Looking forward to 2011

Now that I am Skyeler's competition manager I am officially taking over the blog. I will be reporting to you every week letting you all know what is going on around the farm! First and foremost, I would like to welcome our new barn manager, Trudy Oxtoby. All of us at Angelica Run are very lucky to have her from across the pond (England) and we make a great team. Trudy always says "there is no I in team."

As you all know the winter has started off to be pretty brutal, between the 50 mph wind gusts, and the below freezing temperatures we have been forced to trailer the entire crew to an indoor every day. All of our hard work paid off yesterday at our first Angelica Run winter outing at the Frying pan Jumper show. We would like to send a big thank you to everyone who helped make competing 11 horses seem easy! A few of Skyeler's students (Anisa Gamble, Tess Bernhard, Lily Bernhard, and Mackenzie Crol) did very well at their first show. Skyeler's young horses Alabee, Arabella, and Accolade proved to be good little show jumpers when they finished with 7 clear rounds. Later in the day, Tika and Story had their show jumping skills tested in the massive 3' jumper division. Needless to say they both did a great job. After being at the show for 12 hours we were all ready to thaw out on our couches at home. A job well done, Angelica run! Hope everyone has a happy Holiday!

Until next time,

Connor

Paradise HT & Apple Tree CT

Paradise Horse Trials & Apple Tree combined test

Sorry I have not been in touch Virginia. We have been crazy busy with competitions and horse trying. Paradise started on Friday with Argie kicking off the Angelica crew. He scored a 24 winning the large open training division by 5 points. The kids rode later in the day with all of them competing at the training level. Everyone had good tests with Krisie, Lisa, and Erin just starting to understand the new level. Cross country and show jumping days were Saturday and Sunday and everyone finished happy and healthy. Both courses were quite big and technically difficult for the level and I was thrilled with the riding skill demonstrated by all the kids and horses. Argie ended on his dressage score in his last training and looks more then ready for his big preliminary debut at sporting days in two weeks. Connor ended third and Lisa fifth. Krisie and Erin ended on the top half with beautiful jumping rounds.

The most exciting news was baby Albee's (onyx) first horse show. He rocked the dressage scoring a 30.5 and had the second lowest score of the whole show. He jumped clean over his big "ameba" show jumping and got a big beautiful blue ribbon to bring home and show off to his brothers and sisters. We may have another Argie in the making!

We are thrilled to start the season with Connor being tied for first on the junior training usea leaderboard and Argie being second for the training horses. Good start to the season!

We will be home in 2 weeks and miss you all...

65 degrees and sunny!
Skye

Valentine to Skye love KSouth

"valentines losers"

Ok so yes... Mama icke actually called us Valentine losers. Unfortunatly she was right on point with that but not because of what you may think. Yes you may feel bad for us because while the rest of the world is drowning in roses and chocolates we very well could be sitting in an RV eating pizza hut and watching the wedding channel in nowhereville south Carolina. But no that is actually not why we are "valentines losers." We are losers because we actually were not only prepared for this hallmark holiday we were also spoiled by both of our significant others. Yet we managed to ruin it all....

First we went out and bought ourselves some wine to drink in our romantic RV box. Problem being if you are going to buy wine you may not want to leave it in the Bi-lo parking lot. Second my wonderful fiancé sent me a dozen beautiful roses in a gorgeous vase with a Teddy bear. Well the Teddy bear was for remi and the flowers we thought would be great on our patio to spread the cheer. Well apparently the Aiken winds did not agree with spreading valentine cheer. My beautiful vase was smashed to pieces on the fake lawn outside our RV. I go to throw it away in the trashcan and find Remi chewing the ear off of her Valentine bear from Clay. Last but not least Krisie's mysterious valentine sent her beautiful pandora charms for the pandora bracelet I had bought her awhile ago. Well pandora never told Krisie to avoid dropping show jumping rails on her wrist and breaking the clasp. Don't worry though the horrible life threatening coughs we both have made the holiday complete.

Despite our "loserisms" we have had a beautiful sunny warm Aiken day. The snow was mysteriously gone when we woke up. The horses must have loved us at least because they were fantastic today and continue to remind us of why it is worth living in an RV box for 5 weeks. Krisie and I anxiously await the arrival of our favorite stallmuckers (kids). Paradise horse trials kicks off on Friday and we will be representing with one prelim horse, three training horses, and a novice/training horse.

Time for cold showers and romantic comedys.
Cough cough sneeze sneeze
Skyeler and Krisie
"valentines losers"

Snow in Aiken!!

