2009 IRS W-2 Forms

Today, 2009 IRS W-2 form, also known as the the "Wages and Tax Statement", were prepared and mailed out to the employees who worked for Kearsarge Meadows during the 2009 fiscal year (January to December).

If you were an employee at Kearsarge Meadows in 2009 and you had a change of address that you forgot to let us know about, please telephone or drop us an email and we will immediately send you a duplicate set of W-2 forms.

Thank you!

To Clip or Not To Clip ?

So far this season, while the amount of snow we have received has been less than 3 feet, the temperatures seem to have been much colder than last year.   This week, however, we are enjoying a bit of a January Thaw and it feels wonderful.

Our competition horses start competing again in three months!   Accordingly, Jeddien and Piper have recently came back into work after a couple months of vacation time.   Both still have full winter coats and therefore are not being worked too heavily yet.   To work them to the point of sweating requires extra care in cooling them down, insuring their coats are fully dried after work, and preventing them from getting chilled.   This is where clipping the coat comes in handy.



Clipping a horse is not the easiest of tasks and can be quite a messy job as well as hair transfers from the horse to the floor and onto the person doing the clipping!   The horse needs to be calm and sensible as the loud vibrating clipper glides across their body.   The handler needs to be ready deal with ticklishness, grumpiness, anxiousness, and anything else the horse throws their way.

And then after the fact, the newly clipped "undressed" horse must be appropriately blanketed and rugged up according to the weather, hour by hour, until the end of winter.   So clipping is not a task one jumps into without careful consideration.

To help make the longterm effects of clipping more sensible and manageable, there are several different "clips" (think haircuts) that can be used.   This fabulous website from Peasridge Ltd in the UK shows many styles of clips from which to choose.



Right now, five of our horses are sporting the "Bib Clip"...   Just the hair under the neck is clipped short.   This is an easy and quick clip to do and a super clip for introducing clippers to youngsters and horses who have never been clipped before.   The resulting haircut also made giving IV injections really easy for our Equine Dentist.   :-)

The clip we will use next is the "Low Trace Clip".   This is just enough of a clip to let the areas of the horse's body that tend sweat first cool and dry off quickly.

Now back to the question. &bnsp To clip or not to clip?   There is no easy perfect answer.   It is something that is completely dependent upon the horse, his coat, the work he is doing, the weather, and the level of committment the owner wants to invest in blanketing, both in terms of time and money, throughout the rest of the winter season.

Today, I will clip one.   My nose is already itchy in anticipation of the horse hair that will soon fly!

Winter Wonderland Continues

We are now well into 2010 and winter continues.   Snow, cold, and wind are this winter's main themes.   We are also enjoying a lot of winter sunshine.

The horses don't seem to mind the weather at all.   Those who need it get blanketed before turnout.   Heated water troughs are in each pasture.   And hay is delivered to the fields throughout the day.   So, with their basic needs taken care of, the horses are all content.



Admittedly, less training and riding is going on in the cold weather.   But on the milder less windy days, since the snow in the woods is not very deep, trailriding is still enjoyed.   And when work with any of the horses needs to be done, we simply retreat to the indoor arena.

Spring, when it finally arrives, will be greatly appreciated.   Until then, Winter Wonderland continues.

Winter Crashes Into New Hampshire !

After a wonderful extended Fall Season, we have been hit by back to back snowstorms.

The first was kind of a practice run.   We got 5 inches, which thinned down to 1 or 2 very quickly.   No plowing was required.   It was a good reminder of what WHITE precipitation is all about...   Mother Nature's way of giving everyone a couple days to prepare the snowplows and snowblowers, stock up on non-perishables, change to winter tires, buy a couple extra show shovels, and bring in more firewood.

That was a few days ago.

Today, we got hit much harder!   We had our first plowing event.   12 inches of the white stuff.   And wind that brings the phrase "windchill factor" out of storage and back onto the table again

Yup.   Winter is here again.

Before & After - The Kitchen Door Yard

The kitchen was another section of the house which received attention.



First, we put on new roofs, including copper flashing on the chimney.



Then painting began.



The kitchen door yard itself was tidied up, which meant transplanting all of the flowers and herbs away from the house.   With it, the butterflies, hummingbirds, and bees moved as well.   Now, grass and rhubarb are now the only greenery within the stone walled door yard.

