T-12 days and counting

We are coming down the wire with our move -  I am so freakin' excited that I can hardly wait. Luckily there is lots for me to do, so I don't have to sit idly and wait.  :-)

We had a walkthrough of the house on Friday night and met one of the sellers. She gave us a quick run-down on how things worked - the pool, the hot tub and most importantly, the electric fence.

Random cat pic - Mr. P just turned 15and is not as amused by the boxes as the younger cats.

It looks like the fencing will need some repairs and maintenance. She hasn't had a horse on the property in over a year, so there are a few things to do. They have let the grass grow up and it touches the bottom strand of fencing and I will have to go around and check all of the grounding wires.  I'm not a huge fan of electrical things, so it will be important to me to make sure the electric fence is in good order.  There is also about 20 feet of fence that was taken down on the front paddock to put the swimming pool in. I'll just have to have some posts put in and re-connect the electric rope.  There is a nice amount of grass - which is really great - so few boarding barns around here have any grass in the paddocks, so Dolly (if she hangs around long enough, lol) will be very lucky!

I'm still keeping an eye on horse sale ads, but I just don't have the time to drive all over the place looking at horses. I emailed the girl with the arab gelding and told her I'd have to wait until early June to come back for another visit.  Dolly is hopefully moving on May 31st, so that is coming up quickly.  She has her last spring vet appt. this Friday, so it will be nice to have all of that taken care of before moving.

We spent a good part of the day yesterday doing some packing. I have been picking away at it, but it was time to start getting serious about it.  We cleaned out closets and packed away alot of seasonal clothes and sports equipment. We also make a first crack at cleaning out the kitchen cupboards - it is amazing how much stuff you can collect in 13 years!  The younger cats have been hilarious lately - they must think that all of the boxes and packing paper are toys we brought home just for their amusement. I have to be really careful when I tape boxes and stack things, as one of them is always inside a box or trying to climb something.

Packing boxes or cat yoga room?

 We are trying to keep the finished boxes contained in one room, but sometimes the volume of stuff just gets away from us.  I have to re-arrange this corner of the room today, because I can't get out the patio door!

Messy! Need to organize this side of the room today...

Ok - enough blogging, pack to do some more packing, then some overtime work this afternoon.

Horse shopping and visiting the (new) neighbours

I spent the day on Friday visiting new horses and new friends.

Last Friday morning I went to look at a potential new gelding. I have been looking for the past couple of months for an older gelding that is small and might work better for me out on the trails. There are very few older, small (under 15.1hh) well trained geldings (of any breed) around here. I guess people hold on to them like crazy when they find a good one!

The guy I went to see is a 13yr old arab gelding that is owned and ridden by a teenager, so he has lots of mileage. He has been to shows and pony club events, hacked out in fields and trails and can jump 2'3" without much trouble. I was pleasantly surprised to meet his owner, who is about 20 now and heading off to college. She is smart, funny and knows alot about her horse.

I spent about 2 hours with her and the gelding, Liam. He is a cute little guy and was very well behaved. He is a bit plain for an arab, which is ok by me. I rode him in the arena and we then went out for a 20 min hack. He was fine and didn't put a foot wrong. I have to say that I'm super hesitant to even consider getting another horse, since I haven't made the best decisions in the past...

Liam and his girl

I may go back in a week or so and go for another ride, before I decide anything. The owner is willing to let me take him on a 2 month trial for the summer, or even a 1 year lease, so that is good. I was very upfront with her about my hesitations and she was very accepting of everything.

After my ride, I rushed home, had a quick lunch and then went out to Dolly's soon-to-be new home to visit my friend E, who has 3 horses there. E is an older rider and started riding later in life. We saddled up her mare and went out to the sand ring. Poor E has pretty low confidence and a bad case of nerves. She isn't connecting so well with her mare, so I was trying to give her some pointers, seeing as how I struggle with similar issues sometimes.

I was willing to get on her mare and see if I could figure her out a bit. E wasn't comfortable with that in the end, as she was worried I might get bucked off. So, we just groomed her horses and hung out with some the other barn people for a couple of hours. It was a beautiful sunny day and in addition to meeting some nice people and horses, I have also found the perfect hay source!

This new barn (I'll have to think up a nickname) has more hay than they use, so they are willing to sell me as much as I need. They will even deliver it each month or two as I require it...all for $4.00/bale. Some quotes I've had have been up to $4.50/bale, so that isn't too bad at all!
 
