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Clipping. The process horse people use to remove large quantities of hair from the horse and deposit it upon themselves. At least, that is how it usually ends up.
Temperatures during the day are getting up into the 50's. Jeddien's first competition is only a couple weeks away. And yet, she is still sporting a full winter coat. Too much of a coat for the practice we are doing. I don't want her overheating.
So, out come the big heavy duty clippers tomorrow. She will end up much cooler and happier. And I will end up coughing up horse hair for a couple days. :-)
We just waved goodbye to Mark & PJ Hayden of Wokingham England. They enjoyed a holiday on the farm as a special birthday present for PJ. Mark kept the trip secret and packed PJ's riding gear without her knowing. Even as I stepped out of the house to greet them, PJ still had no idea what was in store for her!
Mark had planned this trip specifically for PJ's birthday, with a focus on horseback riding. PJ is just getting back into riding after a long hiatus. So lots of time was spent with the horses. We even got to use the outdoor arena for the first time this spring. (Only a small amount of snow still remains.)
Riding Jeddien, our 4th Level / Advanced Medium Dressage mare, PJ got to work on all the lateral movements, flying changes, and piaffe. They also popped over a few jumps, which Jeddien thoroughly enjoyed.
However, life at Kearsarge Meadows is not just about horses!
The Hayden's helped Georg and I with the hard work of collecting sap, chopping wood, boiling the sap, filtering, bottling, and of course, in the end, taste testing the homemade maple syrup. And since this past weekend was the official New Hampshire Maple Sugaring Weekend, we visited 4 different sugaring operations. Fun. Educational. And a nice way to meet some of the local people of Warner.
Over the course of the visit, we feasted on New England fare of "lobstah", "steamahs", and champagne, fabulous prime rib, locally raised buffalo from Keira & Brian Farmer's own Yankee Farmer's Market in Warner, and brunch at the Foothills Restaurant in the center of town.
With crappy "English weather" on Saturday, Mark & Georg headed to Best Buy in Manchester while PJ & I travelled to Dover Saddlery. Much to my delight, when we arrived back to the farm, Pink Floyd was playing on new speakers in the indoor arena. My long awaited sound system will soon be installed. Yippee!
PJ and Mark will soon be back in the UK. We look forward to their next trip to Warner... a trip for which PJ will once again be allowed pack her own luggage! :-)
Spring 20 years ago, an awful lot happened in my life.
My first dressage horse, an off the track Thoroughbred (OTTB), was declared unsuitable by my trainer for advancement to the levels I aspired. This was due to the toll racing took on his legs. I gave him away to a coworker who wanted to trail ride.
I was laid off from Gould Computer Systems Division, in round 3 or 4 of post-acquisition reductions. It was a difficult period for Gould employees, watching a great computer company slowly disappear.
My divorce became final and two weeks later, my ex remarried his new girlfriend. I was very single.
Single, jobless, horseless. AND I turned 30 years old. Very depressing to say the least!
Within a few weeks time, however, my world was completely turned around again.
I purchased my first KWPN Dutch Warmblood from J. Ashton (Jeff) Moore, a fabulous big imported mahogany bay mare by Rubinstein. No, I did not exactly have a job yet, but I knew I would soon.
Next, after receiving job offers from Cray, Sequent, and Pyramid, I joined Sun Microsystems as a UNIX Support Specialist only because the hiring manager understood about horseownership and knew what dressage was. :-) Hey, these things are important!
I had a new job and a wonderful new horse. Things were good again.
That was 20 years ago. A helluva lot of living has happened since then.
I lived in the UK for 12 years, wrote a technical computer book, became a Brit, became a Sun millionaire, married a European, watched my millions disappear when the markets crashed, trained and competed my new KWPN Dutch Warmblood horses, moved back to the USA, and got promoted to Director of Operations for Global Product Development. Cool title, eh?
Sun was 7 years old when I joined 20 years ago. There were tons of good times, and some hard times. The hardest, it seems, have been recent. And with that, we had a big layoff in January. Mine was one of several thousand positions that were impacted.
My last Sun blog entry says good-bye. (Snippet shown below)
So, Monday, March 23rd, is actually my last day at Sun. It's strange to think about. And again, laid off right before a big birthday, the big 5-0 no less. (Ugh) Not unlike a friendly divorce, this is definitely the end of a very long relationship. I will miss Sun.
However, now rumours are rampant that the Sun Microsystems I knew and loved may not be around much longer. Google "Sun Microsystems IBM" And that may even be a little bit sadder.
See ya later Sun! Good luck & all the best!
As promised, today looks like it'll be another beautiful day. Temps may even soar into the 50's!
