participants. Puddle Jumpers were the biggest class! Thank you all for supporting the Longacres show and for the nice comments from many of you. If you have suggestions or there is anything we can do to continue to make the South Towns Summer Series a success, please tell us. Thank you.

Remember that we'll be doing video of you at the July 5th Longacres show.

At Longacres:

We had planned that we might sleep in today to let all our students rest after the big show. But the weather is wonderful this morning and it will not be all week, so we are up early getting ready to do our full riding schedule this morning. I fear that we will have other times to catch up on our sleep during what is forecast to be an unsettled weather week with occasional rain all week. Keep your fingers crossed!

June 15, 10:30 PM:

We got back about an hour ago from a festive dinner out celebrating the show. The only sad thing was saying, "Goodbye" to Diana and Ruby who left tonight at the end of their week - but Ruby is returning next weekend for two more weeks!

Unsettled weather: That's what the national weather service calls it, and it will be around for much of this week. We expect some sun and good riding weather each day and some rain. We'll make the most of it with riding at every opportunity and other barn activities during rainy periods.

June 15, 7PM:

A GREAT show for everyone with lovely weather!!!!!

We'll post more details later with pictures. In the meantime, We're STARVING and we're off to our traditional after show dinner at Pasquale's.

June 14, 11:30 PM Update:

Knock wood, but the weather forecast for Sunday is GREAT! The show at Longacres is on for 11am at the showgrounds at 1745 Mill Street, East Aurora.

The Longacres crew was in high spirits as they went out for a Pizza Hut dinner after a day of rain and show prep. Spirits soared when we stopped for desseret at Kone King!

Everyone is excited about the show tomorrow.

Rain persists, some heavy. Clearing should begin in the next hour or two. The girls are in high spirits after playing in the rain and riding bareback this morning. They are now on "town day" in the village doing their laundry and shopping.

We're taking advantage of the extra day of show prep to finish off some of those last minute show preparations that are never quite done as well as we might like. The farm looks great for tomorrow's show. We're still experimenting with a new sound system that is meant to let everyone on our grounds hear the announcements while not being so loud to our neighbors in the community. Bear with us if there are any problems tomorrow.

Our girls will get in another late afternoon ride for show practice, then a Pizza dinner, and off to an early bedtime so we're all bright and cheerful for tomorrow!

We're going to be sad to say "goodbye" to Maggie, Diana, and Ruby tomorrow as they leave at the end of their session. Ruby will be back in just a week without her mom for a regular camp session!

June 14, 11:30 AM:

Pouring rain for the past hour and a half, and more on the way! I guess we made the right call to postpone the show until Sunday.

Here's Kelly and Ruby showing you how much rain we're getting at Longacres this morning!

June 14, 8:30AM:

The Longacres horse show is postponed until 11AM, Sunday, June 15th (tomorrow).

Although the weather as we make this decision Saturday morning is tantalizingly good at the moment, the NOAA forecast continues to call for further rain later this morning and our ground is very wet from the heavy rains last night. With a good forecast for Sunday, we think this is the best call. We deeply regret the inconvenience to anyone who has other plans for tomorrow and will not be able to make it.

Hope to see you tomorrow morning!

PS - We now sit here waiting to see if it rains again today and we look smart or if the sun comes out for a great day and we look stupid.

PPS: As of 9:40 am it's raining again at Longacres, so our wet ground is getting even wetter. Should dry out this afternoon and be very nice tomorrow. Hope you can make it then.

June 13, 10PM Update:

Maybe - - -

If there is a Longacres horse show tomorrow (Saturday, June 14th), it WILL NOT begin before 1PM. We will make the call on whether to run the show tomorrow at 8:30 AM in the morning. The decision will be based on the amount of rain overnight, the condition of the field, the amount of rain coming down in the morning, and when the weather forecast expects the rain to stop.

We will have three choices:

1) Run the full show Saturday beginning at 1PM.

2) Run the full Series show on Sunday the 15th beginning at 11AM.

3) A third possibility which would suit our needs and those of some of you who have other plans for Sunday - we might run a 5 or 6 class fun show beginning at 5PM Saturday night, and then the Summer Series show on Sunday for those who can make it.

The choice is in the hands of the weather gremlins.

Keep your fingers crossed.

PS - Very severe weather is coming our way in about an hour (11PM)

June 13, 3PM:

June 12, Midnight:

Watching the weather still. Here's our plan. We'll give you another update Friday evening, but may not make our final call until 8:30 AM Saturday on whether to postpone the show to Sunday. In that case the show would not begin until at least noon on Saturday, giving you time to leave late and still have time to school here. More news tomorrow.

June 12, 11PM:

Weather forecast for Saturday continues to be poor. Our only hope is that the rain is supposed to taper off by early afternoon. We are going to watch the forecast very closely tomorrow evening and make a call on go or postpone until Sunday by late evening Friday. If tomorrow night's forecast looks like only moderate rain Friday night and Saturday morning, we may just start the show a couple of hours late (maybe 1:30 - 2PM) on Saturday. If rains are heavy and/or they will continue beyond 1PM Saturday, we will have the show on Sunday.

- Tom & Meghan

June 12, 1PM:

Saturday still looks poor for our horse show. We will run it Saturday if there are only light or scattered rain showers. We will try to call it late Friday night. Check back here. Fifty percent chance we will postpone until Sunday.

June 12, 7AM:

Possible rain-out of horse show:

For the past couple of years Longacres has had very good luck with weather on our horse show dates. Very good luck is what it is going to take to get our show in at Longacres this Saturday.

We have been watching the forecast all week and it does not look good right now for Saturday. If you are planning to travel to the show, keep checking in here regularly and Saturday morning to see if we postpone or cancel the show.

If there are scattered or light showers, we will run the show as planned. A steady or heavy rain will cause us to postpone the show a day until Sunday or cancel all together.

The latest weather reports indicate steady rains through Saturday afternoon, but the forecast has been changing back and forth, and just a few hours earlier stop to the rain would allow us to run.

Stay tuned.

June 11, 11PM:

We share the loss of the scout camp tornado fatalities in Iowa this evening. All of us in the camping business worry about the unexpected dangers of very severe weather. Although we rarely experience such events in western New York, they are possible anywhere. Makes you stop and think.

June 11th 10PM:

Sorry for the late and short update. It was a very busy day! A great Farley Bridgeman clinic, and lots of work on the jump courses getting ready for our big show on (rainy?) Saturday.

It's a clear, lovely moonlit evening at Longacres and our two mother - daughter pairs are tacking up for a moonlight ride. The other girls will do it tomorrow night if the weather holds.

Much more tomorrow!

June 10th, 11PM:

June 10th, 4PM Update:

June 10th, 1PM:

More to come later!

June 10, 10AM:

Some rain has come through but it looks like we'll be riding off and on much of the day.

And now one of my little personal commentaries on Tom and Meghan's lifestyle running a horse farm!

We make a pretty good team as business managers. We're both pretty frugal people, enjoying older used vehicles, old clothes, modest entertainment and only a few expensive vices (snowmobiling, for instance!). We ultimately agree on almost all budgeting plans for Longacres.

But we come at it in different directions. I am old school frugal - like really tight with money. I ALWAYS stop, lean over, and pick up loose change on the ground. Many years ago I was really broke for half a year, and I always think that penny over there on the ground could add up with all the other pennies I pick up in the course of a year and make the difference between getting by and not getting by if times get tight.

Only once in recent memory can I remember passing by a coin on the ground and not retrieving it. It was a few months ago, and the penny was all corroded and covered with some slime in a patch of mud in the parking lot in town. I bent over like always, but looked closely and decided to leave that one slimy penny for someone else. - - - It STILL BOTHERS me to this day that I didn't save that penny!

Meghan is frugal and sensible, but she is the one who better sees the big picture and has a good sense of when it is time to spend some big money for the long term good of the farm. Painting the horse barn this spring is a good example. Meghan hired a painting contractor to do the job over my kicking and screaming protests. I knew our own crew could paint the barn if they took the time, and I knew it would be cheaper. But Meghan correctly asked me, "OK, when are we going to make the time with everything else we've got to get done?" She was right - we'd still be trying to squeeze in barn painting time today if she hadn't hired the job done (after getting numerous bids for the lowest price as she always does!).

So that is today's little glance at how we get things done around here at Longacres.

June 10, 8AM Update:

We need some rain for our riding fields and it looks like we'll get it today. Strong thunderstorms are predicted within the next few hours. We do not think we'll have a total washout of the day's riding, and should be able to get in a late morning ride and then one or more as we watch the afternoon skies for more rain. Then the weather turns wonderful for riding for the rest of the week with lower temperatures and humidity and plenty of sun!

Start Thinking about 2009:

Yes, that's a long way off. But now that some of you have attended Longacres for your 2008 session and gone home already, it is time to think about your plans for next summer. Although the economy looks to be tough for a while, early indications are that Longacrs will continue to fill many sessions almost a year in advance. We have paid deposits from several brand new families who could not get in this summer, and many of our current customers have already said they will be back next year. We begin accepting 2009 enrollments on September 1, 2008.

June 9, 10PM:

We were so busy today getting the new group settled in, taking Catharine to the clinic (non-contagious sore throat), catching up on maintenance now that the bridges are done, and even some office work, that we won't have time to do captions tonight. We will again tomorrow!

Longacres horse show in five days!

June 9th, noon Update:

We send our condolences to Mandy, who had a death of a relative close to her yesterday. We know many of Mandy's family well as good friends of Longacres for many years and we share their loss.

Mandy had been scheduled to leave Longacres this coming Saturday when Claire Taylor arrives to take her place for the rest of the summer. She'll probably be leaving a few days early to be with her family. The other half of "the Dream Team", Lillian, will run the barn herself for the rest of the week with the able assistance of our two Counselors in Training, Annie and Hannah. If there is any good time to be short an instructor during the season, it is this week of Pro-Clinic Guest Instructors. We may add an extra to be sure everyone gets lots of special lessons this week!

We welcomed two mother - daughter pairs, Diana and Ruby, and Kay and Kelly this morning. Both were here last year and are returning for their second season. Welcome back!

Pictures of everyone coming later today. Also many thanks to Paul Hankins for his very generous "Friends of Longacres" donation of a week of his valuable time and many materials to build us three very interesting bridges over some of the small creeks running through the farm. They will be officially opened in a few days after we do some grading of the trails at the ends of the bridges. Good work, Paul!

June 8th, 11PM:

Meghan and I just took half an hour for ourselves and drove around the farm and around our block on a lovely, peaceful evening with a quarter moon high in the sky. We've had hot, humid weather, but there is a wonderful cool breeze late this evening. It was a fine half hour!

We can't wait to see Diana & Ruby and Kay and Kelly tomorrow morning as we begin the busy part of our summer with an absolutely full enrollment for the next 11 weeks!

June 8th, 3:30 PM Update:

We also brought a new horse home from the show, one that was here on training two years ago. Mooney is back and some of you from two years ag will remember him. He's better trained now.

BY the way, today was the first time we have attended a show at Northfield Farms in more than ten years. Hats off to Linda Rosenthal and her crew for the beautiful landscaping, jumps, show prep and a well run horse show. It's a great place to go to show. Linda and Tom talked and Linda is very interested in hosting a Longacres Summer Series show next season. Stay tuned. Nice place!

June 8th, 1:30 PM Update:

The show schedule worked out great for us. Our classes were all in the first part of the day so we showed like mad and were able to leave for home by noon! And the girls all won ribbons.

Maggie from Texas has never been in a show until today. Guess what? She WON her very first class!!!!! Great job, girl!

Annie and Bremmie were Special Hunter Champions, and everyone else did well with their horses and won ribbons. Full listing later today with many pictures.

June 8th, 6AM Update:

You read that right, 6AM! We're getting ready to leave for the horse show, so wish us luck. We'll post some show pictures later tonight.

June 7th, 3PM Update:

June 7th, 1PM Update:

Still hot today - we're leaving in an hour for "Town Day" to do our laundry and some shopping. This is always a popular day of the week!

June 6th, 10:30 PM:

Romance on a Horse Farm!

Yes, today was Tom and Meghan's wedding anniversary. We did get to go out and have a nice lunch at our favorite restaurant in town. But here's a little history of our recent anniversary days to give you an idea of what it's like to run a horse farm:

Two years ago on our very wedding day we got up at 5am to supervise a crew delivering culvert pipes. We worked all morning with a backhoe preparing a spot for the pipes where a road crosses a creek. Late morning we quickly showered, got dressed, and went to lunch with my mother at the Roycroft where our friend, the Mayor of East Aurora, married us in a charming informal ceremony. A drink, dessert, and back to Longacres where we installed the culvert pipes!

Last year we were very busy with all new students learning the ropes at Longacres, so we really had no time for a formal anniversary event.

Thankfully, this year we have a great group of girls who are very familiar with Longacres. So we were able to leave the farm for almost two hours of personal celebration. Then back to Longacres to help Paul move cement mixers, carry bags of concrete, move many jumps, manage the guest Clinic with Barb Glica (another great Clinic!), mowed half the grass on the farm, graded trails, painted the new "Sunburst" jump, dragged wood to the bridge site, took pictures, taught a riding lesson this evening, and yes, updated the website.

PS - The girls are psyched for the Sunday horse show!

June 6th, 10PM:

Update coming in 30 minutes with pictures - VERY busy day!

June 5th, 10PM:

As I write, some rather nifty thunder storms are sliding by just to our north. Impressive lightening and nearly constant rumbles of thunder not far away, but just still night air here at Longacres so far. The radar images on the computer indicate that if we get anything, it is likely to just be the very edge of the storms. We could actually use a bit of rain again, since we've had only sprinkles the past few days.

Tomorrow will be sultry - perhaps a record high temperature for the date. The girls are talking about getting up at 6 or 7 am to ride while it is still cool, but I gave them permission to choose themselves and sleep in if they prefer. We'll have a mid-day nap and then some cool trail rides through the woods.

(Everyone enjoyed the mall - you probably had a chance to talk to your "loved one" since they had their cell phones while they were out of camp on the field trip.

June 5th, 1PM Update:

June 5th, 8AM Update:

We've had only late night updates the past few days as we work around the barn all day and help Paul with the new bridges. In a way, the midnight update last night with all the pictures taken last night counts as today's update for most of you. But Mike, of course, was still up and saw it, and Claire, Jr from California "cheated", since it was only around 8:30 her time when we posted.

Rain is forecast again today, but just like the past two days, it looks like most of it will slide south of us. Pam Mobius from Maple Row Farms is coming for today's guest instructor clinic. She is a respected judge and always gives great clinics!

We should have more good jumping pics later today. We're also headed out late this afternoon for our first outing to a movie and dinner out. A well deserved night off for our hard working food service lady.

More later.

- Tom

Another very busy day, which is why we are so late with the update. Farley Bridgeman gave a nice guest instructor clinic today and Tom set up courses and took video of everyone doing a full course first on the inside show ring and then on the outside course. All riders did a good job!

