MIDNIGHT MADNESS!

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Our MIDNIGHT MADNESS Sale is well underway! Don’t worry if you didn’t get a chance to stop in early- We (and the SAVINGS) will be here until Midnight! This is an INVENTORY BLOW OUT SALE – Discounts up to 40% off – Even Consignment and Clearance Items are on Sale today! Stop in and have some fun with us – we would love to see you!

BONUS: EVERY Purchase made today will be ENTERED TO WIN from a long list of prizes -Including a FREE Charles Owen Easy Helmet!

Be sure to check out our FACEBOOK EVENT PAGE for more information on this SUPER-FUN sale & a sneak peek of the fantastic prizes available!

On the Road with Equus Now! – July Equivents (7/10/15 – 7/12/15)

The next stop for the Equus Now! Mobile Rig was at Far and Away Farm for the July Equivents show.

As always, this is a lovely venue for a horse show, even with the weather we’ve been having lately.

Friday started us off in ring one with the hunters and led into the jumpers by the end of the day. Ellen Jennings dominated the Baby Green Hunters with Rio Ruisseau, by winning almost every class in the division. Way to go, Ellen! Friday was also a very special day, because it marked the return to the show ring for Kim Tarnapoll. Kim and her beautiful boy, Becoming, got some good ribbons for their first time in the ring together. When asked how long it had been since she had shown last, Kim said, “14 years.” She hesitated for a bit, then said,” no, I meant I was fourteen years old, the last time I had shown!” You should be very proud of yourself, Kim! I know we are proud of you!

Saturday was a lovely day, especially because it wasn’t raining! It was also Hunter Derby day! The Hunter Derby was the last class of the day, so there was plenty of excitement before that. Davina Beck brought Trueman back to the Show Ring to do the 3 foot Adult Amateurs. It was great to see a beaming Davina come into the rig to tell me that he was champion, which totally made the whole horse show for her. Welcome back Trueman! Bravo to the both of you!

In the Jumper Ring – The $ 1500 NAL/WIHS Children/Adult Jumper 1.10m Stake showed some fierce competition!  It was won by Mollie Kowalchik aboard Sincerely Yours. Right behind her in Reserve, was Liza Reid, from Cincinnati and Rentier. Liza was sporting her new SamShield helmet she had just bought from the rig! Congratulations to both of you!

The highlight of this show, as always, was the $1500 Equivents Ltd. Hunter Derby. This is the event that people traveled from Pittsburgh and Cincinnati for. It’s also a great class to watch. Mike Howell did a stellar job designing a challenging and fun hunter course. All in all, there were thirty entries, young and old, competing for the winners share of the prize money, which paid back to eighth place. The winner was Sara Santisi aboard Jackson. Sara not only won the winner’s share of the purse, she also won the beautiful Equine Couture cooler, donated by Equus Now! Great job Sara! Following closely behind Sara for the reserve spot, was Grace Pruchnicki and Jay – Z. It was Grace’s first ever Hunter derby, and to finish second out of thirty competitors is quite an accomplishment. Congratulations Grace!

Sunday started out with, you guessed it, RAIN! Thanks to Noble Outfitters, Ovation, and Ariat, we were well equipped to accommodate those who didn’t have rain gear. Although, Jesus, one of the jump crew guys, had started a trend with a rain coat designed by Hefty. Very ingenious Jesus!

The rain ended, the sun came out and everyone went on to finish the show with great attitudes. Thanks go out to Jennifer, Mike, Peter and the entire staff at Equivents for putting on another great show. The hard work of the entire team really shines through – the event ran like clockwork. The next Equivents, Ltd show will be the weekend of August 14. As always with this show, the stalls fill up quickly, so reserve them as soon as you can.

The next stop for the Equus Now! Mobile Rig will be at the Showtime Summer Classic at the Delaware Fairgrounds. The feature will be the Last Chance Corral Classic. If you haven’t reserved stalls, do it now. The word is out! Central Ohio Horse Shows rock!

I think we have started a trend here in Central Ohio. At every show so far this year, there has been at least one person returning to the ring after some time off. Will you be next? I hope so! See you at The Showtime Summer Classic! Until then, get out, get on, and go horse show!

