Cupolas, Horse Barns and Electricity

As you can see from the picture below, Melissa won out and our run-in sheds will have cupolas on them. I thought the horse weather vane was a nice touch; something we'll repeat every time we add a cupola, I'm sure. I'm also pretty sure that the addition of cupolas negates the lowered maintenance that I was looking forward to with steel buildings. Oh well. All that's left to do now is get some lumber and fill in the builder's mistake by making the kick rail solid.

I actually really like the horse weather vane !

Our next project is building a useable small barn. Because our new farm is a full mile long, and is in the shape of a relatively narrow rectangle, convenience dictates that we will be building several small barns rather than one big one. Because most of our horses live outside most of the time, having several small barns each with a feed prep area will save us a lot of steps when feeding every day. Several small barns will also make farrier day a dream in comparison to what we have now, especially if we locate the winter sacrifice paddocks adjacent to the barn as we plan to do.

Doesn't my bride look happy to have her picture taken ? :)

Another cupola shot, obviously from the rear this time.

Since they seem to be popular among certain members of our readership, I will end today's post with a farm maintenance story followed by a PSA. Yesterday turned into quite a day for a whole variety of reasons. Among them was that I now know what it feels like to be the ground for 120V household AC electricity. As you might imagine, this wasn't very much fun !

I was fooling in the breaker box when I unthinkingly leaned over and braced myself on a metal water pipe. This would have been okay except that the contractor who wired this particular breaker box grounded everything out to the water line rather than bringing it back to neutral (as he ought to have done) and/or taking it to a grounding rod outside. This STILL would have ended okay except that a short had developed in the breaker box (which was what I was looking for) and because nothing was properly grounded, the breaker didn't trip until I became the ground ! I know there's been a lot of folks who've thought I needed shock therapy over the years, but I don't think they had quite this much amperage in mind ! At least I hope they didn't ! :) Fortunately, the problem was easily remedied once I knew what the matter was and the breaker box in question is now wired and grounded safely.

One of the things I miss about living in open country is being able to really see the sky. Our new farm is more open than our current location, affording me the opportunity to "see" again.

PSA for the day is make sure to check that everything is wired and grounded correctly BEFORE fooling with electricity. Or, if your name is Melissa and your husband's name is Jason, it'd probably pay to make sure the life insurance policies are fully paid up ! :)


Hope everyone has a great Monday !

Snappy, Spike and O'Reilly hanging out in the shed

Lily and MyLight
Chili enjoying a nice roll

Sebastian, Asterik and Winston

Elfin and Homer trotting through the pasture; I like how Elfin's mane and forelock are blowing with the wind

Hemi, Chance, Homer, Elfin and Thomas

Leo and Levendi

Lightening, Teddy, Clay and Slinky

Norman, Cinnamon, Sky and Lexi hanging out under the trees

Snappy, O'Reilly and Teddy

Welcome OverDrive

We welcomed a new member to the family recently. He joins us from the west coast of Canada - Victoria, British Columbia to be specific. OverDrive, affectionately known around the barn as Spike, is 15 years old and tops the measuring stick at a bit over 18 hands. He is a BIG boy!

OverDrive, aka Spike, and his mom at a show. I absolutely love this picture of the two of them.

Spike and his mom have been together for nine years and spent many happy years showing together in the jumper ring. Spike has well known ancestors on both sides of his pedigree so it is not surprise that Spike himself was a gifted athlete with a huge jump. Although his mom mostly showed him in the 3'6" - 3'9" jumpers he could jump 5' easily. Personally I love knowing that the horse I am riding is capable of doing far more than I'm ever going to ask. I tend to ride better as I'm not worried I'm going to make a mistake so big that my poor horse can't save both of us. I would imagine that riding Spike was kind of like steering a great big security blanket around the jumper ring, you knew he could handle anything that was going to come up!

Spike and his mom over a jump. You can tell this jump is nothing for him and he is hardly having to try.

Spike's sire is the well known Thoroughbred stallion Truck Drivin' Man. Spike's name of OverDrive is clearly a nod to his famous father! Truck Drivin' Man was one of the "in" stallions of his time and was especially well known for his outstanding hunter progeny. Spike's dam is Flora who was sired by the well known stallion Farn. Farn is considered to be one of the fathers of the modern Dutch Warmblood sport horse in both the dressage and jumper disciplines. Farn sired many famous stallion sons with one of the most well known of those being Nimmerdor. I am a bit of a pedigree junkie myself and Spike certainly has outstanding breeding on both his sire and dam sides.

