Red Pony Farm: A journey in motion

My New Red Pony

His name is Hot Spot. He is 11 years old. He is an endurance horse. Started his career at age 6. He has completed 5, 100 mile races, finishing in first place at the Spook Run ride in 2007 and taking the award for Best Condition that day. I witnessed a 100 mile completion in 2005 that was never official because he tripped in the last 1/4 mile before the finish and couldn't walk out of it in the extra 20 minutes the vets gave to try to ice it and massage it away. So heart breaking (that would have made 6 total).

I have admired this guy for several years. He came in 2nd on the Vermont 100 last year when I crewed for him. He is retiring after Saturday. He has had some stomach problems and just couldn't stay hydrated Saturday. He recovered after his 30 minutes in the second hold but his rider pulled him when he didn't feel quite right after a couple of miles out of the hold. He is coming to RPF to begin a less demanding new career as a pleasure trail horse.

I can't tell you how excited and honored I am!! I snapped this photo of him after they trailered him back to ridecamp. I had just asked him if he wanted to come retire at RPF and play in the woods with Lucy. I think he liked the idea immensely.

Like The EverReady Bunny . . .

. . . he's still going:

He added drainage around the edge of the steps and along the side of the driveway just passed the parking area. He laid this new stuff in the narrow ditch ( last year for an amazing deal, he found a 12 inch wide bucket for the back hoe) that is supossed to carry away more water than a 4 inch pipe:

It's starting to look sort of spiffy up here.

What Color Was it Really?

No, I'm not going send you a tee shirt if you guess it right. I tried that before and I still own 2 tee shirts which are not even made yet. I haven't forgotten though.

Ultra Shield has a New Label . . .

  . . . and a big new price:

I paid 58. and change, for it last year! I always use the natural stuff as long As I can in the spring and start mixing in the heavy duty stuff gradually. By this time of year only the full strength will work all day. I try to go two days. But I can't always. The label says "up to 14 days". NOT.

The deer flies are so think in the woods right now that Lucy and I really have book right along to stay ahead of them. They bite hard!! and they hunt by sight not scent, and they bite first worry about chemicals later. One of my boarders brought the red jug Absorbine Super Shield I think. It seems to work equally well. They were out of it. I will keep my eyes open for it in case it's cheaper.

Dan's Been A Busy Boy:

He has created a wall at the point of the tear drop that will be formed when the driveway to the future big house goes in to the right where the tractor is sitting. The road to the arena and eventual barn is to the left. I am standing on the cabin deck using the zoom to eat up the distance.

He has dug a ditch and is lining it with rocks to slow heavy rain down.This is looking up at his new wall from the driveway. Then looking down from the same point:

He also found vehicle 2 of 3: a little Nissan for $2,200. It is a whole lot 'tinny-er' than the Toyota and has some rust happening here and there. But, it is 4 wheel drive, running well, and the price was right. The money for vehicle 3 of 3 has evaporated from the bill paying pool puddle. So that will longer in coming.

And LOOK, he added steps to the deck that he made several weeks ago (before he got side tracked with moving dirt and stumps and building a rock wall, and making a ditch). Dan always needs a variety of ongoing projects to hop back and forth to and from. He's always busy!

 

Now we have a little more room for our Grain Room / wood working shop / storage area. What a cluster! I bet with some rearranging it wouldn't need to be quite so ugly-ish! The down fall of being is such cramped quarters and having so much to do. Oh Now what on earth is Dan up to in that photo BTW? He is pulling out the old temporary makeshift posts that held the deck up since the cabin was first hauled up on top of Lythos. It is now sitting on the real footings.

Remember way back then nearly 2 years ago:

Here are a couple of links to more of the story if you haven't been around that long or maybe just want to reminisce. I don't get the urge to much yet! I'm still in the midst of it after 2 years! Still dreaming of the day when I can start to actually think about beautifying a home--if you know what I mean--like not just making do-like --like--LIKE UNPACKING! I can't wait for unpacking. But realistically there is no place to do that till we have the big house. I hope I remember how to comfy a home!

Bringing the cabin home

Campsite

Fun with footings

Freedom to bolt . . .

