The winter has gotten off to a fast start. On the weekend of January 7th and 8th I took four horses to Ocala Winter I Horse Trials. Jet had his first run since Fair Hill in 2010. He cruised around the prelim to finish 4th on his dressage score of 31.8. Penny at novice and Wheels at training level also both had clean cross country and jumping rounds and finished well. My one nervous nelly of the weekend was Gucci. He had three rails in the preliminary show jumping, but had a lovely cross country round on Sunday. Next weekend Jet, Gucci and Wheels will compete at Rocking Horse.

Today I taught a full-day clinic for Wekiva Basin Pony Club and the Sunshine Region. Thanks to DC Allison Thomas we had a great turnout. My parents were kind enough to host the clinic at their farm here in Ocala and the kids had the benefit of riding over many transported Amwell Valley Hounds Pony Club jumps. I look forward to working more with the local Pony Clubs here in the future.

The gang is all here at Camp Ashley. Holley and Towanda arrived from Pennsylvania on January 3rd and Chris Grant was only a day behind. She is here this winter from her barn in Radnor, PA with six horses. Her clients will come down throughout the winter. Melanie Blanding, who worked for me last winter, came for a week’s visit and took some great photographs of the horses schooling and competing. I also have two fun working students who arrived just after Christmas. Amanda Lloyd is an HB Pony Clubber from the Sunshine Region who has started the equine program here in Ocala at CFCC. Ashley Nace is a former 4H-er from York, PA who is here for three months. We also have County Saddlery rep Katie Gussenhofen using our farm as base camp for the winter and a few others planning to come and visit as the winter progresses.

Don’t forget to visit the Ashley Leith Equestrian FB page for photos and updates!

The atmosphere here at Heron Pond Farm is fun yet professional. We have a gallop, a full stadium course, and cross country obstacles through training level at my parents’ neighboring Pear Tree Farm. We also have a world class farrier on site — my husband Brian!

Please contact me for further information at alequestrian@gmail.com.

I took Great Wheels to the final show of my fall season this weekend at Rocking Horse and he was foot perfect the whole weekend. We competed in an open novice division with some very fancy big warmbloods. On Saturday morning I told Wheels that he was going to have to perform like a big horse to get the dressage score we needed. Wheels is only 15.1 hands, and with me sitting on him he can look a little bit like a pony. Wheels put in an extremely consistent and elegant test to walk away with a score of 27.5. That in itself, though, was not enough to allow us to breathe easy. There were sixteen horses in the division, and seven of them scored under 30. Wheels was tied for 4th after dressage. On cross country I had my best ride on him to date. Every jump came up just right. After cross country Wheels moved into second. Today, he jumped a clean show jumping round to finish with a win in the division. He is such a “professional” in his attitude, and a very nice horse to have in the barn as well. I was very proud of him this weekend and I look forward to finding a great new owner for him who will appreciate what a good boy he is.

Jet hacking yesterday.


Wheels, Jet, Monte and Gucci hanging out in the barn.

Monte looking handsome this fall.

How the babies have grown! They are like twins, they go everywhere together.

The weekend in Unionville, PA boasted spectacular weather and cross country footing. The event was further enhanced by the installation of a new, all-weather arena that was used for dressage and show jumping. Gucci placed 6th in a tough Preliminary Futurity class of horses six and under. He scored a 30.9 in dressage, dropped one rail in stadium, and jumped double clean on cross country. Monte in the CIC** had a disappointing dressage that landed him in the middle of the pack, but finished the weekend with his final qualifying score for the CCI** at Fair Hill next month.

Perhaps the highlight of the weekend was the bareback puissance fundraiser that I participated in on Sunday. The puissance was hosted by PRO, the Professional Riders Organization, and it was a fundraiser for PRO’s charitable partner Operation Homefront. As a founding member of PRO, I was asked to be one of the riders. For my mount I chose Bungee, or London Calling, a twenty-one-year old retired grand prix show jumper who has been my babysitter horse since last winter. Bungee is owned by Cheri Hicks, who also happened to be my groom for the weekend. Since January, Bungee has been busy taking students of mine to first level dressage shows, beginner novice and novice level events. Bungee retired from the Grand Prix level at the age of twelve. Even though I had actually only sat on Bungee twice, I knew from teaching him that he is a good sport and a good babysitter. Assuming that the jump would reach about 4’6″ or 4’9″, I hopped on him last Wednesday night bareback and jumped about five jumps, finishing at 4′. On Sunday, however, it turned out the entire bareback field was extremely well mounted! Jennie Brannigan, Ryan Woods, Caroline Martin and I all breezed over 3’6″, 4′, 4’6″, and then 5′. At that point the competition began to get interesting. The wall went to 5’3″, 5’6″, and then 5’9″. At some point Bungee and I had a jumping fault, but in the rules of this competition if you strip an item of clothing you are allowed to stay in the game. I wasn’t wearing any layers, so I opted to remove a boot. We continued to jump with one socked foot. As the wall went up, Ryan Woods and Caroline Martin also had faults and had to strip an item of clothing, but Jennie Brannigan cruised right along fault free. After Bungee cleared 5’9″, the wall went up to 6’2″. It was big! Bungee owed me nothing at that point. We came around our turn to the wall on a good pace, but at the last minute Bungee put in a refusal. All of the other horses who attempted the height had faults, except for a very good ride by Jennie Brannigan. She cleared the wall with ease to win the competition. Bungee owed me nothing at that point. He was amazing the whole time. The crowd was well pleased with all of us and the fundraiser did very well. Here is a link to the video:

Ashley Leith Equestrian is currently looking for individuals who would like to become syndicate owners of one of Ashley’s top level horses. Whether you are an amateur rider or simply an enthusiast of the sport, becoming an owner will give you the chance to become a part of Ashley’s three-day eventing team at a top level. Please contact Ashley for more information.