Maine Equine Sports at Crystal Lake Farm

11/04/2024

What a fun Saturday of Groups!

The theme was confidence building with cone sending in a small group!

Each small group delegated tasks requiring clear, consistent communication among people.

This was a fun challenge for students!

11/03/2024

What an incredibly good day 🤩

These kids have worked SO FREAKING HARD for today! After our recent shows focusing on lots of schooling and working through challenges, it was so rewarding to see it all come together today and the hard work pay off. They absolutely crushed their goals, have improved tremendously in riding proactively & with the horse, their cues & effective riding have come so far. I watched them make so many smart choices for both themselves & the horses and bounce back from mistakes on their own. I love seeing them put their skills to use & be able to ride in and large open space independently.

In a large division of 11 (I think..maybe more?) they scored in both their Hunter & Handy rounds and placed!!!

💛Maddie & Spicy Pickle 3rd in the Ground Hunter Division💛

💚Lili & Moon Affair 6th in the Ground Hunter Division💚

I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t emotional after this one. To see my Pickle pony rise through the ranks with his lease kid who absolutely adores him after his first season showing was absolutely incredible. Just back in April a flat class was too overstimulating, now he’s placing 3rd out of 11 in a hunter derby 🥹 And just ONE year ago I was slowly restarting him tackles, just walking for the months of Nov & Dec 2023. My eyes have welled up with happy tears many times today.

Pharaoh crushed it of course and enjoyed strutting his stuff in a bigger space! Lili & Pharaoh have worked through so much this season. Pharaoh’s been the PERFECT teacher for helping Lili develop a stable lower leg & balance energy. Today was a HUGE accomplishment for them as a team!! 🎉

Wonderful work today ladies! I’m so proud of y’all & the ponies! 💚💛

~Kate

10/31/2024

👻 Happy Halloween! 🎃

At the show this past Sunday, 3 of our students entered the costume class! They designed costumes based on the horses names.

👑 Lili & Pharaoh were Pharaoh 👸

🥒 Maddie, Gabby & Pickle were Spicy Pickle 🌶️

So much fun!! 🤩

09/12/2024

Sunday was such a fun day full of 𝗛𝗨𝗚𝗘 classes and fun with the ponies! It was very windy but our ponies stayed their usual selves and crushed it! ⁣
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⭐️𝗚𝗮𝗯𝗯𝘆 & 𝗦𝗽𝗶𝗰𝘆 𝗣𝗶𝗰𝗸𝗹𝗲⭐️⁣
•2nd Leadline Hunter Seat Equitation (Riders 7 & Under)⁣
•3rd Leadline Hunter Seat Pleasure Horse/Pony (Riders 7 & Under) ⁣
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⭐️𝗠𝗮𝗱𝗱𝗶𝗲 & 𝗦𝗽𝗶𝗰𝘆 𝗣𝗶𝗰𝗸𝗹𝗲⭐️⁣
•3rd Hunter Breeding Ponies⁣
•8th 18” (0.45m) Baby Green Puddle Jumper A⁣
•6th 18” (0.45m) Baby Green Puddle Jumper B⁣
•4th 18” (0.45m) Take 2 Baby Green Puddle Jumper A⁣
•1st 18” (0.45m) Take 2 Baby Green Puddle Jumper B ⁣
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⭐️𝗟𝗶𝗹𝗶 & 𝗠𝗼𝗼𝗻 𝗔𝗳𝗳𝗮𝗶𝗿⭐️⁣
•6th Hunter Breeding Ponies ⁣
•4th 18” (0.45m) Take 2 Baby Green Puddle Jumper B⁣
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⭐️𝗚𝗿𝗮𝗰𝗲 & 𝗦𝗽𝗶𝗰𝘆 𝗣𝗶𝗰𝗸𝗹𝗲⭐️⁣
•3rd Ground Poles Jumpers⁣
•3rd Walk-Trot Equitation (11+)⁣
•5th Walk-Trot Pleasure (11+)⁣
•1st (out of 16!!) MeHJA Walk-Trot Poles Medal ⁣
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⭐️𝗞𝗮𝘁𝗲 & 𝗦𝗽𝗶𝗰𝘆 𝗣𝗶𝗰𝗸𝗹𝗲⭐️⁣
•2nd in a large Easy Does it Hunter Under Saddle Class⁣
•7th in Easy Does it O/F (18”)⁣
•5th Easy Does it Hunter Stake (18”) ⁣
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⭐️𝗞𝗮𝘁𝗲 & 𝗠𝗼𝗼𝗻 𝗔𝗳𝗳𝗮𝗶𝗿⭐️⁣
•3rd 18” (0.45m) Take 2 Baby Green Puddle Jumper A⁣
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A bit of a surreal experience for me wrapping up the day completing the Easy Does It division on Pickles who just 5 short months ago we were introducing to showing. At Pickle’s first off farm show in April, he was quite overstimulated. We did one flat class with 3 other horse/riders in a large arena, he quickly went over threshold. I dismounted and stood in the middle feeding him treats from my pocket & bringing him back down quickly on the ground. I knew I had my work cut out for me but stayed determined and calm.⁣
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Each show Pickles has made incredible progress and quickly has surpassed all expectations and goals this season! Students have been a big part in his success, contributing to his training at home and making smart choices at shows to set Pickles up for good experiences. Thank you to every student who’s appreciated him and taken care of him as if he were your own!⁣
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Great job team! Your horsemanship and sportsmanship continues to impress me and make me so very proud to call myself your coach & trainer!⁣
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~Kate

