No riding last night :( But we did start weaning them on to pasture!! YAY!!

The barn owner wants Bryan and I to step into more of a farm manager position, which sounds pretty exciting. I created a website two years ago, so I'm updating that, and putting out ads for boarding. I wanted to get some opinions on it, before I send it out, so this is what I would use for like the online ads:

Small boarding barn in (town name) has openings. Geldings or mares welcome, though not currently set up for stallions.


We are a quiet, small farm with personalized care. Because our farm is small, we can boast the personalized care that your horse needs. We have the horses outside as much as possible with weather permitting. Daily turnout, twice a day feeding, always good hay and quality grain! Stall size 12 x 13, and matted with a high ceilings.

We have hosted miniature horses and donkey, Paint horses, Thoroughbreds, Tennessee Walkers, Arabians and Quarter Horses. We enjoy the mixture of breeds and how that ads to the "farm family". Some are western show horses, others relaxing and on vacation, others english hunt seat competitors...some enjoy trails. Also great for retired horses that need a nice, relaxed place to call home. We are an easy going farm and "no judgement zone"!!!!

Large outdoor riding arena and round pen available as well.

Please contact us via the e-mail address above for more information and to set up a tour, we look forward to meeting you and your horse!



and this is the website: ETA: I can't get links to post correctly...here's the address you might have to copy and paste www.pheasantviewfarms.webs.com

I'm getting more pictures tomorrow...what would be a good idea to get pictures of? And should I have horses in the pictures of for example the arena and round pen, or best to be empty?

So constructive criticism is helpful...help me out!!! Thanks!!

Big plans!

Guess what!!! 5 FOLLOWERS!! Yes!!! Welcome Rocky Mountain Yankee!!! I noticed you have a three year old Appaloosa!!! I'm off to thoroughly browse your page and learn what you know about young horses, so I can know it too. I once thought I was a horse riding extraordinaire, so I bought calm, easy going Sugar. I later found out I am but a mere mortal and know half as much as she does about the world :).
Not sure where all of my 5 FOLLOWERS are from but I live in Southern Pennsylvania, and we have been hit again by very nasty weather. Last weekend, a huge storm hit the farm, and washed out the nice little creek, and stole half of our round pen footing (which has never happened before). This morning, another storm hit. It's the leftovers from what decimated the Southern US (by the way if any of you are from there, my prayers and thoughts go out to you and your families). We actually had tornado warnings and potentially had several touch down. My normally brave little dog climbed up into bed, woke me up, and attempted to sit in my arms for a little while.
Now you ask, why did you tell that story? Because I planned to ride tonight!!! So hopefully I still get to. We actually have a natural long sloping hill on the property of the barn that is 100% perfect for getting back into shape, but it's grass & mud now (I assume). But now the weather is nice & sunny...hopefully it dries out. If all goes well I get to ride four days in a row, which hasn't happened since last year!!! AND I get to give Sugar a bath this weekend!!!!
Also, sitting down with the barn owner tonight to talk about chores for the summer. Bryan and I do work for the barn owner in return for reduced board, I know it doesn't work out for a lot of people but we have a great and longstanding relationship with this woman...she's the best!! She's going away for the summer and is asking us to take on a little more in order to make her trip possible. I'll try to bribe Bryan into taking a picture or two!!

One more thing...reading What Was I thinking?? gets me thinking about my old girl Annie. My very first horse, so I thought I would post a picture!

Had to share...

When I threw Sugar's birthday party, I invited my bestest friend (who is not a huge horse person, btw)and she finally posted the pictures on Facebook. She got this picture...ADORABLE!!! So I had to share it.

By the way, Sugar got her second round of shots today (vet doesn't like to do them all at once) and she was a superstar (AGAIN). I took Sugar to graze yesterday in the front yard of the BO's house, and brushed her while she ate. Afterwards, it looked like it rained white and brown hairs all around us!!!

Not much news...

Not too much going on here at all! It's way to wet & soggy to ride. Impossible to lunge...half the round pen footing washed away with a storm last weekend. Pastures to too soggy to graze.
Sugar got her shots and a clean bill of health.
That's about it!

Sugar's party!!

Yesterday was Sugar's party!!!
She didn't even like her cupcakes, but another horse in the barn did. My parents got her a ball to play with, but she doesn't seem interested. I'm not sure how to get her to play with it!

Fours!!

First of all welcome to my newest follower, Susan. That makes four!!!! YES!!!

In Sugar news:
Four days until Sugar's 4th birthday!!!

The traffic cone was an "epic fail". Sugar is uninterested in it. She played with it the first day but hasn't touched it since. So my next try will be milk jugs, as I heard on COTH that horses like to play with them.

I got Sugar & Rally a salt block which they are enjoying.

I also bought that "no chew" spray which Bryan applied to Sugar's chew toy (aka the barn door) and a tree that she enjoys chomping on. He said he went around and sprayed it on the spots, and Sugar followed him around and attempted to lick it off, but she made funny faces after taking one try of it...too cute!

I have a cute video of Sugar and the cone, and another of her spreading her own sawdust, I'll have to post them asap.

I'm ready for sunny and warm...so I posted this picture!!