Spike with his mom and his baby brother. I told his mom when I saw this picture that both of her boys are too cute. I want to reach into that picture and squeeze her little boy's snow boots!

About three years ago Spike started having intermittent lameness issues. One day he would be sound, the next day he would feel off. It was never the same leg and extensive x-rays and ultrasounds did not reveal anything amiss. All of us horse people know how frustrating and emotionally challenging that is to deal with! After about a year of trying to diagnose the problem Spike's fetlocks showed visible signs of drooping, and it became apparent that Spike was suffering from DSLD.

DSLD is short for Degenerative Suspensory Ligament Desmitis. DSLD is essentially a systemic connective tissue disease that affects tendons and ligaments throughout the body. DSLD typically presents as bilateral meaning either both fronts or both hinds are affected, or all four legs. As his mom said, hindsight being 20/20 the roving lameness was clearly due to the front legs compensating for the back legs. Spike's mom and attending veterinarian attempted several things over the last couple of years to try and rehab Spike and see if he could be made comfortable enough for light riding. Unfortunately after a lot of time, money and TLC they did not have much success and the decision to fully retire Spike was made.

Spike and O'Reilly grazing

Our first week with Spike was challenging. His mom had told us Spike had a very nervous and sensitive personality, and he spent his first few days doing his best to give me a raging case of stomach ulcers. I was ready to swipe one of his tubes of GastroGuard and dose myself with it! Spike had very little appetite and I drove both him and myself crazy hovering over him trying to convince him it would be ok and that this was really a nice place to be a horse.

Spike and O'Reilly grooming each other

On his third day we buddied him up with O'Reilly and that got things moving in the right direction. Normally I don't like to allow nose to nose contact for at least a week just as a quarantine precaution but that clearly was not going to be ok with Spike. When we put the two of them in a paddock together for the first time there was no sniffing, squealing, snorting or posturing. They just started grooming each other like they had been friends for years. Spike latched on to O'Reilly and finally began to take a look around and realize that this place wasn't so bad!

He was even happier after being integrated into his "family" group and suddenly Spike was a completely different horse. His favorite place is near O'Reilly, but as he gets more and more comfortable with the other horses he likes to be surrounded by as many of them as possible. He also really likes having regular physical contact with other horses. Often this takes the form of a mutual grooming session but he is also content to just be touching his nose to someone for a moment before returning to grazing.

Spike has an incredibly expressive face as you can see in this picture

We're looking forward to getting to know Spike even more and watching him blossom with his new friends. He loves a steady routine and lots of contact with other horses so he came to the right place. Welcome Spike!

More Building Progress

We officially have run-in shed number one built at the new farm. It is built to the same dimensions as most of the sheds we currently have, and we even went with the same color scheme of white with a red roof. We did however make a couple of modifications. The sheds rarely get used in the winter and rarely during rain. The horses mainly use them as an occasional wind block in the winter although they actually prefer the trees for that. The sheds see most of their use during the summer for shade. They also use the natural shade a lot as well but the majority of run-in use is seen during the summer months.





The modifications we made to the shelters were made with their shade use in mind. We had the builder put a ridge vent along the roof of the sheds for ventilation and heat dissipation in the summer. There is also a vent along the back of the shed directly under the roof line. My concern with this was would it allow rain to blow in or make the sheds cold in the winter. Jason and our builder explained to me why this wouldn't happen, something about how the edge of the roof extends out past the back of the shed but quite frankly I can't really explain it so I won't try!

The vent between the walls and the roof line. There is also a ridge vent built into the roof.

We are trying our best to make thoughtful decisions in regards to everything we do. There are things we love about our current location and things we don't love, so we are trying to incorporate our "best practices" and improve on the things we complain about! The other difference with this shed as compared to our "old" sheds is we had this shed built out of metal instead of wood. We're hoping for lower maintenance, as in we don't want to waste our time constantly repainting wood sheds trying to keep them looking nice. Talk about a crummy job, if I never paint a shed again I'll be fine with that!

