We have been interested in horses for quite a while, but have only been actively involved as owners/caretakers since 2002. Scott used to ride most Sunday afternoons while in high school with a couple of friends. After the end of school their junior year they went on a week long horseback trip in Huntington Canyon. Lots of 'interesting' events that will be documented elsewhere. Scott also rode while on his mission for the LDS church on the Navajo Indian reservation, 1975-77. Again, a number of exciting stories from that episode that will be recorded elsewhere, someday. Scott's brother, Ben, had a number of horses including Pay Chex, a grulla AQHA stallion. Our first horse of the "modern" era is PJ (Pay Chex's Jewell, b. 1984) a grulla Paint mare that was sired by Pay Chex and was out of Jewells, a Paint. PJ was named by Ronda. We brought PJ to Alpine in January of 2003. Gamble (b. 1982) a Quarter horse gelding, came early that summer. We added Kip (registered name Capital Gold Smoke b. 2000), a POA, in the spring of 2004 and Kori in 2007 after leasing him since 2005. Kori (registered name Koriadni Vector+ b. 1995) is an Arabian and earned his LEGION of HONOR award in 2008 and LEGION of SUPREME HONOR in 2010. We added Beau (also an Arabian with the registered name Crimson Beau Dean b. 1994) to the herd in December 2008. Kori passed away on September 8th 2010 after a three month battle with lamanitis. Patriot VF b. 2001 an Arabian by Psymadre, is the newest addition to the group. We purchased him in December of 2010.

This is the rider "WADARD" going into battle with William the Conqueror at the Battle of Hastings in 1066. This may be the earliest reference to the "WOODWARD" name and is found on the "Tapestry of Bayeux". Looks like our family connection with horses goes back 1000 years!

For previous NEWS items check out our horse blog.

We are off to the AHA Region 8 Championship show this next week. It will be the first major test for Patriot. He has performed well in the local class A shows this spring and in the open shows here in Utah.

The 2010 show season has started with Deseret I and II at the South Jordan Equestrian Park the first week of April. Jerusha started off strong with Patriot VF, their first show together. They grabbed a number of firsts in hunter and at halter.

Patriot VF, "Pae" was added to the herd in December last year. After looking at about 80 videos and making two major trips to California and Arizona to look at horses that could replace Kori, we found Patriot VF at Ventura Farms near Los Angeles. On the morning that he made the trip north to Utah it was 65 degrees when he left Ventura and 2 degrees when he arrived to six new inches of snow in Utah. I don't think that he had ever seen snow. I am sure that it was quite a shock!!

Jerusha on Kip and Scott on Beau with Mike, Christmas Eve 2008

More pictures can be found on the Photos page.