There are two weekends left before the end of the first quarter which gives you all plenty of opportunity to scour the internet for shows to lend your hand at. Debating entering a show or not? Why not volunteer instead! A friend or significant other is showing and you aren’t? Go with them and donate your time while they compete. A local barn is hosting a schooling show that doesn’t fit into your competition schedule? Donate a few hours to help out. They will love you for it as will all those who wouldn’t be able to compete if the show couldn’t be put on.
Remember the first quarter prize is a package of horse related items I feel like buying (with an attempt to get something the winner will actually maybe like) worth up to $50 and is based on the number of hours volunteered for that quarter.
With two weekends to go there is still a lot of opportunity to donate your time and upset the leaderboard.
Next time you do show pay attention to the number of volunteers from registration to bit checkers to ring stewards to timers to jump judges to scribes to the random helpers running everywhere and realize that the show simply could not be put on without these people giving up their own free time and chances to compete to be there. Please do your part to give back and lend a hand.
Entries close at 12 midnight 3-31/4-1 and I’ll announce the winner the next Monday so get out there and give back!
‘Gem peed six times between the time I got her out of the pasture to load for the FRC show and the time we got back home. Probably nothing anyone would comment on except for the fact that I’ve maybe seen her pee while being handled or ridden that many times total in nine years. She’ll almost always pee in the pasture as I walk up to catch her because she hates to under saddle or when being handled, but then during our actal time together she rarely ever does.
I filed it in my brain as mildly interesting and kept an extra close eye on her figuring it was a spring heat or the like.
The magnolia tree in question from Friday’s post. Its beautiful and it is huge.
Of course once you start paying close attention everything seems like a red flag. She seemed a bit girthy when tacking up. She was a bit reactive to being curried over her back and sides. Was she shedding or was her coat a bit dull? All tiny things that are easily overlooked but can add up.
Then she began leaving grain behind in her bowl. After a day or two of that she began to eat super slowly. She is always the first one brought in to eat and I noticed that she was barely touching it by the time the last horse was caught and brought in. In fact the other two were finished and Gem was maybe half way through hers. Odd.
It covers half the house up. There is a two story addition hidden behind that big tree.
Between all the blasted rain and my newly torn up arena, I didn’t ride all week. The farrier was out Friday afternoon and all seemed ok except for her lack of interest in her grain and an overall sleepy demeanor. Both uncharacteristic for her.
All things lined up in my brain added up to potential ulcers. I had changed her grain about six weeks prior and it could just as easily be the grain not doing as well for her and her not liking it or she could be in major spring heat and having ovary pain. Lord knows my uterus hates me on a monthly basis.
While the trunk is a good ways from the house, the excessive branches nearly touch it. Looking out those windows all you see if tree. It has got to go.
But I’d rather be safe than sorry and so I scratched from the h/j show I was slated to do last weekend and had Dusty order Gastroguard for me. Thankfully he is a vet and can get it through work because holy crap that stuff is expensive. How much do you guys pay for it? It was $400 for a month’s supply at his cost!! Jeepers.
Of course as soon as it got ordered Gem started looking more like herself. By Sunday she was back to gobbling her food down at Mach speed and running amuck in the pasture. So maybe it was just her heat cycle. Or the shitastic weather swinging from 80 and sunny to 45 and rainy. Yet again. Or maybe she was more tired and sore after those three jumping rounds than I gave her credit for. Jumping is hard. Jumping while spooking at everything is even harder.
Nash and Gem taking their typical 1 pm siesta while Pete stands guard. Pete typically naps around 11 am while the others are awake.
I don’t know but since that liquid gold isn’t harmful mareface will be getting syringed daily for the next four weeks just in case. I’m giving her the next week off as well while she gets the first week of treatment and then we will get back to lessons and riding again with an aim at entering the FRC CT May 5th with added jump rounds at the end. I love that format and since it is only an hour away it’s a pretty solid place to show. Add to it that I adore their baby cross country fences on the other side of the road and maybe just maybe someday I’ll enter a HT there.
So that is the deal at the moment in Gem land. NQR but returning to normal again.