I'm getting down to the wire for the big move.  We move on June 1st and Dolly will be going to the new barn on May 31st!  Packing is going well, but I think I need to pick up the pace a bit for the final 2 weeks.  I have also been working a lot of overtime, so I will be looking forward to the move and the 1 week vacation I have booked for the week after!

SI (pelvis) issues and a Chiro visit

I went out to the barn Monday after work because I had booked a chiro appointment for Dolly. I was feeling better about the whole situation with her. I was no longer fire-breathing angry, but had just decided to try and ride her in the ring and then decide about putting her up for sale at some point this summer if nothing improved.

Dolly has been quite stiff under saddle – mostly in her back end. I was seeing some fairly random issues with her that pointed in a bunch of different directions. She wasn’t lame, but she wasn’t moving comfortably either. She would toss her head when you applied leg, her walk and trot were stiff and choppy, her canter in the round pen was disunited and hard for her to maintain. She was also a bit tender in different spots on her back. I decided to try my endurance saddle instead of the western saddle to see if that was the problem. I rode her twice in the endurance saddle and didn’t notice any drastic changes.

I gave Dolly a week of bute and 2 weeks off from riding and there was still no change. She also had what we thought was a hunter’s bump… I thought of trying chiro, but I had Dolly adjusted twice in the fall by a different chiro and saw absolutely no change. I didn’t really know what other options I had at this point. I was worried that Dolly was in pain, or at least quite uncomfortable, but the way she was reacting under saddle. (Note: I think the bucking on the trail was still attitude at being held back)

I was talking to RuckusButt about Dolly’s issues and she told me that she had been researching another chiro in the area. There aren’t a lot of alternative treatment options in our area, so having a new chiro in town was a bit of a big deal. I sat on the info for a bit and then decided to call for an appointment. I figured that it would be the last thing I could try with Dolly to help her out.

I have to admit that I had pretty low expectations from this chiro visit. Fortunately, I was proven wrong! The new chiro was friendly, knowledgeable and spent an hour with Dolly and I! She did chiropractic adjustments as well as some soft tissue work and stretching. She told me that Dolly’s pelvis was very stiff and it would be quite uncomfortable for her. She did several adjustments and stretches and felt that she was able to loosen things up. She also did adjustments to Dolly’s back and neck. Dolly was an ideal chiro patient and spent the whole hour trying to snuggle with me (rotten horse!) and licking and chewing during the adjustments.

I gave her 24 hours off and rode for the first time last night. The first interesting thing was that when I whistled for Dolly, she cantered to the gate! Normally I have to go get her and drag her in… lol. The second interesting thing was that Dolly’s walk was more forward and I could feel her back end working better. I was content to just walk around the riding ring, but Endurance Lady told me to try a trot and see how she did. I trotted a few circles in each direction and I had a normal trot! No head jerking up, no aggressive chomping on the bit and no choppy strides! I’m pretty surprised and I think Dolly was too. Our trotting still needs lots of work, but I at least feel that she is comfortable and willing to work, instead of fighting me every step of the way.

I haven’t tried her out on the trails yet, I’m not going to rush that. I want to build up some confidence in the ring and then go from there. John Lyons always says “ride where you can, not where you can’t”. This seems to be a fairly good sentiment for me right now.

Some SI/Pelvis info:

Behind the Bit has an older post on SI issues

Understanding Sacroiliac pain

Sacroiliac Injury – Merck Veterinary Manual

The Ups and Downs (literally) of riding

As you may have guessed by the title, I took my first dive in a while this past weekend.

Yep, Laura the lawn dart. Luckily for me, I took most of the impact in my amply padded derrière, with shoulder and head hitting second and third (yeah for helmets!). I also landed in a nice soft hay field, so that softened the blow a bit.  I'm just a bit stiff today, but luckily I don't even have a bruise or any other injuries.

What happened, you ask? Well, Dolly had a hissy fit at being held back to a trot while out riding with 3 other people (who were all trotting nicely) and within about 20 seconds decided she wanted me off her back NOW! and did some pretty mean bucks to accomplish her task.

To add insult to injury, Dolly was also kind enough to run off after she succeeded in dumping me. I have to admit a not-so-nice thought crossed my mind as I sat on my knees in the hay, watching her cavort around the hay field...

