Birds Eye View Equestrian Center
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Alexandria Hallett (Amos)
Below we go through Alex's history in the horse world, through all the different disciplines,
awards and horses that she has worked with.
1999
Walk Trot / Cross Rails
Alex started off doing the Pony Hunters and Equitation. She started her career placing in the Walk Trot and Equitation Class'.
- 1999 Champion Walk Trot Equitation
- 1999 Reserve Champion in Cross-Rails Equitation
2000 - 2001
Pony Hunter/ Equitation
Next Alex moved on to the Pony World. Here she competed successfully under the tutelage of Brian Tommerdahl. She proceeded to go on to receive many awards in the Medium and Large Ponies.
- 2000 Won Gascoigne Pony Medal
- 2000 Qualified for Pony Finals
- 2000 Seventh Place – Medium Pony’s - Ohio Hunter Jumper Association
- 2000 Competed at HITS Ocala
2001-2002
Pony Hunter/Equitation Continued
In 2002 Alex and her pony Bert 'Instant Replay' went on to place Reserve Large Green Pony in Zone 5 and continue on to compete at Pony Finals and place in the Top 20.
2002 Qualified and Competed at Pony Finals 2002 – Large Greens.
- 2002 Reserve Champion Large Green Pony Zone 5
- 2002 Sixth Place – Large Pony Hunter – Ohio Hunter Jumper Association
- 2002 Sixth Place – 11 years and Under Equitation – Ohio Hunter Jumper Association
2002-2003
Childrens Hunters
After re-homing her pony due to Navicular to a mentally and physically handicapped facility Alex started training different horses to compete in the Hunters and Jumpers.
2003
Western/Team Penning
After Alex's trainer Brian Tommerdahl passed away she decided to step away from the show world and start to try different disciplines and really find the joy in riding again. One of the first things that she tried out was the western world of breaking and training horses and having some fun playing in the world of Team Penning.
2003-2004
Dressage
Next Alex moved on to Dressage. During this time she rescued and rehabilitated a starved Off The Track Thoroughbred from Last Chance Corral in Ohio. After putting weight and muscle back on him and bringing him along in the dressage world. She had a full work up done on her Off The Track Thoroughbred Paco 'New Begginings' before starting to jump. In the work up they found that he had two blown out knees and was twice as old as initially thought. So to make sure that Paco could have the best life possible, he was rehomed through Last Chance Corral to find a forever pasture home.
2004-2007
Eventing
After learning about the dressage world, Alex decided she wanted to get back into jumping again and decided to see what eventing was all about. During the beginning of 2004 Alex purchased Buggy 'Birds Eye View' and began the next step of her journey with her new life time companion. Buggy and Alex moved to Florida in 2006 and started Eventing in Sarasota Fl.
2007-2009
Dressage In Florida
Once in Florida Alex started to train with MeLinda and Linda Brown in Sarasota Fl. She proceeded to bring Buggy along to 2nd level dressage and was working on 3rd level at home.
2007-2011
Show Jumping
At the same time as taking her dressage lessons, Alex started training with Jimmy Morrisey to start competing in Show Jumping at Imperial Farms in Parrish, Fl. As they started to push Buggy's limits they found that he was capable of jumping much higher than initially expected and proceeded to clear 5' with ease.
Fall 2008 - Winter 2011
College IHSA
Alex went to college at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College in Terre Haute Indiana on multiple scholarships: Equine Scholarship, Soccer Scholarship, Academic Scholarship, and a Digital Media Scholarship. As part of her scholarships Alex had to maintain a 3.5 GPA as well as participate in both of her sports at the same time. She also maintained 18 credit hours for every semester of her college career.
During her freshman year, her very first show she came in First in the Jumping as well as 3rd in the Flat phase. At the end of the year Alex was ranked in the Top 10 of the Open Division of her Zone.
May 2009
Kentucky Spring Classic
After Alex's freshman year in college she traveled to Kentucky for the Spring Classic to compete in the Adult Amateur Jumpers with Michael Morrisey as her trainer. While at Kentucky she was able to really fine tune her course work in preparation for the remainder of her summer.