The REALLY, really cool news is that the new "Sunburst" jump was delivered today. We still have to paint it, but "Wow!" Check the pictures in the album!

We ran into some issues with the concrete abuttments for the biggest of the new bridges. They are taking a LOT of concrete and we're all pitching in to help Paul stay on schedule. Meghan worked side by side with Paul late this afternoon after another of our helpers had to leave. The carpentry and the actual construction of the bridges is going very well and right on schedule. It is the concrete work that's taking more effort than we expected. That's mostly because it's hard to tell ahead of time what kind of ground we would have to dig in to hold the foundations. But we are halfway through with the most difficult part of those foundations.

June 3, 8PM Update:

Paul made good progress on the bridges and was thankful that the weather cooperated! He is working LONG hours! We're giving him all the help we can, and Sayer and Joel are quite interested in the project.

While the backhoe was here to dig the foundations for one of the bridges Tom took advantage of using the machine to expand the "Hilltop" riding area. When you view tonight's picture album you'll see some shots of the work in progress where we are making "Hilltop" bigger.

All the girls are getting along well. Maggie is here for the first time and has ridden quite a bit, but has a little less jumping experience than the other girls. We've been giving her especially cooperative horses that like to jump, but are safe. Tonight I asked her how she liked the horses she has been on and if she would like to try some more difficult horses. She said, "I'd be up for the challenge." So she'll be getting more variety starting tomorrow.

It has been cool, pleasant riding weather since we opened for the season two weeks ago, sometimes even a little too cold. All that is about to change, with our first shot of tropical summer air coming in later in the week. We'll soon be fondly remembering our very cold mornings and good sleeping weather of the first two weeks!!!

June 2, 10:30 PM:

June 2, 9PM Update:

Hi Everyone,

Sorry the update is so late. It was a busy first day of this session getting everyone used to the procedures AND playing with all Paul's "Bridge Man" projects! There will be an album with lots of pictures posted AFTER we get back from Kone King in about an hour if you are still awake.

- Tom

June 1, 10PM:

Picture albums:

I assumed that everyone knew this, but I heard from a viewer tonight who did not. When we post a photo album online, what you see on each page is a small thumbnail picture. Click on the thumbnail and a bigger picture will open. There are small arrows at the upper left of each picture page to go to the next photo. Often we post large albums with more than one page of pictures - if there is a small right arrow in the upper left, it means there are more pages of pictures. Enjoy.

PS - Did I say that Quantum and Brody both jumped amazingly well today???

PPS - Congrats to Jenn who thinks she has found the perfect horse to lease - it is planned that she will try it out here at Longacres for the summer. We hope it turns out to be the perfect horse!!!!!

June 1, 9PM:

Annie's dad, Paul Hankins, hereinafter known as "Paul the Bridge Builder", arrived this evening and is going right to work tomorrow morning. Bridge progress reports and pictures will be a regular part of our updates for the next week! We're excited!

June 1, 5PM Update:

We went to the Pony Club show today. Mandy rode very well on both Quantum and Brody. They jumped great and were in the ribbons in most classes. Mandy got good points for Quantum in the Special Jumper division, so we have a gift to Robyn giving her a head start towards the season Championship!!!!!!! Quantum was second in the Mini Prix Classic. ("Ain't No Rust on Me" was first - we'll get him next time!)

May 31, 4PM Update:

Good bye to all the great adult students who were with us for this just finished "Early Bird" week! You all improved and became more relaxed and secure horsewomen! Good job.

Tonight is a rare night of complete rest for Meghan and I, Mandy and Lillian, before the new crew comes in for the Pro-Clinic weeks. Annie will be the first, arriving tomorrow with her dad, Paul, who is "Friend of Longacres" bridge builder this week.

When I say, rare night of rest, you knew darn well we wouldn't be completely resting. We are doing the newsletters for the Summer Series to hand out at the Pony Club show tomorrow. Always something!

Back to work on my newsletters!

May 30, 10PM:

We had a traditional Longacres dinner out at Pasquale's tonight and then KONE KING!!!!! Emilie was the biggest Kone King eater, ordering a huge Sunday! There was lots of good conversation and joking about the events of the week. We will miss this group when they are gone.

But next week we get another great batch of students, most of whom we know well already. We can't wait!

May 30, 1PM Update:

We're pretty good!

Forgive me for patting ourselves on the back. I know that it is good manners to be humble and let your good work speak for itself. Usually we do.

But we are proud of our work this week and proud of the progress of our students in "Early Bird / Adult Week". We had a group of adult riders at Longacres this week, some with just a bit of riding experience and some who had ridden more long ago, but not so much recently. Most were pretty nervous and insecure at the beginning of the week. It showed in the riding. And we had several fall offs early in the week. So we dialed back a bit on what we did and really drilled the basics and technique.

It has paid off. Today was planned as a fun day to celebrate everyone's good progress and to do some fun things, including buddy and private trail rides and special jumping. One of the special rides was planned to be jumping the full outside course - something that would not have been safe for most in this group at the beginning of the week.

But these riders have done an outstanding job of developing their skills and their confidence during the week, and I felt very good letting them plan a ride on the full show course.

(Here's the spot where I especially brag about our attention to detail at Longacres!) When the weather is at all unsettled, as it will be most of today, we check the weather reports and look at the radar image on the computer every couple of hours and adjust our plans as needed. The forecast last night had called for rain late today, but a bulliten mid morning and the radar showed an unexpected line of showers coming towards us and due around lunchtime. If we waited to do the special jumping in the afternoon, as planned, the grass would be wet and too slippery for safe jumping. So we moved up the jumping to the 11am slot. We had a great ride, and the first rain drops fell just as the ladies were riding off the course to go down to the barn. We're Good!

May 29, 9PM Update:

We went to see the "Butterfly Jump" and "Sunburst" jump being built at the carpenter's shop today. You will not believe how they are turning out!!!!!!!!

May 28, 10PM:

Hi everyone,

Everyone complimented the beautiful work Meghan and her crew did on building many new jumps and painting everything. The show grounds were indeed, lovely! (see the pictures)

And our best new jumps are still to come. We picked up 36 new jump rails from the lumber mill today and the "Butterfly Jump" and "Sunburst" jumps will be finished in the next few days.

May 28, 10AM:

Another cool, but sunny and glorious riding weather day at Longacres.

But my good mood this morning is especially boosted by an email from an old friend out of the past. We always enjoy hearing from former Longacres students and staff, and we often get nice messages from "girls" who were here 30 and 40 years ago or more. I'm always glad when I remember them, which is often.

This morning's message was from "Lisa Cheerleader", who, as her nickname implies, was an outgoing, spirited, and popular counselor at Longacres during her year here. I would remember her from that alone, but as you can tell from her email (following), she was very successful in competitive cheerleading, and I knew her also from that arena. I have managed numerous cheerleading events over the years during my career as a special events coordinator in the off season from Longacres. I was involved in the judging at the event where Lisa won the all-around individual honor award, and that led to her coach (a friend of mine) recommending her for a job at Longacres where she fit in perfectly.

Following is Lisa's message. You brightened my day today, Lisa, as you did often 25 years ago!

- Tom

PS - We had two counselors named Lisa here that summer. So we nicknamed one "Lisa Lifeguard" and the other, appropriately, "Lisa Cheerleader".

May 27, 9PM:

May 27, 6PM:

Guess what? Diesel JUMPED!!!!!! - - - and Meghan missed it! Tom was having so much fun training him to jump that he forgot to take a picture. Imagine that at Longacres!

May 27, 5PM:

May 26, 5:30 PM:

There are lots of pictures in today's album. Everyone rode well on multiple horses. We did get two new members of the "Dusty Bottoms Club", but they both hopped right back on and rode all afternoon.

May 26, 1:30 PM:

Everyone has arrived for this session. The first arrivals have ridden twice and the later ones once already and planning another ride after lunch. No rain yet - hopefully it will hold off until tonight.

More to come later. (One of my "Tom's Longacres Economics" essays is coming, after paying $5.04 a gallon for diesel this morning!)

May 26th Update:

Welcome to Longacres!

Update, Monday, May 26, 2008

May 25, 10:30 PM:

Longacres doesn't officially open for the 2008 season until tomorrow morning, but it feels like we're open! We met a group of friends of Longacres with our staff for a traditional Longacres dinner out at Pasquale's. Sharon and Laura stopped in tonight to help with horse care and joined us for dinner, along with Mandy, Lillian, Uncle Billy, Meghan, Tom, and Emilie who had to fly in tonight from Wisconsin. Two other "early birds" are staying in East Aurora hotels tonight, one more in her RV nearby, and one on her way by car. We can't wait to get everyone on horses tomorrow!

Meghan and I are both workaholics in our own ways and we each have our pet projects on opening days. Tom mows every blade of grass in the camp that's not protected by trees or fences. Meghan scrubs cabin floors, changes mattress covers, polishes the bathroom sinks, and gives the dining hall a final going over, AFTER she supervises setting up all the jumps. Both of us are satisfied that Longacres is looking pretty darn good. (But we each secretly wish we had another two hours to get everything really right.) Oh, that's right - Meghan is getting up at 6 AM to put the flowers out around the jumps!

But we do feel good about Longacres as we open for our 70th season in the same family. Big thanks to Lillian and Mandy for helping get the barn and horses ready. Especially to Mandy, who has been here a week acting as guinea pig, making sure the showers have hot water, the cabin lights work, and that all the horses are behaving.

Dinner tonight felt just like a family reunion - the Longacres family. All feels right in the world of Longacres tonight.

The first three to respond after seeing the Kone King jump were Alexa, Annie, and Ofelia & Martha.

May 25, 6:30 PM:

The pictures are up! Who was first to see the new "Kone King" jump? Who wants to try it?

Trivia: It is very cool to be walking around the farm and come upon a Diesel hoofprint - there is no mistaking what horse left these foot prints!!!!

PS - Meghan says do not judge her harshly on the missing flowers for all the jumps - they will be up tomorrow!

May 25,6:17 PM:

May 25, 2:24 PM:

The sometimes "Angry Andrea" has joined the "Tortured Alexa" in waiting anxiously for the Kone King jump pictures! Meghan, Mandy, and Lillian are down setting the jump up right now. Then - - - well, let me see - - - I've got to finish mowing a little more in the small show ring, take the pictures, then maybe stop to check on the progress of the weedwacking on my way back up to the house, then - - - - upload the pictures to my computer, then - - - - - MAYBE you'll get to see the "screaming cool" new Kone King jump!!!! HAHAHAHAHA LOL!!!

May 25, 1PM:

Hi Alexa! We're going to keep you waiting just a little longer to see the "Kone King" jump all set up! Alexa wrote , "ahhhhhh - I want to see the Kone King jump!!!!!!!! I've like checked every minute!!!!!"

Suspense is fun!

We had our first unofficial arrival of the season when adult student, Susan, and her husband arrived in the area a day early in their RV and stopped by to say "hello" and meet Diesel and the other horses. We expect to meet several more of you later this afternoon and this evening and we'll all be ready to ride tomorrow morning.

Weather looks generally excellent for riding all week with temps in the high 60's to low 70's and mostly sunshine, although there is now a chance of showers tomorrow off and on.

May 24, 10:15 PM:

One last update - and it's a teaser! The "Kone King" jump is finished, but we won't show you a picture until tomorrow!!!!!!!!! Meghan says it is "screaming cool"! The ice cream cones on the stands even have sprinkles, just for Hannah!!!!!! We will post pictures of this and two other new jumps sometime tomorrow, so KEEP CHECKING IN!!

May 24, 9:45 PM:

May 24, 7PM:

Lillian arrived and went right to work putting up jumps. It's great to have her here along with Mandy! Mandy rode five horses already today before dinner and hopes to ride two more now during evening ride. We're getting them all tuned up for Monday. Bobert is a good example - he's a real gentleman and great for all kinds of riders during the summer. But he always gives a few good bucks when he first comes back to us in the spring. A friend of Meghan's rode him two days ago and sure enough, he popped off a couple of little bucks. Mandy rode him yesterday and he was fine. She'll ride him again tonight or tomorrow and really push him to make sure he's ready to go to "work" for the summer. So far all the horses we've ridden have been great. Quantum and Brody were both pretty feisty and full of energy for their first rides at Longacres, but they were both much better their second time out.

May 24th Update:

Hi everyone!

In a way this is a very frantic weekend, since we open in a day and a half. But really we should be very relaxed - everything is done and ready for our Early Bird Week students. All we are doing over the weekend is cleaning up and trimming grass and planting a few last minute decorative flowers. - - - AND taking care of lots of horses.

A few of you are arriving in the East Aurora area tomorrow afternoon and evening so you'll be in the area ready to arrive bright and early Monday and start riding. Others are coming at the "official" arrival time Monday morning.

Although Meghan is fastidious about having "everything" all cleaned up before she shows the farm to our first guest in the spring, we do want you to know that you're welcome to stop by Sunday evening and say "hello" if you are in East Aurora. We might even put you to work helping with evening horse care sometime around 5:30.

All of us are planning to go out to dinner locally after horse care - maybe 7:30 to 8:00. Any early arrivals are very welcome to join us for our final pre-season fling and celebration of getting all the work done. Phone us for details of where we decide to go or just stop by during horse care and follow us to dinner!

We'll see the rest of you on Monday morning.

(I heard you, Robyn - I will try to get pictures of your horses for tonight!)

May 23rd, 5PM:

We will be looking very good by Sunday night.

Mandy rode lots of horses today and we were especially pleased with how Quantum is going. Good job training him to do his lead changes, Robyn! Quantum was really full of beans yesterday and very excitable. But he settled down to work today looking as strong as ever.

We have only a couple more horses to come in this weekend. Nearly all the horses that have come in so far are in wonderful condition. Patti is very old, but full of energy. She is a little thin just from age. Rocky is a little thin, but feeling good and he gave Mandy a good ride and he is ready to go to work. We'll be giving him lots of feed! Horatio is always a little on the thin side in the spring, but he is better than in many years at this time of the season. We'll fatten him up soon. All the other horses are in full flesh and very fit!

May 23rd, Noon:

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Boo'sday!

Yep, today is definitely Boo's day so far! Someone must have snuck a wi-fi computer into the pasture last night and let Boo read all the stories about Diesel. You think he wanted to just stand by and let Diesel get all the attention just because he is so big? No way!

So overnight Boo planned his strategy. First, he managed to become great friends with Diesel. They're now inseparable in pasture, walking around and grazing on the fresh spring grass never far apart.

So Boo was ready when he saw me walking into the pasture this morning with a lead rope. I went up to my new "favorite", Diesel, and played with him, leading him around and scratching behind his ears. Boo was patient, but after a few minutes he caught me off guard while I was standing next to Diesel teaching him more about leading and stopping and standing. I was standing with Diesel's big head right over my right shoulder. Suddenly I felt a warm muzzle gently resting on my left shoulder. It was Boo, asking for his share of attention! And for a minute I stood there with the gentle giant's head on my right shoulder and Boo's white mask on my left shoulder. It would have made a priceless picture, but I was the only one there with a camera.

