ElB-Boarder & Trainer, Lancaster Farming, Saturday, May 10, 2003
Getting To Devon
(Continued from Page El)
horses, working hill-time on
her family’s Lodestone Farm
hunter/jumper operation.
“All I remember as a kid
was wanting to stay home and
ride. I couldn’t wait to get off
of the bus, and I would look
forward to what horse show
we were going to compete in
that weekend,” she said. “I
never sat in the house and
thought, ‘do I really want to
ride today?’ It was always a
given.”
Riding since she was three
years old, Jocelyn began com
peting in the show ring at age
four, and by age 11 had made
her debut into the ring at
Devon in the medium pony
hunter class.
She plans to compete at the
upcoming Devon Horse Show
and Country Fair, May 22-31.
The ring is familiar to her, as
she, along with her father,
John, and mother, Leslie, has
participated in the event for
many years. The family owns
and operates Lodestone Farm,
Denver.
Jocelyn has participated in
the pony divisions, local divi
sion, green hunters, working
hunters, junior hunters, and
has been champion and re
serve at the event. She has
Spring 2003 Horse Industry
Handbook Update Available
CREAMERY (Montgomery
Co.) The American Youth
Horse Council is pleased to
announce the publication and
availability of the new Spring
2003 Update for the Horse In
dustry Handbook.
This update marks the third
since the Horse Industry
Handbook was introduced in
1994. The Horse Industry
Handbook is an encyclopedic
volume on equine care and
management written and re
viewed by over 200 equine ex
perts containing over 400 fact
filled pages in an updateable
ring binder format.
Is used extensively as a re
ference for youth competitions
and is a valuable addition to
the equine library of all horse
owners. Nancy Kadwill,
Montgomery County Exten
sion Agent and member of the
Board of the AMYC, highly
recommends the
book as a resource I •
for current and po-
tential horse owners.
The concept be
hind the Horse In-
dustry Handbook is
Lancaster
Farming's
'Classified Ads
Get Resaltsl
fl Corrective, ■
■Draft, Race,*
■ Dressage, ■
■Gaited, Game.H
■Carriage Horses ■
m57M9B^6B^V
shown horses for Lodestone
Farm and for other profes
sionals from across the U.S.
“Devon,” as it is more fa
miliarly called, is one of four
annual horse shows in which a
horse must be qualified to
enter. Exhibitors and their
horses come from all over the
country for the event.
The slogan, “Where the
Champions Meet,” highlights
the prestige of the event.
The horses must prove
themselves by wining consis
tently at A rated horse shows
throughout the year.
The Devon Horse Show
then selects the horses with
the greatest number of points
from the horse’s best IS shows
of the year before the show is
sues an invitation to compete.
Typically, of the 15 horse
shows submitted to Devon, the
horses will be champion or re
serve almost every time.
The Road To Devon
“Getting to Devon takes
years of preparation,” said
John Martin. Spectatprs
watch riders at Devon and
“don’t really know what peo
ple have done to get there,” he
said.
One of the first considera
tions is the purchase of a qual
ity mount. Devon horse own
for national experts to contin
ually refine and keep current
the information contained in
the Horse Industry Handbook.
All the books sold after the re
lease of an update have the
most recent update, and any
previous updates incorporat
ed. Since its first release in
1994, the Horse Industry
Handbook has had three up
dates, Fall 1995, Spring 1999,
and now, Spring 2003.
The Horse Industry Hand
book Update Spring 2003 is in
stock and ready for those of
you with Horse Industry
Handbooks purchased before
February 2003.
The update includes five ar
ticles:
• Bandaging the Equine
Limb
• Common Feet and Leg
Problems of the Horse
• Equine Salmonellosis
This picture was taken as Jocelyn and Bodine, or “Fred,” his bam name, com
peted at Devon in 2001. Fred was competing in the second-year green working
hunter’s division. Photo by James L. Parkar
ers “have looked long and
hard for a quality horse,” said
Jocelyn.
“It’s a long process, not
only for the rider but also for
the horse,” Martin said. “You
can’t take just any horse and
say, ‘l’m going to make this
horse qualify for Devon.”’
Besides purchasing a quali
ty horse, training at a top
notch show bam to get valu
able instruction for die rider
• The Renewable Resource:
Horse Manure
• West Nile Virus in
Horses.
Order the Spring 2003 up
date by calling our AYHC
publications distributor, The
Equine Collection, at (800)
952-5813, by visiting our Web
site at www.AYHC.com and
click through resources,
by visiting the Website
www.theequinecollec
tion.com or by fax at
(201) 840-7242. To ob
tain an order form, call
AYHC or visit our Web
site. Member discounts
apply.
You can also mail
your order form to: The
Equine Collection: Dept.
AYHC, P.O. Box 1539,
Fort Lee, NJ
07024-1539.
and the horse is imperative, he
said.
Finding a good instruction
requires “going to horse
shows, seeing who’s winning
and who has more of a profes
sional attitude,” she said.
“It’s not something that you
can work on for a few months
and then go to Devon,” Mar
tin said. “That’s like saying
‘we’re going to do batting
practice this month and hope
fully get to the World Series.’”
Training for this equine
World Series, then, begins
with two days of schooling
over jumps, besides 2-3 ses
sions of doing flat work
walking, trotting, cantering,
and doing various exercises,
such as figure eights, small
and large circles, and flying
lead changes.
“It’s not something that you
or your horse learns in a week
or a month,” he said.
Training, however, is a bal
ance between doing enough
work to be ready and “yet not
so much that the horses get
i %
i *
%
4
%
%
tb
%
%
%
%
%
%
%
%
%
%
%
%
Sept. 12, 13, 14
Oct. 31 & Nov, 1, 2
Lots of Hands On!
Slngies/Doubies Beginner and Intermediate Levels
Get Your Questions Answered on How to Start.
Spaces Limited to 10 Per Seminar. Visit Our Web Site
www.kathysponles.com or Call Us At
Flint Hill Farm, Cooporsburg, PA 18036.
% 610-838-2928 %
The points go with the
horse the owner does not
necessarily have to ride the
horse to the qualifying wins.
“Most of the horses and po
nies that get to Devon are on a
fairly rigid show schedule,”
said Martin. “If they are plan
ning to show 30 times, they
need to try to win SO percent
of the time at least.”
“The first pony I took to
Devon (her own “Bit of
Chance,” which was second in
the country in the medium po
nies that year) was a very suc
cessful pony. I probably show
ed it 35-40 times a year on the
weekends,” said Jocelyn.
11l It Weekend
Driving Seminar
muscle sore or foot sore. If a
horse gets sore, we give them
time off,” Martin said.
Owners hoping to get to
Devon put in time not only
practicing at home but “there
is a commitment of time at
horse shows, too, to get
enough points to qualify,” he
said.
(Turn to Page El 9)