. . . being allowed to create a safety buffer. Could the habitual and abrupt removal of these 2 liberties (dare I say prey animal necessities) cause a horse to worry excessively when faced with fearful situations?

Getting behind on fencing projects inspired me to explore letting Lucy Loose to graze about the property. Lord knows she isn't going off down the trail on her own--nor down that driveway to death yet--especially when all the other are staying behind. Supervising her exploits at liberty has been very enlightening. I have witnessed that she can be very bold when she is uninhibited.

One evening this week she stopped short coming back from our mounted jaunt into the woods to look through the missing stump pile at the view of the cabin she hadn't ever seen from that angle, and at various other changes directly in front of her in that area. One thing that bothered her quite a lot, when we advanced once again, was the large pile of dark green plastic Dan had piled up when cleaning up the debris left from last winters fire wood pile. She gave it very wide berth in passing and blew slightly at it, then hurried along.

As soon as I turned her loose after removing the saddle she rolled in the sand and then went directly over to closely examine that pile of plastic, blow at it some more and touch with her hoof. This puzzled and interested me! Why was this monster so much less worrisome when she was at liberty?

Once I witnessed her stepping onto the great huge steel tail gate that goes on the back of the dump truck to get over it because it was in the path she takes (shortest distance) to visit Dove. She stepped on it coming back to. Never stopped to examine it at all. The next day she walked right passed Dan and the Dump truck while he was working to get the tail gate on and making all kinds of noise. When I am on her back she eyes it more cautiously.

Another time there was suddenly a big black 15 foot length of plastic culvert blocking most of that path. She just stepped around it to fit through a 16 inch clear space left between it and the fence.

I thought perhaps it was because with me up she has so much more to think about: balance, what I am asking, what I'm going to do next, etc., that she can't process it all so quickly or efficiently. And maybe I focus too much on some scary things to try and be ready for a spook, and send her more "this is scary" vibes.

Then my very insightful friend Margaret suggested also, that Lucy likely feels much more secure knowing that at liberty she can flee as she sees fit without being encumbered or forced to stay closer than she thinks is safe.

That got me thinking about the several times this year I have heard mention of horses getting claustrophobic when fetched up hard in the bridle and held for too long. Horses who want to move along much faster than they are wanted to by a rider. Horses who are too worried to be given any slack in the reins for fear they will run away. Horses who will bolt hard losing their head and don't know when they are safely away. There are horses who have lived too long with these rules, or been too abused, or too frightened to be safe any other way. So,

I want to be very sure that I remind folks here that I am not very experienced at all in training horses and do not advocate letting a horse bolt and flee when it could injure someone or / and itself. I am simply contemplating some witnessed behavior and creating conjecture.

I've ridden horses who were quite comfortable with strong pressure on the reins for longer than I was interested in holding it. But I've had others who flipped out with continuous pressure in a variety of bits and head gear alternatives. So there are no hard and fast rules here that I am trying to give.

I did have one horse though who got very grumpy from too much pressure on the bridle at faster gates, but would leap and shake and sometimes buck when I let her go in the canter. Therefore, I was very reluctant to let her go. She always wanted to gallop from the canter and we ended up in tug of war which turned the canter into a squeezed up twisting unsafe gate(funny, gallop didn't seem so appealing to me about then!)

We finally had some really nice long canters on very safe ground (some on long gravel roads) and I began to let her out slowly. I soon discovered how quickly she flattened out into a very solid gallop once we had the canter relaxed. After that several month period she found me willing to gallop more often and I in turn found her willing to just canter if I asked, or even just trot on a long rein. It was a rather remarkable transformation in her--and I image she felt that I had transformed just as remarkably.

Lucy is sensible and has demonstrated that she can be trusted on a loose rein and will respond to a rein aid quickly and go right back to loose rein. ( We are about to do some riding with a horse that she has only met once and who excited her quite a bit, so I may have knew information on this topic come next Monday;^) I don't want to mess up that trust we have but I certainly can't have her leaping on top of Promise! So there may be some holding going on.

