Brittany A Winner

Soon to be 16 years old Brittany Jernigan, an employee of The Compass Rose Farm, took 20th place at the Future Farmers of America State Horse Judging Contest and finished 1st place among all Riverdale High School competitors. Great job Brittany…

Latest Fun Show

Need A Hand Training hosted a rain make-up day Fun Show this past Saturday and as usual it was fun and a competitive. There are two more competitions scheduled before high points winners will be announced, Oct 22nd and Nov 15th. I have included pictures of most of the first place winners (I wasn’t able to stay until the end because the Tennessee was playing Florida and I couldn’t miss it, although in the end, UT lost).

 

 

 

Feathered Friends 6

This bird has a range that spans the globe; I’ve even seen them during my time in Iraq and Afghanistan. If stare directly at these birds they will not move. Unless given assistance, these birds will remain in one location. They tend to frequent gardens, theme parks and bars. They also make great pets and require little if any care.

The Common Yard Flamingo

This is Weird

Looks like alien pods have landed in one of our pastures, and note how they begin to form a circle (look close at the darker grass circle). I hope this wasn’t an invasion of the body snatchers - I may not really be me.

Good Luck Charm

The moss (or whatever it is) growing in our pond formed a horse shoe, must be a sign…

Sunshine Going Postal

Cowboy Mounted Shooting

Before heading to the local Better Business Bureau Tailgate party at the Middle Tennessee State University/Georgia Tech game, we went to Miller Coliseum to watch the Eastern Regional Finals of the Cowboy Mounted Shooting Association. If you have never been to one of these events you need to go. The action seems non-stop even though winning rides last no more than 11 seconds or better. Mounted shooting isa combination of pole bending, barrel racing, pistol target shooting and western period interpretation (period clothing required). We were fortunate enough to get to see Outlaw Annie Bianco compete and win her class. In fact, I believe she had the best time, male or female, all day.

Outlaw Annie

Feathered Friends 5

In early Spring, this Great Blue Heron begins showing up in our ponds. He visits for three to four months and then heads further north. Some days this bird is very cautious of our presence and on others could care less that we are around. They build platform type nests of large sticks lined with finer material in trees nearby the lakes, rivers and ponds where they hunt; however, to date we haven’t been able to find a nest nearby.

 

 

 

Thanks

Just want to take a minute to praise our farrier. Leslie Jones is not just our farrier but our friend. Today was one of those crap days: high winds, blowing rain, temps 40 degrees lower than just three days ago, but Les trudged on. Regardless of the weather, he never misses an appointment. On top of that, he has made many “non-emergency” runs to our place. I felt compelled to blog this today because Les must have gotten hit in the eye six times today by horses’ swishing tails, and that is painful.  He and his wife Becky are good people and we are lucky to have them as friends and Les as our farrier.

Celebration

We had a great night out at the Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration. If you are a Walking Horse fan, this is the place to be. To top things off, we sat with Jeanie and her sister Pat in their box seats, great view of the show and a great place to mingle with like minded people – horse people. Besides the amazing horse and rider teams competing for top dollar purses, we also saw an exibition of four different gaited mules, one was actually a racking Mule and a sight to see.

The highlight of the evening was watching Shelby Finch receive an award for a creative slide show presentation. Way to go Shelby!!!

 

 

Shelby's proud mom, Lori

More photos at the Photo tab.

The Little Things

People are always saying “slow down and notice the little things.” So that’s what i’m going to do, and if at all possible, with camera in hand. I’m going to start posting pictures under the Post title “The Little Things”, I hope you enjoy them, some are pretty neat…

Mushrooms pop up in manure piles

Foggy Mornings

TEAM NAH Practice

Team NAH (Need-A-Hand) is really starting to take shape. We have a total of  10 team members, four middle school and six high school girls. The first competition will be held October 30th in Crosseville, Tennessee, so we have a lot of work to do. But from my perspective the individuals on the team look great and will be more than ready when the event roles around. I know The Compass Rose Farm is proud to sponsor Team NAH. Practice is held every Sunday (3:30pm)) and Monday (7:00pm) at Need-A-Hand Training Barn in Murfreesboro. Pictures from Sunday’s practice can be found at the photo tab. Please come out and visit the team during practice, they would love the support. Speaking of support, we are always looking for sponsors to donate funds to help defray our operational costs, such as uniforms and travel.

Team NAH is a member of the Interscholastic Equine Association.

 

More With Harley & Killian

"Hey, let me ask you something."

"Does it bother you when I do this?"

"Huh, does it?"

"Uh yeah, it does....slam"

Feathered Friend 4

This was an unusual sighting for us. Over several days a Green Heron (Butorides striatus) visited our pond. He normally came in the morning and fed on Dragon Flies. He would linger for hours between the pond and the tree line. Although, we dont see this bird often, it is considered a common site in ponds throughout the Eastern US.

If you look closely you can see a dragon fly in his mouth