Chicory Meadow Farm

07/24/2025

🌼Summer Camp 2025 Week 4🌼

07/24/2025

Week 4 of summer camp! Terrific group of kids! All so well behaved! We have advanced, intermediate, advanced beginner and beginner groups this week! Victoria, Marly and Ava are doing a terrific job of keeping everything running so smoothly and the weather has been very nice too!

07/24/2025

Chicory Meadow Farm’s beautiful Jazz won the “Solid Citizen” of the Day Award this past Sunday at the MLC Farm Horse Show. She is always so good!!!

07/24/2025

Morgan and Camille😂

07/24/2025

Morgan and Balthazar at the MLC farm show on Sunday🌸

07/24/2025

It’s heartbreaking how common the “throw-away” culture has become in the horse world.

Too often, horses are valued only as long as they meet the goals of their owners, riders, or trainers.

Once they no longer perform at the expected level — whether due to age, injury, or simply not meeting unrealistic expectations — they are passed along to the next person, and then the next.

Each time, we expect them to give us their trust, their willingness, and their bodies… but what’s in it for them?

Where is their reward?

Rarely do we pause to ask: How does this constant upheaval affect them?

Every change of home, every new rider, is a disruption to their world.

They lose the relationships and routines they’ve come to rely on.

Yet new owners so often expect immediate obedience, instant connection, and compliance without giving these sensitive, intelligent beings the time to adjust.

As these horses age or struggle to adapt, their value in the eyes of the industry often plummets.

Too many end up on a dark path — from show rings and lesson barns to auctions, and ultimately, slaughter.

These are the same horses who once gave humans everything they had, over and over again.

It surely should not be this way for anyone who claims to love horses.

Join the Equitopia movement and help create a culture that values horses as individuals — living beings who deserve respect, long-term homes, and care beyond what they can do for us.

Let’s give back to them for the years they gave to us and commit to being adequately aware and educated to understand what that entails - www.equitopiacenter.com 💚

07/23/2025

CMF riding team had a great day at MLC Farm this past Sunday! We brought Jazz, Balthazar, Domino and Lou to the show. Congratulations to all riders! Everyone did well!

Special Congratulations goes to:

⭐️⭐️Katrina and Balthazar⭐️⭐️
⭐️Champion in Mini-Stirrup⭐️

⭐️⭐️Mimi and Jazz⭐️⭐️
⭐️Champion in Beg. Short Stirrup⭐️

⭐️⭐️Harper and Domino⭐️⭐️
⭐️⭐️Champion in Novice⭐️⭐️

⭐️⭐️Catherine and Jazz⭐️⭐️
⭐️Reserve Champion in Mini-Stirrup⭐️

⭐️⭐️Phoebe and Domino⭐️⭐️
⭐️Reserve Champion in Short Stirrup⭐️

07/23/2025

Correct pace and track to “find” a distance.

"We all know that the secret to finding 8-10 proper jump distances in a course is to stop looking for the distances. Easier said than done, right? The best way to “find” the jumps is to maintain the correct pace and track and the jumps will come out of stride.

My struggle has always been that my ammy brain goes full on “clear the mechanism” the moment I enter the show ring. Standing at the ingate I have a plan of action, but the moment I pick up the canter that plan vanishes like ringside mimosas before the adult ammy classes. I needed something incredibly simple, that didn’t require lots of brain power, and would keep me on pace.

My pony, unsurprisingly, likes to back off in the turns. My instinct is to settle into that too slow rhythm and then find the jump on the half stride. My brain knows that it is unreasonable to ask him to leave the ground if he has no impulsion, but often I don’t realize how much we have slowed down until it’s too late. However, the flip side of that is that if I do remember to keep him going through the turn, there’s a high possibility that I will continue to build and still find the jump on a half stride because I overshot my rhythm.

Staying on my track is easy, but maintaining my pace has long been my Achilles heel. I tried counting, but it was too easy for my to get off beat without realizing it: 1, 2, 3, 4 could become 1…2…3…4…because I was matching my counting to the canter, not the canter to the counting. Fortunately my trainer at the time recognized my dilemma, and helped me figure out a method to beat my own brain at screwing things up. It’s a game changer, and in case you don’t have a trainer who can identify your ideal canter rhythm on the fly, I am here to bring you the condensed version that has saved my behind on any number of occasions!

The first key is finding your ideal jumping canter’s Beats Per Minute (BPM). I stole some tips from Dressage Land (who knew that musical freestyle would come into play in the hunter ring?!) to help you find your ideal BPM. There are a couple options, but regardless of which one you choose, warm up fully before you start. It is helpful to have a cell phone, 3 same colored polo wraps and one wrap in a different (and bright!) color, and an extra person on the ground to help you out.

Most canters will fall in the range of 95-110 BPM. My pony’s personal ideal is 104 BPM. Before you start the process, wrap one of the front legs in the single bright colored polo, and the other 3 legs in the neutral matching wraps. Track so that the bright colored wrap is on the inside front leg. Every time that leg strikes the ground at the canter, will count as one beat. Whichever method you decide, I would recommend counting a couple times just to factor in human error."

🔗 Read the full article at https://www.theplaidhorse.com/2020/11/12/life-hacks-for-maintaining-a-proper-pace-on-course/
📸 © The Plaid Horse / Lauren Mauldin

07/23/2025

Please share with your horsey friends!

07/22/2025

"The best riders don't just ride – they study their horses and make the effort to understand them." - Ariat Athlete and 4x Olympian Boyd Martin