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Showing posts from August, 2018

NER United States Pony Club Show Jump Rally - July 20, 2019

Ellie and I had SO MUCH FUN at our first Pony Club jump rally this year.  We drove up to Clay Brook Farms, where we had our D-1/D-2 rating, in order to compete for the day on July 20.  This happened to be one of the hottest days of summer, so the organizers modified the schedule a bit.  Instead of doing two rounds in the morning and one in the afternoon, we all did just two rounds (with a ten-minute break in between) all in the morning, so we were done and headed out just after lunch.  
Everything ran so smoothly despite the condensed format.  We were able to do our formal inspections right before we mounted up, and we were all encouraged to limit our warm up time.  We were not allowed to wear jackets, and there was a TON of horse water and ice cold human water available at numerous stations around the field.
I was competing with Epona Pony Club, but I was again put on a Horsemaster team with two other adults from Foxcroft Pony Club, Angie and Beth, the two riders I competed with at the…
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WMDA Team Show - August 19, 2018

The third and final show at my lesson barn was this past Sunday!  It was also a fundraiser for the Western Maine Dressage Association and a "team" show, which meant we were organized into teams for an awards ceremony at the end of the day.  Each test was awarded 1-7th like usual, but then the team scores were averaged for a champion and reserve champion in each division.  There were four types of teams: same test levels, same rider designation (AA, open, or jr/yr), mixed bag of nuts (any levels/designations), and free range (freestyle tests only).  I paired up with two other riders from my lesson barn who were also doing Training level tests.

Yup, that's right, I put on my big girl pants and rode our first Training level 1 test!  Whoo!  The plan had been to ride Intro B as a warm up and then Training 1.  Now looking back, I kinda wish we had done a Training 1 and a Training 1 reride, which is something that is becoming more popular at shows here in the last couple years. …
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Small Changes and Updates

I feel as though I have a lot of little things to document, but nothing alone warrants its own post.  So, as has seem to be my trend this summer, I will put a bunch of updates all together in between all the showing and lesson posts.

Now that Ellie has shown she is happy in a Neue Schule eggbutt and a drop noseband, I briefly considered buying her a Micklem.  Not wanting to spend $200 on a bridle she may not like, I have been keeping an eye on Facebook for a used one.  I came across a "small horse" aka cob sized black Micklem a few weeks ago for $100 shipped and scooped it up.  I figured for that price I can easily resell it and make my money back.

She definitely liked it!  However, the floppy cheekpieces drove me insane, so after initially using velcro tabs to keep them calm and contained, I bought the Nunn Finer rubber keepers instead.  Thankfully they came in a pack of ten, since trying to finagle those tiny things onto the Micklem was not easy!  The first one broke, but th…
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Central Maine Dressage Association Schooling Show & Combined Test - August 4, 2018

After our first ever combined test last weekend at Esprit Equestrian Center, we headed back there this weekend for their CMDA affiliated show.  Essentially it was the same exact show, just affiliated with a state GMO.  I have limited media because I went alone to this show, and my friend who showed up to ride her First level tests later on wasn't going to hold a phone out in the pouring rain for our jumping haha, though she did get a short 30 second clip of Intro C and a few pics.

This time around, I had a solid game plan, since we had shown there just six days earlier.  The show started at 9am and we were the fourth dressage ride of the day, so I arrived a hour and a half early in order to handwalk her in the scary indoor.  I asked permission ahead of time, of course, and doing this helped immensely.  It was dark that morning with the promise of rain (which did end up starting later in the morning), so the lights were on and the indoor seemed gloomier.  Ellie is a stop and look ki…
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