The Whirlwind After Graduation

It has been a busy couple of weeks since graduation! Bobby Holt and I were recognized for 15 years of service to St. Andrews. This is a lovely tradition that the school has of recognizing employees who have served for many years. 15 years seems like a lot but there were 3 employees being recognized for 45 years of service this year which puts it all into perspective! The long-serving folks are Ron Bayes, Rooney Coffman and George Melton. For 30 years Sylvester Moody has worked in maintenance and Carolyn Oxendine was honored for 25 years in House Keeping.


We have shipped over 60 horses to summer camp and a few have gone home with students and alums. We moved most of the remaining equines to the Boarder/TH barns so that the Lesson and Western barns can be pressured washed and cleaned. Summer classes are under way online and we are enjoying the prolonged spring weather that has been delightful for the last couple of weeks. No doubt June will bring the long awaited summer heat.

Faculty and Staff Recognition: Pictured, from left, Stevan Hernandez, Sylvester Moody, Glenn Batten, Carolyn Oxendine, Melissa Hopkins, Bobby Holt, Jackie Dwelle, George Melton, Sandra Johnson, Joe Bunting, Tom Waage and Rooney Coffman. Not pictured, Larry Kelly, Jim Lankford, Ellen Wright and Ron Bayes.

IHSA Nationals 2012 (No, that is not a typo!)

Its been just over a year since many students, alumni and friends of St. Andrews came to Raleigh in one capacity or another for IHSA Nationals. We are preparing a report to go in the Library Archives about this event. The section titles are, The Facility, Southern Hospitality, Management, St. Andrews Students and Challenges (of course we can add more sections if we have the data). So far we have the logistical, staffing and planning data from Peggy, but we need your input!


If you volunteered in any capacity would you please share with us? What did you do? Who did you work with? Did you take vacation from work or how did you make the time to be involved? Why did you do it? And anything else you think would be important in a historical document. Post here or send me an email. dwellejm@sapc.edu. Looking forward to hearing from you!

Thanks! Jackie

Day 5 IHSA by Kali Cram

IHSA Blog Day 5

And that's a wrap! 2013 IHSA Nationals is officially over. What a crazy week! It was full of ups and downs for sure but my teammates are incredible and the support we give each other is amazing!

The western team had a rider in almost every one of the remaining classes today and we ALL finished in Top 10 in the Nation in our respectable classes. We had Pre and post class celebrations that kept our team spirit up no matter where everyone finished.

The team brought home a very strong finish- ending up 2013 RESERVE NATIONAL CHAMPIONS!!!! I am so incredibly proud of this team and beyond blessed to have been a part of it for the last 3 years!

This weekend we laughed, we cried and we celebrated. We not only celebrated our amazing results but we celebrated the graduation of 5 seniors and the time we have all been able to spend together as friends, as teammates and as fellow St.Andrews Knights!!

We are all loaded onto our bus now and headed back to North Carolina. Several are already sound asleep.

It was great blogging for you all this week!

Xx

-Kali

Full Results:

Brittany: 3rd Team Advanced Horsemanship

Brittany: 2nd Individual Novice Horsemanship

Logan: 3rd Team Intermediate Horsemanship

Kali: 8th Individual Advanced Horsemanship

Katie Mosca: 7th Individual Intermediate Horsemanship

Dugan: 2nd Individual Beginner Horsemanship

Michelle Hustad: 4th Team Open Horsemanship

As posted on the IHSA facebook page;
Reserve AQHA High Point Team Champions St. Andrews flex their new muscle. "This group worked really hard," said coach Carla Wennberg. "It's like life, you work hard to reap the benefits. This has truly been a team together."

IHSA Day 4 by Kali Cram

IHSA Blog Day 4

It was such a fun day today with so many amazing things happening. Of course it was fun watching everyone show today.

But the biggest part was the fact that as of now, Me, Sami, Brittany, Katie and Kim are all St. Andrews Graduates. Peggy organized a beautiful graduation ceremony for us after the last class of the day where we received our diplomas, heard speeches from our classmates and shed many tears. And what better place to hold a ceremony for equestrian graduates than in the Ring at the Pennsylvania Farm Complex? It was amazing sitting next to 4 other girls who have walked beside me in our St. Andrews journey and to receive my diploma from two of the most influential people in my life; Carla and Peggy.

We may have missed our graduation at SAU but we didn't miss out on a St. Andrews graduation. It was a special day shared with family, friends and teammates and I couldn't think of a better way to spend the day.
Our hunt seat team is done with 2013 IHSA Nationals, finishing in 8th and our Western Team is headed into tomorrow tied for the lead!!!!!
Xx
-Kali

Full Results:
Sami: Honorable Mention in Team Open Flat
Katie: 7th Team Open Fences
Michelle: 8th Individual Open Horsemanship
Ella: 8th Individual Reining
Vicky: 3rd Team Walk/Jog

IHSA Day 3 by Kali Cram

Just received this from Kali, so a little late posting about Friday's activities. There are gremlins in cyber space!

IHSA Blog Day 3

It was another long day at IHSA Nationals. There were a lot of classes and A TON of re-rides. We restarted the final class of the day three different times before we got to the pattern. Sami brought home another Reserve Champion in the Team Novice Horsemanship and added 5 more points to our western score card, adding to Ella's 3 points earned earlier that day in the team Reining. 

