Clover Ledge Farm

After a fantastic first ever dressage show back in May, I was pretty excited to see what the June show held in store for us.  Admittedly, I do think it is tough to start out so well with such stellar scores.  I am NOT complaining, I am happy we did well, but it is tough to start on top.  I would have much rather started in the lower 60s and mid pack for ribbons, and then we'd have a place to "move" to and improve.  I figured we had only one place to go and that was down!  LOL! But, Snappy came out ready to show yet again and was a rockstar.  I, on the other hand, got extremely sick on Saturday before the show and spent the day with a yucky stomach flu.  I did manage to school her lightly that morning before things went really downhill, but it took me double the time to braid her because I kept puking (GROSS) and having to sit down after each braid.  I wiped down my tack and didn't even clean my saddle!  Oh the horror!!!  Haha. I was worried that I would end up feeli

Wanna hear something crazy?  My oldest son turned twelve on May 23, and BOTH of my mares, Snap Dancer and Dreamy Starlet, share his birthday!  Snappy was both in 2000 and Dreamy in 1991. Even weirder?  After Snappy's first dressage show in May, I realized they both started showing at age sixteen at the same show in the month of May.  And they both won their Intro A classes!  (Snappy's placed second in Intro B and I am pretty sure Dreamy had a third, but that was a while ago LOL!) Here are pics showing them each trotting down centerline for the first time.  

I would say Snap Dancer's first ever dressage show was a success!  She was super good!  My goal is always to stay on (the horse) and stay in (the ring)!  And of course, it has to be fun or I'm not going to do it haha.  She warmed up well and I was so happy with our first test of the day (Intro A).  It didn't even matter what the score was or how we placed, I was just so relieved to have given her a good first time trotting down the centerline.   Just about the time I was to enter for Intro B, they announced the results of Intro A.  I was so happy to hear us announced as first place that I could have cried!  The ribbon was just a bonus to an otherwise lovely day!  I thought the judge was super generous, but heck, I'll take great scores!  :-) Intro A - 1st place out of three with a 71.563% Intro B - 2nd place out of six with a 69.063% Nahhhh, not nervous! First time trotting down centerline! After our first ever test!  I was so happy with her! Pho

Knowing full well that entering Snappy in her first ever dressage show for May 22 might have been a huge mistake, I set out to find a way for us to ride in an actual dressage ring beforehand.  I wanted her to see the tiny white dressage fence, complete with letters and flowers.  If she was going to be incredibly spooky about Christmas trees and rocks on our daily rides at home, then she was surely going to kill me when I asked her to trot around a dressage fence, right? I found a local fun day on April 24 that would have the ring set up and it was even the same venue where I planned to show her in May.  Perfect!  I did not account for the fact there would be a trail course (complete with balloons and tarp curtain) directly outside the ring by E, but heck, if she could get through this, she could get through a calm dressage show. Snappy was tense and nervous when we arrived but not crazy.  She did not want to stand tied to the trailer and worked herself up about the entire ordeal, b

As it is every spring, I have to spend time thoughtfully legging up my horses who pretty much have the winter off.  Without access to an indoor, this can be highly frustrating to me, but I have also found that patience and perseverance does pay off eventually.  This year was even harder to me, as my horses and I had the entire past YEAR off because I was pregnant.  Yeah, I did not plan that out very well (haha), but I figured in the large scheme of life it really wasn't a huge problem. Well, cue the month of March. Snappy was crazy.  I mean, I expected her to be a bit skittish and jumpy, but I figured that she had been going SO well in the late fall of 2014 when I stopped riding for the winter (and then got pregnant that January...), that I thought after a couple of rides to get the winter sillies out, all would be fine and we would progress as normal. Ummmm yeah, about that... I honestly almost gave up.  She was nervous, scared of everything, forgot how to bend or h

After purchasing the dump trailer in the previous post, it was time to purchase a new horse trailer.  I sold my trusty 20" Eby stock trailer last fall for $500 more than I paid for it brand new in 2004 LOL!  The new trailer is a similar style but it is made by a local Maine company called Frontier!  It's a great trailer and 24' long, so there is a bit more space.  We had it custom designed with two 9' sections and then a smaller 6' section at the front for a tack space. Box stall in the back Box stall in the middle Looking through the little door into the "tack area"