On the Road with Equus Now! – New Vocations Charity Horse Show (7/3/15 – 7/5/15)

The next stop for the Equus Now! Mobile rig was The New Vocations Charity Horse Show, at the Delaware Fairgrounds, July 3-5. The weather was great and I couldn’t think of a better way to celebrate our country’s independence – by honoring America’s horse, the Thoroughbred.
This was the biggest New Vocations show so far and I can only see that it will continue to get bigger and bigger. Competitors and spectators from as far away as Illinois came out to support this wonderful charity. Riders competed on Thoroughbreds, Standardbreds, and other breeds in both Hunter/Jumper and Dressage classes.

Every year, New Vocations does a wonderful thing by recognizing the “War Horses”. These are horses that have been retired and adopted after a long career on the race track. During this great parade of champions, each horse was recognized for a different milestone. There was the horse that had earned the most on the track, the horse that had traveled the furthest, and the oldest horse, who was an amazing twenty nine years old, just to name a few. It was an amazing moment.

There was lots of excitement as we saw many riders return to the ring after some time away. The mother-daughter duo of Julia Bowen and Sarah Hallowell each took home some great ribbons. Sarah rode her pony Greenbrier in the jumpers as well as the hunters, and took home two Reserve Champions and one Champion. Julia, after many years away from the show ring, showed us that consistent, hard work really pays off. She rode Jess Anderson’s retired Thoroughbred Keel, and was Reserve Champion in the hunters. Bravo Julia! You should be very proud of yourself!  Marilyn Ranson also returned to the hunter ring aboard Street Magic and brought home some nice ribbons. Congratulations Marilyn!

Another Congratulations goes out to Madison Landis! Madison won the Hunter Classic- way to go Madison!

Connie Coultrap and her dog Francie shocked us, in more ways than one, when she showed up to the show. We hadn’t seen Connie at a show for quite some time. This time, instead of showing in the hunter ring, Connie opted for the Dressage ring! It was great to see Connie and her lovely horse looking so great together. Now, if Francie could just stay away from electrical plugs!

Although the weather was nice, there were still remnants of the wet show from two weeks ago. The mud made parking rather difficult. Rose Staeck, the owner of Equus Now! borrowed her husband’s Mini Van for the day & yes – you guessed it!  All I can say is, thank God there were a bunch of STRONG fathers and boyfriends around to help get it out! (Where is that pesky 4-Wheel Drive Button when you need it!)

One of the best moments was when I saw a customer bring home the Champion ribbon, wearing the PIKEUR Sarissa Coat she just purchased that morning! That made my day!

The weather was great and the show was a tremendous success. Special thanks go out to Clare Barlow, Amy Alison and the hard working horse show team from New Vocations. You all really made a difference in keeping the horse show running smoothly. Thanks also goes out to Anna Ford for going out there and making New Vocations the success that it is. You have made a difference by increasing awareness of the versatility of retired race horses. Most of all thank you to all the riders and spectators whose entries and contributions were all donated to New Vocations.

The next stop for the Equus Now! Mobile Rig was the Equivents at Far and Away Farm on July 10-12. Stay tuned for the lowdown on that show in the next “On the Road” entry! Until then, get out, get on, and go horse show!

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On the Road with Equus Now! – Showtime Series Equus Now! Classic (6/19/15 – 6/21/15)

The Equus Now! Mobile Rig traveled back to the Delaware Fair Grounds for the 2015 Equus Now! Classic.  This is one of our FAVORITE Horse Shows of the Season!

The weather was not the most cooperative – I don’t think I have ever been to a horse show that had to deal with so much rain! It was a great weekend for ducks, for sure!  Those who stuck it out handled it very well. The showing continued even though at one point, I could barely see ring one from where the rig usually sits! There was nothing we could do about the rain, so everyone went on about their business with great attitudes. You would think with all of that rain, people would be miserable, but that was not the case. The whole Showtime crew really did an outstanding job at keeping the rings in the best possible condition, under the circumstances. Bravo on a job well done!

