Clover Ledge Farm

My husband found this bird's nest in one of the side lawn trees. It was empty, so the little ones have already hatched and flown away. Normally, I would not appreciate a bird's nest, seeing as I would have wanted him to leave it in the tree. But if you look closely, you can see why he brought it to me to keep. Yes, that is my Sparky's tail hair in the middle of the nest! How cool! :)

There is a new Standardbred organization just getting its hooves off the ground! Please check us out at http://www.stbperformance.webs.com There is a printable membership form! Please support this new organization! Tell all the STB folks you know! Thanks!

We competed at UNH this past weekend, doing both Training 2 and Training 4 each day. UNH is close enough that I was able to trailer in both days. It was nice to be able to go home and relax, rather than have to stable her there. Plus, after three days away at the Downeast, I did NOT want to have to overnight again so soon. I am very pleased with our weekend. We scored where we should have. I have no excuses and think the judges were very fair. There were no "technical difficulties" or "naughty" horse moments......unlike some folks who shall remain nameless....GAG. I would say that most dressage folks who see my scores would think they are very low. And you know, they are not spectacular. But based on where my horse is currently in her training, and the fact that she is a STB, I am beyond pleased with our weekend. No ribbons, as they did not split the divisions like most shows. I thought this was rather cheap, but what the hell. Showing is not about ribbon

This rain just completely and utterly sucks. It is so wet outside, and I feel like I am going to start growing mold. UGGGG . The worst part is that the footing in my "ring" is not that great after this many days of rain. AHHHH ! So, I gave Dreamy Monday off, of course. I wanted to take a lesson last night, but between my husband unable to get home in time for me to use the truck AND the rain, I cancelled it. I am hoping to try again tonight, but he just called and said he had a break down and was not sure he would be home by 5PM. Oh well....it will probably just rain anyway. I did ride last night for 45 minutes in the drizzle. I did just a light dressage work out, nothing too hard. She was quiet and relaxed, coming right into steady contact! Yay ! She did not feel stiff, but she did feel a little tired. We did some lateral work, trot-canter-trot transitions, and long and low trot. Her canter transitions both up and down were fabulous . No pace. If I do not get

Well, I am not sure if there are enough photos of this weekend. I mean, the professional photographer did only take 78 photos of me. LOL ! I was so excited to get a CD of all 78 images for just $129. I usually spend at least that on three or four prints! Now I have them all and can do anything I want with them! Some of these first few were taken by me. :) I will put the heading of the photo at the top of each one. Here is a shot of Standardbred Row! There are two more STBs to the right, but my lens cannot take a shot like that. Dreamy's stall is on the far left, then our tack stall, then McKeever's stall. As you can see, S is mucking him out! Close up of our tack stall front and lovely banner. We had a table and flowers and all that....but with the rain and wind, we opted to not put it out. :( Inside of the tack stall. The great banner I had made for the occasion! The banner I had made for my mare. Now we can show in style! Hi Dream! Here are the things I bough

I had so much fun at the Downeast Horse Congress. I had been looking forward to this show since late winter, when I had contacted the show manager to see if he was adding a Standardbred division. This was a double judged show, so each judge got to pin the class. I ended up with double the set of ribbons! I am going to write all of the exciting news, then do another post with just the pics. There are so many photos that I will drive myself crazy trying to get them all to look right in with the words. Thursday was my last day at school. I had planned to get all of my packing done, then bathe and braid Dreamy, and be in bed at a reasonable hour. Well……anyone who knows me also knows that as much as I try, the reasonable hour thing never happens. With a young son and too many things to do in my house, I ended up headed out to bathe and pack at 8PM. Yeah, so I was back in the house at midnight. Great. Friday morning I headed out at 7:45 AM to drive to Cumb

I am at school right now....my last day!  I am SO ready for summer and more than a little bored to be sitting here! Tomorrow is technically the last day I am supposed to be here, but I took a personal day. Seeing as I have not actually taught a student since May 19 (my seniors' last day of classes) and I am giving no underclassmen finals this week, I felt OK asking for the day.  I told my boss exactly why I was asking for it off, and reminding him that I would NEVER do it if I taught underclassmen.  He was 100% supportive of granting my personal day!  :) So, the reason is because I am showing this weekend at the Downeast Congress Horse Show in Skowhegan, ME.  It is the Maine Horse Association's 30th annual Downeast Show, and it is a Class "A" double judged pleasure ring and a double judged hunter ring.  That means TWO sets of ribbons!  WHOOOOOOOOO!  Click here for more info......scroll down for the show. Dreamy and I are doing numerous classes over the three days: Dr

Whew! What a crazy hectic life I have had lately! While I try to only write about horsey things on my blog, sometimes other parts of my life have to be written about as well. My seniors had exit exhibits, finals, graduation, and Project Grad within the last two weeks. Holy stress! At least now they are done and I am slowly catching up on my sleep. Project Grad was overnight on this past Sunday night. Our two hour cruise on Lake Winnipesaukee was great fun, but the seven hours in a large white tent with no heat was AWFUL. Just simply awful because the "coordinator" of this event did not do a good job with details! We played cards and listened to music....for 7 hours! And mind you she gets a rather large stipend to organize Project Grad. Hmmm ......and I got nothing but a "nice job" for organizing prom. But I digress..... So I was awake for 22 hours straight with 53 very crabby seniors. Yeah, not my idea of a good time. I was able to sleep five hours on

Yay!  The Zombie Chicken Award!  This award was bestowed upon me by my fabulous blogger friend On The Bit .  The Blogger who receives this award believes in the Tao of the Zombie Chicken – excellence, grace and persistence in all situations, even in the midst of a zombie apocalypse. These amazing bloggers regularly produce content so remarkable that their readers would brave a raving pack of zombie chickens just to be able to read their inspiring words. As a recipient of this world-renowned award, you now have the task of passing it on to at least 5 other worthy bloggers. Do not risk the wrath of the zombie chickens by choosing unwisely or not choosing at all… She wrote the following about her reasons..... Standardbred Excellence  is my third recipient. Just reading about her mare’s COPD makes me twitch with stress! Yet this very cool woman hardly seems phased by it. She just takes things in stride and making sure that her mare is the best she can be. She also is much braver then I am