Clover Ledge Farm

Ellie and I closed out our busy 2019 season with a dressage clinic with USDF Gold medalist  Ashley Madison of Yellow Wood Dressage  at Hidden Brook Farm (where I take lessons).  Almost exactly a year ago, I rode with her  for the first time; this year I was able to ride both weekend days thanks to my Morgan Dressage Association scholarship! Ashley had not seen Ellie in a year, so she was suitably impressed with the progress we have made.  I really like being able to ride in a two-day clinic as it seems to help solidify what you learned the first day by being able to practice it again immediately (at least immediately in my mind as someone who takes weekly lessons haha). I was also lucky to ride in a later afternoon lesson on Saturday and then Ellie spent the night at HB Farm and I rode in the second lesson on Sunday morning.  It was so much easier to only truck her up and back home once, plus Ellie LOVES being at HB Farm haha. Riding with Ashley helped me better understand our S

For the fourth year in a row, I participated in the Equestrian Blogger Gift Exchange , which Tracy so kindly hosts (and has for seven years)!  I love choosing gifts for a fellow blogger, trying to find just the right thing to match their likes and interests.  And it is definitely fun to come home from work to a surprise package of horsey things for me! This year, I received my gift quite early!  Thank you so much Eventing Saddlebred Style for the two surprises this past week!  She must have been checking out my Pinterest board I indicated I have, as these are both from my "want" category haha. Plus, this is a new-to-me blog, so as soon as I finish this entry, I plan to tag along as a follower.  I like adding to my reading list, even though I have been terrible at commenting lately. The cute little fox mug just makes me laugh.  I definitely cannot bring it to the middle school where I teach hahahaha, but I have already used it here at home a few times! And the t

On the last day of September, I received an email from the Vermont Morgan Horse Association asking if I would be interested in bringing Ellie to Equine Affaire in Massachusetts from November 7-10.  I became a member of VMHA this year when I decided to compete at Vermont Heritage Days; so even though I live in Maine and not Vermont haha, I made a snap decision to say yes!   Our VMHA booth in C Barn Honestly, it was 21 minutes after the email came in that I responded yes!  Then I had to figure out how to actually make it all happen hahahahaha.  Typical. All set up! I attended Equine Affaire as a spectator a few times way back when and then for many years I ran the breed booth for the Standardbreds, including a four-day stint in C Barn with Dreamy back in 2013 .  It is fun and exhausting to travel 4+ hours one way from home to talk with thousands of people, walk thousands of miles around the venue (ok, not that far but close), and ride in demos on a horse that has never seen suc

If you happen to follow my Instagram, you may have seen a new photo yesterday of a horse that looks an awful lot like Ellie, but it isn't Ellie! It's her momma! can you tell which one is Ellie and which is Rejoice?? Yes, it is true.  I now am the proud owner of Kennebec Rejoice, Ellie's dam.  To make a long story short, as Miss Gardiner, who owns Kennebec Morgan Farm, is now approaching 98 years old (!!!!), the managers have been placing the broodmares and selling the younger stock.  At this point, there are only three stallions left: Ellie's sire, who at age 25 will live out his days at the farm, a ten-year-old named Triple S Midnight, and a five-year-old named Kennebec Commander.  (So if you know anyone who wants a LOVELY breeding stallion, I can put you in touch!) Rejoice was Not Impressed that she was in the ring all alone in the world, aka her friends were fifty feet away and she could see them. *facepalm* Most of the broodmares had been spoken for year

I almost didn't attend the last Pony Club rally of the year, because I wasn't sure if I wanted to show in the dressage show on Saturday and then the rally the following day.  But seeing as this rally with Central New England Region (through Atlantic Pony Club) is only for riders at the D level, and my plan is to earn my C-1 next year, I knew that this was my one and only chance to compete.  I also figured Ellie was more than capable of doing two Training level tests the day before an event.  And as a D-3 rider, I was required to do BN Test A and jump 2'3", which seemed like a perfect move-up opportunity. Of course, it was an early morning adventure to get to the Groton Fairgrounds in Massachusetts, a place I had never been to before and is 2.5 hours away.  I left the house at 4:30am (OUCH) and luckily had a super easy drive down to MA.  It was only 29 degrees when I left, and it wasn't much warmer when I arrived at the grounds just before 7am.  There was still

I honestly had thought our last dressage show of the year was going to be  the Esprit show at the end of August.   I started gathering my scores together to submit for year-end awards, and I realized that if I did just one more show, I could submit scores for CMDA (Central Maine Dressage Association).   Plus, doing this show would give me yet another two tries at Training 3 before we do First next year.   AND, because it was the "Kur for a Cure" show, I would be able to dig out all of the pink things I bought several years ago for a Drive for the Cure event at the track and have been hanging onto just in case we ever did something similar.  Even though pink really isn't a good color on a chestnut, it was really fun to dress up a little for a show!  And the flowy scarf was uhhh, kind of fun flowing out behind me while I rode LOL!   of course, I couldn't use the bell boots or polo wraps, but the pink overload was fun anyway haha my oldest son took the pi

Because Ellie and I were awarded a Morgan Dressage Association scholarship this year, I spent a lot of time looking for worthwhile dressage clinics to attend.  Sadly, throughout the first few months of the show season, there really wasn't anything I was interested in.  There was a Shannon Dueck clinic I was thinking of attending down in MA, but it ended up being canceled.  I knew Ashley Madison would be back this fall, the clinician I rode with last November, but I had enough scholarship money to ride in at least one other clinic. I saw an interesting clinic pop up on my Facebook feed in August.  The farm where it was being held is almost three hours away, so I hesitated at first.  But I inquired and there was a spot open for me on a Saturday, which was much more doable as we were back in school by this point.  The clinician was Georges Malleroni, the director of the Escola de Equita ç ao de Alcain ç a in Portugal.  He is originally from France, studied extensively with Nuno Oliv