Lythrum Farm

10/04/2022

Look at these little goobers 🤦🏻‍♀️

Look at these little goobers 🤦🏻‍♀️

02/02/2021

Cory and Knight aren’t too sure about this whole snow thing...

12/17/2020

I was very disappointed at the lack of frolicking in the snow the horses displayed this morning. Remember to thank your horses caretakers on day like this! Horses don’t take snow days, even when it’s only 20° out 😂

12/05/2020

Trying to get the horses to come to us so we didn’t have the schlep through the mud did not go as planned.

09/28/2020

We are so excited to welcome Alyssa Lamb, her 6 year old OTTB Ralph, and her spectacular hippo Beau, to our assitant trainer position at the farm! Alyssa has worked for numerous International riders, and we are so excited to have her at the farm!

09/25/2020

Lara competed her mare Dior, and our own OTTB Dragon at Regionals last week and did a spectacular job with both! Dior hit the 70% again at 4th level in the open show and won her 4th level Regional Championship class as well with a 69%! Dragon had a great first season, and while his Championship ride didn’t score as well as we had hoped, he still scored up to 67.8% in the open show at Training Level and Lara and him helped show how amazing thoroughbreds can be! I am so proud of Lara with both horses 💗💗💗

09/24/2020

Michelle and Cory had a very rough start to their show career a very windy day many years ago where the ring exploded on them in Michelle’s first ever dressage test. So it was an incredible full circle moment when on the coldest, windiest day of Regionals, Michelle got the last score for her Bronze Medal!! I am so proud of all the work that Michelle has done both on and off of Cory to get through the darkness and reach the point where they are today, your determination inspires all of us at the farm 💞💞💞

09/23/2020

💞💞💞

Congratulations to Andrew Blair & Wristow (Weltstern x Fantine v. Fascination) and trainer, Sara Carlisle of Lythrum Farm, who have had an incredible 2020 show season culminating with a 6th Place (out of 20+) and 67+% at the USDF Region 8 Training Championships!! What a spectacular accomplishment for this team. 🎉

Wristow is from our foundation stallion Weltstern's very last foal crop. He was bred and raised by Matthew Beasley who developed Wristow for a successful career into the FEI. Wristow is now developing a partnership with his person Andrew through the guidance of Sara Carlisle at Lythrum Farm. We can't wait to see what next year holds for this special combination!

09/22/2020

First up for our regionals recap is our super pony DryBrook’s Annika’s Angel and my junior Claire! They placed 6th in their first level regionals class, and placed in the top three of nearly every class in the open show! I am so proud of these two, and can’t wait for the off season so we can keep working towards the developing Annika for the JR tests 💞

09/04/2020

We’re always excited to have Kathy Connelly at our farm for clinics, but it’s extra exciting when Reba comes too 💕

08/19/2020

We are beyond excited to have had installed in our arena this past weekend! It’s amazing how quiet and powerful these are 💕💕💕

08/17/2020

I’m going to post individual recaps of all our riders at HITS on Instagram- but for those of you only on FB here is the summary! After battling show nerves for the past few seasons, Michelle hit a major milestone and went down the centerline with Cory at Third level with minimal anxiety, and are going to be ready to crush it at Regionals next month. I am SO proud of how far you have come Michelle!!
After getting two 70s at Training level Maplewood, Andrew and Wristow continued to keep the bar raised and scored between 68-69% in almost all of their Training level tests this weekend, and got the cutest comment of all time with one judge calling them a “Debonair pair”.
My working student Claire competed my pony Annika from DryBrook Farm at their first show of the season and also scored between 68-69% in almost all of their classes at First Level! I’m so proud of how these two did especially since Claire only was able to start riding again a few months ago!
Lara and Dior crushed it at their second show of the season at Fourth level scoring up to 70.7%. Lara has been competing my OTTB Dragon this season, and after scoring 68% at Maplewood last month they earned another 68% at T-3 yesterday! Im so proud of this horse and how Lara is doing with him, and can’t wait to see them keep showing off how great OTTBs are.
Knight decided he was afraid of the judges entry bell, so our weekend was a bit of a rollercoaster, but our Saturday ride scored 71.7% even with two large boo boos! Luca came along as a non-compete since I am lucky enough to be so busy coaching that this season competing him isn’t quite feasible ❤️
None of this would have been possible without my right hand lady Amber, without you all would have been lost.
Onward to regionals!

08/13/2020

We’re all unpacked at HITS, and the horses are taking full advantage of their turn out ❤️

08/02/2020

“Silly humans, you thought only two strands of electric fence could deter me?!”
All of Dior’s suppling exercises are really paying off apparently.

07/27/2020

My whole life I always wanted a pet pig, and when I met a pig for the first time when I started volunteering at the MSPCA three years ago, it was nothing like the Charlottes Web fantasy in my head. Normal pigs can’t be hand fed, they don’t really cuddle, and they require a lot of rules and structure. Sensing my disappointment, I was then introduced to a super senior pig named Wilbur, who was everything I always dreamed a pet pig would be. We fed him tomatoes and then when he lay down if you pat his stomach he would roll over for belly rubs. I waited six months for my parents to leave for South Carolina for the winter before going to the MSPCA at Nevins Farm and adopting him. At 15 years old I knew Wilbur did not have that much time left, and I wanted to let him live out the last few months of his life out of the shelter. Two and a half years later, Wilbur had become a beloved fixture on the farm, and at 17 I was really hoping he was going to be one the pigs who made it to 20. I am heartbroken to say that this latest heat wave proved too much for our old man to endure and he passed away early this morning. I loved Wilbur more then I can put in words, and I will miss him immensely.

