Clover Ledge Farm

My riding lessons as of late have been focused on teaching Ellie the basics of leg yield, shoulder in, haunches in (travers), and lengthenings.  On my own at home, I have worked quite a bit with her on shoulder fore, leg yielding in both the walk and trot, and we have practiced variations within the trot gait, so she is familiar with the idea of trotting more forward when asked.  However, on my own I had not asked specifically for shoulder in, haunches in, or lengthenings.

It feels as though we spent sooooooo long just getting a solid walk, trot, and canter but now that those basics seems firmly installed, we are moving on up to big girl dressage things.  Ellie seems to enjoy the new challenges and has a strong work ethic and desire to try.  She definitely forgives my mistakes (mostly because she doesn't realize it is a mistake haha) and she doesn't get flustered when I have to ask her multiple times before she understands what I am asking.  Instead of getting annoyed or throwi…

This past weekend, Ellie and I attended a dressage show and 2-phase at the Kennebec Morgan Farm, where she was born.I entered Training 1 to get another shot at it under our belt before show season is over, as well as the PreElementary 2-phase division to get her more miles over fences at a show.Sadly the dressage test for the 2-phase was Intro B, but I had to choose either 18” jumps or go up to 2’3” jumps, which I do not think she is ready for yet.It is not a huge deal; I just want to never show Intro level again hahaha.

All of the USDF dressage was in the morning, with the 2-phase USEA dressage and jumping after lunch.This meant our Training level test was at 10:30, while our 2-phase dressage test was at 3:00.That is a long day, but I was able to get a stall for Ellie and volunteered, watched, and socialized during the downtime.

We made it up to KMF by just before 9am, which gave me plenty of time to get her settled into a stall and get myself organized to show.I planned to just bring …

Ellie and I attended the 12th annual Ever After Mustang Rescue benefit horse show this past weekend, which is a show I always look forward to every year.  Fun side note, this is where Amanda's Tristan is from!  Not only does the show support a wonderful local rescue here in Maine, it is a fun way to end the year.  I have been many times before, with Dreamy in 2009, Reva in 2011, and Snappy in 2014 as her first show and again in 2016.  I didn't attend in 2010 because I was at WEG with Dreamy for the Standardbred demos, and I had a two week old newborn when the show occurred in 2015 hahaha.  I have always had good showings at the benefit show with all the mares, winning lots of ribbons and high point rider with every single horse hahaha.

Despite the fact my focus has always been dressage and eventing, I do want to someday try Morgan shows with Ellie, hence the reason I have done a few of these shows so far.  And I think hunter under saddle type classes are kinda fun, not somethin…