Weekend fun and some farm projects

As the weather gets colder and opportunities to ride get to be few and far between I am trying to squeeze in as much pony time as possible on the weekends since riding during the week is mostly out of the question because it is always dark (boo!). In addition to riding there are also a bunch of obnoxious "get read for winter" projects.

Saturday:
I had work in the morning and then headed up to Michaux State Forest. This is one of my favorite places to ride and I was really happy to make it there one last time before the weather gets really bad. I got to touch up Frosty's chaser clip, roach her mane and do some trimming on her face and legs before heading up. It was chillier in the mountains than I expected and I did NOT dress warm enough lol! We went pretty fast and Frosty was STRONG so I warmed up really quickly. I rode western for this ride, this was Frosty's second time as a western poneh and she did really well.

Friends! Yay!

Frosty making a cranky mare face

Sunday:
Sunday was the Beaufort Hunt's second junior hunt of this year. This was a really great time and they had an excellent turnout! We took John's horses.

John is in front (blue saddle pad) and I'm in back (teal-ish saddle pad) 

 

When we got home from hunting I set up Frosty's fence to it's winter configuration. Our land is really hilly and I like to keep the horses off the hills as much as possible in snowy/icy/muddy conditions for safety and to reduce erosion, hence this fence set up.

Early morning picture of fence

John also did some (much needed!) tree removal of the two huge pine trees next to the barn. This will eliminate the pine needles which get everywhere and allow more sun to reach the hill/barn area this will hopefully lead to less ice/snow sticking around in those areas.

Picture from last year of 2 pine trees next to barn

Awesome!

In addition to these projects John's awesome friend Harry was in town a few weeks ago to help with some improvement which I am THRILLED about. The first was installation of our custom made "inner" barn doors. This will allow the dutch doors to be left open and increase airflow in the barn while allowing the horses to see out. The second was a NEW WATER LINE and spigot located closer to the horse water troughs and barn. I am freakishly happy about this and it should make my life much easier this winter when it comes to watering horses.

Another early morning photo of the new inner barn doors...I need to get a better one in nicer light