06/25/2020

Since Wilbur is so old he only comes out of his stall once a day (if he walks more then that he is lame the next day) but every once in a while when I open his door at night he will stand in the opening to inform me that we would like dinner in his room 🥰

06/24/2020

The three boys are too excited about grass to be bothered about the downpour 😂❤️

06/03/2020

I am profoundly bad at posting on this account, but story is one that every equestrian should be following. Heels down mag wrote an amazing article on this equally incredible woman and I am so inspired by Brianna Noble.

05/24/2020

At first glance you might recoil in horror that Dragon has ripped off his hoof. But no no, look closer and you will see the raw talent it took to pull off a glue on shoe with a bell boot on🤬🤬🤬

05/23/2020

❤️

05/09/2020

Why bothering eating hay out of the trough, when you can eat the dredges of hay from the wheelbarrow it just came from 🙄

04/27/2020

Cory says “Happy Monday!”, not that that means anything anymore anyways....

03/07/2020

Annika hopes everyone is having a great start to their weekend 💞💞💞

12/03/2019

Why wait for New Years to make resolutions? — Lythrum Farm Dressage

I have decided to make a solid attempt to be better at updating the Farm's blog, and since the snow coming off the roof of the indoor today made teaching not possible, I had no excuses not to do it.
www.lythrumfarmdressage.com/blog/2019/12/3/why-wait-for-new-years-to-make-resolutions

I am a firm believer in making resolutions all year round, and my resolution this year is to be better at updating this blog (even if I am merely musing into the Nothing). This year’s show season was a whirlwind, since we decided to wait for the nice weather in June before really starting to compe...

09/28/2019

Well, managing multiple social media accounts is clearly not where I shine, but the Lythrum Farm crew had a great show at NEDA Fall Festival last week! I was so impressed with all of my students and all of the horses we brought, and excited to start training for next year 💓

09/18/2019

We are all moved in and settled for NEDA fall festival! We’re halfway through our warm up rides, and Knight is so excited he got to come! 💕

07/18/2019

Wilbur is almost fully shed out! His lower back hair is holding strong still, it’s kind of like the pig version of a mullet right now....

06/11/2019

Pone-pone Supreme likes to hold pone-pone Jr’s tail in his mouth and walk around like this. This is the fourth horse he has done this with over the years. 🥰

01/10/2019

Adult Amateur Dressage Shame: The School Master

This is such a wonderful description of the journey that is Dressage- it should be required reading for anyone starting out in our sport!
https://dressagedifferent.com/2013/10/07/the-school-master/

Dressage tends to attract a certain personality type. Of course this is a generalization but I am ignoring that fact because it does not suit my overall point. The bulk of dressage riders tend to b…

12/07/2018

Taking pictures of halter tag makes it look a lot more dramatic than it is 😂

11/07/2018

This is what happens every time I give Wilbur new hay bedding ❤️

10/18/2018

Rubilee SPF and Wilbur are pretty cute 💕

10/03/2018

The long awaited sequel of Wilbur and Marlene!
I was so happy to see how many people were as excited about my super senior rescue pig Wilbur’s new friendship with a frog we named Marlene. After phoning a friend (aka asking Facebook) about what to do with a semi domesticated frog in the winter, Marlene seems to be implementing a very bizarre “phase out” of Wilbur. Instead of being a constant presence in Wilbur’s stall Marlene now is there pretty much ever other day. I am hoping she is using her travel time to scout out a good pond or place to hibernate in.
Meanwhile we are winterizing Wilbur’s stall and just added a new batch of exploded hay bales that become unusable mounds of fluff in our hay loft, but are perfect bedding for Wilbur! He also loves when his horse friends destroy their expensive winter blankets beyond fixing so he can have them for his winter cuddles.

09/23/2018

Ok guys- here is a close up picture of Marlene from yesterday morning. Everyone cast your votes for:
1. What breed of frog she is (I think breed is the right term? After a lifetime as an equestrian though that’s what I am going with...)
2. If Marlene is in fact a lady frog.
🐸🐷🐸

09/19/2018

Wilbur and Marlene say Good Morning!

09/17/2018

My story about Wilbur and Marlene got a lot more reach than I would have ever imagined! So for all of Wilbur’s new fans, he is a potbelly pig mix that we adopted from the last year. Because he was 15 years old when he was at the shelter no one wanted to adopt him, so he was there for a year before I convinced my family to let us adopt him so he would have a loving home for his remaining time on earth, and now we can’t imagine life without him 💕💕💕

09/15/2018

Whenever we get hay deliveries we give the leftover hay fluff to Wilbur, and he immediately dives into it like a small child in a leaf pile 💕