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August 10, 2008

It seems grief brings out the best in our farm. Saturday kept everyone busy,
both at the barn and abroad. Aly, Genevieve, and Rebecca took Bella,
Dusty, and D2 to Wheeler Green in Geneseo for a Pony Club clinic. By all
reports, things went very well and they all learned a lot.

Our instructors, Mary and Veronica, both competed horses at the Rolelu
Horse Trials, also in Geneseo. Mary rode Babie and Penny, Veronica rode
Ebony, and Katie competed her horse, Jake, in his first event. All got round
each phase in excellent style and the farm took home first place in the stable
competition.

Mary placed 4th in the Novice division with Babie, who competed for the first
time at that level, and 2nd with Penny in Beginner Novice.

August 7th, 2008

Today was a very sad day for the barn. Mary's horse, Richie, was humanely
euthanized this morning after suffering from severe colic. Richie came to
Mary in December of 2001 and was the sweetest, most kind horse anyone
could ask for. His large, floppy ears, beautiful expressive eyes, and
affectionate personality will be greatly missed.

Please give your support to those who knew him, as it will take time to come
to terms with the loss of this special creature.

August 4th, 2008

The Mounting Block would like to congratulate Beverly and Dusty on the
completion of their first horse trials together! Bev has worked tirelessly
behind the scenes supporting her daughter Katie (and anyone else who
needs her) at the barn and at shows. Yesterday, Bev finally had the
opportunity to compete and demonstrated how hard the pair have been
working, coming home with second place!

Congrats also goes out to our instructor, Mary, and Tom's horse Babie. This
was the pairs first outing together and they performed very well, finishing in
fifth!

July 27th, 2008

Wow, things are moving quickly. We've completed three weeks of summer
camp, been to some Pony Club events, and seen some amazing progress in
our riders! The remainder of the summer promises more of the same. We're
sending two riders to High Time Stables for their horse trials next weekend,
and another four to the Rolelu Stables horse trials August 9th. If you have
time, please come out and support our competitors!

If you haven't signed up for summer camp yet, we still have openings.
Attendees have had a blast riding, learning horse management, and
generally getting fantastically tired and dirty!

On a final note, at the suggestion of one of our favorite "invisible" students,
our instructor Mary has entered some photos on the website
www.capturerochester.com. Please check out the photos and vote for your
favorites. Maybe one will end up published!

July 11th, 2008

Summer is going wonderfully at The Block. Session I of summer camp is
winding down and we've had a blast! Our campers have ridden everyday,
made a jump decoration, (who knew dragons belonged in the ring?), and
learned an awful lot about horses. Check out our photos from this week's
session using this link, Session I Slideshow

In other news:

Kudos to Genevieve on her first place finish at Pony Club's Games Rally on
July 5th.
Congratulations also go out to Jamie on her purchase of her new horse,
Chloe! We expect good things from this team in the future.