Winter Scene at Cobble Hill

Much to our delight, a huge number of riders have decided to ride through the winter.  There will be some changes to the routine around here though:  We have scaled back Saturday lessons to leave a significant amount of time for boarders and leasers to ride.

Also, please make sure to keep the tack room doors and the office door closed whenever possible -- those areas are heated and the heat will escape quickly with an open door!

I spent a few hours yesterday helping Chuck put more of the siding on the barn.  HOPEFULLY our Thanksgiving visitors will want to do some heavy labor this weekend and we will completely finish the siding.  Next up:  getting the viewing room insulated, benches set up and a heat source in there!  I know there are a lot of moms, dads and grandmas who will be happy to hear about this!!!

Holiday Celebration on December 11th

We are going to hold an "open HOUSE" (not barn) on the 11th from 6-9 pm to celebrate the holidays and our wonderful year of operation at Cobble Hill. 

Look in the barn for a sign up sheet -- we will provide drinks, etc... and it will be pot luck.

Also we are going to do a blind-swap (I can never remember the fancy names) but anyone who wants to participate should bring a wrapped present worth no more than $10.

Until then, Happy Turkey Day everyone!

Sign up sheet posted for sunday jumping

Got the sign up sheet for winter jumping up in the brrrrr-arn today. PLEASE make sure you sign up for the days you want to jump.

In addition, Linda will be contacting everyone about the winter schedule. For those who aren't riding this winter, make sure to keep up with all our activity via the blog.

We are going to put together a Holiday Celebration ... stay tuned for the date. Riding and food will be involved.

Lastly, I am trying to convince Chuck that once the ground freezes and it is REALLY cold we should turn the outdoor arena into an outdoor skating rink. What do you think? The one time I got him to agree to try it in the yard was the warmest winter on record and it never froze, so if we can convince him we will either get a skating venue or a mild winter.

more pics

Chuck is sick, the Patriots lost a heartbreaking game last night and I am trapped at Bedard Brothers waiting for the Suburban to be serviced. At least they have internet access. So, I ordered the books Elizabeth needs for school, catching up on emails and now I'll post some more pictures.

I think I will do "B" horses today. Can you name all the B horses at Cobble Hill now? (hint: the horse page website has not been updated, so you'd have to actually have been in the barn to win this contest)

pics

Don't always have the ability to post pictures so here are some I like that don't fit any of my recent posts. Vixen in repose. Bradley -- posing!

Happy Birthday Jane (not the farmers wife)!

We had another great birthday party today for Jane's 5th birthday. Really funny -- she has an older brother John ... as do I! Don't find that many Jane's today.

Hercules and Jay had done double duty jumping (can you believe we are still able to jump outside and it is almost Thanksgiving???) so we used Zeus and Dixie for the pony rides. Once again, the boys and girls were most excited about riding the horses. We even did some trotting. The hay ride is also a great transition activity from the riding. Then we did the cake and presents and wrapped with the "needle in a haystack" (needles turn out to be individually wrapped candy).

The Hunt girls & friends did a little circus activity at the end which the kids loved, too. Hope to get some pictures.

I (we) LOVE LUCY!

With Linda's back hurt and then her family commitments in Florida, we've been shorthanded in the barn this week. Lucky for us, Lucy has been coming in the mornings to cheerfully help and clean stalls! Thanks Lucy!!!

Chuck and David finished the third, and final, run in shed and thanks to the use of Morrison's truck, cleared (finally!) all the construction dirt out of all the paddocks. No more king of the mountain games for the horses (or riders)!!

And, we've replaced the footing in the arena. Still waiting for the calcium chloride to really kill the dust but a very productive week.

Also, hope you noticed the really super clean lights and ceiling in the indoor arena -- Chuck used a rented lift and the power washer till almost midnight last Sunday night to finish that project.

Don't forget to grab a newsletter and let Linda or me know what your riding plans are (or are not!) for the winter.

