Older News

2010

Updated December 1, 2010

Winter Break Camp Discount & Holiday Bonus!

Sign Up By Dec. 15th And Get $25 Off

Wow! Only a couple of weeks until Christmas! It’s hard to believe…where did the time go? Winter Break Camp is coming the week after Christmas, Dec. 27th – Dec. 31st. The theme at camp will be eventing, and Erin & Janine have lots of great activities planned. And I plan on stocking up on the hot chocolate!

Anyone that signs up for camp by December 15th will get $25 off the full price of $265.

As a Special Holiday Bonus all campers will be able to attend the Tim Divita Horse Training Clinic at no additional charge, everyone else will be charged $25. The clinic will be held during camp on Thursday, Dec. 30th.

So hurry and sign up for Winter Break Camp by December 15th to get $25 off your camp session and attend the Horse Training Clinic free of charge!

A Week At Horse Camp Makes A Great Christmas Gift

Put a big smile on your child’s face this Christmas…give the gift of horses, a memory they will cherish for a lifetime!

Reserve your spot by calling 741-2346 | Gift Certificates Available

Updated October 14, 2010

The Halloween Showwas awesome. Sooo many people helped out I won’t be able to remember them all right now, but without each and every one of them it wouldn’t have been half as fun or successful as it was! A BIG thanks to the instructors; Erin, Angela, Shilo & Janine for all their help getting things in shape and preparing their students.

Our judge on Saturday, Sandy Bell, commented on how well everyone rode and how nicely they were “turned out” for the show. She has agreed to come back to present a dressage clinic for us in the near future…I am very excited about it because she did an AMAZING job at the show. Everyone got lots of feedback on their test and ideas of what to work on in order to improve.

The costumes this year just might be the best we’ve EVER seen! I made another video from Sunday at the horse show so we could share them all with you!

Halloween Horse Show HighLights

Updated October 11, 2010

WOW…we Had Soooo Much Fun!

The Haunted House Fundraiser was a HUGE SUCCESS! A BIG THANKS to everyone who planned, helped out and attended! The girls did an AMAZING job. Over $800.00 was raised to help the rescue horses! It is much needed to keep improving the facility, creating educational materials and for medical care of the rescue horses.

Watch the video below to see some highlights from the Haunted House Fundraiser!

If you missed out and would like a tour through the haunted house and a pony ride…YOU ARE INVITED to…

The Haunted House Fundraiser 2…..The Return!

On Friday, October 15th from 6pm – 9pm we will hold an encore of our Haunted House Fundraiser. So if you missed the first one this is your chance to join in the fun and excitement!

Don’t forget, the proceeds will go towards helping with the building fund and care of the rescue horses.

Come out and join us if you can, we had a GREAT time last week and plan to have a lot more fun on Friday! Hope to see you there.

Updated September 27, 2010

You are Invited to…

The Haunted House Fundraiser!

Spruce Meadow Farm is holding a Haunted House Fundraiser to benefit Phoenix Rising Equine Rescue. You are probably aware that the horses have moved into the new barn recently and that right now the “old” back barn is empty….well, on Friday, October 8th starting at 6pm it won’t be so empty. It is going to be transformed into a “haunted house” (or if you prefer a “haunted barn”!)

For a $5 donation to the rescue you will get a trip through the haunted house and a pony ride. There has been a lot of behind the scenes work going into this for the past two months so it should prove to be an exciting event!

And the best part of all is that the proceeds will go towards helping with the building fund and medical care of the rescue horses!

Updated September 22, 2010

First Things First…Halloween Show

There’s so much news still from the past couple months, but first we’d better get the information up about the Halloween Horse Show. The show will be held on Columbus Day Weekend; Saturday, October 9th & Sunday, October 10th.

Everyone is welcome to attend, either as a spectator or a participant. There will be good food available, nice trophies and prizes and great company! It’s always lots of fun to watch the annual Costume Class. It’s tough picking a winner with so many original and beautiful costumes. Last year’s winner is pictured at the right…its Teddy…dressed as King Tedward the 1st!

Combined Training (dressage & jumpers) classes, Jumpers – including a Team Challenge Class (which may be jumped at the height the participant competed at in their regular jumper class) & Gamblers Choice, Ribbon Pairs & Hunter Pairs will be held on Saturday.

On Sunday there will be Beginner-Intermediate flat classes, Pleasure, a X-Rail & a Low & Slow Division.