It will give me a chance to work on my own discipline by exercising my commitment to be consistent in the "do as little as it takes but be willing to do as much as it takes" theory, releasing at the proper moment over and over and over and over again, all day! Can I do it without resorting to holding? I will let you know. Although connected that's rather a different issue than the fear reaction thing. Another peice of the puzzle nonetheless.

Lucy is also very emotional. Perhaps I could introduce or exacerbate that uncomfortable feeling of restriction that may make her less willing to be bold when I am on her back, if I began to grab her up and restrict her at times due to my own insecurity. Like when meeting potential monsters on the trail.

It's all a big experiment in a way isn't it?

Anyway I will be riding with a new awareness that I could inadvertently cause her to feel claustrophobic if I over react to her worry. I don't want to create any mistrust of my ability to not just keep her safe but to help her to feel safe.

What are your experiences and / or thoughts?

The Harbor at Portland Maine

Click on a photo to enlarge it.

The software engineering group went on our annual summer boat tour of the harbor last week. We stopped at Peaks Island for a lobster bake, complete with steamers and steak, grilled chicken, barrels of good beer on ice, and Maine blueberry cake for dessert. We played horse shoes, volley ball, croquet, bocce on the lawns of the Lions Club along a ledge overlooking the water.  It was much fun, and the weather was perfect! I stole these pictures from someone with a better camera than mine.

Pine Tree 30 / 50 / 100

Temps were in the low 60's. Visible mist fell most of the day. Standing around helping the timer I was chilly often. A huge change from Friday, when it was 80 degrees with 70 % humidity all day!

The timer has the official clock and has to write the time of entry into each hold* on every riders card, then record every riders entry time on a form. Once the rider is in at the hold they receive an official Pulse time.

Pulse time is the time recorded when the horses pulse rate reaches at rate below 60 beats per minute. The hold time (30 - 45 minutes depending on the hold and distance being run) is measured from the pulse time rather than the time of entry into the hold.  This also has to be recorded on the form, along with the release time for each rider and finally the actual time that rider left (to aid in keeping track of riders who may become excessively overdue at the next hold).

It can get confusing for the timer when there are riders coming in to a particular hold from all three races, many of them in race mode and all wanting to get their official pulse time ASAP.

Then in the midst of riders coming in there are always riders who are waiting to be released after the Vet has cleared them to continue. The timer has to check the official time on the form and then yell, " Number xx , good to go!" " Have a safe ride." And record the actual time out.

Some riders will take more than their 30 or 45 minutes for a variety of reasons and leave well after their official release time. It is too easy to lose track of those riders actual time out if your not really focused.

It can get chaotic. But, I enjoy the challenge, and always get caught up in the excitement.

It is important to understand that tones of voice in these circumstances do not necessarily reflect an intended annoyance. I never take it personally and am just as eager to get riders on their way as they are to be on their way. To me it is an exciting and fun atmosphere. I remember a woman who trained me once saying that to do that part of the 'job' well one needed to be a cold hearted bitch and not let the abuse get to you. I have never seen it as abuse. It has never felt like abuse. And I always find that a smile and an acknowledgment along with the visible proof that I am working as quickly as possible, makes it all OK.

I love volunteering. I have a blast. 

I didn't get to this ride until 8:30 ish and we had to get back by 7:00 so I didn't see the 100 milers come in. I was just sort of a helper, which was fine, but I missed a lot.

It seems like every time I volunteer for a ride rather than crew it somehow removes me from the action on the ride itself. I get so wrapped up in the task at hand I lose focus on the ride details! My tiny little brain can't stretch that far. And having to leave so early I didn't have time to take notes.

The next ride is The Vermont 50 / 75 / 100 Endurance Ride July 19, where I will be crewing for a rider, then the Fryeburg 25 / 50 Competitive Trail Ride July 26-27, where I will be volunteering for the ride manager from set up to clean up.

Perhaps I'll do a post on the differences between endurance and competitive trail.

Time to kick off the New England ride season!

Pine Tree 30 / 50 / 100 mile ride is this Saturday:

Quoted from Ride Details:

"The ride is run out of the James and Caron Long farm on the McIntire Road. Last year, we ran it here and the quiet road and gracious hosts gave us a wonderful weekend. James and Caron had as good a time as we did. There are no hook ups.

