Saul Benitez and Vaquero

Stirling Hill Farm was once again a proud sponsor for Polo for Heart and  Polo for the Cure!!

Saul Benitez represented Stirling Hill Farm very well by playing on the winning team of the match in the Polo for Heart Tournament. His defensive skills helped his team walk away with the win! This great event helped raise over $200,000 for the Heart and Stroke Foundation!!

Ryan, La Matera and Julie

This year I tried to make it extra challenging on myself by playing in the Polo for the Cure tournament and competing and coaching at the Cornerstone Dressage Show. I had not practiced for the tournament and cannot try to explain the pain I was in considering my arm is not use to swinging a mallet and my body is not use to a contact sport! Poor Don Juan Tyme was wondering why I did not help him by the last day in the dressage test but I literally had no strength left and ached! At the same time I loved every minute of the weekend! I would just like to say “Thank you so much” to Saul Benitez and Ryan Watchorn for their help getting the polo ponies ready for me so I could just jump on and play!

Polo for the Cure is a great fundraiser to raise money to help find a cure for Breast Cancer.  I was so happy to be apart of this weekend and hopefully I will have a chance to play again next year!

Some of the highlights of the summer are the following:

-Dobble Tyme at the Bromont CDI came in 5th place with a 66.184%! That was the best birthday present I could give my mom with her horse!

Don Juan Tyme

- Don Juan Tyme continued to improve throughout the season. He won reserve champion in Bromont for the National Advanced level. We also ended the season on a high at Cornerstone’s Summer Festival  finishing 2nd with a 67.5% in the PSG!!!

- Jennifer Bolstad and Rubinette had a great weekend in July at Palgrave coming in 3rd in First Level with a 64%!

- Dax Adam with Rhythm of the Night (aka Skippy) also had a great July Palgrave show and won the PARA Freestyle with 65.250%!

I went down to Florida  this past winter with my horses Quintesse, Dobble Tyme, Diamond Tyme, Don Juan Tyme and Baby. I had a great time at Stillpoint Farm. I was able to watch amazing horses and riders everyday including Evi Strasser, Robert Dover, Lisa Wilcox, Oded Shimoni, Tuny Page just to name a few! I worked hard training with Evi and was proud of the progress that my ponies made!

Julie Watchorn and Dave Offen

Seasoned international rider and coach Peter Gray of Orangeville is equally at home on the back of a galloping event horse or an elegantly moving dressage horse.

But last Thursday (Aug. 26), he found himself in unfamiliar territory as he attempted to whack a ball from atop a spirited polo pony and careened around barrels on a blistering quarter horse at the second annual Equi-Challenge. The soldout event, held at Halton Place, was in the name of good fun and a good cause.

Other local equestrian stars were on hand for the fun, including Olympic medalist Mac Cone, Roberto Teran, who rides out of Kingridge Stables of King City, and dressage rider Julie Watchorn of King.

These equestrian leaders and legends “changed hats” to thrill the crowd at a fundraiser to benefit the Ontario Veterinary College’s new Equine Sports Medicine and Reproduction Centre, at the University of Guelph

Among the other participants in the unique team competition were show jumpers Erynn Ballard of Orangeville and Yann Candele of Caledon; jockeys Sandy Hawley, Jim McAleny and Chantal Sutherland; dressage rider David Marcus; standardbred driver Jody Jamieson; barrel racers Stephanie Leyzac and Jodi Hendry; roper Jason Thompson; polo player Dave Offen of Aurora and other world-class riders from across the sport.

Judging from the laughter and wide grins, it was difficult to tell who enjoyed themselves more: the participants or the 500-plus ticketed guests cheering from the ringside, fully catered VIP tent.

“It was really exciting,” Ballard enthused. “I’d never played polo and I never have barrel raced, and though I’ve taken dressage lessons, I’d never been in a situation to have to ride a test before. I enjoyed all of it. The whole event, the crowd and the people who supported it were terrific, it was for a great cause and I think it looks really good for our industry. All the show jumpers – Mac (Cone), Roberto (Teran), Yann (Candele) and I were ready to make career changes!”

Even a fall during show jumping couldn’t keep racing legend Hawley down. He gamely got back on the horse, completed the course and returned to compete in dressage on a western reining horse. Despite joking that he’d “need a couple of Advil when I get home,” he said he plans on returning next year.

A new twist this year was the participation of a group of “mystery riders” who challenged the winners of each class. Grand prix show jumpers Hugh Graham from Schomberg (a former rodeo competitor), Frankie Chesler Ortiz (a former barrel racing champ) and Halton Place owner Timur Leckebusch challenged the top barrel racers, while show jumping legends and Mexico Olympic team gold medalists Jim Day, Jim Elder and Torchy Millar, joined by Kelly Hall-Holland pitted their skills against the night’s leading show jumping rookies.