My thoughts were something along the line of:

"If you had a half a brain, you little *****, you would keep running and not come back!"

We were able to catch her without much trouble and headed back to the barn. I had a total and complete meltdown, as this latest event is just another in a string of bad experiences with this horse. I know alot of the issues are mine - confidence being the big thing that keeps coming up, but she is also a horse that has some anxiety/attitude issues that are maybe suited to a more advanced, confident rider.

At one point, I was ready to just give her away and quit riding forever. After I was talked down from that ledge, some other, more sensible options were proposed.

My friend and I are going to start looking for a nice older gelding (Rusty! I miss you!) and see if we can find something that will work for me. I don't want to stop riding and there must be a horse out there that isn't a total idiot.

I feel comfortable riding her in the ring, so I will continue to do that and see if that helps her at all. I'm also going to proceed with moving Dolly to the new barn at the end of May and maybe put her up for sale then. I don't hate her by any stretch, but sometimes the partnership just doesn't click and you have to make the call to move on.  
 
That is where I am right now.  *sigh*

And so it starts...

Now that the intial excitement of getting our new house has worn off, I've been getting down into the nitty gritty details that moving entails...

I've decided to move Dolly to the farm down the road from the new place for the month of June. I think it will be a good move for us. I've already met several of the people there and they all seem friendly and happy to show me around.

This move will see me have a new barn, a new vet and a new farrier. My current vet doesn't travel to the new area, so I have to go back to using a vet I had used with Rusty. Luckily this vet is quite good, so I'm comfortable making the switch. I still haven't sorted out the farrier thing yet - there are a couple that work in the area, so hopefully one is good and willing to trim Dolly.

We also had a bit of a financial fiasco this week. I think I have it sorted out, but it involved us picking a new mortgage company and switching all of our finances to a different bank one month before closing! As result of this, I now have to switch all of our direct deposits and direct payments, on top of changing our address and setting up new utilities! Good thing I like lists, because there is no way on earth I could remember all of this stuff!

And poor Dolly has sat pretty much neglected for the past two weeks, as she had one week off on the vet's recommendation and another week off since I've been swamped with house issues!

I had the vet out a couple of weeks ago for her spring shots and I also had him check her back. She has been acting 'off' the past few times I was riding. She was tense, her head would shoot up every time you put leg on (even gently) and she was just "weird" while riding. She wasn't visibly lame, just off somehow. He felt that her right side, between her last rib and the point of her hip were a bit tender.

She had a week off, with bute and I checked her on Saturday and she didn't seem to be tender in the back anymore. I am wondering if she was either having some issues with coming back into heat or if my western saddle skirt was digging into her right side every time she did one of her 180 spins.

I'll be trying her in my endurance saddle for the next few rides, as it is adjustable, with shims and wedges that can be added and removed to customize the fit. I also have a new chiro coming out on Monday, so hopefully she has some insight to whether Dolly is truly sore or if I need to further investigate ulcer and/or lady part problems!

Horses are such puzzles sometimes - you have to chip away at eliminating issues and hope that you can discover the real problem and give them some pain relief/comfort!

Decisions, decisions

Now that I am moving in 6 weeks, I have been thinking about Dolly and my barn situation.
I decided a couple of weeks ago that I wouldn't move Dolly home right away - it seemed like extra worry on top of getting a household moved. I need to find hay - I have a couple of sources lined up, but would have nowhere to store it until after I move. I also need to check the fences and make sure everything is good. So, based on that, I was going to leave Dolly at her current barn until the end of June.
On the weekend, I spent a few hours with an old friend that I used to board with. She now boards her horses at a barn about 3km down the road from my new house. She has told me that the barn owners are friendly and would let me ride on their property, as well as introduce me to other neighbours who all ride together. It seems like there are miles of trails and road access in this neighbourhood, along with lots and lots of horse people!

My friend E took me over to the barn to have a look around and meet the barn owners. They were very friendly and seemed pleased to have another horse person down the road. I also met a couple boarders, all who trail ride and seemed more than happy to take me out on a ride to show me around.
As we left, E suggested something that hadn't occurred to me at all. I could move Dolly to this barn at the end of May to have her closer! It was a pretty smart suggestion and I've been thinking the idea over for the past couple of days.

