I helped Chuck with the horses yesterday afternoon and boy was it COLD. Kudos to all the riders who have braved the cold. I am really convinced that it WILL get warm soon.
My brother has shared a YouTube clip he made that you might enjoy. It is my "first" pony ride. On a paint pony, of course.
Not sure why this loads twice but it is only one clip. Play the volume if you really want to get the maximum impact. And to any potential pony riders out there, we DO NOT drop the reins on your pre-schooler and have no one lead the horse at our parties!
Krissy has been braving the cold and getting some great shots. The entire new album will be loaded on Facebook and I've gone back and added pictures to some of the recent posts, so make sure to scroll down.
Every year our riders look forward to the Oak Hollow spring and fall shows. Last year several of us also participated in the Gymkhanna. We just got the dates for the Spring Show and Gymkhanna, and I wanted to make sure everyone put the dates on their calendar because despite what Pawxatuwney Phil says, we really will have Spring sooner than we know!
Gymkhanna: SUNDAY April 25th Spring Show: SUNDAY May 2nd
Last year we began to perfect a process of preparing the riders who wanted to show and to assigning horses. We will build on that success this year by facilitating early communication. To start with:
For ANY rider who has NEVER participated in a show, you MUST get Linda's permission to compete and her sign off by event. We have had a lot of fun with these low-key shows, but even still the horses and the riders are more keyed up than usual and Linda is the BEST judge as to what will result in the best possible experience. The spring show can be particularly challenging for those who (reasonably!!!) take the winter off from riding. As a guideline, Linda would like beginner riders to have had 12 lessons directly proceeding the show. February 14th is 12 weeks from the show!!!! Please spread the word to those that are not riding this winter. Perhaps they would like to sign up for February riding during WES vacation? Also, if you don't want to start riding till later in March, you will need to get some extra sessions in with Linda and we will have to plan those now.
We are also planning to dedicate the week of April WES vacation to riding experiences that build in preparation for both events. For all our Pine Cobble riders, let us know if you'd like to do something similar in March .... Stay tuned for the April info.
Lastly, for our JUMPERS. We are going to announce the new sessions of jumping with Karrie soon. If you want to JUMP in the show, you should also discuss with Linda and Karrie their recommendations for a preparation schedule that will have you ready to compete! (And we will make sure that we get a CLEAR understanding from the judge and organizers whether you can compete at different levels or not!!!)
The Gymkhanna events aren't generally stuff we do in lessons. Again, we'll do some special stuff right before the event in April during school vacation, but if you think you want to do barrels or poles or some such activity, remember to have a conversation soon with Linda!
Finally, Oak Hollow may not do a Fall show. We will consider doing one at Cobble Hill if that is the case. We will wait to hear from them. And, I know several riders would like to do additional shows/events this year. We will begin to post here some good opportunities. Just remember, if you pick an 0ff-site show, we need to insure you have transportation for your horse and if you are using a CHF horse, that it is available. Chuck, Jeannie and Karrie all have trailering capacity so if we plan ahead we should be golden. As I mentioned to one of my daughters, a legendary Drury basketball coach (Frank Zoltek) used to preach the four Ps. Poise & Planning Prevent Panic!
Sign up sheets are in the barn for February Vacation programming. We'll be doing 10 am - 2 pm Tuesday and Thursday. Games, Relay Races, A "Show How Much you LOVE Your Horse" contest, a Horsemanship Workshop with Jeannie and a group one-hour lesson!
We are hoping to have beginners and advanced beginners on Tuesday and Intermediate to Advanced Riders on Thursday. But sign up for the day you can make it (or both!) and we will make sure the program works for all.
Remember, we have heat in the tack rooms now and if it is bitterly cold, we will do activities in the house.
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It is COLD out there. Every stall was full last night. Thank Goodness Debbie has started working on Fridays and Saturdays -- she doesn't seem to mind the cold as much as us!
We are going to offer two days of programs for February vacation -- a day for beginners and advanced beginners and a day for intermediate riders.
Jacki has a lot of great non-riding activities planned and you will get to see the new activity/viewing room set up if you haven't been to the barn in a while! Hint: the riding days come shortly after Valentine's Day and we think most of our riders favorite Valentine is of the four-legged variety!
As always, Linda will do a fun, hour long lesson. And new to the programming will be an age and ability horsemanship project with Jeannie! How many of you know how to take apart and put back together a bridle?
Look for sign up sheets next week in the barn. If you aren't riding this winter, this is a great opportunity to get back in the saddle -- spring will be here soon!