July 2009
Grand Prix
After coming back down to Florida from Kentucky Alex came down to Venice and competed in the Gamblers Choice as well as the 2009 $25,000 Grand Prix. This was Buggy and Alex's first Grand Prix and it was an amazing starting point and learning experience for both of them in the art of jumping such large courses.
Fall 2009
Training and Handling 2
One of the many equine class' that Alex took while at college was Training and Handling 2. This class brought in a horse, or in Alex's situation a cute and adorable 12.1hh welsh pony named Phoenix. The pony that was brought in for Alex was an untrained, never saddled and barely handled pony. Phoenix was picked up in a field and brought in never having been worked with before. The purpose of this class was for Alex to do everything from teaching him to lunge to saddling him for the first time, to getting on and riding. During the 3 months that this class ran, Alex accomplished the following with Phoenix:
- Walk, Trot and Canter
- Jumping
- Walking on tarps and over bridges
- Shoulder In, Haunches In, Half Pass
- Turn on the forehand, Turn on the Haunches
- Bowing, Trailer Loading, Single Tying
- Getting his feet done, his teeth done
- Riding English and Western
2008-2011
Advanced Western
Due to wanting to learn more about the western disciplines, Alex took Intermediate 1 Western all the way up to Advanced Western. She trained under Sara Schulz who is the Head Western Trainer as well as the Head Coach for SMWC's Western Team. Many things she learned throughout these classes she has turned into things she uses with her jumpers and hunters. Riding under such an amazing coach from a different disciple allowed her to develop many new training techniques as well as a new perspective on training.
2008-2011
College IHSA
During her time competing on SMWC's IHSA colligate team she placed in the Top 10 of their Zone each of the 4 years she competed. Her last year she graduated a semester early and with only one semester of competing still came in the Top 10 of their Zone!
May 2011
Mini Prix
During the Spring of 2011 Alex and Buggy 'Birds Eye View' competed in Tampa right after coming back from College in preparation of competing in the Grand Prix at Venice again.
- 8th in the $3500 CHHJA Mini Prix 1.30 meter
- 2nd in the 1.25 meter jumpers
- 4th in the 1.15 meter jumpers in Tampa Florida
After a fantastic first outing Buggy blew a severe abscess in his front foot which required over a year of rehabilitation for him to come back into riding shape again.
September 2012
Colic Surgery
It was a horrible call that Alex received early one morning when her phone call came through that Buggy was colicing. He had a couple bouts of impactions but nothing to serious in the past so to start with she wasn't to concerned. Alex said, let me know if it gets any worse, I'm up and getting dressed, I'll let you know when I'm on my way and have called the vet. About 10 minutes later as shes getting ready to head out the door she gets a frantic call that he has now thrown himself down to the ground and flipped himself over multiple times. Alex was out the door and on the road with the call to the vets that they needed to be at her boarding farm ASAP because her horse was in serious distress. After arriving and helping to keep him walking and moving the vet arrived and gave him a minor sedative. The vet also tubed him and was unable to find any fluid build up in his stomach. After another 5 minutes of Buggy being in sever distress the vet recommended to take him the hour north to the Surgical Center in Tampa.
Once arriving at the Surgical Center in Tampa Buggy had is initial exam where he ended up refluxing over 5 gallons of fluid. He was kept at the surgical center for a week before they determined that he needed to have surgery due to his health deteriorating. The reason for the delay was due to his health showing signs of improvement and then signs of issues but never fully getting better.
After deciding to send him into surgery late friday evening. He was led to the prep room and sedated. He was then taken into the surgical room where before the surgery was even able to be performed it was determined that he had lost the fight and was brain dead. Alex was brought in to say her last good byes to her amazing partner. While in there the surgeon told her that unfortunately his brain had shut down and there was nothing more they could do for him.
He has stopped blinking, his eyes were clouded over, and he has lost all color to his gums and tongue.