Blizzin in Aiken

Alright everyone laugh it up...you sent us your blizzard! Come on Aiken...you are letting us down! On the eve of Albie's first show there seems to be many inches of unexplained snow! The snow studs are being geared up with hopes we may still be able to compete Argie, Matti, and Albie sometime this weekend. We are now stuck in our box while Krisie attempts to spread her plague. It is very lonely without the kids as they were so much help and tons of fun. Those kids have very impressive timing as they drive up and down the east coast out running every snow flake.
Short and sweet for now. Be back in touch this weekend.
Cough cough sneeze sneeze says Krisie,
love the snow bunnies

Skyeler and Krisie take flight!

Greetings from Aiken!

So remember when we were bragging about the beautiful weather down south? Well karma got the best of us sending over 20mph winds and freezing cold temperatures. We might as well have been sleeping on a plane. We had the worst turbulence in the RV and it was close to taking flight. It very well could have blasted off if we had awnings on both sides for wings. In other words we might as well be living in Alaska with you all back home as the wind chill was below freezing on horse show day.

With the friged temperatures, dressage became a more challenging sport then it already is. The extra spice helped the usually lazy story secure a 33 in the open training. He and Connor jumped great ending in 5th place in a very competitive division. The wind picked up for Erin, and Moose was a little hyper to say the least. Erin did a nice job getting him through the test and then made up for it with a beautiful SJ and XC! The rest of us quite enjoyed not competing in the hurricane force winds. We watched from our first class seats in the RV plane.

The kids head back tomorrow and Krisie and I head back to reality. We are taking baby Argie for a jump school with Jan today. On Saturday Albie (onyx) will be doing his first dressage show!

Best of luck to everyone who really is experiencing Alaska back home.
Team Angelica

KiD bLoG

Hello Everyone!

This is Krisie, Erin, Connor, Jackie and Lisa here to give you an update on the Aiken adventures from our perspective. Skyeler and I haven't killed each other yet but .... time will tell. Connor and Erin are getting prepared for their first training level this season and we are all very excited to see how Moose and Story will feel about them afterwards. 

Today was a relatively relaxed day as Matus, Argie and Autumn are still on vacation from this past weekend. We finished the barn work/ riding quickly this AM because there was a forecast for rain in the afternoon. Ironically, it barely rained at all so we spent some quality time playing with Remi and watching Krisie attempt to show off her gymnastics skills she once had. It was 65 degrees out and a beautiful day for outdoor activities in the trailer park. 

For lunch we went the "The Pizza Joint" and waited a good 45 minutes for two medium pizzas.... that was fun...after we spent ten minutes searching for a parking spot and listening to Connor pretend he knew anything about parking and driving for that matter. 

Last night Skyeler and I went to WALMART  to get some essentials. This of course included a new toy for Remi Roo Roo... a little fuzzy hedge hog. She and the hedge hog were inseparable all night but then Connor informed us that she peed on it during their morning walk. That was a bummer.  

Life has been pretty great with the kids here. All week the kids have woken me up in the RV with a coffee and a hash brown. It's beginning to feel like the norm so I will be very sad when they leave. 

Last but not least I want to report on our movie experience here in Aiken.  We all went with Allison Smith to see Dear John.  "Dear John...you suck...worst romantic drama of the year" Love Krisie

Beep Bo BEEP BOP AIKEN. PEACEEE. 

Krisie and the Kids

Aiken 2010 Feb pics

Aiken 2010

Hello everyone! Here it is the first blog of our Aiken adventure. The blogs will be via iPhone so they will be short and sweet.Our first week has been a great start for all the Angelica crew. Krisie and I have not killed each other living in the RV. Sallie and the kids made it down here in one piece. Jackie came down to provide an extra set of hands and has been our savior! We avoided 4ft of snow and have had beautiful sunny weather and wonderful footing.We started right out of the gates on Wednesday with Argie competing at full gallop. He won the Open Training by 10 points with a 26. We then took 5 horses to Sporting Days on Sunday. Argie did his first prelim dressage and SJ. He was such a star winning the dressage and only having one rail on a HUGE prelim SJ track. He ended 2nd in the Prelim- Training division. The kids all started the season with a novice. While they all had a very hard dressage judge they put in solid performances and jumped clean. Krisie and Lisa were 4th and 6th in there novice rider division. Connor and Erin were in the huge open novice division with lots of professionals but did great finishing 6th and 9th with picture perfect jumping rounds.We will keep you updated with lots of pictures as that will really give you an idea of Aiken life. We are moving on to Full Gallop this Wednesday. Stay warm in Virginia and a huge thanks to Julie, Jessie, Joanne, and my family keeping life going back home on the farm. Much love we miss you all!Skye