Winter Newsletter and Season!

Here is the text of the newsletter that should be out this week!

WINTER 2009-2010 Newsletter




Indian Summer! While we enjoy these last wonderful days of fall, the barn is busy preparing for winter. As many of you know, we have over 20 horses – a few new winter boarders and some new school horses. We also have three new run-in sheds and have replaced the footing in the indoor arena and are very hopeful to have found the right combination to control the dust!



Winter Lesson Packages & Season sign up now. Many students took advantage of the 10 lesson package (it ends 11/20!) so we are offering the package for winter – with a few tweaks. The session will run from November 30th through March 13th. There are 15 weeks in the session. However, between holidays and those days when it is just too cold for lessons (less than 20 degrees) we generally miss a few days. So, we are going to price the package based on an expectation that there will be 11 total lessons. Just like in the fall, if you have to miss a lesson for illness or a conflict, you may (with advance permission from Linda) join a different lesson for a makeup. We won’t makeup weather cancelled lessons though (just like the airlines ).

Prices for the Winter lesson pack are:

Half Hour Private: $375

Hour Semi Private: $375

Hour Group: $250

Sunday Jumping: $400

Sign up even if you aren’t doing the ‘pack’! Even if you don’t plan to pay for the season, please let Linda know soon if you plan to ride for the winter – I know several of you have already done so. In addition, let Linda know if your schedule has changed or if you’d like to look for availability on a different day.



Private and Semi-Private lessons. If you were in a group lesson but really wanted a smaller, semi-private lesson or even a half hour private, winter is a great time to take advantage of the slower pace in the barn.



The Orchards. As some of you may have seen on-line the Orchards has offered a special rate to visitors to Cobble Hill Farm. We can get a $90 per night rate on available weekend nights in November or December. We are advertising a riding and relaxation package on line, but feel free to let us know if you have out of town friends or family who’d like to take advantage of this great package!

Cold Weather settling in

As the weather gets colder the race is on to finish up the myriad projects that need good weather.  Chuck's list is endless, but the big priorities right now are finishing the 'run in' sheds.  These are mini-barns -- almost like a doublewide for horses.  Here is actually a great picture by Krissy from a rainy day where it is obvious that the horses know what the sheds are for! 

We got this one pre-made from Jeannie that she wasn't using.  Chuck did a ton of figuring and bargaining and ended up determining that we (well, him and David!) could build them for less than half of what we would pay for them pre-built.  Below is a picture of the building in process.  By the end of this week (fingers crossed!!!) we will have three of these.  One in the large back pasture and two in the largest (blue) pasture. 

As of today we have 23 horses and 16 stalls.  Several boarders are here on 'rough board' and some of our horses (Ceasar!) are just as happy outside as in and we have some spots inside the barn where we can feed them.  With the three sheds we should be able to safely feed 6 horses in the pastures and then we can generally feed one horse in each of the smaller paddocks (there are four of those if you count the round pen) so we should just about be able to get through the winter.  (So I guess absolute max capacity is 26 but I am not voting for that)

The second biggest priority is the permanent fencing on the perimeter of the two large paddocks.  Once the leaves come off the trees the horses start to figure out that there are paths up into the woods that might be interesting to take ....  Waking up at 5 or 6 am to a phone call that a horse is loose is NOT a good way to start the day.  And fence posts don't go into the soil easily or straight once there is deep frost in the ground.

If the fencing is done and the weather holds we REALLY want to finish staining the boards and then putting them up on the exterior of the building.  I am sure our neighbors would be happy about that too.  In addition to simply a lot to do and not enough time to do it I will let all readers of this blog entry in on the real reason that we (Chuck) hasn't done this yet.  Risking my questioning of his sanity, he is seriously entertaining a further barn expansion to add four more stalls (see the math above).  He can actually make the whole thing sound really really sane and reasonable which probably means I've gone to the dark horsey side myself.