Proud to be a new member of the SCES Family!

I am pleased to announce that we are now proudly supported by SCESports, (Southern California Equestrian Sports) a tax exempt 501(c)3, dedicated to helping equestrian riders raise tax deductible funds to compete in National and International competitions throughout the United States.

“SCES is committed to developing equestrian competitors at the national and international level. It is designed to help athletes and owners expand their financial resources to train and compete by allowing supporters to receive a tax deductible benefit for contributions.”

I am thrilled to have the opportunity to be part of this wonderful program, and can’t wait to share it with our owners and supporters! This program is for everyone, and if you have ever wondered how you can help but felt owning a horse was out of reach, this is your opportunity to be part of our journey. Find a link to our SCES donation page on our PARTNERS webpage, and read more about SCES at www.SCESports.org.

Thank you to our owners, sponsors, friends, and family that have gotten us this far, and look forward to the doors that being a part of SCES will open for us in the future.

15 years of fun and New Beginnings!

After 15 years of fun, friendships, and memories at White North Stable, we are relocating Evans Equestrian! I have been privileged to be a part of the White North Stable team since 2003, starting out catch riding and grooming for Liz Porter. After a brief hiatus for 6 months, I returned in 2004 and began teaching the lesson program and developing my own dressage and eventing clients. Over the years I have made lifelong friends, developed many horses and riders, and through the many triumphs (and a few tribulations) grown as a rider, trainer and coach. Our business has become so vibrant that it became clear it was time to spread our wings. I will always cherish my time at White North, and look forward to continuing a relationship with some of the clients as well as championing the history and immense value this facility brings to the community of Hunting Valley and Northeast Ohio.

I will continue to operate out of Angela Hambrick’s beautiful River Edge Farm, where we have some new and exciting projects developing, such as additional stalls that will house our new import sales horse business, competition horses, and give us the ability to start Agassi’s legacy as a sire of superior dressage horses in the U.S. I will also be working from Fair Winds Farm owned by Ann Yan where most of my other clients and training horses will now be calling home. Ann has gone to great lengths to update Fair Winds and welcome our team, and I am thrilled about the opportunities that lay ahead. With newly replaced stall fronts, a heated/air conditioned lounge, soon to be rejuvenated wash areas, laundry, and tackrooms, 2 indoor arenas, acres of grass turnout, hacking trails and an outdoor dressage court, this will be a great place for us to train Dressage and Event horses for the future. It was purpose built as an Eventing Facility and has all the bones to make it seamless for training jumping and dressage horses alongside each other. I would like to personally thank Angela and Ann for their commitment to the future of Evans Equestrian, and look forward to this new chapter of our story.

Our winter home will continue to be the exceptional Stable View Farm in Aiken South Carolina owned by Barry and Cyndy Oliff, and I can’t thank them enough for welcoming us back the last few years to this outstanding facility. I feel very humbled to have the opportunity to work closely with and alongside Boyd and Silva Martin, Mark and Rebecca Beecher, and Nuno Santos… all of us have become wonderful friends, and enjoy working together out of the same facility in winter.

Thank you to White North Stable, all my co-workers past and present, my amazing and wonderful clients and students over the years, and the Western Reserve Land Conservancy for a fabulous fifteen years. It has been a great ride, and I am looking forward to all that’s in store for the future.

USDF Dressage National Finals!

Diego M and Sommersby 25 braved the chilly temperatures and rain in Kentucky for their USDF Third Level Championships class. Sommersby was first and after a lovely relaxed warmup had three costly mistakes due to tension. I will be so excited when we can finally keep this guy relaxed in the ring, and quite honestly it was amazing just to have him back competing this year after a long illness. Diego M carried the team and finished 6th in this very competitive class, and I could not be more thrilled for Angela to have had her horse achieve such an awesome result. Thanks to our entire team of Chiro, massage therapists, farriers and vets that got these guys to finals, and of course our grooms Martin and Brie; Martin’s daily care of the horses keeps them tip top, and Brie battled through terrible flu like symptoms all week to groom these guys to the nines. Thank you to Belinda Nairn Wertmann for finding Diego, and to Alex Robertson for sourcing Sommersby from Dorothee Schmid. Looking forward to a bright future and moving these two horses up in the near future!

US Dressage Finals Here We Come!

After a successful trip to the Region 2 Finals, we received Wild Card Invitations for both Diego M and Sommersby 25 to attend the US Dressage Finals at third level. We set out this year to slowly bring these two horses along throughout the season as they both had been out of the competition arena for several years due to health issues. Now recovered, we wanted their return to competition to be methodical and calculated, with the goal of US Dressage Finals in mind. They both qualified for Regionals at their first show of the year and allowed us to keep their summer schedule light. I was very pleased with both horses handling the Rolex arena with class, and could not be happier to have received Wild Card invites for BOTH horses. Congratulations to Angela Hambrick who has left no stone unturned and has given both of these horses the time and assistance they needed to recover and get back to the ring. We have to also thank our vets Dr. David Miller (Sommersby 25/Diego M) and Dr. Larry Agle (Diego M) who diagnosed & treated these guys, and our farrier Ed Cigany for his diligence and expertise with Sommersby to help him make a full recovery. GO TEAM!

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Welcome Agassi!

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We are pleased to announce the acquisition of “Agassi” a 5 yr old Oldenburg Stallion by Ampere x Quaterback from Thomas Casper of Gestut Birkhof. Agassi, purchased by Mrs. Angela Hambrick, will be continuing his already superior performance and breeding career at River Edge Farm in Hunting Valley, Ohio.

