Pony Dentist.

Probably should have snapped some pictures, but as usual, it was a whirlwind. The vet came out to do teeth yesterday, and I'm pleased to say that Moon needed minimal work as far as hooks and points :) Probably his best turn-out to date.

Of course, he's had that one tooth where the gums have been receding and bleeding, so the vet had a look, gave it a wiggle and told me about how there could be root loss and such, and I got convinced to spend $180 on digital X-rays. That showed a perfectly healthy tooth and root, and just some really upset gums. Le sigh.

So $400 later, Moon now gets an antibacterial mouth wash once a day to heal up his gums, and thankfully no expensive tooth extraction. I'm happy that he's all done before moving home, and I keep counting the weeks.

Four more :)

I'm NEARLY finished my chicken coop, which means hopefully soon I'll really start on his horse shelter. I gotta get those posts in so I can finish off the fencing of his pastures, get the gates up and it's at least ready to contain him. Not a lot of weekends to whip through all of that!!

His transition hay bale is home and stored away, and H is going to save a hockey net or two for us to use at home. I've got to start going through his stuff at the barn and moving it home...which is fun considering it's been like 3-4 years there, so we have a huge messy pile and stuff is everywhere. Don't know where I'm going to stuff it all :P

Oh, and I managed to do 3 miles last week :) Not gonna say it was easy, cause it wasn't. Moon was awesome, but after 2.5 miles my pelvis was aching and I was having a tough go of it. But I pushed and made it home without getting off. Man oh man. We did trot and canter most of the way, which is pretty awesome. My legs got an extreme workout. I'd say I'm still fit and still riding, but the extra 15pounds I've put on already, is a lot of extra weight for the ol'body to lift in a trot! Or hold up at a canter! I couldn't believe it. I even have a tough go pulling myself up onto the fence rail to sit. I can't imagine what it's gonna be like in a few more weeks, but at the same time, I keep saying, as long as I don't stop, it'll be easier to keep going. Hopefully I'll manage another 2-3 miles on Thursday and we'll keep it up. We're at 18 weeks now, and I seriously hope to ride right up until 40 :) Let's see how Moon behaves once he comes home...

Speaking of, I seriously have NOT appreciated just how hot Moon really is. In my mind, he's a really sedate QH. Typical laxidazy slow going old guy. He's turning 17 in May! He's been exposed to all kinds of crazy things, and really is close to bomb proof.

But wow. We were standing around talking while the vet was doing teeth, and of course, while every other horse got a single dose of tranquilizer, Moon needed a double dose. I TOLD the vet he would. He'll seem out, but as soon as you touch him, he'll wake right up. Sure enough, the vet went to open his mouth, and his teeth were clenched down, his head went up and he backed up at high speed away from him. Not so tranq'd.

The whole thing started me really looking at him. So much of how I perceive Moon has to do with our relationship. I felt connected to him from the first time I rode him, and that's developed. It's been what? 6 years together?? 6 intense years. I know him like the back of my hand. He's PREDICTABLE to me. Not only is he predictable, but because he is, I feel confident in how I respond to him. So much of our relationship is just intense familiarity, that we react and roll of each other smoothly.

But around the barn, he's near the top as far as "hotness". A crazy first thought to me...until I take of my rose coloured glasses and really look at him. He's REALLY responsive. He's very alert. He LOVES to run, and *naturally* loves to race. Not the kind where you need to push the horse to race, but as in another horse takes off, he wants to be there running past him. If he can't, he's a snorting, blowing, prancing mess. He was bred to run.

What he's not is dirty. He doesn't use dirty tricks, he has no desire to ditch his rider. He doesn't have horrible trail habits that make him hard to handle on the road. He's not spooky, when he does spook he's a small clean spooker. He's quite easy and light to move around, which means that you've always got good steering and control when you're out there. I STILL ride him in an uber soft bit, and he's never "run away" with me. He's never been one to turn sharp or stop hard.

He's stellar on lead. I totally stopped appreciating it, until Monday when I was leading another horse, who trodden RIGHT on my foot!! WTH?! I seriously screamed and started trying to shove his body off my foot. WTH?! I can't think of the last time Moon stepped on me. Lord knows I would have lost it on him. Without holding the lead, Moon trots and walks off beside me, and stops and stands based solely on body cues. He's even gotten to be a great ground-tier most of the time.

