February Vacation Riding Program

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!

February Vacation Student Riding Programs

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!

Life off a farm

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).

A perfect winter weather day to launch 2010

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!