Oh the weather outside is frightful.....

Well, it seems winter has finally settled in for the long haul. We've had snow, ice, rain, the dreaded "wintery mix"....water troughs need to be de-iced on a daily basis, fans are down heated buckets are up. While I love the holidays, I absolutely hate the cold! I am one of those people who would rather be drenched in their own sweat all day long then freezing to death; sunny and 85, that's what I'm talking about!

This time of year, since I don't have an indoor arena, my riding time can sometimes come to a screeching halt. Currently, my arena is a frozen sheet of icy sandy daggers. The ground in my back field seems to thaw more so than the arena, it gets the longest amount of sun exposure during the day, so the ponies get to spend some time outside of the arena, which is great for them! Hacking out, strengthening through trot sets, it's all great stuff for the winter! 2013 wasn't a huge competition year for me as I retired Gandy, my long time competition partner, and had a lot of babies coming up that just weren't really ready. So I will use winter as an opportunity I work on our dressage and strengthening through consistent flat work so that everyone is strong and ready to go in the spring! 

I also hope to get the babies off the farm as much as possible! I am lucky that I have 2 wonderful indoor arena's all within 15 min from my farm that I have been invited to use. So lessons don't necessarily need to be rescheduled for bad weather, and all training doesn't need to die off. There are also several wonderful winter schooling show series all within about an hour from us. From hunter shows to dressage shows, there are plenty of opportunities to get the babies out in a relaxed and controlled environment before spring time!

The only other fun thing going on is that another local trainer and I have dabbled with the idea of acquiring a stallion. She has a lot of experience in the breedin world, as well as the facility to house and stand a stallion, and I have the guts to get up there and compete him! We both love the TB mind and athleticism, and have a few bloodlines in mind that we'd like to hopefully get our hands on for sport horse breeding purposes. 

Other than that not much new since the last blog........hey, 3 in one year, that's a new record :)

Cheers!