But none of those things makes his "cool". What they make him, is well trained to me. He's still the horse that one cluck means give'er all you've got. He's still Mr. Sassy pants, he's still the boss in the herd, he's still out there throwing a tantrum when his ladies are gone or you won't give him his head so he can chase down whoever just passed him. He is, truthfully, a hot little devil of a horse in a tiny package who's bred to do one thing and he does it well: Race.

It's funny how I love him, and how well he suits me, even though I don't consider myself getting on with hot horses at all. Perhaps it's because he's a sensitive hot. Most of his heat is emotional rather then physical.

And that's maybe what I love most about him.

Two-Up

A girlfriend pointed out to me on the weekend that I was "riding double" on Moon. It was the most sweetest thought. Already, long before our first child has taken their first breath of air, they've already sat atop my sweet pony and ridden through the wilds of Manitoba. That's special.

I wasn't sure how I'd feel about being pregnant and still riding. At first it was an easy no-brainer, the simple adjustment of wearing a saddle and making sure I use a bridle to make it "safer" for the husband's sake. I mean, he wasn't giving me issue with riding, the least I could do was be as safe as possible.

Somehow there was a moment around 14 or 15 weeks when I "popped" and suddenly it wasn't all bloat and morning sickness. Yes, it's still a lot of that, but there's this tiny lump that appears each night, and these fluttering kicks that roll along with it. Our first child. It hits you.

I found myself...nervous. Partly worried about doing something to hurt this tiny life, partly wanting to protect it from all the dangers of the outside world. Sitting at home I worried if I was being an irresponsible mom. I read stories, I worried, I questioned myself. I saw forum after forum of people being attacked for riding after finding out they were pregnant. Heck, quadding, ice skating and snowmobiling were also on the "stupid" list. And I had done all of them knowingly.

I think one huge thing for me is my OB/GYN. "You're a healthy woman with no pregnancy concerns at this point," she said to me, "Stopping being active is the last thing you should do. If you've been doing these things for years, you're doing them safely, then don't stop. They'll help."

Now part of me didn't understand how they'd help, except I can already tell you that my core muscles are stronger then ever because I'm still riding. And my body feels awesome because it's active. I've gained 9 lbs after 16 weeks and I feel great. It doesn't feel like pointless donut fluff, it feels like healthy baby growth with a side of baby fat. Stuff I'm excited about.

When I get on Moon, those nerves fade away. I sometimes still get frustrated when the group goes too fast, or the footing isn't perfect, or I'm worried about something spooking us out of the blue, but I know these are things that exist in everyday life. I've loved having the chance in the last couple of months to teach Moon to listen to ME, not the group. He can still be a bit of a goof about it, and he's definitely more athletic then he's ever been.

Somehow I just feel at home on him. Like he's a little extension of my body. I just melt away, and it's we.

So Saturday we went out with S2 and H, and we cantered down mile roads, crossed two bridges and trotted plenty. It was a hoot. Think we did 7 miles total. Ponies were sweaty when they got home, but it was a wonderful workout for us all. I can honestly say, I'm just as in love with Moon as I've ever been.

The snow has finally melted away (storm expected tonight, but I vote the snow doesn't stay around), and I can finally see my hydro poles for the horse run-in. I started marking them, and Garett and I are going to cut them to size this weekend and move them to the field. Then we'll put the backhoe back on the tractor and start digging!! I have about 6 weeks to get that shelter built. And cross fence. And build the fencing around it. And add gates. Gees it's gonna be busy!!

I'm so excited though. I almost can't put it into words.

When I was a kid, I fell in love with horses at a really young age. And then I remember in first grade going to the school library for the first time to pick out books, and finding this book on horseback riding. It was pictures, with everything labeled on the pictures. The parts of the tack and horse body parts and such. I LOVED it. I swear I took that book out a hundred times over the next 7 years. I loved it so much that I found it at a book sale years later and bought it.

I would ride the bus home and pretend I had a horse. I named him Victory Gallop. Vic for short. He was a buckskin. He'd run alongside the bus in my imagination and jump the driveways we passed. I'd get off the bus and put his imaginary halter on, and then lead him up the driveway to put him away in our mower shed. Sometimes after supper I'd go out to play, and I'd take him out again, and we'd jump fences, or I'd brush him.