May 23, 9AM:

Finally the cold, wet weather pattern of the last week is improving. It's about time! Things are looking very good for the Monday opening of our 2008 season, Longacres' 70th year.

Today we'll be shifting into high gear with our final clean up from maintenance projects, last minute landscaping, and mowing and trimming. The barn painting is coming very well, and the dining hall paint job is supposed to start today and be done by Sunday.

May 22, 9:30 PM:

May 22, 9PM:

We're still having off and on problems with the electricity to the cabins - it is working right now (or at least half an hour ago!).

Mandy rode Diesel this afternoon. He is very gentle and easy going. He doesn't know much about cantering but he trots around and is a comfortable ride. He trots right over jump poles without even looking at them. A week or two of flat work and he'll be a good ride. He never once bucked or acted resentful, even when Mandy used a crop to get him to canter.

Patti, Horatio, and Rocky came in this afternoon. All three are slightly thinner than the other horses. With Patti it is very understandable because of her age. She is full of energy, though! We will feed her up. Same with Rocky and Horatio - lots of feed coming soon to their tummy's!!

May 22, 3 PM:

May 22, 1PM:

This horse is HUGE!!!! H-U-U-U-G-E!!!!!!!! He is the largest horse I've ever handled myself. I used to show a half Clydesdale, half thoroughbred jumper named Yorke Springs, but Diesel is much bigger in all dimensions. You will have to be careful around him, only because if he were to accidentally step on you, well, it would not be good.

But he is a "gentle giant", exactly as his former owners said he would be. All he wants is to be loved, brushed, handled, anything to get along and be friends with people. Anytime someone comes close to his stall he wants to lean out and nuzzle you or sniff your hair or look closely at your camera (he actually tried to put Meghan's camera in his mouth last week to see if it was edible!). He so far has not even spooked or had a sudden movement that could scare anyone.

I took him out of his stall an hour ago and led him up and down the barn. When I said softly, "Whoa", he stopped. When I took a step ahead, he walked. Another soft, "whoa" and he stops. I started to jog ahead down the barn aisle and he picks up a trot (CLIP, CLOP, CLIP, CLOP!). I come back to a walk and he walks and reaches over to give me a sniff. I led him outside and let him get a mouthful or two of green grass, which he loved. Now another test - I pull his head up gently and begin to lead him back into the barn. Most horses when they get their first taste of fresh spring grass will fight and tug to keep grazing if you try to lead them away from the grass. Diesel just seemed to say, "OK, I'm coming. Whatever you want me to do. Ho-hum."

This is an amazing horse and he is going to be a really fun part of the Longacres horse family this season. I imagine everyone who comes to Longacres this year will have a chance to get on what might well be the biggest horse you ever ride in your life. And one of the most gentle and well mannered!

More Diesel pictures and video later today.

PS - The rest of our horses all look wonderful, too. Even though we own all these horses and are dealing with arrangements for their care all year around, we are amazed ourselves every year when they come back to us from their winter homes. What an incredible string of school horses we have put together at Longacres. We can't wait to show you guys coming here for the first time, as well as our friends returning from last season!

May 21, 8:30 PM:

May 21, 7:58 PM:

OK, OK, I'm going to be a little late! The ShaBang and friends video came out very well and is being uploaded to YouTube right now. It should be processed by 8:30 or 9:00 and a link posted here.

May 21, 5PM:

Shabang was "the guy" today!

Last year when the horses came in from their winter homes, Quantum was the one breathing fire and ripping around the pasture. But today, Shabang was the ring leader. Quantum kept close when they were racing around and playing, but Shabang was "da man"!!! Brody and Ginger looked great also. We do have a fine looking group of horses for you this year!

The YouTube video will be posted by 8PM if all goes well. For you newcomers to Longacres, the darkest bay, almost black, is ShaBang; Quantum is the other large bay; Ginger is smaller and a chestnut; and Brody is smaller and an all brown bay. There is also video of Mandy riding Star on the main show field.

May 21, 10AM:

Good news - bad news - more good news:

Well, part of the good news is that there is no really bad news; just a crummy start to our day.

The first good news is that Emilie's FedEx package arrived safely this morning. It will be ready for you Monday, Emilie!

The bad news was just a bunch of little things, including getting up this morning to really poor weather for late May - high temp today only in the 40's with a cold rain. And late last night, Meghan and Joel went to turn on the electricity to the cabins which they thought they had fixed after a week of work, but no lights. It was late, so they decided to tell Tom about it in the morning - nice breakfast news! Tom was already feeling pretty beat down.

Nothing unexpected, really, just the realities of a farm guy in his sixties trying to work like he did 20 years ago. I do feel good this spring (relatively!) - I lost 20 pounds since February and I am in the best shape I've been in a few years. So when Meghan needed the tall grass under all the fences trimmed by Monday when some of our guests arrive, I jumped right in, hooked up the big Gravely commercial with the under fence mower, and went to work. I got most of the heavy work done. But even though the Gravely is full power forward and reverse, it weighs over 500 pounds and when you trim under the fences on the hills, you are really wrestling it to keep it from busting fences. I don't mind admitting that I was VERY stiff getting out of bed this morning! And then I found out that we had more electrical problems. So that's all the bad news we had this morning.

On to the second round of GOOD news! The horses all look great. I had promised you video by lunch time, but it will be a little later, since Meghan will not be back from the airport with Mandy until after noon. Then we'll turn the horses out, take some more video, and post an update.

More good news came after I coaxed my tired, stiff bones out to the woods and tested for short circuits in the electric line to the cabins. No shorts, so I went back to the fuse panel and, sure enough, found a weak fuse holder that wasn't completing a circuit. No need to climb trees and go up on ladders on a cold, wet day! Yippee!

And the weather will get better - not tomorrow - but beginning Friday bright sun and warming right through the weekend. We're looking at sunny and 75 degrees for the first day of Early Bird week on Monday!

Another update in a few hours after Mandy gets here.

May 20th 11pm:

Quantum, Ginger, Brody and Sha-bang are all safe in their stalls in the Longacres barn after a long trip from Philadelphia and the New York/New Jersey area. They will spend the night in the barn and will be turned out with their buddies tomorrow morning. You'll get to see it on YouTube by lunchtime.

May 20th, 2PM:

The horsies are having a grand time in the pasture! Check the video I posted below. We do have some lovely horses at Longacres.

I spent most of the morning clearing trails in the woods, mowing them down and using the chain saw to cut up three trees that were still blocking some of the powerline trails. They are now all ready to go for our early bird week students next week.

May 20th, 10 AM:

The video I posted last night did not look so good, so I put up a better copy this morning. Click the link below to see the upgraded version.

More horses will be arriving back at the barn over the next 24 hours, and more every day after that. Frank is on the road with Quantum, Ginger, ShaBang, Brody, and Brownie right now. They should be here late tonight.

May 19th, 9PM:

Here is the link to a YouTube video of Merlin, Zaney, and Star taken this afternoon. Merlin is so proud of his tail when he is excited!!

Meghan and I just got home from the first "evening horse care" of the 2008 season. Merlin hasn't been out on grass too much so we brought all three into the barn tonight so he could eat some hay along with the rich spring grass from this afternoon. (You don't want to suddenly let a horse that has been on hay all winter switch to all grass without a gradual transition.)

Check the picture of Merlin near the top of this page. We'll be frequently posting pictures there now that we are open for the summer.

More tomorrow - much more!

May 19th, 7PM:

Yes, in case you saw it on the news, it snowed here this morning! Just a few flakes, but five miles from here in the hills, they had measurable snow on the ground! But it will be 70 by next Monday.

In about an hour, I will post the link to a YouTube video of the horses in pasture. Check back.

May 19th Update:

Horsies are here!

Check the picture above on this page taken of Merlin outside the barn half an hour ago on May 19th. It is cold and windy today (scattered snow showers on May 19th!!!!), and Merlin was feeling very lively as Meghan tried to hold him for this picture. Star and Zaney are also back at the barn. We'll post some video when we turn them out for the first time later today.

Although it seems down right winter like here today, the weather is supposed to rapidly improve and it should be in the 70's by the time our first students arrive for early bird week next Monday.

We're looking for a nice horse:

One of our students is looking for a nice show horse capable of doing 3'6" and 4' jumpers and higher equitation classes. Although they might buy, they prefer to lease a suitable horse for one year. If any of our hundreds of weekly readers know of such a horse, get in touch with us. There are lots of horses out there in situations where someone is going off to college and doesn't want to sell their horse but can't ride it much next year. We have a solid rider and good situation for your horse. And a fair price to pay for the lease. Spread the word.

May 18, late night:

The weather cleared for a while this evening and I got all of the galloping field mowed. We'll be mowing once in the middle of the week, and then EVERYTHING will get mowed and weed wacked and trimmed next weekend so it is fresh and lovely for our Early Bird guests on the 26th.

May 18th Update:

Two Days 'til Horsies!!

It looks like we'll have three days of gloomy, rainy weather the first part of this week, so we're happy we are so much ahead of schedule in getting things ready around the farm. I got the hot water in the showers going today, so we could accept guests tomorrow morning, one week ahead of schedule. Yippee!

We'll take advantage of the wet weather to do lots of cleaning indoors and touching up around the barn. The barn painters will begin painting under the porch tomorrow but will have to wait until Thursday to paint the rest of the barn. The dining hall got power washed yesterday and was scheduled for painting Wednesday - hopefully it will be only one day behind schedule when the weather clears Thursday.

The barn will be full of horses by the end of this week and Mandy and Lillian will be here and busy riding and training!!! It's almost summertime!!

May 17th, late:

Speaking of manicured horse farms, one of the nicer farms in the northeast is just two miles from us in East Aurora. Deer Ridge Farm is first class in every way. We drove by this morning and slowed down to peek through their hedges and across their fences. Talk about manicured! Seeing what their crew does to clean up and fix up in the spring gives as a sense of humility as we consider our own farm maintenance efforts. For every fence post we replace in the spring, they replace 100. For every afternoon Tom spends planting things around our new water jump, the Deer Ridge crew probably has ten men work a day at landscaping. What a few spare millions can do!

I'm not sure if I've mentioned the plans for our new "Hill Top" riding area. It's going to be set up just above the barn where you mount your horses for lessons. We have often used this area for practice lessons, especially in rainy weather when we don't want to tear up the big show field. This year we are making the area quite a bit bigger, building some permanent log jumps and setting up a full course. We'll be doing some full lessons there and most lessons will warm up there before going on to do courses in the big show field or the small show ring. This will give you all some variety where you ride and it will save the grass on the big show field from getting quite so much traffic. (Speaking of traffic on the big show field, I don't think anyone ever tried to answer the trivia question last winter of "how many hoofbeats fall on the Longacres show field during an entire season?")

The Hill Top riding area will be bigger than last year after we cut trees and bulldoze the area where the old retired horse trailer was parked in the weeds for many years. Slowly, nature had reclaimed almost a 100 foot wide area that was once riding field. This is going to be a pleasant place to ride!

May 17th Update:

Three Days 'til Horsies!!

There will be a longer update later tonight, with pictures. We got tons of things done today, including finding and fixing the mystery problem with the electricity to the cabins! Things are going really well now and we will easily be ready by a week from Monday when our first students arrive for adult week.

But the big news is:

DIESEL'S 60" GIRTH ARRIVED TODAY IN THE MAIL!!!!!!

More later tonight.

- Tom

May 16th, midnight:

Meghan and I went to dinner at Pasquale's very late after finishing moving the jumps up to the field. We'll have updates the next few days, but maybe a little shorter than usual. I hurt one of my typing fingers this afternoon, and the pain when I accidentally hit a key with the finger tip is quite exquisit! We will keep in touch with you, though.

Friends of Longacres

- Tom & Meghan

May 16, 9PM:

Four Days 'til Horsies!

Meghan, Joel, Taylor, and Nick are still down at the barn moving jumps in the dark. Thanks also to Casey for spending the afternoon.

What drives us to do all this work preparing the show field are compliments like we received during our first two weeks last season. Amanda from Vermont's father arrived to drop her off and said to us, "It all looks so manicured."

Even better was the Wolf sisters mom who flew in from Missouri to visit them, had a tour of the farm, and told Meghan, "It looks like a movie set!"

Well, we know that compared to the really top show barns in the country we are very far from being perfectly "manicured" all the time. And even farther from being a "movie set". But we'll take those occasional very nice compliments! They are a tonic to our ambition to work hard. Knowing that you guys appreciate the hard work and the beauty of our show grounds keeps us going from dawn to dark at this time of year. We are pleased with how everything is turning out this spring and we can't wait to show all of you when YOU arrive.

May 16th Update:

AND!!!!

We welcome the Bennett and Puffer families again as Summer Series sponsors for 2008! They will jointly sponsor the awards for the Puddle Jumper division. Debbie Puffer's "Pet Stop Pet Fence" business will sponsor "Low and Slow" Hunter. Thanks to both families for joining Missy Bessette as 2008 sponsors. We're already up to 25% of the sponsors needed! Anyone else interested in sponsoring the high score awards for a show division for $150, get in touch!

Holy Smokes, it's jump moving Day!

Yes indeed, and maybe doing it in the rain! We're hoping the wet weather will hold off until we finish, but we've got to get the jumps out of the barn today, no matter what. We're putting gravel and then new bedding in the first stalls tomorrow, and the barn painters are coming on Monday. Thanks to Casey Puffer who is coming over to help Meghan and her crew this afternoon!

The refrigerators and freezer are running fine and we'll be turning on the hot water to the showers tonight. Our most annoying problem this week has been trying to track down a short circuit in the electric line that feeds the cabins. It is almost 2000 feet through the woods and has various repairs from wind storms, each of which have to be rechecked on a ladder. It is driving Joel crazy!

It's the people, of course!

We'd like to share with all of you our joy in looking forward to working with some great people as students and staff at Longacres this summer. It's the people, of course, that really make Longacres the family that it is. The nice jumps, barn (AND driveway!), and the great horses are all important. But Longacres is about nice people having a great time with all that other stuff. We've got a great group this year!

Every single session all summer long, we have four or more really good friends from previous years returning to help you first timers learn the ropes. And I don't mean simply customers that we've gotten to know a bit - I mean people we really like a lot. And Longacres is a welcoming kind of place for first timers. Many of you coming for the first time have already shared email messages with some of our current customers. We have a really good feeling about how well everyone is going to fit in this summer. It should set us up for another good enrollment for the 2009 season, if the economy does not get worse!

May 14 Update:

Six Days 'til Horsies!

That's right, less than a week! And we could take the horses today if we cleared all the jumps out of the barn where they're being painted. But that's a job planned by Meghan for this Saturday.

