Musings on The Fork CIC

This past weekend I had the good fortune to attend The Fork CIC 3 Star in North Carolina. It was a much anticipated trip and with my gal pals Wendy and Vicki we were off to the airport at 4:15 am!

We arrived bleary eyed (at least I was) but were greeted by warm sunny skies, much better than the cold rain back home in PA. It was a who's who of riders and it was fun to see so many up close, many wearing their barn's "team" jacket. It was an impressive turnout of riders, many using it as a final outing before Rolex. The Fork is an amazing farm and the turf used for the cross country was foot perfect, due to it being maintained all year for this event. To have the opportunity to gallop across the fields is a special one and I can see why riders look forward to competing there. Canadian Team rider Rebecca Howard is lucky to have this as her farm to work out of!

Unfortunately the cold and rainy weather in Pennsylvania found us as Saturday dawned cloudy, cold and damp. Not the weather we were expecting but good for the horses. We walked cross country on Friday in order to avoid the crowd of thousands that we heard were coming in for Saturday. That would be the crowd that never materialized. Maybe they were at the Azalea Festival along with the wine bar that was supposed to be on course? Disappointing, but the lack of spectators meant we were able to claim an unused tent right next to the water complex as our own "VIP" section. It was a real treat to be able to see so many quality horses and riders gallop through the water complex and the good ones made it look easy.

Five Star rider Doug Payne and Camerlingo. Doug has one of the best riding styles out there and dare I say George Morris would love his following hand!

Phillip Dutton on Isabella, a beautiful jumping mare.

Five Star rider Kristin Schmolze on Castle Jordan getting their season underway.

The really interesting part was watching chef d'equipe Capt. Mark Phillips, "The Captain" observing the riders as he was often parked right in front of us. We quickly found out who was on his list to watch. If you were an important rider than he would speed past us on his golf cart to watch as much of the ride as possible. For a somewhat important rider he would slowly drive from one side of the water complex to see the rider as they looped back past the water complex and well, let's just say if you weren't important you didn't get a passing glance. 

"The Captain" between fly-bys. Is he catching a nap? 

Sunday dawned gray again but we were in for another display of good riding. It was show jumping day for the two star and three star riders. It was a classic Sally Ike designed course with alot of turning and technical questions. You needed not just a horse with good jumping style but one who's stride was easily adjustable. You can tell many of the riders are getting coaching from show jumping riders. At the end of the day it was Jennie Brannigan and Cambalda who won the three star. Doug and Camerlingo won one of the Intermediate divisions which I believe was the horse's first outing at that level!

Doug and Camerlingo on their way to a win in the Intermediate division! Camerlingo is wearing Five Star Tack's Chelsea bridle and Five Point breastplate. 

It is a shame though that more people don't come out to these big events as there is so much that can be learned from watching good riding. When you think of what it costs to audit a clinic with a big name rider the cost of admission to one of these events is nominal. There is always something more we can learn. Ask any one of these riders and they will tell you they are constantly working to improve their riding. Watching the skill of many of these riders and horses should inspire all of us to learn more and ride better no matter what level we ride at.

I love this shot of Tiana Coudray and Ringwood Magister. He has the most gorgeous tail!

We were sad to see our weekend end so quickly but as they say, "time flies when you're having fun!"

Let's just say what happens at The Fork stays at The Fork!

Next stop, Jersey Fresh!

Catching up with Five Star Riders

As the snow and cold weather of this winter begin to lessen, the competition season is heating up! Those riders fortunate to head South for the winter are either in Aiken, Ocala or Wellington. Amanda Flint is in Ocala with her jumpers as well as her clients and both are having a very good circuit at HITS. Amanda always has a promising string of young horses in training and they have all had top placings in the young jumper classes so far. You will be sure to see some of these horses at the top of the year end Young Jumper and Jumper Futurity standings. Chinedine PPZ, Marquis, Ladonna, Super G and Super Bad have all successfully moved up to the next level of Young Jumper competition with two wins each for Marquis and Ladonna. In addition Texas Hold Em has had wins in both the meter forty and meter forty five prixe!