We can see more and more patches of dormant pasture grass as the snow continues to melt. Even the outdoor riding arena, which has a 12 inch border around it, is finally making an appearance after a long winter hidden under deep snow.
Everyone is itchy to get back to trailriding. Bugs or not! But until the trails are clear of snow and safe for riding, the driveway is our trail, as demonstrated here by Ann and her trusty steed, Sole Express (aka Sole).
Happy trails to all!
Suddenly, it seems like there's lots happening all at once!
We have the perfect weather from a maple sugarer's perspective. Freezing temps at night, mild days. The sap is running! And we've already boiled our first batch of liquid gold! 
Of course with the milder days, so begins New England's 5th season: "Mud Season". Before it gets into full swing, we had my Miley horse trailer uncovered & extracted from the snow today. Hitched up, we're now doing loading practice with some of the horses. More work will follow tomorrow.
And two new employees started today. I think as the winter blues melt away, working on a horse farm becomes much more appealing to real horse lovers.
With the temps now easier on both horse & rider, we are getting back into serious riding again. Our first dressage competition is less than 5 weeks away, but we will be ready. Training here includes "hacking" up and down the driveway and through any snow that is not too deep!
Clipping the competition horse's coat will be done this week. And midweek, all of the horses will be getting their spring vaccinations and other veterinary attention needed at this time of year.
And new chicks will be ordered, replacing those lost by the killer fox.
As the snow continues to melt, the garden area will appear. It won't be until the last week of May that anything will go into the ground. But the crops that take the longest to grow can be started indoors... Right about now. The seeds, pots, and seed starter soil is ready to go! So, another thing to do!
It's been a busy little week! And it's only Monday. :-)
The big goal for Kearsarge Meadows this year is to run our first Dressage Schooling Shows.
This historic farm has been host to many shows over the past decades. We've even seen photos from the 1970's showing riders going over cross country fences that no longer exist. But since our arrival in 2005, we've been focussing on making major improvements to the property (new roofs, painting, outdoor arena, sand & rubber footing, pasture renovations, and more). All this while the goal of hosting shows has been kept quietly simmering on the back burner.
If all goes well, the final big improvement we're making will be completed this spring. We're putting in a decent sized trailer parking area. Being able to envision this happening, I'm now sitting down with various calendars to select SHOW DATES!
2009 Schooling Dressage Shows
So far in the plans, we will be offering Intro, Training Level, and First Level classes. There may be "Gaited Horse" classes and "Stock Horse" classes as well. No matter what the program looks like, emphasis will be on SCHOOLING and FUN for both horse and rider.
As I sit here looking out the window at the results of yet another impressive snowstorm, I find it hard to imagine that in a few months time, we will be handing out ribbons to riders sporting huge smiles. What a wonderful vision!
Life on the farm. It is very different from city life, different from life in the suburbs.
For us, life on a farm includes sharing our property with more than just horses. We also have a small flock of chickens.
The hens and rooster spend nights in a stall fitted with nest boxes, suspended birch tree limbs for perches, shavings, hay, water, and feed. During the day, they free range around the barn and house, scratching around for bugs and insect eggs, bathing in the dirt, and nibbling on plants. Generally, they do whatever comes naturally.
Our hens were purchased as new chicks, spent their first week or two in a warm box in my office, and then moved to a heated nursery set up in the barn. From there, they eventually moved to the big stall. Within their first year, they started providing us with wonderful eggs.
I really like my chickens. Apparently, so does a fox!
Yesterday, the 3 hens above were killed by a fox. Right next to the barn. Feathers are everywhere. The two brown hens were carried away. The black hen was left behind, throat opened, but otherwise intact. It is not a pretty picture.
War begins.
Bea Yewtee is out of our own Jeddien, by the grey 1990 17.1h Westfalen, Da Vinci (shown here).
Da Vinci, owned by South Gate Farm, was standing at Cornell University when Jeddien went through quarantine there as part of our move from England. Since he was accepted by the KWPN, we used that visit to breed Jeddien. Once she was done with quarantine, they simply moved her to the breeding barn and did the deed. :-)
Bea is Big Ben's "sister". Ben and Bea grew up together, sharing a big pasture for the first two years of their lives, at first with their Mom's, then with another young playmate during the weaning process.
Both Ben and Bea are registered KWPN Dutch Warmbloods. Both are chestnuts. Both were imprint trained from birth and handled daily ever since. Both are very friendly and really enjoy being groomed & scratched in the right places.
And that is where their similarities come to an abrupt end.
Bea's personality is best described as "sharp". She is edgy, sensitive, quick, and clever. She is a fast learner, but not a pushover. A lot like Jeddien.
