Whew!

My friend in Baja Mexico has been on watch for the warnings of hurricanes and keeping me posted. I heard from her today, telling us they are expecting some high winds on the Baja with lots of rain. I told her we were experiencing a whirl wind here also, because September just blew through! I know the days are suppose to seem shorter as we age, but at this rate I will be 100 in another year!:o) I can not believe we could have put any more events into the days of September. We finished a very successful 2 weeks with the championships of the World Show and the International. Because of the construction and the planned 2010 games coming to the Horse Park, the International was moved up a week causing the two shows to be back to back. That was two full weeks of early mornings and very late nights (and sometimes ending in the very early morning) shows. Somewhere in all of that I also worked in a photo shoot of our farrier's wedding! Needless to say we were totally ready for a break. I think we have finally recuperated from the shows, but we are into something else...Competitive Trail Rides! Jamie and Dad went to TN last weekend to compete in the ACTHA rides. Jamie won first in his division and Dad won third in his! This is a new venue for us to show-off the Mountain Horse. We have been working on our obstacle trail course and adding new obstacles. S.T. and Alison were working with Duke to teaching him to ride in a sleigh. They were doing this with a 4-wheeler, hoping to be able to switch to a horse later. ( Teaching one animal at a time. ) S.T. has been accepted to compete in the versatile horse challenge at the Equine Affair in Springfield, Massachusetts, so we have lots of challenges ahead. Keep watch for more news on the competitive trail ride we will be hosting at Van Bert Farms. It is in the planning stage, but will be coming soon. Get your horses ready.

Mary Is On The Soap Box

Things are moving fast here at Van Bert Farms. We are all pushing to get our selves and our horses to the World Show. It is going to be a very nice show and I look forward to seeing everyone there. We have had a nice long time to work on everything since the last show was the 4th of July. We are looking forward to seeing some of our clients that live far away and hope all of you have a safe trip in to see your horses. I think over all, the group of horses that we are showing and selling here at VBF are the best we have ever had. Our clients have some outstanding Mountain Horses and we appreciate your trust in us to care for them. Now is the time to buy, buy, buy. We will be offering some really good deals on many of our horses, so stay in touch with the website and check them out. WORLD SHOW SPECIALS????

Last week we hosted the annual Farmer Banker Field Day. A long time tradition to our little county. We worked very hard to get everything in order and clean for the 300+ people. This is the first time we have hosted the event since my grandfather died back in the 60's, but there were still several people who attended and remembered being here then. Things like this event always gives us the drive to repair and clean and see things from a visitor's eye.

We had a nice visit from Mary and her sister Elanor (or as Mary calls her Elner). We talked about the blog and how remiss I have been in posting and so I decided I must get back here and tell everyone all the news that is going on here. I am a member of Mary's blog so I checked out some of her entries. I couldn't help but smile because I could really feel the steam in her entry about the car. Of course I got it, the car was just the straw that broke the camel's back, and it pushed Mary onto the soap box. Sometimes we just have to vent..:o)

On a good note Mom is doing well, but on a bad one Jamie had a kidney stone so he was in the hospital for two days. On a good note, he is home, feeling better and he doesn't have to worry about that anymore.

I have posted a couple more videos... check out our website and see what you think. The juvenile 11 and under classes for trail and country trail are on there from the Summer Celebration and I also have put some video of Diamond Venture and Dressed For Success. S.T. is taking them through the obstacle course. They are trained by Dad and are really push button especially to be as young as they are. It really takes a lot of patience to do the obstacles, but these horses are so willing to learn they work really hard at pleasing the rider. The classes in the shows are always well attended and the competition is very stiff.

I have posted a picture I compiled from the Field Day. Kaylee took the pictures, I thought she did an excellent job, what do you think?

Summer Celebration

Whew! We just finished the UMH Summer Celebration at the Kentucky Equestrian Facility in Winchester, KY. While Kentucky has had an unusually cool winter, summer came back with a vengeance. It was very hot yesterday and today is even worse. The show started at 1:00 with lots of classes. It was a very long day, but the classes were big and the quality of horses was wonderful, so staying interested in the show was easy. We received our share of blues, but of course would like to have a few more. S.T. seemed to be stuck on second. We walked out of the Pro-Am class with a second and I laughed at him and said, "well, it looks like you are always the bridesmaid and never the bride". Sure enough the show seemed to continue right on with several seconds. He did receive a first with Mary's filly Flair For Fury. This is the second straight blue she has gotten. She has really grown into herself and is even more beautiful with every passing week. We are recouping today, and hope to feel like getting back to work tomorrow. We are hosting the annual Farmer's Banker's Field Day this year for the county. Then is will be a concentration on the World Show. It has been a very busy summer and I don't look for it to let up until the end of September. I hope to be able to start writing some more training tips for you. Dad has been feeling pretty good these days, so he has not been spending as many hours in the house, so he has not written anything for awhile. Keeping checking we will be back up to par soon. I hope to see everyone at the World Show, I think it will be a good one!

