Toes in the Water

Most of the time Melissa and I lead very "adult" lives and that is as it should be. After all, we are responsible for a myriad of things from horses to running a business, paying bills and bringing Carter up successfully. This gets brought home to us whenever we have something unexpectedly break or on long days outside when the weather is less than ideal. The past several days have featured leaden gray skies and copious rain. Not much fun to be out in.

I was thinking about all of this yesterday as the rain sluiced down on my head while I walked toward the house after completing afternoon chores. About midway between the front barn and the house our driveway crosses a small creek. I noticed that the water was running fairly deep and on a whim I grabbed a stick to  check the depth. When I was through I tossed the stick into the middle of the stream to see how quickly it got carried away.

Before I knew what I was doing I found myself following the stick as it made its way across the farm. A couple hundred yards downstream there is a shallow spot where the water spills over a rockfall and there is an easy crossing if you wish to get to the other side. Thanks to the rain the water was deep but instead of testing the depth with a stick I stuck my boot down into it and hunted for the bottom. I found it, too. A half inch above where my rubber boot ended. But instead of cursing my luck I found myself smiling. Turns out I'm still not to old to get a soaker while finding a lot of fun playing in the creek on a rainy day. I wish that I could always remember that the sort of day I'm having has less to do with external circumstances and more to do with what is going on between my two ears.

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We've had fun watching all the playful horses the last couple of days. This is Johnny and Lighty . . . 

. . . why I will never be a professional photographer but you get the idea that Lighty and Johnny were having a big time. .. 

. . . I love Lighty's expression here with his tongue sticking out. That is Africa standing in front of Lighty and Johnny . . .

. . . Lighty and Africa took off running together . . . 

. . . Africa and Lighty having fun . . . 

. . . Africa and Lighty being wild things

Some of the members of the grey horse club having a lunch meeting. Gus, George and Asterik.

A Paradigm Farms winter scene; Elfin, Grand, Tony and Trigger

The mares were wound up today as well. This is Dolly showing off her skills from her dressage days and doing a pirouette. For some reason I really like this picture, her expression, her movement, the steamy air she is snorting out, and the ice on the trees behind her.

Maisie and Traveller momentarily striking a pose

Dolly, Calimba and MyLight on the run

Dolly and MyLight

Sunday Stills

Largo and Oskar

I hate to wait for this one to come up for air to see who it was . . .

. . . it was Kennedy

Thor

Moe and Leo having some play time

Stormy (he is never in danger of losing his blanket!)

Ritchie and Rip

Cocomo

Faune and Flyer

Baby and Tony

Driveway OCD

We all have our idiosyncrasies and things we worry over that are really important to us but not so much to someone else. One of Jason's things happens to be the driveway, and I have to say that driveway worries him to death. Add into the equation that the driveway is almost a mile long and Jason could (and sometimes does) drive himself crazy trying to keep it in perfect shape.  Although he denies it I am pretty convinced that he sometimes lays in bed at night, wide awake, worrying about the driveway. 

Personally I think it is Jason's goal in life to spend our life savings on the driveway. In the month of November alone he had two more loads of gravel dumped on the driveway. I don't know how many loads of gravel we put on the driveway in 2013 but I do know the number was definitely higher than two. And of course this wasn't enough. After the second load of gravel was spread on the driveway a couple of weeks ago Jason's comment was "it could really use another two loads."  Much to his chagrin I refused to go along with this plan and said no. His response to that was probably similar to that of a junkie being cut off from his heroin supply. 

Since I was a big meanie and said no to more gravel on the driveway Jason instead spent an afternoon working on random uneven spots in the driveway.  First he used the box blade on the tractor up and down the driveway to level things out and fill in any holes that had started. Then he moved on to the hard part. Jason would use the front end loader on the tractor to move a load of gravel from the extra gravel pile we always keep around. Then he would meticulously fill in small holes and level up uneven spots using a shovel. For the final touch he would then use the front end loader to further smooth and level the area he had been working on.   

He spent a few hours doing this then he gave me a tour of our newly improved driveway..  I tried to ooh and aah appropriately over the driveway but I think he could tell it was forced. It looked pretty much the same to me. (and I'm sure a little piece of his soul just died upon reading that.)