We also tested all the water system some more today and finished hooking up the water from the barn pump to all the water troughs in the various pastures. The shavings were delivered and all we need is fresh hay and grain for next Monday. It's coming tomorrow.

May 13th, 11PM:

May 13th Update:

Seven Days 'til Horsies!

There will be another update late this evening with a big new photo album - stay tuned.

May 12 Update:

You all have just eight more days to read about Tom's latest adventures fixing driveways or about boring things like budget busting fuel and feed prices. (Ya' like the alliteration?) Yes, eight more days and then HORSIES WILL BE HERE!!!!!!!!!

Then we will have "real" Longacres updates every day, with pictures and YouTube video's of horses in pasture or being trained, counselors preparing the barn, and much more. Eight days. Count them down with us!

May 11, 6PM:

It's not my fault! -

She had "finish trimming and repairing electric fence" written on her "to do" list for today. Once something is on Meghan's list, it gets done, no matter how late! I helped her for a while. She came back to the house with me for a mid afternoon snack, and it started to rain, so I thought she would have to relax the rest of today.

No such luck. Where is Meghan now? Out in the wet pasture, working in the rain. I think you can count on everything at Longacres being ready for you folks arriving for our first week.

(I did my own share of work today, including a little bit of working in the rain checking electric lines and fuse boxes in the out buildings. But I'm nice and dry in front of the computer now! I'm saving a warm, dry spot here for the work-a-holic of the family!

May 11th Update:

Something very unusual took place at Longacres this morning - Meghan slept in! Meghan, who is "mom" to all of you for 12 weeks during the summer, took advantage of Mothers Day for a very rare sleep in this morning. She deserves it! She works tirelessly at this time of year, up early and often working until 1 in the morning while Tom plays with dirt and chain saws.

It was nice to walk into the house at lunchtime and see Meghan still snoozing catching up on some of her lost sleep! Happy Mothers Day to all of you moms out there - I hope you all slept in, as well!

May 10th, 11PM:

Gina and Andrea Bennett and Debbie Puffer stopped by today at the barn. It was great to see you guys! The Puffer and Bennett families are going to sponsor the Puddle Jumper Division for the Summer Show Series, and Debbie's business, "Pet Stop Pet Fence Systems" is going to sponsor "Low & Slow Hunters". Thanks to them for joining Missy Bessett as early Summer Series Awards sponsors.

The barn area is really starting to look good, with much progress on painting and working on the new jumps. We started work today on refurbishing and landscaping the big water jump. We'll have some pictures soon to give you an idea of how it will look. We're building split rail fence wings for both sides of the water jump and planting evergreen shrubs and flowers all along the take off side of the water. It will look 1000 times better than last year!

May 10th, 3PM:

War Wounds!

OK, you know you're on a farm in the spring if one of the things you do when you come into the house for lunch with your partner is to ask, "Hey, what's that new band-aid for?" Mine from this morning was when my finger got between the sledge hammer and the metal stake I was pounding in the ground to mark a corner of the new decorative garden around the big water jump. (Don't worry - a little blood and lost skin, but not a mortal wound!)

Meghan couldn't quite remember whether her most recent boo-boo was from when her fingers slipped off the big circuit breaker she was turning on for the electricity in the dining hall, or from carrying jumps around the barn. Anyway, we're working on a farm and stuff happens!

We have other "war wounds" - wounds to the pocket book. We've all seen so many news stories over the past four or five months about rising prices for nearly everything. Some of them we expected, but we're still getting little eye openers every few days. (I got a great letter from Susan Sahai recently sharing with me stories about the costs of providing for a teenage horse lover and her siblings! Nice letter, Susan, and we know how you feel.)

With diesel fuel prices rising daily, I took the RV to town to top off the tank at today's prices. It's about $450 to fill the fuel tank on the RV. That should last us about half the summer depending on how many field trips we take. And you have all read about the use of grains for ethanol fuel raising the prices of food and other grains. Well, we checked yesterday, and horse feed is going to be about 33% more for us this year than last year. We don't know about hay yet, but diesel fuel is an important part of the cost of making and transporting hay, so that will rise also. (11PM - We got the hay prices from Joe this evening - up a little over 20% - not quite as bad as the feed.)

We are glad we placed the orders for all our new jumps and bought a couple of horses before we knew quite how much some of our other costs would be rising. Longacres will be in top shape this year, so all the investment is worth while. We can't wait until you, our 2008 students, begin to arrive in two weeks. It feels much better spending all your tuition money when we can see you enjoying the results!

May 10th Update:

Happy Mothers Day to All!

This will be a short update, since it's a gorgeous day outside at Longacres and we're spending it all on landscaping, jump painting, and other fun stuff. Just a great spring day!

Just ten days now until the horses arrive from their winter homes, and just two weeks and a day until the first of our students is here and we officially begin our 70th season at Longacres!

May 9th Update:

A Longacres "Welcome" to Dani from Tennessee! Dani is 13 and has ridden for several years, attended Vershire last year, and jumps up to three feet. Sounds like she will fit right in at Longacres. Dani signed up for a spot that opened up when someone else changed family plans and shortened their stay. She'll be here from July 6 to 20th.

Another Great Moment Outdoors!

I've been meaning to write about a great moment here last week. A squall line came in late in the day from the west. The winds got quite violent and we had brief heavy showers as the line of storms blew through. Then on the west side of the squall line, the cold front was very well defined and we had a nearly straight line along the back edge of the cloud cover between the clouds and blue skies. It was still raining lightly to the east as that line reached us. It was just before sunset and Meghan and I happened to be driving in the barn driveway (smooth!). We looked t o our right - WOW! - what a rainbow! We had the total rainbow in our view, from where it touched the ground on one end all the way to the other. On one side there was even a bit of a double rainbow. And for once we didn't have a camera with us.

Because the frontal line stretched across much of western New York, the rainbow was widely seen and there were pictures in the paper the next day. Very impressive and beautiful.

Joel and Meghan got a lot done on pasture fence repairs yesterday. Just a few more pieces of electric fence wire and it will be done.

We also did more work on the electric lines through the woods to the cabins. Although we fixed a lot, we found more problems. You will have electricity when you get here, but there will have to be more "Men in Trees" first to fix things.

Same with the water lines to the showers and dining hall. We turned on the water and generally the water system is in better shape this year than in the past. But there were little spurts of water spraying out of various loose pipe connections that have to be patched or tightened. Fun, wow!

Bridges!

May 8th Update:

We are a little strange sometimes at Longacres!

- But you knew that. None the less, it sometimes worries me that you folks at home will think we've lost our marbles when we tell you so much about how we live here at the farm.

First there's all the pictures and stories about Tom playing with "dirt" as he satisfies his compulsion for the perfect driveway. And now I have to report on our RV trip last night. As background, I'll mention for the sake of you first timers at Longacres that Meghan and Tom really enjoy their RV trips. Those usually take place in the late fall after the farm is all closed up for the winter or the winter and early spring. It's our time away from stress and time pressures, and we love it. (Diesel prices may cut some of those trips shorter in the future, but somehow we'll find a way to get in our little fixes of RV time. They are good for our souls!

Anyway, we felt a need last night for the peace and privacy of the RV, even though we are just finishing up a wonderful and very productive week of work around the farm. So we grabbed a few personal items and snacks and hopped in the diesel RV. Off we went on an "adventure" - all the way down to the horse barn 2000 feet away!

We cranked up the satellite dish and had a wonderful night listening to the rain patter on the roof as we shared memories of some of our favorite long RV trips. It was great! Yes, we feel a little strange taking an RV camping trip that is less than a mile round trip. But we may do it again tonight!

More later!

- Tom & Meghan

And -

Meghan and I find that numerous little things are contributing to resetting our biological "clocks" to summertime. We have odd schedules during the off season but we're adjusting to camp schedule. Once the horses get here, the first thing we do after getting up every morning is drive down to the barn and check on the horses in pasture to make sure all is well. We have started to make dry runs before breakfast, just because it feels like something we should be doing! We stop in at the barn and look at the empty pasture - sure enough, all is well.

It's fun anyway, because the whole pasture and barn area looks so fresh and green and pretty with all the fresh fence and trim paint. We can't wait until we start putting the jumps out and around the fields and riding areas next week!

Meghan's "clock" is also responding to this time of year as it stays light later and later in the evening. She tells me she drove out the driveway last night a little after nine and it was still a little light out - she thought to herself, "Oh, the girls are just finishing up evening horse care after their evening ride." Soon that will be for real and not just a feeling!

May 7th Update:

Hi all,

Sorry for no update yesterday, but it was a very productive work day. All the grass on the farm has now been mowed at least once, the show ring and the permanent fences on the bank jump have been painted, and the pasture fences repaired. We could take horses and ride today if we needed to!

Joel spent yesterday carrying ladders through the woods and repairing down electric lines so you will have lights in the bunks. We had more wind damage than usual in the woods last winter, so it was a chore.

Meghan and I went through the whole farm updating our check lists. We're very pleased with how everything is coming. We had so many major maintenance projects under way at this time last year, that the farm looked very torn up until the very last minute before you all arrived. This year the farm is much better groomed and settled looking! We're painting nearly every structure on the farm that wasn't already done last year. Things should look really good for you all on your arrival!

Keep the emails and letters coming. It was great hearing from Susan and Olivia a few days ago and from Martha and Ofelia last night. Great letters!

(Note to Ofelia's brother: Glad you liked the picture of the dump truck spreading gravel - me too!) One of our girl painting workers, Taylor, also loves dump trucks. Every time a dump truck arrives, she takes a quick break to watch it's dumper go up and down!

More later today - bye!!

May 5th Update:

Hello again. Soon we'll have a discussion about the risks to performance horses when they do their thing. Whether they are Kentucky Derby race horses, eventing horses, show jumpers, draft horses, you name it - many of our four legged friends are at risk when they compete, as we sadly know from this past weekend. We'll talk about that.

May 3rd Update:

Hello again,

We got our first delivery of new jumps today. Meghan wants me to be sure you know that these are just the primed jumps before all the painting to come! Gary Husted, the jump guy, is really excited about the butterly jumps and the sunburst jump, which are still at his shop. And, by the way, if you're looking for a place to buy jumps, Gary can make them for you to special order. He is likely to also have some jumps for sale on display at the Longacres shows this summer.

The big white jumps in today's picture are for the "Kone King" jump and the new blue & yellow jumps to match the ones we built last summer. Many more new jumps coming in the next couple of weeks!

May 1, 9PM:

Hi everyone,

Who can write the best one or two sentence description of how cool new gravel can be! (Hint: Good for extra brownie points.)

May 1 Update:

We continue to make good progress with all our maintenance and upgrade projects around the farm. Meghan has the inside of the dining hall well along towards being ready to serve meals. All the painting she did last fall on the dish room and dining hall ceilings held up very well, so we won't be dropping dirt and stuff into your food in the kitchen! And my big project of improving the entrance road to the barn is nearly done. Check the picture near the top of this page to see the final load of gravel (120 tons!) being spread near the show ring.

A Fine Moment in Nature!

But let me turn my attention to trying to share with you one of those magical, beautiful moments of natural wonder that we are privileged to experience now and then while we live outdoors in the country. I had been out shopping the other day while it was cold and rainy. As I pulled into the office driveway, the early evening sky was a dark threatening gray, but it was still light enough to easily see the bright green of all the new leaves on the maple and oak trees in the woods. That contrast was dramatic by itself, but nothing compared to what I experienced a moment later.

As I rounded the final turn in the road next to the split rail fence and the little meadow on the way back to the house, there was a sudden flurry of snow and heavy white snow pellets (grapple?). Almost simultaneously, the clouds low on the western horizon directly ahead of me through the woods parted to reveal a blood red-orange sun just about to drop below the horizon. What I would have given to have had my spiffy new camera with me! Dark gray skies above, bright green leaves all around, white snow filling the air, spring flowers along the road, and that deep red sunset ahead coming through the trees. It was stunning. One of those great moments in life that encourages us to stop and appreciate the world around us and our place in the grand scheme of things.

I hope that Longacres will serve up one or two of these grand moments during your stay with us this summer!

- Tom

April 29, 9PM:

Hey again,

One of our many jump upgrades is going to be landscaping and maintaining the "Big" water jump near the road line. Who knows, maybe one of you will actually jump it this summer even though it has been a few years since one of you has tried it. The question of the evening for you (and your gardening parents if you have any), is what flowers would you suggest we plant in front of the water to dress up the take off side of the jump? We want something that will bloom pretty much all summer. There will be bright sunlight.

April 29th Update:

No snow yet! But tonight will be the coldest night of the week, so we'll see.

In the meantime, Meghan's crew of workers is back at work in these much colder conditions after enjoying shirt sleeve working weather for the previous two weeks. We should have the cabins cleaned up and the dining hall and showers ready for paint by the end of the week. With almost a month to go until our first students arrive, we're in very good shape! (That first week is adult and early bird week - Meghan is already laying in supplies for "happy hour" for the adults!)

Economy 101, Longacres Version:

As you know, I'm an interested observer of indicators that might give an insight into how our typical customers are reacting to the economy. One such that was positive for most of the winter, in spite of the shaky national economy, was attendance at mid level chain restaurants. Tom, Meghan, and Uncle Billy always go out to dinner together every Friday night. We eat usually at a Friday's, an Appleby's, or sometimes at a Cheesecake Factory or similar such place. For most of the winter here in the western New York area there were long waits for tables during prime time on Friday nights, and one of us would go early to put in our names on the hostess's wait list. But during the past month we've found tables at our usual Friday night spots available either immediately or within five minutes. This situation has been true long enough now that I would say it's a valid piece of evidence on the state of the economy.

We will be very interested in how attendance at local horse shows holds up when the Summer Series of shows kicks off on June 1st at the Pony Club show. Rumors and pre-season gossip would indicate that our local Series shows will be having a good year, but the costs of fuel to travel and haul horses will have to have some impact.

As I have written before, Longacres is continuing to invest heavily in our future this season, with more major maintenance, expensive new jumps, and more new horses. Beyond that, much of our annual budget is affected just the way yours is at home. After all, we're very much like any large family here, and we see our food costs, fuel costs, and horse feed costs rising significantly this summer. You folks attending Longacres sessions this summer are mostly insulated from these rising costs, since you are locked into our tuition prices that were set almost a year ago. About the only thing that may cost you a little more than planned might be the actual cost of attending horse shows, since horse vanning will be a little higher this year with diesel prices so high. But all in all, this looks to be a good year at Longacres. We will not have a really good look at our prospects for 2009 until our 2009 enrollment period opens on September 1st. Last fall we filled most sessions by September 2nd. We'll keep you informed over the summer as to how many of you put down deposits early to have high spots on our waiting list for 2009. If the economy is still soft in the fall and Longacres faces an enrollment decline for 2009, we're in a great position to ride it out after making so many improvements here this year and in the past two years.

BACK TO HORSE NEWS!

