You have to read this and comment!

I have been shopping and reasearching a bit. Ride season is just around the corner and I really WANT TO RIDE ..

My goals for Maggie this season have little to do with endurance. It was a decision that was both easy to make but hard all at the same time. I love the sport, more than any other riding discipline I have ridden in, but when I look at the facts, it's not the best fit for Maggie. Yes, she is fast and tough as nails but she is also very hot and the competitiveness of it all just fries her little brain. She doesn't eat well, drink well or rest well. In time, some horses might figure this out. Maybe Maggie would also, in time, but I think she has more to offer in another direction. It's my responsibility to find what that is as her owner.

 After a lot of looking, I  have tentatively arranged a few lessons on working cows to begin in the coming weeks. It's  a local trainer who is supposedly trained in the Buck Brannaman styles of horsemanship. Ofcourse, I proceed with caution on that because alot of trainers make that same claim and most can't cash the check. Only one way to find out. Go ride with him a time or two and see for myself if it's a fit.

In the meantime, I need to get some concerted riding time on the ol' girl and grease the wheels again before I ask too much.  She's been a pasture muffin since October and I am sure we will have a few issues to sort out. I certaintly can't do anything at home with the footing. What to do? Find a boarding facility and board her for a month or two so I can have access to an arena. That's my only choice right now.

It's been over 10 years since I have had to board a horse somewhere. I had no idea it was such a process. I think ,a fter alot of calls and looking, I may have found a suitable place but I ran into a situation with one place that really shocked me.  This particular facility came to me highly recommeded , that it was run very well, kept clean and had vet techs on staff there. It sounded great . It was also pricey. In speaking with the owner , she seemed very nice and sent me all the paperwork. It turns out you have to apply to board there and they have to approve you. Ok, I could appreciate that. They were trying to weed out less than reliable boarders. Made perfect sense. They required vaccinations and coggins. Vaccinations I could understand but I explained to the owner that I do not vaccinate my horses any longer due to some ongoing reactions . The owner was willing to still accept me as a boarder in that case since I would be the one taking the risk. As far as requiring Coggins, that seemed to be a stretch to me because  MT law states that if a horse has had a coggins,  and has not left the state since, you don't need to renew it yearly.  That said, I was willing to  go get a Coggins regardless. The owners were obviously trying to protect themselves from an EIA outbreak and lets face it, not everyone is honest about their horses whereabouts or health for that matter.

Here is where the wheels fell off for me..
Apparently somewhere in the communications and the emailing back and forth about the vaccinations, the owner took it upon herself to ask the vet techs about my horses health history. I had not signed any paperwork or made any committments to board at this facility. She essentially "checked" up on me and the vet techs openly told her they knew of my horses reactions to  vaccinations in the past.

As far as I know, in selling or buying horses, a  release  of information has to be signed by the owner for others to have any medical information. In this case, this info wasn't highly confidential or anything , but it's the point that the facility owner took it upon herself to pry because she happened to have access to people who knew and that the techs openly discussed it without my consent. At the very least, the techs should have known better.

It bothered me.

Correction-

No, it flat out pissed me off.

The owner claims she is working very hard to run a facility without any "typical horse boarding drama".  It seems to me her actions don't quite follow her words. Had she asked,  I would have gladly told her she could contact my vet for records or even talk to my vet about my choice not to vaccinate. But she did not and took it upon herself to get information that I did not consent to, that she had no right to know. I had to wonder what else the techs are sharing that they shouldn't be with other horses or potential clients.

In the end, I have chosen another facility and the owner lost a potential client but I am curious about what your thoughts are .

What would your response to this be? Was this innappropriate on the owners and the tech's part or am I having too high of expectations?

**disclaimer in the off chance that someone who was involved in this  or knows someone that was involved in this and might be reading....Professionalism and Client Confidentiality are important and I would be happy to discuss it with you.

 

February Frump

             

February and I have a love hate relationship. Mostly hate. Here in Northwest MT, we always seem to get the end of January thaw ,which inevitiably reaches into February. Things become icey, sloppy, muddy and just plain ugly and gross, yet certain days are sunny and  nice enough (40’s) to make me yearn to get going with riding.

February likes to play games like that. It’s a month that demands patience  while it dangles the proverbial carrot of warmer days ahead just on the horizon, giving us glimmers of sunshine  and then  stealing it back to into it’s cold wintry nights.

February is not the month of love. It is a tease, a mocker, a leg puller.  The temps are bearable to ride in but the footing is treacherous and the arena is still snow covered. The horses have not begun to shed , although every few days I go out and check …just in case.
Nonetheless, I want to ride and  my patience with winter has run out.  I become restless , anxious and generally irritated because I know I still must wait. just a bit longer.

