Horses Make Me Whole

O where to start?

This has been an especially trying week at the office.   This week I was so happy to get home and have the farm as my refuge.    To get lost in a particularly intensive yet sensitively connected training session was a very powerful stress relief.   There was a saying posted this week on Facebook…"Horses change our lives.   They give our young people confidence and self esteem.  They provide peace and tranquility to troubled souls – They give us hope!"   Author Unknown.    The author of this has lived my life.   I have cried many tears into the necks of 1000 lb animals.   They seem to know our sorrow, our sense of despair.    They have silently comforted me through some petty and some deeply tragic life events.   They were always there; through broken promises, the realization of unrealistic dreams, cheating boyfriends, frustrating work situations and dying loved ones.   All of those horses have lifted me up in those times of trouble and shown me were my confidence had gone.   They empowered me in a way that words never could.   They saved me by showing me I had not failed them.   I know if you are (in particular) a horse woman reading this, you know the feeling.    Whatever in your world is going wrong, you can mount up to ride and everything else melts out of you.   Horses have a way of cleansing the toxins of the world from our thoughts and let us be free to recharge, dream and believe.

The farm this week has been quiet.

The 3 girls are settling in nicely together.   After the first week of downright ugliness in that pasture I am ready for the hormones and temperamental attitudes to diffuse and find harmony.    Izzy was by far the worst of the bunch.  I am still not 100% sure if she was defending the top spot or trying to keep herself in #2.   O how naive I was to think that mother and daughter would have a loving reunion!   Izzy got one look at Wanda and did her best cavalry charge with ears flat against her head and teeth bared!   Wanda being far more savvy in years, moved away at a speed fast enough to keep her safe but never out right expressed a fear.   If she happened to get cornered, she would defend her space with her tail and a half hearted lifting of her kind leg…but from her, not a hoof out of place.   She’s a super friendly, easy keeper with a people pleaser attitude.   She has won DH over by a mile and she is his favourite in the herd now.   Fast forward to tonight, Wanda and Izzy are lovingly grooming each other and scratching each other on the withers.   I can’t keep up with these horses!   Emma being the matriarch is tending to her own tides first and keeps both the kid and Mom in there respective places.   I know they have to work out their order without interference.   I know the order will change from time to time and there will be future challenges.    But to my delight we have reached a peaceful chord (for now)…at least the 3 of them where inside the shelter together munching hay and waiting on dinner tonight.

Coyotes have been making themselves heard close to the farm buildings.   Last night they were particularly close and loud.   DH made his way out to the back pasture fence line with his walking stick and flashlight.   He could see eyes starring at him and then they disappeared.   If anyone knows of a trapper or hunter that would be willing to help with a bit of population control I think it’s time.   We have seen tracks crossing through our pastures that are empty right now and that’s too close for me.

Molly Update – The little stinker has figured out how to jump on our bed!!!   We have one of those newer style beds that is very high.   It’s about 3+ feet to the top of the mattress and we have wood floors…so jumping up hasn’t been encouraged incase she slips.   I was making the bed and all of a sudden there was a wild animal reeking havoc as I tried to straighten the quilt!   Now she’s up almost every morning when she wakes up.   She still sleeps on the carpet on my side and her saucer bed is on DH’s side.   She rotates between the 2 locations but when she wakes up (God loves me; it’s been 4:30 am only once this week!)

I forgot to mention last weekend we had a special visit from my Uncle "Tucker" and Aunt Mary.   They came out for a visit with my folks.   Dad gave them the grand tour…right back to the bush included!  J   Thank you both for stopping in and seeing our newest endeavor.  I was sorry to have missed your visit and I hope you will come back again in the summer for a cold drink by the waterfall.