Having a farm name has always been a dream of mine. Something about naming the place makes it feel more permanent, more special. Like even when we eventually leave for whatever reason, perhaps it would still live on and people would remember us. Or the new owner could do what I did…rename it. But I won’t think about that.
Wyatt cleans Nashville’s stall every week. We ended up getting a pitch fork and sawing off the handle to make it his size. He is very proud of himself for caring for his pony.
Coming up with a name was a lot harder than I thought. Reading through various websites with tips and tricks, it quickly became obvious that there were a few main ways to go about it.
Use your name. Borkosky Farm. Ick.
Copy your favorite farm name from a book or movie. I’m not into copying things outright.
Go humorous. Get Off My Lawn Farm nearly became a reality. It was really close and had Dusty been on board the discussion would have ended there.
Use the defining feature of the place. Hmmmm….
Make it a memorial. A Gem of a Farm. Except I find that creepy.
Waggy hiding in the shade on a warm day last month.
Number 4 seemed like the best bet, but what really is the defining feature of our place? We don’t have mountain views or ocean front property. There isn’t a pretty brook or stoney ridge. No meadow of spring flowers. There is a massive magnolia tree, but we plan on cutting that down before it falls on the house.
He also brings Nash in from the pasture nearly every night for dinner and returns him after.
I knew I wanted a pretty name. I love this planet and everything it offers us and I wanted the farm to have a pretty and nature based name that was also representative of the property.
I wracked my brain. Name it after the pond? Sparkling Pond Farm. Eh. Not so great. Hidden Waterfall Ranch. Maybe, but again neither of those things defined the place.
Then I landed on it.
Waggy’s version of being a lap dog. She either doesn’t know or doesn’t care that she can’t fit.
What we have here is a whole lot of grass. Big sweeping pastures. And then even more grass.
Light bulb!!!
Moonlit Pastures.
Concise. Calls up a beautiful image in your mind. Pays respect to the property itself.
When we bought the farm we knew we would need to purchase two big pieces of equipment and put another on a wish list: a new mower, an arena drag, and a manure spreader (on the wish list). Once the arena started turning green we needed to make a decision to either help it go all grass or bring it back to its intended sandy state.
Gross an not particularly safe either
While I don’t mind grass arenas when done right, this one wasn’t built for that and I was growing increasingly concerned with the footing getting compacted down with each progressive flooding rain and drying out. Her prior hoof prints were starting to be like cement and it was only a matter of time until the footing became unsafe to ride in. Gem is sound and happy but she is also going to be 20 this year and I want to protect her legs and feet as much as possible. I was dying to get in there and fluff up that footing.
But first we needed the equipment. Dusty did all the research. I just signed the 1 year loan papers. He chose an ABI TR3 E series arena drag due to its ability to not only drag and groom the arena, but allow us to do the renovation part as well.
Fresh out of the shipping crate
It showed up Monday afternoon and as soon as I got home I hopped on the tractor and headed to the arena. Probably not the smartest move since rain was forecasted all day Tuesday and the arena would be out of action for a while, but it needed done and I was too excited to wait.
Swoon
The drag has five different parts all used for different reasons. It came with an awesome little book that went over the set up, the parts and how to use it for all sorts of reasons. Thankfully it had a whole section on removing vegetation, just what I needed to do!
All parts needed raised so that only the very front bar was in play and it recommended setting it to a depth of 1″ to remove the grass at the roots but avoid any penetration into the base layer. We followed the protocol and I held my breath as I engaged it hoping I wasn’t about to ruin everything.
The first pass through had me grinning like a fool. I have no idea why this sort of stuff makes me so darn happy. The bar was doing exactly what it was supposed to: remove the grass at root level.
The first swipe through all that ugly weedy grass. You can see Pete in the background coming to investigate the open arena gate.
It took a bit of playing around to figure out how to best maneuver the drag and deal with the build up of grass and dirt as it collected on the bar. At first I tried stopping, raising it up, and then backing up but this just left huge piles. I finally perfected when to raise it up and for how long to let it slowly drop the clumps over a larger swath which was easier to then go back over again.