I am sequestered to indoor arena’s to act upon my urges to ride,  along with paying steep arena fees, while trying to manage riding for just an hour. An hour worth of riding is not much after I have have spent years training for endurance. An hour is just a drop in the bucket, but , atleast it's something.



On the horizon, pending the plans come together, I begin a new , but old , adventure with riding. I have threatened to do it for a few years now. I think I finally will.

Stay tuned

 

A leg up..Winter Ride Video Clip

Two posts in less than a week. Must be some sort of record..

On Saturday I headed out with a friend for a some snowshoeing in Whitefish , a nearby town, ie tourist hot spot.. There is a new trail system that has been created that I just learned about and wanted to check it out. We spent about 2 hours hiking around in the about 8 inches of fluffy white stuff. It was a fabulous way to spend a wintry day.

When I got home the sun was shining and  I had a horrible urge to get on a horse, even if only for a few wonderful moments .  I did a cursory brushing off of the snow and ice on Maggie's back and was going to just tie up the halter lead to make into reins but I thought better of that. Bareback is one thing after not being ridden for nearly two months on a hot horse but no bridle? That's just being crazy !   (alteast that was my logic at the time) . I grabbed Maggie's bridle  and talked my husband into coming out and giving me a leg up.
In my rush to take advantage of the limited sunshine, I had not even changed out of my snowshoe clothes which is a pair of lined pants made from a rayon , polyester blend.

Yes,  the slippery kind. Add that to a long coated Morgan.

As I got my leg up all was going relatively well Tom was careful not to toss me too hard considering the slippery pants. I was laying there across Maggie's back but I was sliding in a downwards direction (again the pants)so I made haste and went to swing my leg over. At about the same time she took a step in the opposite direction I was going and I guess the physics of momentum all came together or maybe they fell apare because it felt like I got an extra shove and off I went into the snow on the other side..

Damn pants.

I landed in a face plant into the snow. It was one of my less graceful moments on record but atleeast I was unhurt (exept for pride). Maggie, bless her heart was stock still. I know she was laughing at me.. By now I was laughing at me and so was the hubby. I was in tears in fact..

Attempt number two at getting a leg up was successful and we manged to have a lovely little ride, in spite of the hump in Maggie's back. Hubby even managed to take some video footage and I have posted it to You Tube here

Don't laugh, she is quite fat and sassy and I was barely manageing to keep her from doing airs above ground! Had I added ANY leg pressure we would have hit the moon!Nevermind the layer of ice below the fresh snow. I must be crazy!



 

Hey Everyone! Happy New Year

I hope the holidays and New Year have treated you all well. I can't complain. 2012 was really a great year for us here and I am looking forward to 2013 and whatever it brings.  I am sure everyone is dreaming of their future ride season and making plans and goals. The horses are quite fuzzy and round.. plenty ready to ‘weather” any storms we might have to face here in NW Montana. A fuzzy horse is a healthy horse and we have several months of opportunity for cold stormy weather ahead.

Maggie is officially the neglected child in my world. Sadly, I spent 5 weeks traveling for my newest newjob beginning in November . With that kind of schedule, It was all I could do to come home , washclothes and get back on a plane again. For now I am home and I hope that the intense travel schedule does not return. As the story goes, I had changed jobs back in August but then changed jobs again at the end of October for a better opportunity to work remotely.. with some travel.. However, I might be rethinking that now with the travel I had to do. We will have to see how much “some travel ends up actually being.

2012 was defininitely the year of accomplishments and new experiences for me on many levels. I think I met or exceeded most of the horse related goals I set for myself and Maggie. I even ran that 5K I always wanted to do. I feel very blessed and thankful for such a great year.


2013 has already had a great start. I have already accomplished some personal financial goals and working on a few more for future plans. I am also focusing on my health a bit more than I have , especially after the travel.. It really took a toll on me. I turned into a major zombie. I realized I wasn't going to pussy foot around it.  I am doing the Whole 30 with Dallas and Melissa Hartwig of Whole9. They are in their fourth year of a successful endeavor to change people's lives. It's been a goal of mine for a couple of years since switching to the Primal way of eating but never took the dive. Now I have. I am in Day 2 of my 30 days. So far so good, other than a mess up on drinking protein smoothies for breakfast . Apparently that's a no no because drinking your meals doesn't give the proper leptin release. Who knew?? So , I learn and move on.. no big deal.