The two competitions in every advanced level event rider's mind this year are the PanAm Games and the 2012 Olympics. Doug Payne has two very promising horses that he is carefully aiming towards these two events. After winning virtually every Preliminary level event he contested last year, Crown Talisman has moved up to the Intermediate level and is making it look easy. The Pan Am Games are a two star level (Intermediate) competition and I think Doug and "Tali" will be top contenders for the US team! Doug's other star Running Order has just started his competition season after a successful trip to last year's Boekelo Three Star Event in Holland as part of the US squad. While maybe not as naturally gifted as Tali, "RO" is a game and gutsy horse and has been steadily improving his dressage. If you've ever watched the advanced level dressage test, you know it's not easy for an event horse! Doug is hoping to complete a Four Star event at the end of the season, with an eye on the London Olympics. As one of the busier riders on the eventing circuit, Doug always has several young horses he is bringing along and finishing in the top standings with. Doug is always mindful of how his horses are feeling and always puts their needs first even if it means not winning on that day. I hope the eventing "Gods" will bless Doug with good luck this year!

Meanwhile, Kristin Schmolze is waiting to hear back to see if her entry was accepted for the Badminton CCI Four Star! Kristin and Cavaldi were third at last year's Fair Hill International Three Star Championships. She and "Joey" have successfully contested Rolex Kentucky and Burghley and it has been a dream of hers to compete at Badminton. How cool is it to have that dream and have it become reality! While he can be fresh in the dressage, Joey excels on cross country and I always enjoy watching him go as you can see how much he loves going cross country. He is not a big horse but he makes those massive jumps look easy! I am keeping my fingers crossed for them to get to go to Badminton.

Kate Samuels, our youngest Five Star rider, had a very successful entry into the advanced level last year with Nyls du Terrior and she is just getting started with this season. They had a very good first outing last week at Pine Top at the Intermediate level. Kate and Nyls have climbed the levels together and she hopes to one day ride Nyls in the Rolex Kentucky CCI Four Star. She will spend this year getting more mileage at the Advanced level with Nyls. Kate was named to the "B" list of the Developing Riders program and will benefit from training with Team Coach Mark Phillips.

Five Star Tack has a new eventing rider that we will be sponsoring beginning this Spring. I'll have more about that soon.

That's it for now. I hope wherever you are the sun is shining and it's a good day to ride!

AETA Wrap Up

While it's been a snowy winter, the weather cooperated just long enough for the AETA trade show. When you think of the money spent to have a booth along with the hours spent organizing everything for the trade show, the last thing you want is a blizzard! Fortunately Murphy's Law was not in effect for the weekend but sure enough, the second the show was over another storm barreled in.

After a not so great show back in August I was really looking forward to this time as I was in a prime location. Being put in "Western World" the last time was the kiss of death. Instead of potential customers I got people asking me to either stamp their Western Passport, or why I wound up there. To say I was demoralized was an understatement but, as they say nothing happens by chance and perhaps I just wasn't ready for prime time. Lucky for me, this time that was not the case and I have to thank the people at Hopper Expositions for remembering what happened and making things right.

It was great to be able to show the tack to so many people and to articulate the passion I have for what I do and for what the company stands for. To have people come up and tell you the good things they have heard about the tack and the charity work Five Star does makes me think I am on the right track. The best comment was from someone who I asked what new and exciting things they had seen and they said, "your bridles". Thank you!

While I sometimes felt like I was at a pony club inspection, I enjoyed being peppered with questions about the construction of the tack. The Wembley integrated crown hunter bridle was very popular along with the Ascot figure eight. The new halter was ordered and the new Symphony bridles sold as well. I was not going to bring the Signature elastic breastplate with me as that is one of the eventing pieces but I was glad I did as everyone who placed an order purchased a few of them. So all in all a very successful outing! 

So at the end of a long day of standing and with adrenaline running on empty what do you do? You go across the aisle to visit your neighbor for their cosmos and crudites happy hour! 

While there wasn't much time to walk around and see the many vendors what I can tell you is that performance fabrics are in. I saw alot of this at the Spoga show last fall and it's really taken off over here.   Ariat had a huge presence and were debuting the sneaker style riding boot that they had at Spoga. I wonder how it will sell as the Nike and Tretorn boots of a few years back never took off. There were lots of saddles with interesting accent stitching and new styles of helmets with their own design accents. 

It was interesting to note that the quality of the strap good leather of many companies has gone down hill. I touch EVERYTHING and I was surprised by some of the companies cutting corners in this area. This is one area where Five Star Tack shines as I had so many store owners bemoan the fact that it is getting harder to buy quality bridles because of all the cheap quality leather being used. The tack stores know this but I wonder if the average consumer is aware of what they are buying. It puts the stores in a difficult spot because buyers too often look at the price and don't know what it costs to make a top quality bridle so it forces the stores to buy down in quality. Fortunately I think our Symphony line will give those stores a quality alternative. Plus with our fresh and unique designs it brings some life back to store displays as the bridle designs displayed by many companies at AETA was a total yawn. 