There are a few benefits:

• Dolly would be 5 minutes down the road, instead of 30+ minutes away
• I could get to know the barn owners
• I could get to know the surrounding property and trails, as well as meet some fellow riders
• I could try Dolly in their indoor arena to get her used to that
• There are at least 2 well known western coaches that give lessons at this new place - I could get a bit of coaching in that I wouldn't normally have access to
• I would have access to a nice sand ring

I will miss my current barn - I've made some good friends there. The riding is good at my current barn, but maybe it is time to move Dolly closer and get ready for having her at home.   I think challenging ourselves and our horses to do stuff outside of our comfort zone is a good idea sometimes...
I have to decide by the end of the week what I'm going to do so I can give notice at my current barn...

Any thoughts? I'm terrible at making decisions, so any input is welcome! :-)

New photos of Dolly

There is a new rider at the barn leasing one of the barn owner's horses.  It turns out that he is a professional photographer and he wanted to take some pictures of the horses at the barn, as he didn't have much experience taking pictures of horses.  He mostly does weddings and professional modelling photos, so he wanted to try his hand at some action shots.  His work is awesome - I can't link to all of the photos, so you'll have to trust me on that!

He gave me permission to share the photos he took of Dolly on this blog, so here you go!  The photos are great, but the only problem is that they highlight that she got a bit thin on me this spring.  I have changed her food around and she is gaining the weight back... We aren't sure if she maybe has ulcers, or if something else is going on - I have another post to write up on her when I get a chance...

The winter of discontent

Ok - so that title is a bit dramatic, but it kind of sums up how my winter felt!

It was dark, cold, snowy and icy and I didn't do much at the barn because I just didn't feel like standing around in the dark after work.  It was also like a skating rink around the barn, so it wasn't really even possible to do some ground work!

I was also really busy with the whole house thing. We decided in February that we wanted to put in an offer on the new house, conditional on us selling our house in town.  The offer was accepted by the sellers and we had 10 days to get our house on the market.

In 10 days, we had the floors refinshed, had 2 carpets replaced, had an electrician fix some wiring issues and we decluttered and re-organized most of the house. It was exhausting but we got it all done.

Richard cleaning the kitchen - with two helpers looking on...

Meanwhile, I tackled the basement.  This is a "during" shot, when I had pulled everything out...No after shot, sorry.  Needless to say, I took everything out of there, crammed it in boxes and stored it in our garden shed!

The living room after decluttering and refinishing the floors - I'm pretty happy with it...

This shelf was covered in the hubby's bike gear before, but the cats liked it after I cleaned it.  Roxie is curled up here

And Charlie resting in the same spot! I guess they liked being tucked in with the books?

We were told by lots of people that our house would sell quickly, don't worry!  But I worried and I waited. We packed up the cats and dog for viewings and open houses a few times per week and one day the two cats figured out how to get out of their carrier!  Luckily we were in a parking lot and not driving, because they were crawling all over the car.  The big cat just sat in his carrier patiently waiting to go home...  :-)

Freedom!  Well...sort of, but not really...

So we waited some more. I was beginning to get discouraged, thinking that we would be stuck in that house forever. Dramatic, I know, but that is how it felt at the time!  We had to drop our price a bit and still the results were the same!  We sent the dog back to my father-in-law in late March (we just had her for the winter) and I found it much less difficult to keep the house clean without the dog hair everywhere. The cats are much less messy!

We finally had an offer on the house in early April, but it still wasn't a done deal. We had a few minor house inspection issues to deal with on our end, but we were able to work everything out.  It was a long, stressful process, but it was worth it in the end!

I'm starting to get excited now, because we move in 6 weeks!  I have a new list going on my whiteboard and I have started doing a bit of packing and re-organizing. I am actually unpacking everything I did to de-clutter the house for sale and re-organzing it because it was all mixed up and I didn't label any of the boxes!

I'm hoping to reduce the amount of "stuff" that we have by a fair bit.  I have the time to do this before moving, so I'm going to take advantage of that. I already have a pile of stuff to donate and I think we will take some stuff to a community yard sale later in the spring!

I probably won't be moving Dolly home (wow - how cool is it to type that!) until July 1 - I want to get my hay sourced and in the barn and make sure the fences are in good shape first.  I also need to sort out whether I'm going to get a companion for her or try her alone...

Monday chuckle...

I'm trying to work on a couple of posts to summarize what I've been up to this winter, but I was sidetracked looking at horse sale ads...  I saw this add posted and it was too funny to not share with you guys!