JB update- remember him??? The little red Barb that started this whole thing...Well he's the not the same horse as he had been but he's the same horse that he once was. Clear as mud, right?  The hubby's young horse was lame after being a butthead so was on rest and his other main riding horse, Maggie's half bother Cassidy,  had been getting the tar   ridden out of him all summer and needed a little break so JB was the chosen mount. We took him on several fall rides. Nothing hard or fast but long 3-4 hour rides.Long for him.  After these few rides, it must have kicked something loose in his little pea brain because he started rip snorting around the pasture at regular intervals, the likes of which I had not seen since prior to the big wreck. He runs and plays, and bucks and does airs above ground that would impress the high school masters in Portugal. .It was like he found himself again buried deep down somewhere . It's been so nice to see him act full of P&V again and I am looking forward to our first few rides out this spring(er.. maybe not??) It makes my heart sing to see my JB is back..It took two years...

 

On other horizons..I have also agreed to join a Spartan Race Team in May.. it's the easy one.. The Spartan Sprint.. relatively speaking. Looks Intense , right? The team I am on is a  mix of Amazonian like characters who eat bar bells for breakfast and other normal people like myself who are realtively fit and just want to finish in one piece. Have I been training you ask ? Well.. I guess.. running 3-4 times a week, hills, a few sprints, snowshoeing and generally just staying active although with the zombi mode it's been a challenge. An old hip flexor injury and sciatic issue flared up on me that hindered my progress but  I think I amgaining traction on that. I doubt you will find me  carrying sandbags up a steep hill just to train for this thing..

Beyond that... well.. I am not sure. It seems like enough to worry about for now. The hubby appears to have a pretty aggressive Horseback Archery competition schedule this year beginning in May so I am not sure what that will do to any endurance plans I might have. Spring is a long ways off and alot of things can and will likely change between now and then.  I am just taking it one stride at a time..

 

Storm Blowing In

I am sitting here in my new office. I get to look out at my south facing pasture to watch the horses munch their breakfast , tails  and manes whipping in the wind as a storm front moves in.

 I get to do that now, that is watch the horses from my office window.

I have managed to change jobs twice in a 3 month period after having worked in one place for nearly 10 years.  In August I chose to leave that 10 years employer . It was difficult to leave the people behind but certainly not the job. It was time for a change. The stress was getting too much. I took a position with another local insurance company , only it was a different insurance industry, and not at all familiar. Chage is good and it was a good job, a good place to work that offered security and decent benefits. It challenged me to step outside my comfort zone and learn something new. All of that was fine,  but I just couldn't get excited about it.
Opportunity fell on my doorstep when a previous aquaintance informed me of a position that came open with another company. They happened to be looking for someone with my knowledge on a sspecific system I was already familiar with. Fortunate for me, there aren't alot of us that have this particular system's knowledge.
So I applied and got the job. It's a good job as well, a better job in my opinion. It offers me the opportunity to work remotely, most of the time with some travel. In time, I suspect it will allow me much more freedom with my schedule. Just the saving on the fuel money might be able to go towards some time to board a horse at a stable this winter. But first thing is first. I have to get up and running.

On Sunday, I  head out for the first week of several for some training. Where I will be going is much warmer. With a winter weather advisory looming as I type, it's not all bad. Yet, it's always hard to leave the farm behind. I worry about the dogs, the horses. We are predicted to have our first signifigant snowfall today through Friday. We have been busy in the last several weeks not only getting my home office ready , which was a serious undertaking and reorganization , but also preparing for the inevitable first snow. It's a list of tasks I always seem to dread because of what it represents. Very little time with the horses. Nonetheless, all of the horseshoes are pulled for the winter allowing the hooves several months to go barefoot again. Last weekend, we finished loading the last of the hay for the year. The garden boxes are dug up and compost added. The tank heaters are in the water troughs, ready to be plugged in (most likely later today considering the temps) The gutters are cleaned out, the wood shed is full and the lawn equipment is winterized and replaced by the snowblower. The horse blankets are within easy reach should we need them. What else is there???

As always, summer and fall come to a close much too quickly and usually with several things left undone on the  "To-do list but the important things have been accomplished. I often find myself complaining about all the work that comes with owning a home, having livestock and keeping a place up. There is always a new addition to the list.
But for now, we will rest a bit and settle into a new chapter. 

Winter can lay down heavy upon us.

We are ready.

 

Fall Frenzy

Ok, the first thing is that I have to make a complaint to Google Blog site.  Something is going on with Google because it will not let me upload a photo.. some sort of server error ... So I will post without a pic .. and try again later... grrrrrr...

