Special “Road Trip” news Updates -

We can only update this special file while we are traveling. Check back here for more “Latest News” between April 14 and April 23rd, 2009.

 

April 23^rd:

Well, we’re almost home. Meghan has been working long hours as we travel, phoning and emailing from her space in the RV as it rolls down the road headed north to Longacres. She has been very busy making final arrangements for staff, talking with people about new horses, arranging for horses to be trucked back to Longacres next week, and answering questions from new people interested in the few remaining sessions open for this summer. Busy, busy!

 

Many in the summer camp business have speculated that there might be a surge in interest in camps late in the spring as people find they still have jobs and see some stability at least in their own personal economic lives. That seems to be coming true, as we have had a big surge in new inquiries the past two weeks while we have been on this trip to bring the RV back north from its winter home in Florida. Yesterday alone, two adults inquired about the early bird adult week, and we had a first timer email from a family in Tampa.

 

With another full or near full season now almost assured, we are making arrangements to add an extra staff member and moving forward with plans for the new sand ring. We’ll post more details soon when we return to the office sometime this weekend.

 

This afternoon we’ll be traveling through Washington where we always try to make a quick patriotic stop to enjoy the capital sights and atmosphere. Especially when the weather is really grand, as it is today!

 

We almost enjoyed one of our other favorite stops on the annual trip north a couple of days ago when we stopped to enjoy one of our favorite east coast cities, Savannah, GA. We usually have lunch or dinner at “Hughies” restaurant right on the waterfront in historic Savannah. But we were there right between breakfast and lunch and decided to pass it up. (Have any of our regular readers ever been to Hughies? Just curious.)

 

And yesterday we made a detour up the North Carolina outer banks, a lovely place we’ve never traveled before. Very well preserved and tastefully developed. It was a great day, though we couldn’t enjoy hikes on the beach that we had planned because of very high winds which sent the sand flying and stinging exposed skin. We took pictures of the Cape Hatteras light house which will be a useful guide as we build the new Longacres lighthouse jump!

 

April 19^th Update:

Not bad for any year!

Just two weeks ago we were telling ourselves that Longacres is having a very good year, considering the tight economy. We were full or nearly full from June 28 through the end of July. We expected to have vacancies for our pre-season weeks and for Lazy Days and perhaps a few in the August session, but considering the economy, we were happy. Then your calls and messages came flooding in during the past week and a half! We’ve signed up eight new students in the past ten days, and for a small program like Longacres, that is almost fifteen percent of our full enrollment. Thank you!

 

We’re now within sight of selling out our entire season. We continue to be amazed and amused that most of this year’s enrollments seem to come in when we are traveling away from the farm and our home office. Meghan and I often tell each other when there is a lull in new enrollments (like there was for much of March), “Gee, we should go away on a trip again.” Every time we’re traveling it seems we get new enrollments. Somehow it seems wrong that we should be rewarded for taking a little vacation trip, but I guess it is a natural cycle. Meghan works hard for a few weeks corresponding with people or updating horse information, and then after new customers have a little time to think about Longsacres they get ready to sign up just as we leave for a trip. Whatever the reason, we’ll take it!

 

If uploading pictures works from a coffee house later this morning, try this link for some pictures of a horse we might have at Longacres as an experienced “send your horse to camp” prospect. “Dennis” (WindBorn Passion) has done it all and is an experienced show horse. He’s a 16.3 thoroughbred gelding. He’s supposed to be very accommodating and is able to be ridden by a variety of riders. We hope it works out!

 

April 17^th:

Happy birthday to Hannah! - - - and thanks to Rhiannon who is carefully reading this “Road Trip” page as we travel and sent a nice note about Serendipity. Glad to know someone reads the stuff I write!

 

Here’s a Longacres welcome to Stephanie from Chicago who is considering signing up for the two June Clinic weeks. If she does we will be more than half full for those sessions, with a nice group of riders all similar in experience.

 

We are still in Florida but starting back north to Longacres tomorrow. Meghan is spending about half the day on the phone making business calls even while we are down here. Not me!

 

April 15^th Update:

Happy Tax Day!

