Clover Ledge Farm

Dreamy and I are officially signed up for a team penning clinic the spring.  Yay!  I am at a point in my life where I am brave enough (or stupid enough...you decide!  LOL!) to try new things.  Much like my saddleseat lesson , team penning has always been something I have wanted to try.  I have always felt too nervous to attempt it, but I decided this year that I might as well give it a shot.  Dreamy might completely freak out and hate cows, but I trust her and feel trying it in a clinic environment will be best.  I am not sure that I will actually do it in competition though.  I don't have a desire to be competitive in any disciplines other than dressage and eventing (and hunter under saddle to a point).  This stuff is just for FUN!!!   And what is the worst thing that will happen?  I will realize team penning is just not for us.  The best thing is that we will have fun and be versatile!  Who knows, maybe I will love it and want to try more of it!  I am certainly open minded!! S

This past Sunday, February 19 was the Standardbred Pleasure Horse Organization's banquet.  I flew to NJ with my friend Tania and overall it was a good trip.  Both my mares won a few National awards! Dreamy ~ Champion Combined Training  (ribbon plus a big plate trophy) ~ Champion Demos Award  (ribbon plus another big plate trophy) ~ Reserve Champion Dressage  (ribbon plus a small glass trophy) Reva ~ Reserve Champion Rookie Horse  (ribbon plus a big purple glass bowl  trophy ) ~ 5th Overall High Point Horse  (a pretty neck sash!) Reva also won a few thirds, fourths, fifths, and sixth places in In-Hand, Dressage, Hunter, Showmanship, 2-Gait, and Equitation but SPHO-NJ now only pins champion and reserve champion (which was news to me).  It was a bit of a trick to get the four breakable trophies home on the plane, but I did it!  Yay!   Dreamy's demo award presented by Jeff Gregory Dreamy's combined training award presented by Jimmy Giorgianni -  fifth

I am super excited to have won a gorgeous print from Unbridled Photography !  Deb, the photographer, ran a contest on Faceboook to name the print.  My title "Equine Meditation" won!  Not only did she donate one of the 16x20" framed canvas prints to the Maine Standardbred Breeders and Owners Association, but I won one as well!  How exciting is that??

You have to check this out.  It cracks me up!  I want one of these!  LOL!!! This is a mythical creature.  This type of man does not exist, at least in my world.  A girl can wish though...LOL!!

Thanks to Kate over at Riding from the Ground Up for bestowing blog award to me!  Yay!  This one is called the One Lovely Blog award.  I love sharing these (sort of silly, admit it) awards with my little blogging community.  It is good fun and it is almost like winning ribbons!  LOL!!  ;-D I am supposed to tell you seven things about myself and chose 15 blogs to share this award with.  1. I try really hard to not be  the "mean old English teacher" in all facets of my life.  ;-) 2. I despise anything remotely related to being domestic.  My only domestic quality is that I live in a house!  ;-)  I routinely wish I had a housewife who would do all that cooking, cleaning, and laundry awfulness for me.  UGGG!  My barn is always cleaner than my house. 3. I am way too competitive for my own good.  But I do have sportsmanship and can win humbly and lose gracefully.  4.  I can be too honest at times, which can get me into trouble.   5.  I have a Puritan work ethic

In talking about "Jack Benny" on a friend's Facebook status, I googled the name to find out more about the man who lends his name to horse show classes for riders over a certain "mature" age.  ;-)  After looking at a Wikipedia article, the next link was this story . Sometimes it helps to remember how truly lucky you are...

Longtime readers know that I fooled around with saddleseat last year (read here and here ) on my big mare.  I know very little about saddleseat, but Reva has a big trot and I liked the way the clothes look, so I thought WHY NOT?  LOL!  I am stupid and brave, what can I say?  I basically looked like a hunt seat rider dressed in a saddleseat suit and tack.  :-D  Looking at the pics now, I see how low my hands were, etc.  But we had a blast!  I knew that we were not perfect, but it was about having fun (and wearing cool clothing! LOL!!!) In an effort to actually LEARN more about this discipline for real, I took my first saddleseat lesson today!  It was super fun!  I love that my instructor Theresa did not make me feel like a complete idiot!  LOL!  I rode a cute chestnut Saddlebred mare named Gina.  (Oh, how I love chestnut mares!!) Theresa's daughter rode her in a big show last fall and did quite well. Obviously, the mare looks 100000 times better when ridden by someone who k

Kate over at The Adventures of Lucy is holding a contest to win one of her beautiful hand painted saddle pads.  In order to enter, I had to write a poem (not my strong suit) and post a pic on Facebook.  If you have a FB account, please hop over and like my mare's photo and poem please ?  I really appreciate it!!  :-)  And be sure to like Kate's business, Polar Square Designs!  I have been coveting these gorgeous pads for a while, but have not been able to save up to purchase one yet.  With your help, Reva could win one! This is the pic I used for the contest: