It was a very successful year for RSF horses!

USDF Horse of the Year Placings with Rolling Stone Farm offspring:

Somer Hit (Sandro Hit/EM Rhussia): 2nd HOY USEF 4 year old 8.1 median score

Saphira aka Rhomance (Florencio/Chairman): 2nd HOY 1st level, 1st All Breeds for GOV 1st level with a 76.061%

Fhitzgerald: 27th HOY 1st level, 6th All Breeds for GOV 1st level with a 71.143%

Shakespeare RSF:  20th HOY 2nd level, 4th All Breeds for AHS 2nd level with a 68.710%

Ghardener:  8th All Breeds AHS 1st level 69.737%, 17th All Breeds AHS 2nd level 63.524%, 25th HOY 2nd level Musical freestyle and 5th All breeds AHS 2nd level Musical freestyle with a 67.812%

Me (Maurine [Mo] Swanson):  5th USEF Dressage Horse Breeder of the Year, 7th USDF Dressage Horse Breeder of the Year and 23rd USEF Dressage Horse Owner of the Year

Shakespeare RSF won the Region 1 GAIG finals for second level with a score of 69.524%, and Fhitzgerald was also successful at the show.  Shakespeare, Fhitzgerald and John Lee Amber were unbelievable at the show.  It was a long way to travel, but the show was well run and the facility was wonderful.  We made some new friends and saw some old friends at the show.  Shakespeare showed a trot that gave me chills down my spine in the awards ceremony.  He looked like an FEI horse in such a beautiful, expressive collected trot and then John let him show off an extended trot that was unbelievable.  It gave me a glimpes at the FEI horse he will become in the future.  He and John also placed 1st in a third level test 2 class with a 67.692%.  They were 2nd in 2nd level test 4 66.667%, and 6th in 2nd level test 4 with a 63.571%.
Fhitzgerald did not do his best test of the year for his GAIG finals class at 1st level, but still managed a 66.842% for 7th place.  They were also 3rd in 1st 4 with a 70.0%, 3rd in 2nd 1 with 63.158%, 4th in 2nd 3 with 58.372% and 4th in 1st 4 with 68.684%.
Now we are finished showing for the year, but John and Shakespeare were chosen to be a demo rider/horse team for the Young Dressage Horse Symposium at Hassler Dressage on Nov. 18-21, riding in front of Dr. Ulf Mueller, the rider of Shakespeare's sire, Sandro Hit.  John learned a lot, Ulf Mueller loved Shakespeare and complimented him on his rideability.  He said that his gaits are an 8 right now, and he gave John exercises to make them 9's.  John was very inspired and honored to have been chosen to ride at this wonderful learning venue.  Thank you Hassler Dressage and the Malones who made this possible.

We brought two mares to the Mid Atlantic Hanoverian Breeders inspection and mare performance test in November.  We returned with two more Elite Mare Candidates, and Lhuau was named the high score mare for her inspection.  She was in fact the high scoring mare of the three divisions of mares presented over two days.  It was the largest inspection and MPT that the American Hanoverian Society has ever held.

At the VADA Fall Competition October 21-24, Shakespeare and Fhitzgerald didn't have their best goes in the BLM Finals classes, but both horses moved up a level in the Open Show and did really well.  It was Shakespeare's first time EVER doing third level, tests 2 & 3!

Shakespeare: 

2nd level BLM Finals class:  4th place, 65.349%

2nd level, test 3:  6th place, 64.651%

2nd level, test 3:  2nd place, 64.884%

3rd level, test 2: 1st place, 63.333%

3rd level, test 3: 1st place, 63.488%

3rd level, test 2: 1st place, 64.103%

3rd level, test 3: 2nd place, 62.791% (one error- oops!)

Fhitzgerald:

1st level BLM Finals class: 7th place, 67.286%

1st level, test 3: 1st place, 71.143%

2nd level, test 4: 2nd place, 60.238%

2nd level, test 3: 8th place, 60.698%

2nd level, test 4: 3rd place, 64.524%

At the same show, one of my "babies", Ghalileo (Gold Luck/Poppaea) , owned and ridden by his owner Jan Templeton was 2nd in 2nd level test 1 with a 60.526%.

Ghypsy (Gold Luck/EM Dew Berry) won the AHS Mare Performance Test at Garner Creek farm in Ranger, TX with a 7.76.  She received a 9 for her jumping, 8 on her gaits and 7 for rideability.  She is owned and was ridden by Peggy Sue Blair of OK.