Dynamic Duo Gets New Digs

I swear I put way more thought and research into finding my horses a new home than I have ever done with finding us a new one. If only they gave a crap  :)

My list is simple:

 - Pasture board with this amazing thing called grass and not just dirt and weeds
 - Ability to keep the Dynamic Duo together
 - An arena with lights for weeknight night riding
 - Trails would be great
 - Good quality hay, water and grain
 - Trailer parking
 - In my price range which is admittedly limited

After searching for months and months (since April) we finally found a place that had the majority of those things and decided to give it a try. I wanted to wait until after Biltmore to move them, so last weekend we packed the horses up in the trailer and amidst intermittent pouring rain we moved them over to their new digs...lets call it Serenity Haven (not its real name, but pretty nifty and so far accurate).

Lets see how it stacks up to my list:

- Pasture board with grass....check! The pasture they are in is mostly grass. The recent drought has taken its toll on it, but fortunately it hasn't had any horses in it so while the grass wasn't growing, it wasn't getting trampled and eaten down to nothing either.

Looking up the hill to their pasture
 

 - Ability to keep the Dynamic Duo together....check! They are in their own 4 acre pasture with some woods and 3 nice next door neighbors. It is on top of a hill

House and barn are behind me, they are up the hill
 and that is the drive way to the right

Looking down the driveway



They are behind me and that is the barn

so the drainage even in all this rain we have been getting is awesome. Hopefully no thrushy feet.

- An arena with lights...nope :( They have an arena of sorts...basically a flattened section of the back hay field, but no lights and it isn't fenced in or anything like an official arena. But...

- Trails would be great...check! I'm always a little cautious when a BO tells me there are trails on property since most of the time it ends up just being the pasture you can ride in or a 5 minute walk around the property. But the hubby and I took W and Bones out for a hike on Sunday and we logged about 3-4 miles of actual real trails with some pretty nice hills in there and mixed footing. Plus the BO said you can ride the power lines from the end of the driveway for miles. I haven't been on those yet to see if the footing is decent or if it is all straight up and down and rocks. So the trails aren't extensive or varied enough to get all my conditioning done, but it does allow for me to not ride in a circle a hundred times. The downside is obviously there are no lights (although that would be impressive) so in the winter I won't get any riding in during the week, but in reality last winter when it was dark before I even got out of work I wasn't going to ride anyway.

Gem throwing a hissy fit in the airy barn

- Good quality hay, water and grain....mostly check! The hay looks about as nice as hay around here gets. I still miss the hay up north which was much nicer over all, but this hay looks pretty good. My only concern is quantity, but I am going to watch closely and see before I jump to conclusions. Water is clean and fresh. Grain we supply, so it can be of whatever quality we choose.

- Trailer parking....check!

- In my price range....check!



Gem in the cross ties

So all in all it is looking pretty good. In addition to the above, there is a fishing pond and we can bring our dogs out to trail ride with us whenever we want which is extremely hard to find. The BO is amazingly nice and really wants to learn about endurance and start going. Who knows? Maybe we can ride together and get to be pretty good friends. There is another boarder there who is also interested in endurance as well. I might get some nice riding friends out of this.

I really only have 2 current concerns:

1) Quantity of hay as mentioned above. They were getting about 3/4 of a bale for the two of them a day at FS Farms with grass and grain. Here they don't appear to be getting anywhere near that much. I am going to wait and see if she starts to look too lean and then ask for it to be increased. Hopefully that won't be an issue.

2) Distance. It is 30 minutes from our house which is a bit too far by 10-15 minutes. But if it limits my need to trailer out and gives me decent mileage during the week, it will be worth it. We will see what the winter brings.

So far I am pretty happy with it. They are a small place with eager and happy trail riders. Bones and Einstein can come along and ride with me which is awesome. The whole barn atmosphere is calm and the scenery is breath taking. Lets hope it works for the long term!


Looking down toward the barn

Gems big butt blocking some of the view

Another Solo Trail Ride

Saturday was overcast and gloomy, but warm and I was determined to hit the trails. We spent the morning playing with W and then after lunch he took a nap and I headed to the barn to get the trailer hooked up and Gemmie ready to go.

FS Farms has a gate across the driveway and I stopped to unlock it. I looked up and could see my beloved mare staring at me all the way across the farm at the gate to her pasture. I yelled out "Hi Gemmie!!" She shook her head and took off at a canter away from the fence. Brat. The day she happily meets me at the gate will be the day I worry she is ill.

I am very proud of myself though. I lined up the truck and hooked up the trailer all by my lonesome with only minimal getting in and out of the truck. It only took about 5 minutes!!! The first time I ever did it involved tears, a phone call to the hubs and about 45 minutes. I am such a big girl now!

Gem had wandered all the way to the very back of her large field and was standing discreetly behind a tree. Sigh. I do love her, but she gives me such a hard time. I walked all the way over to her just to have her gallop off to the front gate again. She was tossing her head and having a grand time at my expense. The other 3 horses (Pete, Daisy and Blue) were not so impressed with her shenanigans. I walked back through the field and got her by the gate. She was looking mighty smug.

I brushed her out and examined her girth galls. I am very much not happy with these and have yet another new back up plan. Something has to work! They were healed and she was not sore at all. The hubs arrived with W and the pups and off we headed to the trails. Someday I will get brave enough to drive the truck and trailer, but for now I opt for the minivan.

The trail head was busy. We pulled in and I tacked Gem up and off we headed. We hit the trails and I was determined to speed her up this time. I let her walk the first 0.5 miles and then asked for a trot. She actually gave me one without complaint and we moved along up the trail. We almost immediately came across a group of 10 riders and so I pulled over and we waited for them to pass. We moved on out again and shortly there after came across another group. Pulled over again. Sigh.

Eventually we headed out down the trail and covered decent ground. I thought maybe I could push her through all 6 miles in the hour, but made a wrong turn at the second road crossing and headed down a new trail. This trail was nice and windy but had a ton of roots and a few steep sections, so gong was slower than I would have liked.