Before the opening ceremonies, it was announced that the University of Guelph has received $2 million from the E.P. Taylor Equine Research Fund, to support clinical research in the health and performance of racehorses at the new Ontario Veterinary College Equine Sports Medicine and Reproduction Centre.

The night’s winning Equi- Challenge team was Team Novartis, which included Mac Cone, Chantal Sutherland, Julie Watchorn, Dave Offen and Jason Thompson.

http://www.kingsentinel.com/news/2010-09-08/Sports_Beat/EquiChallenge_riders_change_hats_for_good_time_and.html

Julie and Delores

Stirling Hill Farm was a proud sponsor at the Polo for the Cure tournament, which is an exciting, action-packed women’s only polo tournament to help raise money for the Canadian Breast Cancer Society.

The Stirling Hill Polo Team started off really strong on Friday winning the first heat 7 to 2, which gave them a spot in the finals on the Sunday. Fortunately the weather held off on Sunday for a great day of polo.  Our team had a really tough match and in the last 30 seconds of the game allowed the other team to score a heart-breaking goal to win the game 2 to 1.

A member of the Stirling Hill Polo Team was Julie Watchorn who took a break from dressage for the weekend to have some fun playing polo. She said: “I had such a blast playing polo and I would love to be able to play in the tournament again next year. Not only is it enjoyable but it is for a great cause! Everybody should come out and support Polo for the Cure next year.”

Michelle Cohen and the Duke of Schomberg

Stirling Hill will miss Michelle Cohen. She is off to Vancouver, B.C. to discover what the West coast has to offer. Stirling Hill was fortunate to have Michelle working for us for the past year. She was also an enthusiastic student who achieved great results with Kreativ (aka Studley or Stud Muffin!). She also took on the huge challenge of training Duke. He is now a big shot dressage pony and likes to be referred to as the Duke of Schomberg! GOOD LUCK out West Michelle and we look forward to you visiting us and your updates!

Polo for Heart Dressage Quadrille

It was great to see top dressage riders get together and offer their time during such a busy show season for a great fundraising event for the Heart and Stroke Foundation. We would like to thank Ute Busse and Lindor’s Finest, Sarah Turner and Maximus, Rebecca Schoenhardt and Fabius Tyme, Andrea Wetzel and Karolos, Justin Ridgewell and Marakon, Julie Watchorn and Don Juan Tyme for a great performance. Many thanks to Karen, Wendy and Sandy for allowing their horses to be used for the quadrille. The horses handled the environment extremely well with polo players warming up for their game, the Canadian cowgirls with their Canadian flags, a shooting range when they hacked over to the main field, hundreds of spectators and at the end of their performance parachuters landed on the field.

Don Juan Tyme at Polo for Heart with the Canadian Cowgirls in the background

The quadrille was put together by Julie. Julie based the pattern on the 2006 quadrille performance at the Royal Winter Fair (choreographed by Eva Marie Pracht) and the music was picked by Jeff LaForge and compiled by Alex Kaju. The music consisted of the Black Eyed Peas (I Gotta Feeling), DJ ReDo (Winner) and K’Naan (Wavin’ Flag – Coca Cola version).

Stirling Hill Farm was also very proud to have a member of our barn, Saul Benitez playing in the polo tournament. He played a great match aboard Delores and Vaquero.

Quintesse and Julie in Blainville, QC

Just got back from a very busy week at the Blainville CDI in Quebec with Quintesse and Don Juan Tyme.

The first day Quintesse was in great shape but the rider made too many little mistakes because I have not been in the ring since my last show in Saugerties in September. Every ride with her got better and better. In the Prix St. Georges we placed 7th with a 64.298%. The Intermediare 1 went a little bit better placing 6th with a 64.912%. Sunday Tess and I had a blast riding to a win in our freestyle with a 68.750%. As Dax Adam stated, “Quintesse proved once again to be the freestyle queen”.

My new mount Don Juan Tyme had a great show! The first day there was a pretty scary white tent blowing in the wind but he still managed to impress the judges with a 67.692% in Third Level. The next day we tied for first with a 70.7689% but when they took it to the coefficient marks we ended up in 3rd. The last day he won the class with a 71.163% even though he decided to add a little to the test with four tempis up the centerline.

Janet McNally and Mobali competed at Second Level at the June Spring into Dressage Show at Palgrave.  Janet rode into the ring this year with determination and it definitely paid off. Janet earned her highest score, a 65%, taking 5^th place.

Jennifer Bolstad and Rubinette are a new addition to the Stirling Hill team and we are extremely happy to have this pair! They rode in Training Level winning one of the classes with a 69.285%!