kids, Uncategorized

How did we end up in August already?

Leave a comment

Every summer, July seems to be our busiest month.  This year was no exception.  Keeping up with blog posts seems to fall on the back burner as the days get long and filled with activities.  Evenings are spent riding horses and we come in from the barn around 8:30 to eat some dinner and get kids in bed.

So what have we been up to?  Early July included a week of Pony Club camp for the kids.  Vicki got cleared by the doctor to resume riding after her broken arm, just in time for the last 2 lessons at camp.

Towards the end of the month, we had a short trip down to Washington DC.  It was a down Sunday, back Wednesday trip.  But while we were there, we did take the kids to the National Archives, outside the White House, Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, and Mount Vernon.  We camped in our travel trailer at the campground on Joint Base Andrews.  Here are a bunch of photos from that trip.

Right after we got back, it was a quick turnaround and the New London County 4-H fair started on Friday evening.  Since we sold the goats, it we only had 2 rabbits and 1 dog to take with us, in addition to a lot of exhibit hall entries.  We camped in the trailer on the fairgrounds and it was a good weekend.  I set up an amateur radio station to run a demo, but also to have something fun for me to do.

Sunday afternoon, Alex and Vicki left directly from the fair to 4-H Camp for the week.  Unfortunately, Alex managed to slide playing kickball and broke his wrist in 2 places on Sunday night.  He still finished the time at camp after getting a cast, but he’s off horses for 2 months.  Amanda was the big farm helper while the others were gone.

horse, Trimming Blog

Shoes on my horses?

Leave a comment

Yes, it’s true.  There are now front shoes on Mystique, Dakota, and King.  I know, I know.  You are thinking, “but Rob is a barefoot trimmer!”  So I guess now, I am a farrier, and not just a barefoot trimmer.  But before everyone gets all “I knew it wouldn’t work” let me explain.  Last year, I debated very heavily about getting into gluing on Easy Shoes.  I even got a whole delivery of inventory.  But I sent it back unused.

This year, Anna and I are planning to do a 30 mile endurance ride in October.  As a result, we have been spending more time trail riding than in year’s past.  Dakota in particular, is very hard on boots and tends to over-reach and tear up the gaiters.  So, after a lot of consideration, I decided to take the plunge and try out the Easy Shoes.

wpid-20150710_193643.jpg

This afternoon was my first gluing session, and I learned a lot.  For example, when it’s 85F, the glue doesn’t set in 5 minutes; it sets in about 90 seconds. Also, don’t work on Dakota alone in cross ties, because he might freak out, break the cross ties, almost trample me while trying to finish the glue, and take off out of the barn.

 

Of course, after putting some new shoes on, I had to take them for a ride.  So Mysti and I went for a trail ride, alone, starting at 7:30 in the evening. I’ve only ridden her alone a couple of times, and it’s something we have to work on in case Anna and Dakota couldn’t finish a ride.  So, we went out for a nice 4.4 miles as the sun set.

Mysti still needs some confidence; she gets nervous about things like rocks on the side, trees, changes in the color of the ground, wind in the trees, and basically anything else you encounter on the trails.  But she did go out alone.  And she trotted the whole time (when she wasn’t slamming on the brakes due to a puddle in the road).  I took her riding fly mask off and that actually helped her calm some.  And as it got dark, we headed on the last mile back towards home and Mysti was very confident, which really surprised me.  But my biggest surprise of the evening was, Mysti really liked the shoes.  She moved awesome and her front end was very light.  She definitely liked the shoes better than the boots.

So now, it’s just a matter of determining how long the glue ups last.  Easy Care says farriers are getting anywhere from 4-8 weeks.  One benefit of having a whole herd is there are plenty of test subjects.

kids, Uncategorized

Father’s Day 2015

Leave a comment

Yesterday was Alex’s 12th birthday.  On Friday evening, he got to have a few friends spend the night.  For that age group, it basically means lots of time playing video games and watching a movie.  The boys stayed up late and got up early.  On Saturday evening, he requested pizza for his birthday dinner, so we went to California Pizza Kitchen at Foxwoods.  Alex almost fell asleep in the back seat on the way home.

 

This morning, it was pouring rain.  After morning chores were done, I spent some quality time in the garage organizing and cleaning.  Then, later in the afternoon as the showers cleared, Alex and I went to the range to do some shooting.  We had the place to ourselves for the 2 hours we were there and we had a great time.  He really enjoys shooting his rifle.