Many of you aren't so interested in my occasional little observations on the economy, so I'll close today's update with some more horse news. First, Meghan is off for a lunchtime working meeting with Frank to schedule all the horses being vanned back to Longacres in just a few weeks. That's always a sure sign that our season is coming soon. They'll also be going over horse show schedules.

And one of our customers is looking for a proven show horse with solid 3'6" capabilities to lease for approximately one year but not to buy. Spread the word, especially if you know someone who might be off to college but who doesn't quite want to sell their horse yet. Good rider! Call us with leads.

April 28 Update:

It's a dreary, cold and rainy day here at Longacres, just right for sitting inside and catching up on web pages and emails. I do have to go out and down to the barn in a bit to throw out some more grass sead on the new landscaping, but aside from that it's an inside day! (Maybe even a Starbucks hot chocolate and tea day!)

They are still calling for a few snow flurries the next few nights in western New York, but by the end of the week we will be back to spring weather. The crew will be working inside getting the dining hall, shower rooms, and cabins cleaned up for the season. We'll also be putting a new ceiling in Pegasus bunk where some miscreants did unauthorized art work.

In spite of the unsummerlike weather, we talked with several of the other Summer Series horse show hosts today. We ran into Noreen from Quakerfield at breakfast and Leigh from High Time Stables at lunchtime. Everyone's plans for the summer horse shows are going well. We're all wondering what the high cost of fuel is going to do to participation in horse shows this summer. It's going to cut both ways - we're going to perhaps lose a few exhibitors who drive a long way to attend Longacres shows, but we have already heard that we're gaining a couple of stables that used to travel all over the east to bigger shows. Some of them are staying closer to home and taking advantage of the convenience of our Summer Series shows.

April 27th, 8PM:

Also of note is the new gravel going down on the barn driveway. Anyone visiting Longacres knows that I am a bit of a fanatic about driveway maintenance. The minute a tiny pothole forms, I'll be out there with my tractor or a wheelbarrow filling it in and grading it level. I know some of you laugh at me!

Well, as usual, the barn drive looked great this spring and had no potholes. But over the years it has packed down so that the grass on each side is at or even slightly above the level of the driveway. So when it rains, water stands on the drive and that's how potholes form - standing water on a road. So we are adding something like 75 tons of new gravel to raise the entire barn drive up about three or four inches. It will be a bit of a mess for a week or two, but after the new gravel is all leveled and packed down, the water will run off the drive instead of standing on it. And potholes will not form nearly as often. Meghan shakes her head and wonders what I will do for fun if there are no little puddles to fill at the barn after it rains!

We try several times every summer to hold a seminar on barn management where we talk about things like this. Things you might not think of when you're considering a career running your own stable. Remind me to hold one of these talks while you are here if we don't before the end of your session. Running a stable is not all fun and games playing with horses. Not hardly!

April 27th Update:

Joel remodels Uncle Billy's new apartment - Meghan signs painting contracts - Tom takes pictures of spring flowers - we do new road work - Robyn jumps eventer courses - AND GINGER GOES IN THE WATER! More details later tonight!

April 25th, 4PM:

I beat the rain to get my outside work done this afternoon. It's just started to sprinkle a little bit, but I got 17 tons of sand delivered and spread it in all the low spots in the small show ring with the tractor before the weather turns worse. This is one of the little jobs you probably never notice when you're riding at Longacres in the summer. Nice riding rings don't just happen - they need lots of care and maintenance!

Welcome Back "Peggy Sue"!

Peggy Tsue was one of our adult students during early bird week last year. She hit it off so well with all of us that she returned to help us run "Lazy Days" week last fall as part of our adult staff. She is returning again this year to work with Junior Counselors Carly and Alexa taking care of the barn during this year's version of "Lazy Days of August". Claire Sr has to leave a little before the end of our season for her teaching job back home, so it is really great for Longacres that Peggy will be able to be here that last week providing extra adult supervision, as well as her very special sense of humor and "fun"! Peggy is pretty much just a big kid herself.

April 25th Update:

Snow coming to Longacres! Ugh!

You've been reading about how much outside work we've been doing the past two weeks while we've had wonderful, summer like weather. We've been racing to get the farm cleaned up for the season, knowing that the terrific weather won't last forever. Well, sure enough, things are about to change. There are snow showers in the forecast Monday through Wednesday of next week! It's not likely to have any real snow building up on the ground, but it won't be painting weather.

We had a similar experience two years ago with a wonderful period of early April weather followed by almost a month of cold, wet days and nights. Winter doesn't let go easily here in Western New York!

April 24th Update:

Congratulations to Griffin Sullivan for her very good showing at the BTRC show last week! Scroll through the pictures at the top of this page for a nice one of Griffin with her ribbons. Griffin is riding at Skibbereen Farms in Orchard Park these days and will be at Longacres for her first time in July. We all know Griffin from her many wins on the Summer Series show circuit last year. Keep up the good work, Griffin!

April 23rd:

New Babies!

Those of you who were at Longacres for second session last summer well remember "Harmony", the grey jumper mare we had at Longacres as a sale horse. Guess what? She's due to foal July 20th and you are all invited on a field trip to Trilogy Farms to see Harmony's foal and four other babies who will be at the farm at that time. This will be fun!

More Jump News:

We've written earlier this spring about all the new "Jumper Course" jumps, including the Butterfly Jump, Kone King jump, and the Sunburst jump. We're making good progress with those. Longacres has always had well painted and colorful Jumper courses, but we had to admit that Liegh over at High Time/Sugarbrook Farms probably had the most impressive jumper courses in Western New York. With our new 2008 jumps we'll give them a good challenge for most dramatic jumper courses in western New York.

First 2009 Reservation!

We welcome Staci from New Jersey as the first on the list of formal 2009 enrollment requests. The rules for new enrollments in 2009 will be the same as they were for this season - first choice goes to students who are enrolled this year, after the September 1st beginning of 2009 enrollment. New students like Staci will be accepted after current students get their chance for early enrollment. As #1 of new applicants, Staci is looking good for 2009!

How's the Economy? We Wish we Knew!

Riding schools like Longacres that take you to shows each week and offer you hours of daily riding are a luxury, not a necessity. So as we make our long range plans for 2009, we're closely watching for indications of how the "upscale" economic climate is trending. We've noted before the fact that large RV sales are way down this year, that mid size boat and yacht sales are down (though large yacht sales are actually up), and we're all aware of caution in the housing market at all but the most expensive levels.

At Longacres we're really not sure how the economy will impact businesses like ours. Since we fill almost a year in advance, we were full last fall before the current problems with the economy became so notable. Out of almost fifty different customers over our 12 week season, we have had one shorten their planned stay and one who has not paid in full and may have to give up their spot. That's less than 5% who have changed their plans possibly due to the economy. But it is one thing thing for parents who have already promised their kids that they will go to Longacres to "grin and bear it" and dig deeper in the purse to pay for camp this year. We won't really know how Longacres families are impacted by the current economy until September 1st when we begin accepting enrollments for 2009. It is encouraging that we've had many on our wait list for this year and that girls like Staci are already putting their deposits down for next year. But we won't really know until September 1st.

Longacres Spending Plans

As far as economizing or downsizing go, we considered that for this year here at Longacres. We considered cutting back a bit on spending this season so we would have some cash reserve in case the 2009 season does not fill completely due to the uncertainty in the economy. But we are nearly at the end of a long term schedule of major improvements and upgrades to the farm that began six years ago. We're almost "There!". We have decided to spend heavily this year on finishing the long planned improvements, including facility maintenance, massive jump improvements, and new horses so that Longacres will finally be just about what we want it to be by this summer.

Then if the economy suffers deeper setbacks and we have to tighten our belts a bit next summer, we'll be in a very good position to ride it out with the farm already in excellent shape.

Besides, by spending heavily this year, we're doing "our part" to keep the economy going strong!!!!!!!

April 22, evening:

As I wrote earlier today, we're very pleased with our progress on our long term major maintenance and improvements schedule at Longacres. Below is a picture I took just a few minutes ago down at the barn where Nick is putting the finishing touches on the new and improved drainage and landscaping that will help keep the barn stalls on the right side from flooding in heavy rain storms. This has been a problem in recent years and only last fall did we carefully check all the grades and realize that there simply wasn't enough slope away from the side of the barn to the drainage ditches. I worked last fall and more this spring with tractors to make big changes in where the rain water goes, and Meghan's crew of workers has done a lot of hand work to make it look good the past two weeks. We seeded the fresh dirt tonight so it should be well along towards greening up by the time you get here.

April 22:

Longacres Lookin' Good!

2008 marks the sixth year of a major maintenance and improvement program that really got started in 2003. It was planned as a five year program so we're almost on schedule and the farm is showing the results. We're looking good and it is harder to make work lists for our spring maintenance team since so much of the farm has already been refurbished and improved in recent years! After the big painting projects on the barn and the dining hall are done this coming month and the jump replacement program is completed before our June 14 horse show, we will feel very good about the way Longacres is presented.

There will always be more to get done. That's the nature of a fdarm that is 70 years old - stuff is constantly wearing out and needing replacement. Next year will be time for a new roof on the dining hall. But we are ahead of the game. There's very little that looks run down and junky. We couldn't say that six years ago! Many of you only know Longacres from the past two or three years when we were already well along in our improvement program. But Mandy, Lillian, Shelly, and Claire Sr. were all here before we really got going on our improvements, and I know they can see what's been accomplished. Sharon and Laura will also be in their fourth year and will remember watching things get done.

The rest of you will also be able to enjoy some dramatic improvements when you arrive this year and see some very special new jumps!

More later!

April 21st:

Customer Service:

You know, that special effort from a business on behalf of the people you do business with. That way of doing business that's getting to be rare in the world today.

I bring this up because I spent five minutes on the phone the other day trying to get information on upgrading my satellite TV service. I couldn't get through to a real person or even get put on hold to talk to a real person - just around and around in menu choice circles. I finally hung up and nearly threw the phone across the room. I was steaming!

I looked over at Meghan and she was smirking at me. For a second that made me more angry, but almost instantly I understood, and we both broke out laughing.

No wonder Longacres is doing so well the past couple of years! We put every once of effort we can muster into communicating with all of you out there and answering any question you might have. We believe in inviting you into a family when you sign up to come to Longacres. We feel like we owe our customers an answered telephone anytime day or night, or a quick call back if we're out and about. We hope very much that all you experienced Longacres people out there agree with us and that we are succeeding in our effort.

What we know for SURE is that we never want to be like so much of corporate America and deal with you through layer upon layer recorded messages!

April 20th:

A Senior Moment

You may have read about our chain saw expedition through the trails cutting trees with Meghan, Jaclyn, and Casey. And how Tom nearly killed himself finishing all the tree cutting with the big saw after the light weight chain saw jammed. Well, it turns out that there was nothing wrong with the little saw after all. There is a safety brake on modern chain saws that instantly locks the chain if the saw kicks back. Sometimes that safety lock sets unexpectedly if you are working hard and a tree pinches the chain. That's what happened the other day, but I didn't think to check the brake - I just assumed that something had jammed the chain. So I nearly killed myself using the heavy saw when I could have flipped the brake off and continued working with the little saw and not nearly worn myself out. (nearly is the wrong word - I DID wear myself out!)

I am somewhat embarrassed that I did not check the obvious brake thing and punished myself unnecessarily. But it may be more than a "senior moment". I now remember doing exactly the same thing almost ten years ago when I was less of a "senior", so I can't blame this lapse only on age - simple stupid mistake is more like it!

On the other hand, I have this small excuse: When I was young and doing lots of tree work with chain saws, there was no such thing as a safety chain brake. If you tripped and fell on the saw when it kicked back, you got cut open! So you were careful. Modern safety inventions are wonderful things, but they sometimes trip up us older habitual workers.

On a more positive note, we are really excited about all the new jumps we're ordering. Gary Husted, the carpenter who built the new blue and yellow jumps and the "Holloween Jump" last summer has signed on to do most of the work. With the big sun-rays and the butterflies on the stands, these Grand Prix quality jumps will be 26' or more wide and very impressive looking. They will be great additions to the jumper courses. And you hunter riders are not forgottan - we will now have real hunter jumps for the entire hunt course so hunters will not be spooked by red, white, and blue panels on the far line!

April 19th:

Summer Series Sponsors!

We welcome Missy Bessette of Orchard Park, NY as the first official Summer Series Awards sponsor for the 2008 season. Missy was a sponsor last summer and will again sponsor the "Low Child Adult" hunter division. Without generous sponsors like Missy and her family, the Longacres Summer Series would not be what it has become. Thank you Missy.

If you and your family or your family's business would like to sponsor a Division for the high point awards, call Meghan or Tom at Longacres. The cost to sponsor a division is $150. We print the names of our sponsors in each week's show news and announce them at all the shows and at the Awards Banquet on August 9th. If you pledge your sponsorship early, we have a full season to express our thanks.

It is fitting that we get our first sponsor pledge on a day when we are actively planning the MANY new jumps for the Longacres series of shows. We visited Quakerfield Stables this morning and took pictures of the way some of their jumps are built to help our carpenters as we work on our own new jumps. Diane and Noreen from Quakerfield send a big "Hello" to everyone in the Summer Series, and we all look forward to getting together for the first show at Pony Club June1st!

April 18th late:

Thanks again to Casey and Jaclyn for volunteering to come over and help us clear the riding trails! The pictures are now posted at the below link. No, the kids didn't use the chain saws. But they were a huge help moving the logs after Tom cut them up. We had a good plan in mind, with Casey and Meghan carrying the two chain saws out into the woods (and Jaclyn carrying the bottle of chain oil!). Tom was going to conserve his energy for sawing while everyone moved the cut wood and carried the supplies. We needed the big saw to cut the main logs, but Tom planned to use the light weight saw for most of the cutting to conserve his senior citizen energy! BUT we had a break down of the little saw early in the project and Tom had to use the heavy saw for all the cutting. Rest breaks started to come more and more often for Tom! He would cut as many logs as he could to get ahead of the "lumber crew", then rest while they moved those branches off the trail. He was exhausted when we finished.

After the work detail we decided to all go in to Kone King together for an ice cream treat. This was the first official Longacres Kone King outing of 2008!

Thanks also to Meghan's regular spring crew including Joel, Nick, Sayer, and Taylor. They have the farm looking really good already, thanks to the unusually nice April weather. If any of you would like to visit the farm, we'd be glad to show you around anytime.

More news over the weekend!

April 18th:

April 17th:

Hi everyone,

So much is going on that we may not update each and every day for the next few weeks, but we are getting lots done. Meghan's work crew is taking great advantage of the wonderful weather at Longacres this week.

One of our real joys every year (in spite of all the work involved) is watching the farm slowly take shape each spring. It starts out as a storm ravaged and weather beaten mess after enduring our harsh western New York winter. But as we rake leaves, fix crushed pasture fences, cut up fallen trees, paint buildings, and so much more we begin to look like Longacres again! When we first start in the spring it seems an overwhelming task. But even one solid week of good weather, like we're having now, lets us make a lot of progress.

