6761 Farm

12:37:10 PM EST
It's February 2008 and we have had a few changes since my last entry! We have some new horses here: Walker (TennesseeWalker) who is owned by the McSwiney family, Romeo (grey TB) who is owned by Suzanne D., and Boogz (Bay TB) who is owned by Kate S. All three are big, leggy and beautiful geldings. Also, I am happy to announce that Lori O has signed on as our main helper and the new owner of Lena Blair. Lori and Lena have become the trail masters of the Manassas Battlefield.  And finally, our family has recently purchased Ima Sweet Talkin Lad, who is a QH with some western pleasure and hunter training. He is adorable, and our Carly is in love with him. She hopes to take him in 4-H and some shows this summer before she has to leave for college.   * * *We are eagerly awaiting signs of spring!

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9:54:03 PM EDT
It is August 22, 2007, and we are finally getting a reprieve from this summer drought. We have some very sleek and happy horses here. We've done trail rides, 4-H shows and even a little horse camp in our newly enlarged riding ring. Looking forward to cool fall days and lots more good grass coming in! ~Bonnie

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7:55:47 PM EDT
Feeling Happy

We made it through our first winter (even played a little game of broomstick hockey on the iced-over ring), and our horses are loving the new grass. Winter coats are gone and all the horses are glowing again!!!Harley and MC got Reserve Hunter Champion at their very first show, and did very well at the last Battlefield Judged Pleasure Ride. Janine and Tom have just finished the US Trail Riders Association Ride in Middleburg to raise money for Special Olympics. We had two Girl Scout troops out here to get their Horse Care badges with the help of  Lena and little Spice. Our 4-H Club hosts its annual June show this weekend at Frying Pan Park, and we hope to see some of our gals out there! Happy Spring everyone.

 

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10:26:49 PM EST

It's official, we now have a pony (equine number 11)!!!! She has passed the break-in period, and Abby is in love with her. We just had our first snow flurry of the season tonight (December 7), so that means winter is officially here. Yesterday we had Garth the electrician wire up our new barn for lights and outlets, so now we are ready for heated water buckets and all that good stuff. Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night! :-)

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9:57:02 AM EST

Here it is, November already. The grass is lower, but the trees are much prettier, and the horses have all settled in for good. We have ten here now: seven big boys in the big field, and three ladies out in front. We welcome our final two boys, Loki and Rusty, who are owned by Tom and Janine Stenson. The ring is coming together slowly, at least the bluestone is in, the jumps are in, and there is a perimeter of round fence posts in the ground. We hope to have rails up very soon, and a gate! We still need to run electric and water lines out to the fields, and now that the mares are living out front, a  spotlight would be helpful for that this winter. We have a few little cross country jumps along the fenceline as you can see in the photo here of Jaclyn and Beau. They will be in their first show this Saturday at Frying Pan Park! Thank you to all who have given me a helping hand (or two) with the manual labor out here. It's never easy, except when friends come around! ;-) We look forward to some planned rides while the weather is still beautiful. Thank you!!!  .. .. ..  "There is nothing better for the inside of a man than the outside of a horse."

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2:05:58 PM EDT

Well it has been about... three weeks or so.. and the horses are getting quite comfortable here. Justin just joined this herd less than 24 hours before this picture was taken, AND he was the first one asleep! :-) The mares are already making a big dent in their little "girl" pasture. I may have to break out the hay bales once in a while to save this grass for spring. We are all getting used to each other. I am learning all the personalities of each one of these horses, so now my nuclear family includes not only one husband,  four children, one dog, but also seven horses.

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9:37:06 PM EDT

Today was  a good day! MC (bless her heart) fed this morning for me, and she was off and riding at 7 a.m.! Nancy and I struck out around 10 to do a nice invigorating battlefield ride with Lori O and some other nearby gals. Lance Zembrzuski is now here and now the score is even, three geldings, three mares. The dividing fence is just wonderful. Keeps the peace out there and the fields are so quiet. The guys are so funny out there, they seem to just love on each other. The other day, they made a triangle of back rubs, each one doing his share to get a nice wither scratch from the other.  Scott built me a cool pass-through window so now I can feed Bo in his stall and not have to leave the feed room. That's one less bucket to carry down the aisle. We got 100 more bales of hay delivered today, nice orchardgrass and timothy mixture. My back is going to hurt tomorrow after putting up 50-pound bales of hay and going for a long ride, but it is worth it, I guess!! My friend Janine and her hubby Tom came by to check out the place. We are hoping they love it here and will bring their "boys" over to be with us. Well, time to sign off and get some rest tonight. Tomorrow promises to be a busy day. :-)

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8:33:35 AM EDT

Hello all. It's been about a week and now we have the two geldings, Bo and Harley, and the three mares. Gucci has worked her way up to top mare status but she and Lady still haven't decided if it is a tie or what....Lena is neutral and tries to keep the peace. The geldings were a hoot when they first met! They hit it off like two long lost brothers right away, it was pretty cool. They take care of each other's itches when they are too full to eat any more grass.

Lance arrives today! We are hoping he will fit right in with the guys. Also, today I am expecting my fencing contractor to put up a divider fence between the stall geldings and the field board mares. I hope it all works out well because we are getting Remington here October 1st for field board, and he may kind of enjoy being the only boy with the girls.We'll have to see how that's going to work out. Justin comes September 15 and then it should be getting pretty full.

We are contemplating buying a second barn (four stalls) and should make that decision today!! All is well,

signing off for now,  bonnie

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10:48:29 AM EDT

Hey guys! Woooo-hoooooooo.   Lady, Lena and Gucci "christened" the field yesterday as we moved our horses out here to the new house!!! Lady still is the boss, and the fact that she and Lena are pretty tight, made Gucci settle for second mare in command, for now anyway. I had them on grass for about two hours yesterday in the field, then I brought them in to the little L-shaped paddock near the barn. I gave them MC's hay that she gave me as a welcoming gift (thanks MC!!!) and three water buckets. I could see that it was still too early to coop them all up together overnight, so I ended up putting shavings in stall number two, and left Lady in there for the night with some hay, while Gucci and Lena had the paddock to themselves.  I went out to check on them late last night, and I guess I woke them up! They looked a little groggy. I  left a light on for them to be able to see their surroundings.  This morning I looked out the bedroom window at 6:30 and I could see the girls congregating at the stall door, kind of like "so, when is breakfast delivered here?". I guess I will have to figure out a  feeding system real soon, as three horses eating grain off the fence line need to be tied! ... The ring just needs the gate mounted on hinges, and I hope to get out there today with an axe and get rid of the last remaining roots that were unearthed. Then we will be good to go, ladies!!!!

Well, gotta get back to my duties around here. Check back to see how things are progressing!! WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME!

~bonnie ;-)

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