Maps and directions will be provided for the riders and the pit crews. There will be 1 or 2 places to meet your rider on every loop. The trails have some moderate hills, and consist of dirt roads, trails, pipelines, and a couple of miles of tar road or shoulder."

More Ride details

I  will be working the ride and not riding. My first choice transportation is uncommitted at the moment as she so far behind on her farming chores due to inclement weather. But I have a plan to get there one way or another.

I also received an e-mail from Patti Pizzo, she is competing at the Vermont 100 Moonlight Ride again this year. She was second last year on her horse Hot Spot, And I had the honor of crewing for her. I will be crewing for her again this year July 19th.

There will be pictures and better stories this year.

The Little Standish Farm is For Sale Again

Our Old House is for sale again. I makes me sort of sad because I so hoped that the nice young couple would be there for a very long time.

It's a great place to have horses and the trails are nice. Route 35 has gotten rather busy though.

Hawk on the Hill

Now we're thinking we should leave this big old dead tree, because maybe he sits there more frequently than we know. It is up the peak of Lythos and he hunts around the slope of the hill often. We see him hunt but haven't seen him land before. He was making lots of noise Saturday though so he didn't go unnoticed. I was heading out on the trail on Lucy and was having Dan take a picture of us going out into the woods. The hawk got the last few whirls of camera battery.

Self Image Versus Reality

I don't pay enough attention to what I look like. Not that I think there is anything that wrong with being the size I am in general, I don't.

This issue is that it is not the image I have for myself and I don't notice that it is disappearing until I see a photo.

I do notice that my body at times get in the way when it shouldn't. Hauling this bulk up on my horse from the ground has gotten too hard to do. I was so much easier at 150 pounds than it is at 165. I am out of breath sooner than I should be too.

Lately I have had a couple of photos taken of me and I able to really see why that might be true.

Boy, poor Lucy is doing better than I give her credit for learning to balance all that! Especially when you notice that hideous chair seat I've developed! What the heck is up with that? Now that part is embarrassing.

I'm done feeling sorry for myself because I can't eat like I could at age 35 without weighing 15 pounds more.

Reality is that I just can't eat that way anymore. Unless of course I want to continue to be restricted physically. I don't.

Lucy looks just about perfect though.

Party Weekend

First, Saturday was the 10th anniversary party for Sebago Brewing, so we Drove to the big city of South Portland Maine to say congratulations and enjoy some of this amazing stuff:

and listen to a couple of songs by the band that was playing ( I meant to remember their name, but didn't)

Next it was off to the preferably peaceful woods of Cornish to Say happy birthday to our dear friend RP. We were out till after midnight. That's a big deal for old farts like us.

Sunday we were heading into a quite early night when the phone rang at about 5:30. It was our good friends Jeff and Carol from Brownfield:

Who turned a timber framed net shop into a performing arts center: Stone Mountain Arts Center .

The amazing Mavis Staples was performing that evening:

It seems there was a cancelation in this sold out show.

"Would we like to come as their guests for the evening?"

DAH!

The Timber Frame was made (as a net shop) and renovated for the art center by another friend Andy Buck

Yesterday We Had Hail

I watched the radar map at noaa.gov every chance I got between meetingsand testing. I noticed at 2:30 the yellow outline of a  "servere weather box" over Lythos. I called Dan. He was fairly confident that things would hold up. I was ready to go into a panic, but I had important meeting all afternoon so I had no time for it.

This is what I found returning at 6:00:

The retension pond at the foot of lythos, which is 1/2 filled in with sand again, also had 3 inches of hail stones in it. (BOY I can't wait till we can get the seeding finished!!! I hope we get permission to do repairs. Dan will find out today.) But also there was several inches of ice balls.

We got a bunch of rain too.

Icy cold rain! But all the sand stayed on our side of the road! Yippee! It's working, and it will be very efficient when we can get it FINISHED.

The horses were not frazzled, but quietly munching their now rather soggy brand new fresh green round bales.

There was a mourning dove sitting under the bird feeder. It took flight suddenly when the camera flash went off and this was all I got:

Annabelle is Not Retiring After All

Annabelle Has responded very well to whatever treatment they gave her and has gone back to work at Broad Park in New Gloucester in the community riding program.