As she was explaining why they had determined he was brain dead, Alex noticed that it looked like he was trying to blink. The anesthesiologist came over to check and see if it was just a muscle spasm but found that it was actually Buggy trying to blink. Once he blinked and re-opened his eye, the cloudiness was gone and the color rushed back into his tongue and gums. The surgeon let Alex know that now he was back they still needed to complete the surgery necessary to save his life. After the surgery was completed the surgeon has found that his small intestine has folded over and his colon has twisted. Amazingly none of his intestine needed to be taken out due to it all receiving adequate blood circulation during his extended stay at the surgical center.
Once his surgery was completed due to the unknown reason that his system has shut down and re-started it was unknown whether or not Buggy would be the same horse once he had recovered.
We are glad to announce that since his surgery Buggy has come back and is doing amazing. He was 16 in 2012 when he went in for surgery and just turned 20 and is currently still jumping 3'+ and also teaching lessons and enjoying his herd mates.
July 2013
Birds Eye View
Equestrian Center
In July of 2013 Alex purchased and opened her own boarding and training facility in Ocala Fl. The farm was purchased as a foreclosed property and Alex, her fiancé Robert and her parents have worked very hard to bring it up to the amazing level that it is now. Birds Eye View Equestrian Center offers a 12 stall block barn, 5 stall wood barn, lighted sand arena, sand round pen, and a large grass riding/jump field. We also have a full sized grand prix dressage arena with letters.
We are conveniently located right down the road from Clayton Fredericks farm and cross country course, as well as 10 minutes from Longwood Farm South, 20 minutes from HITS, 20 minutes to the Ocala Jockey Club, 30 minutes from Cedar Lock Farms - Run For The Ribbons, 32 minutes from the Florida Horse Park and 51 Minutes to Rocking Horse.
September & December 2013
Longwood Farm South 6 Bar
For the first competition back after Buggy's surgery Alex decided to have some fun at a new venue. Buggy and Alex headed to Longwood to compete in the 3'6 jumpers as well as have some fun in the 6 bar competition during the Fall of 2013. They also competed in the December Longwood Just Jumpers 3'6 and 4' Jumpers going double clear and coming in first in both of their divisions.
Febuary 2014
Canterbury
Horse Shows In The Park
In February of 2014 Alex and Buggy went to Canterbury to show in the 3'6 jumpers. In both of the 3'6 class' Buggy went double clear and came in 1st.
May 2014
Run For The Ribbons
In May 2014 Alex and Buggy competed in the 3'6 and 4' Jumpers at the Run for the Ribbons show. They went double clear in both classes and came in 1st in both classes.
January 2015
Canterbury
Horse Shows In The Park
During January of 2015, Alex coached at her first show with two students. Both of her students ended up doing really well and jumping really nicely.
Febuary 2015
Canterbury
Horse Shows In The Park
In February Alex went back to Canterbury to compete in the 3'6 Jumpers and went double clear and came in second.
One of her students competed in the 2'3 and 2'6 Jumpers and for her first time with her new horse that Alex helped her find and did fantastically.
April 2015
Barrels
In April of 2015 Alex started working with Phoenix to teach him how to complete a barrel pattern. He competed in his first barrel show and finished with a time of 20 seconds. For his first time out he did fantastic and was only 4 seconds off the fastest competitor.
April 2015
Eventing Schooling Show at Rocking Horse
In April Alex and a lesson student decided to give an eventing schooling show a go. Alex's lesson student was very interested in eventing and wanted to see if it was something she wanted to pursue. All throughout the month of April they worked on their dressage tests as well as went to different places to go cross country schooling. They both had a fantastic time out and ended up doing really well.
May 2015
Longwood Farm South
Just Jumpers
In May Alex coached at the Longwood Farm Souths Just Jumper Show. All of her students had an amazing time and some of them even graduated from a lower height to a higher height while competing!
June 2015
Longwood Farm South
Just Jumpers
- Champion 2' Jumpers
- Champion 2'3 Jumpers
Alex showed Willy her new 5 year old in the 2' and the 2'3 Jumpers. He ended up winning all of his class' and coming in Champion.
