June/23

Well I think it is safe to say Summer is here! Surely the cold threat of frost will not show its face anymore! I can’t believe my furnace was on so much in May!

But our horses are happy and that is the main thing. Better to have a slow temp change for them than an abrupt instant summer. They can be affected by weather, so slow is always better!

We have had great farm events this spring  and are busy planning more for the summer! We will be starting with camps pretty much every week of the summer, along with some exciting clinics and yes, even a small Show Team! Read on for all the info and let me know your thoughts and suggestions!

Summer Schedule

Please confirm by email, if you are planning on riding in the summer. We are doing the Summer Schedule now and want to be sure that all eligible summer riders have their spots. Please note we only offer camps to the younger walk trot riders. We have to be mindful of our horses’ work load with camp and all the other great activities we are planning. Summer lessons are by the month so you may only be available for one month. Just let us know, so we can plan the summer. Thanks very much!

Home Show

We are holding our Spring Home Show on June 25^th. Information is on the bulletin board and registration is through the following link. Please be sure to put your child’s name and lesson time on the etransfer and that the payment is for the show. Payment and registration is all due by June 17^th so don’t delay! It is always a really fun day and we can thank our Volunteers for their help that makes it so successful. Please watch the board and sign up to help if you can. It is the only way our farm can work – with the help and support of its members!

https://docs.google.com/forms/

Coaching Course

Remember our Coaching Course is being offered to riders who are cantering and  turning 15 and older. We will offer it during the first week of camp, July 3^rd to 7^th. It provides the great foundation for our coaches you can easily see in all our wonderful coaches! The fee is $400 + HST.

Camps

Summer Camps are filling up! Because we don’t offer lessons to the younger walk/trot riders during the summer, I highly recommend taking a camp or two. It is easily equal to a couple of months of lessons and provides a great foundation for new riders too! If you are 12 or older, we also encourage you to sign up to help out at camps. It is a lot of fun and 3 weeks of help, allows you to come for a super fun Hay Loft Sleepover! The following link is is for camp registration:
https://forms.gle/P8TeWVr8Na2VofDj9

Clinics

We had a great Introduction to Working Equitation clinic in May. Tiago Cantente is a Portuguese trainer of Working Equitation so we had the best person to introduce us to this fun and exciting sport. The riders all practiced their basic skills trying new exercises in the morning and they got to apply those skills to the obstacle course in the afternoon. It was just so much fun and makes me think this might be a new direction for CES. It is all about fun and application of correct skills which you must have for Working Equitation. Stay tuned and let’s see how we can incorporate it into our program!

Plans are in the works for some more clinics this summer. Depending on the interest, I hope to have a Dressage clinic and maybe another Working Equitation clinic, part 2! Stay tuned to the bulletin board in the front of the barn.

Show Prep Clinic

July 9^th we will be having a show prep clinic for anyone interested in showing or helping with the show team. It will start early and will include a trip to the show grounds. Then back to CES for lessons on show prep. If you want to be on the show team or just come and see what is involved to learn to groom, this will be a great clinic. Watch the board for Sign-up!

Show Team

We will be taking a few riders to the Teen Ranch Show on July 23^rd and August 20^th. It is our first time showing since Covid and we are all very excited! Sign up will also be on the board. Can’t wait!!

I am so happy to share our return to normal with all of you. We are a busy barn and it is your support and involvement that ensures our success. If you love horses and the shared community of learning about them, Caledon Equestrian School is indeed the best place to be! Many thanks for sharing our Horse Love!

Susan

May/2023

Hello Everyone! Looks like Spring decided to finally get here and I think we are all very happy for its arrival! Despite the mud, which I had hoped was finished. Ugh, mud is no fun but I see the end in sight so we just have to hang in!

Lots happening this month so it is getting its own newsletter! Read on to catch up on all the fun things happening and new policies at CES this month!

May 13 is our annual Paint and Clean up Day! Our jumps have been neglected for a while so I am happy to finally have a Farm Paint Day! Please come by in your old clothes and help us paint and spruce up our jumps! Bring any old paint too in case we can use it and paint brushes ect. I am no painter but I am sure there are some talented designers out there who are creative and can paint some fun jumps for the school! Please be here for 12:30 and we should wrap up by 4:30. There might be Pizza!

May 22nd is our first big clinic since Covid. Working Equitation is historically based on bull fighting on horse back though obviously not anymore. But it does use many of the movements used in working with bulls. It is just an amazing discipline – kind of like working dressage! Tiago Cantante is a Portuguese Working Equitation trainer of Lusitanos and he has offered to come give a clinic to a max of 10 riders. There is some space still available. It is an all day clinic and open to any rider who is going at the walk, trot and canter. It is a great experience and I hope you can take advantage of it. The fee is $175 + HST and the clinic will run from 9 to 3. The morning will be semi private sessions as an intro to the sport and the afternoon will be private classes practicing on the obstacles and movements. It will start at the walk and increase the speed as the riders and coach feel comfortable to do so.

Auditors are also welcome to come watch. The auditor fee is $30 + HST and is open to everyone!

Please contact Susan to confirm your spot and attendance.

Don’t miss this experience and remember – what you put in you will get back! Supporting our clinics will only lead to more wonderful learning opportunities!

Late Payment Fee Please note that there is now a $20 late fee applied to any payment received after the 14th of the month. If there is an issue with payment, please contact Susan.

Contact # and email Change Please send any cancellation texts to 9055861422. Emails regarding scheduling can now come to me at: coach_1@symaptico.ca or you can use the Contact Us link on the website.

I want to thank-you all for keeping the gate closed so consistently. I did wake up to a loose pony one night and I was so grateful that the gates were all closed! It can happen too easily and I appreciate everyone taking care of our horses’s safety! It is just the way my dream farm runs – all of us caring for our horses, the facility and our riders! I also want to thank my great coaches and barn helpers for setting such a great example for all our students! I am blessed to share CES with all of you.