Happy Family Day Weekend

It's been a hectic week this past week on the farm so no posts to the blog.
We have been experiencing our first round of tax pain here on the farm.   As the commercial goes...it really is a pain in the butt!  
I have been sorting and keeping our expenses tabulated every month but now that we have officially met with the accounting firm that will be filing our personal and farm taxes there is a lot more work that is needed to my book keeping system in order to have things in the correct order to make our next visit less painful.   It was a 3 hour evening appointment here at the farm.  All I could think about while I was listening to the (very nice) accountant tell me how things "could" be laid out was...jeez it's a lovely evening and I would really prefer to be out riding my horses!  I know this is an essential and needed part of life...and I will try to find joy in this mundane task.   I will keep thinking about the fact that I will be giving less of our money to the government by going through the 40 hours of pain it will take.   I will be paying myself...does that ever happen on a farm??!  :-)

One rather funny and interesting detail that had DH nearly falling off his chair in hysteria was the fact that Miss Kitty is now officially an important working member of the farm!   ALL of her expenses, from food, vet and treats are a claimable expenses!  Kitty is now our official Pest Control Manager.

This weekend I went away with a group of girls I sew with on a regular basis.   They are a creative, energetic group of friends that have been so supportive in all of my creative endeavours.   We span the full gamut of age, diversity and creative strengths.   I think that's one of the reasons that our group meshes so well...we all bring something different to the table and support each other through our creative processes.   The local Guild will be holding a Quilt Show the first weekend in May, so there was a lot of work that was being done in preparation to have entries ready for the show.   As always there is family news that is shared along with fabulous meals that brings us closer together in each others lives.   One has a child moving into their first home, another is becoming a grandmother for the first time, one has returned from a Caribbean cruise, another has bought a country property, one has a son launching his first local news website (The Daily Brew, check it out...Launching March 1st), one had a day off from her 7 day a week Quilt Shop business (Quilt Junction), another shared her time house sitting, another her joys of owning and breeding Collies and one the happiness of finding a new man.   Of course they all ask me about my adventures on the farm and a couple of them are regular readers here.   We have a few laughs about the antics they have already read about.   In the end, we all have something to share and sharing our stories helps us grow our friendships.  These women bring a lot of joy to my life and I am thankful that I have each and everyone one of them in my life.   They each teach me a lesson I need to learn, support a void that I need filled or a nurture part of my spirit.  Thank you girls for a great weekend.

Hacking in the Winter Wonderland

It was a beautiful winter day today.   At 6:30 am when I did chores it was -21C.  By afternoon it was +1C.   Hard to believe that we have such swings in temperature within 6 or so hours.
Here's Izzy and I with my friend Terrie and her horse Elvis.   We had a lovely hack through the woods and fields.  We seen lots of movement of animals.   We had one area in a back field that was obviously a stop over point for several deer.   You could clearly see where they had laid down for a rest and pawed the snow back for food.

Here is Wanda without her blanket.  I trimmed her feet today and we did some work on-line.   She's got big shoulders and they have some serious rocks in the canal that we need to move out of the way so the flow of energy can be let through.   She so sensible and easy going...it's just time, patience and consistency and I am sure she will be so much freer and have the ability to let loose in her balance.   It's been a couple years since she has been in serious work so we have some catching up to do!

This is Wanda at her Mare Inspection in 2009...She is a State Premium Mare.

Welcome Wanda

Today we had a new arrive come on the scene at HP Haven.   "Wanda" is the newest addition to our little herd, making it 3 girls on the farm for DH and I.
Wanda was an unexpected surprise.   The breeder that I bought Izzy from offered her to me as he is reducing his herd for health reasons.   I obviously could not turn down this opportunity to have Izzy's mom as part of the herd!    At some point in time I hope to breed her and have a new foal to start.   Maybe this spring maybe next spring...we will see how the cards play out in the spring.   DH and I have a serious number of irons already in the fire, so maybe just getting to know her and put a few miles on her will be the best thing for 2013.   She's only 9, so I have some time ahead of me.

So far I am delighted with her attitude.   She is easy going and at this point she is the bottom of the pecking order in the herd of three.   I know how the dynamics can change with additions, so I will wait to see how this all shakes out in another week or so.   As of now Izzy is treating her horribly!!   I had thought Izzy had become the dominate horse between her and Emma but today she proved it.   She was down right ugly about having Wanda within 10 feet of her if Wanda tried to approach.   If however Izzy did the approach the game was on and that was acceptable.   More observations tomorrow...interesting new dynamic.

