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Showing posts from December, 2011

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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2011 in Review

In an effort to not feel so blah about blogging, I figured I would copy my fellow bloggers who do yearly reviews.  So here you are....Standardbred Excellence for the year 2011!


January
The new year began with a recap of my horse goals.  I complained about riding in the winter in the Northeast and shared a book review with you.  I hit my 300th post, won a blog award, shared more video from WEG,  and applauded the USEF helmet rule.  Oh, and it hit -19 degrees here in Maine.  Somehow I have blocked that memory until just rereading that post!  Ahhh!


February
I reported out on the Maine Dressage Society banquet, which is always something to look forward to during the dreary months of winter.  I had fun with my friend Tania at Dover Saddlery and discussed the topic of "red snow" as it relates to horse husbandry.  Reva earned her own stall plate, at the request of a reader I talked about my Morgan's relatives, and I reveled in my little Standardbred featured in the 2010 USDF Yearbo…
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PRODUCT REVIEW: The Water Bucket Cozy

I have had the opportunity to test out the Water Bucket Cozy over the last week.  I wanted something that might not freeze the buckets quite so solid but without any electricity.  It retails for $42.95 at SmartPak which is pretty decent since a heated bucket is about the same price.


When I opened the package, the Cozy was like a big poofy jacket for a bucket.  LOL!  It came with nice little instructions and only took me a moment to figure out how to put it onto the bucket.  It went on easily and has stayed very clean and neat over the last eight days.


So far I am loving it!  I am using it for Sparky, as she is very good about not destroying things.  I moved the top cover out a bit so that the opening is larger for her to get used to it.  The company does recommend adding 4 cups of hot water to increase insulation but so far I am just filling it normally from the barn spigot.  I think that as the winter continues into the "deep freeze" I will add the recommended hot water.  But…
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Looking to buy a nice western bridle?

I am selling a western bridle on eBay...check it out!  If you know someone who might be interested, please share the link with them!  Thank you!





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Merry (Very Belated) Christmas!

As much as I tried to get in a blog post before Christmas, it just didn't happen.  Oh well!  Here are some fun pics from right before Christmas.  I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday, no matter which one(s) you celebrate!!





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Update and musings...

I always find that after I blog continuously for a month I need a break.  LOL!  And truthfully nothing exciting is happening around here right now.  I have had a bunch of little ideas for posts but nothing that seemed worthy to write on its own.  So here is a little bit of everything with very little coherence.  LOL!


We are having the oddest winter so far; it has been warm and MUDDY and just recently has gotten very cold and the ground froze up.  I am trying hard to get the mares out 2-3 times a week each, but there have been days I wanted to ride and it was just too muddy.  Over the weekend it was a bit too frozen.  Oh well!  Maybe it will snow (which I hate but it is better than the frozen rutted ground!) and then I can ride in the snow as long as the ice stays away.  


It is funny to me that over the spring and summer I would ride both mares each day and at the end, in my fatigue, would think, "Soon it will be winter and we can have some downtime!"  Of course, now that it is…
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NaBloPoMo - I did it!

I did it!  Thirty posts in thirty days...well actually, it was 32 posts!  :-D




I am not sure what made me want to do the NaBloPoMo challenge this year.  Part of me wanted to see if I could actually do it, part of me wanted to be like other blogger friends who have done this in the past, and part of me just thought it would look cool to put an icon like the one above on my blog!  LOL!  :-p


I do not think I would have been as successful had I not used the prompts each day.  There were some that I did not like writing as much as others, but overall it was not bad.  There are times when I have so much to write about and then other times I feel like I have the most boring life ever; writing something along the lines of, "Well, I fed the horses, mucked stalls, and had two good rides today" just seems silly to do every single day.  There are times when whatever I am doing for training under saddle with the mares is just not that interesting.  

Obviously it is easier in the spring, summ…
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