As some of you know, the farmers wife accepted an exciting new professional challenge that started January 4th. While the work is rewarding and interesting, it has obviously taken me off the farm a lot more than last year.
I will try to be better keeping up with the blog! The farm continues to grow and thrive. The MCLA riders will be starting back up soon and we have another new boarder. Crisale arrived a week or so ago and replaced Faith as the newest horse on the block!
We are definitely using all the paddocks now day and night. Dublin and Bam seem to do well together in the front paddock (PINK for those who know the color scheme!) and Crisale (I hope I am spelling that right ....) is in the back, side paddock (I still think of that as Fritz' paddock!). Fritz, Zeus and Patty are a happy threesome in the far paddock bordering blue -- near where my feeble attempts at the outdoor skating rink reside (they are looking askance at my efforts in the picture above).
I will post more later, but we are going to kick off our vacation programming with a one-day riding experience on the Thursday of February vacation. Even though we will be a few days late, we will be making Valentines and treats for our favorite horses. Also, Jeannie is going to do a session on equipment -- how to take apart and put together a bridle, etc....
My PT is going well on my foot, so at least some progress toward my New Year's resolution is being made ....
Krissy is using email and promises to send me some new pictures soon and I will definitely post those from wherever my travels might bring me (this week is Boston and Baltimore).
We woke to comparatively mild temperatures and a light, fluffy snow to welcome the New Year. Even the horses seemed to buy in to the beauty and serenity of the day -- when we opened the gate from BLUE paddock in order for the horses to file down to the last gate there was none of the traditional pushing and kicking.
Chuck and Krissy have now transitioned all the stalls to the new bedding system and it certainly makes stall mucking a lot quicker and easier. Remains to be seen, but it is looking like it will be cheaper too. Nothing to complain about there!
We took most of the day off from farm work and used the tractor to contour a few 'jumps' on the sledding hill. We made a small snow man and a fort for him/her to protect and had a nice fire on the track.
Chuck and David finished the last fencing line in the YELLOW paddock yesterday. They are putting up a little fencing around the waterer and we are going to switch the daytime paddock assignments -- Patty, Zeus and Fritz will go to YELLOW and Dublin and Bam will go to pink. This will allow Patty to get used to more of the heard because of the shared fence line with BLUE but it also seems like Dublin is pretty territorial over his water source and some of the BLUE paddock horses seemed like they weren't getting enough water from that shared waterer.
The better news (from my perspective) is that the fence work gave Chuck a chance to check the depth of the frost in the ground. It is close to 12 inches so we also are hoping to get the skating area set up in the round pen this weekend! The stancion is not frozen and we have enough hose to reach. Those hoses are thawing in the garage over night.
So, sharpen your skates and get ready for tons of winter fun!
Lending the perfect name to a wonderful season, last night Faith, a rescue mare, arrived from the Equine Angels Rescue Sanctuary (EARS). Her new owner and their family along with ours were here to greet her.
She has the most beautiful eyes and face and truly lives up to her name. The picture above is from the rescue website.
Chuck read to Elizabeth from the book that Frank Weller from EARS left last night about the plight of PMU mares and we were all disturbed and quite moved to learn more about the very difficult life these animals live in order to provide Hormone Replacement Therapy. As a woman of a 'certain' age, I must say I am relieved that I have avoided taking an HRT although it was more for the side effects it might have on me than from any knowledge of how they are manufactured.
Elizabeth is now determined to spend a week volunteering in Connecticut this summer and she and her cousin stayed up late last night designing their own Save the Horses blog to raise money for EARS. Check out wwwhelpthehorses.blogspot.com (no 'dot' after www ...)
Faith is in what our regulars will think of as Caesar's stall. As hard as it was to say goodbye to him, it feels great to have Faith take that spot in our barn.
The second picture above is Patty (who we are calling Peppermint Patty during the holiday season) chosen because it is a great shot AND the EARS organization actually has a medicine hat on their website and cards!
If you want to learn more about how Faith came to be rescued and got to our farm, check out http://www.foalrescue.com/.
We have our work cut out for us tonight to insure no creatures are stirring but we are hopeful that Santa will forgive a few grazing horses, a hyper dog and affectionate cat.
As Chuck said at the barn party, we are extremely grateful to everyone who made our first full year in business such a pleasure and success.
We look forward to a great 2010.
For this post, you get Buddy and Sammie pictures. Both as photogenic as the girls and the horses!
