Cottonwood Equestrian Center

11/19/2024

Love my comfy Esprit Equestrian breech leggings in sage! Cuuuute appointment with the sparkly buttons on the rear faux pockets! Get 5% off your order from EspritEquestrian.com with CODE: ChooChooWear!🤩

11/17/2024

So cute!

🖤🩶🤎 wow!!🤩

11/12/2024

Another beautiful day coming to a close.  with the help of a good friend who does so much for us around here, we have been able to get 95% of the tree debris from Milton off the farm and onto the roadside for FEMA to pick up. Very happy that one of my students and her mom were so helpful in helping me get this Dressage court set back up again and now I only have a couple of small things to do with it and also grateful for the help of one of the boarders who helped me break it down. Also very appreciative of and thankful to the other boarders who helped before and after the storm hit for doing so much. I’m grateful to have such a solid bunch of clientele who understand the steps that must be taken in situations like hurricanes. ❤️🙏

11/11/2024

Giving one of my handsome boys some spa time. It’s not enough that Mikey is an amazing horse, he’s brimming with the most fun, loving and goofiest personality you’ll ever meet! 

11/11/2024

Anyone needing a Vitamin E supplement should check this out. Best and purest product, no filler. Comes in two sizes. Cox Veterinary Lab

11/10/2024

Use discount code “Shavings Savings” for $25 off the first load for new customers!🤩

Are you stocked up? Summer storms are fast approaching! Make sure you get your delivery! We have loads ready to go! 💥

11/10/2024

💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙

Love navy 💙
There are 8 brands that make up this ensemble. 💙🤍💙

11/09/2024

Carey and Annett are amazing ladies! They are always helpful and have great stuff!😍🤩

11/05/2024

For anybody in a drivable delivery area of Lakeland, and I’m in Lithia, I’ve been getting my bedding for all the horses here at CEC from Cody Garcia. Really reliable and communicative. I’ve been getting Shavings from him for a couple of years now and I’m really satisfied with the really consistent service and product. Cody is currently offering $25 off the first load for new customers with the discount code “Shavings Savings”! This is what he has advertised:
”Horse shavings. 100% southern yellow pine, fine shavings/sawdust delivered in 20 yard amounts. Please send address or zip code for a quote.” Cody’s number is (813)415-4592.🐴 Cody Garcia

11/03/2024

Every once in a while, my mother and I swap lesson horses if we can accommodate each other’s needs, and I’m so happy to have her lovely thoroughbred gelding, Westin, on loan for this student in particular. Victoria is a very hard-working 15 year-old who is doing a lovely job with him!

10/28/2024

😍🤩😍🤩

10/26/2024

Need sawdust shavings in bulk? I know I find sawdust so much easier to sift through when we’re cleaning stalls, then traditional flakes, even the smallest ones. I use Central Florida Shavings, owned and operated by Cody Garcia, 813-415-4592. I’ve been using him for a couple of years now and he’s such a pleasure to work with. he’s dependable and communicative and if you use the discount code “Shavings Savings”, new customers will get $25 off their first load which are 20 yd.³ 

10/25/2024

Yeah, I shopped the fly sheet clearance because Choo-Choo goes through fly sheets year-round like he pays his own bills. So what if my horse now looks like the couch cover of an 80 or 90 year old from the 70s!😬 heaven knows that if he could talk before, he sure isn’t talking to me now! 😁

10/25/2024

I love the color combination!🥰

HSITP this weekend. Stop by and see Annett 🛍️

10/22/2024

Choo-Choo 🚂 has done it again! The 2024 Awards standings are final and he is the All-Breeds First Level National Champion🥇🏆 for the ISR Oldenburg Society with a leading average of 69.931% and the All-Breeds Musical Freestyle (1st Level) Reserve National Champion 🥈with a score of 71.417%! I’d like to add that he was edged out of the number one ranking by less than one percent! I’m also listing his other placings that will either receive some amount of honorable mention when awards get mailed or I’m just mentioning them here because even though the placing might seem low, when you see how many horses the place is out of in the whole country and these are the horses that have at least made the minimum score, I think you will be as impressed with our young giant as we are! So………

🥉Vintage Cup: 1st Level, 3rd out of 12, 69.931%
🏅Musical Freestyle Challenge 9th out of 40 horses, 70.526%
🏅Musical Freestyle 33rd out of 139 horses, 71.417%
🏅Dressage Horse of the Year 1st Lvl: 51st out of 364 horses 69.931%

Tremendous and appreciatively heartfelt thanks to my incredibly patient and supportive husband Gerry while I live my dreams and passion, Hardt for her her incredible instruction and insight, Thomas Rex for his farrier magic in keeping Choo-Choo in top dancing shape and my sponsors who help me pull all of the rest of it together,





10/17/2024

Another iconic legend!

