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Showing posts from May, 2012

Wentworth Hunter Pace - June 6, 2021

After Margaret and I had such a fun time at the fall hunter pace, we opted to go again this spring! This time, while I rode Rejoice again, Margaret rode her horse Jester and had a friend ride Ladyhawke. All Kennebec Morgans!! Jester and Rejoice have the same dam and Jester and Lady share the same sire. Unfortunately instead of a lovely late spring day, we had one of the first intensely hot and humid days of the year. It was definitely a bummer, but the ride was mostly in the shade of the woods and we had a great time!  most of the fences were 3' coops but we found a small log and this hay to jump haha Until we didn't. 😑 We brought along a third friend who rode Margaret's older mare, Ladyhawke. She's a good rider but hasn't known Ladyhawke for very long and didn't realize how much of a cranky boss mare she could be at times. She kicked Jester right in the front leg just about halfway through the ride, and while the cut itself ended up not being a big deal in the

Too Funny

UNH TSAS Combined Test 2012

Dreamy and I kicked off the 2012 show season down at my alma mater, the University of New Hampshire!  On April 15 we went to the TSAS Combined Test.  We brought along our good buddies, Tania and Otis , and we all had a great day! Fuzzy mare hanging at the trailer We had a pretty decent dressage test, but for some reason, Dreamy is not a fan of the footing at UNH or something.  She does a weird hoppy thing in the trot down there and it often makes the judge think she is sore or stiff.  She has not been like that at all at home, at lessons, or at other places this year, so I am going to have to chalk it up to the footing.  It is sort of heavy sandy type footing that almost feels "sticky".  Oh well.  We scored a 33 in dressage, which I was happy with.  That is like a 67% in regular dressage. The funny thing is that the judge is someone who has judged us many times over the last five years.  I really like her as a judge, and I think she is fair.  She was diplomatic enou

Happy 4th Anniversary, Standardbred Excellence!

I began this blog exactly four years ago today!  That seems crazy!  So much has changed over four years and I love being able to go back and see my mares' progress.  I wish I had the money to turn my blog into a book.  That would be pretty neat! Right now, I have 96 followers and many more readers who do not officially "follow" me on Blogger.  I would love to hit 100!!  Thank you, loyal readers, for reading and commenting and supporting Standardbred Excellence ! Total pageviews in the last four years: 32,664!  I know that is not huge compared to some blogs, but I think it is pretty neat!  I never thought people would want to read what I write! My most popular posts seem to be about chastetree berry, saddle fitting, ethmoid hematomas, our WEG 2010 adventure, and my COPD/Cushings post. Chastetree Berry - What is it and why do I feed it... Jul 14, 2009, 1 comment 792   Pageviews My Saddle Fitting Woes Might Be Over..... Jul 15, 2010, 4 comments 49

Easter Day Ride

For quite a few years, I have enjoyed cooking various holiday dinners for family.  This year, I was secretly hoping someone else would cook Easter dinner.  LOL!  My brother and his wife came to my "rescue" by inviting us over to their new house!  It was awesome to just show up and enjoy someone else's cooking.  Without any food prep, it freed me up to enjoy a leisurely early morning trail ride with friends Tania and Lydia (see beach ride!) and Angie and Craig (Tania's stepmom and dad!)!  It was a bit chilly, but it was fun and a great way to spend a couple hours in between the Easter Bunny's visit with my boys and a yummy afternoon dinner with family. Dreamy enjoyed her morning too!  We are following Lydia and Rey. Tania and Otis, with Angie (and Smoke) and Craig (and Quincy)!

Dreamy jumping!

Here are a few fun videos (made by my almost eight year old son!) of Dreamy jumping this spring.  She is 21 years old now and my plan is to do what makes her happy until she tells me she is done.  The goal this year is to have fun, try some new things, and to do a couple horse trials.  So far, she is in great shape and happy to be in work.  As long as she is happy, we will keep doing what we are doing!!  :-) This is from late March 2012: And this is from April 2012:

Beach Ride Fun!

Dreamy and I went to Pine Point beach in Scarborough, ME again this year on April 1.   We went last year with my friend Tania and had a blast.  This year we again went with Tania and Otis, but also brought along another friend Lydia and her horse Rey.  My friend Shelly met us there with her gelding McKeever and the eight of us had a fabulous ride!! I wish I had written this earlier, because at this point I really cannot remember as many details.  Ah well.  ;-)  I do remember when we were first entering the beach, a random woman saw us with our beach permits (we have to wear a number on our backs) and asked if we had come from a competition.  This was so absurd to me that I had to hold back my laughter.  I told her no, the numbers were our beach permits.  As soon as we were by her, my friend Lydia and I started to giggle.  Lydia said, "Yes, we are at a show and I'M WINNING!"  It struck me as so silly and set a great tone for the ride.  We started out by walking alon

Reva's Hoof Abscess

While I have been an equestrian for almost thirty years, I have never once had to deal with a hoof abscess...until this spring!  Reva had been back into spring conditioning almost three weeks when she came up DEAD LAME on March 23.  Of course, I was upset and figured she had done something horrible to one of her front tendons.  She was literally unable to put any weight on her left front.  Her forelegs were like tree stumps.  My farrier came out the following day and couldn't get a reaction with the hoof testers (this was a Saturday at the end March), and told me he didn't think it could be an abscess.  This made me pretty worried, and I tried wrapping her overnight and give her a bit of stall rest until Monday when I called the vet.  I hoped maybe she would come out of it and I tried not to panic.  She just pulled the wraps off, though they did make her tendons look normal again (Back on Track wraps are awesome!)  I figured if the BoT wraps made her legs look "normal"

What a spring!

Whew!  What a spring!  Obviously I lost interest in blogging for a bit...whoops!  It got warm and I started spending alllllll my free time in the barn!!  So much has been going on and I wish I had just kept up with writing, but oh well! I put the mares back into spring conditioning work the first weekend in March.  I followed a pretty typical legging up program...t wo weeks at the walk for  20 minutes a day at the walk, building up to 30.  Then three weeks of walk and trot for 30 minutes, building up to an hour.  And then three weeks at walk, trot, canter, building up to an hour+. Of course, I meant to blog all about it, but yeah.....you can see how that turned out.  Basically I rode both mares each day for 5-6 days a week and they gained back muscle and fitness quite well!  Dreamy was in great shape for her first show of the year, a combined test on April 15.  (More on that later, promise!)  Reva had some unexpected time off (more on that later too!!), but she is looking great n