We made it to a lovely lake and were at about 40 minutes out. There was a creepy abandoned boat tied to the shore and since I no longer really knew where we were I thought it was a great time to turn back around. We mosied (is that not a word? to mosey.) on back down the trail and I encouraged her to actually move out a bit. We made it back across both road crossings and she started to be a big pain in my butt. She was slow. She didn't want to trot. She recognized that we were headed back and she wanted to stay out. I needed to get back. So...I got off a jogged. She was a little confused at first. She wasn't sure why she still had to trot when I wasn't on her, but we made decent time. In fact, she went faster with me on foot than on her.

We made it back to the trailer in one piece and happy. She was a little sweaty, but not bad. I think I need to push her harder and get her butt moving. I am way too easy on her in general. More on that later.

GPS:
3.58 miles
1 hr 3 mins
274 ft elevation gain
281 ft elevation loss
3.9 mph moving pace
3.4 mph total pace
8.2 mph fastest pace

FS Farm Pics At Last :)

“Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy.”  

- Anne Frank

 

Welcome! Come take a tour with us :)

 

 

The Dynamic Duo are back together and are relaxed, happy and healthy. No more bite wounds or kick marks. No more stress. No more blanket arguments. No more irrational demands or rules that are only voiced once you have broken them. No more "We need to talk. The hubs and I enjoy the company of the BOs (husband and wife team) who are down to earth and really easy going. It is peaceful. It is relaxing. It is just what we were looking for.
 

 

 

 

Here is the front of the pasture just as you walk into the gate. It is mostly dirt due to the amount of trees which will be nice for protection from the rain and hot sun. They are currently getting a bale of hay until it runs out and then it is replaced. They go through one a day right now. You can see Gemmie hiding waaaaaay off in the background if you look between the hay feeder and the tree. I love how she greets me at the gate ;)

 

 

 

 

This is the back part of the field. The shed in the very back is actually part of the back pasture where the BO's two old geldings and donkey are. We keep inviting them to open it up to all, but the BO is worried that the donkey may pick on Gem. Apparently he wants a bunch of little mule babies around even though he is "fixed". 

 

 

 

 

 



At the back of the Dynamic Duo's pasture is a fence and a pond. The pond was used for drinking water in the past. Now it is being used for both drinking water and a nice cool Pete bath in the heat of the day. The BO has seen Pete chilling up to his belly in the water on more than one occasion. I told him he liked water!   

A better view of the gate separating the two parts of the pasture which ends at the pond. Pete keeps trying to cross, but the guard donkey on the other side starts screaming at him. He gets scared and swims back toward his shore. Someday he will cross and then what will my Gemmie do? She isn't into water aerobics so I doubt she would swim across, but then again she hates being alone so which would be worse?

The pond. It is stream fed.

 

Moving on... There were two horses boarded in the pasture next to the Dynamic Duo when we moved them in. I guess their greatness scared the others away because they came and took them away the next day. Now that the pasture was unoccupied we asked if the gate could be left open. The BO being as awesome as he is, he did so and now the D.D. can walk through this gate and into another area with more grass. If new boarders come again, we will lose this, but for now it is great. Though the gate is this nice field with some trees. There is another field that this runs into and they even left that gate open for the D.D. to use for now. I have seen Gemmie using the first field, but not the second one, so I am not

sure if they really need it or not.

 

 

 

 



There are other amenities to the barn outside of just where the D.D. spend the majority of their day. The barn was built in the mid 1990s (ick...sounds so recent but really isn't anymore) and is very open and airy. They stay outside 24/7, but we have access to the barn for the tack room, wash area and we can use stalls whenever we want as long as we bring them in/put them out and clean up after them. I'm sure if we really needed it in an emergency the BO would help us out, but they like to be fairly hands off of the horses to avoid any confusion or stress. There is even hot water available to wash the horses with when it is chilly.

                                                                                  

 



 

The arena is great too. Very large and believe me there is plenty of room for a Gemmiecakes to open up and gallop around in there. I've witnessed it both on the ground and under saddle. It is amazing! I think I mentioned before that the footing is very deep to protect western horses when doing sliding stops and sudden turns. It makes for hard work for the horses when asked to trot nicely in it. Just imagine jogging in the dry sand at the beach. When cantering or galloping you feel like you are floating on air. There are no jumps currently and I may ask the hubs to make me some over the winter. I'm a little nervous to jump in the footing though. I don't want them to sink and end up straining a tendon. Ground poles would be great though.

 

And last, but not least are the little piggies that line the drive entrance and the beautiful flowers that are everywhere. The place is only a few minutes from town, but when there you feel miles from anything. It is quiet, peaceful and just what we are looking for.



Night Riding

“All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”  

J.R.R. Tolkien

 

We went back Sunday morning to check on them and ride a little. I took her out of the pasture and led her to the barn which is the most airy and open barn I've come across. I swear I will get pictures soon. I felt weird taking them in front of the owners on day 1 and they were there again Sunday and then Monday it was too dark. This weekend I will get some pictures up. I put her in the cross ties like I have done in 5 other barns over the last 4 years countless of times. She lost her mind. She reared. She tried to spin. She splattered poop everywhere. I tried to calm her, but she wasn't having any of it, so I just tried to tack her up and move on. I put her saddle on and was stupid enough to turn my back to grab her girth and she pranced in the ties and stepped on a sheet of plastic that scared her even more and I watched as my saddle flew off her back and landed on the cement. I have just decided to sell the stupid thing and now she flings it onto the ground and scratches it! (It turned out to be ok though. I took it home and saddle soaped it up and polished the leather and you can't even tell now, but what horrible timing!) At that point I decided this wasn't so smart, so I clipped the lead rope on her and walked her out to the arena. I let her walk around and look at things and then unclipped her and clucked her up. She is sooooo beautiful to watch and she pranced around and even took off a few times bucking and snorting. After about 10 minutes, I hooked her up again and we returned to the barn where I commenced the tacking up process. She was not behaving super well, but she was a lot better and I was able to finish without incident. Darn mare!

 

I took the ride easy - we just walked around with the only goal of getting her to be calm and stop shaking. It took about 20 minutes, but she eventually relaxed and I called it a day. No sense in pushing her too much.

