News from the Southlands December 2021
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR’S NOTE
What a year 2021 has been!
Our 2021 goals of rebuilding the lesson program for the community, filling the barn with boarders who love Southlands, relaunching the working student program and getting back to safe in person events have been realized. And in a roller coaster year, we even exceeded expectations! We hosted a great, personalized camp program for Pony Campers and Nature Campers and we were at capacity for lessons many days throughout the summer, fall and winter. We have had an influx of great new community members of all ages who are looking forward to being active participants in many of the programs we offer. All but one of our stalls are filled with the arrival of Katie Higgins, long time student, and her new horse Dani, and the return of Jacob Leach and his mare Salem. The working student program has 4 active members just now and there is a large group of young people hoping to become working students when they turn 14 (more information will be posted on the website about this wonderful program soon). Our 2021 Gala was one of the most sought after events of the season. Some pictures below and Save the Date for our 2022 Gala on Saturday, September 10th!
Our 2022 goals include first and foremost Paddock Improvement! We are VERY excited to get going on the Spring paddock refurbishment to help control the amount of mud on our beautiful property. Second, we are planning more events like the our Halloween Horse Parade and our our Deck the Stalls Party. By the way, thank you to the great group of decorators and craft makers that came to on Sunday December 5th. The creativity and joy that was shared that day was heartwarming and carried on throughout the whole Holiday Season. Perhaps next year we will host a contest for the most creative and festive stall?!
Additional 2022 programs include three Pop up Sundays at Southlands to introduce our program and property to people who have not been here before, and a continual build out of community partnerships. We are also looking forward to a fun and new horse show season both at Southlands and other nice venues and we can't wait to use the new gazebo that was so generously donated to help keep the trainers out of direct sun. We will also continue to grow our Working Student Scholarship to honor our dear friend Nicole Wiley (donation information can be found here).
Watch this space for more exciting happenings at Southlandsthroughout 2022. We look forward to working with you and sharing the community that you help build!
FROM OUR TRAINERS
2021 has been an exciting year for the TSF lesson/show program for many reasons. We put together some terrific partnerships with lease horses for some of our riders, namely Emmy Nelson-Madore + Stanley, Sarah Regner + Scottie, Jax Powers + Melody, and Anna Kalishman continued her lease of the venerable Vionabese. Along with some of these teams and a couple of others, such as Emily Gerstle and Ashley Capalbo, we attended some bigger, rated shows at new venues, such as Crosswinds Equestrian Center, Old Salem Farm and Gardnertown. A few of our lesson program riders took part in our newly formed Jumper Series over the summer. Katie Higgins, Julie Chalk and Katarina Batina riding Kyra, Cisco and Karma respectively, took on the fun challenge of navigating our jumper courses at home with friendly outside competition. The Jumper Series proved to be a big success for TSF and we’re looking forward to making it even better in 2022.
This year saw a large jump in the amount of adults joining the lesson program as beginner riders. With perseverance, drive and commitment (and big thanks to George, Lancaster and Joanie!), Deirdre Nolan, Mick Kalishman, Florien Bouwmeester, Erin Haight, Melanie Hannan and Kristina Kaisik have all come so far with their riding skills. As teachers, it’s incredibly rewarding to see these riders figure out new challenging techniques and eventually make them look easy. Bravo to all!!
Our year was filled with much more than just showing and training. Remember our overnight sleepover at TSF? The kids had a blast not sleeping at one of their favorite places and Raven, our barn kitty, loved having them all at his “house” for the night.
Pony Camp was back in 2021 and the kids all enjoyed learning more about horses, like how to wrap legs, parts of the horse, tack cleaning procedures and much more!! It’s inspirational to see the next generation of Southlands riders learning more than just how to ride, but how to properly tack and take care of the ponies that they love so much. We had a wonderful showing for our Halloween Parade in October. Many creative costumes were presented and it was super to have some adults dressing up their steeds, alongside of the kids (Caro Marr and Coco and Noel Gordon and Clarke!)!! On November 7th, we had riders attend the Locust Hill Hunter Pace. Southlands was well represented with Noel Gordon on Clarke, Jonathan Edel on May, Emily Gerstle on Lieve and Emmy Nelson Madore on Stanley. Our riders and horses had a blast, so we’re looking to add more hunter paces to our schedule next year.
We have some new boarders in our midst this year, too. Jana Martin and Falcor and Noel Gordon and Clarke have added to our community in such a positive way!! We love you guys!!! Philip Steinkraus returned to TSF in the fall with his two new jumpers, Paul and Brian. It’s always a pleasure to watch Phil’s lessons with Jonathan over big courses that give our younger (and older!) riders inspiration to take on new challenges and achieve goals. And we all learn valuable lessons from watching our senior crew of riders that show up faithfully to ride and support TSF, special shout out to Lyn Rosen, Nancy Strohsahl and Pam Molyneaux.
We also added two new members to our staff in 2021. Tish Walter came on part time to teach some of our younger riders and she has quite a following! Thank you Tish for your patience and attention to details! Madeline Berg joined us full time in October and she’s been a delight. Madeline does a little bit of everything at TSF, which has been a lifesaver for the existing staff, but we so appreciate her dedication to TSF, depth of knowledge in horse care and superlative riding skills as a positive example for our young, up and coming crew of equestrians.
Lastly, we would like to thank Manuel Bautista for his extraordinary dedication to the horses at TSF, Elise Quasebarth for her steadfast leadership as the president of the board, Susie Williams, for always being there for TSF in so many ways and Allison King the Executive Director, who wears many hats!! Jonathan and I are so happy to be part of such a fun, motivated and dedicated community. We are all Southlands Proud!!
Here’s to an amazing 2022!!
FROM THE BOARD
We are are so grateful to our generous donors - including our match donors - who helped exceed our year-end fund-raising goal for paddock improvement. You really came through!
We exceeded our goal of $35,000 by $8,750 for a whopping $43,750total! Our initial goal of $35,000 will allow us to improve fencing where needed and create swales to drain water in select areas. We will also be able to create smaller temporary paddocks to rest the soil during mud season and promote grass growth. Additional funds will allow us to install mud mats in key areas. We plan for work to begin in Spring 2022.
The generosity in both treasure and time is strong evidence of the Southlands community spirit and love of the horses and the land. It is a fantastic start to helping protect the open agricultural landscape that is part of Mrs. Dows’ legacy.
Many thanks!
SPECIAL OPPORTUNITY
We are excited to announce acclaimed New Yorker cartoonist and Southlands hero Liza Donnelly has made a special SIGNED print in honor of Southlands. She is selling them on her site with 50% of the proceeds to benefit Southlands. Link here.
Beautiful gala photographs from the 2021 Gala were taken by Mary Elliott-O’Haire. You can order your prints with this link: https://mohaire.smugmug.com/Southlands-Gala-2021/
Save the Date! 2022 Sunset at Southlands will be Saturday, September 10. We look to seeing everyone there!
The Nicole Marie Wiley Memorial Working Student Fund is continuing to accept donations in her honor. Nicole was a cherished member of TSF and we will remember her always. To donate: https://southlands.org/donate.
Read our November 2021 newsletter