Cutting right below the root system to remove the grass and leave the footing mostly intact.
It took 4 hours to do the entire arena to my level of satisfaction. Overall I am very pleased with the outcome. The more mature and solid grass in the corners didn’t all come up, but I wasn’t really expecting it to. The directions specifically said to kill it with Round Up first which I obviously didn’t do. We have a disc we can hook up to the tractor for those areas and I’ll go over them again.
And then all three entered the arena, of course with Nash staring at me the entire time. In retrospect I probably could have put them in the arena for a few days first to eat it down and then got busy…but impatience.
Next up will be going over it with the grooming rake to collect the clumps of grass and get rid of them. I’m not looking forward to that at all. It will take a ton of wheelbarrow loads to get rid of it all.
The end product: clean sandy footThankful I had lights to work under. You can see the tracts the blade made and the build up between them. This process was solely aimed at getting rid of the vegetation
After we pick up all that loose grass and deal with the corners, it will be on to step 2: grading
Looking more like an arena now. It did cross my mind when I was about half way through that summer, when I don’t ride due to the heat, may have been a better time than spring. But the footing was really starting to worry me, so I had no real choice.
Dusty traded an ACL repair on a Boykin for a riding mower when we first moved to the rental. A much better deal than the time he traded a cat neuter for a chocolate milkshake. I used the rider to mow the 3 acre pasture and it did a good, but slow job. The pasture was a near perfect rectangle and still took 6 hours to do. It also ended up in the shop twice because really the little machine wasn’t made to handle that much grass. I was really worried when we purchased 30 acres of mostly grass. No way could the rider handle it and even if it could it would take me a month to get it done just in time to start all over again.
The view from my small riding mower at the rental
During farm shopping we had noticed that a lot of the sellers were willing to sell their tractor as well although most wanted way more than the machine was worth. Fortunately for us, the farm we ended up buying also offered up a tractor, but this time we managed to bargain for a great deal. It also came with a ton of accessories with a bush hog being the only one I knew what to do with.
My new machine. So much bigger. So much more power!
A few Saturdays back I got Dusty to show me how to use it and got busy mowing the large pasture. The new spring growth was being choked out by old, dead bermuda grass that the sellers never mowed and I was worried it wouldn’t grow in very well if not cut back. Plus there were a lot of tall grasses and weeds that needed cut back as well. The weather was gorgeous and Dusty and Wyatt were busy fishing at the pond, so there wasn’t a better time for it.
My new view. Upgrades all around 🙂
The 20 acre pasture took roughly 5 hours to do, all the while Dusty and Wyatt were fishing which is a miracle to get my 5 year old to do anything for that long, and looked near orgasmic by the time I was finished. I love a nicely mowed pasture, folks. The horses really appreciated it as well once they stopped being pissed that I interrupted their afternoon nap time. After I was done I saw them start to graze in parts they had previously ignored now that the green grass was accessible.
Gem and Pete rarely get bothered by anything I do these days. In fact, more often they are being a pain in my butt by refusing to move out of my way. Nash on the other hand was very concerned and watched me the entire time. He will learn. I’m very glad we have Pete and Gem to show him that things like this just aren’t worth getting upset about.
I didn’t get the other side of the property done as it rained all the next day making it not possible and ever since then it has rained buckets. Now that it has stopped the ground needs a bit of time to firm back up. I’m hoping that happens before I need to redo this side all over again.
My favorite hat blew off my head. It landed on top of the bush hog and promptly got eaten. I may have cried.
It was so nice having a real machine made for the job at hand though. Our little rider broke down for good which means we need to get one of those now as well and we are looking a the zero turn models. We have a lot of grass areas outside the pastures that needs mowed.
Death by bush hog. RIP.
Depending on bow fun the new mower is, I may or may not let Dusty use it 🙂 I really love mowing. There is just something about the monotony, the peaceful solitude and the instant gratification of seeing row upon row or gorgeously cut grass that gets to me. I think I’m becoming old.
