Finding What is Lost

It's one day past the vernal equinox-- the First Day Of Spring !! I guess we made it through the winter- but I am not quite prepared to stow away the show shovels just yet. We are liberated from our bulky outerwear and inner wear though-- and that feels nice !

We've lost a great deal of snow in the open areas that are hit by the long strong rays of the sun. This is a cross fence I put up to temporarily keep the horses off a newly planted section. This fence-- not so long ago-- was nearly buried in snow !! I believe we had more snowfall than last year- but it's melted earlier this year.

Daffodils are poking up in the warm spots-- a welcome sight !

"Come out of the bitter wind, Tomorrow is bound to bring, the first day of spring"

Back in February- on the 26th- OYY Sharona delivered her little

colt in the evening. He's a happy little fellow always on the move..

he has grown quickly from this to this--

The weather still had a bite to it when he was first born and he wanted out of the stall-- so, not owning any little foal blankets- my daughter and I searched the closet for any old small sized sweatshirt or sweater he could wear.

It's a funny thing about searching and looking-- as you all have most likely experienced. When you are looking for something, you don't find that specific object but do discover all those needed items you were looking for in months past and never unearthed. In the quest for the little colt's new winter wear.. we found the old trumpet for which we had been furiously seeking for weeks, so Zoe's number 1 daughter could use it for band at school. Apparently we had looked right at it quite a few times and never saw it--- naturally we don't need it anymore, but there it sat-- waiting patiently for us to see it. I also found my favorite winter work gloves that I thought had fallen off the tractor one day- Led me to thinking-- how does one go about finding what is lost ?

The first magical theory- Buy a replacement... and the misplaced object will mysteriously appear to you.

Pray to Saint Anthony- the patron saint of lost things... My mother had a friend who seemed to have an inside track with Saint Anthony-- all you had to do is call Josephine, tell her what was missing- and she would ask for you. St. Anthony, St. Anthony, Please come down, Something is lost, And can't be found. It worked everytime !

But- the best way, when you are searching for something else- you'll most likely find all you've lost and more !

Here's our little colt- named OYY Beowulf- sporting his dashing vest.

Now it's plenty warm enough and he has outgrown his need for the vest-- so I'll end this springtime post with photo's of Beowulf and Mom celebrating

the official move from winter to springtime !

Enjoy your day ~ and I hope you find everything you have been looking for !

A Good Week of Riding !

This week we got a few excellent rides in, along with all the usual choretime and training. It's surely moving into Vermont's Fifth season.. mud ! Along with celebrating Maple Syrup time. The weather is warmer most days - and I have even been burning Balsalm in my outdoor boiler-which amazingly enough actually made heat !

Our peppy pair- my Keri and Zoe's Teasel, best buddies and the perfect cruising companions had a nice trip out on the 7th.

The roads were somewhat squishy, but gorgeous sun and blue skies made for a most enjoyable trot out.

I bid on and won a second treeless saddle on e-bay. I love my Barefoot London- enough so that I wanted try a different model. The Barefoot London has- as typically a dressage saddle does- long flaps which makes fitting to a small pony difficult. The treeless saddles have long billets- and finding a short enough girth for a 12 hand mount is nearly impossible. I studied other treeless models- and since I already love my Barefoot, I went with the Cheyenne. I was anxious to use it.. hoping I would also love it. So- on the 13th, Zoe and I found a window of time to trot out again. Zoe chose to take Elektra and .. surprise-- I rode Keri again. Here's Keri reluctantly posing for a quick photo with the Cheyenne before we went out. She is also a bit peeved because she sees that Teasel is not accompanying us on the ride. OYY Elektra (named after a great aunt of mine on the Isle of Crete) is a superb ring horse, but she does love to go out on the road and trail as well, being just as nosey as the rest of us- she likes to get a glance of the world and neighborhood.

The roads are alternately firm and

smushy.

We backtrack on our previous hoofprints.






Our best ride of the week was Saturday- we had more time to plan a longer trip. We decided to do the "Cummings Road" loop. Cummings Road has an entry and an exit-- but for some reason the middle part was abandoned and is no longer a road-- now barely a trail. We thought with all the melting that has been going on lately-- we could get easy access to the trail part and make the loop home.

The trip starts out traveling over Flamstead Road, actually one of my more favorite routes- over Crow Hill. The views are some of the best in our area.

We pass by lots of maples and sap buckets. One of the quintessential Vermont sights in spring. Although mostly people use a maze of sap line all intertwined through the woods, there are still buckets hanging out as well. I read it takes 40 years for a Maple tree to reach tappable size ! Seems pretty amazing.