Alex had two students competing; the first student did a warm up ride at 2'6 and then competed at 2'9 and did really well. Her second student had a young green horse that showed in the 2'3 and the 2'6 and didn't refuse a single jump! It was an amazing show.
June 2015
Run for the Ribbons Year End Award Banquet 2014-2015
- 4th in the High Jumpers with Buggy 'Birds Eye View'
August 2015
Longwood Farm South
Just Jumpers
Champion 2'3 Jumpers
- Champion 2'6 Jumpers
Alex took her 5 year old to show in the 2'3 and 2'6 Jumpers where he did fantastically. He ended up coming in Champion of both divisions at the show.
Alex's lesson student ended up doing the 2'6 warm ups and went clear. Then she went double clear in the 2'9 as well as going double clear in the 3' division. It was a great day at an amazing venue.
September 2015
Run For The Ribbons
Willy
- Reserve Champion 2'3 Hunter/Eq
Buggy 'Birds Eye View'
- First 3' High Jumpers
- 2nd 3' High Jumpers
Both of Alex's horses did fantastic at the Run for the Ribbons horse show. Willy got right off the trailer and went in to fill the division for another rider during the 2'3 Hunter/Eq. He did fantastically. Then Buggy ended up placing first in the High Jumpers and then during the Jump off in the Money class took the jump off turn to quickly and had an unfortunate rail.
October 2015
Longwood Farm South
Just Jumpers
Alex coached at the Longwood Just Jumpers show and her lesson student jumped double clear in the 2'9 jumpers, had an unfortunate rail in the 3' and then did a second 3' round and went double clear! Then she decided to try out the hunters and placed second, second and forth in the 3' hunter division!
January 2016 - March 2016
HITS Ocala
Alex coached at Hits for the entire series. She had her lesson student competing in the Low Children’s Jumpers, the Medium Children’s Jumpers as well as playing in some Equitation Class'. Throughout the entire season her lesson student and her mare learned so much and graduated from primarily playing in the lows to jumping around the mediums like it wasn't anything! For a 15 year old and a green 7 year old they did fantastic for their first rated show season!
Febuary 2016
Run For The Ribbons
Buggy 'Birds Eye View'
- 1st 2'9 Low Jumpers
- 1st 3' High Jumper Classic
Willy
- 2nd 2'9 Low Jumpers
- 4th 3' High Jumper Classic
Buggy and one of Alex's lesson students did fantastic during the Walk Trot division. It was a really tough division and she didn't get any ribbons but it was her first show out against ten other riders who had been competing the entire season (It was the last show of the season). She got all of her diagonals and proceeded to navigate around all the other riders even when they cut her off.
Then Alex and Buggy went double clear in the 2'9 and 3' Jumpers and had the fastest High Jumper Classic Jump Off time by 4 seconds.
Willy and Alex went double clear in the 2'9 low jumpers and Willy just couldn’t beat out Buggy's jump off time. Willy went clear in the 3' High Jumper Classic but had an unlucky rail in the Jump off to come in 4th.
April 2016
Run for the Ribbons Year End Award Banquet 2015-2016
Willy
- Champion 2'9 Low Jumpers
- 4th Thoroughbred Novice 2'3 Hunter/Eq
Buggy 'Birds Eye View'
- Reserve Champion 2'9 Low Jumpers
Alex
- 5th High Point Thoroughbred Rider
June 2016
On June 12th, 2016 Alex and Robert got married up at Cheer's & Lakeside Chalet and spent an amazing day with family and friends. They then went on amazing trip to New Orleans for their honeymoon. It was such a relaxing and fun honeymoon.
July - September 2016
Alex and Robert have been working really hard to make updated to the farm for the upcoming winter season. We have expanded the shade space in two fields, planted a tree in once field with plans to plant more trees in other fields. Moved the main gate down towards 105th and placed a gate on the bridle path. Plans for updated fencing and split pastures later this fall. We are really excited for the new updates that are in the works.
They have also taken on their first Sales horse and are really excited to be stepping into the sales industry.