While walk/trotting 18″ cross rails isn’t likely to become an Olympic sport any time soon, I do need to cut myself some slack. Sure we look a bit foolish out there when Gem spooks at every thing and I’m too scared to go above a hard crawl, but we are doing it and Gem said yes 27 times (plus the jumps in warm up).
Hmmm..perhaps the electric isn’t working correctly. Dusty went and bought a new charger after I showed him this.
Walking away from the show would have been a lot different mentally for me if it hadn’t been for three significant people in my life. Honestly, without them I would have felt idiotic and like it was a failed outing. Instead, I feel proud that Gem did what she did and that we went out there and completed those three rounds in style. An unusual style for sure. But in style nonetheless.
Wyatt
He is my biggest fan and my best cheerleader. He sat in the stands and yelled encouragement the entire time. He has no idea what it is supposed to look like so every time we went over I heard “wow, great jump mommy” If you listen to the videos with the sound on you can hear a bit of him.
He reminds me that we all need to be bigger cheerleaders. That it doesn’t matter how many poles we knock down or how ridiculous we look. It’s about being there and having fun.
Trainer
When I left the ring after our first round, I felt like a joke. It was that bad. Had she not been there I would have been tempted to scratch the other rounds and gone home feeling defeated.
But there she was telling me how proud she was of us and how good we did. She gets me out of my own head, pushes me to do better and forces me to use my head.
A pretty spring day on the farm. I sure do love living here
She knows where we came from and how hard Gem can be. She holds me accountable for my rider mistakes and errors and keeps me plugging, but also doesn’t let me lose sight of our accomplishments. I wouldn’t be able to do this without her.
My Mom
She has only been to one show of mine but she remains one of my biggest supporters. She called me Sunday morning and sorta kinda yelled at me for not inviting her to the show. I had to explain that it wasn’t really a show per se, it wasn’t timed and no ribbons were given. She still wasn’t happy.
But then she caught me off guard.
Waggy, the happiest farm dog on the planet.
She told me the picture of me all dressed up was gorgeous and in her eyes I looked like an Olympian.
It hit home hard.
No matter who does better than you. No matter how bad a round goes. No matter how far away my goals seem to be. My mom will always think I’m a champion. Moms are the best part of humanity.
Friday afternoon I had a breakthrough at work. My surgical certification is coming up and a big part of it is submission of 13 selected cases. Since I’ve done work at three hospitals and two practices in my time since graduation, it was a lot of work to gather all the required paperwork and radiographs. Friday afternoon I was finally done. A big stressor was lifted off my shoulders.
So I did the best thing I could think of at the moment….I texted Trainer.
My brain was more than a bit fried at that point and at first I thought she meant to school between the show rounds. I was like “wait…come jump in a busy schooling ring for 5 minutes. That’s odd”
Thankfully I had enough neurons left to actually notice and read the text in the large orange circle and quickly figured out they were running schooling rounds after the CT ended.
Looking the part always helps, right?
Saturday was gorgeous out. Sunny, mid 60s and with a breeze. We desperately needed a sunny day around here. What was even better was that the Hubs was off work so I could get some media. Winning at life right now.
I decided for this show to put my Type A aside and not show up 4 hours early, instead opting to pull in at 11:30 with plenty of time to register, tack up, change my shirt and warm up. The best part was that Trainer was going to be there to help which would be the first time I’ve been to a show with her. It worked out super well with the timing. I don’t think I’d like to cut it that close gain, maybe give myself an additional 30 minutes or so, but all in all it worked out great.
The course
We walked the course and it was interesting. Jumps 1 and 2 aren’t drawn right. Move 2 to the right so that it’s left standard is touching the right one of jump 1. It was a super tight turn. The take home from the course walk was to use the space to my advantage and hug the rail anywhere possible. Trainer pointed out two problem areas for other riders: horses were looking at 6 going from 1-2 and then being caught off guard by the sharp turn and then coming from 5-6 they were losing steam and a lot were breaking to trot through that turn. Going in I thought jumps 1-2-3 would be the hardest for us.
We then headed over to the warm up and Gem was amazing. Probably the most rideable I’ve ever had. Her trot was relaxed, slow and even and she took the cross rail and vertical without issue.