I knew I'd never really have a horse in the mower shed, but every christmas I asked for a pony. I fell in love with the horse on the drive to the city who wore the baker sheet, and got one for my birthday a couple years back. When I got Moon, I knew I needed to get him home. In my own backyard, so that childhood dream was reality. To have him out back, wearing his baker sheet, and to walk out to him and groom him whenever I wanted.

I *love* the place where I board, but I can't describe to you what my imagination creates for what it's like to have your horse at home. It takes me about 40 minutes to drive to the barn and back. If I forget anything, I forgot it. I can't stop and grab a bite to eat over lunch. I can't squeeze in a quick gallop after work. I can't even really just go for a snuggle, because driving 40 minutes for 10 minutes of horse hugging just seems silly. It's just different. My mind tells me it's different. It floods with this overwhelming joy at the thought of it all. I've waited THIRTY ONE YEARS to get here. Okay, consciously, something like 25 years. But that's a LONG time to want something. I wanna put that Baker sheet on him and sit in the pasture as the sun goes down, knowing it's a five minute walk back to the house. I wanna wake up and stroll to the paddock with a cup of tea to watch him eat the dewy morning grass as the sun comes up. I wanna be gardening, look over at him laying in the sunshine, and sneak over to snuggle against his warm body. I don't want just pieces of his life anymore, I want his whole life.

We're building a little attached feed/tack room on the run-in shelter. I'm already picturing his stall plaque hanging over his saddle, the little row of his ribbons proudly displayed below a picture of him at his first summer showing. I'm seeing his slew of blankets hanging off the wall, each for me to choose from. Maybe he's just gonna wear a sheet because every day I can put it on and off?? Maybe I'll put his tail up in a bag? Hang all his bridles off little hooks?

Needless to say, I'm super excited about this next chapter. With a baby on the way, it seems even more poignant. As the days get longer and I get more tired, to be just steps away from my pony face is utter bliss. I know that we'll probably be down to just walking rides by the end, but I can't think of a better way to spend my summer then with my boy in my backyard.

6 more weeks <3

This adventure we're on.

When I started my blog five years ago, Moon was brand new to my life. Sometimes I can't believe it's been just five years. Do you remember me back then?? I was a twenty-something year old, fairly new in the real world, working a real job and feeling my way through a real career. Learning what it meant to own a horse.

I moved Moon from the place I bought him, to a boarding stable, to a friend's boarding stable. Now I'm counting down the months until I move him home. We still have some work to finish (building his run-in, dividing the fenced pasture so I can rotational graze), but it's happening.

This weekend our barn girls got together and rode 6 or 7 miles into the park down snow covered paths, and stopped at a warming shelter where we roasted hot dogs and marshmellows. We laughed. We joked with snowmobilers who were out sharing the trails with us. Moon stood tried to a log not caring about a thing, snowmobiles whipping past, laughter, saddle bags strapped to his flank, his halter hanging down off the saddle.

Many, many miles...

This is, should be, another regular day in our lives. In the last five years of our lives together. This was the season when he officially became mine. This spring will mark six years from when we met. He was 11. This May he'll be 17 years old. That's that turning point from young spry horse to headed towards old man. My fellow riders who were out were riding 21 and 23 year old horses, and talking about how they were ready to retire. That's just four years difference between Moon and one of them, and yet he feels eons younger. Moon was still spunky and eager and moving quickly through the deep snow. I could tell he wanted to canter and trot and was having a blast. My horse is aging, I'm aging, but we don't feel old.

I think about how my little riders are getting older. 7 and 6 this year. And I'm super excited because they're ready to ride him more. They were riding alone in the ring this past fall, and they're only growing taller and stronger each year. Moon is 17. He's got so many miles still to give these kids. To give me. My friends have mostly all replaced their "old" horses with younger ones. Horses that were euthanized when they went unsound. Horses that are slower, sorer, weaker. There was a time when Moon was one of the young horses in the paddock, but now he's one of the old horses. Yet there he was, keeping up with no issue. Most days I still don't think he's going to be 17. He still races a 7 year old like it's no big deal.

If you're wondering where I'm going with all of this, it's that we're off on another adventure. Moon and I.

Parked at the warm-up shelter. Moon is such a good boy <3

Lemme step back quick and roll through the last couple years of my life...

