Straight From the Horse's Mouths

Here is the St. Andrews University Equestrian Center 2014 Newsletter sent out to all students recently.

I'm an Expert!

I was interviewed recently by Kathryn Tuggle from TheStreet.com for this article.

The Real Cost of a Ride: 7 Expenses First Time Horse Owners Aren't Expecting

http://www.thestreet.com/story/12825020/1/the-real-cost-of-a-ride-7-expenses-first-time-horse-owners-arent-expecting.html

Carla & Pebbles Team Up for Horse Illustrated Article!

Check out December's edition of Horse Illustrated. Carla gives advice to readers on neck reining and Pebbles' pictures bring the concepts to life. The demonstration rider is freshman Mark Mowbray riding Reggie.

Dec.2013 Horse Illustrated

Ride-Like-A-Knight Supported by The Scottish Pilot Club

Article from The Laurinburg Exchange

The Scottish Pilot Club of Laurinburg recently donated helmets to the Therapeutic Horsemanship Program at St. Andrew’s University, Ride-Like-A-Knight.
The program provides hands-on learning experience for St. Andrew’s students who wish to prepare for a career in Therapeutic Horsemanship. The center gives participants with a wide-range of disabilities in the St. Andrew’s community and surrounding areas the opportunity to participate in horseback riding activities. The Scottish Pilot Club is a volunteer service organization that focuses on helping people with brain-related disorders.

http://www.laurinburgexchange.com/news/news_local_features/2831529/Knight-riders-gifted-with-new-helmets

RLAK Show, Alumni Weekend, and Open House

The RLAK horse show was a hit for all concerned this Saturday. Four members of the dressage team started off the show with a drill team ride to the theme from Indiana Jones. The horses were great and the riders put on a good display for the audience. The RLAK show followed with all riders winning a blue ribbon for completing the obstacle course set in the covered arena. Kate Sorgenfrei serving as judge and announcer awarded blue ribbons “for sitting in the middle”, “keeping heels down”, “2-point position” and a myriad of other accomplishments demonstrated by the riders. The RLAK community was well represented covering the ages of around 5 to 55.


Alumni weekend was in full swing on campus and many folks came back to celebrate their 10 year anniversary. Pebbles, Peggy and I enjoyed visiting with the class of 2003 (plus a few from 2002). At lunch time ten of them set off on a guided trail ride of the Equestrian Center followed by 3 more on Peggy’s golf cart. With a couple of exceptions many of these folks have not been on a horse in many years so it was really fun to see them warming up in the covered arena before heading out with Carla and Andrew as their escorts.

Once the trail ride had departed the participants of Open House arrived to talk about the program, meet the staff and tour the facility. Lots of great questions were asked and we enjoyed meeting these future students and their families.

In other news our colleague Heather Wile Lee had her baby this weekend. Baby Jase is doing well but Heather suffered complications following delivery and is now in ICU at Moore Regional Hospital. Her husband Philip and both their families are with her at the hospital staying at the Clara McQueen house in Pinehurst. We are keeping Heather, Philip, Jase and the families in our prayers and hoping for a complete recovery.

The ANRC competed for the National Championship this weekend finishing in 6th place. I'll have more information on that in a later post.

Volunteers and Instructors at the RLAK Show

The Drill Team; Bridget on Corky, Kristen on Jake, Elizabethe on Chico and Claire on Windsong

Special and his rider with Morgan, and Spenser



Big John with is rider and Hallie, Megan and Stephanie



Before the Alumni trail rider

Enjoying the facility!

FALL 2010

Today the forecast is for temperatures of 100 plus depending on where you get your weather from. I have seen as high as 106 and that is without the heat index. Needless to say it is toasty in the Burg! With temps like that Carla and Dale left at 2:00 a.m. for Camp Seafarer to bring home the first load of camp horses. Tomorrow Dale and I go to Roaring Gap to pick up the lucky ones that spent the summer in the mountains, are they in for temperature shock! The horses from Camp Rockbrook start returning this weekend and then we have one more trip to Seafarer around the 15th and the Camp Keystone horses to return.

The barns have been pressure washed and cleaned and the staff is busy getting ready for the fall semester. We are looking forward to meeting the freshmen class as well as having the upperclassmen back.

Over the summer we had some staff changes. Stephanie relocated to Raleigh to work at the NCSU Veterinary School. She took Celtic with her and we wish her all the best with her new job. Torre has also moved on although she will be coming back to help Carla with the western team. We will miss both Stephanie and Torre.

Moving forward we have reorganized a little. Lindsay has accepted additional responsibilities (in addition to serving as the show team coach, boarder liaison and instructor) she now also serves as the Barn Coordinator. This role involves ordering feed, supplies etc, scheduling the assistant barn managers, and keeping records. I will be helping her in a mentoring role. Kellie will serve as Assistant Barn Manager for the lesson barn and also oversee work study for the entire facility. We are thrilled to have hired Natalie Norwood as Assistant Barn Manager for the Boarders/TH barn. Natalie will also serve as the medical liaison and assist Dr. Kellam with horse health care. Finally, Katherine Laughlin has accepted a Riding Fellow position. She will be working closely with the Assistant Barn Managers.

As previously mentioned Liz Harris Adams has moved to Old Lyme, CT to work at High Hopes Therapeutic Riding Inc. and Megan Ellis has taken over the role of the Ride-Like-A-Knight Therapeutic Riding Director.

We are all looking forward to having the students back and getting started with the fall semester.

The first week of classes has been very busy for everyone. Those of us that teach in the classroom are meeting and getting to know the freshmen, the barn staff are scrambling to find enough work study to take care of the horses (mornings are not popular work times!), and the instructors are busy trying to get the horses hacked and ready for lessons to which start Monday. Phew! Having said all that, it is wonderful to have the students back at school.

Rider placement went pretty well last Thursday. Quincy was so excited to be jumping again that he unloaded his rider on the back side of a jump with a huge buck. Luckily, she landed on her feet and got right back on. All the other horses were perfect and treated the new class kindly.

The equestrian freshmen class is large and very excited for riding lessons to start. We have students from all over the U.S. as well as from Northern Ireland and Papua, New Guinea! Tonight we have Equestrian Fair where everyone comes out to the barn to sign up for team tryouts, work study, volunteering for therapeutic riding, ordering clothes etc. and generally having our first meeting of all equestrians - oh yes, and we serve pizza too.

Looking forward to Sept. Therapeutic Riding starts on Sept 7th and Liz has a full schedule with returning riders and some new recruits. Team tryouts are scheduled for Sept. 11th & 12th followed shortly by the start of IHSA and IDA shows. That reminds me I need to find a judge for our Nov. IDA show, time to get back to work!