Molly is Growing and Flooded Barn!

Our precious baby Molly is growing like crazy.   She's now over 40 lbs and she will be 5 months old in a couple of days.
Just to give you an idea of how much she has grown...
Remember when I posted this picture?   This is her the first week we got her.

This is her this week.

She has outgrown Kitty's bed by a long shot!!

She has taken a fancy to sleeping on the hearth when the fireplace is going.   I can't believe she can stand the heat but I figure she won't stay there long enough to start herself on fire...so it must feel good!
She starts off like this...

Then sometimes she ends up like this when she's too hot!

Her baby canine teeth have fallen out and her new adult canines have started to grow in...

On to the shenanigan's that I happened upon this morning at chores.   One of the water bowls blew out the bottom plug, so it was pouring water all over the barn floor for God knows how long over night.   It was long enough to flood 5 stalls with about 3"of water and leak out under the barn wall over the driveway and down into the field.   I was late for work bailing water from the stalls!    I left 3 box fans circulating the air to try and dry the place out.   By the time I got home from work the place looked half normal.  All I have to to say is thank goodness I was anal about having all the hay up on skids...if not we would have lost about 30 bales of hay.   Which would not be good in this winter that we are in a hay shortage!

    

Time Passes Quickly

I can't believe it's February already!   We are approaching 6 months on the farm already.   It seems like we have just started on this journey and then at other times it feels like I have known this place all of my life.
This weekend took a slight turn from the original plan.  We had thought we were having my coach Joe for the weekend.  But Mother Nature had other plans!   We ended up getting 5-6" of snow on Saturday.  It was beautiful and just they way I love winter.   White and with soft fluffy snow, gentling fluttering to the ground and leaving a pretty white blankety on every surface.   It was however not good weather for driving...so lessons were cancelled for the mini clinic this weekend and we will rebook Joe for another time.
On Sunday the frost in the air left crystals on everything.   Here a few shots as the sun was just starting to come up.

 This is my favourite tree that was a glorious red/orange in the fall.

 This is the grouping of trees in the back yard near the pond.

I pretty Teasel.

 The giant grass at the pond.

The back 40 at noon.

 The teasel at the bush.

Spent the weekend doing odd jobs that needed to be completed.   The dressage letters that I received from my BFF, Heather as a house warming gift are now hung in the arena.   It looks like we may actually do something that resembles training in there!  :-)
I finally put up the stall guards on the stall doors.  I like to have the horses put their heads out and even though the Tuscany stall fronts have a nice look to them they aren't exactly my first choice when it comes to convenience.   DH and I have a plan to change the fronts to make them a bit more horse friendly.   That's for future, but its a plan I have in my mind.

I also spent some time in the house and garage; organizing.   I still have a long ways to go but slow and steady is my motto!  The garage was a total disaster.   We dumped almost all of our stuff in there as we moved because floors in the house were being refinished.   There was no shelving or storage to speak of so things just got piled on top of each other and dumped on the floor.   It's not great still but after an afternoon of sorting you can see the floor and also see that things are organized into more logical piles!

I set up the desk in the storage room upstairs and then hooked up the PC.   DH needs a PC to work from home.  The laptop is basically off limits and since he's not a proficient Mac user he finds it difficult to use.  Plus, since I have a number of VHS tapes of shows and riding from when I was young that I want to get converted over to digital...it was time to get that boat anchor set up and earning it's keep!

DH put up our new Canadian flag.  The sorry looking old one was a disgrace to this beautiful country.

I spent some more time this weekend enjoying the birds.   I added another feeder in the front window...look who it attracted...

 ...and I just love the little Chickadee's.

The lovely still winter day made me want to see horses outside eating hay.   So extra hay got fed outside on Sunday morning.   I think they enjoyed it too because they ate it all up first!  This is the most peaceful scene...I just love to see content horses munching outside on a beautiful day.

And I sign off for this post with a goofy angled shot of Izzy...I just love the dots on her nose between her nostrils.   I thought about calling her Dots are Hot!  LOL. (It starts with a "D")