09/12/2024

A great explanation of why we choose mainly food rewards. Here at MES we certainly mix in scratches too, but it’s important to understand the value and how it’s understood to the horse.

Why don't we just use scratches with positive reinforcement instead of food? Well, in real life practice is becomes a clumsy, messy, inconsistent reinforcer to use alone.

Most horses either find scratching low value or extremely high value. If they aren't particularly itchy, scratches don't mean much to a horse. We can often train basic behaviors like standing for grooming or basic targeting/leading skills with scratches, but its not a reliable reinforcer when things get hard. It may be strong enough to maintain a behavior that is easy for the horse, but if its something they don't want to do or if there is competeing reinforcers available (like grass) its often not strong enough to maintain the behaviors. Then we end up mixing in R- again to make them listen.

Or horses find scratching too high value. Horses who are terribly itchy and love scratches. But they get distracted by wanting more scratches, they feel punished when we stop scratching and get frustrated when they aren't finding the clear path to more scratches. Sometimes the horses who like scratches the kost are the worst candidates for scratches as reinforcement.

Scratches are slow to deliver. We need to scratch for a sufficient amount of time that the horse actually appreciates it and feel satiated, for the reinforcement to be of value. Which is slow and exhausting for us. This would stretch a 1 minute training session with food with 10 reps of a behavior, 10 clicks+treats, to a 20 minute session. Its slow and interrupts the horse's natural training flow. They are thinking about the skill, get the click, then spend 2 minutes being scratched they aren't likely to jump right back into doing the goal behavior for the next loop. We want to be able to loop through the cue-behavior-reinforcement loop fairly smoothly and quickly so the horse can keep focusing on the task and the increasing criteria. Without interrupting it for frequent breaks.

We can however, use scratches as a great way to let a horse know when they did an extra good job. With a large reinforcement, a break from the repetition and a moment of being thoroughly appreciated. But food is safe, convenient, fast, adjustable value, and effect

09/12/2024

Unfortunately, we’ve had to postpone the Shawna Karrasch Equine clinic due to limited sign ups. We plan to reschedule to early summer 2025 and will announce a date once a new one is established. Sorry y’all! We were looking forward to it, hopefully there will be more interest early summer.

09/10/2024

✨This clinic is sneaking right up! Less than two months away!✨

We have 10 spaces (of 15) available to participants and have unlimited room for auditors!