Watching Bea play in the pasture this weekend, I wondered how many horse people would think she was part Arabian instead of pure Dutch Warmblood. Tail in the air, showing off incredible movement, throwing in tempi changes for the hell of it, snorting and blowing, she makes us laugh.
Bea will be 3 years old in June. Sigh. The 2006 babies are growing up. :-) It's kinda sad, but also so great to see.
Today, for the third time, I rode Big Ben. Until he is better at working in driving lines, we are still at the early stage of just posing for photos....
...and going for "pony rides". Sure, I know "pony ride" photos are not exactly exciting news. Unless you are the pony's mom. :-)
But then, Big Ben is only 2 years, 10 months old. And still growing like a weed! We have nothing but time ahead of us.
What's important right now is that Ben is becoming accustomed to the idea that humans can sit on him, and not just in his stall when he's lying down. :-) All while he's still unfit, unbalanced, and a bit unsure about this new activity.
Over the next few weeks, we will continue working in long lines, "driving" around the arena, developing responsiveness to verbal commands, and getting "pony rides". We have no deadlines to chase. Just positive experiences to share. It's a precious time for the young horse and his first trainer.
(Thanks to Kyle for capturing these photos for us!)
Winter blues so are easily crushed with the arrival of the NEDA (New England Dressage Association) Omnibus.
The 2009 issue arrived this week. Before I even left the parking lot of the post office, I opened it up and soon found Kearsarge Meadow's full page ad on page 37. Aside from the fact that the publishers goofed a little and used the 2008 ad instead of the 2009 ad submitted to them, it's still good to see....
Doing advertising is something I had to get my head around when we started the Kearsarge Meadows business. However, I enjoy the design work involved. I use Open Office, "The Free and Open Productivity Suite", to do all my presentations, spreadsheets, and advertisements.
Enough advertising for today. Now we return to our regularly scheduled program. :-)
Once again, we are getting hit by a wintery storm. When checking the horses at 10:30 tonight, we had to trudge through 4 inches of new snow.
A quick pass up and down the driveway with the plow soon looked pretty pitiful with the snow still falling quite heavily. But, according to Chief Meteorologist Mike Haddad on WMUR News 9, the back edge of the storm is not far away and hopefully, when all is said and done, we should top out somewhere between 6 and 9 inches total. Fingers crossed.
Best part, however, is that the storm will have completely passed by the time we turn out the horses after breakfast. Snug and comfortable in their stalls all night, this storm has no impact on them or their schedules. Tomorrow, they will have sunshine, fresh snow to roll and play in, and lots of hay to munch on in the pastures. Now THAT is a perfect storm.
President's Day brought lots of sunshine on a crisp winter day. During the afternoon, I went to Ben's pasture gate, called, and soon had his warm breath on my face. We went into the barn, tacked up, and started another training session in the indoor arena.
This session was the first where lines were attached to the rings of the bit as well as the halter. Attaching the lines to both the bit and the halter would help stabilise the bit and lessen the movement it would have in his mouth.
Ben lunged fairly quietly on long lines at walk and trot. At the walk, using the bit & halter for directional guidance, we did figure eights around the arena on driving lines. Ben also quickly learned that the word "Ho", which he knows means "slow down" or "stop", was followed by pressure on the bit if he did not respond. Once he BEGAN to respond, the pressure was released.
The work was generally calm and quiet. There were a couple bucks and squeals, but nothing major. And so, after a short session on the long lines, we switched back to a lead rope on the halter, removed the driving lines, and headed for the mounting block again.
Following the same routine as on Sunday, I stood above Ben, patting him, bouncing up and down against the saddle, and finally climbed on board. Again, he stood still and enjoyed lots of praise and a few mints.
This time, Georg led us up and down the arena, left, right, around and around, stopping, going, and finally finishing the ridden work with a mint.
Sounds like boring work, huh? :-) However, watching Ben's big eyes get a little bit bigger, it is far from boring for him. He is on a steep learning curve. Every little step is a big one for this young horse. And so far, he's making great strides.
I love orchids. Have for a very long time. In England, I grew many Cymbidiums, most of which were in "resting periods" when I purchased them and, thus, very inexpensive. These are what I refer to as "The Big Hawaii Orchids". Inaccurate, but one of the impressions of my one and only trip to Hawaii was the Cymbidiums. Bringing them back to full bloom was a job of patience and reward.
Wonderfully, for Valentine's Day, Georg took me to the New Hampshire Orchid Society's annual orchid show at the Radisson Hotel in Nashua. Now, having visited England's Kew Gardens and their wonderful orchid house, and having read a fair number of things about orchids, I already appreciated that orchids come in an amazing array of shapes, colors, and sizes, but I had NO IDEA! This was my first orchid show. It blew me away! And it wasn't even a big show!