Once we got home, I groomed Mystique and snapped a few new pictures.  It was hot and humid, and I was tired.  We can ride tomorrow after work.

Overall, it was a good day.

endurance, horse

Endurance training has begun

2 Comments

As some of you may have seen Anna’s Facebook post on Friday, we celebrated our 16th wedding anniversary.  We didn’t go out to dinner or do anything special.  We are saving our celebration for later this year.  Anna and I have decided to ride in a Limited Distance (LD) Endurance race in October.  The one we have chosen is in Vermont and is only 30 miles long.  Others will be doing 50 miles that day, but we want to start out smaller and try it out.  Right now, the plan is Anna will ride Dakota and I will ride Mistique.  I’m pretty sure Dakota is already in good enough condition to handle the distance.

To support our plan, we are working to have at least 1 longer ride each week (typically on Sundays since that is the only day Anna and I are both available).  Since we will be logging a lot more time in the saddle this year, we decided to try out some different trails in Pachaug today.  Anna on Dakota, Alex on Nike, Alexis on Ace, and me on Misti.  We were planning for about 10 miles, but we took a few new trails.  One of the problems is the trails in Pachaug are not really maintained, so we end up riding the gravel road a lot.  That’s rough on the horses and not as much fun.   Unfortunately, the trails we tried out today are not the ones we will be using for regular training.  We hit some trails that were wicked rocky and there was no going faster than a walk.  We also went through a lot of areas where we were hugging the necks of our mounts to avoid having our eyes poked out by the pines branches.  I actually had to get off and walk with Misti for a while it was so bad.

In the end, we covered 11.8 miles and it took 2:53!  It was a significantly slower pace than our hunter pace speed last weekend, but the trail was much more technical.

What we have learned so far in our endurance training:

1.  Dakota can destroy some boots!  We ride all the horses with Easy Care Gloves on their front hooves.  Dakota tends to over-reach with his hind left, step on the neoprene gaiter, and inflict a mortal wound on the boot.  So far, he has proven this ability 3 times this season.  All 3 times occurred on the same hill as his speed exceeded 15 mph.  Something about his canter and over-reaching.  We are going to try him in bell boots to see if that fixes the problem.

2.  It’s time for some endurance style stirrups.  Both Anna and I will be upgrading to wider, padded stirrups to ease the strain on our knees.

3.  Triathlon shorts under riding breeches are much more comfortable than cotton underwear during a 3 hour ride.

4.  We need to do a shorter loop of 5-6 miles and then drop the kids at the house with the sitter keeping Amanda before going back out.  Alex and Alexis did great today, but they were pretty tired by the end.  After Alexis got off, I asked how she felt and she said “My legs are shaking.”

5.  There are no shortcuts in Pachaug.

6.  Both Anna and I need to drop a few pounds and spend some time running/jogging to be in condition to handle the mileage.  Anna is headed off to ice her knees as we type. I’m just going to bed.

Here are a few pictures.  Amanda was waiting for us when we got back and insisted on helping me wash Mistique.

 

horse, Uncategorized

2015 WGHA Hunter Pace #1

1 Comment

Today was the first hunter pace of the year. It was 9.4 miles and we finished in 1:38.  This year we moved up 1 division to the Hilltoppers, which is supposed to be mostly trotting, with some canter and some walking.   We did that, but apparently our horses trot too fast or too much because we were more than 16 minutes too fast. In fact, we were only 3 minutes and change off the pace for the hunter division. I think we will move up again next ride.
Last month,  Ace joined our farm as a boarded horse. Alexis, who used to lease Huey, got to do her first hunter pace and Ace did great. In fact, all the horses did great. Alex and Alexis got 5th in the Jr division.

image

image

image

image

image

image

image

image

image

horse, kids, Uncategorized

Non-stop fun

2 Comments

It’s been 2 weeks since I posted.  It’s not that there hasn’t been anything going on, but rather, we have been so busy I’ve been too tired to sit down and write.

On May 16th, we had the CT State 4-H Horse Show.  6 kids from our club, the Barnyard Buddies, attended and had a great time.  Vicki managed to win the walk-trot division and the 18″ hunter division.  On the 17th, our club participated in PetTopia in Jewitt City.

wpid-20150516_085911.jpg

Monday, the 18th was Amanda’s fifth birthday.  We had a small family party Sunday evening before my parents (who had been in town for the previous 2 days), left with all 3 kids and our travel trailer Monday morning.  They took a trip to Steamtown, PA and had a great time.  I don’t have any pictures because I stayed home with Anna.

wpid-20150517_200049.jpg

A friend who knits made Amanda a “big pink stocking” in accordance with her repeated requests.

wpid-20150523_201043.jpg

Of course, while they were gone we got some good trail riding in on Dakota and Mysti.  We have found a nice 6 mile loop for conditioning the horses.  We also have a 4 mile loop and occasionally even ride in the arena.