Baby Huey - Hy Prince Pioneer is a 5 year old 16.1hh Off The Track Thoroughbred. He raced once and was then used as a trail horse before coming to our farm to go into training as well as be put up for sale. He is a really amazing horse and whoever scoops him up will have an amazing partner.
October 2016 - November 2016
We are so excited to have found Huey his forever family. He is moving down to Tampa to go enjoy learning how to be a competition horse along with being an amazing family horse.
November 2016
We are so excited to welcome Tessa and Missy to our Training and Sales Program. Tessa is a 10 year old 17.1hh Irish Sport Horse Mare who had a couple years off and will be brought along to see what kind of talent she has. Missy is a 6 year old 16.3hh Thoroughbred Mare who was track trained but never raced and has had time off and will be re-started from the ground up.
December 2016
Our farm got a much needed facelift. We put in all sorts of new fencing and went from 5 fields to 10 fields. It was a very hectic month, but it was very productive and we are super excited to have all sorts of new pasture space.
January - March 2017
We had a very busy and fun filled winter season. Our two sales horses have been coming along nicely. We sent them through the jump shoot and found out that they could jump much higher than we initially planned and so we have altered their training regiment to include larger jumps, more intimidating questions and are really excited to see how they come along.
April - May 2017
Our farm got a much needed facelift. We put in all sorts of new fencing and went from 5 fields to 10 fields. It was a very hectic month, but it was very productive and we are super excited to have all sorts of new pasture space.
June - July 2017
At the beginning of June we headed off for some schooling with a couple of the horses and students and traveled to Longwood to jump around. Then Alex was invited to course design and judge at a local schooling show in Tampa called Ride the Tide. We also got in a new ottb sales horse names Cupcake and started working on training her. We also continued to train and develop our other sales horses and grow our lesson program.
*judging photo
August 2017
August was a big month, first we helped Presley find her first horse Ghost who came from Run for the Ribbons and is a retired ottb. Than we found Cupcake her new home with her forever person Bev. So excited for the each of these people to be starting off on their new adventures with their partners in crime.
September 2017
We have weathered our first big hurricane Irma. We were out of power for over a week and a half. Had a tree come down and take out a section of fencing. But thankfully had the generator hooked up and able to power the well and minimal electrical items so that way we were able to successfully take care of ponies in the aftermath of one of the biggest storms that has hit Ocala.
October 2017
Partners of the Park
Schooling Show
After recovering from the hurricane we got back into the swing of showing and had a good group head off to the Florida Horse Parks POP Schooling Show. Alex showed Tessa in the 3'3 division and got 2nd and the 3'7 division and got 6th. Ashley showed Bug in the 2' division and got 1st and she showed in the 2'3 and got 2nd. Ashleigh on Phoenix showed in 18" and got 1st and showed in the 2' division and got 2nd. And one of our fellow barn members came and showed, Steph competed her mare Kalhua and got 6th in the 3'3 division.
November 2017
In November we were excited to Welcome to Barbados Olympic Team who stayed with us while training with Clayton Fredericks and other Olympic teams in the Ocala area. We also worked on continuing to develop and bring along our Sales horses as well as our personal horses.
December 2017
In December Alex started working towards her Course Designing Liscense. To get started she needed to work under proven course designers and started by helping Oscar Soberon over at HITS. She learned so much and is really excited to continue her education in 2018. We also hosted our first ever Farm Christmas Party which was a hit and we had such a good time socializing with all of our current and past boarders and lesson students. Once apart of our barn family, always a part of our barn family.
January 2018
In January we headed down to Wellington to attend the Hunter and Jumper Course Designing Clinic. These clinics were so informational and Alex learned so much about the technical aspect of Course Designing. She is super excited to continue to learn, work with upper level course designers and steadily work on attaining her license.
Run for the Ribbons
Horse Show
We also went to the Run to the Ribbons horse show to show Tessa in her first show of the year. She successfully competed in the 3' Jumper Division along with the 3'-3'3 Jumper Classic she placed 1st and Second!!! So proud of her.
February 2018
We got 2 new sales horses in for February and are so excited to develop them and work on finding them new homes. We are excited to start to develop Prince and Pleasant Minister.
