Happy Anniversary

(post by Jason) On the face of it, today's topic may not at first appear to have very much to do with horses or horse care. But I think our clients, past and present, might disagree. 

Ten years ago today, on a cloudy and showery early spring afternoon Melissa and I were married. We were living on an acreage in central Vermont at the time; us, four horses, two dogs and two cats. I had moved to the U.S. the previous October on a Trade NAFTA visa to take a job with Blue Seal Feeds. Melissa had moved to Vermont to be with me a few months prior after selling her recruiting company and had just survived her first northern winter. 

I don't think either of us could have predicted all that has happened to us and all that we have created in the past ten years. At the time the future was a completely blank slate. We toyed with the ideas of staying in Vermont, moving to Canada and moving back to Melissa's home in Tennessee. It turns out that first winter together....short and mild by Vermont standards....made the decision for us. Melissa had never lived north of Interstate 40 in her life and it quickly became apparent that a normal Vermont winter would do her in completely. She was literally sick for six months. I had never before seen anyone who got so cold so quickly that their core temperature literally dropped. This despite adequate (MORE than adequate) clothing! Clearly I had never spent significant time around her family during "cold" Tennessee weather either! 

I took a job with an ag-biotech firm and we moved back to Tennessee in the fall. It was good job and I did well at it but my heart was still set on farming full time which was something I had been working toward in my previous life in Canada. While still in Vermont Melissa and I had talked through a number of ideas for a farming future. We settled upon the idea of starting a professionally run equine retirement farm since this was something Melissa had already has requests about informally. This combined a number of our talents. We leased a part of Melissa's parents' farm and decided to give it a go for two years and then evaluate whether to stay in, get bigger or get out when that time came. Needless to say, ten years later we're still here running a horse retirement farm and we both work on the farm full time. It hasn't always been easy but we've met some amazing people, learned a lot, and had a lot of fun! 

Happy Anniversary to us and a great big thank you to all of our clients! 

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One of the "joys" of farming is the repair bills. We had to replace both of the front tires on one of the tractors. That service call was just shy of a thousand dollars for two tires. Jason tells me that the rear tires on that tractor will be double the price at $1,000.00 per tire, so I requested that he avoid unusually sharp objects with the tractor for awhile.

Cuffie and Norman innocently grazing pre-bath and clipping

Norman chatting with Jo the goat while I bathed Cuffie

 Cuffie clean and clipped (with Norman watching over the stall door)

Norman had lots of hair that needed to go

Norman sticking his tongue out at me. I think that pretty much sums up how he felt about the whole experience.

Maisie was also sticking her tongue out at me while Lily watched

Lily had lots of hair that needed to go

Lily well on her way to being clipped

Lily and Maisie gave me no opportunity to change my mind about done. As soon as the halters came off they were gone.

Cocomo and Lotus were having a big time (Asterik watching)

Gibson and Silver were also playing

Homer and Moe

Blu and Nemo

Elfin and Grand

Trigger and Apollo

Tony and Ritchie

Duesy and Bruno

Hesse and Remmy under the morning sun

the sunrises have been nice lately

Blu, Nemo, Taco, Dutch and Renny waiting for breakfast under a pretty morning sky

Ready, Set, Go

Much to Lightning's chagrin he got to help me kick off the 2015 Annual Body Clipping Marathon today. After procrastinating as long as I reasonably could I finally had to start clipping today. Lightning was chosen to be the first victim unwilling participant. He did the usual things to express his displeasure. He twitched his skin, he picked up whatever leg I was trying to clip, he swished his tail, he shook his head, he did all of the usual things. 

Every year when I clip him I hope he will skip his ritual of urinating in the barn aisle, but true to form he did not. I used to try to stop him when he would start to park out and prepare to urinate. But all it did was make him even more fussy. He now has me well trained since I think this is maybe our sixth year of body clipping, and when he makes his preparations to urinate I just stand back and let him. He usually decides to urinate about halfway through being clipped. I don't try to rush him to a stall (he just stands there and won't pee), I don't try to stop him, I just let it happen and sweep up the mess. He has never skipped a year with this charming ritual. 

I now officially have one horse clipped and have many more to go. 

