Bridgeport, NY: Sixteen year old Renee Kosa has sent the following story about her very Merry Christmas!! “I've been riding since I was 7 years old and have wanted a pony/horse ever since I first saw one. My mom thought it was just a stage I was going through and, like many teenage girls, would grow out of it and get into boys and fashion and the like. So she held me off on actually owning my own horse until this past Christmas of 2006. I had been riding a purebred Connemara gelding named Carousel Greystone Pride & Joy (owned by the Cronins, boarded at Nancy Novak's Deer Hollow Farm) since December 2005 and formed a very special bond with him and had successful shows in combined training and hunter jumpers. Well, my mom and stepdad decided that I really wasn't going to grow out of the horse-crazy thing and said I could get a Miniature so we could experience owning a horse for much cheaper than a regular one. I found one for $300 and had plans to go see him that weekend, but when I showed his pictures to my stepdad he refused to buy him for me because a Miniature wouldn't help me pursue my dreams of making it to high level eventers and jumpers. So I thought about this ad I had seen in the newspaper for a younger Connemara / Standardbred mare for $3000. She's a 14.2hh blood bay mare named Wolfe Spring's Fiona, aka Fiona/Fifi, by Irish Park's Caraway Finn. My stepdad agreed to paying half for her if my dad paid the other half, and to his surprise and mine, my dad agreed also. So I went to try her out and knew she had some problems we had to sort out, but instantly fell in love with her. Her ex-owner, Anne Vinyard, brought her to her new barn on November 27 and since then we've formed such a great bond and she's improving greatly. For the next couple of months (or maybe more!) she is going to be living at the same barn as PJ so she can get extensive professional training and I can ride my PJ again! This is certainly the best Christmas gift any horse lover could ever ask for! I'm looking forward to my future with Fiona. My biggest goal with her would be to take her to Pony Medals someday.”

Tampa, Fl: 2007 foals have started to arrive!! We have heard that Swift Ocoee River (Big Bear’s Special Order X Molly Brown [by Bobby Brown]) presented owner Beth Davidson with a colt on January 28. The colt, Black Dog’s river Ghost, is by Seven Hills Grey Ghost and is the first purebred for Beth. Beth says it is a bay turning grey with 3 socks and a star. He is friendly and precocious and Ocoee is being a great mom.

If you have a new foal please send news of its birth and breeding to duckwort@mgm.ufl.edu. Don’t forget the pictures!!

Athens, TN: Vanessa Morgan has announced that there are still a few spots open for the Mark Russel (author of "Lessons in Lightness") clinic on March 10 at Foothills Farm.
The clinic is open to all under-saddle horses (very green through competitive) and all rider skill levels (beginner through advanced). All disciplines are welcome (hunters, dressage, western, etc). Further information can be found at http://www.markrusselltraining.com/lessonsinlightness.html. A registration form is posted on the Region 4 website, http://www.connemaras.com/Region4/home.html.