Moon and I met, and it was fabulous. I fell in love with him and knew he was my heart horse.
That Christmas, I got him as a Christmas present, a huge gift from his old owner as she sold him to me at rock bottom price. Because she knew we were inseparable. I can never thank her enough.
We did some serious training with Coach W and competed. It was AWESOME. I'd never been so proud of my riding and my horse ever. We moved to H's place to be closer to the park for showing, and we really enjoyed our time.
Then I bought a horse trailer and completed refurbished it. Time to travel!
Except my 9 year relationship ended. Abruptly. This meant no truck, huge life changes and moving to an apartment. Getting approved to build a house.
But I fell in love again. With an incredible man. That next summer we built a fabulous home in the country. The next spring, he asked me to be his wife. His forever. It was hands down a yes.
We had a year and a half engagement, which included a huge DIY wedding at the end of last fall. We fenced in our horse pasture to get ready to move Moon home for the summers. The husband left his job to persue a new career and returned to school for a year.

And that's now. Is that not a crazy 5 years??

Cowgirl [Photo by Dave Andrew Photography]

Well it's about to get crazier.

Hubs and I are expecting our first child in August. We're over the moon. Ha.

That means all next summer when Moon is home?? I'll be home too :) How young can you start kids riding?? I have a feeling ours will be seeing a lot of pony before its first birthday <3

I know that when I see blogs I've been following, suddenly start the "kid" banner, I always wonder "Does that mean riding takes a back seat??"

I don't know the answer. I do know that while I've blogged less in the recent years, and that I haven't had the same time for riding as I used to, Moon is still very much a part of my life. I'm at the barn feeding and looking after him at least once a week, every week. I'm still out riding about once a week. I still get awesome trail rides with my barn buddies. I don't plan on letting all of that slide away now. But part of that, is moving him home. Where it's a five minute walk out my backdoor to see him. Where caring for him every day is MY responsibility. Where I can learn with him >thisclose< how to get away on him with a child at home. It learning a schedule and routine that works with the husband and baby.

I guess you could say I'm excited for the challenge. My life has evolved to be so much more then riding, but it's so much more focused on our farm. This is our forever. When Moon becomes our childrens' horse in five or six years, it'll be time to expand the place. It's about getting him used to new livestock, from chickens to goats. New paddocks. Learning about rotational grazing. How many serpentines you can get in before the baby wakes up. How much food you can grow in your own backyard. Can you actually put a horse stall attached to your garage??

It's a different kind of horse life coming. But it's a much more integrated horse life. It's time for me, in my life, to bring horses home. He's not this thing AWAY from where I am, but a piece of where we are.

Because even our wedding was just another piece of our backyard adventure...[Photo by Dave Andrew Photography]

I never had the privileged as a kid to live with horses. Actually, my first three years of life we had horses right next door, and maybe that's what made me fall in love? I want our kids to have that horse infused life. And a farm infused life. Picking eggs from the coop, eating vegetables straight from the garden, riding horses like an idiot through a field.

In the world we live in today, I feel like having Moon at home and learning to make him a part of our daily life, is a huge life lesson for me in being a parent. Because horses are unpredictable and dangerous and scary and magical and freeing and teaching.

I want to raise independent children. I want them to wander the woods by our home, exploring and adventuring. Making up tales in their heads. Creating a world that they can entertain themselves in. I want them to learn to respect animals, and value the creatures in their lives. I want them to learn that some risks end badly. Some risks are worth taking. That perseverance makes you get further in life. That you're not fed by a plastic card and a bulk store. You're fed by a hell of a lot of hard work, hours in the sun and sweat. That the rewards of this, are a life like we have. That your mama and your papa have worked really hard to reach where they are in life, and that means some rewards they get and you don't. That strength is built, not born.

Because country is our life [Wedding Photo by Dave Andrew Photography]

I guess to some extent, I want our children to live the life that I remember living, but with the added perk of the horses in your dreams being real. And never, ever, taking that for granted.

I think it's gonna be a lot of learning. How do you control the desire to give your kids the chance you wish you had, to ride and show and compete and own a horse at such a young age?? To do hockey and gymnastics and eighteen other sports, when you know they'll grow so much more from being sent loose in to the backyard to make their own adventures?

Enjoying a post-ride snack <3

Where am I going with all of this?? It's to say that we're off on a new great adventure, and I can't wait to share it. I can't wait to experience it, and I can't wait for Moon to be part of it.

Move Over Moon.

I know I don't blog as much as I used to. I guess life has been more busy, but less busy with horses.

I've been teaching a couple kids to ride Moon and it's a blast. Almost the highlight of my week, and I love it.

