Our Future

Moon and I have been together for awhile now. I almost can't even remember how long, which tells me that it's probably been long enough to no longer be new. That makes me happy.

And with that, comes a HUGE gaping question of where we're headed.

He is, and always will be, my heart horse. Those of you who have one, you know what I mean. This isn't about ribbons, or riding or how pretty he is or what he can or can't do for you. I don't care if he'll ever jump higher or run faster. I just need him. Even when I don't see him.

Moon is a 1999 baby if I'm not mistaken, making him 15 this year. He's not young, he's not old.

I'm a 1985 baby. I'm not old, but I'm not so young anymore either. I can look at my life and see that my priorities and the demands on my time are changing, which isn't a bad thing. It's just different.

A HUGE thing I really want, is to have Moon in my own backyard. I previously was certain this meant a beautiful barn and a riding ring, and fancy corrals and paths through the bush. Now? Not so much.

The reality is that winters here are COLD. And HARSH. And as S2 pointed out, living alone in a field during the 8 months of winter we get here (I'm not stretching the truth too much!), would be hell for any horse. Winter also means ensuring you have adequate shelter, heaters for the waterers, water access, ability to get the farrier back there, to be able to get back there to feed every day, hay storage, road clearing...

It goes on and on. Winter is hell.

Nor do I really want to slog through the bush in the dead of winter every day to feed Mr. Moon. I love him, I love feeding him, but every day is hell.

Add in that I would sometimes love to travel with the future hubby, it just doesn't make sense to have him home 24-7-365.

Which leads us to summer pasture.

May to October we have acceptable pastures to feed him, we have enough shelter to protect him, and enough warmth to keep him watered. I'm thinking that if we fence off at least two, 1-1/2 acre pastures to start, that will give us the freedom to rotate between the pastures to allow for grass growth. I'll probably try to regularly pick the poop from the paddocks too, just due to the smaller size of the field.

Our beautiful pasture acreage.

Really, I'm pretty excited. I wish we could set it up next Spring and bring him home, except that we're getting married back there next fall! Yup, right in our own backyard. No reason for horse poop on the party right? ;)

__________

Since it's been awhile, I was thinking maybe I'd go back over the last year a bit...

Last fall, the house looked like this...

And after a lot of work, it looked more like this, when I got home from pony camping on Sunday night. Yes, it's my dream home. Yes, I'm obsessed with it.

Not finished, but closer!

And because we plan on marrying in our backyard, we finally started getting some grass planted...

Grass finally growing!

We have two amazing furlings, Halo our alaskan husky of 7 years, and her new best friend, Pixel the kitten. Pix came from a friend's farm after her teen momma had just the one kitten. She's all torti-tude, and we love her. If you ever watch two animals run and play together for hours, it's these two.

Besties.

Of course, there's still Mr. Moon, who survived the whole home-building adventure well enough. He's out of shape and not nearly as skilled as he was when I parked him after our summer of showing, but he's still a great ride.

Canter.

He unfortunately suffered a bout of "Photophosphorylation" last summer, where the vet believed he had ingested some clover leading to "internal sunburn". In short, all the white on his nose cracked, blistered, peeled and oozed for a couple months. It was GROSS. Thankfully H loved him all better for me, and he now wears a funny get-up of a flymask and muzzle all summer long (well, when he's not taking it off). He's muzzled because he's a fatty and has no problem gaining weight.

Darth Pony.

For us, that's where we're currently at. Happy at H's place, doing a little riding here and there, and just ready to start some new adventures together.