***2008 is Here***

Verne is having a super time on the Florida farm. He is so busy, with upwards of twenty horses, a full house, lessons, horses in training, riding the young sales horses, clinics! It should keep him out of trouble. He couldn’t do it without his manager, Mary Jane and her jack russell puppy, Southern Belle. They keep the operation flowing. The Andalusian ladies, Joyce and Mary keep the place hopping with good humor. Debbie and her fabulous Royal Rico are near daily visitors. Leslie Sant , her support team of James and standard poodles, have spent most of the winter on the farm. It has paid off in wins at the Canterbury and Ocala shows at the Prix St Georges level. She received scores to 66 % and her silver medal. Congratulations!! Amy Bresky and the wonderful Welkin got great scores and wins and seconds at the same shows competing against the open horses. Verne found this partner for her a year ago on his German buying trip. The plan is to move on to PSG. Should be a done deal.  Verne is very excited about the progress of his Rotspon mare, Rotschrome. She is finishing her changes, working on the pirouettes and piaffe.  He is also riding Ravenna, a lovely black Rotspon, getting ready for the six year old FEI test, Bahai, a talented four year old and many others.
Jeanie is holding down the fort in New Hampshire. She has several horses in training as well as riding some of the youngsters and getting the coming three-year-olds started under saddle. She was lucky enough to spend a few days at the Florida farm in March. She got to fresh- squeeze her orange and tangerine juice after picking the fruit from the farm trees! The wisteria was just budding, the manatees and otters were very cute, the footing at the Ocala show was amazing, then back to reality! But the corgis were waiting in New Hampshire as well as the Weltmeyers, Weide and Wild Card!! She has been having a great time in swing dance class and planning a spring sail down the Rhine with her mother and sister!
Emma just got back to North Carolina from visiting Verne in Florida. He made her ride nine to twelve horses a day! The social life was fun but her butt is sore!! She is about in the middle of her accelerated nursing course at Duke. She has her corgi Nettie to be her therapy dog during exams and has had two four year olds to ride all winter. She is settled into her new house and life in the south.
Nora is in her senior year at Amherst. She is busy writing her senior thesis entitled “The Design and Synthesis of Organic Nanotubes of Defined Length.” We sure understand it!! She has had Bretone and Amanta at school but has been riding one-footed for the last six weeks as she is on crutches after a rousing game of intermural basketball!! Her second major in art, has produced many beautiful pieces.

north CaC

June News!!!

OH MY GOODNESS!! What a ride the last two months have been. First the show season started with a rush as Nora and Bretone decided to try to qualify for the Brentina Cup at Gladstone. This meant picking Nora and Bretone up from Amherst College and going directly to back to back shows in CT and Saratoga NY.

It worked!! They are qualified and get to go to Gladstone in June. What an opportunity. Show results from Saratoga - Jeanie and Sanano debuted at Grand Prix and earned scores to 64%. Amanta and Nora won the open fourth level championship with a 67% average for 3 tests - not bad for a 7 year old mare. Bretone and Nora qualified for Gladstone with solid scores to 65% at Intermediaire II.
The Bretone foals are here. Three fillies one colt. Two bays two chestnuts. They look super. Can’t wait for the Hanoverian inspection July 25.
We still get notices from Germany about sightings of under saddle Bretone offspring. Everyone is impressed.
The youngsters are developing nicely under saddle here on the farm. Come take a look. 

August News

Fun, fun, fun in the sun! Hot enough for you?? If it isn’t hot it is raining or both. Show season has progressed. All of the horses have tried very hard to do their very best - not always in the most inviting conditions. Nora and Bretone placed fifth in the Brentina Cup at Gladstone.

On to Grand Prix!! At their next show at King Oak they debuted at GP and won the GP Stakes. Jeanie finished her USDF Gold Medal with solid scores at King Oak on Santano and Amanta won most of her fourth level classes again. Our Hanoverian Inspection was a great time. Especially the party the night before which most people were able to make. The Bretone foals were well received and the top foal was a bay Bretone / Matcho X filly and the second placing foal was a bay Bretone / Maronjo / TB colt from Karen and Fred Clements. Six mares did the mare performance tests with some pretty high scores in the under saddle section. Eliza Rutherford brought a great "group" of mares and foals - including a super Dacaprio mare that was the under saddle champion - 8.3. Congratulations to Lori Powell of Florida who came to see her "Believe In Dreams" black Bergamon filly become reserve under saddle position with a 7.83! Not too early to start thinking about Florida.