Sorry, couldn’t help it! We are suffering with you, spending part of our vacation day downloading tax forms and filing some last minute stuff. In fact, it was quite a work day. We were stuck at an RV repair place all day, so what did we do? Made tons of phone calls and emails about staff positions, new horses to buy, new horses people want to send us for training, and more. You can get a lot done when you’re stuck in a waiting room all day.

 

We knew we had to get an alternator on the RV fixed when we got here last night. And we knew ahead of time that it could take a day or even a little more if they had to order a part. But in the morning, it looked like we had lucked out and it would only be a half day repair. But the luck did not hold and we are spending the night at the local Cummins Diesel and RV repair facility. I’ll say this for them. They have the nicest overnight parking of any repair place I’ve ever been to. We’ll post a few pictures tomorrow. We are parked right next to a lake just north of Orlando out behind the repair shop.

 

Serendipity: is the effect by which one accidentally discovers something fortunate, especially while looking for something else entirely.

 

OK – Here’s Tom’s “serendititous” moment for today. Some of you know that one of Tom’s favorite hobbies is flying radio control model airplanes. Sometimes during evening horsecare after you are done riding, you’ll see one of Tom’s planes fly high over the barn. One of my favorite planes is called an F27B Stryker. Just in case someone out there knows about model planes. I have had one for almost three years and it has been crashed and repaired numerous times. It still works, but it is NOT pretty! And it weighs about one and a half times as much as it did when it was new from all the Epoxy glue holding it together. I’ve tried to buy a new one, but they have been discontinued for more than a year and you can’t get them anymore.

Now for today’s Serendipitous moment. After we pulled into the RV repair place and made arrangements to get our repair work done, I noticed a small sign on a dingy looking building next door. “Radio Control Planes & Cars”, it said. So I walked next door to check it out, and there in an industrial section of Orlando, FL, I found one of the largest Radio Control model plane shops in the world. They literally have customers all over the world who order from them or visit when they are in Orlando.

 

So after looking around, I asked someone, “This is a long shot, but you don’t just happen to have an old discontinued Stryker F27B kicking around back in your store rooms, do you?” The sales guy answered, “I sure do – 4 of them, I think, and we’d LOVE to sell you one or two.” So I walked out with a lucky find – I’ll try not to crash when I get home! The sales guy had a nice sense of humor. After we talked a bit about all the unusual stuff they kept in stock for their world wide customer base, he told me in parting, “Come back anytime – if you have a budget, we can bust it!” And I bet they could!

 

February 16 Update:

Hello again,

We’re just finishing up our Florida trip and will be flying home tomorrow. We’ll do quite a few website updates during the rest of this week, including posting some new pictures. Check back on our regular latest news page then.

 

We’ve enjoyed our week of warmer weather during this trip, but it sounds like more real winter awaits us at Longacres. We missed a real warm spell in western New York. And flooding - - and a wind storm! There will be messes around the farm to clean up and repair! Oh, well, that’s part of the fun of owning a horse farm.

 

Help us find winter homes for our horses:

We’re going to start very early this year looking for homes to board and lease our horses after the summer season. Tell anyone you know who might be looking for a horse next fall to visit our “Meet the Horses” page. Let your stable know about our program and that they might be able to borrow one or more of our horses for their winter lesson program or to lease to show students. In a tight economy, it was tough finding homes for all our horses this winter and we don’t expect it to be any easier next year.

 

One of the really special things about Longacres is that we own such a great string of horses that we keep from year to year as they gain experience and get better and better. We don’t sell them in the fall and buy new ones as many camps do. We will need your help to keep this program working in a down economy. Pass the word about our fine horses!

 

February 15^th Update:

Hi everyone,

I know we have been bad about updates the past week during our vacation. Are some of you having “withdrawal symptoms”? LOL If so, we have a treat for you today with an extra long update on Longacres news. First, here’s a message that came in from Mike and Hannah about Horatio. They have “Ho-ho” for the winter down in Maryland. For those of you coming to Longacres for the first time this year, you can see many pictures of Horatio on our “Meet the Horses” page – find the link on our site map or many other places on the website, like this one.

