Nikita and I qualified for the BLM Championships at Intermediare I in New Jersey this fall. Our score of 62% at Dressage at Lexington was high enough to qualify us. That's also one gold medal score down for me. Just one more needed at Intermediare, and then it's on to Grand Prix! Here are some photos from Dressage at Lexington:

News about Chamonix SSH and Nicolbria

I received some news from Hilltop about Chamonix SSH and Nicolbria. Nicolbria had a checkup at 33 days, and is still in foal! They said everything looked great. Next up, sexing the foal! I can't wait another 10 months to find out the gender; blame it on being of the MTV generation.

Chamonix SSH has gotten his first abscess, which came out of his coronary band. This is good news, because he was having some quirky lameness issues, and finding out it's only an abscess is definitely a good thing! The little stinker likes to play too hard.

Thanks to Megan at Hilltop for providing the updates!

Watch Nikita enjoy her molasses treat! And in the background, you can see her neighbor enjoying a nosh on my Hennig saddle (which I didn't realize until much later)!

Nikita gets into the carrots

Nikita got into 2 lbs of carrots! I left the room for a grand total of 5 minutes, and I come back to this. She dumped the carrots on the floor, unwrapped the plastic bag, and tore through the shrinkwrap around the carrots! Smart girl!

Photo Session with Heather Pettit

We had a great photo session with photographer Heather Pettit, who made Nikita look fabulous! I made the mistake of putting Nicolbria's KWPN logo pad on Nikita; I should have used a Holsteiner logo pad, but live and learn. I especially love the background on the photos. Enjoy the "cream of the crop" from our session, below:

After a 7 week haitus, Nikita is back in training. First order of business: The Shannon Dueck clinic at GoodNess Ridge Farm. We had a great time during the 2 days we got to work with Shannon, and this was an awesome opportunity to take advantage of Shannon's knowledge to safely get Nikita back in shape.

Shannon had a lot of excellent things to say about us, and was thrilled with Nikita's talent for piaffe and passage!

Nicolbria's in foal!

It's official! Nicolbria is in foal to Bugatti Hilltop! I'm super excited, since this is my first try at breeding. I've learned a lot from Lisa and David, and can't wait to see what the kiddo will look like. The foal will be registered KWPN-NA, and will have the supreme bloodlines of Bergamon, Rubenstein, Donnerhall, Ulft, and Doruto. This is an elegant match, and I'm sure the foal will be talented with a kind disposition. Thank you to the Hilltop team for taking such great care of Nicolbria!