Castle Farm News

The Eastern Wake News featured an article on a new zoning ordinance in Knightdale that offers some help for "farmlets", or farms under 10 acres, and Castle Farm was mentioned AND photographed! To read the article and see Jordyn and Storm, go to:

http://www.easternwakenews.com/community/story/2814.html

Castle Farm had a great turnout for their first time at Sharon Oaks Stables. Competitors included: Lois Mercer on Sandi, Gabrielle Navarro on Schuyler, Jordyn Dunson on Jett, Dominique Major (in her hunter show debut) on Sandi and Heather King on Storm (in his debut as a hunter show horse). The show grounds were great and the staff was very friendly. The weather wasn't too bad (maybe a little hotter than we would like). Everyone rode very well and had a great time. What more can you ask for! Here are the results:

Gabrielle and Schuyler in the walk/trot open division - 1 first and 4 seconds. Gabrielle was also the champion rider in this division!

Dominique and Sandi in the walk/trot open division - 1 first and 2 thirds. A great start to her competition career!

Lois and Sandi in the walk/trot/canter green rider division and the low hunter division - 2 firsts, 1 second and 1 third. Way to go!

Jordyn and Jett in the low hunter division - 3 firsts and 2 seconds. Jordyn was also the champion rider in this division!

Heather and Storm in 2 classes from the hopeful hunter division - 1 first and 1 second. Definitely a great start for his competition career!

Heather, Jordyn, Gabrielle and Dominique also had a lot of fun in the ride-a-buck class. Heather won the class, only losing one of her dollar bills. The other three girls tied for second, losing all their money at the same time - at the canter, go figure!

Everyone had a blast, and we are definitely looking forward to the next show at Sharon Oaks Stables!

Despite having a very long, busy, and tiring week of Summer Camp, Castle Farm decided to head out to Umstead for a relaxing trail ride. Heather King took Storm for his first trail ride and he did extremely well, especially for his first time out! He even led the group over the scary bridge! Gabrielle Navarro rode Schuyler, Elizabeth Hilmar rode Gypsy, Dominique Major rode Jett, and Amanda Guffey rode Solie---and despite all four horse-and-rider teams being exhausted from Summer Camp, everyone enjoyed the ride. Ashley Godfrey was also riding, and her new horse Clyde made his "Castle Farm Trail Ride" debut! He also did extremely well, vying for the leader position against Storm and Gypsy. Clyde stood like a champ as people and bikes whizzed past him, and he definitely looked relaxed and content on the trail (he was also trying to eat every tree, plant, or bush we passed). He's definitely going to be a nice addition to the barn! The weather held out (thunderstorms were threatening our ride when we arrived at the barn this morning!) and even though all the horses (and riders!) were very tired by the time we got back to the trailer, everyone definitely had a great time and can't wait until the next trail ride!

Click here to see pictures from the trail ride!

written by Amanda Guffey

Castle Farm had it's second annual week-long summer camp this past week. We had a huge turnout this year with 14 campers (last year we only had 3)! Our beginner group, the Red Chili Trotters, included Isaac Brown (on Jett), TJ Coble (on Solie), Caroline Coble (on Sandi), Emily Demonceaux (on Gypsy), and Rachel Britt (on Schuyler). Just about everyone in this group had never even been on a horse before, and by the end of the week they were trotting on their own and walking over ground poles in jumping position! Our intermediate group, The Saddle Club, included Katelyn McFetridge (on Gypsy), Tori Brown (on Patti), Dylan King (on Schuyler), and Alexis Hartman (on Solie). Everyone in this group was able to at least walk and trot on their own and everyone improved in both their riding skills and horsemanship by the end of the week. They were also able to help the younger and less experienced riders in their lessons and also on the ground. Our advanced gruop, The Glitter Poniez, included Dominique Major (on Sandi), Gabrielle Navarro (on Schuyler), Elena Freedman-Scott (on Jett), Rachel Beard (on Solie), and Elizabeth Hilmar (on Gypsy). These riders were able to walk, trot, canter, and jump on their own before they came to camp...but by the end they were ALL showing off their skills over our cross country jumps!

We decided to use the United States Pony Club structure for camp this year, and it worked out great! Activities for the week included daily lessons, games, cleaning tack, feeding the horses, swimming in the pond (with Solie and Gypsy!), scavenger hunts, and learning about: parts of the pony, parts of the tack, horse breeds, horse colors, horse markings, and other various horsemanship skills. Friday we had a Demonstration of Skills for the campers' family and friends, followed by group quizzing and a presentation of certificates. In the demonstration, campers showed off the various skills they learned on the horse during the past week. Next, Heather quizzed each group on the information the campers learned throughout the week, including (but not limited to) : breeds, colors, and markings of horses, safety rules while riding and on the ground, vet care, farrier care, trailering safety, parts of the horse, grooming and tack concerns, and stable vices. Finally, at the end of each group's demonstration and quizzing, they were presented with the following awards:
Red Chili Trotters---earned their D-1 rating
The Saddle Club---earned their D-1 rating
The Glitter Poniez---earned their D-1 rating and their D-2 rating
Congratulations to all our campers!!!

By the end of the week, everyone (both campers AND horses) were exhausted, but everyone definitely had fun. We hope to see all our campers back next year for Castle Farm Summer Camp 2009!

You can click here to see pictures from summer camp!

written by Amanda Guffey

Ashley has recently purchased a new horse. He is a big, beautiful gelding named Clyde. Clyde has come to us from Virginia after several years of foxhunting, to make a slight career change as an event and lesson horse. Ashley is very excited about her eventing future with Clyde.

Click here to see more pics of Clyde.