New England Valkyries

WOW!!! You guys are AWESOME!!

Where do we even START? 

We had a fantastic turn out for our vaulting workshop today. From the wild wheel barrel girls who were working on their core strength, to the fabulous triples, to the riders who took up the challenge of vaulting, to the grown-ups who boldly kicked off their boots and really gave it a go, you were amazing.

We really enjoyed having you come out and vault with us and we hope you had a lot of fun, too. We appreciate that everyone really took it seriously and tried to learn some vaulting skills.

We have a few more pictures over on our FaceBook page—please come like us!  And if you took some pictures, please share them with us there!

We also post demos and other workshops there, as well as updated to our vaulting calendar.

Thank you all for coming and for your very generous donations! We hope you also liked seeing some of the NEV vaulters perform for you on Pico.

Think about taking a session or two of lessons with us — we'd love to have you ALL come and be Valkyries—fearless, fantastic and awesome!

Vaulting T-Shirts and More....

If you've recently purchased a T shirt from our vaulting store, THANKS!! We really do appreciate it. We're working on some new designs and some new items as well, so stay tuned, and we have also added ORGANIC versions of some of our favorites. Some prices have dropped, too. Don't you need a cool vaulting T to wear for summer Regionals?  We do!

Click here to go now to our  STORE...

A Horse Cookie Recipe

Here's a horse cookie recipe we tried and the horses seemed to like. Do you have any recipes you'd like to share with us? We like to thank the horses for their hard work. 

New England Valkyries Vaulting Horse Cookies

1 1/2 cup rolled oats
1 1/2 cup oat breakfast cereal or other grain
1/2 cup flax seed
1/2 cup other grain (bran, psyllium, cornmeal, grape nuts, wheat cereal, etc)
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup corn, canola, or extra light olive oil
1 tbs. salt
1 cup applesauce
1 cup grated carrots or apples
2/3 c. molasses
(also may need some white flour)

You can also replace some grains with sweet feed. You can also choose ALL ORGANIC versions.

1. Mix these ingredients together with your hands. Really mix. Whole grains vary widely in their ability to hold/absorb water so the dough varies, too. Some get stickier as they absorb liquid. If it doesn't hold a nice ball easily after a while, add some regular white flour (which acts as glue). If too stiff, add just a little more water. Should hold a ball easily, but not be too sticky

2. Oil a cookie sheet. DO NOT PREHEAT OVEN (not necessary at the beginning)

3. Drop spoon-size balls onto well-oiled cookie sheet and press flat (1/3 inch thick).

4. Set oven to 325 degrees, bake for 10 minutes. BE CAREFUL NOT TO BURN. If the cookies are not crisp on the outside, FLIP THEM at this point and cook for 3 more minutes. Flip again for 3 minutes more if you want an even tougher cookie. With subsequent batches, flip half-way through and reduce total time by 1 minute (oven loses heat when you open it).

The goal is crunchy on the outside, a little chewy inside, but if your horse likes a REALLY hard crunch cookie, take finished cookies,  lower the oven temperature to 250, and bake for 10 more minutes.

Cool completely. Horses like them as is. Store in airtight container. Makes 5-6 dozen, depending on the size. Small cookies for smaller horses!

Or.... you can ice them.... (NOT ORGANIC, though)

2 cups confectioner's sugar, sift after measuring
2 tbsp milk
2 tbsp  corn syrup
1/tsp salt
Crushed peppermints

Mix with hand-mixer until smooth. Drizzle on cookies (or brush on or dip,) if you like.
Sprinkle with crushed peppermints, which will stick to icing, and let set for 2 hrs in a cool place.

You can also make a sandwich-style cookie with these....use marshmallow fluff!

Store in an airtight container.

You Now Have EXTREME SKILLS!

Thanks so much to everyone who turned out for our first "Kick off Your Boots and Give Vaulting A Go."

We had quite the turnout of brave would-be vaulters, even though it was the hottest day of the summer. After a brief demo where a small group of NEV vaulters dazzled and inspired the crowd, all the participants spent the next hour and 1/2 working on their own moves on the vaulting barrels, then relaxed with a glass of wine and some tasty homemade morsels.

Wine for our event was generously donated by Westport River Vineyard & Winery—and it was fabulous! Thanks so much!  If you're looking for something fun to do, or you're just dying to stomp grapes, check out their wonderful summer series of music, wine-making and the arts.

If you missed the fun, e-mail us and we'll put you on a list to be notified of futre events! Thanks!

For the Love of Pete

Meet Pete. Great Fall's Vaulters generously stepped up and offered us Pete when Hershey was under the weather last weekend at Regionals. Thanks, Great Falls and Jen Williams for your generosity and thanks to Pete for being such a great horse. He worked hard for everyone. Pete won Canter Horse of the competition and he deserved it. : )

Here's Tamsin doing her compulsories on Pete:

Ben from Topaz Vaulters

NEV needed to borrow a walk/trot horse at Regionals last weekend, because our horse came down with a fever. We were very lucky to be able to borrow Ben from Topaz Vaulters. What an awesome horse Ben is—in every respect! He is a true giant—in size and spirit! And he won the Region's Trot Horse award!
Thank you to everyone from Topaz Vaulters—and thank you to Ben!