2016 has been a busy year as the Mount Fair team attended horse shows up and down the East Coast. In March, we travelled to Gulfport, MS for great seafood, lots of fried pickles, and three weeks of showing at the Gulf Coast Winter Series.

The theme for the rest of the spring was “history”, as we showed in and around historic towns such as Lexington, VA and Gettysburg, PA, and competed at two of the oldest horse shows in the nation, the Devon Horse Show (est. 1896) and the Upperville Colt and Horse Show (est. 1853).

We rounded out the summer with three weeks at the Vermont Summer Festival in East Dorset, VT. In between showing, Joanna and I toured a few historic sites, and Dudley had her own adventure in the purchase of an exciting show hunter prospect. “Cory” is a five-year old Zangersheide mare by the renowned stallion Coriano Z, and was imported from Europe earlier this year. Continuing the history theme, John came up with her show name, “Ajaccio”. Ajaccio is a town in Corsica notable as the birthplace of Napoleon and as the first French town to be liberated from Nazi occupation in WWII when its citizens rebelled.

Roland Park has been having a very successful year, with numerous championships and reserves in the Amateur Owner Hunter and the Regular Conformation Hunter divisions, and circuit championships in both divisions at the Vermont Summer Festival. Currently, Roland and Dudley are ranked in the top 5 in the nation in the Amateur Owner Hunter, 36 and Over division! Roland is also ranked in the top 10 nationally in the Regular Conformation Hunter division.

At home, it has been a particularly hot and humid summer, but with enough rain (usually in the form of thunderstorms!) to keep our fields green. We’ve been thankful for our indoor arena and network of trails through the woods, which provide cooler venues to keep the horses exercised. Now to get ready for the prestigious fall “indoors” shows . . . Good luck to Dudley and Roland and the team!!!