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Showing posts from May, 2011

Acadia Pictures Part 3

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And a few more...why not!

More Acadia

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Okay, those were not the pictures I thought they were...here are a few more. The best ones are on my facebook page, if you don't have facebook email me and I can email you a link to look at them without joining facebook.

Acadia 30 Mile CTR

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As I mentioned in my previous post, my gelding, John and I attended the Acadia 30 mile Competitive Trail Ride on May 21st. I went because it was on my bucket list and my friend Debbie also wanted to go. The trails were beautiful and it was one of those times in life (that seem rare) when your expectations of an event are actually exceeded. There was a professional photographer at the ride and she took some great shots of us. I will post those here when I get them, but I just ordered them today, so it might be awhile. I will also post a full update on the ride at a later date (really quick rundown - we rode 30 miles and John scored 99 out of 100). In the meantime, here are a few pictures I took while we were riding.

A quick update

I have been really bad about blogging lately, but lots of fun stuff has been happening. Here is a quick rundown: New stirrups finally arrived, buy stirrups with flexion, they are better for the knees :) John went to the Acadia 30 mile CTR on May 21st in Maine and was grand champion. Remi is progressing with her saddle training. I am running, a lot, but not very fast :) I'll post more on these items soon!

Summer Solstice Trail Ride Registration

Have you registered for the Summer Solstice Trail Ride yet? The ride is June 18th at Fort Hill Farms in Thompson and we have tons of great prizes from our generous sponsors. If you need a copy of the registration form (or have other questions) you can email me, or visit the CT Morgan website and print the registration: www.ctmorgans.org And select "Event Information" in the column on the left. Hope to see you on the 18th!

Grazing Backwards

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There is a small piece of grass in between the barn and the pasture where my horses go out. Rather than mowing this grass, I hand graze each of my horses for a few minutes on the way in or out of the barn. They think this is great (although I believe they would like more than a few minutes.) The picture above was taken at Leverett but you get the idea. Occassionally, I will lead the horses forward to a "better" spot of grass. For me, this means somewhere that needs to be mowed. The mares believe they know better than I do. If I lead them forward, they will graze backwards (taking steps back as the eat) until they are back in the spot where we started. You can lead a horse to water (or grass) but he or she will make their own decisions!

Leverett

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Our first 25 mile competitive trail ride of the season was this past Saturday (April 30th). Leverett was our rookie ride last year and its a fun ride, so I sent my entry in February (otherwise you end up on the wait list) and off we went. I rode with one of Megan's sons. She has a broken scapula and her other son has a horse with a cut frog - it was fun not to ride alone. Burnie's horse never wants to lead and my horse never wants to follow so it worked out well. The trail was pretty similar to the one we rode last year (maybe even exactly the same?) and I was pretty comfortable with what was required. I was still a bit worried about John (I worry well). I did not condition as much this spring as I had last spring. Our longest ride had been an hour and fifteen minutes. I also went out one day after some heavy rain, thinking that some riding would be better than no riding and went through the mud, and John's wind puffs (acquired going through the mud at competitive tra