Summertime and the living is... sweaty. But successful, with lots of big ribbons to show for it, and lots of great events on our horizon. We've got lots to tell you, so read on to hear all about it!

Team Sprieser came, saw and conquered at our June shows. A big group went to VADA/NOVA's Morven Show, and Abe Pugh won pretty much everything there was to win, both aboard Alice Drayer's Elfenperfekt in the High Performance Grand Prix, and on Elaine Warner's two developing horses, Rintse at Prix St. Georges and Ghoster at Training Level. Patricia Vos had a stellar debut into recognized dressage competition aboard Corino, Jodie Harney had an excellent non-compete outing, and Beth Zielinski won all the First Level things with such great success I've finally convinced her to move on to Second at the next show! And The Elvis Syndicate's Guernsey Elvis and I won our Grand Prix freestyle debut on almost 76%. As ever, a huge thank you to our supporters and Syndicate members who make it all possible!

We were small but mighty the following weekend at Culpeper, but Abe and Pistol continued their winning ways, and Heather Richards is advancing towards mastery of the Third Level work on her own wonderful Halle. Read on for the highlights!

Here's a sampling of our results:

VADA/NOVA SUMMER DRESSAGE

Abe Pugh & Elaine Warner's Ghostster

1st Place Training 3, 70.517

Abe Pugh & Elaine Warner's Rintse Van De Marne

1st Place Prix St Georges, 69.853

1st Place Prix St. Georges, 65.882

Prix St. Georges High Score

Abe Pugh & Alice Drayer's Elfenperfekt

1st Place Grand Prix, 66.196

1st Place Grand Prix Special, 68.032

Jan Snyder & Eli's Coming BHF

3rd Place Freeestyle TOC, 69.833

4th Place First Level 3, 65.694

Lauren Sprieser & The Elvis Syndicate's Guernsey Elvis

1at Place Grand Prix, 64.783

1st Place Grand Prix Freestyle, 75.875

Freestyle High Score

Patricia Vos & Corino VDL

2nd Place Training 2, 67.931

3rd Place Training 2, 61.207

Beth Zielinski & BSF Ducati 696

1st Place First 1, 70.345

1st Place First 2, 68.714

First Level High Score

VADA-CH COMMONWEALTH PARK

Abe Pugh & Alice Drayer's Elfenperfekt

1st Place Grand Prix, 69.348

1st Place Grand Prix Special, 69.521

Heather Richards & Halcyon

2nd Place Third 3, 62.75

1st Place Third 3, 64.375

Next week we head to our last big event of the summer season before we get a wee break: Dressage at Lexington. From there, our schedule pivots to the Festival of Champions and USDF Regional and National Championships, but we've got a few more national shows on the calendar as well. Email me if you'd like a copy, and to join our wildly successful show team!

We're changing our prices effective August 1. Lessons with me are $110 on site, and both Sam and I will be changing our travel fee to $15/lesson when we drive more than 20 miles. Full training board now begins at $2400, or $2600 for a run-in stall. Thank you all for your understanding!

We had such a successful winter season of sales that we have unusual openings for full training board. Join our team of successful students and let us help you achieve your goals in a positive, correct way! We're particularly focusing on long-term training arrangements, as we love producing Grand Prix horses (we've finished three to that level this year alone!), so if you're looking to bring horses up to the top level, and are in it for the long haul, we'd love to help you.

New Assistant Trainer Sam Laurel and I are teaching up a storm. If you missed her introduction last time, Sam joined us last year, and has spent the winter advancing to Assistant Trainer. With a long eventing history, Sam's worked with horses of all types to encourage a solid and correct foundation towards a career in any discipline. Sam recently completed her USDF Bronze Medal on her own Casarino, and is advancing towards the FEI level work, but has also been invaluable to me this winter with her young horse experience. Please sign up for a lesson with Sam at TimeCenter, and take advantage of her special introductory lesson rate, especially for the return of Cavaletti Sundays!

Sam and I also have availability for hub lessons throughout the area, so if you've got three or more riders, we'd love to come to you. Reach out via email and we'll get started.

Our summer clinic series is coming together! We're very excited to have an entire weekend of tack checks August 6-7: two experts, one weekend! First up is bit and bridle fit expert Stephanie Brown Beamer. Stephanie is the expert I didn't know I needed in my life until I met her, and her exceptional skills have increased the comfort and bit acceptance for all our horses. Sign up online at Strider.

The same weekend we'll welcome expert saddler Colleen Meyer of Advanced Saddle Fit for appointments on both new and existing saddles. Colleen has been my friend and saddle fitter for almost 20 years, and there's a reason: her saddles are extraordinarily tolerant of changes of shape, and are exceedingly comfortable for both horse and rider. To get on Colleen's list, email me.

We're also very excited to welcome back Suzanne Galdun, our favorite biomechanics expert, August 20-21. Suzanne's clinics for us have been truly inspiring, with rave reviews from both participants and auditors. Auditing signup is on Strider. Want to ride? Our riding clinics are ONLY OPEN TO CURRENT STUDENTS, so you should probably sign up for a lesson on TimeCenter with either Sam or myself, don't you think?

We're working on dates as well for another exciting event - bra fittings with expert Alison O'Neil. I met Alison in 2020 and we were going to bring her in but then the world had other plans, but we've been able to bring her in to our Florida location twice for private fittings, and the participants have declared her "life changing!" Stay tuned to your email and to our Facebook page for the latest scoop, but it may be that same weekend, August 20-21.

As ever, we're be open for trailer-in folks, in the afternoons and evenings, and we have limited stall space for short-term or long-term training horses. I also offer virtual lessons worldwide; all you need is a solid internet connection, a cell phone, a camera holder and a pair of wireless headphones. No fancy Pixem or Pivo required! (Though I teach on them, too, of course.) I have virtual students across North America! Email me to learn more.

We are all confident that we can help you and your horses advance safely and responsibly, and look forward to seeing you on the farm (or on my computer!)

On behalf of everyone at Team Sprieser, we look forward to seeing you around the farm!

Sincerely,

Lauren Sprieser

Sprieser Sporthorse