This is an incredible opportunity to learn all about positive reinforcement training with horses from the leading trainers in this field.

Open to all ages and all experience levels. Training/instruction will be customized to each participant and horse.

⭐️You can learn more about the clinicians (Shawna & Jessie) and the clinic focus here: https://angelic-base-918.myflodesk.com⭐️

🐴Participants can trailer in OR work with one of Maine Equine Sports’ horses.🐴

Sign up soon to reserve your spot!

Find more info & sign up 🤩 here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSey6ufhheroV-XfxcZCDO6s0fa-a3if_dLKD6mNCR9kQHjnCg/couple

09/09/2024

Another beautiful day for Saturday Groups!

Each group learned about toxic plants to horses and what plants we have to keep an eye open for here in Maine. We paired this with an in hand trail walk practicing leading skills with clicker training and looking for plants that could be toxic to horses. Plus, it’s nice to slow down and be in the moment with these amazing animals!

The Kid’s group had some extra time at the end and got to sit on the ponies with no tack to hold on too, just their helpers leading & reinforcing the ponies. So fun!

2 Saturdays a month we offer 3 Groups based on age that focus on ground based horsemanship & horse care skills! This is a fun, education and more relaxed offering that’s included with our on farm quarterly programing. Providing students with educational opportunities, time to practice skills and time to slow down and enjoy the herd is so important to us & our program values!

09/06/2024

So excited to be hosting a Shawna Karrasch Equine clinic this fall! Space available!

We still have lots left for the rest of 2024 and now filling up for 2025. Who wants to host? PM us as we are filling quickly. Or if you want to come to one of these, let us know! We just added two new ones today.

09/04/2024

We’ve been checking projects off the to-do list this summer! ✅

This past weekend, some incredible students joined us to completely tear down and not only redo but clear brush and double the size of our largest paddock. Not only does this give our horses more space, but it also gives them access to more trees, tons of natural shade and a wide range of different footing.

The herd has been SO happy with this upgrade!

While we were at it, we also cleared enough space out along the paddock for a bridle path to ride and walk around! Along with cranking out some other projects such as new gates in more efficient locations for our needs, run outs off the stalls, an arena gate, repairing the no climb fence & more.

Last 3 photos are of our he fencing before and during replacement.

We truly can’t thank those who volunteered their time this weekend enough! Two 12 hour days of hard work, lots of time planning, and it certainly paid off.

⭐️⭐️Sarah & Jordan⭐️⭐️ crushed it clearing brush, assembling fencing and operating power tools both days!

⭐️Pete⭐️, Nik’s dad, helped cut down dead & damaged trees, pull posts and start fence assembly both day!

⭐️Ruby⭐️ helped out with brush clearing on Saturday in between barn shifts!

⭐️Maddie⭐️ helped with chores and fence assembly on Sunday!

We couldn’t have done this without y’all! Thank you all so much! 💕

Kate & Nik

PS Nik may of been wearing most of the dirt from the fence post holes in that photo! Holy heck that was a lot of work!

08/25/2024

What a day! I’ve been dreaming of Eventing again…but with R+ training of course. After competing in Hunter/Jumpers quite intensely with the ponies this year and developing the herd for sport with R+ training I know it’s possible. Keeping safety, joy, and welfare at the top our focus will be important of course. It’s going to continue to take the hard work, dedication, compassion, and time that we put into our training here, but it’s possible non the less.

Today we took a step at exploring this with students by attending a local 2-Phase! It certainly came with its obstacles but I’m continually inspired by this group. After seeing how excited each student was and the determination in their eyes as we explained the steps to getting to compete in a 3-Phase with our wonderful horses (heck I can’t wait for day to be on cross country again), I’m reminded how small the challenging days are in the grand scheme of things and how important they are for developing grit, character, horsemanship and sportsmanship. And oh boy do they happen, and it’s important to know limits, compromise, and allow horses choice - even if the answer isn’t the one we want.

