Claremont Riding Academy, New York

I was inspired by another blogger who posted about an Edwardian riding academy in Montreal (sidesaddlegirl.blogspot) and thought I'd post some photos and information about the Claremont Riding Academy in New York near Central Park. Could you imagine renting a horse for the afternoon to go for a ride through Central Park?


It was built in 1892 and housed horses on the 2nd floor and the basement.


Horses were brought up and down to the arena from their stalls via ramps.


As you can see it has a small indoor ring that was obstructed by posts. Could defintiely make for some interesting riding!


I wonder if the riding academy in Montreal was inspired by this one? There must be more of this type of urban riding stable in other big cities. They're so neat!

Weeds! Darned weeds!

Well we spent a good part of the day weeding the gardens. I've been wanting to get it done but the weather has just been too rotten lately. So today was the day, partially because it was nice and partially because I received an email from Breck's Bulbs telling me my bulb order had been shipped. Our yard looks 100X better now.

I still haven't figured out how to get rid of the darned 'Ground Ivy' that I planted a few years ago. It's just taken over everything. I ripped and tore and pulled today and then took some 'Roundup' to it. Hopefully that will help. Don't EVER plant that stuff unless you're sure you'll want it there forever!

Wanna see the bulbs I ordered?

Some lillies...


And lots more tulips!








I want spring again.... :(

A nice new chapeau!

Sorry again for the lapse in posts, I have been super busy with my new job (which I LOVE), teaching lots of riding lessons and to tell you the truth, I haven't been riding much at all. I haven't ridden sidesaddle since my last post which is part of why I haven't had much to post about.

I did FINALLY get a proper top hat to go with my habit though! It's 6" tall and quite old. Gotta love Ebay! I've been kind of looking for one for awhile, they're so elegant looking! The only ones I've found in antique shops in my area have been horribly overpriced and in bad shape. This one is in pretty good shape and was a good price! Perfect!


I was soooo excited to get it! Although when I tried it on I laughed at how silly I looked! LOL I definitely think you need the whole outfit on for it to look good! So no pictures of it on me yet!

Well that was an adventure

Definitely more so than I thought it was going to be! Saturday was the Millarville Fair and I was running horribly late. We were scheduled to ride at 12:00 and as I made the turn to the fairgrounds it was 11:25. I thought to myself "ok I can tack up and get dressed quickly, not a problem". That was until I saw the HUGE lineup of traffic heading into the fair grounds. There was no way I was going to make it....

I was muttering to myself that I could probably ride there faster than waiting in this traffic jam.....That's when I developed "Plan B". I turned into the nearest driveway and ran to the house to ask if it would be ok if I parked my trailer there for a few hours. Luckily it was. I hurriedly tacked up & got changed, clambered on and we were off, galloping down the side of the road, passed all of the cars dressed in full sidesaddle attire towards the fair grounds. It must have been quite the sight! There was a lot of people taking pictures as I went zipping by.

But I made it in there on time!! PHEW!!! Luckily Brigit has been living with a donkey and a llama because there was a whole herd of llama's ahead of us in the parade and she didn't give them a second glance. She was really really good considering how much was going on.

I've decided I've either got to get a different hat to go with my linen outfit or figure out a way to secure it to my head better. It likes to act like a sail and blow off my head when we're going faster than a walk, hence why I spent a good part of the time with my reins and whip in one hand and the other hand on top of my head!

It was a lot of fun though, I'm sure we'll be going again next year!




It was such a neat fair, they have lots of the traditional judged events and the farmer's market was on too. I unfortunately don't have any pictures of that as my camera was back at the truck.

We were lucky enough to get a ride back to the horse trailer too! Which was nice because I was tired and I'm sure Brigit was too!

Millarville Fair & Flower pictures

We're off to do a sidesaddle demonstration tomorrow at the Millarville Fair! It should be lots of fun. I'm taking my camera so hopefully I can get someone to take a bunch of pictures for me.

The linen outfit was requested but I'm torn, I really really like the purple outfit, it's just so bright and fun! I guess we'll have to see what the weather is like tomorrow. If it's muddy AT ALL, I won't be wearing the linen one!

Hopefully the smoke clears too. They're having a lot of forest fires (300 of them!) in British Columbia and all of the smoke has blown over to Alberta. It's SO hazy you can't even see the sun. Very weird.

How about some pictures of the gorgeous lillies that are blooming in my garden right now? (Taken a few days ago before the smoke blew in)

Another fun show day

A friend and I went to a little local show yesterday. It was so fun! Really friendly, well run and just a great time all around.

Brigit and I won the english pleasure, english equitation and hunter over fences classes, we got 4th in the pleasure pairs class and then we swapped attire & tack for the costume class. I just couldn't resist breaking out the sidesaddle and fancy purple outfit again! We got 3rd in that class.

As we were leaving the ring I asked the judge if I could do the next class sidesaddle too. It was a "command class". Basically a show version of "simon says". They tell you to do something and if you don't do it or are the last person to do it, you get called into the middle. The last person on the rail wins. I figured I wouldn't have a chance in heck but thought it'd be fun anyways. It was a pretty big class with lots of people, some riding english & some western and then me sidesaddle! There was some pretty fancy western pleasure horses that I figured would take it for sure buuuut we ended up winning it!!! Brigit was soooo good!

It was so fun to answer everyone's questions about the saddle and riding sidesaddle. There was a group of pony club girls that were fascinated by it and kept asking how I kept my butt on it!

Poor little Winston was soooo tired after being at the show all day, he had a snooze on the way home.

Look at this face!

Isn't he cute? This is Winston, our neighbor's bulldog puppy. We're looking after him until Monday night while she's gone on holidays.

I am absolutely loving my new job and one of the perks is that he's sitting here in my office right now! They're ok with me bringing him in to hang out. He's way too excited with all of the people and attention he's getting; I'm sure he'll be a tired pup by the end of the day!