This weekend, the weather was amazing.  Since I had both Friday and Monday off work, we did a family trail ride on Friday (6 mile loop) with everyone geared up for the first hunter pace which is 2 weeks away.  Never try something new on race day!  The plan this year is Vicki and Anna will ride in the slower division and Alex and I will ride in the middle division.  So, today, Alex and I went out and ratcheted up the speed.  Dakota and Mysti are an amazing team on the trails.  Dakota is a rock star in the lead!  Mysti has found her confidence and is very sure-footed.  She isn’t ready to be a leader, but we will work on that later in the summer.  We logged about 20 miles in the past 8 days, so her conditioning is progressing nicely!  When we got back today, Vicki hopped on to cool her off in the arena.

Sunday was Amanda’s “A Very Hungry Caterpillar” birthday party.

This afternoon, Anna and I worked on planting more in garden – this will be our biggest garden yet.  Anna also spent about 4 hours teaching lessons in the arena today.  After dinner tonight, Amanda insisted that we have a Memorial Day party, so Vicki and Amanda did an impromptu performance of dog tricks with Turbo and Mack.

Luckily, I go back to work in the morning so I can rest up for next weekend!

 

horse

Horse focus has returned

Leave a comment

Since the goats left the farm, we have had a number of people ask if we missed them.   The answer has been a unanimous “No”. While we still have rabbits and chickens and dogs, we have restored our horse focus.
Anna is teaching more lessons than ever (and I think actually enjoying it). We have taken 1 boarder, bringing our horse tally up to 7. The herd is doing great and we are enjoying our passion.

image

Even now, I am sitting in the yard with the waning light getting eaten by mosquitos, watching Anna ride Mystique. She was watching me ride while working with Amanda on Huey (her 4th hour in the arena today). As Amanda finished,  Anna took Mysti to do some training with her. Anna claims it is painful to watch me ride Mysti.
Anna is the trainer (at least under saddle) and the instructor. I’m just the farrier and labor.
But, together we are the heads of a horse focused family, and we love it.

horse

Back in the saddle and hitting the trails

Leave a comment

Now that the weather has improved, we are back in the saddle and riding regularly.  The kids are riding 5-6 times a week.  Considering last year my rides were measured more in “times per month”, the fact that I have ridden 4 times in the last week is a huge increase.

Last week, I took 2 days of leave.  On Thursday, all the kids were at activities, so Anna and I hit the trails with Dakota and Mysti.  I was our first longer ride of the season and we went a little over 6 miles in just under 2 hours.  We definitely were not pushing the pace too hard, because we were testing out a number of new items along the way.

Anna decided she wanted a Garmin GPS watch for tracking her mileage on the trails.  We also decided to buy 2 horse heart rate monitors that interface with our Garmin watches.  It isn’t a big concern, but more of a neat thing to have and see how the horses are doing from a conditioning perspective.  Since my goal with Mysti is to ride some limited distance endurance with her, it will be a nice accessory for training.

We did get plenty of water and Mysti is fine with it now.  The horses both did well, although, I’m not knocked out with the fit of my English saddle on Mysti. I have an Endurance saddle on loan that was used on a 4 mile ride this evening for the first time.  While that fit her much better, I’m not sure I like how it fit me.

Overall, we are off to a good start and will be ready for our first hunter pace in early June.

health, Trimming Blog

Lyme in people and horses

1 Comment

As we are all aware, Lyme disease is a way too common in our area.  Some friends who live farther away may not realize the disease is actually named for Lyme, CT, where the disease was first diagnosed in 1982 (about 25 miles from our house.  In fact, the disease was diagnosed at Subase New London (according to a display I saw on base).  While some still believe Lyme is a temporary illness that is gone after a simple round of antibiotics, I am not one of them.  I truly believe based on my experience and observation that Lyme, while occasionally short-lived, is frequently a life long problem once contracted.  I want to share a few quick things just in case it might help someone dealing with Lyme.  I’m not a doctor and I’m not a vet.  These are just my thoughts and experience, so take it or leave it.