Trainer was pleased and so was I as we headed to the ring. I had signed up for four rounds and we discussed doing the 18″ cross rails to see how she was. If she was going well we could then try our hat in the 2-2’3″ division.
Hahahahahahahaha!!!
I go in and pick up a nice trot. Gem is listening. We head down past 1-2 on the left and 6 on the right as I make it to a good starting point for 1.
And Gem loses her ever loving mind.
Everything became a reason to spook. The flowers beside the fences. The hoof prints in the sand. The rail. The mud puddle. Her own damn shadow. Seriously. It was awful.
I lined her up for 1 and had no clue if she was going to go over or not. That became the name of the entire round. Would she or wouldn’t she? Thankfully she did say yes every time and I don’t think we would have gotten any refusals even if they were timing/scoring it, but it felt ugly.
Trainer said it didn’t look as bad as it felt but it sure did feel stupid. Here is the video if you care to watch us barely walk around 18″ cross rails while trying to not get eaten by the imaginary monsters. Dusty missed fences 1 and 2 on the video. This starts as I make my way to fence 3. Also, if you turn the sound up you can hear Wyatt cheering me on and me talking to Gem throughout. I believe at one point I tell her ” just go over the darn fence Gem” or something like that. I was more frustrated than anything.
The funny thing was that the turn to 1-2 wasn’t even bad. The turn from 4-5? Gross. By the time we hit 4 she had finally started to get the hint. After 4 was the only long straight stretch and it was towards home, so she took off. 5 was set at a funny angle off the rail. It was a right hand turn off 4 but then a left bend to 5 and the first go around I basically just stuffed her into 5. A year ago Gem would have noped her way out of that hot mess, but this time she went over.
Going back in the second time Trainer told me to ride both more defensively (stay more upright and in the back seat) but also more aggressively with keeping my leg on and insisting we jump. She told me not to let Gem convince me she had this and to take my leg off because that is when Gem says no.
I went back in with a plan. She had no reason to be so darn spooky and this time I wasn’t going to let her get away with it. More leg. More direction, more use of my own brain.
Dusty got the entire thing this time and it’s below
It felt so much better and I was so proud of Gemmie. She calmed down a lot and I’d say this time that half the jumps she took at an appropriate level of intensity versus over jumping everything like the first time. We botched 4-5 yet again as Gem decided she had this covered and wasn’t listening quite as well, so I decided to circle her and re approach rather than stuffing her at it.
Trainer was much happier with how this round went. Sure we were still snails out there but I did let her canter some and she continued to say yes. She wanted me back in again and to make that turn from 4-5 happen.
I was actually more nervous going in the third time than the first. Repetition usually makes Gem tense and speedy and I wasn’t looking forward to fighting her. Dusty switched over to pictures (no video) this round, so here are some shots.
My darn arms and their non bending elbows. But…my leg is actually under me! And Gem doesn’t look like a giraffe! I’ll take the wins when able.
I was wrong tho. She went in and owned it. Every jump came up from a much better spot, she came back to me and slowed down when asked and we owned 4-5.
The best thing was that she gave reasonable efforts over the jumps and it felt a lot smoother. I could tell she was pretty happy with herself at the end too.
Coming over 1 towards home
When I left the ring the third time I knew it was our last round. Gem had been so good there was no need to ask it of her again.
Jump 5 and my new all time favorite picture of Gemmie and me
There was also no way I was doing the 2-2’3″ division with her. Trainer agreed.
Jump 8
The best part? I ran into Bette! I got to meet Chimi and watch her warm up and do two rounds at BN. They looked amazing out there!!
I’m excited for next weekend. Hopefully she learned something this outing and will come out braver for our rounds at our home training facility. I think Trainer will be there too which will be great.
This entire challenge was set up to give people an incentive to get out there and volunteer. Point chase so to speak. I’m not so sure if that is working or not, but it is early in the season and I am enjoying the process. Both Emma and Amanda got out there and did the thing this month and I am so happy to see bloggers giving back. While I’d love to give everyone a prize, I can’t afford to so the randomizer was employed to pick a winner from our two go geters this month.