Before & After - The Main House

Today, we sat down and went through the photo albums, looking at the progress we have made on the property.   The first and most noticable difference is in the main house itself.



The roof was given first priority after we moved in.   WIthin a few months, it was completely redone in a nice dark charcoal colour.   Painting was the next major improvement in the house...   a task which took several weeks time spread over two years.   There was no rush.

Big Ben & Piper Warrior at Play

The video says it all.....

Trailblazing Project

For the past week, we have been enjoying unseasonably warm November weather.   Temperatures have been in the 50's and 60's during the day.   Wonderful.   But even better, there are no bugs!   They disappeared after several frosts.

Taking full advantage of the weather, we've been giving our woodlands some long overdue attention.   We are finally restoring the overgrown riding trails and we're even blazing new trails!

The work is very manual and truly backbreaking.   Staying motivated is challenging, especially when the progress is slow.   But the long term vision of enjoying quiet hacks in the woods keeps things moving along.   And, after many hours of hard work, short test rides on the trails provide welcome rewards.

Hunter Jumper Barn?

Another winter is fast approaching...   A time when most of our riding will be done indoors.

As done in past winters, we will enjoy doing a lot of ground work with our horses, some light dressage work, jumping under saddle, and free jumping.   We'll also be getting the youngsters well started under saddle.   However, unlike our previous winters, this winter we'll enjoy a happy explosion of bright colors in our indoor arena with our brand new show jump poles!



Maybe we should designate Kearsarge Meadows as a Summer Dressage Training Center and a Winter Hunter Jumper Farm!     :-)

Pumpkins & Horses

The Courser Farm in Warner has tons of pumpkins for sale at their farm stand.   Prices are low and the pumpkins are lovely.   We've been purchasing lots of them, taking them home to split open for our turkeys and chickens to pick at.   They really enjoy the seeds and the flesh.

Today, just as a goof, we placed a pumpkin into one of the pastures.   It quickly turned into a toy for the horses.



Piper, our black 12 year old gelding, went after it first, quickly finding the stem and using it to lift the pumpkin off the ground.   Dropping it, it rolled away.   He and 3 year old Big Ben worked together to investigate, following it, and pushing it around a bit.

Soon, Piper returned to nibbling on grass.   But Ben, a youngster who loves to play, kept himself thoroughly amused for quite some time, moving the pumpkin around with his nose and his feet.

Tomorrow, more pumpkins will be purchased.   But instead of thinking just in terms of tasty food for the birds, we'll be looking for pumpkins that roll really well and have strong stems.

Sharing the Roads With Horses

October has arrived, bringing beautiful fall colors, crisp weather, and the end of the bug season.   And for us horseback riders, it also means great riding weather!   Now is when lots of riders hit the trails and roads.

This month's issue of the local "Warner's New Paper" contains an article entitled "Sharing the Roads of Warner".     The aim of the article, written by Kimberley, is to offer some advice to both equestrians and vehicle operators on how to safely share the road.

WNP owner, manager, and editor Richard Senor visited the farm to take a photo of Jeddien and Kimberley riding on the road.   Unplanned, a neighbor drove by, passing slow and wide.   It was a wonderful example of courtesy and safe road sharing on Kearsarge Mountain Road.   The photo can be found in the paper.

The original article, as submitted to WNP, can be found on the Kearsarge Meadows website here, in PDF format.   Feel free to share it with others.

Enjoy the great Autumn weather!   And stay safe!

Something to Crow About

We have a new rooster.   He's a real beauty and won a Blue Ribbon for his breeder at the Hopkinton State Fair earlier this month.   We admired him and purchased him on the spot.

Big Red is a young bird and had a bit of a time getting to know our hens.   The younger ones befriended him fairly quickly, but the older hens beat the...., well, let's just say he was at the bottom of the hen pecking order for a week or more.

This week, Big Red has been making some interesting noises.   We could tell something was up!   And sure enough, this morning, he CROWED!   Not once.   Not twice.   No, he has been trying out his new voice for the past half hour.

It's a proud little moment on the farm.   Our young rooster has learned to crow!