March 2018
March didn't start out very well for us because we had to make the decision to let Bug cross the rainbow bridge. He had started to show signs of struggling weight wise. In January we had blood work done and had him looked at for neurological issues because he started to show weakness in his hind end.
In February we learned the UF Large Animal Hospital has a whole team dedicated to Neurological Disorders and gave them a call. They were able to see us the next day to figure out if Bug was suffering from a neurological disorder, and if so we wanted to diagnose it and see if there was anything we could do to help him out. After seeing the neurologist and his team, he determined that Bug did not have any neurological disorders and that when his new blood work came back that it was pointing to his body fighting off an infection of some undetermined variety.
Bug was also looked at by the lameness team and it was determined that he had arthritis in his hocks and stifles and something wonky going on in one of his knees. But that his weight loss shouldn't be due to pain from that seeing as how he hasn't lost his appetite. After multiple people had looked at his blood work they unfortunately informed us that they believed that he either had brain or spinal cancer due to the fact that when they ultra sounded his entire abdomen they were unable to find any tumors. And that brain or spinal cancer would explain the weight loss and lack of coordination in his back end.
They sent us home for two weeks with medication and another appointment to see if he had gained any weight. If he gained weight than we would continue to pursue the lameness diagnosis but if he continued to lose weight and coordination than the most likely diagnosis was cancer.
Unfortunately at the end of the two weeks Bug had lost coordination to the point that shipping him up to UF for another consultation was not going to work without possibly injuring him. So we decided the best route to take was a day by day and week by week approach and make the decision based around quality of life.
A lot of people say that their animals let them know when they are ready to go. But Bug was stubborn and would have held on until his body gave out around him and we didn't want to take the chance of him laying down one day and not being able to get up and struggling and hurting himself or tripping and breaking something.
So we decided on March 5th 2018 to let our amazing horse cross the rainbow bridge. It was the right decision for him and he happily munched on his food and spent his last days outside with his friends with enough pain killers to keep him comfortable. He will always be with us, our facilities name sake and his big goofy red headed heart has touched so many lives and has really set the standard for how we want to live our lives and run our business. God Speed my friend, we will see you again.
Birds Eye View - Bug/Buggy
March 12, 1996 - March 5th, 2018
March 14, 2018
Mardanza Schooling Show
Middle of March we took Tessa to the Mardanza schooling show series and ended up jumping .5m higher than anticipated and ended up schooling around a 1.15m with 1.20/1.25m spread schooling round. We were anticipating it to be between 1m and 1.10m and couldn't be happier with how well Tessa handled it. She needed work on understanding how to jump square oxers, but she worked so hard to answer every question presented to her. So proud of how far this mare has come since coming to us for Training and Sales.
March 21, 2018
Willy went in for his tie-back surgery. We had been waiting for him to finish growing before we had his procedure done. We didn't want him to start going through a growth spurt right after having the procedure done and potential ripping the sutures as he was healing. He did so good going through the procedure, he had some issues kick starting his breathing after his surgery, but with a little help he was up and moving and just a little drunk. Later that day he was able to come home and start his month long stall rest to allow his whole body to heal and make it so that he could breath and be able to compete.
*picture of willy at the surgical center
March 24, 2018
Marion Saddle Club
Tessa was off to another show. This time we headed over to Marion Saddle Club to have a refresher and confidence builder round in the 3'3 division. She rocked around like a rock star and did such a good job. This mare is such an honest and straight forward ride and she takes care of her rider and is so talented.
April 2018
April's main focus was on furthering our horses educations, building their confidence as well as working with a new training horse Valor. Valor had behavioral issues before coming to us and we were able to get the basics on him along with working with his owner to find him a more suitable home seeing as how he did not have the brain to be a trail horse, but would excel in a situation where he got to work cattle. We also worked on developing Missy to jumping larger fences and working on her form and course work. We also purchased Missy to be apart of our Lesson Program.
May 2018
We had a busy month of May, we purchased Cupcake back to add to our Lesson Program. We helped Ghost find his new forever home and proceeded to continue to develop our Sales horses and Lesson students. During the summer months we really focus on training and getting ready for the show series which tend to run in the spring and fall and the winter series.