 

Since Sunday wasn't exactly aerobic, I figured she could do with another ride Monday night. It is getting dark so early now. Back in the crossties she went and this time she only pranced a little from side to side. No rearing. No trying to bolt. Progress. Off to the arena we went and I was so happy that the lights are bright and light up about 75% of the arena. The back light belongs to the city and it is currently burnt out, but the owner said it should be fixed this week. I have never really ridden in the dark before. Up north there are indoor arenas, so even at night it feels like day. Down here the weather is nice enough to not need to be inside, so indoor arenas are rare.

 

It was incredible!!! Gem was spooky and tense for much of it, but she deserved to be. A new barn, a new arena and now it was dark. Poor thing. We walked around as the stars came out and I was in heaven. It was peaceful, relaxing and exactly what I needed. She was fairly calm at the walk, so I asked her to trot. There was one spot where a gate panel was laying up against the fence and there was a bright blue barrel about a foot away from that and it was in the darker part of the arena and she was scared to go past it. I let her take her time and eventually we trotted on by with only a sideways glance and a snort of disapproval.

 

My only negative comment on the arena is the footing. It is sand and it is deep. They used to train western horses for reining, roping and barrels and you need deep footing for those. Deep footing is harder work and even at the slow pace with a cool night (low 70s, upper 60s by the time we finished) and barely working she was sweaty. Now some of that was nerves, but it was like running on the beach in the dry sand. She will get used to it and it will be ok, but I don't want to push her too much right now and risk straining a ligament or bowing a tendon. We will take our time to get acquainted with the footing and surroundings before I push her too much.

 

As I walked her back to the barn, I was so happy with the move. It was nice to go to the barn and have peace and quiet with time to bond with Gem and work through our problems at our own pace. I really enjoyed riding at night which is  good thing because I will be doing it most of the time from now until spring. 

The End

Ok...well this is getting long and whiny so I will wrap it up here. All these little things kept piling up and began to make life not so enjoyable around the barn. I began to dread going and would try to tack up quickly and head out to avoid the "we need to talk" from the BO. It never worked, but I kept trying.

Two final events occurred that pushed us both over the edge. The first was our farrier. I chose her at random on the internet. I refused to use the barn farrier due to his reputation for making horses lame. When I showed up on Saturday D and S (who I really like) were both there. I brought Gemmie in and D made some comment or other. I told her our farrier was coming. She made some other comment and I told her that we were using someone else. She asked who. I was now getting irritated with the questioning, but I told her it was a barefoot trimmer named K. She replied "Oh, does BO know?" I said I doubted it. She then said "Well, there is bad blood there" I snapped back "Good thing she isn't paying for this then" and left to get Pete. Sigh. You can refer back to the foot post for the farrier story if you care to.

That was on Saturday morning. Sunday afternoon I wanted to go by the barn and check on the horses to make sure they were still happy on their feet and to re-measure Gem for hoof boots which I seem oddly incapable of doing correctly. The BO showed up and started off in her condescending tone "We need to talk" Sigh. Again? She then informed us that we could not use the farrier we chose because of undisclosed personal reasons between the two of them. The hubs tried to reason with her saying that our professional relationship with the farrier is not related to her personal feelings, but we were just told that (continue condescending tone) "you are used to businesses and this is a family establishment" Umm... kindly quit telling me what I am used to and no you are wrong. Wisconsin was a family owned establishment. We were told we could use any farrier we wanted. Apparently not. We asked if there were any professional reasons we should avoid this farrier (like hurting horses, being late, changing fees etc...) and was told no she just doesn't like her. Then she told us we could trailer out to meet the farrier in the future. Huh? Oh...and please don't tell her anything. Ok...wait...so you want me to call the farrier who I have an appointment with in 6 weeks and tell her not to come, try to find some random roadside location to trailer to, and yet not explain this sudden and irrational decision? No thank you. I will not get put in the middle of your personal problems. I'm not being loyal to someone I barely know, but really? This is getting old.

We left and talked about things and decided we needed to move the horses. It just is too much of a hassle to cross lines we don't even know existed. I wonder how long it took for D to tattle tale on us to the BO. Do you think she waited until we left to call? We debated on timing since we had no clue where to move them to. I have a new friend who has a lot of horse connections in the area (and also has "bad blood" with the BO) and so I called her and asked her if she new any boarding establishments. She knew a bunch. Or if we would prefer we could have them in her backyard. Or in her friend's yard. Or in another field she knows can be leased. Or...or....or...lots of options!

Downward Spiral

Gem is super important to me and I want her to remain healthy and happy for a long time. She is my riding partner and even though we don't always see eye to eye, she is stuck with me and I with her and I wouldn't have it any other way. I am not super neurotic about her. She is an outside animal and will get rained on, will sweat, will have some times when she is cold, will show up with nicks and bites from time to time. I get all of that. Honestly, I do. But when she started coming in every single day with a new bloody, swollen kick mark on her hide I got angry. I even tried talking to the BO about it and was told she got them from tree limbs. No. No this big swollen mark in the shape of a nice metal shoed hoof is not from a tree limb. But fine. BO said she was moving pastures to get her out of the trees. Ask me how surprised I was to find that the marks kept on happening even in the new treeless pasture.

But still, all in all Gem was doing ok. The large pastures and hills were keeping her in better shape than my lack of riding was, so we were going to stay. But the problems kept coming up. Each time I would go to ride, something would interfere. My limited time kept getting eaten away by crap I had no interest in. I got conned into going on a "trail" ride one evening with the BO and her sister. We set out from the barn to get some conditioning done and I was excited. Maybe there were trails I didn't know existed and I was now going to be shown how wonderful they truly were. An hour of slowly walking around the pasture later and both Gem and I showed back up at the barn in a sour mood. The most annoying part of the ride was the fact that the sister took the lead and refused to give it up even though her horse walked at about the pace of a turtle in molasses and Gem just plain walked faster. I would pull up beside her and Gem would inch past. The I would be informed that we would be turning soon in whichever direction I happened to be on (so if I was to her right we would be turning off to the right, left/left) but never saying where exactly so that I would have to pull Gemmie up and wait for her to slowly pass us. And did we turn? Yes, but just in a tiny circle. It was all just to maintain her lead. Annoying. Eventually I just plowed ahead and when she inevitably said we would be turning, I would just say "ok, go ahead and we will circle back and catch you". Ha! Put that in your pipe and smoke it!! Any guesses on how many rides I've been on with them since? 1. Because I was stupid and forgot and how much I hated the first one.

