Storey Tails

20/05/2026

Blue Ridge Hunt horse show May 29 - 31st. Entries are now live! https://horseshowsonline.com/ShowDetails?ShowGUID=55e927b2-fe85-44c2-8c06-21305e9935f6

09/05/2026

May 29th, 30th & 31st will be here soon! Come join us at a VHSA recognized show. Prize list is updated, judges reserved and we are ready to have you join us!

19/04/2026

Adding more and more XC jumps to our field. Let us know if you want to come school.

22/03/2026

Mark your Calendars!
Blue Ridge Hunt Horse Show
May 23 & 24
Hunters Saturday & Jumpers Sunday
Full warm-up day Friday

12/03/2026

This lady is often too hard on herself and never makes a post. (She will probably be mad) but Cheryl Spoehr has been working hard to improve her riding and her knowledge and it is paying off. She and Justin are making such good progress!

Way to go you two!

11/03/2026

Man this girl feels great! Bumping those jumps back up and working on our preparations for our first event of the season. She is feeling ready!

19/02/2026

2026 Competition Schedule

2026 March 6th  World Horse Exp Harrisonburg, PA  March 7th  Snickersville Hunter Pace Middleburg, VA  March 7th  Loh Moy Derby Adamstown, MD  March 7th  Morven Park Jumper Show Leesburg, VA March 14th  Morningside Combined Test Marshall, VA March 15th  A Jump Above Jumpers  Marshall, VA G...

04/11/2025

Good info

This is our schooling field. It is the first phase of building it. There are four log jumps, and one is a bounce at the lower right. The ground is sloped like a bowl. It slopes from left to right and from the front of the image to the back. The slopes are between 10 and 20 degrees. The logs are ten to twelve inches in diameter.

The four lines are patterns that we ride and have found useful for training young horses. Each line goes up and down the slopes. It's in a big pasture with room to trot, canter or gallop parts of a line. Line number 2, the red line, is a simple circle around two jumps on the side of the hill that can be ridden either in a left or right direction. Number 4, the blue line, is the fastest. It can be ridden in a fast canter with parts in a gallop to simulate a fox hunting chase. We ride these lines individually and sometimes in a line of horses as you would in a hunt.

This kind of training tool is easy to construct, and it does not take away the pasture grass from the horses. It's easy to mow around and requires no maintenance. Over time you can add more obstacles and jumps to create new lines. In the spring we plan to construct an Irish bank jump or drop in the side of one slope.

I am posting this to encourage riders to get out of the arena and get out riding over terrain. Riding slopes and jumping small jumps on slopes builds confidence in both horses and riders. This kind of riding works the horses' legs to build muscle in many different ways, while always riding on the flat exercises a horse's legs in only one way.

The bottom picture is a US Army schooling field. Most Army forts or posts had one. Some still do. A US Cavalry Troop had thirty two Troopers. Troops trained together and the schooling fields had to be big enough to accommodate that many riders.