I am very thankful to the tack stores that signed on to become dealers of our products!  I look forward to growing the number of dealers selling Five Star Tack but will limit the number of stores so that each dealer feels they can differentiate themselves from other stores. If one of these stores is near you I hope you will support them. 

Bit of Heaven Tack Shop, Collegeville PA; Bits of Tack, Boyertown, PA; DaMoor's Feed & Tack, Glendale, CA; The Tack Box, Middleburg, VA; Green Valley Tack, Pine Island, NY; Alta Hills Tack, Sandy, UT; Gallops Saddlery, Tigard, OR; Unionville Saddle Shop, Unionville, PA; and Barrington Saddlery, Barrington, IL. 

The above tack stores will be carrying Five Star's hunter/jumper bridles, dressage bridle, the Symphony line as well as strap goods. These items can be viewed at fivestartack.us. We will put you in contact with one of our dealers if the item you want is not available near you. 

Five Star's eventing bridles and strap goods will be carried and sold direct to consumers on fivestartack.com as well as at select eventing competitions during the year. 

Thank you for reading this far as it is a long post but there is always something new and exciting going on here. Next up, two new initiatives with proceeds going to the charities Five Star Tack supports! 

New Products!

One of the best things about designing tack is getting to see the finished product! These are the latest additions to our product line and arrived today. Some will only be available through tack stores, some will be available on the Five Star website and some need a bit more tweaking to get them just right. These are also the first photos of our new Symphony line of bridles. Symphony bridles are made with Wickett&Craig American leather and are a moderately priced option for the rider who likes the quality of our Five Star bridles but needs a more affordable option.

This is the updated version of our popular Chelsea bridle. The cross straps are padded as well as raised with fancy stitching. It is super sharp looking and will be available on our website.

 Above is a new breastcollar design we are working on. It needs a little tweaking as it is not quite fancy enough yet although I do like the cross. As popular as the Five Points are, alot of riders use this type of breastcollar. It is just hard to find an all leather one hence why we are making one. It will be up to the task of performing under all conditions and look good at the same time!

 This is a BLACK Wembley HUNTER bridle we made up for a customer along with a matching standing martingale. It was purchased for a black horse and I think it is going to look stunning! I applaud this rider for not being afraid to have her own look in the hunter ring. The Wembley hunter bridle with integrated crown is available through tack stores.

This dressage girth is what I've been waiting for! It is so much nicer than what the picture shows. It is beautifully stitched and features our silver cross with raised padding underneath. The white stitching really enhances it although dressage purists may not go for it.

This is our new hunter girth. It is softly padded and has a ring to attach training aids. Available through tack stores.

This is a totally luxe halter and lead for the horse who has everything! It is quite pricey made up with Sedgwick's leather but I will try to source out a different leather to keep the price down. The crown strap is padded and has fancy stitching on top. The noseband is padded and raised with fancy stitching. The cross piece is what really sets this halter apart. The fittings are solid brass. The matching lead has a loop handle that is padded and has an embossed cross on it. As pretty as this halter is it is built tough to withstand what we all know horses can do!

New dressage bridle for the tack stores. It has all black stitching and buckle end cheeks with an integrated crown. We will have a different version of this on the Five Star site that will be the redo for the Magnolia bridle as we have had alot of requests to bring it back.

This is one of our new Symphony bridles made from Wickett & Craig American leather making it a more affordable option for buyers who like our designs but cannot afford the pricier Sedgwick bridles. It features an integrated crown, attached flash and white accent stitching. The final version will have buckle end cheeks instead of the hook stud shown here. Available in tack stores only.

Another Symphony bridle, this is our jumper bridle with integrated crown. The cross straps are padded and raised and the rings are padded behind. I think this one is going to be popular. This one gets its own look as the nosedisk is a bit different from our Five Star bridles. Tack stores only.

There will also be a Symphony hunter bridle with matching standing martingale but I am still waiting on it. Tack stores only.

I am looking forward to showing these new products at the upcoming AETA trade show! As always I appreciate your feedback on these and any of our products.

Let's Get The Ball Rollin'!