Paint, paint, and more paint!

Meghan's crew does a great deal of our own painting, especially all the fences and jumps. We usually do our own painting on the smaller buildings, but this is a year for major painting. We're doing the whole barn and the outside of the dining hall where we did not put on new cedar shingles last summer. We're getting bids for painting contractors to do these big jobs, so they will look smooth and evenly painted. And because some of the work is high off the ground! We are frugal by nature, and it is painful signing contracts for outside contractors!

April 16th:

We continue to make great progress cleaning up and beginning repairs to open the farm. Meghan's maintenance crew is doing a good job and we're especially looking forward to a trail cleaning and tree cutting session on Friday when Casey Puffer has volunteered to stop over and help Meghan and I clear some trees! You rock, Casey!

Jumps!

We spent much of today planning the new jumps, and we have to thank many of you for sending in pictures and suggestions. Here's what we've decided on:

We're ordering 26 new jump rails in addition to the dozens we had already. We are making two real "Grand Prix" style brand new jumps. One will be a Butterfly Jump with multiple butterfly elements and brilliantly colored rails in the center. Really impressive looking in the plans and photo's we're using to help us in our own design!

The second Grand Prix jump will be a double Sunburst, with a rainbow between the two Sunburst stands. This is Meghan's baby and she is excited!

Next - ROLL OF DRUMS!!!!!! The "Purple" Kone King Jump! Purple because you regular KNOW that Longacres needs a purple jump, and Kone King - well, do you have to ask????

Next is a second copy of the nice blue and yellow jumps we added last year so that we can build a blue and yellow combination.

Next is a wishing well jump, built as a very conservative hunter jump to go with our natural hunter line.

Next is another natural hunter jump with a lattice covered gate.

And finally five or six sets of simple stick stands so we can have many more oxers on our courses at the shows.

PS: As we are planning these new jumps, we are adding up the costs in lumber, carpentry labor, and painting - it will not be cheap, and if one or two of these aren't done when you get here, it's because we ran over budget! But we are VERY excited, especially about the two Grand Prix jumps!

PS: Spending tons of money at this time of year, we just sent in our first Dover Tack order of the season for the biggest girth they make and a girth extender - can you guess who for??!!!???

April 15, 6PM:

Meghan's crew really went to work outside today! Sayer, Nick, and www were all working today, mostly on cleaning out fallen branches and debris, raking leaves, and working on trails and roads. We're also working improving the drainage around the barn so the stalls won't flood so easily in heavy rain storms.

We had a painting contract here today talking about the barn and dining hall painting jobs - LOTs of big jobs are under way.

All in all, the farm looks very good. Meghan and I figure if we absolutely had to, we could open for business this weekend, but we are VERY HAPPY that we have more than a month more to get all the work done!!!

April 15th:

Mission Accomplished!

I know, bad phrase. But you may remember that at the end of February I announced that I was going on a serious fitness effort to prepare for this summer. I set a goal of losing fifteen pounds by July 15th. You can read my thoughts in the March 12 to 14th updates.

To-Da! As of today I have lost the fifteen pounds well ahead of schedule and feel much better! I have raised my goal just a bit and plan to have lost 20 pounds by July 15th - that's just five to go and should be no problem now that I am working outside every day.

Welcome to Lydia, our newest Longacres student. We had a two week period open up when someone shortened their stay, so Lydia popped in off the wait list for the July 6 to 20th. Great to have you, Lydia!!!!

April 14th:

IMPORTANT:

The web server that has hosted Longacres.com for the past ten years is shutting down sometime in the next ten days and our website is being moved to another server. This SHOULD be transparent to you. But there is a chance we could go off line for a few days if something goes wrong.

If we disappear from the web, log onto the following website which we use for some of our files:

www.mudhotline.com

Or just bookmark our "roadtrip" page which is on the same server.

We will put up a temporary page at this site if the regular Longacres site is not working. Write this down if you want.

NEWS OF THE DAY:

We are having great weather at Longacres this week, so we're calling in most of the local people who worked for us on the farm last summer. Sayer and others will be starting to clean up around the barn, rake leaves, fix fences, cut up downed trees, and much more! It's very helpful to us when we get a solid week of good weather during April and can get a big head start on opening the farm for the season! The first horses arrive here four weeks from tomorrow!

April 13th late:

Hi everyone, this is Meghan for a change! We have another horse to welcome to the herd! "Boo" is a 9 year old 15'1 Paint Pinto Bay Overo gelding. His registered name is Chief Quartermaster and his barn name with his previous owner was Babee. She has owned him since he was 1 1/2 years old, so she and her family just got in the habit of calling him Babee and it just stuck! But we are going to change his name to Boone or Boo for short. His markings on his face appear almost like a giant white mask, which makes it seem like he is playing hide and go seek with you. . . . so his show name might be "Peek-a-Boo"!

Boo's best quality for riding is that he appears to be very versatile. He seems safe, gentle and not easily spooked for our less experienced riders. . . . . and yet has some spunk when you have a rider on him that wants to REALLY have some fun! We have video to prove how he can really "book" (as we like to call it!) when somebody lets him! He has had a lot of practice trail riding (not adverse to water crossings or even a little fun on a Pond Jumping Day!). He was shown quite a few years ago in halter classes and pleasure hack classes. He learned how to jump a couple of years ago but is a little rusty now as he hasn't been jumping consistently. But he has a great attitude about seeing and trying new things. It seems as though he has some un-channeled potential that is just crying out for us at Longacres to address! : )

We had a great call from Robyn today. Quantum can be full of energy and difficult over the winter. Robyn called very excited to say that she had a perfect ride on him with perfect lead changes, no bucks, and just a great ride all the way around. It was wonderful to hear from a very cheerful Robyn with good news.

April 12th, late:

April 13th:

Lillian will be here for all of our early bird weeks! Fantastic!

Barbie Glica says "hello" to everyone, and she will be one of our regular guest instructors!

More later! After SNOW at Longacres early this morning, we're looking forward to a full week of sun and temperatures in the 60's! Yahoo! Lots of work will get done outside.

April 12th:

Diesel!

Meghan made the deal today, so unless something goes wrong at the last minute, he is OURS!!!!! And he is BIG!!!!!!!! Meghan took her measuring tapes when she went to sign the sales contract today, and he measures just half an inch shy of 18 hands - and he may be still growing! He just turned 6 four days ago, so he is still a curious youngster. (The guy in the picture above is a big guy.) Look at one of the pictures in today's album that shows Meghan's saddle on the ground. Meghan says she took the biggest pads in the tack room and they look like pony pads on Diesel. She took the saddle and the biggest girth we own just to see how it fits Diesel - well: with the girth on the very bottom hole on one side, you bring it under his BIG belly, and pull it up to the other side of the saddle - - - and it is six inches too short! We will have to ride him with one (or more!) girth extenders!

Not only will he be a very cool friend and pet, but he already is a pretty decent riding horse. He has done quite a few trails and we have trotted him over ground poles and he seems to like it. How COOL would it be if he turns out to be able to do small jumping courses this summer at shows? Would you like to be the first one to take this 18 hand draft horse in an over fences class at a show?!?!??? And would it be fun to take him to an "A" show like Erie County Fair and put him in the same ring with all the fancy show horses???? YES!!!!!

Meghan really likes his personality. He is very gentle, like many big horses. He does not spook or jump at quick movements, but he is VERY curious about everything! He wants not only to look at anything that comes near him, but to nuzzle and mouth stuff with his lips just out of curiousity. Seems like he treats anything within his reach as something that "just maybe", might be good to eat.

Welcome to Longacres, Diesel! You are going to fit right in. (Quantum, say "goodbye" to being the biggest, strongest horse in the pasture!)

Longacres "History" coming soon.

April 11th:

Remember all that stuff from yesterday about farmer Tom and the macho "Farm Boss" chain saw? Well, today is the day of resting very sore muscles after doing too much too soon as we begin working outside for the season!

April 10th, 9PM:

The pictures show me mostly doing chain saw work, something I've done all my life. Longacres has four chain saws (three of which work at the moment!). The two in the pictures with me are the ones I most often use myself. The little 021 is very light and perfect for an old guy to handle. It's the one I use most of the time. But this was a big tree that had to be cut up, so I also got out the old "041 Stihl Farm Boss" - this guy cuts wood FAST! And wears out old guys who try to man handle it!

BELOW: Tom with his saws

Meghan also had a busy day in the office accounting all your tuition checks, catching up on offie work, and arranging meetings with the owners of the new horses we're buying. AND she had to take breaks here and there to take pictures of Tom working, which cut into her own work time. But you know Longacres - if something happens, we have to take pictures of it! I thanked Meghan by taking her on the first "Kone King" trip of the summer after dinner. Check out her picture!

Reunion Pictures, Finally!

April 10th, 6PM:

More updates later tonight.

April 10th:

Sorry for "update-less-ness" yesterday! It was our first day home and we were tied up with lots of little jobs - selling our old car, surveying the work to be done around the farm, and arranging the details of buying some new horses. We hope to get to posting some pictures of the reunion later today. We did get your pics, Mike.

April 8th:

We're Home!

More news tomorrow. We're opening all our mail so we should know tomorrow if anyone cancelled a session and if there will be any openings for wait list people.

- Stay Tuned

March 29th:

Meghan is spending LOTS of time shopping for several new horses. We're handicapped since the barn won't open for six more weeks and we have to arrange for any horses we buy now to be boarded until May 15th. But Meghan is making good contacts and some of the horses she looks at now will be at Longacres. Check out the "Joker" look-alike below that may join us at Longacres.

Want a Good Old Car?

One of the things Meghan and I do so that we can live decently on a modest income is that we drive old cars. We shop carefully for 6 or 7 year old vehicles usually and when we find one in good condition we buy it, fix anything that it needs, and maintain it very well while we drive it for 4 more years.

March 28: - "Peaks & Valleys"

Hi Everyone,

How about a little talk on the meaning of life? Well, OK, maybe that's a bit of a reach for the Longacres "Blog". But I do want to write today about some different choices in how we go about living our lives.

Meghan and I instantly agreed to drop our previous plans for this morning so we could take a long drive through the surrounding countryside to enjoy the unusually beautiful scenery. It was something we didn't want to miss. It was one of life's "peaks" to be treasured and remembered.

I've talked to some of you before about my life outlook of "Peaks and Valleys". It's the belief that life's great moments are "peaks" and that the joy that comes to us by experiencing those peaks makes all the hard work and sacrifice between the peaks worthwhile. That hard work and those sacrifices are the "valleys" you have to endure or work through to earn the right to the great moments at life's peaks. I've always been a person who really, really enjoys great moments and great beauty, whether it is a man made moment, or more often, a great moment created by nature. I can file those experiences away and relive them over and over again. It's an outlook on life that has given me the motivation to put in very long hours, or to do without stuff I might want, so long as I can see that next great or euphoric moment somewhere down the trail.

Not everyone is put together this way. To live the "Peaks and Valleys" lifestyle, you've got to have a capacity for taking great joy and euphoria out of your favorite moments. Enough to last you through the hardships and hard work that come in between the peaks.

There are at least a couple of alternatives to the "Peaks and Valleys" outlook on life. One is to try to stay out of the deep valleys of discomfort at all cost, and another is to search for the level path in between the peaks and valleys.

Some people are less able to enjoy or hold onto the special memories of the experiences at life's peaks. People like that are often willing to work hard and go out of their way to avoid the unpleasantness, pain, and discomfort found in the deepest of life's valleys. There's nothing wrong with planning your life to avoid pain and sacrifice. It's just that you won't make it to as many peaks if you travel that path.

A third outlook, which perhaps includes a majority of people, is to follow a trail that stays somewhere between the peaks and valleys most of the time. After all, who doesn't like to have a really great experience on one of the peaks now and then? It's just that many people aren't willing to make the big sacrifices necessary to finding more frequent "peaks".

What's your own outlook? It's a good thing to think about from time to time. Are you like me, someone who searches out and treasures the great moments at the peaks, and who is willing to sacrifice to get there? Or are you a person who really hates unpleasantness and discomfort and who wants to arrange your life especially to avoid the bad times? Or somewhere in between? We are all different this way.

Meghan and I had a great experience this morning enjoying the winter scenes. A nice little peak. I'll give you another example of a big peak in our lives that we visit every year. It's "Derby Day" in August when we run the Longacres Jumper Derby and hold the Awards presentations for the Longacres Southtowns Summer Horse Show Series. We work long hours nearly around the clock in the weeks leading up to the Derby to put together a great event. And even with the help of many generous sponsors, we usually put a couple of thousand dollars of our own money into covering the costs. But, oh, what a day it is! The beauty of the Derby, the pageantry, the bagpipe band, and all the happy people at the awards party make every hour of the effort putting the event together well worthwhile. Derby Day is a really great experience for us every year. It is truly a tall "Peak"!

And we believe that one of the very nice things about the Longacres Riding Camp is that we try to populate the map of your summer vacation here with enough peaks so that you'll find a few of your own to climb, enjoy, and remember long after you've gone home. If that happens for you, we'll have climbed one more peak of our own! Happy trails.

- Tom

March 27:

Check the picture above of the "Dancing Queen"! OK, it's a bit of an inside joke. Look closely and notice the iPhone in Tom's hand playing tunes while Tom and Jaclyn joked about bustin' moves! Jaclyn has been trading bantering comments with us today via email.

And that's one of the nice things about the Longacres family. We do trade emails with many, many of you year round. Just check our alumni messages file to see the samples! And most of you write to us as though we were a couple of your buddies from school, telling us of your triumphs and trials with horses or just life in general. And some of you feel comfortable enough to banter with us in a good natured joking manner. I think of Jaclyn and Andrea as two who are most comfortable giving us a little good natured ribbing. Likely because they live close to us and see us from time to time year round. Keep it coming, but watch out - "Paybacks - - - - - -".

March 26:

"Annie the Novelist" is hosting a Longacres get together in a couple of weeks on the weekend of the 12th of April. Meghan and I actually are traveling through DC the week before as we bring the RV back to Longacres from its winter home. We are trying to organize a little Pizza party or something on Monday evening, the 7th. If it works out, we look forward to seeing a few of you that day!

We are really starting to get busy with outdoor work getting the farm ready now that the days are getting longer and warmer. There is still snow in the woods but the fields are starting to appear again. We met with a couple of painting contractors today about repainting the barn and the dining hall. Meghan is off in a couple of hours to look at another new horse prospect.

We did offer to buy Diesel for the full asking price. We're just waiting to see if they will keep him for us until the barn opens in May. Keep your fingers crossed - he will make a great pet and a fun ride if we get him!