Ok, but still that's not a real reason to leave the entire barn. Just avoid going out with them. I chalked it up to one more annoying experience and moved on. Now, the hubby had been having a completely different experience at the barn than I had been. Being a guy, I guess the BO wasn't threatened or something and she treated him nicely without scolding, stopping him riding to explain why he stunk so bad etc... He thought I was exaggerating my frustration. Until the weather got a little colder (and by that I mean in the 80s instead of the 90s). The BO mentioned to me that they required blankets on the horses 24/7 once the weather turned cold and their definition of cold was 60. I informed her that we didn't blanket in the arctic north unless the temperature got below 10 degrees and yes the horses were outside in the snow and wind. She countered with the fact that it rains and the horses get wet. I shot back with the fact that snow is wet as well. I told her to speak to the hubs because honestly I was tired of always being talked at. Next time he showed up, she brought up blanketing. He said no. Our horses are likely to look like yaks again this winter not knowing it wont be below 0 most of January and are at risk of overheating as it is. She dropped it. The next time he showed up she was prepared with a catalogue and pointed out all the lovely horse blankets to him. He said no. By the third visit, third conversation the hubs had just about had it and was now at my level of the barn wasn't bad and the horses were well cared for, but man going there is just obnoxious.

But even with that we weren't going to leave. Gluttons for punishment, we talked it over and with the proximity and health of the horses being good, we were going to stick it out. But still....things just kept piling on.

I mentioned boarder, D, in my foot post. She is always present. She is talkative but not in a super friendly nice way. More in a trying to push your buttons and start trouble sort of way. I just ignored her. One incident made me seriously dislike her even though I had nothing to do with it and was just a bystander. I showed up to ride and when I got there I was asked to look at a young girl's arm. Apparently she fell off and landed hard on her arm and it hurt. The arm was bruised, but not broken. She was embarrassed and so close to tears. I told her not to worry. I've fallen off Gem so many times now I can't even remember them all and most were from silly mistakes. It happens. She smiled. Apparently, she had been riding D's horse. Nobody was blaming the horse. They were just worried about the girl. D came over with the horse and announced loudly to everyone around that the girth was loose. So loose that it was the cause of all problems. In fact it was so loose she had to tighten it 5 holes. Now, I looked over at her saddle and it only has 6 holes. So in order for her to have to tighten it 5, the girl who rode would have had to basically not put it on at all. Which wasn't the case. D just wanted to place all blame on the poor girl who after hearing this and being stared at by everyone started welling up with tears. Sigh. Some people. I tell this to highlight the overall personality of the boarders there. They are all snitchy middle aged women who try to weasel their way into your business not to be friends or helpful, but to find something to shove in your face or a way to feel superior to you. I ignore them all as best I can, but as my next story will show, sometimes I just can't.

Boarding Life

“Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind.”  

 

- Baruch

 

 

I understand that boarding is a compromise between what the horse owner wants and what the barn owner (BO) can do/wants to do. Honestly, the hubs and I really try to be as low key as possible. Our needs are simple and we will follow the rules of the barn as long as they are made clear to us. If there is a rule we can not live with, we will leave. I don't expect rules to be changed for us. All I want to do is go to the barn, get my Gemmiecakes, tack her up and forget the world.

 

I don't stir up drama between boarders, mainly because I just don't care to. I don't use the barn as my social hour. I use it as my time to decompress and bond with Gemmie. Basically, leave me alone and leave me out of it. I won't butt into your affairs with your horse and I expect...no I demand...you to butt out of mine. All I want for Gem is a safe and healthy environment where she is getting the nutrition she needs to be fit (not fat or skinny) and to not get the crap kicked out of her by her pasture mates. If you tell me you provide a service, then provide it. Otherwise, I will be there to meet my farrier and vet every time. I will not ask you to do annoying tasks such as hand walk my horse for me, pull or put on various equipment (boots, blankets, fly masks etc) or to feed an ungodly amount of various supplements. This is a business transaction - I am paying for a service that you are providing. No, you are not doing me a favor by allowing me to pay you to keep my horse. My money is for services rendered. I will be tidy and leave the barn as I found it every time. I will respect your property and that of other boarders and not touch what is not mine. I will put up with a fair amount of crap as long as Gem is healthy and happy and I am still enjoying myself. Once going to the barn becomes a chore something needs to be re-evaluated and changed.

 

Unfortunately, going to the barn has become a chore. For many reasons which I will bring to light here over the next post or so. The story begins pretty much at the beginning (don't they all?)  and ends last weekend when I was finally pushed past just being annoyed with the situation and into wanting to leave. Which we are. I have put in my 30 days notice and we are looking at a new barn tonight after work and I have a few other options hanging out there as well. None seem perfect just yet and I know I will need to compromise something on my list, but we will see where we end up.

 

So what has been going on? Well, let me tell you! In general terms, there is a mashing of personalities going on. While the hubs and I do not purposefully go out of our way to go against the grain, we will stick to our guns about something we feel is correct for us and apparently what we think is correct is just about as far off as what the barn thinks is correct as you can get. About just about everything. My first "annoyance" occurred about a month after we got here and the horses were finally taken off quarantine and  allowed in the barn to eat. We were aware that they would be split up. We weren't thrilled with it, but rules are rules so we said fine. What didn't need to occur was placing Gemmie in the outside back left corner of the barn and placing Pete in the outside front right corner of the barn. As far away from each other and out of sight as possible. Really? They couldn't be across the barn aisle? Fine. Be alpha female BO. I can live with that. What got really old really fast was that everyone felt the need to tell me every single time how they think Gem and Pete miss each other and how sad it is. Really? Rub it in a bit why don't you? It finally stopped when I snapped something not so friendly at someone about how it wasn't up to me to me separate them.