The winner is……
Proof I use a randomizer!
Emma, please email me your address at agemofahorse at gmail dot com and I will get your prize sent out directly to you.
I’m trying hard to get to know each blogger and send something semi personal-ish. Within the budget of under $20 that is. For you Emma, I chose a candle from Grey Horse Candles in Show Day scent to get you pumped for when Sir Chuckles is back in action.
I’ll get it ordered and shipped to you as soon as I get your address.
But wait, there’s more!!!
Amanda is kicking butt out there with a whopping 17 hours of volunteerism this year. Emma is in second with 6 and Nadia is in third with 3. March is a big month folks. Not only do a lot of areas start ramping up, but it is the end of the first quarter which means the first hour based winner will be chosen in place of the monthly award (I can’t do both until that money tree starts sprouting in my yard :). The quarterly award is based on the most hours given back that quarter and right now Amanda is winning by a landslide! This package is worth $50, so get out there in March and start donating those hours. There are still plenty of weekends left this month!!
Feel the excitement for volunteering? No. Well, you should!!
Sunday morning was grey with a low hung sky and a constant threat of rain. I wanted to get a ride in though and had already set up exercise 7 the previous night. I even carefully measured out the distances.
The storm clouds rolled through all day long dropping random showers. If you look hard you can see the horse way off in the distance.
It seemed so simple. Three trot poles, a 25′ gap, three more trot poles (only I used three and two because I only have five poles).
Ignore the fact that my arena is turning green. An arena drag is on its way!
I warmed her up walk and trot at large in the arena. She was relaxed and listening so I had her go straight through the poles at the trot. I remembered to keep my hands low and forward even in my dressage saddle without the neck strap. She felt fluid and didn’t hesitate at all.
From the side. I need a 5th pole. And to drag my arena.
But it was very apparent that my planning skills were out the window. I left Gem completely out to dry after the end of the last pole and she had no direction as to a left or right turn. I’m not sure where my squirrel brain was focusing.
After a few times over I got busy doing the exercise. This called for going over the first set straight, then making a 20 m circle to the right and completing it over the poles. After that you go straight to the next set and make a 20 m circle to the left.
My paint skills rival my ability to actually ride this exercise but this gives you a general idea
And my brain got fried.
Gem was being good and listening although what she was listening to who knows because I certainly wasn’t providing any direction.
I couldn’t for the life of me figure out what I was doing. I tried going straight over the poles and then making the turn right, circling, and coming back to the poles but it felt too abrupt and awkward. Trainer is always getting on my about taking my turns too tight without enough prep. I need to turn her ears first, then her head, shoulders, ribs and very last her butt.
Going straight through the poles and then turning made this impossible, so I tried turning through the poles. Since the poles were on a straight line and I was turning, it threw off the striding and Gem got all sorts of discombobulated.
Plus my brain couldn’t handle the idea of bending over something straight.
I decided to break it down to the walk and figure it out at a slower pace and finally got something that felt maybe right and asked for the trot again.
I never got it right though and it was all my fault. Gem was doing what I asked even when what I asked was confusing and misdirected. I just couldn’t get my brain straight to plan ahead enough to execute it. I’d find myself so focused on the turn to get into the poles that I’d have no time to plan for over the poles and Gem would then go straight and that would not allow me time to make the circle.
By the time the sky opened up I had managed a few go arounds in each direction that felt sorta kinda ok. I really like the exercise though because it kept Gem focused on me. Each time over the poles ended in a different turn. Sometimes we went straight through, others we made the circle over one set and went straight over the next and other times we did both consecutive circles.
The rain ended the ride early. I was fine with the drizzle, but when it began to downpour I called it quits.
I’ll try this one again when my brain is more focused and see if I can figure it out.
For those of you participating in the challenge get those hours submitted for the month of February to be eligible for the drawing. This is a random drawing worth up to $20. So far, I have Emma with 8 hours for the month which makes for a pretty easy random drawing 🙂
So get those hours submitted to me by 2/28/18 at midnight. Drawing will be held 3/1/18!
The Roaming Rider 