 

Here’s Mike’s message:

 

“Hi Tom and Meghan,

 

The winter sure seems to be going by fast.  I guess you are having fun enjoying the weather – although I guess it has been a light snow year so far. I have not seen a post for a while so I hope all is well. (we’re on vacation! – TSK)

 

I thought I would send a quick update on Horatio and had one minor question about him. He is doing fine and seems healthy and content. We had a warm day last week and Hannah gave him a full bath that he really enjoyed. He did have one minor injury few weeks ago that is completely resolved but I’ll report anyway. On January 20, the barn manager called and said Ho-ho had abscess under his right eye (between nose and eye) with moderate subcutaneous swelling around area up to his right eye. W called in the vet who sedated Ho-ho and drained the infection. She was concerned that it could have been a dental tooth abscess but there was no discharge from the nose which would have accompanied a dental abscess.  So we assume it was some sort of infected cut of contusion. We provided a feed-through antibiotic administered with for 2 weeks and daily warm compresses to help with drainage.  I delayed riding for 3 days with no further issues. Vet on-site on Jan 26 and checked stating things looked good. As of today, there is barely a scar.

 

However, he did get a bite on the neck a few days ago that I wanted to ask about. It did not break the skin but it is a little swelled. Ho-ho has not been showing any signs that it bothers him and is acting normal. The barn manager has been putting Ichthammol Wound Dressing to help get the selling down but asked me if it was okay to use DMSO.  I think the Ichthammol should be fine but said I would ask just in case. (doesn’t all this vet stuff sound like fun? That’s the price of having horses! – TSK)

 

We hear that Horatio is quite the horse with the mares and has been hanging around the fence line to the mare field (in fact today when I walked him along the driveway the mares where following him along the fence.  Needless to say he has been moving his way up the pecking order in the boys’ field as evidence of periodic minor scrapes here or there. He is reported to do quite a log of galloping and playing around in the field - probably having quite a lot of fun. (sounds like Ho-ho, all right! – TSK)

 

I guess that is all for now.  I hope all is well for both of you.

 

Mike”

 

Thanks to Mike for the long message about Horatio!

 

Also, we’re glad to post the following message that came in today from Olivia’s mom, Susan. Olivia spent parts of three years at Longacres and does some serious showing in the lower New York – New Jersey region. Here’s Susan’s message:

 

Oops – the Yahoo mail server is down all of a sudden, so I will have to post Susan’s message later on.

 

We are seeing more and more down time on the yahoo email system. I wonder if it is related to their declining position in the business and possible financial problems? Maybe time to switch email services soon.

 

Aaah – Yahoo just came back online! Here is Susan’s message:

 

“Just a quick hello to all,

Meghan sorry to hear you are down with the flu. It is a real pain when you finally get away and you catch something like that.

 

Olivia says hi to all and checks the web page pretty religiously.

 

She is training at 3 ft right now but will compete 2'6 in the hunters again with hero for one last competition season. Our trainer Leslie WArd who is a very methodical and cautious instructor, (something like you Tom. actually you two could be clones except for the gender part!)  says there is much Olivia can learn from Hero in the competiton ring that she will keep forever as she moves on. It is so amazing to watch people struggle to let their children ride in this economy!!! She will go to the Kentucky Horse Park this year with him which will be the biggest show yet for her ...but not for Hero. In past years he took his owners to the Nationals in Washington in his younger years. He will not be retired in September even at the ripe old age of 23 as he loves to show and is in great health. He would be bored. Most likely there will be a line up of young riders  (and Parents) who will want him next and if he does well showing this year the lease price will probably go up for the next rider. Hero's owner, Linda Montemarrano says she now has three children, her own and Olivia who will make the final decision as to who gets Hero. Lucky for us, this year there are two fine Horses to choose from in September as two girls become College bound and their parents already own two or three horses at the barn and need to lease one out. Both can do up to 3'6 and are between 11 and 13 years of age which will be perfect for Olivia. One is owned by the owner of Hero and most likely "Skylar" will be our horse next as they only require us to pay monthly where other leases require you pay the yearly lease all at once.  Skylar already knows Olivia well as he is next door neighbors to Hero and shares carrots and stud muffins. As per Olivia, he can be a bit of a pain every once in a while. Or possibly a lovely girl's horse , whose name (the horse's not the girls's") I have forgotten and this horse's owner is a college student who also needs to lease out one of her horses and has been an incredible role model for Olivia since coming to the barn a year ago. Both horses have terrific show records.