I so wish people would either learn to spell, or use a spell-checker!

Bread horse for sale


Fluffy is a great horse. I have rode and drove her single and double. Fluffy is bread and due within the next month. Has had a great foal in the past has been bead once before.

I have never heard of a "bread horse"!  :-)

The general public amuses me so much.  I really needed a laugh today and this person has achieved that!

Maybe not farewell after all...?

I guess I should have just taken a short break, instead of completely leaving the blog... As it turns out, I sort of have some news to share and a good reason to start back with somewhat regular writing again. I guess I was a bit too hasty in thinking I could walk away from my blog!

So, I shouldn’t stall too much longer and tell you the news.

We bought a small property in the country!!! With a barn!! And fenced paddocks!!! And a riding ring!!!

I am starting to get excited now that it is official. We went through a very long and stressful process to end up where we are. I think that is the main reason I stopped blogging – I was busy doing house stuff and unsure if it would all work out. Now I can relax, I actually feel like writing about the process and all of the hoops we had to jump through to get where we are.

So, without any further blabbing, here are the important details and a few pictures:

14 acres total, 5 acres fenced. 3 stall barn with a tack room and a big area at the front for hay storage. I guess down the road, we could build something separate for hay and make more stalls or something... (my hubby would divorce me if he read that!) but for now, I will have lots of space. The property backs onto Crown land, which means that we won’t have neighbours behind us. I looked on the Google satellite map and it looks like there are trails up behind the house, but not sure if they are ok for horses or not. Ok, I’m blabbing again. Pictures for real this time:


Front view from the road

back view - yes, that is a pool. Small, but just right for us!

  

Barn and a bit of the backyard



Getting closer...



...and inside the barn! 



The back half of the riding ring as seen from my new bedroom window!

Farewell...I think...

I've been agonizing over what to do with this blog. The truth is, I'm just not that motivated to write anything. I'm still riding and still trying to figure out if Dolly and I can work, but I just don't feel like writing about the same thing all the time.

So, I will bid the blog world farewell for now. It's possible I may change my mind and start writing again,  but I don't know if or when that will happen.

I still plan to keep reading and commenting where I can and I'm on Facebook, so I'll see some of you there.  If anyone wants to add me on Faceboook (does anyone still read this blog, lol?) you can email me at littlekeebler@gmail.com and we can discuss the details.

Happy trails!

A update of sorts...

Phew! I haven't posted here in a long time!  Not much is really going on, so I haven't taken the time to try and write.  The renovations on our house are all done and as a result, I have a bit more free time on my hands.

I've been out to ride 2x in the past couple of weeks. Not much, I know, but I had a really bad flu last week and was out of commission for several days with a a high fever! Not fun at all.

I had a really great ride on Dolly 2 weeks ago - we had just got a big snowfall and the trails were in great shape. I went out with a friend and we walked all over the farm and I didn't have a single problem with Dolly!  It was very fun walking through the deep snow drifts. I wish I had a few pictures, but I was just enjoying the day too much to think about it.

I went out again last night and had an interesting ride, considering I almost electrocuted my poor horse!  The barnyard is a mucky mess of melting snow/ice and manure/shavings that the barn owners have put down to make it less slippery.  There are extension cords running to the water trough heaters and I didn't even notice the cords, since they were half-buried. I moved Dolly over to the mounting block and she started to quiver.  I was fiddling with my girth and getting my reins gathered and by the time I noticed something was wrong, Dolly levitated up and sideways and then did a 180 turn. I managed to hold the reins and had no idea what had just happened!

Dolly stood quivering and wide-eyed and I stood there with my mouth open, wondering what was going on!  My friend walked over to the mounting block area and noticed that two extension cords were plugged in at that spot and she could hear the zapping noise of arcing electricity! There was alot of heat coming off of the two cords, so we quickly unplugged the cords to stop the arcing/smoldering! Unbeknownst to me, I had parked Dolly right on the sparking cord!!!  I felt sooo guilty, but we all had a bit of a laugh too.

Dolly calmed down after a few minutes and we were able to do a short ride.  There is still alot of wet snow on some trails and there is alot of water underneath. So, the horses would break through the snow and then hit water and they were having a hard time with it.  I was able to get Dolly out quite a ways and we even crossed a ditch with a running stream, but between the bad footing and her near-electrocution, she was getting a bit stressed.  I called it and headed back to the barn. I then hand-walked her up and down the laneway (about 1 mile in total) a couple of times and she was relaxed again.