We've also been fencing like crazy. This weekend I got all the posts augered and most of them set, aside from the corner braces. And the middle wires hung. I am over the moon! Seriously, this is the coolest thing ever (and I just got married lol).

I did a lot of research into our fencing, and I have to be honest, I chose one that was affordable. I don't ride crazy, so I don't need to fence crazy in either. I'm not too worried about not having solid fencing on the property. Two sides are flanked by trees, one is partially flanked by large tyndall stone. The rest....is more pasture and there's no one back there. I own a short QH who would probably stay behind a rope fence if I wanted.

So I chose to do wood posts and high tensile wire. I wanted to electrify the top wire to keep any horses from venturing out, and after getting it built, have decided that I'm going to wire it up to electrify the bottom wire too if wanted/needed.

My posts are sunk so they're 48" tall, with three wires spaced 20" from ground, 12" from that and 12" from that. For a total height of 44".

One of the biggest lessons I learned reading so much about HT wire fencing, is that the elasticity of the HT wire is what makes it such wonderful fencing. When an animal runs into a HT fence (talking non-electrified), the wire stretches out with the animal because the wire is very ductile. That means that it has a lot of stretch without being brittle. So the wire stretches out when the animal runs into it, but instead of breaking and letting the animal through, it acts like a spring and rebounds back into its original state...meaning it pushes the animal right back into the yard like a giant rubber band!

Now one of the things I've never liked about HT wire, is that it "breaks easily". Or so I always thought. An animal runs into it, and if it's not shocked into behaving, they snap the wire and are loose. Hmmmm....

My research led me to some great university ag extension work, that showed the recommended post spacing is 40 to 50 feet.

Where I live, most people install posts much the way we did for barbed wire; something like a post every 10-15 feet.

That's a HUGE difference.

The larger spacing however, is accompanied by keeping the wire TAUGHT. A few hundred foot pounds.

The research taught me two things here. When the posts are too close together and the wire run over too short of a distance, it loses its ability to spring. With just 15' between posts there's only 15' of wire to stretch, which means it gets over stretched REALLY quick. And then snaps. Likewise, if your fence is run over a very short distance (under 200') it will lose some of its ability to stretch and retract, so you should consider adding springs at the end of the line to add a little more "give".

The other issue is that folks don't keep the wires tight enough. And in-line strainer, which winds excess wire around itself, is used to maintain this high level of tension. You want enough tension to keep the wire nice and taught, which keep them from touching, and keeping them from touching is what allows you to have your posts further apart without sag.

So that's the magic combo. Wide fence spacing allows you fence to stretch, and tight wire allows your fence to not sag.

We opted to go with 50' spacing, with H braces on the corners and any changes of direction. The middle wire is stapled to the fence, and the top and bottom will be on plastic insulators. The corner wires will be held on by ceramic donut insulators.

I bought 2 ground rods to start, though I'm not sure how well they'll ground in our soil. We set one corner post outside the fenceline, and our solar energizer will be mounted to it. This keeps the horses from being able to destroy it or the wires.

Our gates for the moment, will just be wire gates with plastic handles. I want to connect them, so that when you open a gate, the gate is no longer electrified.

Someday in the future, we'll swap all the gates over to steel tube.

I originally calculated that to manage our pasture, we need 3 paddocks for grazing, and one sacrificial paddock for when the ground is super sloppy and saturated. The sacrificial paddock would contain the shelter, the water trough and be the location of all of the feeding. I wanted to include a small feed/tack room off the side of the shelter as well.

My first plan was to make two pastures accessible off the sacrifice paddock (I think that needs a new name), and then divide one in half and when in there, the horse wouldn't have any access to the shelter.

But then I was looking at hauling water way out there, and no shelter, and it seemed like a huge pain.

So this weekend, I realized I could divide it up into wedges, with a gate to each wedge leading out of the sacrifice paddock! And I just needed to open whatever gate the horse was grazing. No moving anything.

The downfall of this, is that at the back of the pasture, the fence line narrows a lot, so the horses only have about 50' of fenceline along the back....which I know can be an issue with crowding when horses don't get along. Force a horse into a corner and you have fencing coming down.

But I honestly do not plan on ever having more then 2 horses. We just can't sustain it on our property. And with the ability to do fenceline greetings, I think it won't be that big of an issue anyway. I sure beats not having the ability to easily rotate pastures.