And here is a wonderful example of why we can't boil maple sap inside the house ! The collected maple sap is about 90% water- it takes approximately 10 gallons of sap to

make a mere quart of the delicious pancake topper. You can see all the evaporating water pouring out of this sugar house. Vermont is apparently the biggest US producer of this sweet liquid treat.

I, myself, prefer Vermont-made over all the other produced. All this "steam" is the water being boiled off.

As we come down off Flamstead Hill, Zoe and I decide to take a quick detour over the bridge into Chester Depot for a quick trot. Keri and Teasel are excited as they seem to love the "in town" excursions the best !

We pass by the Yosemite Fire House, built in 1878-79, trot across the highway and cross the railroad tracks.

We pass my local grain store which is right next to the railroad tracks- they get all their deliveries by truck now I think and the train is mainly for tourist sightseeing trips. Right next door is the Chester Train Depot - which is why this part of Chester, Vermont is called "The Depot "

The best part of the trip is coming up and the horses know it--

Sidewalk trotting !! We all like an animated sidewalk trot- and both Zoe and I have come to rate our horses in training as to whether we believe they could, also, be sidewalk trotters.

Over the past couple of years-- Keri and Teasel have learned to eagerly anticipate the sidewalk. We pass by an outfit where the owner does outstanding chainsaw carving and other neat arty projects. A scarey pit-bull by the name of Buddha jumps out and threatens us briefly-- I know there are probably plenty of very nice friendly pitbulls out there, but I still don't relish meeting one.

OK-- back to our original plan-- off to Cummings Road -- There's plenty of mud-bogging here. We reach the end and find..

UH-OH, not so much melting as we had thought... We will have to hang on and climb this snowpile to get into the trail section of Cummings. I won't get much chance to take photo's in here-

We'll have to concentrate and pick the right spots to direct the horses safely. The snow in here is deeper than it looks..

After some hard work, we make it through to the other side-- back on the road ~ where we walk the horses quietly as they worked up quite a sweat from navigating the nasty trail. We get up on the highway to head home-

We take a left onto Lacross Road- which leads directly back to the farm. My farm is on a hill, but the top of Lacross Road is an even higher hill.. as you can see- we look down onto the farm on our approach.

On the way up the driveway, I snapped a photo of the brook cutting it's way through the snow, mostly because I thought it was a pretty sight. This is the brook featured in several of our "brook walks" we like to expose the horses to.

It was a week of some super rides - Saturday's of course was the best adventure. As usual, while we headed home- Zoe and I were planning our next long trek out-- We have not ventured into the main town of Chester yet-- the "Green".. so I think next weekend if weather permits.. that's where we'll go.

And- by the way-- I am quite satisfied with my new saddle !!

Enjoy your day ~

February News in the month of March !

We had a fairly nice February thaw this year- I mentioned to my daughter, it seems as though the ground hog may have been wrong about winter... but even as I spoke the words, I was kind of waiting for the other snowshoe to drop- so to speak. And drop it did- winter is back again ! But, since March is coming in like a lion, I suppose this is good news. They do say as the days begin to lengthen, the cold begins to strengthen. It is warm by afternoon though and some people are already tapping their trees. One maple syrup producer had to bulldoze paths into the sugarbush to get to the trees we have had such a snowfall this winter!



During the month of February, we tried to get a few of the very old apple trees pruned. Number 1 son came over one half blizzardy Sunday with his new "toy".. a chainsaw on a long pole designed just for a job such as this. Here is our first victim-- the 'before' photo.




Pruner at work - It was a lot harder than we thought it would be.. but we also decided that perhaps this handy lopper was not intended to saw through the kind of timber we were taking off. We ended up with a montrous pile of large brush and a few pieces of firewood. Nothing quite big enough to saw lumber though.











Of course the entire process was closely monitored by the nosey bunch of Curlies on the other side of the fence





They were lining up even several fencelines away- this is OYY HummingBird, ChesterBelle Chip's Chocolate (born last November, 2008) and OYY Nimue.





And the dogs are always with us no matter what we are doing-- Dickens, Nicodemus (papa to the pups) and Fritz (King of the Hill). India is inside with her litter.




OYY Tupelo Honey continues with her schooling in the indoor. She is coming along nicely and I managed to get a video of her third time under saddle in the indoor.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQoSrx9Jt1o

OYY Nimue is being schooled in the indoor for her first show in April- but during this nice defrosting we experienced, she was able to get out on the road for a change of scenery. She so enjoyed herself ! I don't know the schedule of the UPS route, but somehow, no matter who we are riding or driving-- he passes us everytime! Here's a short video of her foray out on the road

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-QFp51CMpQ

Nimue is such a wonderful pleasurable pony-- riding or driving.

