As summer quickly turns into fall, NMPC has had another wonderful year so far. We were all saddened by the loss of our long time friend, Jim Merrill. Losing Jim was hard enough, but it also lost us the use of his wonderful facility, Rancho Delux. With quick thinking and great attitudes, we held our annual Pony Club Camp at my home. We had 18 children and 24 horses camped out for four days. Our instructors were the incomparable Daniel Stewart (who flew in from Spain) and our own, Shirley Antrobus. We called it the "Lemonade Camp" using the phrase, "When life gives you lemons, you turn it into lemonade." We proved our members just love Lemonade!

On September 29th, our annual Hunter/Jumper Show will once again take place at Blue Fountain Farm. The class list is located on our website. This may be our last year holding the event at Blue Fountain Farm so we plan to make it the best show ever. We will have another fantastic silent auction with a new picture drawn by our award winning member, Erin. Our show has classes for all levels of riders and is priced very reasonably. It's a great way to spend the day in the Foothills with judge Shirley Antrobus to cheer us on.

October will be clinic month with two of the best. We were lucky enough to "win" Richard Lamb, the head of USPC's show jumping committee and renowned course designer, at this year's USPC International Exchange Auction. Richard will be visiting for a two day clinic held on October 6th and 7th. He is a fantastic instructor. Richard is calm, patient and is capable of teaching all levels of riders with ease. On October 14th, Daniel Stewart will return for a one day clinic. Those of you who have ridden with Daniel know that it's an experience not to be missed. For more information regarding these clinics, please contact me.

The year is quickly winding down and our annual holiday party in December will signal the end of 2007. We are all looking forward to 2008 to see what surprises, new members, new friends and fun the members of NMPC will get to enjoy!

As always, it is a pleasure to be your DC!

April