I left gate access out of the paddock areas. One at the back and I need to make a nice exit out of the side by our new larger garden.

We left a good 20' gap between the fence line and the property line. And I want to plant some raspberry bushes and trees along that gap. Also, since someday years from now someone could decide to subdivide that neighboring properties, I really like the idea that there will be no horse-to-horse contact, there's a good barrier between our yard and whatever is built back there, and we can still drive the fenceline without opening gates.

I think it will be lovely. We also have about 75' at the back of the property unfenced. There's a large dugout there that we used for fill around the house, that never fills with water because the bedrock is show shallow.

So I was looking at all of this yesterday, and I know what I want.

It's the perfect cross country course!!!

The circuit can run along the edge of the rock piles over a couple of stone jumps, down through the dug out and out of it, back along the side of the fence over a couple bush jumps. Then into the woods over some log jumps before wrapping back to the trail. It's a beautiful setup. And a great circuit!

So that's the plan! I want to add goat paddocks in our bush next year too, but it's not as urgent so I'm not too worried about it. I'm just really happy to see our fencing go up and be ready for Moon to move home in the spring :)

Time for Change.

Moon and I are still around. Three weeks ago I married the amazing G, we had finished overhauling our entire yard to get it ready for our backyard wedding, a busy summer of growing grass and making roads and mowing. Lots of mowing.

The last three years have been insane. We built a house. We got engaged, perfected our yard, got married.

The last three weeks??

I've done nothing. I went pony camping with the girls and rode 40 miles in 3 days. Moon outdid himself. We took jumping lessons over the summer and I learned just how game and determined a pony he is. I shot a recurve bow off his back at a trot, without any issues.

He's been teaching the little girls to ride in my spare time. He's taught a four year old, a five year old and a twelve year old. And he loves it.

He's dappled like crazy.

It's time though.

After all these years, all the hard work and long hours and wearing myself to exhaustion on our property and our life, it's finally time.

This weekend, we're hooking the auger up to the tractor.

And we're drilling holes for fence posts.

Because it's time Moon comes home.

I wish I could bring him home over the winter, but we don't have any shelter, and I'll be lucky to get the fencing up in time, and we don't have any way to heat the water. But the goal, the dream, no, the REALITY, is that this April or May, he comes home.

I can't describe to you how I feel about it.

There was a time when I first got Moon, which is 5 years ago this Christmas, that I couldn't imagine actually having him at home. I wanted it, but the reality of it just wasn't real. I didn't know enough about horses, I still felt so green, so fresh, so raw.

Now after 5 years...he's like an extension of my being. I know what to feed him, how much to feed him, when to feed him. I make decision on his grain and supplements. I'm self assured when it comes to his vet care and his injuries and treating him. I'm beyond confident riding him. I take it all in stride. I feel like I know every bit of him.

And I'm ready to bring him home.

Not just to have him in my backyard. But to be able to ride like he's in my backyard. To be the sole decision maker in his life. The one who brings him supper every day. The one who sees him sleeping. Who decides when and if he'll be blanketed.

I suppose it's the last step, the final stage, of having Moon has my truest of true heart horse. Where I am his everything, and he is my everything.

____________________

I can't describe what this weekend was like for me. Moon and I move as one. We think as one. It sounds ridiculous and I think I'm turning into one of those nutters, with their crystals and voodoo and trances and things.

It's not that.

His body. His reactions. His movements. They're so familiar in me, that they are instinctive in me. His personality is so perfectly tuned to mine, that our reactions are so similar. We love the same things, that when we are doing what we love, the rest of the world falls away and we have no other focus. I see what he sees, he feels what I feel.

It's hard to describe trusting a horse this much. 10 years ago, I had my skull cracked open by a horse, and I never felt the same around them. I was scared. And while I fell in love with two horses over the years that followed, it was Moon who changed my riding.

I don't have a desire to ride any other horses, because I can't ride them the way I ride Moon. I ride him without using my head, the one, rare time in a day that that happens. My thoughts drain away, and I simply move.

I need to bring him home. Our world is a tangled knot and it's time to untangle ourselves.

____________

This is what I'm wanting to build for a shelter, except I'd really like to section some of it off, or build a lean-to, that has space for Moon's food, tack and buckets.

