The Knollwood Knockouts gathered last Saturday for a very special edition of their annual awards banquet.  Members enjoyed dressing up for an evening of fun while celebrating the past, present and future.  In case you weren’t able to join the affair, here are our favorite seven things about the evening.

Socializing

The Legend at Bristlecone always gives us a great atmosphere to catch up with barn friends.  Before a delicious buffet dinner, (including an ice cream sundae bar) members enjoyed some time just hanging out and enjoying the evening. 

Our youngest Knockout, Olive Shearman, attended her first club meeting at the tender age of 5 months, and was held by quite possibly all the moms in the room. Being the daughter of Tom and Lin, (and granddaughter of Holly) Oli seemed to really enjoy the party atmosphere.

The junior exhibitors in the crowd packed the front of the room, close to the awards, the slide show screen, and the dance floor.

Award Winners

We presented trophies  in many, many divisions to award the accomplishments of our academy riders. From our in-barn lead line stars to our out of barn stars, we're proud of each and every one of them!

Academy Awards 

We believe in the academy division, and it showed on Saturday night. We were proud to recognize our 18 winners of academy awards from the American Saddlebred Horse Association. With riders ranging from showing in their first season to our seasoned academy riders who are moving up to the show horse world next season, we love the process of building riders through the academy world.

High Point Award Winners

We keep track of points for all of our academy riders, whether they show at our in-barn shows or at the out of barn academy shows throughout the season.  It’s always fun to see who comes out on top in the competition for high point awards for in and out of barn shows for the season.

For the 2017 season, we were happy to award the high point award for our in-barn shows to Maiya with Lauren in reserve. In the out of barn division, Richie was the champ with Sofia reserve.

Congratulations to these hard working riders, and we hope you enjoy your personalized championship blankets!

Service Awards

It takes a village to prep and care for our academy horses as they travel throughout the season. We are very fortunate to have a team of show riders who take care of the best lesson horses in the world, and mentor our future stars at the big shows. These ladies prep horses for the ring, offer moral support to the riders, and make everyone's lives much, much easier. We couldn't do it without this great group of 'Knollwood Kids!', and we're happy to recognize them and offer them a little token of our appreciation for all they do.

Recognizing our ‘B’ Competitors

The banquet offered the perfect opportunity to thank our three riders who compete on the ‘B’ division.  In addition to showing, Laura, Jodi, and Mary support our academy riders at every show by helping in the warm up ring, the wash rack, and in the aisle. In addition, Laura is a tireless ‘bunmaker’ to our academy stars.

We were happy to present the ladies with their own rubber boots for all the tail and leg washing they do throughout the year, and with gift certificates for each of them to enjoy some relaxation.

The Big Reveal 

2018 marks the 40^th anniversary of the founding of Knollwood Farms, and we’re thrilled to say we were able to keep a surprise from Scott!

The banquet room was filled thanks to Scott's vision 40 years ago when a very young horse trainer started it all. Due to his hard work and dedication to his horses and riders in his care, Knollwood has grown into the phenomenon it is today.

Oh, and Carol helped a little bit along the way. ;-)

We created a separate slide show for our fearless leader, and our friends at Wild Impact Marketing created fun party favors to help us kick off a year of celebrating 40 years of Knollwood.

We have some great things planned, and we hope you join us for all of it.

What’s Next?

Knockout and Parents Meeting

This Saturday, February 24, we're holding a Knockout meeting in the lounge at 4:30 pm.  Please join us to meet your new officers and help plan the March show and other fun events.  We’re hosting a parents meeting immediately after the club meeting, too. We’d love to meet parents who would like to become more involved with our award winning youth club.

Used Clothing Sale

Next Saturday, March 3, we’re holding a used academy clothing sale from 11 am to 2 pm in the show barn lounge. We’ll have all of our used clothing available to purchase, Jodi will have her show ring accessories for sale, and we’ll have experienced academy show moms staffing the event so you can create the prefect outfit for the Knollwood Spring Show March 24-25.

We hope you join us

as we start the celebrations recognizing 40 years of Knollwood.

See you at the barn!

Tradition.

Honor.

Passion.