June 2018
In June we got a new sales horse Zina. She is a spicy little mare who has big opinions but would be great for the lower level jumpers. We also continued to bring along our lesson horses and sales horses.
July 2018
July we spent having a good time with lesson horses, developing sales horses and having a group trail ride through the surrounding neighborhood. Everyone had a great time and we plan on hopefully making this a more consistent thing.
August 2018
Run for the Ribbons
Awards Banquet
Ashley and Metro
Cross Rails - 6th
18" - Reserve Champion
2' - Reserve Champion
Alex and Tessa
3' - 3rd
September 2018
Marion Saddle Club Horse Show
Ashley and Metro showed at the Marion Saddle Club Horse Show and did so well together. They did the 2' warm up and then graduated up to the 2'3 jumpers!!! So proud of them!!!! Ashley got 1st in the 2'3 jumpers
October 2018
Run for the Ribbons
Horse Show
In October we headed out to the Run for the Ribbons Horse Show with Alana and Phoenix, it was this pairs first time going to a show together, and they worked together so beautifully and really started to put all the pieces together. Alana and Phoenix had to conquer the dreaded roll top but they both did so good once finally being able to get over it. Super proud of how well they both did.
November 4, 2018
Run For the Ribbons
Horse Show
Alana riding Phoenix and Ashley riding Tessa. These two pairs did so well at this show, even if the ribbons didn't reflect how well they did. And that is ok, sometimes your placing isn't as important as the journey you are on. Shows are just a judge of how far you have come and what you have learned. These two pairs have both worked so hard to be where they are and I couldn't be more proud.
November 21, 2018
We took an impromtu schooling trip down to Claytons.
Alex was riding Tessa
Alana was riding Phoenix
Steph was riding Missy
Everyone did so good, it was both Phoenix and Missy's first time cross country schooling and the girls did so good introducing the horses to different cross country obstacles and having such a positive fun ride!!!
December 16, 2018
We had a barn cross country trip down to claytons cross country course. It was so much fun having such a huge group, and everyone did such an amazing job. Our group consisted of the following:
Alana on Phoenix
Ashley on Cupcake
Chelby on Tessa
Alex on Willy
Kaci on Farrington
Ally on Oly
December 2018
We finished out the year with our Second Annual Barn Christmas Party. We had such a good time getting to see all of our barn family. Each year we try to have our barn christmas party to get together current and past boarders as well as current and past lesson students to enjoy each others company, share amazing homemade food and play some fun christmas games!!!!
January - March 2019
For the beginning part of the year we were working on getting horses ready for the show season.
March 12, 2019
Majestic Oaks
We had a smaller group head over to majestic oaks to go cross country schooling and both girls did so good. Alana and Phoenix schooled together for their third time. They successfully jumped around tadpole, beginner novice and novice questions. Steph and Tessa started out over beginner novice questions, graduated to Novice questions and finished by jumping around some Training questions.
We were joined on our outing by Steph and her Friend along with Colleen. It was such a fun relaxing and educational day!!!
April 13, 2019
On April 13th, Alex and Robert were in a very severe Motorcycle accident. They were on their way to the airport to go to Indiana to tell Robert's family that Alex was pregnant. They had found out about it on March 5th and wanted to wait to make sure that everything was progressing nicely. They had also been told that Alex should only have been 4-6 weeks pregnant so riding on the motorcycle was completely safe. Unfortunately on the drive over to Orlando the person driving the black SUV was not paying attention and smashed into the rear end of their motorcycle while they were sitting at a light. The motorist pushed them 1 1/2 car lengths forward into the car in front of them. Alex was on the back of the bike and had severe back pain and was taken to the hospital on a stretcher. Both Alex and Robert were looked over and checked ok. Alex had an ultrasound and found out that she was actually 9 weeks a 4 days along and because of this they had to wait to do an MRI to check her back vs an ultrasound. After finding out that she had reinjured her back from a prior injury she didn't know about, but finding nothing broken both were released to head home and work on starting to recover from some damaged muscles.