I'm happy that she is well and working. They really think she is special and that made me very happy indeed!

Vehicle 1 of 3:

$2,500.00 plus tax etc. It just came home this afternoon and it is all ready loaded up with stumps. The giant stump pile is going away, Yippee!

 

You can see the edge of the sand ramp Dan built to load the stumps in the dump truck. He made it with six jersy barriers which he lined with plastic to kep the sand in it, and then added sand.

He will take away a load every day until, wah lah there are no more stumps! It's pretty exciting stuff!

The price we were quoted to have them hauled away was $3,500.00. And the dump truck will be used a lot for a long time--like all the gravel I will need on the little carriage trail.

Stump Grinder Phase II

Dan is making a stump grinder. Here is a Video of a stump grinder in action.

"Our you going to take a picture of me making the stump grinder?"

"You're making the stump grinder, right now?"

"I'm drilling a hole."

"You want me to take a picture of you drilling a hole?"

"Yeah"

"Do you have the teeth out there yet?"

"No."

I still had to fill a water tub, so by the time I finished he was getting the the teeth out. So I took a picture:

Aren't you Glad I waited for the teeth?

Short Pigeon Visit or Colorful Scooby Snack

This is not the one that visited. There was no band on its leg. This I know for sure because it let me get way too close before waddling off bobbing its head and looking at me with those beady rat like eyes. Yuck! I am not a pigeon fan. They are very much like rats in my mind. Nastiest bird next to a Sea Gull. I guess it's just because of the scavenger flocks you see in cities and on some farms. We had a flock one year in Standish when I was kid. I got lots of target practice that year with mom's .22.

Last nights pigeon visitor was bobbing around in the arena sand. I followed it, got way too close to it. Wondered if it was injured somehow. It was not fluffed up like an sick bird should have been. So I charged at it. This did make it take flight for about 100 feet and then it landed again in one of the paddocks. Tired maybe? Long flight off alone, misdirected somehow? I let it alone. I figured it would rest and be off again on its trip to some city where there are more french fries to eat.

It stayed a little too long:

Scooby found it this morning. It let him get too close too. For some reason Sparticus didn't eat it. (Too fresh--he's used to eating his fowl a bit more aged?. Maybe. He was already full? Not a chance. That dog had hold an amazing amount of food. Shucks I've seen him swallow pieces of meat bigger than that pigeon whole.) What ever the reason, while I was off in the woods trying to follow where I saw him disappear with it in his jaws, he circled back to the cabin and buried it right at the edge of he rock Dan is making a base for the front steps with. I knew it was there only because he was so adamantly guarding it from Bear, and even tackled him when he got too close. Then I looked and saw the tell tale few feathers strewn near some scratch marks.

My concern it that there was something wrong with the bird and eating it could make Scooby sick. I think I will dispose of it some other way. Why would a pigeon in its right mind / body let us get so close?

2 Pigs in A Poke?

Nope. These piggies are very happily cooling off in their 50 gallon water trough / swimming hole. Notice the male "Bacon", is sitting down in the water. They will both lay down in it when the level is a bit lower.

My how they have grown!

An Arena Full of Sand, 4 Buckets, A Gardenhose, 2 Shovels, APile of Rocks . . .

. . . 2 pair of Safely glasses, 2 bottles of bubble stuff, a whiffle ball and bat, a Frisbee,  and 17 acres of woods-land to explore, make for a day of non-stop fun and learning for two little boys.

There is so much learning taking place while playing with dirt and water and rocks! Put your safety goggles on before smashing little rocks open with bigger rocks. 

Near the end of the day Eric had a go at photography:

Not too Bad!

So what's with toys these day? These Transformers don't even transform!

Their father and Uncle had transformers that really changed from cars / jets to robots and didn't make loud noises or play theme songs like radios. I think all the noise is a imagination stealer. But what do I know--only that today the great out-of-doors held the attention of these two little guys much longer than the noisemakers with the laser beam eyes.

We went on two hikes and they were delighted to discover that both trails made circles and ended up back at home!

And eight hours later, does Grammy look tired yet?