This is a link to the ad for Millenium, aka “Milo”: http://dressagedaily.com/index.php?option=com_mtree&task=viewlink&link_id=1258&Itemid=363

The Festival of Champions has come to a very shaky WET close. Katie rode her second ride today after a full night and morning of pouring rain. We worked MIlo in the standing water yesterday in preparation and with some convincing he worked through lakes and slop very well in the warm up ring. After a great warmup today in the lower ring, which had ample rubber into provide some bounce, he entered the show ring and realized the footing was very puddly and unforgiving. Once again he found himself uncertain as to how to deal with it and in the name of trying to stay forward through it he put in an adequate test, no where to his ability. This was a fine time to realize that she has never really schooled him in mud! His final overall score was a 64.4, placing them in 7th overall. Disappointing but we must realize it is an honor to be here. Definatly the horses from wet areas prevailed! Just after her class finished, the rest of the Championships were called off!!! The Grand Prix Special and I-1 riders never got to finish and were placed with the scores they had achieved. The rain was unbelievable and everyone came away with the sad realization that infamous Gladstone is so outdated. State of the art footing or a move of the operation to Kentucky are imperative. Despite the frustration and mess it was great to see old friends and meet new ones. Katie is especially sad as this marks one of her final times with Milo as Pam has decided to sell him. She did not qualify to go to The NAJYRC next month in Kentucky. We start our journey home early Tuesday morning and hope to take about 4 1/2 days.  It will be good to see you all and our critters. Thanks again to all of you for your support. May the next show be DRY!!!!   Elizabeth

The Brentina Cup riders rode in the pouring rain and standing water on Thursday morning and ALL classes after that were postponed and the entire show’s schedule was pushed around. The amount of rain was incredible. Katie’s class Friday morning was the first to go and the ring was sloppy. Her ride was honest but Milo was very careful and conservative. His warm up was brilliant but it was obvious once he entered the show arena that he was concerned. He slipped a few times and had a mistake in the 3 tempis. They achieved a 65.4 which puts them in 5th place. She rides again on Sunday and unfortunately there is a lot of rain in the forecast for today. All in all though we are having a great time. His owner, Pam flew in Thursday night and we are having fun with her. Thank you all for your support and thoughts.  Elizabeth

The FEI Jog took place today and Milo was a star as always! He passed with flying colors and was an angel! He had a walk day today to rest and recharge for the weekend. Tomorrow I will post some pictures of Milo at the jog and where the event is being held. Thanks for all your good thoughts!

Today was a good day. Milo worked very well and seemed happy to get the show on the road. Many more competitors have shown up and the beautiful grounds are taking on the feel that a show will be starting soon!! We have a small group of California riders and horses in our barn and are realizing that we are very spoiled with the quality of hay we get back home. Unfortunately we packed one bale of our ‘baled gold’ timothy hay. The small bales here are musty and virtually unrecognizable as timothy. We are feverishly working on a healthy alternative. 

It is so incredibly green here and the main historic building is amazing. The Grand Prix and I-1 horses get to stable in the main barn. The others are in a large tent barn. The weather has fortunately been mild although pretty rainy. Almost got my trailer stuck! Jessica and I had a fun journey driving across the country after dropping Katie and Milo off with Debbie in LA in Tuesday. We arrived here  on Friday evening. Jessica learned how to drive a truck and trailer on the fly at 70!! She showed up the truckers.

Tomorrow is the last day before the show officially gets going. We’ll try to get more pictures up tomorrow!!

Elizabeth

Hello Everyone!

Milo and I arrive in New Jersey safe and sound. He walked right into the crate for the plane like a champ and was just a wonderful boy like always! He is all tucked into his stall safe, happy and quite social!! I will get on him tomorrow and lets hope he feels good!! Here are some pictures from the airport!

Here are the little horsey crates!!

The crates that the horses walk into and than they are lifted into the plane

Milo walking on to his crate! Not one hesitation!

Locked and Loaded!! Onward to NJ!!

Well everyone we are going to Gladstone, New Jersey!!!! Milo and I recieved our official invitation to attend the USEF Festival of Champions yesterday. We both leave for LA on June, 9 and then we both fly to New Jersey on June 13th. We will be keeping you updated on here and I will be trying to upload videos from there!! Wish us luck!! Thank you all for your support!! http://www.usef.org/contentPage2.aspx?id=dressagefestival Also for those of you that haven’t seen Milo work you can search www.youtube.com using ‘Katie Johnson Millenium’

A schooling show was held on Saturday, May 30, 2009 at Creek Hollow Ranch in Ramona, Ca. Two of our students, Jenna on Annie and Carol on Lance competed at the Introductory Level. It was both of the pairs first show together and they both did amazing! Jenna and Annie received a 73% and and 82% and Carol and Lance received a 63% and a 69%.

We are so proud of both of them! The Creek Hollow Ranch schooling shows are super affordable and are a wonderful way to get out in the ring and have fun. We all need to support these small shows in order to keep them around!!!