It's 10:00 now and we are just getting back to our hotel from getting dinner with our parents. Going to get some sleep and do it all again tomorrow. 

Full Results:

Sami: team intermediate o/f: 3rd

Sami: team novice horsemanship: 2nd

Ella: Team Reining : 4th

Jake: Team walk-trot: 10th

Madison: Team WTC: honorable mention

Shiloh: individual w/t: 6th 

Kim: scored a 71 in Cacchione o/f 

Day 2, IHSA Nationals by Kali Cram

IHSA Blog Day 2

Wow!!!! What a longggg day for an IHSA show!! The show started close to 2 hours late so we knew it would be a long day. It's 7:30 now and we're on the bus, headed back to the hotel for the night.
I woke up this morning to several snapchats from my teammates with various forms of 'Day 2- lets goooo!'  And 'first day of showinggggg!' We're ready to get this competition rolling!

It's no secret that our team can find fun wherever we go! We're a group of St. Androids and weird is our middle name.  It was an entertaining breakfast filled with quotes from "Always Sunny" and various Collegehumor videos. Cami, Sami and Kim left with the Peggy Shuttle around 7:00 to get to the course walk and the rest of us slept in and left around 8:30 to meet them at the coliseum.

When we arrived, the first three to go were ready to get the showing started. The day was fun with some great ribbons and amazing team support and dynamics. One of my favorite parts of IHSA is getting to know riders from other teams. When we all get to see each other it's so fun and to receive congratulations from other teams feels great! It's such a fun experience!

Sami brought home the Reserve Championship in her individual class and Cami matched those results in her Team over fences class. Cami, Kim and myself brought home top 10 placings in our respectable classes. The horses were getting a bit snarky toward the end of the day and I don't blame them. It was way past their dinner time and some had been showing all day. They're all wonderful. I drew a fun draw from Centenary college who was a bit over the day  but a blast to ride.

It was a good first day if showing. Hunt Seat continues in the morning and Western starts tomorrow afternoon.

Xx
-Kali

Full Results from Day 1 of Competition
Cami Glaff: 2nd Team Novice O/F
Cami Glaff: 9th Team Novice Flat
Kali Cram: 10th Team Int Flat
Sami Cram: 2nd Individual Novice O/F
Kim Graves: 10th Individual Open O/F
Kim Graves: Honorable Mention Individual Open Flat

IHSA National Championships - Guest Blogger!

I am very excited to announce a guest blogger for the duration of IHSA Nationals 2013 in Harrisburg, PA. Senior Kali Cram is representing St. Andrews in both western and hunter seat and asked if she could blog about the experience – of course I said yes! Sit back and enjoy Kali’s reports!

IHSA Blog Day 1 by Kali Cram

It's been a fun, fairly uneventful first full day here in PA. The hunter seat team met for breakfast in the lobby at 6:30 while the western team slept in before their trip to Hershey park for the day. We headed to the coliseum to watch all the horses school. As we watched what felt like eleventy hundred rounds at 2'9" we began to find things to further our entertainment. As veterans to these long schooling days, seniors Katie Hansen, Sami Cram and myself brought things to keep us busy. Katie supplied two GameBoys (and yes she brought Pokemon), I brought a deck of cards that doubled roles as a game of headbandz as well as a normal deck and Sami brought the ever entertaining Harry Potter Jelly Beans. Our coach, Matt successfully picked almost every bad one: Canned Dog Food, Moldy Cheese and Skunk Spray. His expressions were priceless.

Around 11:00 a few of us began to get Hangry ( for those who have never been there that's Hungry+Angry) and its not an enjoyable place when our team has made it to that point. So knowing how we get,  Madison and Matt ordered us a few pizzas from a local restaurant. It was phenomenal. I'm not sure if it was really that good or we were all really just that hungry.

After lunch we all took turns taking naps in the chairs and a few of us went shopping. Personally I spent way too much but I'm graduating so that's a good enough excuse, right?

Once the hunterseat horses were done schooling, the rest of the team left to the hotel and me and Sami stayed with the western team (who were now back from Hershey) to watch the western horses school. Even though it was a long day, we both feel so blessed to be a part of two amazing teams.

Once back at the hotel, me and Sami told stories for a few hours to Cami's mom, Barb and their friend Holly. I HAD to tell the story of getting lost in England, driving a stick shift, turning a 7 minute drive into almost 2 hours. It's a classic at this point. It's so great to have family and friends here to cheer us on. Can't wait to see my mom tomorrow and Dad and DJ (stepmom) on Saturday!

Our first huge team dinner of the trip was to Ruby Tuesdays (always one of Peggy's top picks).
Unfortunately for the waiter he forgot to ask us about the shrimp fondue before he asked our drink borders and Sami didn't let that slip. So we got a free order of that and passed it around the table.

We're now back at the hotel for the evening- all settled in, watching NCIS! We're ready for the first day of competition tomorrow. Kim, Sami, Cami and myself will kick it off all with classes tomorrow.

What a great first day! My cheeks literally hurt from laughing so much!
Xx
-Kali