I have a bunch of materials already kicking around, and I'm getting a couple of poles from Hil that are hopefully tall enough to make work. I'm thinking I'll use them for the front of the shed, and then maybe a couple of 4x4 poles for the back of the shed. Add in the plywood we already have and 2x4s, and hopefully we'll be alright! We even have some shingles left over too that might work for us...And tyvek!! Wonder if I could get some cheap siding online...

Then comes the fencing. We're going to enlarge the garden a LOT, and that should mean a lot more produce next fall. I want to leave space for a proper manure pile that we can rotate as well.

The fencing plan is to do 50' spacing of high tensile wire, with a combination of wood and t-posts. I'd like to build a small sacrificial paddock around the run-in shelter, with some of the bush fenced in as well. Then make two large paddocks for grass, with one of them divisible temporarily to help with getting a good rotation in.

For now, I think Moon will be watered by bucket, since we could probably hang two in the morning and two at night and be okay.

HOPEFULLY we won't have too much problem augering through the silt and can get those posts in really easy. That would rock. I'm going to be over the moon if we're able to get all the fencing installed before winter! Even if we have to wait until spring to work on the run-in shelter.

End of Summer Plans

I can't help but be a planner, and I'm always prepping for the future.

One big thing on my list, on my list since I was 5 years old and in love with horses, is to have my horse at home.

I got older and wiser, and while I no longer want to board Moon 24-7-365 at home, I really would love to have him at home for the summers, to enjoy our sunny pasture where he's a 5 minute walk after work and reach that huge dream for me. And then share the work of the summer with my girlfriends and enjoy the good life of trail riding away the winter blues.

My life until this point, has been 100% house. Get the house built. The house is now built, and pretty much finished.

Our backyard...just need to put some parging on the bottom of the house...
...and wait for spring to finish green-ing everything up!

The next goal is wedding. 100% get married. Fix up the yard for our wedding. Fair enough. From now until September, that's like 90% of where all of my energy goes.

But what about September 6th, when that wedding is all over, our yard is pretty well fabulous, our house is 90% finished and ???

And what??

I've got a couple months before winter hits, and I need a project. A big project.

We won't be ready to build a garage for at least a couple years. 2017 maybe?? I need a small scale project that can eat up my time, that matters, but doesn't cost a lot of money (because getting married is expensive).

What does that mean to me?? It means I want to build my pasture and paddocks :)

The start of our "road" to the back field, as we add fill and gravel to transition it from a bumpy dirt path to a nice drive in my car :)

I know that we have about 3-4 acres of pasture space, and I know for sure that I want to rotationally graze it. I spent 4 years in university and countless dollars wasted on a degree in Agriculture. That's right. I have a bachelor's degree in agriculture and I don't do any farming. I don't even work with animals anymore. Some people would shrug, "Meh, you never work in your chosen field." and point out that I have a good job that I love and pays the bills.

But the thing is...

...I REALLY love farming. I love it. I'm passionate about it. Agriculture isn't just some missed career path. It's me missing out on something that I LOVE. Feed formulations, plant density calculations, rotational grazing, stocking rates....these are things I truly love doing, and I don't get to. And as a career, probably never will.

For that reason, more than just being 5 at heart and really wanting my pony in my backyard, I want to have a farm. I really, really, really want to have a farm. It doesn't need to be a commercial farm or even a hobby farm that sells some odds and ends to the public. I just want...

I just want a little self-sufficiency like my parents had when I was a kid. I want enough space to have a garden that feeds our family over the winter, space to hunt a few prairie chickens, eventually raise some poultry for meat and maybe eggs, keep my horse, and at some point, I really, really, want a few goats. I don't care if we kill them all every fall so we don't have to over-winter them, I just know that I really, really want to raise livestock for meat production. I want to trim hooves again, and assess my stocking rates, and fix fences, and walk them checking for gaps. I love raising livestock.

That's what I want. I want a miniature, self-sustaining little homestead. Just enough to keep me occupied.

Our pasture in the late fall; just trees and grass. 

I love the idea of no overwintering because it means if we want a family vacation, we can take one in the winter. And go somewhere warm.

Okay, so here I am, and I know a few things for sure about our farm:

1) I want to keep my horse on pasture
2) I want to eventually be set up for a small herd of goats (we're talking 3 maybe 4 max)

I know that goats are great for our place because they love brush. Contrary to what a lot of people think, goats are not grazers. They don't love a big grassy pasture (okay, the new well-bred high producing goats do, but I'm talking your homesteading goat). They love brush. They love poison ivy and sticks and all the debris that grows under the trees.

