Clover Ledge Farm

Time off is a great thing. I get to RIDE! I rode on Christmas Day of course (see previous post) and that was fun. Then I rode Dreamy on Friday for about 30 mins. and then again on Sunday for about the same. Saturday I wanted to ride but it was raining. Instead we had FUN WITH TARPS! Yay!

My two rides were productive....well as productive a ride in the snow on a semi-out-of-shape horse can be. We worked on connection and of course got a little bit of attitude from the Dream Girl, but nothing like she can be. Did some stretchy free walk and working walk transitions. Did some halts. I actually was able to canter on Friday, since the snow had not melted underneath that much. The footing was good, unlike Sunday where all the rain had settled on top of the ground and underneath the snow, so there was some ice and some slush. Only trotting on Sunday.

Anyway, I finally had my best training aid back for the canter! SNOW! YAY! The snow on Friday made her canter so BOUNCY and SLOW! :) Our left lea…

I have a tradition to always take a bareback ride on Christmas Day. Not sure why, but I always do. Even if it is only a 15 min. walk around the pasture, I enjoy it. Usually I just have time for Sparky, but this year I was able to ride both mares. Sparky first, of course. She is my first love. :) And I must admit this is the first time I have actually ridden Dreamy bareback...LOL! What a wimp I am! Her withers are not THAT bad.

Here is the view from the round and fuzzy Sparky. Yes her bridle path is waaaaaay overgrown and my inner George Morris screams in protest every time I look at her. But I want to grow out some of it so it is not so long....it nearly goes halfway down her neck! I hear the latest trend in the Morgan horse show world is to NOT trim them back so far.....and of course Ms. Sparky needs to be on top of the current trends, now doesn't she??


Interestingly enough, Dreamy was royally PO'ed that I was riding Sparky and ignoring her. So here she is standing directly in …

So, I am not sure yet if this is scary or exciting! LOL! Now this means we are eligible to compete at rated dressage shows! And maybe even qualify for a USDF All Breed Award! :) :) :)

I do know that it means I have to work my ass off this year!

OK, not really silage, but it might as well be! Dreamy is now on Lucerne Farms Hi Fiber product, AKA as Hi Fi, AKA Dengie. It is a chopped hay mix of timothy, oat, and alfalfa packed in a 40 pound plastic bag.



Just why am I now feeding this?

Well, the Dream Girl has been diagnosed with COPD/RAO for a few years now. The common name is "heaves" and until 2000 this condition was known as COPD or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Some fancy group of international veterinarians decided to start calling it RAO or recurrent airway obstruction to differentiate this equine respiratory condition from COPD in humans.

So whatever you want to call it, Dreamy basically has allergies. She has a problem breathing and for years I managed her on 24/7 turnout/stall, a product called Wind by Emerald Valley, and soaked hay in above freezing temperatures. For whatever reason, I was always able to switch her to regular old dry hay when the temps. dropped.

But not this year. :(

Dreamy had a mild RA…

Anyone know what this is? :)


Yeah JWookie who answered correctly! It is used for colic and fatigue from shipping. This is not an item I have used in my 23 1/2 years of horse experience, but it is something my grandfather swore by. This box is actually from a pile of stuff he gave to me after Volo died. :( It still has the drops in it, but because I am pretty sure this is at least 10 (if not 20) years old, it is sitting in my kitchen as an "artifact" NOT to be used on a horse! LOL!You can still purchase BELL drops for horses though. I am pretty sure Valley Vet and Jeffers is where I have seen it advertised. Probably not a bad idea to have a bottle in your first aid kit. :)

I took the camera out with me to feed tonight! :) It was totally on a whim, so this is how the barn always looks. I did not specially clean or anything.....in fact I was looking at how I need to re-sweep the aisle! LOL! :D
Sparky needs a good grooming. What a messy mare!

Dreamy eating her Dengie. I need to post about why she is on that now....
Oh scary new piece of wood! She is so predictable, I knew exactly what she was going to do and how she was going to sound! LOL! I had S put that board at the bottom of the door today. Dreamy keeps winging her empty Dengie tub out the door. I am not too concerned if it is empty, but I REALLY do NOT want her to waste her Dengie by throwing that out the door. Plus if she wings the tub out the door in a snow storm there is a good chance I will not find it until spring. :(
Now she will probably just find a way to wing it OVER the board. LOL! (OH and this door is not used to actually leave the stall. It could be an exit in a worse case scenario, but h…

It snowed for the first time this winter on Friday, the day after Thanksgiving!

C's first snow angel of the year! Not sure where the head is......I guess it is a headless snow angel! LOL!
Sparky, who can never seem to keep her clothing on straight!