The New Year always seems to start off with a bang for me and for the last several years not in a good way. As I watched Snooki (yes, that Snooki) being lowered to the Seaside Heights Boardwalk I decided that this year was going to be different as there are many good things happening and one of those good things is Five Star Tack.

Never content to sit still, we have a number of new things coming up in the next few months. The biggest shift will be in our website presence. As we grow our reach into more tack stores the inevitable conflict of interest between selling to both brick and mortar stores and selling direct to customers becomes an issue and a constraining one at that. Starting February, after the AETA winter trade show, Five Star will be debuting a dealer only website featuring our hunter bridles with matching strap goods plus our new dressage bridle, a new moderately priced line of bridles and our new girth and halter!

Speaking of girths and halters, I have seen the samples of these and they are nothing short of gorgeous! They incorporate Five Star's celtic cross and elastic colors and are totally luxe. I am confident they will be a big hit with the tack stores. These items along with our hunter bridles will be available only through tack stores and hence will no longer be listed on the Five Star Tack website.

That leaves me to concentrate on developing the eventing and jumper side of the business on the current Five Star Tack website which I enjoy because it allows me to be more creative with the design process. Our Chelsea bridle will have a new figure eight design, the Ascot will have an integrated crown option and we will have a new version of our old Magnolia bridle that will have a narrower noseband and for those dressage purists all black stitching! There is also a new rein that we hope is popular with eventing riders for cross country as well as a leather breastcollar and hunting breastplate.

We are committed to recognizing the amateur rider and will be continuing our sponsorship of the USEA's Training Level 3 Day Series. We will also be targeting those eventing competitions that have a large amateur attendance for sponsorship as well. Going forward though, Five Star Tack, has to be more selective in sponsorship of riders and competitions. It is a great concept to try to help out any time a sponsorship opportunity presents itself but in the end it is just not realistic nor does it make good business sense. It's nice to be nice but it's not nice when you are broke in the end!

That said, there is one opportunity I stumbled upon just recently that I think has some real importance. Five Star Tack made a donation of thirty five bridles to the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation and CANTER USA to be used in their retraining programs of retiring thoroughbred racehorses. There is quite a great need for tack for these horses and I imagine with similar organizations working to rescue, retrain and find homes for various horses; more than I thought. In order to make a greater impact Five Star is looking into developing a program to accept donations of used bridles and strap goods to then be sent to an organization that is in need. By organization I mean a registered charity as I made that mistake once this year and I don't think the money went where it was supposed to go! Georgina Bloomberg does this with The Rider's Closet, an organization she established to accept used riding clothes that are then provided to riders who can't afford to buy show clothes. We are just at the idea point right now so if anyone has any suggestions I am open to them.

It is great to look back at 2010 and the many fun times I had at all the competitions, especially Burghley, but it's even greater to be able to look forward to the positive things that are out there on the horizon. Let's get this party started!

p.s. here are two links to articles about the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation and one of the facilities that is receiving Five Star bridles.
http://www.trfinc.org/From-Rags-To-Riches-c109.html

http://www.trfinc.org/c15/Center-Brook-Horses-Start-School-c93.html

Five Star's New Hunter Bridles!

With the season winding down for both horse showing and eventing I decided to focus this time on some of our products since the holidays will be here before you know it! While Five Star Tack is better known in the eventing and jumper disciplines, it was actually the hunter bridle market that provided the "light bulb moment" to start designing tack. Instead of making another copy cat brand, it was my goal to design a top quality bridle, with it's own look and identity. After seeing the many similar looking bridles on the market and the slide in quality I knew there was a niche Five Star Tack could create.

Five Star currently offers four hunter bridles which are either new to our product line or have gone through revision this year so that our bridles reflect the varying needs of today's hunter rider. The Piccadilly bridle is designed with a narrower browband and noseband and provides a refined look. Our Wembley bridle has the same features as the Piccadilly but has an integrated crown. For those horses with more prominent features the Hickory bridle has a wider noseband and browband. It is also a great look for those riders who like today's wide noseband bridles. Lastly, for those riders who like a quieter look, the Kensington bridle is similar to the Piccadilly but without the fancy stitch.

If your horse is hard to fit we can special order any part to give your horse the best fitting bridle. In addition, the Hickory bridle can be special ordered without fancy stitching and can be ordered with an attached flash. Our standard colors are Australian Nut and Conker Brown but other colors can be special ordered. We can offer you the closest bridle to custom without the custom price!