The fall frenzy has begun here. We have once again been blessed with an Indian  summer. September and most of October have  been beautiful. So much so that I have been shirking my duties when it comes to work around the farm to get ready for winte and have been spending  my weekends riding (f your on facebook, I have photos to prove it, I swear!)  or otherwise goofing off , rather than working on fall /winter preparations which is now at it’s crucial point. I have been enjoying getting out for easy trail rides with Maggie and JB.  JB is finally getting some concerted work again after two years of really not being ridden and he is doing very well. I forgot how much he enjoys going.

After these last several frenzied weeks ,  I am going to request that weeks are 3 days and weekends are 4 days long.  We seem to be having to cram 4 days of activities  into two days.

Deny it as I may, it’s time to get the  winter readiness stuff done around the place. This is the part about property ownership that kinda drags.

I often dream about what it would be like to  live somewhere that this task is not required. That would be so nice! Not to have to think about winter…have someone to do all your maintenance stuff for you ... hmm... maybe living in a condo isn't so bad.. no lawn care, no fencing, no cold frozen fingers trying to get livestock fed in a storm, no frozen pipes forcing me to haul buckets of  water so the horses can drink, no wood to split, a garage that can actually be used to house my vehicle so I don't have to scrape ice off my windshield at 6:00 in the morning, as opposed to a place that we store EVERYTHING else that doesn't fit in the hay barn or storage container......wouldn't that be the life on easy street..

..but I digress....

I suppose my dislike of all this winter chorse stuff stems from the fact that  it means the long days of being outside in the sun and fresh air in shorts and tank tops  are replaced by long dark days of cold,  having to wear boots and multiple layers , being held captive to our home as winter blows down on us and generally everythiing just being a bit more difficult.  I suppose that is why I procrastinated so long  on getting outside stuff wrapped up and tucked away.

Nonetheless, we reluctantly  managed to finally get some of the garden boxes cleaned up, and plucked the last of the onions out of the dirt, which was totally  cool to still have fresh produce  in October. We put most of the outside furniture away , and  weset the  wood crib up on the back porch and filled it.  We got the horse troughs switched out and stock tank heaters tested and installed, ready to be plugged in at the first sign of nasty weather.  There is still much to do, like fill the garden boxes with compost, put away more patio furniture, coil up a couple more hoses,  mow the yard one last time, get the lawn equipment winterized, and pull the snow blower out from the barn.  I hope we haven’t procrastinated too long!

I even did some heavy duty  indoor work that involved a lot of housecleaning and rearranging,  in preparation for  finally  getting a real home office set up. This was no easy task. It required us to switch what was the guest room downstairs and move it to the upstairs loft, which has been serving as a storage area.

Think tornado and you will understand what my storage area looked like.

 After atleast 250 trips of going up and down the stairs, 3 bags of old paperwork that had to be burned or shredded,  two car loads of goodwill donations , a full vacuum bag and a lot of empty boxes ,  I had a guest room again  and the downstairs  room  was beginning to look like a real office, like it was always intended to !  It will be so nice to have a dedicated work space instead of a desk shoved in the corner.

 After our full day of work on Saturday and most of Sunday morning, we decided we deserved to go for a ride on Sunday afternoon….

ofcourse one did not have to twist my arm too hard on that… housework or ride?? Hmmm, not a hard choice there.

…..and ….since it was opening weekend for hunting, Tom brought along his rifle and JB packed it for him. JB was quite disturbed about that thing bumping against his shoulder, but pretty soon he relaxed and set off at a pace that was on par with Maggie’s walk. 

 The ride was great, other than I nearly froze.  We started out with having to saddle up in a  snow squall and I quickly realized that  I had not dressed appropriate for today’s outing.  Apparently , I have still not made the mental shift that it’s late fall and one has to dress in more than a fleece, vest , jeans and light weight gloves. It didn’t matter, I was just happy to be out of the house and on my horse. I improvised and when I got cold, I just got off and did some  hiking on my own two feet . The hunting wasn’t great, we saw a few deer  and a lot of other hunters. The place was crawling with hunters in fact. We toyed with the idea of heading up to one area that was a bit higher in elevation and about 5  more miles in , where hunters on foot would likely not be, but it was getting too late and JB was at the end of his energy reserves so we opted to head out instead.

 The cooler weather is here and snow is predicted for this week. In spite of the cold, I thoroughly enjoyed the day on the trail .  Hard to say how many more opportunities we will get to ride out there again before there is too much snow and ice.  

I suppose while I am putting patio furniture away, I might as well  pull out the skiis and snowshoes… and the snowshovel..


 

Look Heart ... No Hands..

Well, this one fits too... maybe even better..
Besides, I kinda like ol' Randy.. even if he does drink  a little too much a and decide to walk along the streets completely "neked" and find himself in the slammer..you can't deny his unique sound...

Look Hard folks... No hands

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjnCZSEgSu0