Clover Ledge Farm

OK so Now That's a Trot sent me a photo to give me inspiration for a costume.... My goodness, if ANYONE has any idea how I can create that.....I am all for it. HOW FUNNY would THAT be in a costume class at a DRESSAGE show? And I am an adult of 29 years of age....not a child with a pony! ROFLMAO ! Can you just see the dressage queens' faces??????? I love it! The only ideas I could come up with on my own so far have been...... Dress up as a witch, dress Dreamy up as a "black cat" and C up as a pumpkin. C rides Dreamy in his adorable tiny western saddle and I lead her. Dress Dreamy as a farmer and me as a cow......now I have no idea where to find HUGE overalls and then get them to stay on her front legs/chest....and where would I get a cow costume???? But that would be funny as all get out. Dress as Zorro and Dreamy is....my gorgeous black steed. Does Zorro's horse have a name? I need help. :D

So we only have three events left this year......and a lesson scheduled for a SATURDAY so I will not be stressed trying to get to a lesson during the week with my job and all. Sept. 28 - The STB Nationals...in New Jersey!!!!!!! October 4- Lesson with Judy - LONG overdue! October 12 - Marshaling at Scarborough Downs for the Stakes Finals October 19 - Last SMDA show....it is a ride-re-ride with Keith Angstadt. I am beside myself with excitement over going to Jersey for the National Show! :) And the Ride-Re-Ride should be fun. I entered Training 1 and 2, just for the heck of it. I wanted to be safe and do Intro B......but I KNOW we can do that. I rather have more opportunity to try the canter....and doing it this year will lessen the anxiety over doing it next spring. Judy keeps saying.... First Level .....but THAT really stresses me out. LOL! So, the Ride-Re-Ride also has a Halloween Costume Class. I have not done a costume class since I was 12 years old. I simply couldn't re

WOW, we had the BEST EVER ride today at our dressage clinic at my instructor Judy's farm. I was super excited to get to ride with Susanne Hamilton and she did not let me down. While the money I have spent on lessons this year with Judy has been money VERY well spent, I am SO glad I coughed up the big bucks to ride with Susanne today. The changes in my horse were un - frickin - believable . Yes, I know that is not good grammar, but holy cow, you have no idea. Dreamy was AWESOME. First thing Susanne says is "OH I remember this mare from the show.....whoever trained her has done a fabulous job!" So I grinned and said, "Well thank you." ROFL! ;-) So anyway, when she asked what I wanted to work on I told her the connection to the bit and her canter. Often the connection to the bit is not 100% steady and then Dreamy does a hoppy skippy thing at the trot...almost like she wants to canter. We warmed up fine and then she asked for the canter. Of course, Dreamy throws h

Dreamy is simply a rockstar. There is truly no other way to put it. We had a blast on Sept. 14, 2009 at the Hilltop Horse Trials in Somersworth, NH. Granted it poured during dressage and cross country and we all sat in the trailer the entire time.....Dreamy in the back box stall munching hay and S, C, and I in the front box stall. But despite the rain we had a good time. After winning our event in July at Green Acres going Pre-Elementary, I knew it was time to move up. Some events call the next step up Elementary and some call it Modified Beginner Novice. Basically it is exactly the same as Beginner Novice, except the jumps are a few inches shorter. So we moved up a level and WON our division. :) Granted there were only 3 riders in our division of Senior Modified Beginner Novice, but still we won and that makes it so exciting! We scored a 44.2 on our dressage test and went clean both XC and stadium. Dressage was good....again all 5s, 6s, and 7s. We did Beginner Novice Test A. But we ha

Dreamy was a rockstar at SMDA .....albeit a bit tired from her marshaling duties the day before. I won't do two events back to back again. I always forget that Dreamy really is getting "older" at age 17 this year. My other mare is 26, so I inadvertently call Dreamy my "young" horse. Anyway, despite being tired, Dreamy was great. I limited our warm up to not over stress her. I do think she was a bit stiff behind. I was bummed about that (because I had allowed it to happen....and as I said won't happen again) but she was fine. She had both Monday and Tuesday off to recuperate. We placed second in Intro B with a 66.500% (out of 4 riders). Then we placed 3rd in Training 1 with a 59.100% (out of 5 riders). YAY ! I was so pleased with our progress at Training 1 this year. We have gone from a 53.something% up through to the 59.1%. Almost a 60%!!!! All 7s and 6s, with just two 5s. Nothing less than the two 5s! :) Waiting for pics from the photographer....she told m

So......it has been awhile since I have posted. I have been waaay too busy with school. We marshaled the race card last weekend here in Cornish (my hometown) for the 10 th annual Horseman's Day at the Trotting Park. It was a fun day as usual and was the third time I have marshaled races in Cornish. It rained from 7:30-9:00 AM, but then cleared out. I bathed Dreamy at 10AM and we were headed out by 11AM. Only 3 miles to the track. :) We marshaled the 8 races and did an informal meet and greet along the fence at the end. I did some nice canter work in the infield and Dreamy was fantastic. We even marshaled one of the races at the canter! YAY ! Usually we trot out in front of the post parade, but after our nice canters I decided to canter out. Seeing as I marshaled FIVE of the races on my own, I was able to make decisions like that without worrying about upsetting someone else. Not sure that I will do this again though.....it is always the Saturday before the last SMDA s