Saturday, April 17, 2010

Take Manhattan, just gimme that countryside


Actually, I love Manhattan. I've always fantasized about having a really cool little apartment right there in the middle of everything, and spending six months living in the city. Just six months, no longer. I'd be hating it by then and I don't want to hate NYC, it's the playground of my youth.

But living on our little farm is the greatest. THE GREATEST. I love the seasons, (well, three of them) and how the deer and the turkeys and the foxes and the coyotes and all the other varmints keep right on living here like they always did. I love every inch of the place, and even though we've only been here 3.5 years, I feel like I know every inch of it, too. There is nothing like spending a day doing stuff around the place, and finishing up and not wanting to go inside. Late, late sunsets (and it's not even summer yet!) really help to make the days seem endless and like there's plenty of time to do everything.



The current herd is settling in well and getting along: Daisy the pony, Keebler, and my farrier's wife's mare Heather, who is gigantically pregnant and staying here to foal. A win-win deal--I had a mare to keep the pony company all winter and someone to eat all the hay I bought last year AND I get free shoes and trims while she's here, and Mike and Kim get their mare looked after. This will be my third foal--the foaling stall is all ready (one of today's projects), the video camera is ready, and it's almost time to start the big countdown. She's due in early May.

Bonnie is spending the summer at GLEC and Erika is going to compete her, get her past that "almost Training level" point for me. I miss having her here; she's the real boss of this place and looks around in a more proprietary manner than I do when she's "home". There's not a turkey that walks out of the woods that she isn't aware of. The boss mare. Keebler has cheerfully adopted the duty of "stallion" and feels like it's his job to herd the two mares around with his head snaking along the ground and ears flat back, chasing the potentially horse-killing barn cats away from the herd. They humor him, both the cats and the mares. It's good for his ego, which actually needs no stroking.

Last weekend we went to Kentucky to the Spring Bay Horse Trials and he performed very admirably for a horse who hasn't gone cross country in almost two years. Turns out he's extremely agreeable out on cross country and perfectly easy in stadium. Dressage remains a work in progress, but we have definitely gotten somewhere these last few weeks. I need to find a dressage show somewhere. He'll love it.

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