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Showing posts from June, 2013

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

FEA Benefit Show

This past weekend, June 23, I attended the Friesian Events Association Benefit Horse Show.  I like this show for many reasons, most of all because this organization donates money from their shows to different causes.  This year the show was to benefit a woman from NY who recently was in a bad carriage driving accident and has tons of medical bills.  They were able to donate a total of $2000 to her!!  WOW!  Of course, it also helps that it was held close (30 minutes) from home and is run by several of my wonderful horse show friends!! Dreamy and I did very well and had a great day!  I am proud of her for holding her own in the open classes, which unless they are specifically a hunter class, we compete against hunt seat, saddleseat, and western riders.  It was rainy in the morning and then SUPER HOT the rest of the day!  Blah!!  I love the heat, but this was a little much.  The show grounds don't have a lick of shade, so it was a bit exhausting to be in the sun all day long.  I li

Team Penning Clinic 2013

Dreamy and I had another chance to play with cows this year at the 2013 team penning clinic hosted by the Central Maine Team Penning Association on May 18.  I wrote about it here last year.  My friend Shelly came with me this time, and she brought her new project, a palomino QH gelding.  We both had a great day and the horses were awesome!  I really hope I can make time to compete at a CMTPA show this year! COWS MORE COWS This is Shelly's project horse.  He was super good and very happy to hang with Dreamy all day!  Does this saddle make my butt look big? Cute face, weird angle.  Her neck is not that skinny, promise!    Wild pony! Dreamy likes being a cow pony! The professional pics are here .

Another new adventure!

My goals with Dreamy last year in 2012 were to try team penning (CHECK!) and fox hunting (CHECK!).  I still want to play around with both of those disciplines this year and in the future.   But I have also wanted to try sidesaddle for a long time.  I bought a cheap $100 sidesaddle on a whim at a used tack sale that was HUGE on her.  It was literally wide enough for a draft horse.  Sold it on eBay and made a little profit.  :-) Then I found a no name Elan lookalike on eBay this past winter.  Elans are sort of the entry saddle for the sidesaddle discipline.  It actually fit Dreamy quite well, but it was incredibly uncomfortable   Sold that on Facebook just a month ago and made a little profit.  :-) I religiously check eBay and Facebook and all the sidesaddle websites, just to see what might come up.  The nice brands - Owen, Mayhew, Whippy, Champion & Wilton, Martin & Martin - are super expensive.  I figured I would never find something appropriate in my price range that was

Well, we couldn't avoid it forever...

Over the years, various horse friends have dealt with it.  I even have non-horse friends who deal with it in their dogs or even themselves.  There is not much you can do, and just have to treat it when it occurs. Can you guess? Yup, that's right... LYME DISEASE!  Uggggg!!!! Over Memorial Day weekend, I met my friend Tania at our instructor's farm for a lesson.  Dreamy hesitated to get onto the trailer, but I didn't think much of it.  She seemed funny when I groomed and tacked her up, arching up her back when I brushed her and almost like she did not want me to touch her.  Hmmmmm..... I got her to the ring, though she seemed a bit lethargic and immediately when I mounted and asked her to walk on, I knew something was wrong.  Not just the NQR feeling, but the OMGMYHORSEISBROKEN kind of feeling. My instructor encouraged me to walk her a bit to see if that helped.  It didn't. My heart was fluttering and I thought I was going to cry.  I dismounted and she a

Blog Award

Thanks to Dragon and NBChoice , I was doubly nominated for the Liebster Blog Award!  Yay!  Thank you both!!  I think I won this award once before, too!  ;-)  I have not seen blog awards for a few years, so this was a lot of work fun.  (haha) The Liebster blog award is to recognize blogs that have less than 200 followers.  The word Liebster is German for beloved and valued.  There are rules to this award... Thank the person who nominated you and include a link back to their blog. List 11 random facts about yourself. Answer the 11 questions given to you. Create 11 questions for the bloggers you nominate. Choose 11 bloggers with 200 or fewer followers to nominate and include links to their blogs. Go to each blogger's page and let them know you have nominated them! Random Facts: 1.  I don't watch TV.  Most people think I am strange for this and I don't know why I don't watch it, but truly, I don't miss it.   2.  I want to change my career, but I don

ASAM Dunegrass Living Classic Show - May 12, 2013

Our second show of the year was the ASAM Dunegrass Living Class Show on May 12, 2013. It is a double judged show, which is always kind of fun!  More ribbons!  LOL!!  Dreamy was super good, but sadly the judges continually pinned the shuffling four beat peanut rollers whose riders yanked them around with big kimberwickes.   SIGH   The ring was a huge mud pit along the rail, so riders in my large classes rode about ten feet off the rail.  It was impossible to go between horses and the rail because not only was there not quite enough space, but also because the footing was horrible.  So of course, my free moving hunter needed to pass on the inside, which meant we were pretty much making a 20 m. circle in the middle of the 100x200 ring.    It was frustrating to ride a good round with perfect leads and manners, but because the "hunters" in my classes were really western horses with English tack on, we looked terrible.  The horses that pinned would have never made it in the hunt

ASAM Long Horn Fun Festival Show - First Show of the Year!

Dreamy and I kicked off the 2013 show season with the American Saddlebred Association of Maine's (ASAM) 8th annual Long Horn Fun Festival Horse Show on April 28, 2013.  As a high school English teacher and the prom advisor, I was out super late on April 27 for our prom, so perhaps attending a horse show all the following day was not my smartest move.  But, hey, whatever.  I had everything packed and ready to go on Saturday morning before prom preparation began, and I waited to bathe Dreamy first thing on Sunday morning.  (She was thrilled - LOL!).  I did not bother to braid, which irked my inner George Morris, but there was no way that was happening.  It takes me forever to braid, since I only know how to do the sewn-in button braids, and I was already running on very little sleep.  And because I have decided to not show in-hand this year, it really did not matter anyway.  She was clean with a neat, pulled mane and it was fine. Because I arrived when the in-hand classes had just

Driving Miss Snappy

Snap Dancer has a reputation for being a tough little race mare, but she is actually a peach to drive.  My friend Katie was her groom and she not only loved to sit behind Snap, but also her husband learned to jog with her!  She is like a jogging schoolmaster!  LOL!  ;-) So, while I have been having a blast schooling her in dressage and jogging her under saddle, I have never driven Snappy.  I finally put together a harness for her (it has a lot less parts than a pleasure driving harness, that's for darn sure!) and my grandfather was kind enough to cut the long ends off one of his old wooden jog carts and rig it up with the quick hitch hardware.  My weekends were so packed that we did not have a chance to try it out as soon as I had hoped.   My son approved. He actually brought it up to me the day of prom (April 27) but we did not get to give it a test until June 1!!   While I knew Snappy would be fine, I did want him there for our first try.  Of course, she was perfect!!!  I

My horse rolls like a boss

I ought to have more time to blog over the next few weeks!  Lots to catch up on!   In the meantime, check out how my mare likes to roll!  It makes me giggle every time I see her do this! Snap Dancer Rolling Like a Boss from Elizabeth Tewksbury on Vimeo . The first time I saw Snappy roll like this, I thought she was either stuck or something was wrong.  Today I finally made sure I had my phone ready to film her, because after I hosed her off I knew she would roll!  LOL!!