She's Home

For those of you who do not know...My mother had a bad horse accident and was in the hospital for a few days. She is home now and there is really nothing anyone can do for her except let her heal. She had several broken ribs, collapsed lung, head and back injuries. She is 70 years old and still rides some pretty competitive trails. She and my Dad have some very close friends that enjoy riding 3 and sometimes 4 times each week. I am thinking she will be a little more cautious now and will practice what she preaches and wear a helmet. I guess they are like seat belts...and car seats. We don't even think about getting in a car now without buckling up, but years ago, we would not even think about it. I think helmets are like that in that soon everyone will be wearing them and we won't feel so out of place when we appear on the trails with them. I would like to see it become the "norm" for everyone.

Thank all of you for your phone calls, emails, thoughts, prayers, and concerns. She will be back in the saddle soon.

Long Time Coming

The summer has brought about a whirl wind of activity around our farm. Horse show season of course is always busy. We have had a good time this year with lots of new faces on the circuit we have met more wonderful friends from all across the country. We just got back from the UMH Kentucky State Championship, and even though the rain was not fun, the show itself was very nice. I have made a short video clip of the show and posted it on youtube. You have a direct link from our website www.vanbertfarms.com I hope everyone checks it out, it was fun making it, and I hope you enjoy it.

Larry's Mom is not well and she requested we take her to Cades Cove Park in Tennessee. She wanted to spend some time with Larry and see some of the sites there. I have heard of the park, since my parents went there several years ago trail riding. It was one of their most favorite places to ride. It is full of wild life and Larry's Mom wanted to see the bears she had heard so much about. I was not looking forward to the trip, because we were also going to spend some time in Gatlinburg (which to me is a tourist trap), however I got some wonderful photos. I love taking pictures of horses, but old barns and roads really catch my eye as well. I know I usually post horse pictures here, but I thought you may enjoy seeing a couple of the barn photos.

Don't forget to go to our site and check out the new video of the Kentucky State Championship.

Stanton Show

The Stanton show was this weekend, and since we did not have far to travel and the show started and was over early, I had a little time to take pictures. This is a picture of one of my mother's students. Triston Curtis, loves horses and does a wonderful job showing them. I have sent some of you pictures from the show that I took from the rail. Sometimes I get some shots, but don't have an email address to send them to, so if you think I have taken your picture, let me know your address and I will be glad to send them to you.

This show was more of a fun show for us. It is literally in our back door, if we could go the way the crow flies. Since it was a one night show, there were only 24 classes. Some of you were not able to make it out, but I wish we could get everyone to support all the sanctioned shows. This is one of the resources that keep our breed strong, so support all the shows you can.

S.T. carried the flag at the show on Blue On Black. I thought they turned out real nice, so I have added one for you here. Please continue to check out our website www.vanbertfarms.com Since the sun has been shinning, I am not straying too far from the camera, so I will have lots of new photos up soon.

Trail Rides

I hope all of you are enjoying this beautiful weather and are out on your horses. After a long and frightfully awful winter, I know everyone is ready for some me time with your horse. Even if you are like me and only get to grab a few minutes sometime during the day, it gives a little reprieve from the stress of the day. My mother and father are spending lots of days on the trails. It has always been a life long dream to spend lots of time on the trails and to see as many different trails as possible. They are spending a lot of time close to home and have decided there are no prettier trails anywhere (there's no place like home). I am enclosing a couple of really neat pictures a friend of theirs took on one of their last rides.

I hope everyone is checking our web site frequently as I have spent a lot of time posting many horses on there. I just finished yesterday adding 6 more so check them out. I know you know someone who has been looking for that special horse. www.vanbertfarms.com

Is everyone ready for the next show? It is here in Stanton on Saturday night. I look forward to seeing our friends and their horses, so come on out.