Clover Ledge Farm

So, this was the big recognized BN event I had planned for and hoped for in 2020. Ellie and I had done well at the BN 2-phase in May and the BN cross country derby the week prior. I thought we could do just fine. Yet, we had started to have a problem with jumping that sort of began slowly and ended up becoming a real problem. At the time, I had a bad habit of taking my leg off and expecting my horse to jump, as my previous Standardbreds were so incredibly honest. Ellie is brave and willing, but as the fences got bigger (not that BN is that high, but 2'7" was certainly the largest we had jumped by 2020!) and I just sort of sat there passively, Ellie started to stop. She would stop if she thought the jump looked a bit scary, she would stop if she just didn't understand the question, she would stop because she really wasn't seeing the jump. Hmm. It took Babette and I a while to figure this all out, but the catalyst was this recognized event at Course Brook Farm in MA. We ...

We headed back to our lesson barn in July for another go at First Level. This was a little different, as Beth decided to try a Thursday show. This meant it was a super relaxed day with a bit few entries than normal. At this point, we were still struggling with Ellie's canter, to help her find her balance by slowing down the canter. This was a huge work in progress in 2020, so this show we still had comments related to her balance in the canter. However, we also scored a few 7s and an 8 on our trot, free walk, and center lines which was great. We ended up with a pair of 61% which was incredibly accurate for that point in time in a small class of five.  First 1 the first time = 61.8966% 3rd First 1 the reride = 61.5517% 4th This was also about the time I finally admitted to myself that my Stubben Juventus just wasn't working well. Yes, it fit Ellie perfectly, but it really didn't fit me. It tipped me forward and I just couldn't be effective in the saddle. I started a supe...

At the beginning of July, Ellie and I tackled our first ever BN level XC course at a competition! We take jumping lessons with Babette at RABT Farm (Rest & Be Thankful Farm), so having Babette there that day to coach me was perfect.  We did have some bobbles on my part, like not riding to each fence and not enough leg (NEVER ENOUGH LEG) so we had one stop on course, but I was super pumped to have a chance to jump around a course at a place we are totally comfortable but it was a crazy chaotic day with 50 horse/rider pairs and a ton more activity than our Wednesday lesson days!  ready to go I paid for a second unjudged round after our division of nine riders jumped and we went clean. It was a beautiful summer day and such a fun opportunity. All COVID protocols were in place and people were super respectful of them.  Due to our stop, we ended up in 8th place with a 3rd place team finish! I paired up with two of my Epona PC teammates for the team competition and they bot...

Ellie and I had a late start to starting up dressage lessons in the spring of 2020, which was fine with me since I appreciated the opportunity to get out for lessons at all! So many of our issues at the time stemmed from connection (a lack thereof) and Ellie blowing off my seat/half halts. It was nice to look at 2020 as an opportunity to really buckle down on training and not worry about showing rated or pushing ourselves to really get solid at First level. Beth (my instructor) wanted us to tackle First level in the competition ring, even though we still had plenty of bobbles and Ellie did not always want to work as a team haha. But the pressure was off due to COVID which was actually just what we needed. We tackled First Level in the middle of June 2020. We ended up only doing dressage tests/shows at Hidden Brook Farm, where we take lessons, which was perfect. And we only did First 1 last year because we were NOT ready to do much else haha. It was a huge growing year. Our debut at Fir...

Of course, none of us had any idea if we would be able to compete in 2020. I will say that my big goals for the year (which were sitting in an unpublished post from January 2020!) were to keep my horses healthy, happy, sound, to move up to BN with Ellie, and to complete one recognized horse trial at BN. And despite all of the COVID-19 protocols and cancellations over the year, we did meet our goals (mostly). Many of the local barns here in Maine took on the challenge of bringing us safe competitions in 2020. Ellie and I started the year by competing in a little schooling 2-phase and debuting at BN. It went well and it got me excited about the year's possibilities.  We had a great dressage test (placed second in our division) and then had one rail in our show jump course. The rail was totally my fault and for our first ever BN outing, I was pretty excited! We ended up fourth in a mid-sized division. And because I do not remember much else for specifics, here's a big old photo du...

Again this year, Ellie won her fair share (and then some) of year-end awards for 2019!  We competed at Training level dressage and three consecutive levels in eventing.  We started the year in June at pre-elementary and won, then did two events at elementary for a first and second, and ended the year moving up to advanced elementary in October.  We also did two what I think of as "regular horse shows", the Vermont Heritage Days and the Maine Morgan Breeder's Cup Benefit Show. I am listing this in order of banquet dates, so that is why there seems to be no rhyme or reason.  (Plus, having posted this over a year later, can I just say how weird it is to see pics of everyone without masks???) Maine Horse Association  Training Level Champion with a 67.4995% American Morgan Horse Association  Open Competition Program Reserve Champion Eventing 5th place Traini ng level dressage    Central Maine Dressage Association 3rd place Tr...

 Oh, hey! It's been a little while, huh?  Haha understatement of the year.  Could life have been more crazy over the last 14 months? When I last posted at the beginning of 2020 about recapping 2019, I lost a bit of interest in blogging. I just didn't have it in me to write posts about how boring a winter in Maine can be without an indoor, about how Ellie and I bobbled through deep sn*w in frigid temps just so neither of us went stir crazy haha. Dreamy and my youngest on Christmas 2019 Ellie on the right, her momma Rejoice on the left And then of course, March 13 arrived and everything changed. My own struggles pale in comparison to others, but it was an incredibly tough end of school year to say the least.  I posted this to my Facebook on day two of quarantine, homeschooling, and teaching online. It was rainy, my two children were already cranky about our new schedule, my oldest had to do a chemistry lab in the kitchen which made the youngest REALLY JEALOUS, and it t...