 

So horrible about the plane tragedy in Buffalo.

 

Let us know how you are. We continue the horse riding quest!!!

Tally HO!

Susan and Olivia”

 

(Yes, we are fine – a few of you wrote worried about us, knowing that we were traveling near the time of the plane crash. Thanks for your concern. – Tom & Meghan)

 

And finally, I am pleased to report that Meghan is slowly coming back to life after losing three vacation days completely to the flu. She is able to speak again without horrible throat pain, smiles, and has an appetite! When Meghan doesn’t have any appetite, you KNOW she is sick!!!!!!!!!

 

 

February 14^th:

Happy Valentines Day to YOU!

Meghan and I are enjoying our Florida vacation this week. At least we were until the day before yesterday when Meghan came down with the flu. Bummer. But we had four great days of south Florida weather before she got sick. She is a little better today, so she’ll probably be 100% just in time to fly home and get back to work on Tuesday. Poor Meghan!

 

We send out a Longacres welcome to Carly, a new girl who will be joining us for Lazy Days week, and to Sophie, who is coming for the June 28^th session. Carly is from Rochester in western New York and is an experienced rider. She’s 13 and will be a good fit with the other girls already signed up for Lazy Days!

 

Sophie is ten and is taking the next to last spot in the younger girls bunk for her session. She is an “equine fanatic” according to her mom. That’s our kind of girl!

We now have only one spot left at Longacres between June 22 and July 29^th. That spot is for a girl age 10 to 12 from June 28 to July 12^th. We have three spots for any age between July 29^th and August 22^nd. We also have spots in the early bird clinics in June and four more during lazy Days week. Then we’ll be full for 2009.

 

Happy Birthdays to:

Kate from Montreal! Marta (tomorrow); Sanna on Monday!

 

We’ll be home in four days and available to answer your phone calls. Keep the emails coming while we are traveling!

- Tom & Meghan

 

November , 2008:

Hi everyone. This is where you’ll find Longacres “Latest News” updates from now until December 5th. We’re heading to Florida for a couple of weeks where we publish the “Boating and Cruising Guide to the St Johns River”. We have almost sold out the previous printing and we have to do some photography and research for the new edition of the book which we’ll need to print next year. Florida is also a decent place to spend some time in November! (Snow is forecast for every day of much of the coming week here in Buffalo, so we’re getting out just at the right time!)

 

We may not be at a WiFi hotspot every day while we’re traveling, but we’ll try to post an update every two or three days.

-   Tom & Meghan

-   PS – Welcome to Natasha, who has reserved a spot for the summer of 2009.

 

December 5^th, back at Longacres:

Hi everyone. We’re back at Longacres now and the latest news will be found at the usual spot on the website.

 

December 3^rd, Ocala: (horse country!)

Meghan and I are enjoying a quick visit in Florida “horse country” before heading home to the farm in East Aurora tomorrow afternoon. This has been a good trip for us, but we’ll be glad to be home at Longacres! We look forward to posting some pictures from around the farm with snow for those of you who have only been with us in the summer.

 

Greetings go out to some of the people who have contacted us in the past few days. To Linda from California who is inquiring for her 15 year old daughter; to Fiona from Washington State (this is a week for west coast customers!); to Uncle Billy, who is having a “wild” week at work; and to Katrina, Kaity, and “Kat” – Kat is a very impressive sounding 14 year old mare who might get sent to Longacres this summer to stay in shape for showing. Click this link for a picture of “Kat” over fences.

 

The Economy – Updated:

The losses in the stock market and the problems with the banking industry affect us all, of course. But on the ground, day to day, what Meghan and I see in our travels and what we hear from customers continues to give us optimism and hopes for the future. Maybe I’m feeling a little more upbeat today since we just got done with our annual visit to Disney World in Orlando. Meghan and I are huge fans, partly just for the fun of going like any other tourist, and partly for the inspiration it gives us to keep improving and upgrading things at Longacres. We’ll never be a Disney World (who could afford THAT?), but it is fun to walk around and look at all the little things and admire who well they do almost everything.

