Dear Friends and Family,

Another year has passed and as we look forward to the New Year, we are full of hope and promise.

As many of you know, James has been in legal battles with his family regarding the estate of both his deceased parents. It has taken its toll on both of us but we still stand strong and together. Unfortunately, his endeavors have taken him away from riding. He misses the extended endurance family and friends and hopes to return to the competition and the trail soon. On a lighter note, James was able to purchase the 71 acres and house and has been working hard to obtain more property for our horses.

Gini has been hard at work campaigning Triproof (now Triproof +) and doing extremely well. Triproof earned his Arabian Horse Association Legion of Honor this past year symbolized by the "+" after his name. Gini had hoped to be in the top-ten standings for the SouthEast last year but it is an extremely competitive Lightweight division and she has been missing the points by just a few the last two years. We hope this is the year that her and Tri make it all the way.

This past year was our first year showing some of our "babies". Gini took Nickolas (The First Chance) and Trad (Chance of Trad) to a show in Bethune. Her concentration was to show them in the Sport Horse division. Nick took a 1st in his SH in hand class and Trad a 2nd. Nick was also shown under saddle and placed in every class. The team also went to a local dressage show and the first timers did extremely well earning 65% on both tests. Gini has been in training with a great instructor, Carolyn West, this past year. Working with Carolyn has really helped in her instruction for her own students as well as improving her riding skill and knowledge base. We are aiming to participate in the Sport Horse show in Tryon this year and possibly make the Nationals in VA as well. In addition, Nickolas competed in his first endurance ride (30 miles) with outstanding scores.

On a sad note, we lost one of our 2 yo's to a car accident in the middle of the night. One of the Agnew family members had left the gate to the pasture open. Risqué (Belesemo Chance X Bella Magnolya) was hit and ultimately put down after it was determined that her injuries were fatal. Luckily nobody was seriously injured. Another horse, Traveler, was also out but went to our gate and was "saved" when we arrived. We want to thank all the local neighbors that helped us that fateful night losing their sleep to help us in crisis. The Agnew family member who was responsible for this hideous act will eventually answer to a higher court.

In addition, we had a hard year in regards to our foals. We lost 3 foals this year to various tragedies. Some of this is due to our aging broodmare herd. This is the first year we have had any losses. We hope this coming year will be easier.

So for the good news…here is a list of our new babies for 2004.