Oakleaf Farm

05/23/2026

Shout out to Katherine and Zen! They had a lovely Keswick. They earned some ribbons and participated in their first derby. A great partnership is brewing and soon there will be no stopping them.

05/18/2026

05/15/2026

Aria and Bruce at Swan Lake

05/11/2026

St Christopher's Show at Swan Lake was lovely. It was a big well run show with great footing, nice courses and friendly people.
Melissa and Lena won an award for the best turned out in the derby and they placed very well in just about all of their classes. Aria and Bruce are still forming a partnership and made a good showing in their first "A" rated, outside show. Look for the video of their good course in the comments. No ribbons this time but with courses like this, the ribbons will come soon.

05/01/2026

Spring time mornings.... How many horses do you see in the first picture?

04/22/2026

Two of Katherine at Culpeper. Rockette and Zen both behaved well and jumped in good form. Also, they are both fever and snotty nose free so far🙏🏻

04/20/2026

The first HITS Culpeper of the year was one to remember for many reasons.

Good:
Showing two of the most lovely horses I have ever ridden and even winning a class on Mr Zen. Seeing Katherine and Zen forming a new partnership that is going to be unstoppable Watching Rockette and Katherine compete in the VPBA.

Bad:
Having to make the decision to load up the horses and scratch the rest of the weekend due to a possible biohazard in our barn,(At the time it was a rumor with no concrete information.)
Being informed of our possible quarantine as we pulled into our barn driveway.
Not being able to see Katherine, Melissa and Aria compete on Bea, Lena and Bruce.

Take away: I made the right call for our horses under the circumstances. Our horses did not end up under quarantine due to where our stalls were located in the barn.
I'm sad for the affected trainer, clients and the horse who was euthanized.

Followup:
I'm continuing to monitor temperatures and noses for 14 days. I've voluntarily separated and quarantined our show horses as a precaution to protect everyone.
Horse show bio-security measures need to be changed. Come on USEF and USHJA!
I never want this to happen again!

04/18/2026

Zen loves his grass

04/13/2026

Rosemount was a lovely show with beautiful jumps, footing and weather.
Rockette behaved and jumped around great in the Virginia Bred Ponies. She also got her permanent measurement card.
Zen learned about being a hunter in the local pro as well as local junior hunters. He had many good jumps and did everything we asked of him.
Both horses won ribbons and kept
Katherine and myself busy riding and grooming them.

11/15/2025

Beautiful day to foxhunt at Windrush. A joint meet between Warrenton and Old Dominion brought a lot of riders. Blessed to be able to ride Stella.