FARM NEWS
5th ANNUAL STERLING GRABURN CLINIC HELD IN MAY
Annually in May, while en route to the Bromont Can-Am FEI Driving Trials in Quebec, Sterling Graburn travels from Florida to Rough Terrain Farm to conduct a four-day pleasure and competitive carriage driving clinic. Sterling is the highest ranking North American to compete in the 2006 World Driving Championships held in Pratori, Italy. He will return to Rough Terrain Farm again in May, 2008, to conduct the 6th annual clinic.
Pictured below are Jean Harvey of Enfield, NH, driving her Morgan-cross mare, Diamond Ally on right, and Marcy Bear of East Calais, VT, driving her Fjord gelding, Hertel.
STERLING GRABURN AT BROMONT
Following the clinic, Sterling Graburn traveled to Bromont Quebec to compete High Country Doc, a Morgan stallion owned by June Kingsley of Florida, in the Bromont Can-Am FEI Driving Trials held in Quebec, May 25-27, 2007. Sterling placed first in the marathon and third overall in the FEI advanced pony single division. Leslie made the trek to watch two days of the event. Here Sterling drives into the steps obstacle with his navigator Wendy Ying DVM, during the marathon phase.
NATALIE & WILD WEED
Barn manager & assistant trainer Natalie Jarnis works with Wild Weed, a registered Haflinger gelding owned by Gretchen Wetzel of Lyme, NH. Weed has been at the farm since April for training under saddle and is making great strides in his basic dressage work.
SACKING OUT
Jesse, a 4 year-old black Percheron
mare, recently purchased by Jame Buss III, is at Rough Terrain Farm to get started under saddle. In preparation, Leslie gives Jesse a good sacking out in the round pen, using towels, black plastic, and garbage bags filled with tin cans, to help despook her.
BRIDLING BEAU
Trudy Grussinger, 11, of Bethel, Vermont, works with Natalie to unbridle Beau after her riding lesson.
A HARNESS CONSULT
Cher Griffin of Griffin Brook Ltd, in Alston, NH, came to Rough Terrain Farm to help outfit Lucky, a 7 year old Shetland gelding owned by Evelyn Grau, before heading to his new home in Warm Springs, VA. Both have been at the farm training with Leslie in preparation to go solo.
ALLEGRA WALTERS WINS AQHA JUSTIN ROOKIE OF THE YEAR YOUTH AWARD FOR VERMONT
Everyone at Rough Terrain Farm congratulates Allegra Walters of Randolph Center, Vermont, on her very successful 2006 show season! She is the recipient of the acclaimed AQHA Justin Rookie of the Year Youth Award for Vermont, an award that Leslie's daughter, Jessica Stewart, won in 2000. Allegra began her riding instruction at Rough Terrain Farm seven years ago. She continues to train at the farm where she boards her Quarter Horse, Zipped on Heir, or Cisco for short
Allegra was honored at the 2007 Annual Banquet for the Vermont Quarter Horse Association, an affiliate of the American Quarter Horse Association held on January 20 at the Capital Plaza in Montpelier. Walters received Champion awards for VQHA Novice Youth Performance, VQHA Novice Youth Showmanship, AQHA Novice Youth Performance, and AQHA Youth Showmanship. She was awarded Reserve Champion for VQHA Youth Halter, VQHA Youth Performance, AQHA Youth Performance, and AQHA Youth Showmanship; and she received third place for Riding Hours and fourth place for AQHA Youth Halter.
The summer of 2006 was Walters’s third show season with her gelding Zipped on Heir, and she showed at American Quarter Horse Association shows in Massachusetts, New York, New Hampshire, and Vermont. Back in 2000, she riding English equitation, however, her areas of interest now include Western horsemanship, hunt seat equitation, showmanship, halter, trail and Western pleasure.
VERMONT COUNTRY SAMPLER- APRIL, 2006
Training Horse and Rider at Rough Terrain Farm
by Charles Sutton
This horse training and boarding facility may be named Rough Terrain Farm, but watching the horses in the pastures or getting their work-outs, one can easily see the gentle, caring treatment they enjoy.
The horse farm is set on 100 acres among rolling, open fields in Randolph Center, VT. On the day we visited, several horses were out for an early spring day in the paddocks near the indoor arena.
Owner-trainer Leslie Haynes said that riding the horses in the open fields isn’t safe yet because of frost heaves. In the meantime lessons are given in the large, enclosed 85- by 140-foot indoor arena. The farm also features an outdoor ring and a quarter-mile track for training race horses.
Leslie has been involved with caring for and training horses since childhood. Her happiest moments come when she is able to match the right horse to the right person. “If it isn’t a good experience, the person may decide not to have a horse at all.”
Leslie’s expertise is in the area of ‘natural horsemanship’ which involves understanding and relating to the horse’s natural behavior. She senses what motivates them and how they communicate, and what their needs are. These techniques really help when she has to retrain or re-school (or rescue) a problem horse that has been mistreated, often by an insensitive trainer.
One senses that Leslie has the touch with all animals. Two pet house cats, Sprocket and Daphne, are also barn cats. They ride every morning from her nearby home to spend the day at the barn and then back into the car to hitch a ride home at night. No muddy paws here. “The cats hop in the car without a cat cage,” she said. “Even to the veterinarian’s!”
As a British Horse Society certified riding instructor, Leslie offers private lessons in basic horsemanship, long lining, pleasure and competitive carriage driving, dressage, and beginner to advanced English and Western equitation for both children and adults.
One of her training techniques is ‘round penning’ whereby the horse goes through a five-step process based on obedience, trust and leadership ending up with the horse accepting the trainer as ‘herd leader.”
The horses being trained also are ‘bomb proofed’ through a process that introduces them to a wide variety of sights and sounds that ordinarily would cause them to shy away or startle.
One of Leslie’s star pupils is 13-year-old Allegra Walters of Randolph Center, who started lessons with her when she was seven. Since then Allegra and her quarter horse gelding Zipped-on-Heir have been consistent winners at Vermont Quarter Horse Association competitions. Among her many championships are Quarter Horse Halter Gelding and Youth Western Pleasure Classes. On our visit, Allegra put her horse through his paces. Particularly impressive was how she got the horse to back up gently with hardly a gesture.
Leslie purchased the property 15 years ago, and built all the facilities from the ground up. In addition to training and lessons, the farm has boarding facilities for 24 horses.
Rough Terrain Farm is located at 634 Bedor Rd., Randolph Center, VT. Contact Leslie Haynes at (802) 728-5945 or (802) 279-5945. www.RoughTerrainFarm.com.
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