Kensington Square Raised Hunter Bridle

To sum up the features of our Five Star Hunter bridles, the bridles are constructed so that the raised portions are made with leather not the short cut of using plastic. The leather is skived down only the length of the padded portion whereas other brands skive the entire length of either the browband or noseband leaving a long seal that needs to be glued. The majority of each bridle is made by hand, including stitching and finishing. They are also finished one at a time, not in batches. No matter where you look on the bridle, the stitching is straight and even. This is where a lot of companies cut corners as they figure since you don't see the underside of the bridle, it's okay for the stitching to be crooked.



Wembley Integrated Crown Hunter Bridle

Feedback from customers and fellow riders has been overwhelmingly positive and has helped target the direction of the product line. The tack stores that have seen the bridles are excited to see a new, different looking product and one that is top quality. Look for our hunter bridles to be in better tack shops in 2011!

The latest items we are working on are halters, leads, belts and possibly a second, lower priced line. There is a lot of work to be done before the next AETA industry trade show in January!

Piccadilly Fancy Stitch Hunter Bridle


Hickory Wide Noseband Bridle

Plantation Field Wrap-Up

I had the pleasure of being at The Plantation Field CIC*** and Horse Trials this past weekend and believe me it was a pleasure as the weather couldn't have been any better! Plantation is located in Unionville, PA which is home to Bruce Davidson and Mr. Stewart's Cheshire Foxhounds, so real horse country. There are rolling hills as far as the eye can see and anyone who lives in the area is certainly lucky!

The event is first class all the way and the organizing staff has worked very hard to make it a destination event. The vendor tents were ideally located next to the warm up areas and overlooked the cross country course. The VIP tent and dressage and show jumping rings were all nearby as well which provided a steady stream of traffic all weekend. The organizers also do a great job of recognizing all the sponsors and vendors which has not been the case at some of the venues I've been at this year.


Doug and Running Order
Anyway, onto the good stuff. Doug Payne was there on Running Order in the three star, Crown Talisman in the one star and his new horse Simon Slick running his first preliminary. Kristin Schmolze had Cavaldi and Castle Jordan in the three star and Ballylaffin Bracken in the two star. Lastly, Kate Samuels was making her third outing at the Advanced Level on Nyls du Terrior. All three riders had an impressive weekend!

Kristin and Cavaldi

Doug was second in the one star on Crown Talisman. This pair has had a very successful season with a win in the one star at The Stuart Horse Trials and a win at the recent American Eventing Championships in the most competitive field and finishing on a score of 24.2! He was ninth with Running Order in the three star. "RO" had a couple of green moments on cross country but finished the course strong and had one rail in show jumping. The exciting news is that with the consistent results this pair has had this year, Doug has received a grant from the USEF to compete at the Boekelo three star in Holland in October!

Kristin had her three horses including her veteran partner Cavaldi. Cavaldi has been there and done that, having competed at Burghley a few years back as well as Rolex three times. While he can get hot in the dressage he is a machine on cross country and the bigger the jumps, the happier he is! He has a zest for jumping and is my favorite to watch. The pair wound up in fourth in the Three Star. She also had a very good run on Castle Jordan but an unusual stop in show jumping knocked them down to eighth. On Ballylaffin Bracken she finished up in tenth with a careful cross country round and one rail in show jumping. The really neat thing is Kristin won the Best Conditioned Award with not one but TWO horses, Ballylaffin Bracken and Cavaldi! This is very impressive and as Pete Blauner the FEI Vet told me, "Kristin knows how to get her horses fit and keep them in one piece." To win this award with two horses is testament to Kristin and her team for their expert care and riding.

This is what "Best Conditioned" looks like!

Kate and Nyls are a new and promising pair at the Advanced Level and they had their best finish to date! While their dressage is a work in progress, Nyls is a bold and scopey jumper on both cross country and in show jumping. They easily cruised around cross country and put in one of the few clear show jumping rounds to finish in fourth place!

Kate and Nyls

It wouldn't be Planation Field without the bareback puissance and this year, well let's just say it was more like bare chested puissance courtesy of Doug Payne! Doug was knocked out early in the competition (beat by the girls no less!) and after begging to get back into the competition he was told what he needed to do. Being the competitor that he is he happily obliged to the roar of the crowd! Thank God it didn't get past that!


So all in all a very fun and entertaining weekend. Our new bridle styles were well received and it was a good weekend for Five Star! On to Fair Hill in October which will be the last event of the season.