Due to this accident Alex and Robert decided to play it safe and Alex took the remainder of 2019 off from riding and spent her time teaching lessons. You only have 9 months to be pregnant but you have the rest of your life to ride horses. And having a healthy baby was their first priority.
April - May 2019
Alex has been focusing on lessons with her lesson students along with developing some of her sales horses by having lesson students riding and working with them.
June 2019
Florida Horse Park
Ashley has been developing and bringing Cupcake along and we took a field trip to the Florida Horse Park to have cupcake get some experience going off Property by herself as well as getting a look around where we will be going to show in July! Cupcake did such a good job for a 5 year old!!!!
July 14, 2019
Partners Of The Park
School Show
Ashley and Cupcake had such a good first show together. Cupcake showed in the 18" division and the 2' division. In the 18" division she had a baby moment infront of the second jump because she was paying attention to the UTV outside of the area that was malfunctioning and didn't see her jump until she was on top of it! But they came in 5th and we were so proud of them. Then Ashley and Cupcake had a huge comeback and laid down a phenomenal trip in the 2' division and ended up winning their class!!!! Such a proud moment since Ashley has been soley developing cupcake since January and took her from struggling to do her flat work to going to her first show and rocking around and winning in their second class!!!
August - October 2019
Lessons, Lessons and more Lessons. My amazing lesson students came out at one point to help us hurricane proof the barn due to an impending storm that was either going to hit us really hard to skirt by. This storm ended up decimating the Bahamas and just skirting us by, but my students and their families were amazing in making sure that we had all the extra hands we could need which was amazing!!!
November 2019
On November 11, 2019 at 9:46pm we welcomed to this world Hatter Madigan Hallett. He arrived after 18hrs and 16 min of labor and weighted in at 7lbs 9oz. We are so thankful that we had a safe and healthy pregnancy that has resulted in a healthy baby boy who is very much loved.
December 2019
We are so excited for Tessa to be heading on her next adventure. Tessa's owners had been coming up to see her over the summer and found that throughout her time with me and her training she went from not being a suitable horse for them to become an amazing family horse that was more than suitable for what they wanted. So they decided instead of selling her they were going to keep her in their family and get to spoil her rotten and enjoy her to pieces. We are going to miss her but can't wait to see all the amazing things she will be doing with her family!!!!
3rd Annual Barn
Christmas Party
We had our 3rd Annual Barn Christmas Party a little later than normal, but with a newborn we had to find a time to have everyone over that worked best for him. Everyone had such a good time, the food was amazing, the gift exchange was ruthless and hilarious and everyone had such a good time!!!
January 2020
8 weeks postpartum Alex was back in the saddle, a western saddle, but any saddle is a good saddle. Willy took really good care of her as she started working on her balance, core and stability after 8 months without riding.
February - March 2020
With our new little man, lessons are starting to progressively get back to normal and Alex is starting to work up to riding multiple days a week again. She jumped for her first time at 4 months post partum and couldn't be more excited with the muscle memory that her body retained.
March 2020
We are so excited to be building our long awaited footed arena. It will be a 110x200 sand clay arena which has been leveled and is in the middle of construction. We just got it leveled and are working on getting the fencing put up and then we will have the footing delivered! We are so excited for this new addition to be added to our facility, lesson program, boarders and to allow Alex to jump big during the rainy summer months without having to ship off property.
June 2020
Aniyah and Phoenix competed at Majestic Oaks for the first time and competed in the cross rails class where she ended up getting 1st place in both of her classes!!!
August 2020
Aniyah and Phoenix competed in their 2nd show together and did the cross rails and the 2' class and got 1st in both classes.
In the cross rails class there were 13 horse and rider combos with multiple of the riders completing more than one round. Aniyah came in 1st place!!!!
In the 2' class there were 11 horse and rider combos with multiple of the riders completing more than one round. Aniyah came in 1st place!!!
Competed in Numerous A and AA rated horse shows in the Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Kentucky, and Florida.
Currently Located In Ocala Florida Year Round.