We have a LOT of that. And we spend A LOT of time clearing it by hand, which sucks.

On the other end of it, we have 5 acres of grassy pasture.

My dream, is to build a small horse shelter, that would fit 2 horses, and have it tucked right at the edge of the wood and the pasture. Fence in the pasture area, so that we have 1 sacrifice pasture for when it's rainy, 3 pastures for grazing rotationally, and then a space that's open for our garden (which I'd like to slowly enlarge over time as our family grows).

I'd like the run-in shelter to be split in half, so that half of it is on the wooded side, and can used for our goats. And then I'd like to fence in 3-5 acres of woods for our goats, into two paddocks. Just let them go to town. With a small herd of goats and those smaller sized plots, we could easily see a nice reduction in our underbrush, without (if my research is correct) loosing so much that it's not regrowing. And that means we get a good number of these buggers in our freezer for the winter too. Most sheep raised for eating will dress at about 50% of their live weight, and say slaughtered somewhere at the 100 lb mark (based on how long we're able to raise them). A healthy market goat could get to 80 lbs in 3 months, and we'd probably have a few more months then that with them, though our forage quality is less than a hay and grain diet of a feeder operation.

Pasture early this spring...after the road was improved enough to drive my (dirty) car down it!

So even with a small herd of just 2 goats to start, raised to about 80 lbs, That's 80 lbs of meat at the end of the summer. Considering the cost of buying a whether (castrated male) is about $100 at birth and we're not paying much to feed them (add in some dewormers and such), that's about $3 a pound for the meat. That's awesome.

It of course didn't take much convincing to get my G on board with this goat plan. I think he knows how much I love farming, and since it also benefits our family, he's fully behind it.

At the moment, that's our plans. If we can start getting some fencing up this fall after our wedding, in the spring we should have a month or two to finish up and build a run-in. I'm waiting to hear back from our local lumber yard on my "dream" run-in shelter:

Enough space if we divide the run-in in half, to have goats on one side, and horses on the other. Horse. Horse. G reminds me that I've only got Moon ;) I'm okay with that. Until he's ready for retirement lol.

And that's our farm plan :) I wouldn't mind adding the chicken tractor to the goat pasture as well as the horse pasture depending on the season. Again, I don't want to really be housing chickens over the winter, but I'd like to have some to add to our freezer every fall.

So for us, something like 3 chickens, 2 goats and a horse. That's a fine little farm to me.

The later years.

Sometimes it's weird thinking about Moon getting older. He turns 16 this week. SIXTEEN! That's incredible. It's like the years are flying by, and I can't help but wonder where we're headed and how many more he has in him.

He's by no means an old horse. At 16, he's finally at a good solid age where he's dependable and predictable. He still has energy and spunk, but he's also happy and relaxed and pretty damn easy to ride. He hasn't lost his fitness or stamina, but he's headed towards old age.

I think a lot lately about his future. I love my Moon and he is my heart horse. I will have him forever and a day. This is not a horse that will ever be sold, that I can promise you.

My life is ever changing though. I watch so many bloggers here get married and move forward on all of those "married life" things, and I know that they are putting their horses to pasture for a few years, or selling them to homes that can keep working them, or they've part-leased them out knowing that they just don't have the time to dedicate anymore.

It makes me unbelievably conscious of Moon's future, and makes me take time to think about what I want for him.

I know that there may be a stint where I'm not able to ride him nearly as much as I can now, and I don't want him forgotten. For me, that's where teaching the kids to ride comes in. I love doing it and I love that it means I still get to work with Moon and teach him something. If in two years all we're doing is teaching kid's lessons, I'm happy with that. The kids will be 8 and 7 by then, and that's a good age to start being more independent in your riding. If this stage lasts 4 years, that's okay. Moon will be 22, and he will have a few kids who adore him and are probably (hopefully?) riding him a fair bit. Which means that Moon can retire into the service of these young charges. He can happily be a little pony club mount, he can teach my own children to ride, and he can just enjoy his old age as a little school pack pony. That makes me so happy to think about. I don't think he would be happy being ignored, and I want his retirement to be easy on him. This seems like a wonderful choice.

And by those years, I will be ready to perhaps start my next horse. Something that Moon can pony out and teach to behave. And then I can slowly transition to the next mount (which won't come close to being my Moonpie), and ease the transition for all of us.

:)