December is here!!

"Time flies" and so did we!! Jeanie and I were both able to go to Germany in November. It was great. We saw old friends and scoured the countryside for horses. 

Very successful - four horses purchased, 5 to 12 year olds, 2 mares 2 geldings, second level to PSG, $35,000 to $55,000 direct sales to their new delighted owners. Contacts are everything in this process.  Verne just had the opportunity to return to Maine to clinic at Peggy Flanagan’s Rock Wood farm. A super group with some faces from former times in Maine. Emma is back in the Duke area and Nora is closing in on the end of her semester at Amherst. The horses are going great. The youngstock are developing and selling. Christmas is coming and Verne leaves for Florida the day after. We all look forward to the New Year from both "ends" of the country. Take care!!

May News!

May 2008*** Jeanie is very excited as Verne will be home from Florida around the fifteenth of the month. Not that he will have time to relax!! He is planning to stop in North Carolina on his way North to give a two day clinic for Amy Bresky and crew. Nothing like teaching for two ten-hour days in the middle of your journey! Later in the month, he will be giving clinics at UMass and Newberry, Ma, at Kathy Feehery’s. Jeanie and Verne plan to attend the NEDA seminar with Robert Dover. It should be very educational and provide a great escape to get reacquainted after a long winter apart. Jeanie and Nora will be taking four horses to Dressage at Saratoga. Nora will be doing freestyles with Amanta and Tony on Sunday so should be a lot of fun. Jeanie hopes to survive riding two Weltmeyers on the track!! She plans to take Wiede out at I-2 and her new guy, Wilde Card, better known as Wilber, may be exciting (in more ways then one) at second level.
We hope you will mark your calenders for June 14th and 15th. We are hosting a clinic for CVDA. Verne will be demonstrating various inhand techniques, using some of the River House youngsters and super stars to demonstrate intro to advanced levels of lunging and inhand work. The clinic will continue with CVDA members practicing hands on with their own horses, in lessons with Verne. Should be very educational and really fun, especially if someone brings a brombie to drag Verne around!! Just kidding.
Nora will be home for three weeks,until after Saratoga. She and Jeanie will be continuing to start the coming three year olds. Jeanie has been lunging them all winter and has thrown Lisa Leblanc up to ride them around on the lunge. Now Nora will finish this part of their early education. We really have a great selection of three, four and five year olds. Good thing as the dollar is so weak in Europe that imports are way out of many peoples’ league!  Nora will be working in the lab again this summer. She has finished her thesis and her chemistry major and will graduate summa. Congratulations!!She has one more semester and will take a number of art courses to complete her second major.
Emma is having a short school holiday. She has been visiting friends in New York and Boston. She and her faithful Corgi, Nettie will head back to Durham to spend the summer back at Duke. She will graduate from the accelerated nursing program in December. She seems to be well- liked by her professors who have been very complimentary and encouraging. She will need to work on the floor for a year or two before continuing with her advanced degree. Emma has her four year old mare a Maronjo from the fabulous Argentan mare Arielle, in Durham. They are hoping to get to a few shows this season. 

2007***The business there is really developing nicely. We are in the midst of foaling, breeding and show season now so here we go!! Nora is trying out for The Brentina Cup again so she has had to finish up her year at Amherst and go straight to the shows. She and Bretone just earned a 67% at Intermediaire 2 at Saratoga so they should be "in", we will see. Amanta, Nora’s 8 year old Alabaster mare, won the I - 1 at Mystic last weekend and the PSG and I - 1 at Saratoga this weekend. Jeanie took Deecie Denison’s new horse "Sebastian" to Saratoga and won the 2nd level Championship with a three test average of 67% and also won a third level class. Deecie just got this horse last December from our November trip to Germany. Verne went to Germany in late April and purchased 5 horses. Three are direct sales to clients and 2 are for our inhouse development program. Clinics are up and running. River Run Farm in Newburyport MA and Chestnut Hill Farm in Germantown NY are the regulars this season. The 20th annual Hanoverian Inspection is here on July 10th. Nora earned her Phi Beta Kappa membership at Amherst College and was announced as the top student in her class. She is working at Amherst this summer on a fellowship grant from Pfizer (along with her horse work of course). Emma starts an Advanced Nursing Program at Duke in NC this August. Sadly she just lost her dog and best friend "Taz" recently. 

Ravenna

Big, black and beautiful, Ravenna is a 17 hand mare by the famous Rotspon out of a Don Primero dam. She is impressive with superior gaits and a pleasant dispostion.