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

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

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

Most of the girls are doing very well this session. But we have two new students who come from a stable with quite different teaching ideas and methods than we have at Longacres, and they may not stay. We are sorry. We and the girls are in close contact with their parents about this, so if you have not heard of any problem with your daughter, it's not YOUR student! We fail to meet the needs of a student only rarely, and it has been several years since someone did not like our program and went home early. There's a slight chance that things will still work out. As our long term readers know, we provide you with news about our problems on this page, as well as our successes.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

More to come tomorrow, and welcome back Michelle!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

- Tom

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

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

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

- Tom

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

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

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

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

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

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