Savoring Springtime

It seems the spring is on the fast-track to leaving, though it feels like it just arrived! This time of year always gets crazy busy, what with our Seniors getting ready to graduate, The Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event, the Kentucky Derby, the last of our Equine Scholars events, the Keeneland Race Meet, the start-up of horse shows and everything else!
Here is a VERY brief update of what we have been up to:

Every year we tour Hagyard Equine Medical Institute -- which means all our Scholars could potential see this hospital four times during their tenure at Georgetown College! While this might seem like a bit much to you, every time we go, we learn something new. This year we got to see babies, get up close with the treadmill and get a good look at the new covered they installed for the sport-horse vets. Very cool!


We also got to go tour the United States Hunter Jumper Association museum, thanks to Kristyn Kay. Kristyn spoke of how the museum obtains pieces they display, as well as of her job at the museum. Carrie Vaught, Programs and Education Ambassador, spoke of her role at the Association as well.

Thanks to the incredible generosity of Shannon White, we got an INCREDIBLE tour of Fare's Farms, which is located behind beautiful Keeneland Racecourse. Shannon spoke on myriad aspects of running a Thoroughbred operation -- everything from fencing and painting to foaling and selling. She is a true wealth of knowledge. Shannon is a huge supporter of our Program and we simply cannot say enough good things about her or about Fare's Farms! (isn't this face sweet?)

Our Scholars had an amazing opportunity this spring: To meet, in person, retired jockeys Chris McCarron  and Pat Day. Invited to Georgetown College as part of our ongoing Conversations with Champions series, the senior Scholars were invited to Dr. Crouch's home to meet with the jockeys prior to their televised interviews.

Reese Koffler-Stanfield, head trainer at Maplecrest Farm as well as an international high performance competitive dressage rider, opened her farm to us to speak a bit about her career in the highest levels of the sport. Reese regularly goes out of her way to help the Equine Scholars Program and has employed numerous Scholars as her working students. Her farm, located just minutes from Georgetown College, is simply breathtaking.

One of the only events that is mandatory for our Scholars to attend is the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event.Our students can volunteer in various capacities, everything from ushering during dressage and showjumping days to driving golfcarts for the VIPs to working with the accounts during the actual events. The passes they get allow them to get into all four days of the event for free! Everyone's favorite is the cross-country day.

Also, there was an extra-special freestyle reining competition that took place on Saturday night. Can you recognize this superstar eventer-turned-reiner?

If you guessed Karen O'Connor, you're right! :)

As May blasted onto the scene, our students attended Derby events and cracked down to study while things kicked into high gear in the ESP offices as well. With booths at the Intercollegiate Horse Show Association Nationals and Rolex, we're still cleaning up from being out of the office for so long!

We are lucky enough to also have a wonderful working relationship with both Horse Illustrated and Young Rider magazines. Rising Senior Marina Byrd and I got to do two "how to do horse show hair" videos that can be found here:

http://www.horsechannel.com/horse-showing/horse-show-hair.aspx

Graduation is Saturday -- here's to hoping for blue skies and sunshine!
Hope you enjoyed this very brief pictoral of the last two months! We will be updating our blog more regularly (hopefully) as we get back into our routine.