Abdullah (December 7, 1970 – January 5, 2000) was a Trakehner stallion ridden by Conrad Homfeld. He won many international titles in the sport of show jumping, and is considered by some to be the best Trakehner ever to compete in the show-jumping ring. Abdullah was inducted into the United States Show Jumping Hall of Fame in 2009.

Abdullah was purchased by Williamsburg Farm in 1973 as a three-year-old from Gerhard Schickedanz in Unionville, Ontario, Canada. He was originally bought as an event prospect and breeding stallion, and proved himself first in the dressage arena and then in eventing before becoming a world-class show jumper. He was ridden by Debbie Shaffner, Joe Fargis and Conrad Homfeld.

Abdullah was approved for breeding by the United States, Canada, Selle Français, Sella Italiano, Anglo European Studbook, Irish Sport Horse, Hanoverian, Trakehner, Belgium Warmblood, Belgium Sporthorse, and Oldenburg studbooks.

His progeny were extremely successful, including seven United States Equestrian Federation Horses of the Year in both the Hunter and Jumper disciplines. He ranks third place in money won by offspring in the International Jumper Futurity and International Hunter Futurity. He is the sire of showjumpers competing internationally in the Olympics, World Championships and World Cup Finals. Due to frozen semen, it is still possible to breed to the legendary stallion.

Abdullah had an extensive international level career for fourteen years between 1979 and 1989. He won the American Trakehner Association (ATA) Open Jumper Championships for 8 consecutive years between 1979 and 1986, as well as in 1988 and 1989. He was also awarded the ATA Palmenblüte Award in 1980, '82, '84, '85, and '86. The Palmenblüte trophy is awarded to the "ATA purebred Trakehner who has contributed the most in competition to promote the breed in North America." After Abdullah won the trophy for the fifth time, the first trophy was retired, with an acknowledgement of Abdullah's tremendous contributions to the Trakehner breed throughout the world, and a new trophy was put into place.

He helped the United States to the team gold, and took an individual silver at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. He won the 1985 World Cup Final in Berlin. Abdullah also helped the United States to the team gold, taking individual silver, at the 1986 Show Jumping World Championships in Aachen, Germany. Abdullah also won or placed at numerous other international level Grand Prix events.

10/17/2024

What a remarkable horse Gem Twist was and Greg Best was clearly such a partner with him. I really loved watching this pair while I was growing up. 🌟

Gem Twist (June 12, 1979 – November 18, 2006) was a 16.3 hands (67 inches, 170 cm) world champion American Thoroughbred show jumping horse registered under the name Icey Twist. Bred by equestrian Frank Chapot, Gem Twist had an incredible career at the Grand Prix level. The gelding is the only horse to have won the "American Grand Prix Association Horse of the Year" title three times, and is regarded as one of the best show-jumpers in history.

Three genetic clones of Gem Twist were subsequently foaled after Gem Twist's death in 2006: Gemini CL, Murka's Gem, and Gem Twist Alpha Z. All three clones are primarily used for breeding German warmblood sport horses in Europe.

Gem Twist began winning early in his career with rider Greg Best, including the 1985 USET Talent Derby as a six-year-old. He went on to win his first two competitions at the Grand Prix level, the Grand Prix of Tampa and the Grand Prix of Florida, in 1987. He finished the year with his first American Grand Prix Association (AGA) Horse of the Year honor, as well as a team silver medal from the Pan American Games.

Best continued to ride Gem Twist for several years with great success, including earning two silver medals at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul. In 1989, Gem Twist was named the American Grand Prix Association Horse of the Year for the second time.
In 1990, he was named the "World's Best Horse" at the World Equestrian Games in Stockholm. Best injured his shoulder in 1992, however, and the ride was turned over to Leslie Burr Howard (then Leslie Burr Lenehan).

06/16/2023

This came in the mail today! I’m appreciative of the kind individuals who brought us Dressage Under the Oaks a couple of weeks ago. (They weren’t able to supply Choo-Choo’s Training Level Champion ribbon at the show.) 🌟 There’s also another surprise associated with that show but I’m not able to share that with you juuust yet! Soon!🌟🥇🏆