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Showing posts from August, 2016

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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State of Maine Dressage Association Show - August 21, 2016

Coming off last weekend's strong showing at Scarlet Day Farm, Snappy and I headed to another SMDA show at the Hollis Equestrian Park.  We did the May and June shows there, so I knew she would be comfortable at the venue.  Snappy was great yet again, earning two more blues for her growing collection.  

Intro A - 1st place out of 4 with a 67.813%
Intro B - 1st place out of 5 with a 68.438%



The tests were obedient and accurate.  I really want to clean things up enough to move up to Intro C and Training 1 next year, but time will tell.  It is tough to have a time frame in the back of your head because horses progress at their own pace.  And I am certainly no professional trainer, so it takes me double the time to teach my horses anything LOL!


I am still extremely pleased with this mare, but I will honestly say that I just wanted to break 70% again and would have been happy to come in dead last at this show in order to do so LOL! It's not about the ribbons, it's about the scores!  …
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Scarlet Day Farm SMDA Dressage Show - August 14, 2016

I took Snappy to her third dressage show last weekend, at a farm I have never been to (seems to be a theme with me this year, to try new venues!).  The new owners have done a great job with the older facility, and I really liked the superb footing and easy parking.  All the volunteers were friendly and helpful, which is always a huge plus to me.  And I knew it was a good place when I saw the huge sign in the indoor (their warmup area) that said BE KIND.  Not a common trait for much of the horse world, so it was refreshing to see!!

For years, SMDA only held their shows at the local equestrian park, but recently have been allowing private farms to host affiliated shows, so there are now TONS of opportunities for riders to earn year end awards.  I did not attend Scarlet Day Farm's first affiliated show this summer in July and I cannot attend their September show, but I do hope they will host shows again next year!  

Snappy is such a pain in the ass to prepare for a horse show, but she …
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Would You Like the 25 Cent Tour?

In my effort to catch up the poor, neglected blog back in January, I did a catch up post in photos.  I have kept a huge Facebook album (only 349 photos haha) from the beginning to end of our house and barn project.  I finally remembered to get updated photos of the barn the other day (last ones I had were from December 2015 when we moved the animals home), so I figured I might as well share them here, too!  

I love looking at other people's barns and there are many things about my tiny barn that I really like.  I wish it were bigger (of course!) but for what we had to work with for a budget (not large haha), I think we did a heck of a job!  It is easy to still look around our property and think, geez, I wish we could finish this or I wish we could fix that, but it's a work in progress!  
















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Searching for the Elusive Canter...AGAIN!

I spent YEARS and YEARS working on Dreamy's canter, as I was always working against her breeding and race training years.  I wrote an entire post about cantering your Standardbred back in 2009.  I am not saying it wasn't worth it, but I had believed that my next "show horse" after her would be anything but a Standardbred.  Don't get me wrong, I love the breed, but it's really time for me to move on.

Of course, what we think it going to happen in our life and what actually happens it not always the same!!  LOL!  I could write a book about that!  Snap Dancer fell into my lap and I couldn't say no.  Now that I am down to two horses, Dreamy being the other one at age 25 this year, it's not as though I have a lot of choice if I want to show.  It's either don't show or show Snappy.  I didn't show for two summers, both 2014 (deliberately took the year off, save for two little shows, one for each horse) and 2015 (pregnant!).  Obviously, if I wanted…
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