Besides fresh paint on the buildings, some road and bridge repairs, and some new horses, the biggest changes at Longacres this year are going to be many more new jumps. We're ordering lots more new jump rails, building enough hunter jumps so our outside hunt course will be all natural hunter style jumps, and adding some very dramatic jumper fences. Some of this will be done when the very first of you arrive on May 26. The rest will be added gradually over the following weeks so that it will all be ready by the first Longacres show on June 14th!

We welcome our latest new Longacres student, Susan M. from Vero Beach, Florida. Susan is an adult coming to the May 26 adult week, which will now be full. Looks like a great group to do a lot of fun riding that first "early bird" week!!!! We now have only a few spots open the week of June 2nd

March 25th:

We're also talking to painting contractors this week about repainting the barn and the dining hall. The work goes on!

Money - Money - Money

First, a reminder that all your final tuition payments are due next Tuesday on April 1st. You'll have a few days extra time until the end of next week to get your payments in, but we have people on our wait list, and with the tight economy, we'll have to fill the space if someone is not going to be able to come. Be SURE to call us if your payment is not going to be here April 1st. Sorry to be so businesslike!

And speaking of business, we are certainly watching all the turmoil in the national economy with interest. Longacres customers appear to have been mostly not affected by the problems in the economy this year. But that is partly because most of you had to make your plans last fall before the extent of the sub-prime mess and other problems were well known. Most of you are in a good enough financial position that you have not had to change plans already made. We're happy for all of you and happy for us!

The prospects for next year are less certain. You will have to make decisions about next year late in the summer. And I would guess the economy will still be in the thick of the current mess at that time. It will be interesting to see if some families will have to shorten the length of their camp stays or forego camp altogether next year.

I am always a watcher of any information that bears on the market for luxury goods and services. And I would say that riding camp and horse shows are an at least partly luxury commodity. One news item that caught my notice is that Winnebago (RV manufacturer) has seen a steep decline in orders this winter. RV buyers tend to be more retired folks than families with children, but they are often of the same economic class as our customers. It is noteworthy that they are cutting back.

I am also in the boating business, since I publish and market the "Boating and Cruising Guide to the St Johns River" in Florida. One of my customers is a trawler manufacturer who buys books from me to give to his boat buyers. He has an interesting statistic: He makes several models of trawler boats, including one that sells for under a half million dollars, and several models that sell for well over a half million dollars. He says that there has been a steep drop in orders for the boats that sell for under a half million dollars. But the sales of his boats costing over a half million are as strong as ever.

Here's hoping that all of you Longacres families are folks who would order the boats for more than a half mil!!!!! If so, clearly you will have plenty left over to send your sweet, deserving children to a riding camp again next year! Be well.

- Tom

March 24:

Meet Diesel! We have not bought him yet, but we're thinking seriously about it - he is HUGE - HUGE - HUGE!!!! He's a nearly 18 hand Belgian draft horse (dark palamino). He's had a lot of trail riding western - he is only six years old. Friendly as a puppy! He doesn't know a lot but he is broke and when we had him trot over ground rails tonight, he did it without blinking. He would be a HUGE pet at Longacres! (Did I say he was big?)

He is BIG!

- - - and has a BIG head!

March 23rd:

Now it feels like our 2008 season has really begun. It seemed natural as can be to be eating dinner this afternoon with a whole room full of people who come to Longacres for camp and for horse shows! Greetings to all of you at home from the extended Longacres "Gang" here in western New York, including Andrea, Casey, and their extended families and the Avino's, and us.

We eve made plans for another get together soon with horse show people at Pasquale's, and Casey demands that we also go to Kone King after so he can defend his champion ice cream eating title!

Also, Robyn writes from her trip down south that the Longacres sweatshirts have arrived safely at her house. She'll either bring them to camp or get them to you some other was as you request.

Tomorrow Meghan takes a long road trip to look at the new Belgian horse she is considering for the summer. The season has truly begun.

March 23: Happy Easter!

We're looking forward to our visit with Andrea, Casey & their families and the Avino's this afternoon, but this morning we're still working at Longacres. I took a walk down in the main camp area this morning and was surprised at how deep the snow is still in the woods in the valley. I hope you enjoy the iPhone pictures I snapped.

We've also been busy talking with Susan from Vero Beach and another family about the final vacancies in our early bird weeks. It looks as though our adult week will be full by tonight or tomorrow, leaving just a couple of spots in the first Pro-Clinic week June 2nd.

Below are my pictures of Pixie cabin and the Dining Hall taken this morning:

March 22:

Hi everyone,

We're pleased to be having Easter Dinner with friends of Longacres. We're joining Andrea's family, the Puffers, and the Avino's tomorrow afternoon. Thanks for the generous invitation, guys!

Great Full Moon!!!!

If it's clear where you are, go look out the window now (8:30PM) - there's a really nice full moon rising here at Longacres!

March 21:

Long overdue, we posted a better index of our webpages and information at the top of this page. You may find stuff you've never seen before!

We ran into Andrea and her mom, Gina, this morning at breakfast and had a great talk with them about their new barn. They are training with Farley Bridgeman at Bridgeman Farms. There's quite a crew of riders there who were part of our show circuit last summer. They are all having a great time there, so it looks like we'll be working quite closely with Farley this summer.

It's really interesting how the horse world gradually changes over the years in any particular area. Some of the stables that used to be the power houses of the western New York horse show world are now either out of business or relatively small players in the business. Others that had very well known trainers have changed trainers and gone in completely new directions. Some stables lose all their customers and seem like they're not going to make it and then suddenly rebuild with a whole new group of great riders. And there are brand new stables coming on the scene and doing very well. You have to stay on your toes to know who is who!

You are going to see most of the same 30 to 40 riders this year who were regulars at the Longacres Summer Series shows last summer. Some of them will just be at new stables.

March 20th:

This has been a busy day at Longacres. Some of you are sending in your final tuition payments this week. (They are all due on April 1st.) Meghan's busy with accounting and taxes.

Meghan is also spending quite a bit of time looking for new horses to buy or lease for the summer. The most interesting prospect is a very big Belgian draft horse named "Diesel"! It's not a sure thing yet, but we think it would be fun to have a great big Belgian that rides!

We also had a call from Anrea's trainer, Farley. Farley may have a horse to send to Longacres for the summer to get some work. We'll know more in a week or two.

Meghan also had a long talk today with Lillian, who is coming to work with Mandy opening the barn this spring. Lillian was one of the first to love and work with Brody, and she looks forward to seeing him again when she gets here.

March 19, later:

FIRST! Alexa = BAD!!!!!

I know that a few hours ago I ASKED you guys to send me descriptions of chocolate chip cookies or chocolate treats so that I could fondly remember what they are like in my new deprived condition. I was not counting on getting living color pictures of tasty treats. Alexa has me drooling as I read her description and had to ALSO look at her picture of a very appealing cookie tray!

March 19th:

We've been working all day on the new "Meet the 2008 Staff" page, and we hope to post it later tonight.

In the meantime, I'm curious about how descriptively you guys can write. I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I am on a SERIOUS diet to get more fit for the summer. My fitness problem has always been that I like chocolate snacks and chocolate chip cookies better than I should. So when I began my diet almost three weeks ago, I didn't just cut down on my sweets, I quit them cold turkey.

Now I can bear that. What is becoming really painful is that I'm beginning to forget what a wonderful chocolate chip cookie or Godiva chocolate treat even looks like or tastes like! So who can write the best description of the taste of a cookie or chocolate treat? Should be a few interesting answers!

PS - Belated "Happy Birthday" to Claire, Sr. Meghan remembered the right day and sent her a message but I forgot to post it here. (She got a GRAND birthday present - the perfect saddle that she has wanted ever since she was a little girl!)

March 18th:

Although there are few things more important than the riding safety discussion from yesterday, we will return to more upbeat topics for the rest of the week. We'll be working on some more improvements to the new "Meet the Horses" page later today, as well as implementing Annie's idea for a "Longacres Novelists Club"! Check back later.

March 17th:

Bonnie and her dad had a long talk about taking risks doing what you love, and he and I talked a bit about that this morning. We all know that there are risks riding and jumping 1200 pound animals with minds of their own. We try to be careful and take only reasonable risks, but every time we get on a horse, there is some chance of an accident.

We take those risks because we love the rewards of the sport and the joy that riding and jumping can bring. But from time to time it is important to step back and ask ourselves if we are doing everything possible to minimize the chance that we'll be in a serious accident.

Meghan and I know that we assume a heavy responsibility for providing a safe environment when we accept you (or your children) for a riding session at Longacres. We think about that all the time, and we plan to hold extra safety guidelines talks with all our staff and junior counselors - - - and with YOU - - when you all get here this summer.

Longacres has always been an achievement oriented riding program. We want you to have the opportunity to try new things, to stretch your capabilities, and to be reasonably challenged while you are here. There are many camp programs that employ "risk avoidance" at all costs, and where you rarely are challenged. Sometimes, when we hear about tragic riding accidents, we think about cutting back on our more advanced riding opportunities. But that would not be Longacres. We will continue to teach advanced jumping and to offer qualified riders the chance to try difficult things and to train young horses.

What we will also continue to do is to watch over you as closely as we can and be as strict and demanding as we can about being careful. About not being careless. Some accidents happen in spite of the best precautions and most careful horsemanship. But many others are very preventable. You regulars know how angry I get when I see a group of you leading horses out to pasture without proper spacing, or turning horses loose in the pasture without turning them back facing you before unclipping the lead. We will dedicate 2008 as the year of zero tolerance of careless, bad horsemanship.

I want to end this little discussion (which I am sure is unsettling some of our brand new parents!), by giving thanks for the very good safety record we've had at Longacres in recent years. And throughout our 70 year history, for that matter. We have had no serious injuries in the 12 years that Meghan has been helping me run Longacres, beyond one broken collar bone suffered by counselor Lisa Kaminski about 11 years ago. It healed cleanly and she did not even go home from Longacres after her accident. Prior to Lisa's collar bone, it had also been a long time between significant riding accidents.

We like to think that part of our very good safety record is the result of good horsemanship, good horses, and good supervision in our riding program. We also know that very good luck has played a part, and that can't last forever. Sometime, some horse will take a bad step or a bad jump like Darren Chiacchia's, and someone at Longacres will get hurt. Hopefully not as seriously as Darren.

It will be a sad day if and when that time comes. So I ask that all of you at home sit down with your parents or kids and talk about two things. First, talk about safety in general and the risks you know you take with horses. Discuss anything you might be able to do to make your daily riding experience safer. Second, talk a little bit about the rewards of riding and about the happiness it brings you. And about how much risk you are willing to take to be doing something you love.

Darren Chiacchia knew the risk he was taking at Red Hills this weekend. So did Bonnie Mosser. (her dad told me this morning that she tells him about it all the time.) These olympic level riders take quite big risks all the time, but they do it because they deeply love what they're doing.

You Longacres riders are taking a bit less risk, but you are still enjoying a somewhat dangerous sport. It is important to remember that. It is important to ask yourself if you love what you are doing enough to take those risks. We hope the answer for you is "Yes".

March 16th:

More Longacres news later.

For the moment, please give your prayers and hopes for the survival of western New York's Olympic Bronz medal rider, Darren Chiacchia, who is fighting for his life in a Florida hospital after a very bad fall in a three day event. Tragically, although Darren's horse survived the accident, two other horses died yesterday taking part in the same three day event. It was a sad day for the horse world in Tallahassee yesterday.

Please ride carefully.

March 16:

Below is a message from Robyn about the jacket and shirt orders and some news about her horsies!

March 14th, later:

Now and then we like to take some space to introduce someone new coming to Longacres for the first time. Check out Christina's picture a little above on this page. She'll be here for the second half of our summer. She writes interesting emails, and we think she's found a good summer "home" at Longacres. She'll fit right in.

Here's a couple of Christina's stories from this week:

We love getting entertaining stories from all of you, whether you are a veteran of Longacres, or attending for the first time like Christina.

March 14th:

Thanks to all of you who have sent in supportive or sympathetic messages about Tom's dieting suffering! It's good to know I'm not the only one to have been through this.

And for all you students who are worried about a cranky or irritable Tom during the summer, Meghan promises that at least a week before the first of you arrive for the summer, she is going to begin force feeding me chocolate chip cookies and ice cream at least once a day! So I will be happy.

The snow is melting here at the farm - spring is just around the corner. It's beginning to smell like spring out in the woods, so very soon we'll be fixing fences, cutting tree branches off the trails, and opening the barn for the season. And buying new horses! Keep in touch!

March 13th:

OK - Tom is cranky and irritable. He's having trouble dealing with the world. Life is NOT nice! He is in withdrawal.

Tom quit cookies, ice cream, deserts, and even CHOCOLATE Cold Turkey almost two weeks ago! (perhaps Peyton, who often shares our table during Kone King trips, can best guess at the difficulty of my sacrifice!)

When I was young I was a pretty fit guy. I ran cross country and played ball. I never had to think about fitness and I was naturally lean as a rail until I hit thirty years old.

But the age of "thirty" is only a dim memory in 2008. In more recent years I have worked hard around the farm during our spring and summer season and have lost weight and gained muscle every summer running Longacres. But I spend more time working at the computer and less time outdoors during the winter. Muscles soften and the waistline increases with this inactivity.

And as I "matured" from age 30 to 40, from 40 to 50, and more recently (and depressingly) from 50 to 60 and a bit beyond, I find that it takes a little longer every summer to shed the winter pounds and that every winter my peak gain is a pound or two more than the previous year. That peak arrives about this time every year. So two weeks ago when the scale told me the spring 2008 peak was at an all time high, I said to myself, "Enough. I'm not so sure I will dramatically change my ways forever, but this year - this season - this summer - I do pledge to put this old body in better shape than it's been the past couple of years." And that day, two weeks ago, I said "goodbye" to my beloved cookies, to bedtime ice cream snacks, and even to Chocolate.

To be really in good shape, I ought to weigh 20 pounds less than I did two weeks ago. I would feel pretty good at 15 pounds less than I was two weeks ago. I pledge to myself (and you guys) that I will be ten pounds less by May 20th. I always lose five to ten pounds during the summer when I'm working around the farm, so that 10 pound head start by May 20th should give me a good shot at a 15 pound goal by summer.

Just to have an interesting target, I will aim to have lost fifteen pounds by the time my ice cream eating partner, Peyton, arrives at Longacres in July. If I fail, I will treat the whole camp to ice cream at Kone King the day after Peyton gets here! And if I have succeeded, we'll still go to Kone King, and Tom will enjoy a two scoop chocolate Sundae!!!!

Aaaaaargh! Even thinking of a delicious chocolate Sundae makes my mouth water as I write this!

Here's to the fun of exercise and dieting!

Disclaimer: What you weigh on a scale is not very important. Feeling fit is important. I have not felt fit this winter. This is right for me.

March 12th:

Hi again,

We're home from our weekend trip and jumping back into preparations for the 2008 riding season! We'll be working pretty much full time from now right through the end of the summer. Our off season has been relaxing, but we're looking forward to the excitement of opening up the farm and preparing for training and horse shows and just plain FUN with horses! We'll have just another few days off when we drive the RV back to Longacres from Florida in a couple of weeks. Besides that, it's work, work, work.

Welcome to Leslie H. from Pennsylvania who has signed up for our very last spot in the traditional June 22 to August 16 camp sessions. WE'RE FULL!

Now that our regular camp sessions are full, we are referring inquiries to our friends at Dunham Sport Horses. Most of our regulars know them as the home stable for "Fire Starter", "Ain't no Rust on Me", and "Genuine Treasure". Write or call us if you need contact information. They still have openings in July and August.

March 8th:

It's not often that I can tell you a kind of heart warming story about Longacres and at the same time give you some interesting new information. New to most of you, anyway!

The story has to do with messages from Longacres campers out of the past. We love to hear from people who were here as riders many years ago, and often we do. Sometimes one letter every month or two. And sometimes, like this past week, we hear from an old friend of Longacres twice in a week. Some of you read the notes from Erika on the alumni notes page a few days ago.

Today I traded messages with Mary Ann. I hope you enjoy the exchange as much as I did.

Here's the first email from Mary Ann:

Here's Tom's first response:

Hi Mary Ann,

It is always nice to hear from people out of Longacres

past. You are the second in two days! Sometimes it

is two months between messages from old campers.

I believe the publisher of the horse books was A.S.

Barnes. They are certainly no longer in print, but

with this information, perhaps you can find one on

eBay or through Amazon. The author was my aunt, Neale

Haley. She died a couple of years ago. I can try to

contact her kids (my cousins) and see if they have a

stash of any of the books. I have only one copy of

some of the series - I think there were five books.

What was your maiden name? Was it Neeley by any

chance?????

Keep in touch.

- Tom Kranz

PS:

I just looked in one of the books, and the names of

the horse books were How to Teach Group Riding; Judge

Your own Horsemanship, Understanding Your Horse; How

to Have Fun with a Horse; and Teaching Your Horse to

SHow. Hope this helps.

Tom

And from Tom to Mary Ann:

Actually, believe it or not, I looked at the picture

of the grain bin in the brochure, saw the grain bucket

you were holding and the back of your head and your

hair, and the name "Neely" just popped into my head.

Some kind of deep seated old memory node activated, I

guess! I don't always connect names from the past with faces, but since I wrote first and last name combinations

down on so many riding lesson lists and cabin lists, I

do very often connect first - last name combinations

from many years ago, so it is not so surprising that

knowing Mary Ann, with a small memory hook like the

picture, a last name might pop into my mind.

Thanks again for writing.

- Tom Kranz

SO - - -

I really liked two things about the correspondence with Mary Ann today. One thing of note is that I really do pay attention to all of you who come to Longacres, even if like Mary Ann, you're not so sure that you were one of the most memorable people in your session. Mary Ann was a good kid at Longacres and I'm proud that I was able to remember her after 38 years! I hope that's a good example of our personal involvement with all of you.

The other thing I have to thank Mary Ann for is reminding me about the series of horse books my aunt wrote based on her years teaching riding here at Longacres. We don't mention them often because they are a part of Longacres history from long ago. They were written in a time when Longacres was younger and less experienced. A couple of them are still quite good reading, especially "How to Teach Group Riding", and "Teaching Your Horse to Show".

Bet most of you didn't know that there is a whole series of horse books filled with pictures of horses and riders from the earlier days in Longacres history! And I didn't know myself until today that most of them are still available from Amazon.com!!

Meghan and I will be busy the next two days, so don't expect a new update until Tuesday or Wednesday.

- Tom (with a decent memory STILL!)

March 7th, later:

Check out Meghan's new "Picture of the Week" above showing Laura and Zanee on the hunt course!

March 7th:

We're pleased to have nearly finished posting all the pages of pictures, but we're not done with the project. We still have to add most of the written descriptions of the horses, including many that you riders have sent us of your favorites. We're also going to work on posting YouTube video links for many of the horses. Keep checking.

March 6th:

Hi everyone,

We are indeed back from vacation and working.

Meghan has been busy preparing the new 2008 general information packets that will go out with final tuition bills sometime late next week. Just a heads up that your final payments are due on April 1st so that we'll have the money to buy horses and get everything ready for you this summer! You should have the packets in your hands two weeks before that date.

By later this evening we will have many more "Meet the Horses" albums posted at this link. Soon we'll post all the comments that you guys have sent in along with each horse's album.

March 5th:

We hope to have many of your emails and letters posted by later today. Also check the new albums linked to the "Meet the Horses" page.

March 4th:

Hi everyone, we're BACK!

Meghan worked hard on the computer all day in airports and on planes putting together about six new albums of pictures for the "Meet the Horses" project. We'll post them tomorrow. Thanks to all of you who have been corresponding with us while we were on the road - it kept us from getting too homesick!!!!!

- Tom & Meghan

Hi guys,

Tom and Meghan will be traveling again for the next eight or nine days. We will get our email constantly and will check our phone messages every two days, at least. But email will get to us immediately.

We are beginning to look for new horses to buy for you! It's a fun time of year when we can pass on all the latest horse shopping news!

Alexa bought a horse recently, and she is trying to choose a show name. If you have good ideas for horse names, write to her - her email is listed on the penpals page.

February 18th, 4PM:

Thanks to everyone who sent in more birthday greetings to Meghan and especially to Peyton for her phone message! We were out at lunch with Uncle Billy when it came in, Peyton. Meghan played it twice over and is really happy!

Also, welcome to Laura, who because she did not use snow days, will likely be able to join us with her mom for early bird week in May! Cool, Laura!

February 18th - Meghan's BIRTHDAY!!!

Meghan thanks everyone who sent in birthday greetings. She's having a great day sleeping in while Tom went out and got her a fresh bagel, playing with her new "grand father's pocket watch", dancing to her iPod without feeling guilty about office and camp work (!! Rare !!), and getting ready to go out for her first restaurant treat of the day!! Meghan liked all the birthday greetings, but especially Annie's which included a recorded "Whinnie", Bremmy's birthday greeting. Meghan played it eight times over laughing every time, and made sure Tom heard it when he came back from fixing broken water pipes on the farm!

There is other BIG NEWS:

Ginger Walked through Water!!!!!!

February 17th:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY - - -

TO MEGHAN!!!!

Monday, February 18, is hard working Meghan's birthday and she is getting several little treats involving yummy FOOD! Uncle Billy is joining us for a birthday lunch in Meghan's honor. I'm sure she would enjoy hearing from some of you regular readers as part of her day long birthday celebration, as well.

February 16th:

Here's a Longacres "Hello" to Emilie A. who is a college student interested in our adult/college week and the Pro-Clinic weeks. We've been trading messages and hope it works out!

Also, a belated "Happy Birthday" to Kate from Montreal, and thanks to Alexa, Annie, and Mike who have all taken pity on us in Lonely East Aurora and written us email in response to our pitiful plea for news the other day!!!! Thank you all!!

February 15th:

Hi Hannah !!!!!!

Funny that my last update was all about the many emails and IM's that usually fly back and forth between Longacres folks. Since then we have had the least messages of any week since last summer.

We've had exactly one message this week, and that was a nice one from Hannah. THANK YOU HANNAH! Hannah is the Longacres "Person of the Week"! Hannah - a fine hard working student last summer and a valued CIT for the 2008 season! You rock, Hannah!

February 12th:

We're going to be tied up and won't have time to update for a couple of days this week. We will be getting emails if you want to trade gossip with us!

We keep hearing from many of you about emailing and IM'ing with each other and we're curious who has the most email penpals from Longacres. Keep track this week and send us a list on Friday of who you traded messages with this week from Longacres. Have fun!

February 11, later:

February 11th:

And a special message for Peyton: KONE KING opened for the season yesterday! They close up for just a couple of month's in the middle of the winter, but were open yesterday. Guess what, Peyton? I drove past with Meghan, but would not drive in with her. Sound familiar? (Inside joke for everyone else but Jenn)

February 10th:

Longacres welcomes Marlies B. from Connecticut to our early bird "Adult Week". Marlies and Meghan really hit it off on the phone and at one point Marlies said, "I get to go to camp! I get to go to camp!", with at least as much enthusiasm as any of you younger students. She rides four times a week and has started jumping. Marlies will be joining Sharon and likely several other horse loving riders "over age 21", all within a few years of being the same age. Meghan and Mandy look forward to hosting "Happy Hour" and perhaps a girls' night out or two that week! (There's still room for more!)

We have only two single spots left open during July and August (one in each month), and four spots to come and ride with Lillian and Mandy in the first June Pro-Clinic week.

February 9th:

We were away from the farm during a pretty impressive flooding event this week, so this morning we did an inspection walk. We are especially keeping an eye on the crossing down near the big creek on the way to the barn. The one that Joel was working on with concrete and rocks off and on for most of the summer. We did not quite finish that project in the fall so we worry that a huge flood could still wash it out before we finish with more concrete and reinforcing in the spring. But it held up again this week. The pipes under the road are plugged with debris from the flood, so Tom is headed down this morning with tools to clear the plugged pipes.

We're also spending time today getting in touch with our new adult week students. It looks like adult week at the end of May will be half full if the new gals who have been corresponding with us do both sign up. It looks like a good group of compatible riders! That week is open to true adults or to mature and independent teens. We have three more spots available.

February 8th:

We just rolled in from our little snowmobile riding trip. Meghan is thrilled from all the fun. Tom is exhausted from all the fun! We'll post a longer update tomorrow.

Thanks to everyone who's written us lately, especially Alexa, and welcome to new students!

Back to work on the "Meet the Horses" page tomorrow.

AND - - - ROLL OF DRUMS - - - - In addition to Claire & Claire & a cast of great junior counselors and CIT's who will be at Longacres for all of the traditional camp season - - - ROLL OF DRUMS - - - - We now have the "Dream Team" of instructors for the early bird special weeks in June!!!! Lillian Jacobs joins Mandy Bartlett to open the barn and get the program organized for 2008 before they turn the reins over to Claire Taylor for the rest of the summer.

Lillian was our head instructor in 2005 and 2006, and Mandy had the position in 2007. They both have years of experience at Longacres! They will provide us with a grand start to the season. If some of you Longacres alumni want to join them just for old times sake, we do have several spots still open in that first Pro-Clinic week from June 2nd to 7th.

Great News!

February 5:

Hi everyone. Most of you know that Meghan and I enjoy snowmobiling for our winter recreation. There has not been much winter here in western New York so far and there's nothing but rain now. We are loading up our truck and trailer and heading to Quebec for a few days of vacation, so the website will be "update-less" for the rest of the week. We may try to see Kate and her family in Montreal on the way up or back.

We should be home by the weekend. In emergency, leave a phone message. We check every other day.

February 4th:

Happy belated birthday to Myra from Brooklyn! She and Marta got together for a lesson a few days ago. It's great to have some of you guys getting together to ride in the off season!

Thanks to Marta, Laura, and Alexa who all sent in new horse descriptions which we will soon post on the "Grand New Meet the Horses Page"!

Rumor has it that Alexa has an exciting new 4 legged friend in her life. We await details for publication!

We do hope you are following the progress on our new Meet the Horses page. It is time consuming to pick the best pictures and format them for the new page. We just finished putting the big introductory pictures of our own horses on the main page. We still have to post pictures of last summer's private horses and horses for sale or here on training.

The next step is the rest of the albums for each horse and all the descriptions. We're working hard!

February 2:

Wow! When Meghan starts a new project, she really gets into it. She is going through all of our more than 10,000 Longacres pictures to pick the best of the best for the new "Meet the Horses" web page. It is HARD to pick the best. The album of Star pictures got up to over 60 pictures. Meghan tortured herself cutting it down to 20! We'll probably get that album posted later today along with several new "Big Pics" for the main horse intro page.

Thanks to Alexa for sending in more horse descriptions which we'll add soon! We are also working on a new album with pictures just of the 2008 Staff, both informals and riding pictures. We thought you would enjoy seeing the girls who will be teaching and helping you this summer.

We have also deleted many informal daily photo albums that were posted last summer to make more room on our website. Some will remain so new families can see what we do during the summer. We will keep "Meghan's Favorite 100" pictures which include many of last year's best.

If you want to have any of our pictures, we do have DVD's for sale with full size hi rez files of most of the pictures. Call or email if you're interested. Of course you are welcome to download anything we post on the website for free!

While Meghan is so enthusiastic about our great horse pictures this week, Tom is not missing any chance to hint that his birthday is coming up and that if he gets a new and even better camera, "Just think how the 2008 horse pictures will be even better!" Right? Don't ya' think?

More coming soon. (email Meghan while she is so excited about the pictures and tell her how nice it would be for Longacres if Tom gets that new super-duper camera for his birthday!!!!)

February 1:

Later in the afternoon: We sometimes forget how many nice horses we have at Longacres! Meghan has been moving all the nice pictures into different folders for each horse all day. Guess which horses have the most good pictures? You are right - Merlin has 35 pictures in his "good pictures" folder! Followed by Rocky with 25 and many with close to 20. We have to pick only the ten or twelve best for each horse.

Meghan has the bit between her teeth today working on the new "Meet the Horses" page. By the time we're done we'll have nearly two hundred pictures posted in the special albums associated with the big new pictures on this page. Click the link above and follow our progress as we upload a few more pictures or albums each day. And join us in helping to describe all your favorites. We welcome your emailed horse descriptions!

To give you another little glimpse of how we spend cold winter days when we can't (or WON'T!) work outdoors, check the picture below.

The fancy electronic timers we use at some of the jumper shows failed during the Derby last summer. Wouldn't you know it, when we got ready to pack them up and ship them in for repair, they worked perfectly. They have been stored in very cold weather, so we're running them for hours in front of the fireplace to try to duplicate the failure before sending them back to the manufacturer in Texas. Just another little look behind the scenes at what we have to do in the off season to give you a first class experience with all the bells and whistles (and timers!) when you are here.

January 31, late evening:

I'm starting to get into this new "Meet the Horses" web page project! You'll see frequent changes and additions over the next week or so. We're trying to replace many of the older pictures with more recent ones that show our current students. We'll keep old pictures if they are the best we have of a horse, but we'll try to have at least a couple of each horse with riders who are currently with us.

We also plan to begin adding your descriptions of the horses. Many of you already sent in horse descriptions earlier last fall and we'll start posting them. If you'd like to send us more, do so. We hope you like the new bigger pictures on the opening page - broad band is good!

- Tom

January 31:

January 30:

January 29:

January 27, 8PM:

From Robyn,

Emily was at Longacres two years ago;

This is from Instructor Mandy;

Here's a good answer from Alexa;

This one from Andrea;

And a good one from Annie;

AND - - Tom's favorite answer of all for creativity - from Ofelia;

January 25, late:

What & Why?

January 25:

January 23:

January 22:

Penpals:

January 21:

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.