Unfortunately for Jason we have the wrong driveway for someone who gets all OCD about such things. It is long, it gets a lot of traffic, and much of that traffic tends to be really heavy trucks like feed delivery trucks and such. Combine all that with good topsoil that likes to eat gravel and you do wind up with a rather high maintenance driveway.  Jason is currently contemplating the merits of putting down geotextile fabric along the driveway and then putting gravel on top of that.  Whenever we have these discussions I now know exactly how he feels when we discuss my horse expenses. All I hear is ca-ching, ca-ching, ca-ching or blah, blah, blah, it just kind of depends on my mood at the moment.

Who knew that a driveway could be worthy of so much time, work, money and worry - five paragraphs worth?!  Apparently our driveway is worth all of this angst . . .

ca-ching

putting that university education to good use

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Johnny and Bergie

Donneur and George

I liked this morning scene. Ritchie was half asleep, Apollo was grazing, and Hemi was napping

Thomas and Homer were both having a good roll

Trigger and Moe

Johnny and Murphy

Hemi

Apollo

Darby, B-Rad and Alex

Chance

Grand

Consulting and Speaking

(post by Jason) As many of you know I spent nearly 20 years working for others in the feed industry in various consultative, nutritional and sales roles in both Canada and the United States. When I came home to the farm full time a few years ago I applied what I knew to the horses in our care but I had no desire to attempt any sort of consultancy that involved anybody except a current Paradigm Farms client. In spite of the fact that we don't advertise any services except those we provide to clients of the farm we receive requests every week, and sometimes every day, for nutritional advice, ration analysis and information on how to start and run a retirement farm. We have also received requests from across North America to speak to different groups about what it is like to run an equine retirement facility.

It became apparent very quickly that we could spend our lives giving out free advice and all we were going to get out of it was being worn out. So at the first of this year we began to charge for any but the most basic advice. This got rid of the tire kickers as we had intended it would but that left a number of people who were willing to pay for our expertise or to hear what we had to say. Getting our feet wet also reminded me that I enjoy doing nutritional consulting, and doubly so when I am doing it for myself and not on behalf of someone else. After thinking it through and talking it over extensively, Melissa and I decided I should formally offer our services on a limited basis and see where it went. Our last conversation is the reason for this post. Below are a list of services we can provide.

Nutritional Consultations including:

• Getting the basics right
• Farm Visits - Troubleshooting Problems - Production Analysis - Forage Testing
• Ration Analysis and Interpretation
• Supplements ? When, Why and How Many

Of the aforementioned activities it is always most productive for me to have a farm visit and see the horses and the situation in which they live. Although I have done my share of consulting from a distance a farm visit is always ideal if possible. I am happy to work with a group of owners, a barn manager or individual owners as the situation warrants. Email us for pricing, availability and scheduling.

Speaking - Melissa and I are available on a limited basis to speak to you or your group about many aspects of running a successful equine retirement farm. Each of us have our own areas of expertise; combining our talents has resulted in Paradigm Farms as it exists today. Topics broadly include but are not limited to:

1. How we got started

2. All aspects of managing and feeding the horses:

3. All aspects of caring for our clients

4. All aspects of managing and running the farm

5. Transitioning a horse to retirement

6. What happens when it ends ? Managing end of life issues and euthanasia

Again, email us for pricing and availability.

As always caring for the horses on our farm remains our primary responsibility and interest. Melissa and I do the majority of the hands-on daily horse care ourselves and have no desire to change that.  Everything that we do is scheduled around horse care and farm management duties.

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Traveller, Norman, Cuff Links and Lily

Walden, Fabrizzio and Merlin

Bergie and Kennedy

Elfin and Leo

Ritchie and Rip

Johnny and Africa

Walon and Johnny

Stormy, Oskar, Kennedy and Bergie

Sunday Stills

Lofty, Donneur, Cocomo and Romeo . . .

. . .  a closer look at Cocomo and Romeo . . . 

. . . and Lofty and Donneur

Trigger, Hemi and Apollo

Lotus and Gibson

Asterik ad Faune

Merlin, Walden and Noble

Johnny and Lighty (that is B-Rad hiding in the background)

Renny and Sam

Wiz

Darby and Alex