Clover Ledge Farm

Despite the fact 2020 was a year of cancelled shows and lots of horse show changes, I am still pleased with the fact Ellie was able to qualify for a few year end awards. Rejoice even got into the act with one of her own! Ellie Maine Horse Association First Level Champion  62.2414% Family Pleasure Horse Program (Most Hours Award) Maine Dressage Society First Level AA, 3rd place 62.2414% Western Maine Dressage Society First Level AA, Reserve Champion  62.2414% (no pic because I have not received the ribbon yet) American Morgan Horse Association Bronze Medal in Dressage *While they suspended the Open Competition in 2020, they still awarded medallions. For a bronze in dressage, we had to earn  8 scores for Training or First level tests completed in at least 5 shows with at least 4 different judges. At least 2 scores must be from First level. All scores must be 60% or higher. Rejoice Maine Horse Association Family Pleasure Horse Program (25 or More Hours Award)

Again this year, Ellie won her fair share (and then some) of year-end awards for 2019!  We competed at Training level dressage and three consecutive levels in eventing.  We started the year in June at pre-elementary and won, then did two events at elementary for a first and second, and ended the year moving up to advanced elementary in October.  We also did two what I think of as "regular horse shows", the Vermont Heritage Days and the Maine Morgan Breeder's Cup Benefit Show. I am listing this in order of banquet dates, so that is why there seems to be no rhyme or reason.  (Plus, having posted this over a year later, can I just say how weird it is to see pics of everyone without masks???) Maine Horse Association  Training Level Champion with a 67.4995% American Morgan Horse Association  Open Competition Program Reserve Champion Eventing 5th place Traini ng level dressage    Central Maine Dressage Association 3rd place Tr...

In an effort to get Ellie out as much as I could this year to SEE ALL THE THINGS so her tiny world could be opened up, we also have suddenly WON ALL THE THINGS as well!  Clearly, showing at Intro baby tadpole level is going to be our best year ever.  #introchampionoftheworld It also helped that the majority of our dressage shows were qualifiers for two and even three different clubs, so our nine dressage shows gave us points towards SEVEN different year-end programs in total.  That's a lot of bang for your buck hahahaha! Instead of writing a separate post for each banquet, I opted to wait and do one large post.  So, let's go through this in chronological order, shall we? First up was the  Maine Horse Association  banquet on Saturday, November 17, 2018.  I dragged my friend Rachel along so I would not have to go alone since this fell during hunting season and that means no husband is available LOL!  This organization only hosts open shows and gi...

When I bought Ellie back at the end of 2017, I somehow came across the Morgan Dressage Association's Facebook page.  Promoting Morgans in dressage is a cause I find worthy of support, and of course with a fun year end award program it seemed like something I might want to do with Ellie someday haha.  They base their awards on rated USDF shows, so it will be some time before we are ready to show regularly at that level though.  Schooling shows are life (and cheaper and closer...!)  MDS also has a scholarship program and an interesting newsletter, so overall it seemed worth the small fee. Besides sending in my yearly membership check, I have admittedly not had much to do with the organization.  However, back in November, I received two different emails from MDA about their scholarship program, as they were extending the due date by two weeks. Basically, MDA awards three to four $500 scholarships a year, to be used exclusively on dressage training on a Morg...

2018 was quite the year for Ellie!  I remember being so excited and nervous in May for our first ever dressage tests and having NO real clue how this year might pan out.  I had so many plans and ideas, but I took my cues from Ellie and what she needed and was ready for. The following goals are what I outlined back on the first day of January 2018 .  Let's see how it all worked out, shall we?   #allthesatin Start dressage/jumping lessons The eventing instructor I alluded to in my above post never really panned out.  I reached out to her initially in November 2017 to see if she was taking new students and she seemed excited to help me, but when I contacted her in April to actually begin lessons, she was a bit noncommittal.  She said weekends were too hard for her to schedule anything and weekdays were all over the place.  I was like uhhhh, alright (insert confused and sad face).  At that point, I had already started dressage lessons...

Many moons ago (like fifteen years, give or take haha), I submitted open competition points to her national breed organization for my Morgan, Sparky, in carriage driving, dressage, and hunter under saddle.  We never won a ribbon (they only place champion and reserve) but we did end up 9th in singles driving one year and 11th in hunter under saddle another year out of hundreds of horses.  I was pretty proud of that and even though we never won any swag, I still thought it was fun to submit points. Sparky was a blast to drive!   When I registered Ellie, I saw they are still holding the open competition program.  Of course, I immediately knew I wanted to submit points and try again with Ellie. Interestingly enough, this weekend was the annual convention and awards banquet.  After seeing some scuttle on Facebook, from what I understand, they never sent out any preliminary points standings for competitors to double check.  Instead, they just posted ...