Clover Ledge Farm

Dreamy was a rockstar in her second year of showing...and second year of being under saddle essentially. We moved up a level at both dressage and eventing competitions, so I knew not to expect the same year end results as last year. We are still in the baby tadpole levels, but nevertheless I am proud of my girl.

And our results are......we won 21 year ends this year!

Southern Maine Dressage Association(SMDA awards placings by TEST). Click HERE to see full results and my pic too! LOL!

Reserve Champion Intro test B - 68.333%
Fifth place Training test 1 - 58.083%
2008 Champion High Point Senior Rider
(for the third year in a row......with two different horses)
Maine Dressage Society
(MDS awards placings by LEVEL).
Reserve Champion Standardbred Horse of the Year
Third place Introductory level - 67.5%
Tenth place Training level - 58.261%
SPHO-NJGrand Champion Dressage division
Grand Champion Combined Training division
Reserve Champion Ambassador Standardbred of the Year
Third place Versatility Award
Thi…

My blogger friend OnTheBit, who owns a gorgeous TB named Gennyral and leases a talented Appy named Texas, passed on the Lemonade Award to me! YAY, my first blog award! LOL! :)

THANKS OnTheBit! :)
As far as I can tell, the Lemonade Award is for blogs that have or show a great attitude. I certainly try to keep my attitude positive, and anyone who knows what it is like to juggle family, horses, and showing can affirm how much work it can be and how much of a balancing act it all is. And of course, I have always tried to be really positive and thankful for my Little Horse That Could, my Standardbred dressage star Dreamy, whom the blog is named after. And of course, nothing else cheers me up than my first love, my first horse Sparky.
Here is what she wrote on her blog as to why she awarded this to me:
STBEventer over at Standardbred Excellence is making the tough transition from stay at home mom to working warrior and is still keeping her show goals up for this summer.
I am supposed to award t…

Three great forces rule the world: stupidity, fear and greed. --Albert Einstein
Ain't that the truth??? And just think, I learned all this from being involved with horses!
I am feeling the need to pontificate, after a stressful week of bitter cold temps, the end of the quarter at school (and grading up to my eyeballs), and a stomach flu that ran rampant through my little family. UGGG. So, dear reader, you can either put up with me or ignore me. The choice is yours. :)
A little background.....after many years of being involved with various horse organizations as a competitor, I decided to "give back" and volunteer my time. Being a stay-at-home mom gave me "free time" (I use that term loosely...) to say yes when asked to be president of a statewide club. That experience was fabulous. In two years, I met tons of great horse folks and enjoyed being involved from the business end of an organization. I happily passed the reins to another member this past December 2008…

Well, taming her fur that is. ;-) Dreamy did not grow a winter coat the first year I owned her. So I always have blanketed her. And the last two winters I have clipped her anyway, so I never really knew what kind of coat she might now grow. This winter, her hair became woolly and shaggy pretty quickly in late fall....hmm amazing what good nutrition will do! I knew with my job I would not be able to ride as much as in past fall/winters, so I opted to just leave her be and see how she did. To me, a horse's natural winter coat is better than any blanket I can buy.
Then I finally got a lesson scheduled for today that I really thought we would be able to actually have. The forecast did not call for snow. LOL! Unfortunately I had to cancel it a few hours beforehand, as my instructor let me know it was VERY cold at the indoor and with Dreamy's respiratory issues, it would not be a good plan to ride her there. I was bummed and almost just said the hell with it, since I want to hav…

Lately I have reconnected with many childhood horsey friends via Facebook. It has been a ton of fun to see scanned pics of us from years ago. Some of these girls I have not seen for 15-17 years!

So I decided to scan some of my photos the other night to post. Luckily the scanner was in a good mood. So here are some that I posted on FB. If you have not found me there yet, come on by!
Here I am in an undated photo, but I would say 1982 or so? I was perhaps three years old and exhibiting signs of the horse bug. I honestly remember begging for this pony ride, though I do not remember much of the ride itself. I have always been such a serious rider! :D Gotta love the no helmet and being STRAPPED onto the saddle. Safety first!
This is my first love, JoydaleJumelle, circa 1988. I miss her. :( She is full sister to Sparky. I helped train her (so really she was my first training project!) and I got to back her. She was for sale, as was all the young stock at the farm, and I BEGGED my parents to bu…