Dreamy! :)


My girls! :) The Cat Buffet.....need I say more? It is no wonder why we have two strays who showed up and moved in permanently!

Two words: Vacations Rock!

Tonight is the last day of my five day Thanksgiving vacation. It is snowing, so of course I am wishing for a snow day tomorrow. LOL! But that is silly. Really it was just so nice to have time off. I am still in withdrawals from being a stay-at-home mom for four years, so having five days off was a treat! :)

I was able to ride three times, which was fantastic. I have a student named B who is also an intern at C's preschool. She agreed to come over and watch C for me in the mornings so I could ride. Yes, I would have to pay to ride, but it was SOOOO worth it! She came over on Wednesday morning and I got in a good dressage ride. We worked on trot leg yields and got a couple of good canter departs to the left. I only rode for 30 minutes, since Ms. Dreamy is out of shape, but it was a good solid 30 minute ride. We are not setting the world on fire, but I was pleased.

Of course, Thursday was Thanksgiving. :) Did not get a ride in, as S hunted all morning and then…

I finally got my National Show pics scanned. :)

Click here:
http://standardbredexcellence.blogspot.com/2008/10/more-national-show-photos.html

SOOOO.....today I spent the morning cleaning house and then barn. Afterwards, C and I went off and did errands all over creation. We went to Scarborough, Buxton, Standish.....and by the time we got home it was mid afternoon.

As I drive in my driveway, my heart is suddenly in my throat. Where the heck was my horse? OK, where are BOTH my horses? Dear god, I figure they have been stolen. Stupid, but I admit it was my first thought.

I walk out to the barn holding my breath. Well, they have not been stolen, but are in the stalls. The wrong stalls. Obviously they had gotten loose and someone had thankfully caught them. Hmm.....Dreamy is SOAKING wet and hot, so she must have been running. I throw a cooler on her and put her back into her own stall. OOOOPS, she was in Sparky's stall, so that means she ate about half of Sparky's dinner hay.....DRY HAY! ARGH!

And that meant that Sparky ate Dreamy'sDENGIE! AH!!! A Cushing's horse most definitely should NOT eat chopped hay mixed with…

So I finally got to ride today. I could not last weekend due to the rain, but it finally cleared off here this afternoon. It has now been 2 weeks since I last rode. BAH!

And of course, Dreamy was a complete and utter fire breathing dragon. Granted, she has not been worked (which has made her PISSED), but it was also VERY windy today. Also the temps have dropped dramatically, and these two things made for one high-as-a-kite pony today.

She is one hell of a crow hopper, I will tell you what. That was a first. :P

When my lunatic mare finally calmed down, I decided today was going to be a fine day to do some trotting, but mostly working on the connection to the bit at the walk. And there was no way I could canter because of the footing being soggy. So I sucked it up, told myself to feel lucky I was riding at all, and put my Puritan work ethic on the back burner. OK, in the trash.

It was actually a good thing for her to be so wound up. Usually she is so calm and stoic at home that I cannot wor…

So the rain has been horrendous and rather than cry (too much) about it, I am trying to find humor in it. Of course, now that the sun FINALLY came out today, the temps are dropping. You just cannot win.

So anyway, my big mystery of life question......How in the WORLD do earthworms get into the outside water tubs when it rains? I mean, I dump and clean them every day, so don't start thinking I leave them for so long that worms grow or whatever. It is just that when it rains (and it has rained A LOT lately) I have been noticing that there are little earthworms in the bottoms of the water tubs!

WTF???? Having pondered the many reasons why, the best answers C and I can come up with is that they either: 1. Jump in, 2. Fall from the sky, or 3. Somehow hatch in there??? Now while C is pretty sure they jump, I personally am leaning towards answer number 2. LOL!

Seriously folks, how do the earthworms get into the buckets? They are those big tubs and it only happens when it rains. I meant to …

With fellow blogger and STB friend Now That's A Trot off on a new adventure as a working student, I have spent time wishing her well and simultaneously wishing I were young enough to be a working student myself. LOL!

So here we are. I found my perfect job, just as I was Googling for something else. Lauren just happens to be one of my favorite dressage riders too. AND IT INCLUDES FULL TRAINING BOARD!!!!!!!! *SIGH* I would happily muck stalls all day for that.

SprieserSporthorse at Clearwater Farm in Marshall, VA seeks a motivated, responsible, high-energy barn manager/working student to oversee day-to-day activities at one of Virginia's top dressage barns. Responsibilities include stalls, grooming, tacking, turn in/out, feeding, riding, lunging and general horse care at a top standard. Applicants must be of excellent character, experienced, not afraid to ask questions, take initiative and put horse care above all else.This job includes a cash salary, full training board for one h…