Grace & Spicy Pickle
✨1st in Introductory Combined Training

Liliana & Moon Affair
✨3rd in Pre-Elementary Combined Training

Maddie & Spicy Pickle
✨2nd in Pre-Elementary Combined Training

Each of these students & ponies have come so far this season! I’m so impressed with each of them and how they navigated today!

Thank you to everyone who supports us & makes these experiences possible! Our herd’s wellness team, Erin for use of her trailer, Nik for being the best co-Coach I could ask for, incredibly supportive parents of students, fellow students who came out to cheer on MES, show management, and so many more. Thank you all 💕

Great work team! I’m so proud to call myself your coach!

Your coach,
Kate

PC: Amy & Renee

08/18/2024

Wow! What a day! We had a very rewarding day showing at Life’s A Ride with so much of this season’s hard work paying off! Plus, Kate hopped on Pharaoh (aka Moon Affair) for some fun. With Pharaoh being such a key member of the program, Kate hasn’t shown him in well over 3 years. A fun, emotional and rewarding day to say the least!

⭐️Gabby & Moon Affair⭐️
🐴1st Leadline Hunter Seat Equitation
🐴2nd Leadline Hunter Seat Pleasure

⭐️Grace & Moon Affair⭐️
🐴5th Hunter Breeding Ponies

⭐️Grace & Spicy Pickle⭐️
🐴1st Walk-Trot Equitation (11+)
🐴2nd Walk-Trot Pleasure (11+)
🐴1st MeHJA Walk-Trot Poles Medals

⭐️Maddie & Spicy Pickle⭐️
🐴4th Hunter Breeding Ponies
🐴5th Ground Poles (Jumpers)
🐴4th 18” (0.45m) Baby Green Puddle Jumper A
🐴5th 18” (0.45m) Baby Green Puddle Jumper B
🐴3rd 18” (0.45m) Take 2 Baby Green Puddle Jumper A
🐴3rd 18” (0.45m) Take 2 Baby Green Puddle Jumper B
🐴1st Hunter Pleasure Horse

⭐️Kate & Moon Affair⭐️
🐴3rd Ground Poles (Jumpers)
🐴2nd 18” (0.45m) Baby Green Puddle Jumper A
🐴1st 18” (0.45m) Baby Green Puddle Jumper B
🐴2nd 18” (0.45m) Take 2 Baby Green Puddle Jumper A
🐴2nd 18” (0.45m) Take 2 Baby Green Puddle Jumper B
🐴3rd Hunter Pleasure Horse

⭐️Kate & Spicy Pickle⭐️
🐴6th Easy Does It Hunter U/S
🐴6th Easy Does It Hunter O/F (18”)
🐴2nd Easy Does It Hunter Stake (18”)

Congratulations team MES! You worked so hard for this!!

A huge thank you to everyone who made today possible! From our team being so involved & their families so supportive, everyone who helps keep our horses happy & healthy, to Erin lending us her trailer, and of course Life’s A Ride putting on another wonderful show! Lots of thank yous are deserved all around!

08/17/2024

We’re so excited 🤩 to welcome for a clinic at in October!

What is there to learn in this clinic?

✨Learn the science and theory of positive reinforcement, including classical and operant conditioning and how it applies to your horse in training.✨

🐴Establish clarity by having a detailed plan for your goals, ridden or on the ground. 🐴

⭐️Watch as Shawna and Jessie work to create clarity and build relaxation in each session where things won’t always be going according to plan!⭐️

🟢 Learn how to address the specific issues your horse has by changing the way his brain works… it’s neuroscience! 🟢

Learn more about the clinicians (Shawna & Jessie) and the clinic focus here: https://angelic-base-918.myflodesk.com

Trailer in 🐴 OR work with one of Maine Equine Sports’ horses.

Options for auditing or participating currently available.

Find more info & sign up 🤩 here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSey6ufhheroV-XfxcZCDO6s0fa-a3if_dLKD6mNCR9kQHjnCg/viewform