We are really excited to ann0unce that our new facility will be opening at Split Mesquite Farm in Coupland, TX in summer of 2012. We  will be building a full sized covered arena with north and south walls to block the nasty winds we often get in central Texas. The south short wall will have four large doors on it so when the weather is nice, we can open the arena up. We will be adding a 10 stall barn, 4 grooming stalls, wash rack with hot water, a large tack room, feed room and office, as well as individual turnouts. We will also have a 10' x 60' viewing platform at the north end of the arena and a full short side of mirrors.

We  will be taking horses in training starting this summer and hope to start holding clinics and other educational events starting late summer/early fall 2012.

We will keep information on our progress here!

In other news, we have about a month before our two new additions arrive! Our Gran Casso x Delaney foal and our Rubignon x Lugana foal are due just days apart in the middle of April.

Freedance is going very well under saddle and will be competing in his first show at the end of March up at Tyler in the materiale classes. Gran Casso will also be going and competing in 1-3 and 2-3 with hopes of getting our qualifying scores knocked out at one show!

Waren continues to train well. His canter is getting stronger and more supple every day and by using exercises we've picked up at JJ Tate's farm last October, at the Steffen Peters clinic last December, at Janet Foy in January and at the Lilo Fore Clinic this past weekend, we hope to continue progress and have him out at Prix St. Georges later this year.

Our two three year olds will be going under saddle later this year. Bacarro (ES Bonheur x EM Atlanta) and Jypsy Rose (Gran Casso x Portia) will both be leaving our north location and heading south to begin their careers under saddle. We hope to have them ready for their first competitions under saddle in September. Bacarro is for sale right now for $15,000 but the prices will increase with training!

Our two year olds (Prince, Santana, & Gloriana) are maturing well and I can't believe they are only a year away from getting started. It seems like they were just foals a few months ago! We are offering Santana (Sonntagskind x EM Atlanta) and Gloriana (Gran Casso x Reigner) for sale. $10,000 and $9,000 respectively.

As far as re-breeding for 2013, we are planning on breeding Delaney back to Freestyle. We lost our 2011 Freestyle x Delaney filly and and excited at the chance to get another! We are still deciding on the perfect stallion for Lugana.

Jenna and Willo, owned by Dawn Dugan, were first level champions at both the San Antonio I & II shows this past weekend at the Rose Palace! Willo showed significant improvement in this level and is training 2nd level at home. 

Jenna's student, Joy Alexander and Horton did super at their first recognized show together! They won 3 of their 4 classes and scored up to 67%! This super combination was also on the winning team for the Ride For the Cure team on Alida's Alliance. Their team raised over $8,000 for the Susan G. Kohman Foundation! Great job guys!!

This marks the "official" last show of the year since the USDF year ends Sept. 30. However, we still have championships in November:)

It was very busy  a couple of weeks ago when we were collecting Gran Casso and breeding mares. Lugana has checked in foal to Rubignon and Delaney is in foal to Gran Casso.

First off, Happy Birthday to Glorianna! She is a year old today and nearly 15 hands already!

We had a fairly successful show this past weekend at the Great Southwest Equestrian Center in Katy. This weekend was home to the first CDI competition ever in Region 9 and as always, the HDS and the volunteers did a fabulous job putting on this historic show! Martin and I loaded up Gran Casso and Warendorf and headed to Katy on Thursday after working a few training horses in the morning.

Friday morning, Waren competed in Fourth level test 1 and scored a 60%, which I felt was a little low for how the ride felt. However, with this score, I now have my 2 fourth level scores towards my silver medal! Gran Casso had his 1-1 warm up class mid day and won the class with a 70%. Later in the day, Gran Casso and I rode our first five year old test of the year and scored a 7.5! I know he still has a lot of additional strength to build but I was really proud of him and very pleased that the judges liked him and felt he has a lot of potential!

Saturday morning was an early start again with Waren at 4-1. He scored a 63.1% this time and won the class! The biggest bobble in the test was when his right to left flying change was two strides late and I had trouble then getting him active and prepared enough to really get a nice score on the collected canter circle. Still, I was very pleased with him. Gran Casso went later in the day showing 2-3. This was his first time out at second level and he scored a 64% which is a qualifying score! We finished the day with my first level freestyle on Gran. I have never had so much fun during a ride before! All the transitions were on target and there were no major mistakes. I really felt like I was dancing with my boy! Unfortunately the judge wasn't too crazy about my music (which the judge in Tyler loved!! I guess that's how it goes with freestyles!) but we still scored high enough to earn my second and final regional championship qualifying score.

Sunday was tough for the boys, they were both very tired! Waren, however, scored a 63.7% at 4-1 which was his highest for the weekend, even with a big problem in one of the walk pirouettes. The first pirouette was an 8! The second, he stuck one of his hind legs and just couldn't get out of it and started backing up. Not good! Other than that, it was a nice forward test. Gran Casso was completely and utterly exhausted by his last 2-3 ride and unfortunately did not earn a qualifying score. Waren and I ended up Show II Fourth Level Open Reserve Champions!!

All in all, it was a really great show. My goal with Waren was to have very forward, active tests and I think we achieved this. With Gran Casso, I wanted a pleasant, forward ride which we achieved until Sunday ;-)

We had a pretty good showing this past weekend at the Texas Dressage Classic I&II in Tyler, TX. Martin competed on Warendorf and had a great show, earning his bronze medal, show I reserve champion 3rd open and show 2 champion 3rd open with a score of 65.9%!