 

Next up was being scolded like a little school girl (which in general I don't take very well) for not cleaning out both horse stalls and scrubbing both water buckets when I am there. Huh? I am paying for full care board. Full care board means I show up, ride and take care of my tack and that's just about it. The feeding, turnout, water and stall cleaning is done by the barn. Otherwise it is partial care board and cheaper. It was explained to me in a very condescending tone which I didn't appreciate, that at this barn since it is family owned (um...aren't they all?) when I show up I am responsible to clean my own stalls and water buckets. Eh? Explain again to me why I'm paying you? But fine. I did it and vented to the hubs about it and we carried on. Really it makes going to the barn a hassle. I spend from 7pm-9pm at the barn. I ride for 30 minutes. The remaining time is spent getting scolded for something I did wrong, getting ready to ride, getting finished with riding and cleaning two stalls and water buckets. I pay so I don't have to do the latter.

 

Time kept marching on though and I got used to the headache of doing their chores for them. They know I have limited time and that I only show up at night. If I rode during the day the stalls would have been done the previous night and I would have nothing to do, but I ride at night so I'm stuck with it. Again, its just a show of alpha female going on and I bit my tongue because we liked the location being so close to home and we liked the large grassy pastures. But the hits just kept coming....

 



New Footsies for Gem and Pete

Feet. I work with feet all day long (being a podiatrist and all) and yet I still find them to be very interesting structures (in a completely non fetish kind of way) meant to carry us tens of thousands of miles in our lifetime and yet they are small and fragile. The horse hoof is the same way only built even more strangely and so I find it a fascinating subject. Trimming the hoof can be a scary ordeal since the soundness, rideability and overall health of the horse relies on good solid feet being underneath them. There are certified farrier schools, but there are also numerous people who learn on the fly and set up shop. Finding a new farrier in a new place is stressful.

How do you find a farrier? If boarding, the simplest thing to do is use the farrier that the barn uses or at least the majority of boarders. The person will already be familiar with the barn and you could assume they do decent work or they wouldn't be there. Of course, assumptions are never a good idea and we have learned the hard way that this isn't always a good way to go. The first farrier I used was a barn farrier and made Gem lame. We found our fantastic farrier in the arctic north this way and became friends with him. He never made them even tender over the course of three years. We miss him.

When we made the Big Move south we had our arctic farrier trim them right before to bide us some time. I started asking about the barn farrier and was not happy with what I was finding out. One boarder who is smart enough to know better said that she loved him, but oddly enough every time she brings her sound horse up to him she leads a dead lame horse away. Huh? Put two and two together there lady! I heard a similar story from too many people to want to even think about using him, but now I had no clue who to use. Knowing that I like my horses barefooted, I searched the web for a barefoot trimmer and came up with exactly one option - K. A self proclaimed barefoot trimmer with a lovely website and a fair price. So I booked her for last Saturday and nervously waited to see what she would do. When I called her I told her where we were (W Farms) and she said she knew the place and how to get there. See you Saturday.

I know enough about barefoot trimming to ask the right questions and be able to spot BS when I hear it. I had a host of questions ready to test her knowledge and make sure she wasn't going to hurt my horse. She lacked personality, but (arctic farrier you don't count) it seems to come with the territory. She was promptly on time, handled my horse calmly and answered all my questions with the proper buzz words to appease me. She didn't touch the parts of the hoof that I knew shouldn't be touched and didn't make them look all wonky. I made a return appointment with her for 6 weeks. Interestingly enough, two boarders (one of which I severely dislike) who were present during this (oh! and play a vital role in tomorrow's post) pulled her aside at the end to ask her advice on their horses who were foot sore. I found these interactions to be very interesting. Interesting enough to bore you with them:

The first person, S, has a mare who is shod in the front, but barefoot in the back. Her back feet look lovely, but her fronts are wonky and she is always painful after a trim. She asked K her opinion about pulling the fronts and letting her go barefoot. She only rides on property in the grass. Personally I see no reason why any of the horses on the farm are shod since none leave the property and spend all the time either on grass or sand. But, I digress again. K gave her opinion that, yes they could easily go barefoot and that they were overall healthy hooves. S asked me if she could join our 6 week rotation and use K and I was happy to.

The second person, D (who I dislike), has a gelding and is the above mentioned lady who can't seem to figure out why her horse is always so lame after being trimmed by wonder farrier. She plays an extremely vital role in all my drama of late. Anyway....after scowling at the farrier through my and S interactions she asks her for a second opinion on her horse. K spends significant time looking at the hooves, testing for soreness and explaining to K the difficulty the horse is having since the wonder farrier decided to cut away all toe and all heel leaving little for the horse to comfortably walk on. What was amusing was D's inability to understand that K is a professional herself and that her time is money. D kept asking K if she felt that her original farrier could fix this or that and what to tell him. K was patient through all of this. I would have told D to either pay for my services or understand that her farrier created these issues and the chances of him fixing them are slim, but good luck with it and left.

Anyway...here are some pics of Gemmie's lovely feet. I took them so that I could get her some new hoof boots. I am working with a patient woman (and fellow endurance blogger - see Boots and Saddles) in California who is going to send me some trial boots and see how things go. I am apparently brain dead when it comes to measuring the hoof though because I have now done it twice with similar results and they just aren't matching up with what is realistic. She offered up another technique which I will try tonight and see if I can clear the hoof fog from my brain. Enjoy!

Right front

Right front

Left front

Back left

Back left

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Spur of the Moment Trail Ride - Part 1 (of only 2...I promise!)

“You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.”

- Mae West

 

 

Fall in the South is amazing, but is definitely playing with my head. I'm used to crisp mornings that continue into crisp but sunny days, the sound of leaves crunching under foot, the smell of pumpkin and an overall sense of urgency to get out and enjoy life before you are shut in for the winter. Down here the mornings are still in the upper 60s and the days in the mid 80s. Things are still green and humid and everyone is acting like it is just another summer day. The fall decorations being put out seem out of place. The only hint of fall thus far is a subtle change to the wildflowers - instead of whites and pinks and purples they are now yellow and gold and orange. I'm still wearing short sleeved shirts and capris when up north I'd be breaking out my hoodies and pants. I have been told that the leaves are beautiful when they start to turn, but I am just not certain when that happens. Until then I will keep enjoying my late summer days.

 

The in-laws came to visit this weekend from up north and we were happy to have them. We had infrequent visiting when living in the arctic north. Apparently there just wasn't much incentive to go up there. Since the move, we have been fortunate to have many visitors down here and are loving it. Unfortunately, W picked this weekend to develop a healthy dose of stranger danger. It was decided that some alone time with his grandparents would be good for all involved and so the hubs and I found ourselves with an afternoon alone. What did we do with it? Hit the trails! We loaded up a confused looking Gem and Pete (it was late morning by then and we never trailer that late) and headed to a trail system I found online.  I remembered my GPS watch, but not my camera and so unfortunately there are no pictures.