First, even if you had a negative Lyme test or never saw a bullseye rash, that doesn’t mean you are not dealing with Lyme.  The estimates vary dramatically, but there is general agreement that the Lyme tests are not perfect and false negatives are not uncommon.    In our family, Anna has had Lyme for years, Amanda was born with it (possibly got it in-utero from Anna), and I now believe many of the symptoms I thought were related to my concussion in 2013 (migraines and memory problems in particular) were actually Lyme related, even though I tested negative for all tick-born diseases.
Symptoms that might be an indicator you are dealing with undiagnosed Lyme in your horse:
unexplained, and inconsistent lameness
lethargy
stiffness resembling arthritis
hypersensitivity to touch
Unexplained muscle loss, especially along the topline
general poor performance (more apparent as a reduction in performance in competitive horses)
For people, symptoms may include, but certainly not limited to:
bullseye rash
lack of energy
flu-like symptoms
persistent headaches
memory loss or degradation
swelling and joint pain (similar to arthritis)
numbness of hands and feet
I listen to podcasts from The Horse Radio Network and the founder, Glenn, shared his story about Lyme a couple of years ago.  That got me to start noticing a lot more about Lyme.  Recently, they did a revisit to the topic.  If you are still interested in what I have written so far, I HIGHLY recommend you take the time to listen to this single podcast.
There are some alternative treatments that don’t require large doses of antibiotics, which is sort of the point of this post.
Dr. Tobin is a holistic vet that has done some extensive research on Lyme, and specifically has identified Ledum as a treatment that is effective in animals and humans.  Now, I will say this is not something we have used yet on our own farm, however, I have a friend who used it on her horses that had chronic Lyme, and had been through multiple rounds of Doxycycline without success.  She tried Ledum and saw a dramatic improvement in her horse in under 48 hours.  Here is a link to the article from Dr. Tobin and more information about Ledum.  Check our the entire website for some interesting alternative views to traditional medicine.
For people, we were turned on to Silver Biotics by a friend.  We have used Silver Biotics, purchased via Amazon and noticed subtle results.  The Silver Biotics aid your immune system by killing the spirochetes of Lyme.  It’s not ucommon to feel a little worse initially as the spirochetes die off.  The changes were actually more apparent when the Silver Biotics were stopped. For me, I had some chiropractic adjustments to my neck at the same time I was taking the Silver Biotics.  My migraines ended and my memory challenges faded away.  However, after not taking the Silver Biotics for almost 2 months, the memory lapses returned.  For Anna, the joint pain and stiffness seemed to lessen when taking the Silver Biotics, but returned when she stopped.  Now, this is far from definitive evidence, but the silver is not very expensive (the dose is only 1tsp 1-3 times a day, and we just take 1 dose at breakfast) and has been helpful to both of us. Care needs to be taken not to overdose on silver as it can turn your skin permanently blue. It is also toxic in large quantities.
There are many other alternative treatments for Lyme disease.  It’s not about the right answer, but rather what works for you.  I encourage everyone to keep an open mind and be willing to learn.  If you have other treatments that have worked, please leave a comment below!
horse

Mystique aka Sophie

Leave a comment

Today we got a pleasant surprise of contact from Sophie’s breeder.  As I mentioned before, I wasn’t knocked out with the name Sophie and had wanted to change it.  So far, nothing struck my fancy.  However, we have now learned her original name was Mystique.  Anna and I agree we like it, so Mystique will be her new name, with a likely barn name of Mysti.

Over the past 2.5 weeks, Mystique has been settling in on the farm.  She and King do not get along (which is par for King’s record with mares).  Huey isolates her from the others when she is in heat (again, as expected) and the other boys follow her around.  She is definitely a dominant mare which is good in our herd.

We did a couple of lunging sessions and it was clear she understood and had experience on the lunge line.

Yesterday evening I rode Mystique for the first time.  I was very pleasantly surprised at what she knew.  I set my expectations low since we got her without a test ride.  She was much more finished than I expected.  She was very light with my leg and a good balance of forward, without being too rushed.  Her canter transition in particular was better than I expected.  Anna is a much better rider than I am, and will work on her balance.  I will be focused on building her confidence on the trails.  Now that we have contact with her original breeder and know a little more about her previous training, it makes sense.  She definitely has some confidence issues that we will work on.

Overall, I am pleased with how she has settled in on the farm and look forward to our summer.

 

The story of our lives with horses. And goats.