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Showing posts from July, 2010

Wentworth Hunter Pace - June 6, 2021

After Margaret and I had such a fun time at the fall hunter pace, we opted to go again this spring! This time, while I rode Rejoice again, Margaret rode her horse Jester and had a friend ride Ladyhawke. All Kennebec Morgans!! Jester and Rejoice have the same dam and Jester and Lady share the same sire. Unfortunately instead of a lovely late spring day, we had one of the first intensely hot and humid days of the year. It was definitely a bummer, but the ride was mostly in the shade of the woods and we had a great time!  most of the fences were 3' coops but we found a small log and this hay to jump haha Until we didn't. 😑 We brought along a third friend who rode Margaret's older mare, Ladyhawke. She's a good rider but hasn't known Ladyhawke for very long and didn't realize how much of a cranky boss mare she could be at times. She kicked Jester right in the front leg just about halfway through the ride, and while the cut itself ended up not being a big deal in the

PRODUCT REVIEW: Epona Shed Flower Curry

I love this thing!  I am usually a traditionalist and have used a black rubber curry forever.  But last summer when I was purchasing new brushes for Reva's arrival, I decided to try one.  I had admired it for a while, since it is SO cute, but I figured nothing could work like my big-as-my-hand rubber currycomb. I was WRONG!  I loved it so much that I decided to buy one for each of my other two mares.  I still have my rubber currycombs and rubber grooming gloves, especially for legs and faces.  The Epona Flower Curry is really just for the larger areas of the horse, over the muscles of the neck, barrel, and hindquarters. They sell for about $5, which is pretty reasonable I think.  They are great for smaller hands like mine.  I love the colors, they clean easily, and don't seem to loose their "shed-ability". This is a definite must-have for every grooming kit!  :D

Marshaling at Bangor Raceway - July 24, 2010

To me, there are few horse activities that can compare to jumping cross-country and flying around in a roadster class.  But marshaling at the racetrack is pretty close!  Yesterday, three of us members of the Standardbred Performance Society traveled to Bangor Raceway here in Maine to marshal the 13 races.  It was the last day of racing at Bangor because  the fair race season begins next week.  We had an excellent time!  :)  I rode Dreamy, my friend Shelly rode her gelding McKeever, and Jessie rode Bruizer. Bangor is quite a haul for me.  First I left my farm at 8:15AM and drive to my friend Shelly's farm, which is an hour away.  Then we loaded Dreamy into Shelly's trailer with her gelding McKeever.  We trucked them up to Bangor, which is about two hours north.  When we arrived, it was heavily misting, which is NOT good weather in which to spend four hours in the saddle!  :(  Thankfully it stopped about the time we decided to get the horses tacked up.  I much rather marshal

Shout Out to VTO Saddlery

I purchased my dressage coat last year through VTO Saddlery .  They are not a company I usually used, but they had the Romfh coat I wanted.  Yes, I admit I wanted a Pikeur, but my budget would not allow for it.  LOL!  Anyway, at my last dressage show, I noticed the last button on the front of my coat was missing!  Horrors!  Of course, all my safety pins are in my hunt seat garment bag, so I just had to ride the way it was.  I figured most people would not even notice, but it bothered me! So I emailed VTO Saddlery to see if they might be able to sell me a spare button or two.  Within 10 days of my original email, I had two new buttons from them.....FOR FREE!  I offered to pay, but they just sent them to me!  How awesome is that?  Not only did they get the buttons quickly from their supplier, they did not even charge me.  THANK YOU VTO SADDLERY!  You now have a VERY happy customer.  I was happy with my purchase before, but now I will be sure to always check their website when I nee

PRODUCT REVIEW: Horse Shave

I absolutely adore these little purple horse shaver things.  They are so easy to use and are very economical.  In the past, I used the disposable Bic razors on my horses' muzzles, but they never really seemed to work that well.  This thing is perfect. The only downside is that they are VERY sharp.  You have to be careful you do not cut your horse's muzzle, so slow and steady is best. I do not shave my horses' muzzles very often.  In fact, Sparky and Reva have full beards.  LOL!  :D  Dreamy only gets shaved just before a horse show where we are doing in-hand classes.   There are many products I just cannot live without......this is definitely high on the list for showing!  :)

Today's Lesson

I took a lesson today with my instructor Judy.  It was a different type of lesson than normal.....I began warming Dreamy up and then Judy offered to ride her for the first time ever.  Then I got on again and finished the hour ride.  It was neat for many reasons.  In the past, I have begged Judy to ride her when I have been having trouble with something, usually the canter.  Judy is great because instead of just getting on my horse and "fixing" her, she really encourages ME to take the lesson that day and learn techniques to fix it myself (not to mention she totally calms me down when I am all stressed).  As she reminds me, I have to be able to work through things on my own at home.  If I had really pushed the issue, I know Judy would have gotten on her.  But every time I had one of these meltdown moments (LOL), Judy would work us through it and I would leave my lesson feeling 100% better and knowing that I can train my horse.  I use the term "instructor" and not t

My Saddle Fitting Woes Might Be Over.....