 

It was about 15 minutes farther away than the Butch Kennedy trails we rode last time and we were cautiously optimistic that they would be of better quality. The directions were laughable - "turn sharp left between the country convenience store and church" - and we were surprised to make it without getting lost. The parking lot was a small strip of gravel with no exit and we were really worried about making it both in and back out. There were several mountain bikers there, a horse trailer and some hikers. We managed to pull in just off the road, but that put Gemmie into the entrance and I was really concerned someone would pull in and hit her (luckily that did not happen).

 

We unloaded the horses and then went to take a quick look at the trail map which ended up being a great idea although not for the purpose of gleaning useful information from the map itself. It showed various loops and said the entire thing was 11.3 miles, but it wasn't super user friendly since it didn't show where any trail heads were or mention anything about trail markings. But...as we were standing there talking about it a woman finishing up a hike came over and informed us and a hiking couple beside us to be on the look out for a bear she came across off on the trails to the left. That completely freaked out the hikers to the point where the woman refused to go and her poor husband had to try to convince her she wouldn't be mauled by a bear. It just peaked our interest even more. As we spoke with her, it turned out that she was an avid rider herself and knew the trails well so she talked at me (since none of it made sense and I stopped paying attention after the words "bear" and "to the left") and then talked with the hubs who was paying attention. In true SC fashion, she then gave us her business card and home number and said to call her with any horse questions or to learn more about the local trails. I still haven't gotten used to how friendly everyone is around here.

 

We turned away from the map and headed back to our calm and well behaved been there done that horses only to find that they had been replaced with fire breathing dragons......

Big Girl Panties

Well, that title should land me some nice Google search hits :) Won't they all be surprised when it is just a boring story about Gemmiecakes?

I had an amazing ride Thursday night. We didn't go far. We didn't go hard. We didn't go long. But we went somewhere new and it was all Gem's idea.

If horses wore panties, Gem would have had her big girl ones on Thursday night. She never ceases to amaze me. The arena is always busy on Thursdays and I generally avoid it and just go on Friday, but I have other plans and so Thursday it was. W was a super sleepy baby and went to bed at 6:30pm (he even slept in on Friday morning too) so I had some extra daylight to play with.

The hubs had surprisingly given the BM the green light to use Pete once a week and Thursday turned out to be his first ride. The girl on him is super nice and has a gelding who could be Gem's twin (only he is a Quarter horse and not an Arabian) in both looks and personality. I feel for the girl. Pete was a nice change of pace for her and afterward she was beaming and had a ton of fun. Go Wonderboy! I'm nosey even if my horse is not, so I took longer than usual to tack up as I watched Pete over her back. Sneaky, aren't I?

I decided that spying was more important than going off on the "trails" and so once I got up on her I steered her toward the grassy area next to the arena. I figured we could still get a decent work out in while getting a good view of the Pete action. Again, aren't I sneaky? Gem apparently had other ideas. The grassy area is bordered on two sides by the gelding pasture which is huge. I generally turn the area into a small arena and ride it in a circle like pattern and so we headed out toward the pasture with the plan to make a right turn once we reached the fence. Once we got there though, Gemmie strutted out through the gate and into the gelding pasture like we had done it multiple times before. Huh? I asked Gem where we were going and she just kept trucking out into the pasture. Ok. I'm game for that!

She rode super well out there. A little slow and look-y but we walked the perimeter without any major occurrences and then made our way back. If she became tense, I let her turn back toward her comfort zone and then slowly widened the oval back again the next pass. We made it almost clear down to the woods at the bottom of the pasture. Once down the hill I figured we could work on some hill work and so I asked her to trot back up to the top. She did, although she was tense and spooky at nothing. Once back to the top we turned around and went back down. I asked her to trot up again and this time she took off! We rushed up the hill at a 14mph pace and jumped over a small ditch in the process. It was a ton of fun!!! I did make her go back down and trot up again just to let her know she actually did have to listen, but man was that fun :)

All in all it was a great night at the barn :)

Unhappy Boarder

 

“Stepping onto a brand-new path is difficult, but not more difficult than remaining in a situation, which is not nurturing to the whole woman (or mare).”

 

- Maya Angelou

Ever since Gem got caught up in her pasture last weekend, I have been worried about her. No, she didn't hurt herself beyond some superficial scratches, but I can't keep from wondering what drove her into the woods in the first place. She isn't a particularly nosey horse. That takes effort and Gem is all about low energy usage. There were no scrumptious grasses hidden to lure her in. So why go in?

The only explanation I can come up with is that she was running to escape one of her herd mates. I know which one too. A stocky brown mare with a crooked white stripe down her face named Classy. Classy, my butt! I've seen her chasing Gem off the water trough and she has forced me to be the crazy horse owner who chases a horse away to let mine drink after a work out. I have no issues stooping to that level. Gem is very low key in a herd. She doesn't vie for the head honcho spot (again too much effort and responsibility) and leaves everyone else pretty much alone. At first I figured it was because Gemmie was so new to the herd and it did settle down for a while. But on Tuesday night I noticed yet another new mark on her hide and this one was definitively hoof shaped.

I got angry. Gem is getting all marked up. Yes, they are all superficial. Yes, horses will be horses and sometimes come in with a mark. But all these superficial marks are starting to add up to one messy looking pony and I am tired of it. I pulled her over to show the BM in the middle of her lesson. She tried to pass it off as a scratch from the woods. I told her there was no way that was from a branch. I'm not going to allow Gem to get hurt. She told me that she had thought of a plan. Ok, fine, but it better be a good one.

Her thought is that Gem is going into the woods to say hello to the other horses across the fence (perhaps, but only because her herd is a bunch of cranky ladies that she doesn't like) and if we eliminate both the woods and the neighbors it should all go away. So, the whole farm is getting an upheaval. The geldings are getting moved to Gem's current pasture, the other herd of mares (currently next to Gem) are going to the geldings' pasture and Gem's herd are getting put out back behind the barn. That way no horses will have immediate neighbors.

