2015 year in review...5 words or less

January-Really cold everything frozen
February-More of the same

March-Holy shit new jobs

 

April-Paper chase season starts

May-I have a new car 

June-Weedwhacking and smashing trees 

July-Frankie comes home

August-Anniversary wolves 

September-A show, also modeling

October-Paperchases fun, fun, fun

November-Sometimes falling off, sometimes not

December-Unseasonably warm? Yes please!

Farm Hacks

In no particular order, some unexpected things that have made my life easier over the past year and a half of having horses at home:

Stock trailer with no ramp: Horse doesn't want to load? Hauling a few bales of hay? Have a horse that prefers to haul loose? You need one of these, I LOVE a trailer without a ramp and the horses like the open, inviting space provided by a stock trailer.

 

4 wheeler: I have a Polaris Sportsman Ace (in picture). Four wheelers are great because 1) Fun 2) Can fit muck bucket or hay on the back 3) Can set up with sprayer for applying herbicide to pastures 4) Habituate horse to ATV traffic 5) Fun 

 

Zip ties: Just go ahead and get the mega-pack that comes with all different sizes. One of my favorite uses for these are halter/haybag/trailer tie break-aways. They look clean and neat and break easily in panicky situations. 




Weedwhackers that don't suck: Thinking of getting the "homeowner" model? Think again. It is absolutely worth it to shell out for a pro weedwhacker that will actually hold up for farm use (ie. you will spend more time actually weedwhacking, less time searching for the pieces of the head that blew apart because you tried to cut through something rough). I love the Stihl weedwhackers.
 

Extremely high tech, expensive hay feeding device: This is a "harvest bin" designed for storing fruit. It also works great for keeping hay off the ground and reducing waste, plus if the horses destroy it you are not out $700+.



What do you think? I want to hear everyone's farm hacks and tips!

"I am not lost for I know where I am, however, where I am may be lost"

The quote in the title is from Winnie the Pooh if anyone is wondering.

It has been a very eventful past 2 weekends since I last wrote (including the thanksgiving holiday "weekend" during which I had Thursday off but worked Friday all day and Saturday morning).
My first adventure was a trip to Swatara State Park, this is near Pine Grove, PA and is a bit of a drive from my place in York...it is even more of a drive when Siri sends you to a trailer park with the same name 45 minutes out of the way before you reach your destination. That aside, this was a great place to ride with wide beautifully groomed trails. I rode Frosty in her new western bridle and western myler bit for the first time and she did pretty well, this was my first time trail riding with split reins and I can't decide how I feel about them, I was pretty paranoid about dropping one!

Really longggg bridge over 2 creeks at Swatara State Park

Western poneh doing western things

 

This past weekend I attended the shortest paper chase in the history of paper chases located in Upperco, MD which is an area kind of like Unionville, PA or Middleburg, VA...except in Maryland. We finished the paper chase in approximately 15 minutes. There was a variety of jumps and I jumped Frosty over 2 coops (my first time over a coop on this horse) a wood panel thingy and some logs in the woods. By the end Frosty was just starting to get warmed up so John decided he wanted to go trail riding on the way home. We tried to find a natural resource area...which ended up being a Christmas tree farm...which was not designed for horse trailer traffic. Long story short John had to back the trailer out a REALLY LONG road/driveway, this type of thing is why John drives the trailer NOT ME. We ended up skipping on that idea and had bagels and stopped at Spring Valley on the way home, I jumped some more things with Frosty at Spring Valley and we rode for another hour or so before heading home. I like bagels, I like Frosty, and I like jumping at Spring Valley, good day.

I don't have any pictures from the shortest paper chase ever, but here are my dogs eating yogurt