News from Ruthanna
December 2006
IMPORTANT STUFF!!!
BARN NIGHT AT EL TORO, 25% OFF!!!! Dec 7, from 7:00pm until 10:00pm El Toro will host its annual Barn Appreciation night. Myself and our staff will be on-hand to help you select those special gifts for the rider in your family. El Toro Feed & Tack will give 25% discount on all regularly priced merchandise (not saddles or red-dot items, which are already marked down). If you just can’t make it, they will run another night Dec 14 with 20% off, and Lisa will be there to help you out.
BARN CLOSURES: We will close at Noon on Christmas Eve, to allow our staff and students to be home with their families. The 2:00 Sunday class will therefore be moved to earlier in the morning. We will likewise be closed on December 25.
BTS NEW-YEAR’S BIRTHDAY & AWARDS BANQUET January 1 we will also be closed for lessons as we run our annual BTS Pony Party, for a big birthday celebration for all the horses. We will also have our annual BTS Awards Banquet and potluck. We hope not to rain-date this again! Last year was a mess, huh? Everyone is invited. Meg will be organizing this, so look for more from her.
STRENGTHENING YOUR RIDE,” Sundays at 9:30, is a class for building strength, agility, balance and specific skills to improve your ride.
WESTERN HORSEMANSHIP BASICS” class in December. This class will run Saturday at 10:00 for 6 weeks.
NEW WEB SITE LAUNCH! Look for the new web site January 1, 2007
BTS –WEAR! New BTS team wear catalog available in the office tack locker. Meg Kelly has put together a great collection of barn and team shirts, jackets and hats. Team wear for your horse too! Blankets, saddle blankets and stadium blankets round out this great selection of gifts and team-spirit items.
BTS EXPRESS
Ramblings by Ruthanna, more of the “Village News”
With so many new faces around BTS, a newsletter is way overdue! So, here is the BTS News!
Wow, what a ride! Not the horses, but this whole last year! We are moved and settled and up and running. I can’t thank my loyal students enough, or those of you who have found us in our new home. The drama of the El Toro Stable closure roller-coaster of last year behind us, we have regrouped, reorganized and morphed into something with great potential.
As with any move of this type, we’ve had to adapt. Smaller and slightly inconvenient storage, shared tacking areas with grumpy neighbors, stall shortages with rotating lesson horses, are just a few of the challenges we faced. All have been met with patience, creativity and good humor.
We moved out of El Toro on March 21. Amy Kiesel and Meg Kelly went with half the herd to Orange Park Acres to manage that facility as we struggled to get stalls at Sycamore Trails Stables. Little by little, one by one, we obtained stalls through sub-leases and through the efforts of John and Katie Berney at ESI. One by one, we moved our friends back to the herd.
On June 25, just three months later, we moved Ceol, Mac and Cailin over, moving the last two horses over to Lisa’s backyard and closing the door on the difficult and uncomfortable OPA barn. Almost a year ahead of schedule, the family was finally back together.
While we would continue to struggle for stalls, we could begin to form what would be the new BTS, using the talents and energy of our full staff. The emphasis moved from circling the wagons to moving the whole program forward.
Devon broke off from our program to form the bridge between BTS and ESI. As students progress through our program, they will go into Devon’s program for full training. Those with their own horses with ambition to show or “ride up” will move through Devon toward the ESI program for serious showing and further education. Devon also moved out on his own and continues to attend Saddleback College. As his “village,” we all can be proud of the success and dedication of this fine young man. This program raised him, and I thank you all for being part of his village.
Amidst all of this, we underwent a huge staff change as Lisa eased out to attend Whittier Law School full time. The “horse angel on my shoulder” as a friend put it, intervened and dropped Korie Mulleady into our midst on the very day Lisa left. Korie is a former BTS’er, serving many years in the capacity in which Lauren T now skillfully toils. Korie was teaching at another barn, and was looking for a change. We went to lunch, and two weeks later, Korie is the BTS Head Instructor.