Personally I think that is a lot of hoopla when all she really needs to do is move Gem out of her current herd and in with the other group of mares or better yet take Pete and her and put them in one of the empty pastures all to themselves. But, no. Why do something simple when you can make it more dramatic and time consuming and annoying?

Ride Updates

"Nowadays people know the price of everything and the value of nothing"

- Oscar Wilde

The good news: nothing uber exciting has been happening during my rides lately. The bad news: it doesn't give me much to write about. Collectively the rides over the last couple of weeks have been interesting enough, but not on an individual, blog worthy level.

I ride 3 days a week. Or at least I try to. Gem seems quite good at sabotaging my only long day at the barn. When she isn't doing it, the BM is (like Tuesday night when she decided to delve into my saddle fitting woes while I watched the sun slowly setting lower and lower taking my chances at a good ride down with it). I had originally hoped to get an hour long ride in during the week (times 2) and then a two hour long ride on the weekend. Reality slapped me upside the head though and I came to understand that asking that of Gemmie when we have not been up to a whole lot and she is still coming out of the pasture sweaty isn't very kind. I have now backed off to 30 minute rides during the week and an hour on the weekend. It seems to be working. She is already showing signs of decreasing belly mass and some muscling is coming back.

The arena work is still boring as anything. Around and around and around we go. If I could figure out a way to post my GPS information you could all have a good laugh at the ride picture. It looks like I gave W a nice big red crayon and he scribbled a big oval over and over again. She is calmer which is in part due to the work and in part her settling in. I even got a big "wow that looks nice!" out of the BM. Apparently Gemmie is changing her view of the Arabian horse. Way to go Gem!! Be an ambassador for the breed :)

I have been riding at night-ish lately. At first I was pretty worried about how Gem would react to the decreasing visibility. There are arena lights that I put on, but they tend to cast little pools of light with shadows in between. I won't jump after dark, but I do ask her to trot and canter and she is doing pretty good all in all. The darker it gets, the more tense she gets, but I expect after a long winter of short days she will improve. The best news is that it is September and still hot out. My friends in WI are starting to post about 40 degree days and needing sweat shirts. I am still in capris and a t-shirt. Have I mentioned how much I love the South?

I keep crossing the billets on my saddle, but I don't see that it is doing a whole lot other than putting a kink in my billets. I'm going to try it on a longer ride and see, but I think I am just going to go back to the normal way. It is less confusing. Some day I want to have a professional saddle fitter come on out and take a look at Gem. Maybe she can just alter some things and make it be magical. Doubtful, but you never know.

Normal billets

Crossed billets

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Holiday Fun

"The woods are lovely, dark and deep. But I have promises to keep and miles before I sleep."

 

- Frost

I'm going to interrupt the normally horse-centric posts for one about the rest of us. Shhh....don't tell Gem.

What to do with a 3 day weekend and beautiful weather? Be outside of course! And we definitely were. Saturday was hiking with the dogs at Saddler's Creek State Park followed by taking W to the swimming pool for the afternoon and then another walk for the pups around the neighborhood in the evening. Sunday was barn day, but I didn't ride (see Sunday's post) and hiked around the farm instead. Then we played all day and walked the pups in the afternoon. Monday came and we wanted to do something different. Ever since moving down here and realizing how close to actual mountains (well, east coast mountains anyway) we would be, we have been itching to go hiking. Before the arrival of the awesome baby backpack we were limited in distance and difficulty level, but now we have freedom.

A patient recommended Table Rock State Park as a great hiking destination that is only 45 minutes away, so we mapped it out. It is only 3.5 miles (and 2200 ft of elevation gain) to the top of Table Rock and if we were lucky enough we could then hike 2 miles over to the next summit (can't remember the mountain name right now) which is about 200 ft lower and then head back for a nice 12 mile round trip loop. Being somewhat realistic in expectations, we figured we would shoot for Table Rock only on this trip and do the rest the next time.

 

One major change in our lives since W joined our family is the complete inability to leave the house in under an hour. Before W we could just leave. Now we have to grab his bag and pack it so full of various objects that you would think we were going away for a week. By the time that is done, he needs a snack and changed and then finally we can head out to pack up the van and leave. It doesn't seem to matter where we are going or for how long. It always takes an hour.

 

We got to the trail head later than we wanted to and W had decided to not nap all morning (nothing new there) and stay awake during the drive as well. This made for a tired baby from the start, but we were prepared. His nice, comfy pack was waiting for him and we even remembered to bring his lunch. The trail head was super busy. There is a nice lake there with a swimming area and even a high diving board and it was packed with holiday revelers. We were a little disappointed with the trail at first because it was paved, but once we got past the ranger station building and the first of several beautiful waterfalls, all the urbanites dwindled and we had a dirt trail and trees to keep us company.

 

I started off with W on my back and we headed up. And up. And up. I swear the corps of engineers had never heard of a switchback! Instead of making a nice trail that zig zagged its way up the mountain, they just cut stone steps into the side and made you go straight up. We passed several really nice waterfalls on the way up. W LOVES moving water and that helped get him out of his cranky funk and interested in the walk.

 

We knew the weather was warm out, but at home the humidity had been relatively low compared to what we are used to. Not in the woods. It was HUMID. I was almost immediately covered in a film of sweat that just wouldn't stop. The hubs was even worse with it literally pouring off of him. Thankfully, the backpack came with (thanks to the generosity of my father-in-law who sent the whole set up to us) a 2 liter water pack that we had filled up before we left home. We needed it. I wanted to make it the first half before giving up W to the hubs, but after 0.5 miles in, my legs were feeling it. I didn't want to fall and hurt him, so I handed him over to the hubs who took him the rest of the way. I immediately felt 10 degrees cooler and way lighter (he is 20 lbs and the pack has weight plus all the things we crammed into it - I bet it was 40 lbs).

We got to just beyond 1 mile and W lost it. He began crying and fussing nonstop so we pulled over. We prepared his lunch (aren't we such good Sherpas? Why doesn't Gme provide lunch for me when I am riding her?) and hoped he would settle back into happy baby mode, but he wasn't having it. He was exhausted. Why the kid refuses to sleep ever is beyond me, but we made the decision to turn back around and not ruin anything.