Sugar's barefoot journey - Post One

So, I decided to type Sugar's barefoot journey so I can remember it when I look back on it.
The shot from above doesn't show much, but if you look close, you can tell she has shoes on her back feet and I can tell you she had shoes on her front feet. This picture is from the day that I signed the contract to begin payments on dear Sugar :)The barn owner and person that I bought Sugar from used to keep all four shoes on all of her horses during all of the months that they could be ridden.
Bryan and I had only Rally at the time that I got Sugar and Rally was barefoot. We had been using a farrier that I wasn't that fond of at the time, but Bryan's horse means Bryan gets to choose who does his feet. As I educated Bryan more and more on the art of trimming, he agreed to stop using this farrier.
We keep our horses in a little town, at a little barn, in our little neck of the woods. We both like it this way because there's never any barn drama, there are never any CRAZY trainers trying to swoop in and overmanage the barn, and there's plenty of grass and pasture for our horses. But, that also means it's tough to get people to come out to the barn to work on our horses.

More to come!!

Sugar's Birthday...6 days!!!

Sugar's birthday is only six days away!!! She'll be four years old...YAY!!!! I've got a cake to make (or cupcakes) and decorations to buy!!! I can't wait to decorate her stall door and get her a little birthday hat(she'll hate it!!)!!!

Lightbulb moment!

I got to ride last night :)
Last year, Sugar had this awful problem going to the right. She would just drift right out and go right on up this really steep hill in the arena. The only way to stop it was to pull her head around almost to my knee. The only time I ever fell off Sugar (so far) was the first or second time she did this. The trainer said she didn't want to work. Which is probably very true, but I think I found another cause last night. Plus it also seems to me, turning in the arena on flat ground is much easier than going crooked up a very steep incline.
Lightbulb moment = I sit heavier on my right side(mainly that little bone in your butt, aka seat bone). I have scoliosis and I believe this is a huge contributing factor. Mind you, it's not awful, but it's borderline to where the doctors want to do something about it. I get a lot of back pain, but I have never let it interupt my life...until now! Sugar can't be expected to tolerate that forever. I MUST start compensating for it and building a stronger core knowing that I sit heavier on my right bones!!!
Anwyays, once I started sitting what I believed was heavier on my left but must have felt pretty even to her she turned exactly as she was supposed to. LIGHTBULB!!!!!

As always, Sugar continues to educate me yet again!!! Who's the young/green/inexperienced here? I guess that would be me! lol Thank goodness she is so forgiving and easy to work with.

In other news: The trainer with drama messaged me and said she had a stall opening up at her barn for a month of training board. My quandry: She is a good rider and has a BEAUTIFUL barn, but her horses have awful ground manngers, and she seems to be involved in general horse drama. But I want so badly to get and give Sugar a good education that I'm not sure what to do.

Patty's Thoughts

She said Sugar's feet look amazingly better!!! Woo-hoo!!!! The number one thing I wanted for my horse is well on it's way to accomplishment..barefoot, correct, comfortable hooves.
I think that's a great goal to work towards because to have barefoot, correct, comfortable hooves, the horse must have regular trims, proper nutrition, excellent exercise, and a wonderful environment. Sugar (& Rally) are getting all of these things now and they are so much happier and better behaved now.
Sugar's abcess has completely grown out and that makes my day!! She hasn't taken a lame step, but the thought of her having an abcess makes me cringe.
I think I posted my worries on here about the TC 30% Supplement making them hot, but it has not yet. In fact, Rally is much calmer and Patty said he was not tense at all. Sugar's body looks better, not that it was awful before, but it looks REALLY good now.
I get to "farm sit" the farm where Sugar & Rally live this weekend so I plan to take Sugar out and hand graze her for a little to start her back on grass for the year, oil the heck out of my newish saddle, find a leather place to get my bridle fixed, and hopefully scrub those legs down!!

Patty Lynch comes back today!!!

The amazing farrier comes back today!!! I've completed all of her suggestions from last time, and Sugar is looking much better. I took her off her hoof supplement because the TC 30% Supplement is supposed to have all the nutrients she needs...
Rally has gained some weight, I think we will scale back his ration.

The only bad thing is that I won't get to be there, but Bryan is taking care of it :)

Also, Sugar's toy is getting delivered by Bryan today, I've got to find something that will take her mind off destroying things!! So I read online that horses like to play with traffic cones...now Sugar has a pet traffic cone!

First ride of the season!

First of all...Sugar is a SUPERSTAR!! And remember that she'll only be four this year, so this is her first ride after a break!!

So yesterday Bryan & I went over to the barn to ride. We gave Sugar & Rally a complete groom job, but no bath because it is STILL too cold :(
But anyways, it was very sunny so Sugar decided she would fall asleep while I brushed her, which is fine with me! She has already matured and learned so much because she stands still now when she is tied...which is a huge improvement over when I first got her.
Anyways, we took them down to the round pen together and "released" them. They enjoyed that! They took off and around and around they went, snorting and blowing all the way. Then they would go opposite ways and spook each other when they got too close...beautiful to watch! I took video footage, but I've lost my camera cord somehow.
So after they were done kicking their heels up, we took them back to the barn and tacked up. I've tacked Sugar up several times this past month and lunged her, but hadn't gotten on her yet. So then we walked back to the round pen, Sugar was a little bit spirited on the walk, but calmed down then. Bryan got on Rally the SuperGelding, and of course he was great. He didn't even try to trot/canter/gallop off at all! So I walked Sugar around and patted all around the saddle and such. She was great. So I walked her on over to the mounting block, and climbed on. She stood still and waited...YAY!!! We walked both directions, did two large half circles, and trotted one lap in both directions. She did all of it amazingly!!! She did not want to come up into the bridle at all, but I got a little bit of it towards the end, which was all I wanted. I underestimate her all the time, but it is great to be reminded of how awesome she is. I also got to actually sit in my new (to me) western saddle!!!!