Dreamy was seen by the saddle fitter Nancy Shedrick this past April.  Of course, our current dressage saddle, a Duett Fidelio, was just not working for her anymore.  I knew that, but I wanted to see if she could do something with it before I gave up.  The nice thing is that while the Duett no longer fits Dreamy, it does fit Reva quite nicely!  :) So since April I have been searching for a new saddle.  I knew I only had a limited budget this time around, since I was not going to sell the Duett, which was $1650 new two years ago.  I could not spend that much again unless I was planning to resell the Duett.   That left me with either buying a new cheaper saddle or a nicer but used saddle.  I opted to go with a used saddle, as none of the "cheaper" saddles I tried really fit her anyway.  :P  And plus I wanted a NICE saddle, not a cardboard one.  If I could afford it, I would have loved to buy a Custom from Nancy, but that was not going to happen unless I decided to not buy h

Isaac Royal Dressage Show - July 10-11, 2010

Dreamy and I did quite well at this past weekend's dressage show at Isaac Royal Farm in Dover-Foxcroft, ME.  The judge was Sara Schmitt who is an "S" judge.  I drove the three hours north on Friday afternoon, got Dreamy settled in, and spent the night at the farm.  Saturday morning was overcast and slightly misty, which was fine with me.  Better than being roasted in the hot sun.  We were riding Training 1 and Training 2 both Saturday and Sunday.  I decided to move from Training 4 to 1 simply because we had already earned our qualifying scores at Training 4.  I just wanted to accumulate a few good solid 60%-plus rides and Training 1 is easier for us than Training 4. My ride times were early and close together.  Training 1 felt a little tight.  We were riding both tests in the small arena, which we have not done in two years.  But it was an OK test.  I made a few piloting errors and our canter was a bit strung out.  But we scored a 61.304% and a third place out of four

Finally, a lesson!

I was finally able to take a lesson with my awesomely wonderful instructor Judy last week, Thursday, July 8.  YAY!  It was the day before I left for a dressage show, so it was great timing.  It was hot but worth it!   I love riding lessons for so many reasons.  I love learning new things, getting good immediate feedback on my horse, getting "homework" to work on until my next lesson.....and I love my instructor.  (Are you reading this, Judy?  LOL!)  She lives close to me, she is easy to talk to, she does not make me feel dumb when I don't understand something, she supports me even though I ride a Standardbred, and she knows her stuff!  And she explains things in a way I understand...I guess she matches my learning style!  :)  Seriously, she is the reason Dreamy and I have progressed as far as we have.  Yes, I work my patootie off, but having someone like Judy has been invaluable. So my PSA for today?  Find an instructor who you adore.  It is fun to have lessons and be

Baby Tooth!

This morning after cleaning Reva's stall, I began to push the wheelbarrow out the door when I stepped on something.  Figuring it was a small rock, I bent down to get it....and to my surprise found one of Reva's baby teeth (caps)!  LOL!  So now I have two of her baby teeth...though this one did not cost me $20 like the first.  ;-)  LOL!!!!! Most horses swallow their caps, but I can totally see Reva eating her hay.....and being like "Whoa, what was THAT?" and proceeded to spit out the offending tooth.  Don't ask me why, but that is just her personality.  And why in the world do I get so excited about her TEETH?  (I seriously have them both in my office here on the edge of Dreamy's humongous - like could smash someone's skull humongous - 2007 High Point Standardbred horse head bust trophy. HA HA HA HA)  I have no idea why it is so exciting to me.  X-D It is not like the tooth fairy is coming to pay up......good LORD that thing could bring like $20 bucks

UNH Dressage Show - June 26-27, 2010

I love showing at UNH (University of New Hampshire) for many reasons.  It is not that far from home, it has great trailer parking, and I went to college there!!!  :D  That is the biggest reason I love to show at UNH; as an alumnae I feel like I am riding on my home turf.  A lot of people dislike riding at UNH because of the set-up and the small(er) warm up.  But I just love it.  And Dreamy really likes showing there too.  UNH has two summer USDF/USDF shows each year, as well as three USEA horse trials. The bad part about UNH is that they do not split classes junior/senior for pinning.  So that meant that last year we totally went home empty handed.  :(  That is fine, since ribbons are not what showing is all about, but c'mon.  I admit that after spending hundreds of dollars to show, it is nice to bring SOMETHING home!  LOL!  So last year I just focused on improving our scores and being happy to place 14th in a class of 20 something riders. So, this year I was just thinking of