 

Anyway, back to my latest observations on the economy. During our almost three weeks of RV travel, we’ve noted that there are certainly less big RV’s on the road to and from and in Florida than most years during this season. At Disney World, Meghan and I both felt that Magic Kingdom and Epcot attendance was a little light on a Tuesday, but Animal Kingdom was jam packed from the time the gates opened in the morning. The expensive Disney owned resorts seemed busy. People are still spending money on expensive vacations, even if the over-all attendance may be down a few percentage points.

 

In our own experience at Longacres, as we have told you before, we had a strong early enrollment before the economy went into the tank in September. Then things just stopped in their tracks for us for a month or so – only a few new inquiries and nobody sending in deposit checks. But beginning in November, we are hearing from new families interested in our 2009 season and some of them are sending in deposits. We’ve been getting a new student signed up almost exactly once a week for the past month, and that’s about normal for this time of year. Longacres has good early June enrollment, but with space still available in the Pro-Clinics; Mother-Daughter week is full; the four weeks in July have only scattered vacancies for certain ages. August is half full, but there is plenty of space still. We feel good about the prospects for another very good season in 2009! Keep those inquiries coming, riders!!!!!!!

 

November 29 – heading home next week:

It’s been pleasant working down south the past week and having some real vacation time thrown in. But we’re looking forward to getting back to the farm next Thursday. Meghan and I aren’t very good at real do-nothing vacation time. We are well relaxed now and looking forward to many projects when we get home.

 

One project we’ve been busy with while we travel has been choosing all the pictures and organizing the albums for the photo DVD’s we’ll have available shortly after we get home next week. The first three album selections went pretty smoothly. There were 200 to 300 really good pictures out of all that we took for each of the June and July sessions. But now that we’re working on the August DVD, we’re really having trouble choosing the “best” pictures. We went through and eliminated all the obviously bad pictures. There are still over 2000 left! We want to choose the best and put maybe 400 to 500 on the final DVD for the August sessions. We’re going to have to make some tough decisions. Whatever we end up with, there are some great pictures!

 

Then after we produce the four DVD’s covering the summer of 2008 photography, Meghan has the even harder job of choosing the annual “Meghan’s 100 Favorites” for the website. She is dreading the process! It was hard enough for her last year when we had fewer pictures by far to choose from.

 

New Years Reunion?

Several of you have told us you are thinking about coming to visit for the December 31 – January 1^st reunion at Longacres in the snow (hopefully snow). We’ll need to know by December 15^th if you want to come and stay overnight New Year’s Eve. If fewer than three can come for the overnight, then we will only have a one day get together at the farm on Wednesday, the 31^st. Let us know during the coming two weeks if you are interested so everyone can make plans. We will be at the farm both days anyway, and welcome all visitors!

 

 

 

November 28, “Black Friday” and the Cry Baby!

Well, not us. We’re doing OK, but watching our pennies, and we won’t be buying today. But I will take this day after Thanksgiving to tell you a little story.

 

Many of you may not guess, but Tom is a cry baby. Because my job requires me to be “in control” while I’m responsible for everyone’s safety at the riding camp and for making sure things are running smoothly at all the horse shows and other special events we manage, people often tend to think of me as a bit on the aloof or cool side. But give me a touching book or movie, and no one “tears up” faster. I used up two hankies yesterday morning.

 

I woke up early on Thanksgiving and while Meghan was still sleeping I watched one of my favorite movies on HBO. It was “Grand Canyon”, with Kevin Kline, Steve Martin, and Danny Glover . It’s partly about two very different men meeting by chance and getting to know one another. But mostly it’s about helping people who are nearly strangers. Right there, you have a recipe “Tom tears”! By the time Kevin Kline arranges for Danny Glover’s sister to get a new, safer apartment, I had woken up Meghan with my sniffling. She was very worried for a moment about why I was crying until she realized what was going on and was able to tell herself, “There he goes again!” So the Longacres question of the day is, “When was the last time YOU cried over a sentimental movie or book, and what was it?”

 

That this incident occurred on Thanksgiving morning was especially appropriate. Meghan and I always spend a good part of our Thanksgiving days talking with each other about the many good things and good people we have in our lives that we are thankful for. Always, if you have good health, that is high on the list. I’m of an age where that is especially true. I think I wrote in this Blog a couple of months ago about my “false alarm” heart incident. I woke up in the middle of the night with a strong chest pain, which turned out to be nothing more than heartburn or someth