Gran Casso showed well scoring a 67% on our first ever freestyle! He also scored a 77 and 80 in materiale and a 69% and 70% at first level test 1. He just needs one more freestyle score to qualify for championships.

The HDS Spring Classic is coming up in a few weeks. I will be showing Warendorf at fourth level and Gran Casso at 2nd level, 1st level, 1st level freestyle and the FEI 5 year old test. The Spring Classic is a CDI this year so it should be especially fun!

We are very excited to announce the birth of our first 2011 foal, Freestar, a full sibling to our young stallion, Freedance. She was born early morning March 29. She looks so much like her big brother! We all had our fingers crossed for a filly this year and we were thrilled when this beautiful girl made her appearance! She will be a keeper and will be presented to the ISR/OLD for registration this year.

 Another year has come and gone. It was a really great 2010! Gran Casso competed in January and in March at first level and the USEF four year old tests. Early April, Martin & I hosted a Charles de Kunffy clnic at Royal Equus Farm. We had a great turnout and had some pretty amazing rides.

On April 15, we welcomed our first foal of the year, Santana by Sonntagskind out of EM Atlanta. Just a week later our second foal made his appearance, Florestern by Furst Klasse out of EMC Lugana. May 3 our last foal of the year arrived, Glorianna by Gran Casso out of Reigner.  Warendorf and I competed at 4th level for the first time this past April and earned our first score towards our USDF Silver Medal. Feyock & Willo competed on the Concordia Team for the first time in June with great scores at the HDS Summer Show. We ended the summer in style with an impressive performance at the Black Star Sporthorse Breed Show series winning 6 reserve championships in the regular shows as well as taking Reserve Champion Colt (Freedance), Reserve Champion Filly (Jypsy Rose) and Champion Stallion (Gran Casso).

Of course one of our biggest excitements for the year was bringing Martin Arnold to Texas and founding Concordia Dressage! We have been busy building our business over the last few months and have had such a wonderful time meeting more clients and horses.

In September, Martin & I loaded up Gran Casso and headed to Lexington, KY for the World Equestrian Games. Since the ISR/OLD 10 Day Advanced Stallion Test was to start just a few days after the games, we decided it would be easiest to board Gran Casso in Lexington while we watched the games and then go straight to Batavia, OH. The WEG was an amazing experience that we will never forget. To see dressage on the big stage was very special and someday I hope to be riding at that level!

The 10 Day Advanced Stallion Test that took place from Octoer 7-17 was a great experience that I look forward to taking part in again with Freedance in 2012! We made lots of new friends and had a wonderful time. Gran Casso finished 2nd overall and was the highest scoring dressage stallion with no score less than 7.0.

Soon after we returned to Texas, I rode Warendorf in a dressage demonstration at the Mallets & Merlot Charity Polo Match benefiting R.O.C.K. and the next weekend Martin rode Warendorf in a 3 day Charles de Kunffy clinic at Oakhaven Farm. A few days after that we loaded up for championships. I rode Gran Casso and Willo. Our student, Amy Denny competed her westphalian gelding, Feyock (also in training with us) at 1st level, Kate Hadden-Jackson competed her holsteiner gelding, Bardo, at 3rd level and Celine Haliouva-Haubold competed Abaris at 1st and 2nd level. We had a really great show. Gran Casso finished 6th in very competitive training level championships classes. Willo competed at 1st level for the first time with scores in the mid 60s, Katie earned her USDF Bronze Medal, Amy earned her first score towards her USDF Bronze Medal and Celine finished 6th in a huge 1st level junior championship class and earned her 2nd level scores towards her bronze.

For USDF Awards, Gran Casso ended up 3rd in the 4/5 year old stallion materiale and Gran Casso, Freedance, and Jypsy Rose all ended up in the top 10 in their age/gender groups!

We are so excited about the upcoming year. In mid January, Freedance will be leaving our North location in Hutto for our training facility in Coupland to get started under saddle. It will be a big year for him as he prepares for his stallion inspections and also learns to ins and outs of collecting for the breeding season. He will hopefully be competing at training level during the year as well as materiale classes. Gran Casso has a big show year ahead of him competing in 1st level, 2nd level, 1st level freestyle, materiale and the FEI 5 year old test. We already have several mares booked to him and we look forward to seeing more of his spectacular foals! Ballagio (Louie) is in training with Martin and will be competing this coming spring at training level and hopefully the USEF Four year old test as well. Warendorf and our horse in training, Feyock (owned by Amy Denny) are working to come out at Prix St. Georges during the year. Both horses are also aimed at the 2012 Brentina Cup.

We are expecting two foals next year. Dalliance is expecting a Freestyle foal in March and Reigner is expecting a Gran Casso foal in July. Lugana will be bred to Royal Hit in the early spring and Dalliance will be bred to Gran Casso. Reigner is for sale but if she hasn't sold, she will be bred to Freedance.

We wish you a very Happy New Year from the staff here at Split Mesquite Farm & Concordia Dressage!
-Jenna Stern,

Here are a few pictures taken of GC on the final days of the testing. I'm super tired tonight but I will update soon!

My rides on Gran Casso have been very good. I think what the judges are expecting to see is not quite how we like to ride our horses at home. They seem to want to see a big, auction like trot  which for a relaxed, laid back horse like mine can be a bit difficult at times! He's acting like a pro though. This horse tries so hard, I am really proud of him and excited about his future as a performance stallion. Yesterday we free jumped and GC did really well. Didn't even look at the indoor arena he'd never been in. Tomorrow is a day off and then we ride at 8am Tuesday and Wednesday so we can ride in the big indoor arena, where the guest rider test will be.