Top Paradigm Farms Names

In my last blog post I mentioned that we had 11 of the top 100 SmartPak names represented on our farm.  We currently have three pairs of horses at our farm that share a name.   The only thing that surprises me about these three names is that none of them made the SmartPak Top 100.  I guess these names are only popular at Paradigm Farms!  None of the horses with shared names happen to be pasture mates which certainly helps to keep halters and blankets from winding up on the wrong horse, not that they would fit the wrong owners anyway.  Without further ado here are the top 3 Paradigm Farms names:

1. Lightening and Lightening - We have no trouble knowing which Lightening we are referring to as one of them actually goes by Lighty.  It keeps things simple.

Lighty - Oldenburg gelding

Lightening - Arabian gelding

2. Silky and Silky - We also never have any issues knowing which Silky we are referring to in conversation.  We gave the pony named Silky the nickname of Slinky and that is how we refer to him.  When the shipper who was bringing him to our farm would call us with updates he always called him Slinky.  After meeting him in person the nickname stayed because he was simply way too much of a  macho man to go by Silky.  

Silky, AKA Slinky, bay welsh cross large pony gelding

Silky, chestnut appaloosa mare

3.  Johnny and  Johnny - Neither of our Johnnys go by a  nickname so if we need to distinguish we refer to them as paint Johnny and bay Johnny, we even have their blankets labeled this way.  

Johnny the black and white paint gelding

Johnny the bay dutch warmblood gelding

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B-Rad eating hay, Renny walking past the shed

Largo and Clayton hanging out

Thomas, Hemi and Apollo

Wiz and Murphy

George, Winston and Asterik

Lighty and Johnny having some playtime

Snappy and Slinky hanging out

Noble

Leo

Top Names

SmartPak recently published their annual list of their most popular horse names.  They compile the list from the horses that are on SmartPaks each year.  The complete list of their top 100 names can be found by clicking here. This year we had 11 names from the top 100 represented on our farm. Any of the names listed in blue below are hyperlinks and you can click on the name to learn more about them.

I am surprised that the names that happen to be the most popular on our farm did not make the SmartPak top 100 list.  In another blog post I'll do the top Paradigm Farms names, and below are our representatives on the SmartPak 100:

#5 Rocky

#7 Chance

#19 Romeo

#25 Lucky

#32 Sam

#39 Lily

#45 George

#54 Stormy

#58 Leo

#66 Gus

#97 Winston

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Darby and B-Rad

Johnny, Africa and Wiz

Bergie wanted to have the same coat color as his pal Clayton

Norman

Cuffie

Grand, Baby, Moe and Homer

Oskar

Johnny

Lily

I'm not sure if  Murphy was trying to be aerodynamic with his ears or if he was highly annoyed about something

Gus

A Showery Tuesday

(post by Jason) After a very dry November it seems December has started off unseasonably warm and today it's warm and showery. As we move from fall toward winter, showery days will get more common and as the ground gets wet and the days continue to shorten our outdoor projects will slow down. I wouldn't exactly call winter a season of rest...just doing chores takes many hours every day.... but it is usually a season of ordered work minus all the things that have to be done during the growing season.

In my world there is no more soothing an activity than working inside a barn or shed while listening to rain roll off a steel roof. It's a rural right of passage that I appreciate all the more since I know exactly what it feels like to be stuck outside working in crummy weather all day, soaked to the skin no matter what I'm wearing.

One of the rainy day projects Melissa and I have on our radar screen this year is making some heavy duty blanket racks for our main barn. I'm not much of a fan of most commercial blanket racks that you can buy locally or online. They seem to be cheaply made, expensively priced and are nowhere near long enough for our applications. I've toyed in my head with a variety of designs but right now I favour six to ten foot lengths of 3/4 inch iron or steel pipe anchored to the wall at both ends with 12" lengths of chain.

What do you do to amuse yourself during the off season when you can't work outside because it's rainy, damp and cold ?

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Lucky and Lightening

 Silver and George

Calimba, MyLight and Cinnamon

Lily and Traveller

Tony and Baby

Fabrizzio leading the way in followed by Walden, Thor, Noble, Merlin, O'Reilly, Slinky and Snappy

Largo napping with Bergie pawing around behind him preparing to join him

Leo found a scratching post

Green With Envy

On days like today I don't think it would be possible to manufacture a job that's better than what Melissa and I do for a living. I'm sitting by an open window under a warm, blue sky on an early winter day and I can smell the fallen leaves through the window quite clearly as I type this blog. The only sounds I hear are rustling leaves and the occasional bird call and the only other sounds I'm likely to hear today are those that I generate myself in the course of my work. There is no traffic. Nobody is playing office politics. All the horses in our care are content at the moment. I never have to wear a coat and tie unless I choose to do so. Sounds blissful doesn't it ? This is the sort of day that people imagine every day out here is like. It's exactly this sort of day that inspires people to quit their "real" job and start a horse farm. And they are rare as hen's teeth.

Don't get me wrong, we mostly have good days. When we stop having good days we really ought to start thinking about something else to do. The truth is that whether a day is good or bad is mostly related to our mental state at the time, not external stimuli no matter how positive or negative it may be. That said,  the blissful days....the ones where everything goes as planned, the weather is exceedingly clement, the horses are healthy and content and everything runs like it ought to....those days don't happen very often. When they do happen we enjoy them every bit as much as the dreamers think they would if they were wearing our shoes.

For all the talk about what we do being a dream job, the burnout rate among those who board horses is very high. Blissful days help make up for midnight vet trips and emotional phone calls to owners about sick, hurt or dying horses on days that start at four am and finish long after dark. They help make up for cancelled family plans because someone wants to visit on the one day we had planned to not be working, learning to hate telephones because when they ring it's almost never good news, rain falling in cold sheets across the windy pastures on grey mornings, a flat tire on the tractor when it is raining, windy and you are in the middle of feeding hay, and many other less fun aspects of our job.

The last few days have fallen into the blissful category.  Given that fall tends to be an exceptionally busy time of year for us the past few days of bliss came at just the right time. We have enjoyed every moment of the perfect weather, healthy and cooperative horses, and equipment running as it should.  Anyone who happened to be shadowing us as we worked would have been green with envy and ready to quit the corporate life immediately.  They would need to come back and shadow us again when we are attempting to put blankets on uncooperative horses in inclement weather to get a more balanced picture of a day in the life !

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Tiny and Oskar

Hemi and Baby

Elfin

Clayton and Johnny

Griselle and Sky

Winston and Faune

Silver

Sebastian and Chili

Dutch and Renny

Wiz, Sam and Johnny