By the end of our short visit at the show, my brain was overwhelmed by the immense variety of orchids on display. I was most blown away by the absolutely miniature flowers which I had no idea even existed. And scented orchids, while I knew they existed, were not something I had encountered in person. What a treat!
By the end of the afternoon, I had collected the business card of a new orchid garden based locally in New London, NH that I will visit shortly, if nothing else but to get some orchid fertiliser, and had purchased 5 plants from another exhibitor, Marlow Orchids of New York. After many years of owning the big Cymbidiums, the lady slipper Paphiopedilums, and a few "moth orchids" or Phalaenopsis, I found myself taking home orchids new to me.
Go add to my little collection at home, I now have 4 young Cattleyas as well as my first Oncidium, which won me over not only by it's miniature flowers, but by it's lovely scent of a hint of chocolate.
Orchids. I consider myself a pre-novice, but I love them.
Today, Big Ben was ridden for the first time, being led at the walk about 25 feet with a rider sitting in the saddle. And that was the end of the lesson.
I know this reads like such a little thing, but anyone who has trained a horse from the very beginning knows today's lesson was a key milestone event.
Getting to this point has involved many hours of work scattered across the past year. It included daily handling, groundwork, lunging, lunging under saddle, and lunging in full tack with a bridle & bit under the halter to which the lunge line is attached.
Today, while tidying up Ben's rather shaggy winter mane, he stood quietly in the crossties wearing his bridle and halter. For the first time, he was able to eat Canada mints while wearing his chunky Herm Sprenger KK bit. Another little milestone.
After the grooming session, I put his saddle on and lunged him a bit. He was well behaved, happy, and as friendly as always. When Georg joined us, he led Ben to the mounting block in the middle of the arena.
Standing on the mounting block, I wiggled the saddle, leaned on Ben, patted him all over on both sides from above, jumped up against his back, and finally, climbed astride. All the while, Georg stood at Ben's head, letting Ben watch me while also making sure Ben paid attention to him as well.
While sitting on Ben, I continued to keep busy. I leaned down & hugged his neck, sat up tall, wiggled around in the saddle, swung my legs, and even reached down and fed him a mint, all while watching for any sign of trouble brewing.
Nothing happened. So, Georg took one step backwards. And Ben took one step forward. And then they did another step. And then several more. And then we stopped. Big pats. More mints. I jumped off and kissed Ben's fuzzy face.
Little steps, but such a huge milestone for the 2 year, 10 months old boy. What a fabulous feeling! Tomorrow, we will try it again.
Today, we were treated to a preview of spring. Temperatures topped out briefly at 67 degrees on the farm according to our little Weather Channel weather station. 67! Truly incredible.
And with that, two long awaited projects swung into action. First, picking up the collection of winter poos in the pastures. This is a necessary week long chore usually undertaken once the snow melts. But, with the gorgeous weather, it seemed like a perfect opportunity to get started.
Second, and concurrent to the pasture work, involved thoroughly watering the indoor arena. Not just a sprinkle, but a real good soaking which hasn't been done since the fall.
After getting the watering started, I drove my fun little Honda Rancher ATV with the little John Deere dump trailer out to the pastures. Melting down a bit, the snow was not too deep and the ATV was able to travel along just fine. After gaining lots of confidence in the ATV, I decided to see if I could get the poo to the big poo pile out on the back 40 behind the indoor arena. Sure enough, I got out there and dumped the poo. However, as I started to drive back up towards the barns, I hit a deep spot. And got well and truly stuck. Stepping off the ATV, I sunk down over 20 inches into heavy wet snow. Ugh.
Dressed for Spring, enjoying the unseasonably warm air and bright sunshine, it felt like anything was possible. So, I walked back towards the house, moved the sprinkler as I passed the arena, and got into our Dodge 2500 Heavy Duty 4 x 4 pickemuptruck. Aka "The Beast". We would pull the little ATV out of the snowdrift area and get it back onto solid ground.
That was the plan.
Having learned the snow depths around the area where the ATV sat patiently, I drove the truck clear of the deep areas. A long tow rope would be used. Getting there was easy. Turning around and positioning. Easy. Testing the run back before hooking up a tow line, there was no grip in the snow! And the ever so slight incline of the land was not helping matters.
After working up a sweat shovelling & sanding, and making it half way back to the cleared roadway, I gave up. Tomorrow morning, a neighbor friend and his trusty John Deere farm tractor will save the day. Again.
That is the plan.