I'm looking forward to getting riding again after a long, dark winter.  The laneway is about 1/2 mile long and is now free of ice, so that will probably be our only option for the next week or two until the snow completely melts and the fields dry out a bit.  We are having crazy warm weather right now and it is supposed to last all week, so I'm hoping that helps!  I'm feeling good about Dolly and my confidence seems to be high right now, so I'm pretty sure we will be able to over come her spinning/balking and make some good progress this year.

House hunting and renos

I just haven't had a chance to post in the past few weeks, since we have been busy house hunting and doing some renos to our current house.

Let's just say it has been hectic!  I didn't think we had a lot to do around here, but when you start looking at all of the little details, it adds up to a lot.

My whiteboard covered in lists and crazy notes!

In addition to the above list of stuff, we decided to have our hardwood floors refinished because they were really beat up and scratched. Our realtor said we could have left them as is, but it would have probably knocked 5-10K off the sale price!  We want to get the quickest sale for the best price and I'm hoping that all of the work we are doing will help us out!

Floors before - Gypsy is not sure about the empty room...

 We are doing the floors in two stages - we just didn't have enough room in this house to get all of the furniture off the main floor.  As a result, there has been a lot of moving furniture back and forth. On Sunday we have to move everything into the finished room so the guys can start on the rest of the main floor on Monday!

After - much better!  The colour is a bit more blond that this picture shows

 I was rearranging furniture and putting files away, when I found a small cat in my cabinet. lol   This cat will crawl into any small opening she can find.  Last week she opened a drawer in my dresser and crawled in and got stuck!  She chewed the drawer a bit, but when she realized she was stuck, she just slept all day and waited for someone to rescue her! It's a wonder I haven't packed her away by mistake!

Charlie helping me put the furniture back... 

 And the house hunting...well, that should really be a post on its  own, but I only have time for one post...  We have had mixed results in our search. I wanted to document some of it for posterity...  ;-)

We decided to go out with our realtor and see a few places to see what we could get for our money.  I had a suspicion that real estate listings are alot like horse sale ads – highlight the good stuff, gloss over the not-so-desirable and mix all of that with a little truth-stretching... turns out I am right, but after awhile it becomes kind of fun to guess what the realtor comments mean!

Gross!!!

House 1

Realtor comments: “Tastefully decorated...”

What it really meant: “Grandma’s dusty rose curtains and lampshades, loon wallpaper borders and a taxidermy lobster!”

This property didn’t have a barn or fencing, but it did have 25 acres of space to expand. It is also very close to a former boarding barn I was at...  The lobster was quite funny (and gross!) - declutter your home when listing it for sale, folks!  J

House 2

Realtor comment:  “House for sale as-is; property a haven for wildlife and fowl”

What it really meant: “Enter this house at your own risk. It might collapse as it is falling apart and was built on a swamp”

This second place was on 50 acres, but at a low price. We could tell from the Google map that a good portion of the property was swampy (makes sense in our price range!). We went to see the house anyways...long story short – it was scary! The house was *thisclose* to being condemned. We were only inside about 5 minutes before leaving.  Yikes!

House 3

Realtor comment: “Lovely hobby farm with a large bungalow in need of TLC and older log building”

What it really meant: “The farm is the only good part, as the large bungalow needs to be gutted! Don’t mind the creepy old house right beside the “new” house!”

This place had some potential, but we were a bit worried about the condition of the house since there were no photos of the kitchen, bedrooms or bathrooms!  I was right - the place hadn’t been cleaned or renovated since 1975 when the house was built!  There was also a creepy old log/wood house (original homestead, maybe?) that should have been torn down 100 yrs ago, but I guess it was still there for sentimental value?!?  You often see old log buildings on farms here, but they are often farther back from the newer house/barns – this one was just to the left of the main house!   The property itself was beautiful – even with a layer of snow... Rolling hills, 10 acres or so of fenced paddocks, hay fields on the remaining 17.5 acres out back.  The price was just ridiculous though, since you would probably need to spend 50-60K just to make the house liveable and 100k+ to make it nice...  So, that one is off the books too – we really don’t want to do big renovations, unless we can get the place for a steal.