Happy Spring!

Susan

Spring/23

Happy Spring! It may not look like it at the moment with all the snow still here, but spring is coming! I thought it was already here in Feb w/ birds singing and no snow but heck it is Canada and this is our 4th? winter this year. So almost there!

We had a good winter here on the farm but we definitely missed all our kids and fall riders. So welcome back and let’s have a great Spring riding season ! I have a few barn keeping notes and Spring updates for all of you so read on and take note!

Gate

First, many thanks for your vigilance in keeping the gate closed! As you know my biggest nightmare is loose horses trotting down the driveway – which will never happen if we are all sure to close the gate! Even if you are just popping in to pick up your child – that can often take longer than you think, so please be sure to close the gate once you are in. Of course if someone is behind you or on their way out, leave it for the last person through to close. You never go wrong closing the gate so many thanks for keeping our horses safe! And me calm LOL!

Fee payment

Thank-you also for paying your fees on the 1st of the month. Payment is on an honor system so I should not need to chase anyone for their fees. If payment is not received by the 2nd week of the month I may have to start charging a late fee. I really don’t want to do that, so again – please pay promptly to keep things simple! Please, please be sure to write down the lesson time and student name on your etransfer, as that is how I keep track of everyone. I can’t guarantee you will get the credit if I have no idea who the payment is for.

Lesson Structure​

I want to clarify how the lessons work:​ group lessons of 3 or more are 45 minutes; semi privates are 40 minutes and privates are 30 minutes. All younger kids will have both barn and riding instruction as they still have lots to learn about getting the horses ready for their riding lessons. Any beginner lessons will include barn and riding instruction. Adult and older beginners can come a bit earlier each week, based on the coach’s direction, to get ready in the barn once that skill is established. Our mandate is Safety first! If we feel a barn lesson is safer for everyone, very occasionally, we might just offer that instead of riding. It is all about horses, so I know learning about them in all capacities is our priority!

Makeups

Because we do not charge for any month w/ an extra week, we apply that 5th lesson to a makeup for the session. If you don’t miss any classes then that extra class is a bonus.​ Otherwise you have that class for each session to act as the season makeup. If we have to cancel for weather, Christmas or a home show, we will reschedule the classes. But please note, we do not take any holidays off except for Christmas holidays.

Spring Show

Our Spring Show will be held on Sunday, June 25th. This is a fun home show where riders of all ages get to show the skills they have been working on during the session. The show is always a lot of fun for the participants and it is a great opportunity to ride under a little bit of friendly pressure. The focus is never on placings, just getting out, having fun and learning! It is also an opportunity to see our amazing barn in action. From barn and horse prep to running the whole show, the coaches and helpers do it all. It is not a small feat and they are all to be commended on running such a successful day every year, twice a year!

Paint Day

It is getting to that time again where we need to paint and spruce up our jumps. We had a great MacGregor’s fundraiser, well organized by Nicol, and we have some funds to get paint and maybe upgrade a couple of jumps as needed. If you do have extra paint though, we would always appreciate it. And if you are handy with hammers and nails, you are more than welcome to share your building expertise with us to create a couple of new jumps! Watch the bulletin board in front of the barn for dates!

Summer Camp

Summer camps are a go for 7 weeks of the summer. We have 2 full day camps during the first and last weeks of the summer and the rest are half days, am and pm. Camps are a great opportunity to build skills on a daily basis and the Friday show is a blast for everyone! Many of our riders take a few weeks of camp every summer and it really gives their skills a huge boost. Registration is on the camp page of our website caledonequestrian.com

Summer Camp volunteering

One reason our camp program is such a huge success is because of our great helpers! Volunteering at camps gives a wonderful foundation in people skills, not to mention building a lot of confidence around horses. We take kids from 11 and up and it is a full week commitment from 8:30 to 4:30. High School volunteer hours are also given. Once the helpers have done 3 years of camp there is also some extra riding time offered. And if the helpers sign up for 3 weeks of camp, there is an awesome barn sleepover for all coaches and helpers at the end of every summer. Not to be missed! It is well worth the time and effort involved. Please watch the board for sign-up!

Show Team

We haven’t had a show team for a few years since Covid. Showing off site has been really missed and we are considering getting back into it on a slow basis. The issue now is a serious horse disease that is going around Ontario so we are not jumping right back into it. If you are a walk, trot and canter rider and beginning to jump you are eligible to join us if we do have a team this year. Please notify us if you are interested and we will see if there are a couple of shows that we can get to during the summer.

Coaching Course

Ever wonder where our coaches get their amazing teaching skills? We hold a coaching course during the first week of every summer camp. All our coaches have taken part and it has given them the solid foundation you see in action in every lesson! The hours are from 9:30 to 3:30 daily, the week of July 3rd. Students must be turning 15 this year and working on their cantering skills at a minimum. Watch the board for sign-up and let us know if you are interested.

Horse Health Policy

Because there is a highly contagious and fatal disease going around Ontario called EHV, we ask that you do not go to any other barns while you are coming to Caledon. We do not want any of our horses to get sick and if EHV ever shows up here we would have to close down until it was gone. So please, for our horses’ sake, make Caledon your one and only!

I want to thank all of you for putting our horses’ safety first from closing the gate to not exposing them to any ugly illnesses. Your care and concern reflect what we all feel here at CES – our horses come first! And because we are a facility full of horse lovers, I also want to especially thank our coaches and barn helpers for their help in keeping this environment a safe one for everyone, human and horse! We are a sum of our parts and everyone from horses, parents, riders, helpers and coaches make our school the great place we all love! Many thanks!

Susan