We are hoping for a nice, sunny autumn weekend. However, if Mother Nature doesn’t cooperate we will push the show back to the following weekend; Oct. 16th & 17th!

Updated September 15, 2010

Wow, where did the summer go? It sure flew by! Camp was a huge success and was enjoyed by all. Some of our campers decorated one of the jumps by hand! Many learned about bathing the horses…Teddy was a wonderful “teacher”!

We are looking forward to our next camp; December 27th-31st.

Summer Horse Shows

Our own summer horse show, here at the farm, was lots of fun and offered a chance for some of the newer students to experience their first competition. In the Walk-Trot Division Mallory & Misty were the Champions and there was a tie for Reserve Champion between Rachel & Teddy and Mikayla & Lucky. Olivia had fun on her new pony, Trixie and her old favorite, Mattie. Janine Lumia has been doing a great job training Misty and showed her over fences at the summer show.

In addition to our home show students showed quite successfully at Brookfield, Northfield, Maple Row, Chestnut Ridge, Geneseo and the Erie County Fair. Some of the noteable achievements were BamBam, now renamed Koda, and Erin Cox getting 3 blue ribbons and Champion in the Adult Walk-Trot at his first show ever at Maple Row, Ali Screiber & Mattie getting Reserve Champion in the X-Rail Division at Maple Row and also in the Long Stirrup Division at the Erie County Fair and Erin Cox and Baraque getting 3 blues and Champion in the Puddle Jumper Division at the fair as well as Champion in the Adult Hunters.

Congratulations also go to Violet Josik & Nemo for blue ribbons and successful shows along with Olivia Hannah & Trixie for their accomplishments so far this year. Both horses were recently made “official” partners with their “special people!” Best wishes to both pairs for a long and happy relationship.

Updated July 9, 2010

Camp Update

Summer camp is going along great! Everyone survived the really, really hot week with the help of some shade, a sprinkler and a slip-n-slide! Of course Chubby was busy trying to steal the camper’s lunches…surprise, surprise (not really!). There is still room for people to sign up for camp, it will be running each week all summer long. The camp experience is a memory that will last a lifetime!

New Barn

Construction is moving along on the new barn. This is a very exciting time for us. We are just thrilled with the beautiful work being done by Ben and his crew, they are truly amazing! If you haven’t seen it yet make sure to stop out and walk through. We are hoping to have the horses in by the end of July/beginning of August. The flooring is in & the stalls are almost all up. It looks like the inside will be just as beautiful as the outside. The barn will have 28 stalls, grain room, tack room & office.

You can visit the rescue’s website (still under construction) at HelpSaveHorses.org

A Rescue Success

One of our recue horse successes has been Wilson. He had been sponsored by Joanne Vukman during his time here at Spruce Meadow Farm. She helped enable him to receive needed medical care and also donated time and finances towards his daily expenses. This past summer she purchased him from us for $1 in order to provide him with the certainty of a “forever home”.

Wilson was, unfortunately, injured during his racing career. He was never able to properly heal and was left with permanent damage to his knee. He came to the farm as a beautiful (although thin) 6 year old with no future. We had hoped he would be able to be rehabilitated enough for light work in the lesson program….which would be a wonderful idea if he didn’t have the “high spirits” of a Thoroughbred race horse! He’s just not the kind to settle in for a quiet ride!

Joanne has given him a wonderful home with Irish, another horse that does not really want to be in a lesson program. They have all the grass they want and daily attention from Joanne. A happy ending for both of these horses!

A Fond Farewell

I am sorry to say that in November we lost a cornerstone of our farm, Kismet. He has been with us for 20 years and will be sadly missed by many…especially Chubby and Karla. As you may know he was a very productive race horse and had raced until he was 7 years old. He was acquired by Al and Karla after a career-ending racing injury. X-rays showed he also had stress cracks on his sesamoids (ankle bones).

After spending 6 months recuperating from a bowed tendon he began learning how to be a hunter/jumper and later how to do dressage work. He had a great work ethic and lots of heart and energy but always tended to be injury prone. He probably spent as much of his life at Spruce Meadow Farm just being handsome and hanging out with his best friend, Chubby, as he did “working”. He loved to work…and he loved to”hang out”. The only thing he didn’t like was being away from Chubby!

He injured one of is front legs yet again, and even though his spirit was willing, his body couldn’t support his healing. When it became apparent that there was nothing further that could be done he was humanely euthanized. Many of his human friends, as well as Chubby, were by his side. He is buried next to Baby Grace and they will have a beautiful, flowering apple tree planted over them in the spring.