House 4

Realtor comment: “Lovely house with custom flooring, cozy basement. Easy commute to city”

What it really meant: “Custom flooring means using two drastically different colours of hardwood because flooring was discontinued and they ran out before finishing.  Small basement means a crawlspace for an elf!  Easy commute to city if you only go in once a month for supplies.”

This place was ok, but it would be long drives for both of us to work each day. Our jobs are just far enough apart that carpooling would be tricky.   This place was on 17+ acres and was in a horsey area of the countryside. There were gravel roads all around and a large boarding stable about 1km away.  The house just didn’t grab us though – it was small and didn’t have a basement for all of Richard’s cycling supplies.  So, even though the acreage was decent, it just had too many strikes against it.

So, the search continues...

Winter Woes

I'm realllllly tired of winter and I still have another 2-3 months of this junk!  I don't have much to report form the horse side of things since I haven't been to the barn much!  Poor Dolly - I hope she is enjoying her winter vacation...

*sigh*

Winter storm warning in effect.
Today: Periods of freezing drizzle or flurries changing to snow at times heavy mixed with freezing rain and ice pellets this morning then to freezing rain this afternoon. Snow and ice pellet amount 10 to 15 cm. Wind becoming east 20 km/h early this afternoon. High zero.
 
Tonight: Freezing rain changing to flurries near midnight. Snowfall amount 2 cm. Wind east 20 km/h becoming west 40 gusting to 60 this evening. Low minus 12.

Wading in to the Real Estate Market

We had two great Christmas presents this year. One came from hubby's work in mid-December: news that his job was now permanent instead of contract. With that news in hand, we realized that one of the major hurdles to looking for a new house was no longer an obstacle. We arranged a meeting with our mortgage guy on Dec 23. He gave us the news that we could be pre-approved for a mortgage and could start looking for a new place whenever we were ready!

So what are we looking for? Well, a property in the country is on the top of our list. I honestly don’t know if we’ll be able to afford more than 20 acres on our budget and with some of our criteria – decent house, no swampy or rocky property and a decent commute to the city – but we are excited about looking. We are in no rush to move, so hopefully we can wait until something good comes up. I would love to be able to keep a couple of horses at home. Some days I think I enjoy watching and caring for horses more than I do riding.

We still need to do some final clean-up and minor repairs on our current house before we are ready to list it for sale. I’m planning to get a lot of the work done, or at least scheduled, this winter so that we can be ready to move quickly in the spring/summer if we find a nice property.

We aren’t looking too seriously at the moment, since everything is covered in a layer of snow. I would be a little hesitant about buying property and not being able to see the land. Is it wet, swampy, clay or is it a fine layer of sand over the hard bedrock of the Canadian shield? (any geologists out there?)

In typical Laura fashion, I am working on a very nerdy list of contractors, tasks and due dates to keep all of this stuff straight. I find my lists get all of the info swirling around in my brain out in one place so that I can sleep at night! Lol  Here's hoping that we can find a great place this year!

Bucket lists and Resolutions

I have been thinking about bucket lists and resolutions alot lately due to the arrival of the new year... I’m sure I’ve tried writing a bucket list before, but the list was probably scribbled on a scrap of paper and shoved in a desk drawer to be forgotten. I sometimes think that bucket lists are like New Year’s resolutions – stuff you dream of doing (and probably should do) - but don’t take the time and effort to make the things happen. And when things don’t happen, you get discouraged.


So, for fun, I’ve combined some resolutions, goals and bucket list items into three categories – Dreams, Do-able and Personal - and I’m going to try and break individual items down into smaller chunks so that my chances of achieving things are greater. (I’m a bit of a nerd, yes...) I’ve been having a hard time coming up with horse posts lately, so this blog might start covering some of my personal challenges as well.

Personal

• Take care of myself – make good whole food, continue exercise program, transition to using more natural products around the house and on my skin
• Continue de-cluttering the house (a work in progress) to get ready to put it up for sale in the spring/summer
• Organize list of tasks for home repairs/upgrades
• Minimize junk email
• Organize important papers and contact information
• Use all of the food that is in my freezer/pantry instead of just letting it sit unused
• Find some sources for pastured raised organic poultry and pork
• Read more books! I read 46 books in 2011 and I think I’m going to set a goal of 60 for 2012...kinda crazy, but why not? Go sign up at goodreads.com if you haven’t already!