Korie brings to BTS a quiet and humorous teaching technique, as well as a fresh but familiar style. A fine rider in her own right, Korie has ridden, shown and backpacked through Europe. I thank my Horse Angel (or the pony Gods as I call them) for bringing her back “home” when we needed her most. Welcome home, Korie. We look forward to where you will take us.
Even with all the drama, Meg Kelly and Amy Kiesel went forward with their enthusiastic plans for “Horsin Around with BTS” summer camp. Scaled back with the unexpected move, we ran 4 camps full or almost full. A HUGE success, Meg and Amy brought a sense of promise and hope for what the future could be for BTS. Meg has taken the operations of BTS into her capable and incredibly organized hands and has formed the BTS wear catalog with such BTS Team items as Team Jackets, shirts, hats, horse blankets, stadium blankets, and loads more.
Amy has taken the care of the horses into her patient and loving hands. She is assuring that each and every horse in the BTS program is watched over by their own “horse angel.” Amy walks old horses, wraps legs, medicates and generally hovers over all of our equine friends. She even moved closer to the barn to be just minutes away. You won’t see Amy down there unless you look for her, but if you look for her, you will see her.
I myself, laid low and rested for the last few months, celebrating the accomplishments and recovering from the stress that was the first ¾ of 2006. I took a cruise to Mexico where I laid out the plan that will be BTS in 2007. Thanksgiving of this year I spent time to be truly thankful for everyone and everything that brought us to where we are, took a deep breath, and focused my attentions forward.
So that brings us up to now. We continue to acclimate to the new stable (and it to us!) with such considerations as to which arenas are good for when., where are the horses comfortable, and what closes when it rains. We have been working with some new horses and lots of new faces. We continue to build and evolve in our new surroundings, with almost limitless possibilities.
Looking forward to 2007, we will be implementing such programs as “Strengthening your Ride” class on Sunday mornings, “Western Horsemanship Basics” course starting Dec 9. We will be running some clinics such as “Lunging and driving,” and extra classes, free of charge, such as “Grooming and Clipping,” and “bandaging and wrapping.” We will be re-instituting our lease program with a few leases becoming available for students, as well as host some clinics from outside trainers for Dressage and jumpers. We will begin videoing some lessons, and build our office in stall M-111 (currently Cailin’s stall). All of this while improving our general lesson program toward the Premier Riding School I have envisioned.
“Strengthening Your Ride,” Sundays at 9:30, is a class for building strength, agility, balance and specific skills to improve your ride. This class is for intermediate to advanced riders who have good basic skills for walk, trot and canter. I will ride with this class and lead us all in timing exercises, pole work, and challenges of balance and strength. Think of it as Pilates on horseback! This class has been a blast so far, and I look forward to expanding on the concept.
I am excited to start the “Western Horsemanship Basics” class in December. This class will run Saturday at 10:00 for 6 weeks. The cost is $180 for horse owners and $250 for riders needing a BTS lesson horse. We will cover the basics of position, gaits, aids and cues, with introductions to Trail, Gymkhana, Cutting, Penning, and stock/reining applications. This is a prototype for what will become the new BTS Western Program.
We will re-introduce our Clinic programs with clinics such as Lunging & Driving, First Aid for Horses, Conformation & Colors, and Grooming & Horse Care. We will be once again videoing these clinics for use in the future “BTS Video Library” in our future office.
We will run 4 new camps this next year with our new “Horsin’ Around with BTS” proven program.
Meg has been working with Gerald Freeman to redesign our Web Site. This site is scheduled to launch January 1, 2007. This has been a HUGE undertaking, and I thank Meg and Gerald for their hard work and persistence where I couldn't’t manage!
So with all that, I look forward to 2007 with great enthusiasm and a renewed energy to see what we can build. I look forward to working with you and thank you for your contribution to the program. The thing that makes BTS so special and different from the other barns is the group together. This was named the “Barn Magic” by an old student, and continues to make BTS more than just a Riding School. It is a village.
Ruthanna Bridges(949) 858-0970
www.bridgestrainingstable.com