At the rig, Gracie gave away some cute ribbon belts to all of the exhibitors.  They looked great on everyone and could be seen all over the show grounds. We also gave away some Charles Owens ball caps with purchase. On Friday, as the rains came down, I suddenly realized that I didn’t have enough rain gear with me. Imagine that!  So back to the store we went to gather up as many rain coats and wellies as we could. Saturday, when we arrived at the show, we got quite a few laughs as I pulled up to a few barns.  My car was so full of rain coats and other things, that everyone thought I had forgotten to bring Gracie. Well, when the mountain of rain coats started to move, we realized that she had been buried and didn’t attempt to surface until we got to the show. There was no way I would have given her the day off! (The Rain Coats sure did come in handy! LOVE those Noble Outfitter Coats!)  I want to thank all of you for putting up with the congested confines of the rig. As you know, it was a tad difficult to move anything outside!

As far as the competition was concerned, everyone was a winner!  The highlight of this show was the Pam Graham Memorial “Heels Down, Eyes Up” Hunter Team Classic, in which teams competed over a hunter course.  Each team member was given a score for their rounds, which were combined for a total score in the end. The team with the highest combined score came out as the winner. Each team was very creative with their names and many made references to the weather conditions. The winning team for this years Pam Graham Classic was team “ Burbs and Curbs”, which consisted of Michaela Gerlacher on Burberry and Rahdika Sharma Curb Appeal.  Congratulations Michaela and Rahdika! They each won a pair of fabulous RJ Classic show breeches donated by Equus Now! But wait, there’s more! There was another team that braved the lovely weather conditions and showed us that there was a bright ray of sunshine, well in this case pink and purple, that can make everybody put a smile on their face. Mica Rose Frank, Kate Hoch, and Hana Fleischer got together to use  some very well thought out creativity for their high style point winning team, “Particularly Peculiar Pink and Purple Pony Power Pair”. With one pony dolled up in pink and the other in purple, these ladies not only rode well, but they also had fun. I know Pam was watching over the whole class with a smile knowing that everyone was having fun and enjoying the sport which she loved so much.  Fifty percent of the entries for Pam’s class was donated in her memory, to PBJ Connections. Thank you to all exhibitors to braved the weather to ride in this special class.

There was a new class added to the Equus Now! Classic this year.  And we found it only fitting to hold it just before the Pam Graham Classic, because Pam and her horses were always so well groomed.  Shapley’s , a company that is well known for their great grooming products, generously sponsored the first ever Shapley’s Groom Class. This class was designed to give professional & amateur grooms the chance to show off their talents in their own competition.  It was great to see June Hunkins and Jaxon Arthurs so enthusiastic about wanting to do the grooms class after practicing so much. Their ponies were so shinny, that the judges had to wear sunglasses from the glare – even in the rain! Way to show them guys! They certainly proved that we mean business and start them young here in Central Ohio! The overall winner of the Shapley’s Grooms Class was Jake DelGrecco, who grooms for Sarah Ash and Willow Way. Jake took home the winner’s share of the prize money $$$ along with a bucket filled with lots of grooming products, all generously donated by Shapley’s. Way to go Jake! A money prize and Shapley’s goodie bags were awarded up to forth place and everyone got a ribbon and a t-shirt.  Thanks again to Sally Stith – Burdette from Shapley’s for giving us the opportunity to have this class. I look forward to more in the future, so you all better hone your grooming skills!

As the show ended, I turned to Judy Brentlinger and said,”  I had such a great time at this show!”. And she agreed with me.  Even with all the rain, there was such a great feeling at this show.  We were all in it together, and had a good attitude about it.  Many Thanks go out to Judy, Carl, Chris, and Maureen, for putting on such a great show.  A special thanks goes to the jump and in gate crews who kept it flowing just as smoothly as possible despite the weather. I’d also like to thank Noble Outfitters, English Riding Supply and Julie Andrews, and Manse Hill for providing us with so many great prizes.  A special thanks goes out to Rose Staeck, the owner of Equus Now!, for everything she does for the local horse community.

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Next stop for the Equus Now! band wagon will be right back at the Delaware Fair grounds for the New Vocations Charity Horse Show.  It looks to be a good one so reserve your stalls soon! Until then,get out, get on, and go out and horse show!  See you at New Vocations July 3-5.