Things that are do-able, but will take some time

• Volunteer at some endurance rides
• Work on photography skills
• Learn more about hooves
• Learn more about bandaging and first-aid
• Learn how to braid a mane
• Learn how to create a beaded browband and a ribbon browband
• Sell some used tack and de-clutter my horse life

Dream items that are harder to attain (ie – take some planning and budgeting)

• Attend the Royal Winter Fair Horse Show in Toronto
• Complete a 25 mile endurance or competitive trail ride
• Attend some NFR events in Vegas
• Rescue a TB/STB and provide a good home, or re-train one to do endurance
• Ride out west – Three Bars Ranch in Alberta looks great!
• Ride in England/Ireland
• Ride on a beach - DONE!
• Raise and train a foal

Here's to a fun and happy 2012!!  I wish everyone a happy, healthy, horse-y New Year!

Small pieces of the puzzle...

I've been slowly working on trying to fill in a few of the gaps Dolly and I have in our relationship/training.

Since I discovered that I was being aggressive with her and pushing her away, I've sort of had to start over in my approach.  We are already doing better - I think she can sense that I'm not putting out the agressive vibes anymore and is more willing to do things when I ask her.

I identified two problem areas that I wanted to address first: one was her bit and the other was her nervousness about being saddled.  Those two things have been issues for awhile and I figured that there had to be a fairly easy fix for both.

I started with the bridle/bit situation. I had been using an eggbut snaffle with her, but a couple of people that have been helping me have suggested that she seems to be really sensitive in the mouth and the single-jointed snaffle might be really bothering her.  I tried a few bits and the clear winner was an eggbutt waterford:

The multiple joints on this bit seem to be more gentle on her mouth. I think she has a fairly low palate, so it wouldn't take much for the snaffle to hit her and cause pain.  I rode her at the walk only in this bit and it seemed at first that she was waiting for the bit to hit her, but when it didn't, she slowly relaxed and dropped her head. I think the bit hitting her mouth when she did her spins on the trail might have been making the situation worse...we'll see if that theory holds when I try riding her outside the ring sometime in the near future. 

Out for a hand-walk to get used to the new bit

The second issue was standing still in the cross-ties while being saddled. Dolly has a tendency to swing away and back when you approach her with the saddle.  She is ok for the saddle pad, but the saddle is trickier.  She has been adjusted by the chiro and we've checked her back a few times, so I don't think it is pain, just avoidance.... I have tried just ignoring her behaviour and putting the saddle on regardless of how she behaves, but that seemed to make her tense. And when she got tense, I would get annoyed and the situation would quickly escalate.

I decided to take in my very ancient English saddle that weighs about 10lbs and use that at first instead of my heavy western saddle (that I'm sometimes worried I am going to drop on her back.)  I kept a handful of treats nearby and slowly approached and retreated holding the English saddle. After 10 minutes or so of work, praise and a few treats, she would stand quietly and I could tack her up from both sides. I think I just needed to communicate more clearly with her, instead of getting all annoyed and flustered. 

This saddle is at least 30yrs old!! And almost falling apart...

I then progressed to the western pad and saddle. It took another 10 minutes or so and I had her standing quietly while I took the saddle on and off. I made a point to flop the strirrups and cinch around and to tack up from both sides and she was fine.  I will probably need to keep working on this a bit over the winter, but I'm confident that it is a minor issue and it will soon be a thing of the past for us!

Winter Wonderland? Or just cold and miserable?

I haven't done much (if any) horse stuff in the past two weeks. I've just been busy with Christmas (thank goodness that is over and done with!) and trying to deal with the dark and cold weather that we get this time of year.

 I don't really like the snow, cold and ice - but I'm stuck here, so I try and make the best of it. In fact, I can deal with cold and snow without much trouble, but I really don't like ice, unless it is in my drink. :-) It makes the footing terrible for horses and humans alike, not to mention it makes driving difficult.

 I've been hand-walking Dolly a bit lately, just to get us out in a safe way. I usually try and take a few pictures along the way to help Dolly with patience and standing quietly while I do something. I managed to get a few shots before my hands froze!

 We are usually followed by V - a friend's horse - when we walk.  He is a young arab gelding and is always watching when there are things going on. 

He followed me as far as he could in his paddock and stopped to pose when I called his name...what a handsome guy...

I'm hoping to get a short ride in this weekend, probably just in the riding ring, but it will be better than nothing!