Agassi completed his stallion testing in 2017 garnering 9’s for his character, and willingness to perform, and 8.5 for his canter. He qualified this past spring for the Bundeschampionat as a 5 yr old. One of his first daughters was Champion filly this summer in Southern Germany, and immediately purchased by Sonke Rothenberger, who most recently represented Germany at the WEG aboard Cosmo.

Agassi is a special guy and we were impressed with his kind nature, and extreme rideability… not to mention his good looks and high quality gaits. We are thrilled to have the opportunity to bring this exciting stallion to the U.S., and thank the Casper family for making him available to us and entrusting us with his future. We would also like to thank Dietrich and Elizabeth Felgendreher for making the connection and introduction to their friends at Gestut Birkhof, managing his CEM quarantine, and all their advice throughout the process. Welcome to the family Agassi…we can’t wait to get to know you!

Home and in Full swing!

Well we have hit the ground running after arriving home the first week of April!  We had an exciting and very productive trip in Aiken where we met new friends, rekindled old friendships, and trained our hearts out.  The horses all developed beautifully throughout our time there, with Skyfall making the move up to Preliminary and Captain and I contesting our first CIC2*.  The dressage horses all did several shows, and our clients enjoyed success with Sue Luria and Valerie Lopez bringing home wins, Margot successfully navigating the PT level, Gretchen Colleran's Aslan bringing home wins and a Reserve Championship at Training and First Level, Sanae Tanebe obtaining her first qualifying scores for Regionals, and Jessica Hart Dolan's Oliver and I doing some great cross country education and a good trip at Sporting Days.  Angela Hambricks Constantine had scores in the 70's at Training Level, and Marian Shaughnessy's Tsjesse returned to the show ring at Prix. St. George to earn a qualifying score.  I think that my horses have never felt better or been more fit, and I have to thank Boyd and Silva Martin for all the help and coaching they gave me while I was there.  When you have people that believe in you and seriously take time to help you as a rider and individual it truly makes all the difference.  Hats off also to Cyndy and Barry Oliff and the entire Stable View staff; the facility ran like a top, and the amenities from the footing in the arenas, the grass gallop and trails, to the turnouts and human accommodations, allowed us to train our horses to their potential and keep them happy and healthy.  Speaking of people that believe in you, thank you to all the owners who believe in my program and sent their horses to Aiken for training, and all our sponsors who help us do it with quality, class, and style.  I am happy to be newly sponsored by Franco Tucci, and love our Tucci riding boots!  

Since arriving home, we have gotten off to a grand start getting the outdoor arenas at River Edge Farm up and running, and getting resettled at White North Stable.  I am pleased to announce that Brie Allen has permanently joined our team as our full time head show groom, a position that we drastically needed to keep the horses in good condition and all our gear clean and organized.  We have had students haul in for lessons, and our first clinic with Boyd in a veritable snow storm!  I am humbled that he still came despite the absolutely wretched weather and stood out there teaching in a blizzard.  There aren't many coaches that would give you a proper hour lesson on your best horses in those conditions, not to mention that my husband Ivor stood there freezing to help do rails and whatever else needed done.  I am truly blessed to have an outstanding group of people in my corner right now, and no amount of thanks could possibly be enough.  Enjoy these photos from our trip to Aiken courtesy of Miranda Akins of Photography in Stride.

Aiken 2018 Update

Its been a whirlwind as always in Aiken this year, with 17 horses hitting the ground at the beautiful Stable View mid January.  We are five weeks into our trip and the horses have all gotten back into training and competition mode in excellent fashion.  The event horses have been out twice at the Stable View Horse Trial and Pine Top, with another event scheduled this weekend.  The dressage horses have also put on their dancing shoes and had an excellent outing at Bruce's Field with Gretchen Colleran's Eros VF winning his two Training Level classes and coming home Reserve Champion.  

I have had the opportunity to take some great lessons on a regular basis and be immersed in a culture of the highest level of training.  I feel very humbled and lucky to be able to work with Boyd and Silva and their Windurra team at Stable View.  Its a huge advantage to watch everyone riding at such a high level and see how they operate their businesses.   We are also sharing our barn with Nuno Santos, a Dressage rider from Portugal, who keeps us all laughing and on our toes.  Its wonderful how everyone works together seamlessly, and it is an immense education to just be in this environment. 

I also want to highlight the amazing job the Team at Stable View is doing this year to accommodate all the boarders.  Cyndy and Barry Oliff have done an incredible job of making Stable View second to none as a Winter Training base, and are executing an ambitious plan to make it a year round thriving business.  Their vision and attention to detail has allowed us all to operate our training businesses with ease and efficiency, and I can't thank them enough for all they are doing to make our horses and riders happy and healthy! 

 

Happy New Year!

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2018 here we come!

Happy New Year to all our friends, family, clients, and sponsors.  We had an exciting 2017 and while there are always ups and downs, I try to focus on the ups.  Thank you to my awesome husband and son who supported all of my gypsy - like traveling, my coaches for their gifts of time and dedication coming in for clinics to helping me hone my craft and making me and the horses better, my students, clients, and owners for their belief in our system and support of our team, my public and private sponsors who do everything from keeping our horses happy with proper fitting tack & nutrition, keeping us well clothed, transportation solutions, mitigating show and training expenses, to the practitioners who service our equine athletes-the vets, massage therapists, farriers, chiropractors, dentists, saddle fitters, and our amazing staff without whom I certainly could not function.  I appreciate everyone's help, energy, thoughtfulness, and am very humbled and grateful for the opportunities that I have been given.  I can't wait to get back at it this spring, and look forward to some exciting adventures in 2018!