My Dad checking out the shed; he and Jason are both quite pleased with how well built it is. Apparently we found a good builder who pays attention to the details.

There is only one thing missing from the shed. However I am the only person who thinks something is missing. I asked for a cupola on the top of the shed. I just wanted a simple one and just for decorative purposes, white sides with a red roof. Jason and my Dad think it looks perfectly fine without it, and it does. I just think it would look nicer with one. What do you think? Everyone else thinks the shed looks fine and it would be a waste of money that could be put towards our (endless) other projects.

View of the shed taken from across the pasture. I only put this picture up because I love the this particular view on our new farm.

rear view of the shed facing towards the road

My Dad checking out the inside of the shed. I know, I know - you are sitting there thinking "how many pictures can they possibly have taken of one run-in shed? This is getting slightly repetitive." The answer is it is scary how many pictures we managed to take of one stupid shed! Jason took detailed pictures of every bit of construction of this shed. We have pictures of the joists, pictures of roof from the inside, pictures of everything. We need a life.

Oh my gosh, she posted a picture of a horse! Actually Cuff Links would object to that description since he is a pony!

You can't really see them but this is Alex and B-Rad kinda sorta hanging out in a shed. They're combining the best of both worlds and using the trees and the shed. This shed doesn't have a ridge vent.

Sebastian

Lexi and Cinnamon hanging out under the trees

Trigger loves to drink from the water hose

So does Elfin

Lightening, O'Reilly, Snappy and Teddy

Harmony and MyLight

Tony, Leo, Levendi and Elfin

O'Reilly, Clay and Snappy

Happy 4th of July!

This week has been a dual holiday week for us. Canada Day on July 1st and then the Fourth of July today. Sometimes it is hard to believe that not everyone is blessed to live in a free country, something that is so easy to take for granted when it is all you have ever known.

Although I love the 4th and everything it stands for, like most horse owners our goal is to get through the night! We've never had any problems with the horses going crazy over fireworks. We aren't surrounded by subdivisions but there are a number of houses along our street. Every year around the 4th of July it becomes apparent to me that one of our neighbors to the east spends a small (or maybe a large!) fortune on fireworks every year. They buy the really big, loud and very colorful fireworks - and they buy a LOT of them.

They've already put on a pretty good show for the last two nights so I think the horses are pretty de-sensitized at this point. On Friday night there was a bit of trotting around but nothing crazy, I never saw or heard any running. A few of them would trot around after an especially loud and bright display. By the second night (Saturday) no one was even bothering to lift their heads from grazing as the fireworks were going off. Actually a few of the horses were watching the fireworks, but by their relaxed stance and their body language it looked like they were just enjoying watching the show and not bothered by it.

I used to put some of the really nervous horses in the barn. However I've learned they actually handle it better out in the pasture with their friends. They get over it very quickly when they realize none of the other horses seem to care. Plus I think if they can see where the noise is coming from it helps them to cope. They would get very worked up in the barn when they could hear all of the noise but had no idea what was causing it. In the pasture they just ignore it after a few minutes and go back to grazing.

Jason and I plan to spend one last evening tonight on one of the hills as we can see all of the pastures from there. We'll watch the neighbors semi-professional fireworks display and keep en eye on the horses. Hopefully all will go as smoothly as the last two nights have. Even the fainting goats have been un-fazed by the fireworks the last couple of nights. The only animal on the farm having a hard time is Bush the coon hound. He also has a complete meltdown during thunderstorms as well, and I guess the fireworks sound like his worst nightmare coming true! Poor guy, he only has one more night to go!

Norman

Homer

Levendi

Elfin and Thomas

Baby

Hemi

Chance, Apollo and Ivan

Asterik, Sebastian, Faune and Winston

Lightening, Clay and Teddy

Faune

Friday Pictures

Tony trotting through the pasture

Tony was being followed by the rest of the Big Boys (Ivan behind him, Baby and Thomas are next, then Chance and Trigger and maybe Elfin in the trees)

It looks like Levendi, Hemi and Apollo were next as they're coming to the edge of the tree line in this shot

Chance, Elfin and Trigger out in front

Trigger and Elfin

Apollo, Levendi and Leo

Homer and Hemi

Slinky

B-Rad and Alex

Missy and MyLight

Slinky, Teddy, O'Reilly and Lucky

Sebastian, Winston and Faune