The Long Walk

Suddenly progress is being made on the arena! The base is fully in, and there is a mountain of railroad ties wating to be installed as a border to keep the base and sand from migrating down the hill during Missouri rainstorms.. otherwise known as "gullywashers" to the local folk. The base looks really good and I am in the process of speeding along it's curing time. The base is made of crushed lime and when wet and then dried it compacts to the hardness of concrete... which is what you want in an arena base. So I am sprinkling it and planning on driving the tractor over it many times to speed compaction, and then let it dry in the heat we are suddenly having... hey, I'm not complaining after all of that rain. Summer is finally here... although I bet Fall is like two weeks away!

We are busy intalling the railroad tie border and once that is in... then I get the icing on the cake which is the sand that makes an arena so cushy to horse hoofs during exercises like jumping!!

The title of this blog entry is "The Long Walk" because I thought I would share my experience this weekend. My husband and I decided to get out of the house with the baby. We went to a local walking trail that is around a pretty lake. I had not really thought about how exactly out of shape I am until we attempted what would have been a short walk in my former life.... 2 miles or so. Well, I am sore, blistered, and tired from a short walk! Sigh. Guess I better get to working out. My arena sand will be here and I won't have the core strength to ride my wild beasts on it! Wish me luck.

P~

Slow Beginnings....

Just a short update.... I have finally gotten my hands on the horses for a significant amount of time (defined as: longer than the couple of seconds needed to push past them to put feed in their bins!). I had the horses' feet trimmed exactly 8 weeks prior to my son's due date. So, obviously I could not have the shoer out due to my inability to help him. Unfortunately I cannot boast about having horses that will stand tied while being trimmed or shod. They have been off work and not exercised since February and so they don't act as if they have manners anymore! I couldn't have my wonderful farrier, Russell getting hurt and refusing to come shoe for me. So I decided that after I had the baby, I would be in a better position to help Russell keep the horses in line.

Well, turns out that Russell is either very busy, or he is hiding from me and my unruly menagerie of horses. Hmmm. So, I decided to trim Savannah and Bailey myself. A lot of my horsey friends wonder why any horse lady would actually do farrier work (it is back breaking and somewhat dangerous if you are working on horses that are prone to naughtiness), but I have always felt that hoof care is such an essential part of horsemanship, that I wanted to know how to do it myself if I needed to for financial or other reasons such as if the farrier is in hiding until I can train my mob. Sigh. Special thanks to Danny, Jack, and David who mentored me. One of whom said, "Hey, that's a pretty good job... for a girl!"

Savannah was the first victim. She stood quietly in the crossties while being groomed, and then I trimmed her feet. It was painless and she was a very good girl...hmmm could they have missed me and now are on their best behavior?

Then came Bailey who I expected the most trouble from. Bailey decided that he too could be a good boy. Despite being a little snorty and spooky, he let me trim his overgrown hooves in record time. :) Now I REALLY want to start riding. I forgot what nice horses I have.

Tokaj is next, but I am hoping to coax Russell out to shoe her so that I can get going on some under saddle training and jumping with her.

Arena update: The arena is going to get some work done on it on Monday. Hopefully this will be the last week and all will be complete until the base cures and we need sand for riding!

Happy trails!
P~