The Magic Box

We have a new horse game at Kearsarge Meadows, originally designed to help our most timid horse, Piper Warrior, learn to accept new things....   quickly!   As those of you who follow the Dressage Queen Blog know, Piper is not the bravest of creatures.   And this is not helping his career as a dressage horse.   A sport where the horse has only 45 seconds to "get over" spooking at the flowers, or the judge, or the puddles and get on with the dressage test!

So, the game:   We have a medium sized cardboard box most recently used to ship lovely smelling herbs from Mountain Rose Herbs.   It's open at the top and is 12 inches deep, 18 inches wide.   Inside it, we place bits of carrot, apple, and a couple of Canada mints.   We play with the box a little, making sure it makes some noise without being terrifying.

For Piper, this is very scary.   Even in the safety and comfort of a quiet barn.   The first evening, it took Piper several minutes to even consider coming to the front of his stall to look at the box we were playing with.   Even with us retreating away and reapproaching.   He worried.   It took a few more minutes before he would look into the box.   And a couple more minutes before he smelled the Canada mints.   But, in the end, he gingerly pulled the treats out of the box, enjoying an instant reward for his bravery.

Next, we decided to try the same thing with Big Ben, our 3 year old gelding out of Marja, not sure how the youngster would cope.   However, Ben walked right up to the box, shoved his head in, and dug out the treats moving the box around while doing so.   He showed absolutely no fear at all.

The first night, this was really turning into a fascinating exercise.   So, we kept moving down the aisle.

Next was little Bea Yewtee's turn.   She is our 3 year old filly out of Jeddien.   Bea is sharp and edgy by nature.   But also brave.   At first, she was totally spooked by the box.   However, her curiousity overwhelmed her fear and within a couple minutes, she was stealing treats.

Finally, we took the box to Jeddien who must have mentored Ben.   She not only ate right of out the box, she turned it over looking for anything else that may have been hidden.

The next night, the magic box was used again.   Piper was quicker to come forward, but still worried.   Meanwhile, Ben, hearing that the box game was underway, started stomping!   Bea was quite quick to have a look into the box when it arrived at her stall.   And Jeddien nickered at the idea of treats, box or no box.

All four horses are Dutch Warmbloods.   The youngsters were born on the farm and handled from birth.   Jeddien & Piper were both purchased as 2 and a half year olds imported from Holland.   All have been handled and trained with similar techniques and methods.   And yet, each is so completely unique in their personalities.

And that, in itself, is part of the wonder of horses.   They are all such amazing individuals.

Time to go play again....   Tonight, whole apples from a local farm will be rolling around on the bottom of the box.   Great noise.   Tasty treats.

Technical Difficulties

We recently moved Kearsarge Meadows's home page to a new hosting site. Things were going quite well at first.   However, with all things technical, glitches can occur and apparently, that is the case right now.   So, if you find Kearsarge-Meadows.com to be unreachable, we apologise.   The problem is being addressed....

Meanwhile, since you are sitting in front of a computer, here's a fun one.   Lift your right foot of the floor and make clockwise circles.   Now, while doing this, draw a number "6" in the air with your right hand.   Without letting your right foot change direction.

I'm guessing our website will be back up before you succeed in this little exercise.   :-)   Thank you for your patience!

At the 2009 USDF Region 8 Championships, Jeddien, our 18 year old KWPN Dutch Warmblood mare trained and ridden by Kimberley, earned the title of Reserve Champion at 3rd Level Open (Professional).

Jeddien was born in Holland, imported into the UK at the age of 2 and a half year, and started and trained by Kimberley through to Fourth Level Dressage.   Over the past 15 years, Robert Pickles, Fellow of the BHS was the biggest influence in Jeddien's development.   Clinics with Christine Stuckleberger (Swiss dressage star) and Jan Nivelle (German Grand Prix trainer & coach for Belgium) were influential along the way.   And of course, Pat Parelli's Natural Horsemanship programs and trainers made an impact.

The weekend at the Regionals is still underway.   But at this point, Jeddien has already proved herself a successful Dressage Queen.   Any successes that follow will just be frosting on the cake!

Frosting! - An Update

On Sunday, the last day of the Regionals, Kimberley & Jeddien also won the 2009 Reserve Championship title for the 3rd Level Freestyle.   Very exciting!