Mead's Chocolate Chip came up into the indoor for some exercise. Lately, he has been ground driving, but today- he had 'free play'. When we free longe him, he loves to head for the poles so we set some up for him. We had a cavaletti set up from schooling another horse-- Chip decided he might try jumping too!

















While normally our time with Chip is a little more disciplined.. he enjoyed his change of pace today.





Last Thursday, OYY Sharona delivered the little pony foal we have been anxiously awaiting! This is her first- and she's a perfect mama. He was born around 8:00 in the evening. He's got LOTS of curly mane, dark buckskin curly colt. We named him OYY Beowulf. Sharona is 12.1 hands, Sire- OYY Finnegan is 13.2 hands. Measuring this little guy's leg from the hole in the knee to the coronet- he is estimated to mature at 11.2.








Here's Finn with Zoe- his dam is 13.3 hands, his sire- 14.1.










Sharona is out of Sugar- 12.1 hands and Frostfire's Tadpole- 14 hands... so lots of 'short' stock in Beowulf's pedigree.






Puppy update-- they were one month old this past Saturday. Here's my daughter's Number 1 son showing off the reddish pup- Rocky.

And the fat pup- Sylvia.

So that's pretty much the month of February news in one blog entry-
Short month-- long blog!


Enjoy your day ~

The Scent of Spring

February is the month of simultaneous thawing and freezing. The days are longer, the sunrays brilliantly stronger- and even with the numbing temperatures, the snow is melting. All the springs have awakened from their hibernation and water is flowing and freezing all at the same time, creating long glacial rivers of ice. After what seemed like a long slumbering, lumbering stagnation of winter, February is the month that begins the break from dormancy bringing a subtle whiff of spring. The snow on the roofs are melting off, but freezing all at the same time- a kind of stop action moving quietly unfurling energy which is happening everywhere now in the month of February.

Last week, Zoe and I went out for a nice trot. I rode OYY Salvadore ( I call him my Sally Macaroni Pony) for the first time. Zoe took OYY Finnegan. Salvadore is a small pony with the attitude of a big horse and his trot is very forward. My saddle does not fit Salvadore so I rode in Zoe's and she rode in my old dressage saddle. When we were almost back home, we switched mounts so I could try Finn. What a difference ! Finn is quietly forward and easy to just sit and trot-- while Sal is always a controllable bundle of energy. I did take my camera along but while riding/trotting swiftly along- I did not get the chance to snap any photo's. After our switch in mounts- I got my usual photo-- the ears of my mount and the back of Zoe and hers ! This was the first long trot down the road for each of the boys and they were perfect, meeting quite a bit of traffic and another horse and rider.

One of the nicer days I spent with small carpentry jobs in the barn- little things that needed repair. This is a kind of quiet, solitary "zen" task.. that whole "chop wood, carry water" meditative work. This matches my February frame of mind-- it's the essence of awakening, while seemingly doing nothing.

Zoe took Zoe's Day Dream (aka, "Reverie") out on her first highway ride. Reverie was perfect as she always is. Someone is going to just love that mare for a steady mount. Nothing fazes her - as she loves trotting out anywhere with a joyful attitude.

Our Main man- Mead's Chocolate Chip - is back in training. We are going to get him driving this spring. He's going to make an awesome driving horse. We also made the decision to offer him up for sale. Chip has accomplished greatness here on the farm with his offspring and he has certainly proven himself many times over with his many offspring. I created a special "page" on my web site for Chip.. check it out - http://www.vermontel.net/~top/chipfeaturepage.htm

I am proud of Chip's "credentials" as a stud plus he is a wonderful riding mount. He'll make a superlative stallion for another breeder or a fabulous gelding. Big, medium and small -- his offspring are all great horses, and Curly to boot !

Puppy update-- Valentine's Day, the puppies were 2 weeks old. My Number 1 son came over to help me with my wood chores- cutting and splitting (I am saving the pleasure of stacking wood for Number 3 son!) His own Number 1 son and Number 2 son came along for some "puppy training". It's so beneficial to expose the pups to handling- even better when it is kids doing it.

Patrick with a wrinkly female pup on the left. Kyle holds the only reddish male pup -

and the light colored wriggly female pup.

Their Mom holds the quiet sleepy pup.

The puppies have grown amazingly fast- they are developing an adorable little puppy "bark" and beginning to totter around on shaky legs. Their Mom- India- is an outstanding mom.

Enjoy your February awakening and rejoice in the glimmer of spring ! It is coming !!