Sunday October 5, 2008. Roger and Kelly Davidson attended the Joe Daehling Drive, near Elk Grove, CA. Roger drove Colliery Alick, with guest, Lisa Walker, on the back step. Kelly drove her Welsh Cob mare, Clanfair Chanel. Beautiful day, perfect setting, and a lot of fun. Many thanks to Joe and his wife for hosting the event.
October 13 - 19, 2008: Roger spent time in South Carolina, working 1-on-1 with Muffy Seaton, many times US Pony Combined Driving champion in pairs and multiples. He learned to handle pairs, four in hand and a tandem of minis. On his last day, Roger took part in an Arena Driving Trial (ADT) at Muffy's Shepherd's Purse Ranch, and won the Pairs Pony Training class. See Photo Gallery #13 for pictures of Roger driving a variety of ponies and minis at Muffy's farm
October 25, 2008: Roger drove Colliery Alick, (The Black Shaggy Pony), to 3rd place in a Preliminary Single Pony class at Clay Station Horse Driving Trial (HDT) in Wilton, CA. A moderate dressage test, followed by very fast cones and a solid effort over 7.8 km on the marathon. Owner, Kelly Davidson, was on the back step.
October 26, 2008: Roger rode as navigator behind client, Kelly Davidson, as she drove her Welsh Cob mare, Clanfair Chanel, to 3rd place in a Training Single Pony class at Clay Station HDT in Wilton, CA. Chanel became very fired up in dessage, did a steady round in cones, and surprised and delighted both owner and trainer on the 7.7 km marathon stage.
October 26, 2008: Liz rode Kelly Davidson's Dales Pony mare, Red Prairie Rose in a Trail Trial at Napa, CA. They finished 3rd of 19 in class, only 2 points behind 2nd place. Rose was easily the least experienced pony in the class, so showed excellent adaptability, and won many new admirers of the Dales Pony breed. The ride organizer wants one!
November 1, 2008: Liz rode Red Pairie Rose in a Trail Trial at Mariposa, CA. The weather featured heavy rain and the trails were muddy. Rose found the going difficult and Liz retired after 5 of the 8 obstacles.
October/November, 2008: Alick and Roger appear on the cover of the British magazine, The Native Pony. This magazine is sold in retail newstands in Britain, and is available worldwide by subscription. Now the whole world can see 'The Black Shaggy Pony' in action.
Sunday, November 16. Roger and Liz took part in a Pleasure Drive, organized by the Central Valley Miniature Horse Club, round vineyards near Lodi, CA. The weather was perfect, Alick behaved like a gentleman in mixed company, and Liz got to drive in open spaces for the first time. Many thanks to Neva Goodwin for hosting the drive. Looking forward to the 2009 event already.
Saturday, December 6. Woodland Stallion Station (WSS) hosted its annual Tea Drive in the farm land and vineyards behind the station. Roger drove Alick, with Shela Greenlaw alongside and Kelly Davidson drove her Dales Pony mare, Dessie. It was a lovely day, once the fog lifted. Many thanks to Ann Taylor for making WSS available and Shelley Shavoor for organizing the drive. This was the 14th annual Tea Drive, and had the largest ever turnout of rigs.
Liz Balke has won her class in both the CSHA California State and Region 5 2008 Trail Trials championships, successfully defending the titles she won in 2007. Well done, Liz.
Heather Bond and Chianti Rapture win the 2008 CSHA Region 5 English championship in the 13 years and under category. [There is a nice picture of them with the championship buckle and a very nice personalized bracelet in Photo Gallery # 6]. Well done, both of you.
February 2009: Liz Balke has started full time at college in Pleasant Hill. Her schedule is pretty intensive, so she can no longer fit in exercising horses and ponies. We wish Liz every success at college, in her future career, and thank her for the excellent work she has done in the past year.
March 7, 2009. Heather Bond and Chianti Rapture win two classes, finish third in three others, take two fourth places and a fifth spot at Rancho Cerro Schooling Show in Livermore. Hard day for both pony and rider, but a big step forward in performance.
March 2009. Look out for an exciting announcement about the future location of Roger Cleverly: Equestrian Training. We hope to have an agreement to lease a 40 stall barn in the East Bay by March 14.
March 20, 2009. Hopefully, the final draft of the lease agreement arrived from the barn owner's attorney this evening. The target date for taking over the operation of the facility is April 1. Having taken a couple of detailed walks around the site, there are 12 stalls in the barn, and 33 'living' paddocks and two day turnout paddocks. Roads in the area are pretty quiet, and there is a large open space south of the property for marathon practice, so it should be good 'driving country'.
March 26, 2009. Lease is signed. Now we have to convince existing boarders to stay.
March 28, 2009. Met with most of the boarders. One has already left, and two others want a Western trail riding environment. The others like the plan and want to be part of it.
Wednesday, April 1, 2009. We are now, officially, the operators of Mullins Stables. Now the hard work begins. Fences to mend, water leaks to fix, and stall paddocks to level. Then we have a rubbish clearing session.
Sunday, April 5, 2009. First new boarder, Chianti Rapture, owned by the Bond family from Antioch, arrives.
April 6, 2009. Renovated stalls, so we can ship in our own equines and one pony already in training, on April 7. Two more horses coming on April 10.
April 10, 2009. Our own three hooligans are at Kite Hawk Lane, along with two mare owned by Rose Marie Kent.
April 12, 2009. Colliery Alick is the first driving animal hitched at Mullins Stables. We checked out some local trails, and tried the arena surface. Alick seemed to like it, as he cantered happily.
April 14, 2009. First driving lesson, to Krista Ericson and her mini mare, Cinnamon.
April 17, 2009. Congratulations to Colliery Alick, Red Prarie Rose, and all at Davidson Dales Stud, on the arrival of a black colt foal at just after 3:00 AM this morning. Mother and son are doing well. Father is ticked off that his breakfast was late!
April 25, 2009. Sally Mays and Murphy visit from Marin County for a lesson. Murphy seems to like the arena surface, as he trots out well.
April 26, 2009. First HDT of the year, at Clay Station Horse Park. Colliery Alick competes in Prelim. Single Pony class. Dressage judge gives lots of low scores, except to Alick. We then post the fastest time in cones for the 40 competitors over the two days, and second in class on the marathon. Comment from owner and navigator, Kelly Davidson, on leaving Hazard 1, 'That is why I got up at 4:00 AM this morning. That was fun.' Alick placed third in class.
May 2, 2009. In the early hours, Kelly Davidson's Dartmoor mare, Winwood Buttercup, produced a filly foal. She is a cute little thing, with her mother's markings. She will be registered as Tulipkings California Poppy. Looks like Kelly might have a driving pair of Darties in about 5 years time.
May 2, 2009. Heather Bond with Chianti and Amanda Simpson with Elli did not make the show at Rancho Cerro. The weather forecast was not good, and rain did fall during the event. Colliery Alick, ridden by his jumping trainer, Adrienne Grasso, was Reserve Champion in the Jumpers division.
May 9, 2009. First carriage driving event at the barn. Gerald Fisher presented a clinic on the Achenbach system of rein handling. It was well received, with a lot of positive feedback from attendees. We are now planning more clinics for the carriage driving community.
May 15, 2009. Welcome to Tracie Combs, Gabby Johnson and their 21 year old Thoroughbred, Patrick. Patrick is currently recovering from a front leg injury, and will need some serious, contolled rehab to ensure the injury does not recur.