 

I let the hubs keep W for the trip down. I dislike steep down hills with slippery rocks and really didn't want to risk falling with W on my back. We made it down very quickly and he fell asleep about 10 minutes from the car. His neck was cranked to almost 90 degrees while asleep and I am very glad we didn't push onward. We need to figure out something to make him more comfortable while asleep up there. Maybe a travel neck pillow?

 

All in all it was a lot of fun. We were disappointed that we didn't make the summit, but poor W had put up with it for 90 minutes and had just had enough. He woke up back at the car and stayed awake all the way home. We were tired and thirsty and hungry but he wanted to play, play, play so we did for an hour before I forced him to nap. Then we took the dogs for another walk and called it a night.
A great weekend!!

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AAHHHHHH!!!

I think this fall is just trying to prove me right: Plans are worthless.

My fall season is falling apart before it even begins. As I lamented in an earlier post, the first event wasn't going to happen for a few reasons and then they changed the date. I should have been flying (ok...trotting) through the fields and woods soaring over (ok....avoiding) jumps this weekend. But that didn't happen. Ok. No big deal. It got moved to next weekend and while I highly doubt we can go, it still leaves it as a possibility.

Then the second event in September got altogether cancelled. The rain destroyed the trails and what was left is blocked by downed trees. I wasn't planning on going to that one so it didn't change my schedule. Until I looked on the website Friday.

The gap in the schedule in September was quickly filled. By Biltmore. The only ride I actually cared to attend. Instead of being October 6th it is now going to be held September 14th. A date I can't go. I have family driving in from Ohio to visit and there is no way I'm going to miss seeing family for a ride. I can't even hope for rain so it gets pushed back to October 6th because I don't want rain ruining the visit.

I have heard rumor that you can buy a pass and ride at Biltmore on your own. I need to investigate that and maybe I will take the hubs and Pete on the 6th anyway, just without the ride being held. Or we could just go find some free trails to ride on which sounds like a way better idea.

There are two other October rides still on the calendar. I am on call for one of them, so that leaves me with one last shot for a ride in October. I'm sure it will rain.

Maybe I will get to one in November. In the meantime, if I catch Gem using my cell phone to call the ride organizers to make these changes happen, I will be seriously upset with her!

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Some Days the World is Smiling on You

“I'm selfish, impatient and a little insecure. I make mistakes, I am out of control and at times hard to handle. But if you can't handle me at my worst, then you sure as hell don't deserve me at my best."

- Marilyn Monroe

 

That quote describes my Gemmie to a T. Hmmm... I wonder what the T actually stands for...anyway... Some days she is just impossible and I leave her shaking my head and questioning my goals and my riding abilities. And then there are the times when everything goes well and my head starts spinning with glee and my face is split with the biggest grin possible and all is right with the world. That day was Monday.

 

Since Sunday was pretty much a bust I decided Miss Thing could handle a second day in a row. She was already back out in her pasture when I got there and when she saw me she dropped to roll in the grass. Thankfully she is rather princess-y and would never roll in the mud because it would mess up her good looks (much unlike Pete who is a mud ball at all times regardless of how often you groom him). She didn't run away from me and we made our way to the barn to get ready. It was a nice 80 degrees and sunny with a breeze, but the humidity was high and she was sweating just standing there in the shade. I tried a new tack trick: cross the billets to buckle the front to the back of the girth and the back to the front to help prevent forward pulling of the saddle. It didn't seem to hurt, but I didn't test it enough to see if it helped either.

 

She was in a lazy mood and it was pretty clear she was not looking forward to more time in the arena. Lucky for her I had other plans for the evening. The various fields all interconnect with various gates (which are left open right now thankfully) which ends up making a big circle. Apparently, there is a way to connect to Gem's big pasture from the very back of the property to make the circle twice as long, but I have yet to find it. Of course, I have also been down the other half twice now (once jogging with Gem and a second time on the trail ride with the barn ladies) and still managed to get "lost". Gem better have a better sense of direction than I do or we will be spending a lot of time being lost in the woods together.

 

The arena was full with a lesson and I didn't want to cut through the middle of it, so I headed out between the barn and the arena to the top field out back. This leads down a nice, steep hill to the last field at the back of the property. She gave me some guff heading out, but really nothing major. She tried spinning around a few times, but I just kept my legs on her sides and told her she was a good girl and everything would be ok. We made it to the bottom and out into the big bottom field. Here is where you can make a right and head through the trees to her pasture (no clue how) or a left, so we made a left. This field is really nice. Big, flat and open. One day we will be doing sprints down that, but not today. I didn't care to work her muscles, heart or lungs. I wanted to work her brain and a walk was just fine for that.

 

At the far end of this field is a stream which I know you can cross then make a left and head through the trees and up into the last field. For the life of me I couldn't figure out where we crossed. The one area was super boggy and I got stuck there trying to cross it when I took her jogging and it was risky. We didn't cross there on horseback the last time, so I circled around and looked for something that looked familiar. The remaining areas were super steep and I know we didn't do those either. Sigh. I have no clue. Gem was being great though. I'm sure she thought I had lost it, but she was just walking along relaxed and even gave a few sighs (probably wondering how she ended up with such a stupid rider). Eventually I gave up and headed back the way we came. When we exited the bottom field I remembered that you could turn there (right now as we were heading back, but left if you are heading from the barn, confused yet?) and could follow the fence line through the trees and over to the far left field by-passing the bottom field. So we did that.

 

Gem got a little annoyed that I turned her away from the barn again, but really she was great. She even stopped to scratch her face on a tree :) We meandered through the woods and out into the last remaining field which is a big uphill climb to the arena. She started to pick up some steam knowing she was finally heading back, but kept to a walk. My one major trail riding rule is no running back home. It is too dangerous. Once back in the arena, we walked around it twice to let her know she couldn't just power back to the barn and called it quits. A part of me wanted to spend the next half hour working in the arena, but the smarter part knew we had accomplished the goal for the day and pushing it wasn't wise. We ended with a huge hug and a kiss. If she can maintain that attitude out on trail, we have this thing in the bag!!

GPS Stats:

1.36 miles
31 minutes
2.6 mph average pace
96 ft elevation gain

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