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Lightning getting clipped

looking for an escape route

Taco, Johnny, Sebastian and Nemo

Lighty and Mick

Walon and Rubrico

River and Donovan napping; Largo, Clayton, Oskar and Johnny hanging out

Lucky and Duesy

B-Rad, Alex and Taco

Thomas and Trigger

Homer, Tony, Grand and Ritchie

Dolly and Calimba

Maisie and Cuffie

Sunday Stills

Rubrico, Oskar, Kennedy and River

Walon and Stormy

Cocomo and Donneur

Maisie and Lily

Calimba and Dolly

Traveller and Cuffie

Griselle found the perfect place to scratch, note the pointed nose.

Faune made a pretty picture under the morning sun

First Cutting

For the last few weeks we have had what I would describe as pretty perfect spring weather. Like Goldilocks would say it hasn't been too hot nor too cold, it has been just right. As is normal for our part of the world we have had a lot of spring rain. The rain seems to have abruptly left us for almost two weeks now. We have had ideal weather for getting the first cutting of hay in, however it makes me a bit suspicious about what might be in store for the summer. 

For any number of reasons I don't like dry summers. Dry summers mean poor hay crops and higher hay prices. Dry summers mean our pastures take a real beating from the horses and it can be very hard to revitalize them. Plus we all still have terrible memories of our record breaking drought we had a few years ago. That was not a fun time. Hay prices went through the roof and never came back down to pre-drought levels. The last few summers have brought adequate rainfall which has helped ease the painful memories of the record breaking drought.

We've seen lots of farmers taking advantage of this perfect hay making weather over the past week. Hopefully most of them are having a great first cutting. Even more importantly, I hope they also have good subsequent cuttings. Here's hoping for a great hay season this year!

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Apollo, Hemi and Thomas

Trigger and Homer

Rocky and Stormy napping in the sun

Dutch and Murphy

Renny, Sam and Taco

Lightning and Bruno

Johnny and Sebastian

Gus and Lofty

George and Donneur

No Shooting Required

We've been busy with rather boring and uninteresting tasks the last couple of days. Since one of my least favorite jobs on the farm is handling dirty horse blankets, last year I outdid myself by waiting until July to get them sorted, folded, stacked and ready to go the lady who does our blanket cleaning and repairs. 

I learned a lesson last year. I learned that waiting until July to deal with the dirty horse blankets only makes dealing with them even more miserable. No, it isn't because they are dirtier or smell worse. It is because wasps think that building nests behind blankets is a fabulous idea. Last year I had ample opportunities to get my exercise in and perfect my shooting skills as I went through a bazillion cans of wasp spray. If I may brag on myself for a moment, my aim was excellent and I watched many wasps fall out of the air and onto the ground. 

I decided that this year I didn't want to rely on my excellent shooting skills with wasp spray, nor did I want to repeatedly sprint out of the barn(s) dragging a dirty horse blanket behind me. So I forced myself to do one of my least favorite things and handled every single dirty blanket on the farm. They are now relabeled, folded, sorted and ready to be sent off for cleaning and repair. A few unlucky blankets had to be trashed as they were beyond repair. Thanks to my lack of procrastination I only found one wasp nest total in all three barns. Even better, it was a tiny nest with only one half dead wasp on it. I finished the half dead wasp off by stomping him with my boot, no shooting required. 

two of my many blanket piles

In other events we decided (or I should say Jason decided) that we were going to move one group of horses to our large, empty paddock that has grass in it up to my knees. Jason was lamenting having to hook up the bush hog and mow, so he decided to employ some of our built-in lawnmowers. Yesterday we moved them from their pasture to the paddock so they can spend a few days eating down the grass. The horses across from the normally empty paddock found this all terribly interesting and lined up at the fence to spectate. 

Dirty blankets and a temporary pasture change to avoid mowing has been all the excitement we've had the last couple of days. 

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There was some intense staring when we moved the horses into the paddock to graze it down. Silver, Cocomo, Lofty, Lotus, Romeo, Donneur and Flyer were starting hard at their new neighbors across the driveway.

Silky, Bruno and Lightning exploring their new temporary home.

Walden taking a trot around his temporary home

Merlin, Lucky, Lightning and Walden saying "hey guys, did you see all of these grass?!"

Lighty and Mick

One of these things is not like the others. Asterik, George, Cocomo, Lofty, Gus and Silver

Johnny and Murphy

Thomas and Homer napping, Apollo, Levendi and Tony hanging out and grazing

Sunday Stills

George, Asterik and Donneur

Taco and Nemo

River and Toledo

Elfin, Moe and Trigger

 B-Rad, Alex, Sam and Lighty

Cuff Links and Dolly

Silky, Norman and Lily