pre-spring training

Yesterday afternoon was warm if you only looked at the thermometer, but there was a cold wind blowing that made being out for any length of time a miserable prospect.

However, chores had to be done, so I went out and groomed Salina, who was lovely and soft and black on one side, and crusty orange on the other. She moved from spot to spot as I brushed, until we found a sunny place she liked, and then she stopped. This ended up being in the arena, and the donkeys were happy to do their donkey play on the soft, clean, non-muddy footing.

The geldings were in the back field, keeping an eye on us in between bites of hay.

I finished up Salina and then gave the donkeys a good brushing. Keil Bay and Cody came to the arena fence and hung their heads over so I could clean up their faces and heads. That's all they wanted, and when I tried to brush further down the necks, they stepped away.

The next chore involved doing the last of the mucking, and I was really not in the mood, as it was actually cooler in the barn than out in the sunshine.

So I found a distraction. The arena has been clear for months now. I like the dressage markers in place, and nothing else in there, and that's how it's been. But suddenly I decided we needed some variety, and I spent an hour setting up five jumps. This involved bringing standards out of corners, pulling poles from the sides, and rolling/securing barrels. All of which was prime entertainment for two young donkeys.

Rafer Johnson and Redford investigated and supervised every move I made. They enjoyed getting on either side of a jump and doing their donkey play over the pole in between. Redford made a very dramatic game out of spooking at the barrels, racing around and around them and then darting away as if they were coming at him. Rafer thought this ridiculous and didn't participate.

At some point they made their way to a jump and both went over it together, knocking the pole down in their haste. They both decided at the same instant that this meant RUN, and they galloped out of the arena like wild things, in search of Salina, who had done her walking and exited earlier.

I'd been so intent on watching donkeys I hadn't noticed there were now three geldings lined up at the arena gate, all wanting to come in and play.

So I let them in.

Of course the donkeys came running back. The horses checked out each jump. The pony went around and methodically knocked each pole to the ground with his nose, and then used his hooves to roll the poles away from the standards. He tried to climb on top of the barrel jump, but I think realized how silly he'd look if he ended up with front feet on one side, rears on the other.

Keil Bay checked each jump out, almost as if he were doing a safety inspection.

Cody became engaged in a play session with Redford. Rafer and I were cleaning out a corner of the arena that needed some attention while watching all the activity.

After an hour, I had moved on to mucking and my daughter came out. "Mom?" I heard her voice and then she was in the arena, galloping on two legs over the jumps. In a few more minutes, she had the pony in with her, and was offering an alfalfa pellet for each jump he took with her. So by the end of the afternoon, there was actually a little bit of pre-spring training going on.

It was fun seeing the pony trotting along with daughter, then breaking into a canter as they approached the jumps.

Hard to resist on a sunny but cold afternoon. I'm not sure if the furor over rollkur has me completely put out with dressage, but all I could think of yesterday afternoon was popping over the jumps on Keil Bay. And oddly, whether I should look for a jumping saddle! I'm sure it was spring fever, but the thought was there! :)

It looks like we're in for a string of very nice days: 52 degrees today, 57 tomorrow, 60 and 61 for the weekend. And NO RAIN! Perfect for getting a few out of work geldings back into the swing.

translation of Cavallo's interview with Gerd Heuschmann about the FEI's Feb. 9th meeting

Project Horse has posted a translation of Gerd Heuschmann's interview with Cavallo about his impressions on the FEI meeting of February 9th.

today feels like monday to me

Late Sunday evening my husband announced he didn't have to go to work yesterday because of President's Day, so when I woke up and he was here, it felt like another chunk of weekend had been grafted onto our week.

Even going into my office last night didn't do much to shift that notion. It feels like Monday today!

First off I have to apologize to yet another reader/commenter, jme. I am suddenly getting many spam comments for both this blog and mystic-lit, and when I moderate, for the first time ever, I am hitting "reject" regularly.

And then my dyslexic thing kicks in, and I reject a string of spam comments, read a wonderful one, and as my brain thinks "publish" my finger hits "reject."

There is no way to get those back!

I'm not sure where the spam is coming from. There are many Chinese ones, and then lots of fake "normal" ones that are anonymous and sort of sound like maybe they're genuine. But their very blandness gives them away.

I guess if I employed the word verification system I might make life easier for myself but I wanted commenting here to be effortless. If it gets to be too much, and I keep making mistakes in my moderating role, I'll add it in.

On another note, I realized I'd left out a sure sign of spring here on November Hill. Our beloved hay man is now out of his gorgeous, non-sprayed, organically grown hay. This affects us on a number of levels. His hay is easy to balance minerally. It's reasonably priced so we can throw hay to horses with wild abandon and not stress the bit of wastage we get from using the big round bales.

We get eggs and some meat and vegetables from our hay man, so when we're no longer going out there for hay, it puts a snag in grocery shopping. I've realized I don't want the store eggs any more. They look... fake. Fortunately this weekend the kids had a party to go to out near the hay man's farm, so we got our stash of beautiful eggs.

Meanwhile, I bought one small batch of timothy hay from the feed store last week. The horses have been scarfing it up - the one up side of having to change hay right now is that they are already craving something green, and a new hay seems to satisfy that a bit. But the feed store hay is not cheap, and while we could go get small loads each week and enjoy ease of transport and loading, it's a big hit to the budget.

We bought a slightly bigger load of timothy from our secondary hay supplier. Normally her prices are just slightly cheaper than the feed store but this year it's the same. But alas, this morning my husband informed me these bales are wrapped in wire, which I really don't like.

Fortunately, awhile back, I came upon a new hay source and although we didn't need it at the time, I wrote the info on a scrap of paper and tucked it away. Of course I forgot about it. But on Sunday I was cleaning off my desk for no real reason and there was the hay info. I called and the hay sounds like a nice mix of timothy and orchard, and it's significantly less expensive, so we can transition onto that as we use up this timothy.

kudos to astrid appels and her eurodressage editorial on the FEI's recent announcement

Go to EURODRESSAGE to read the entire editorial, which ends with the following paragraph:

9th February 2010 - Redefinition


More than 40,000 people signed a petition against rollkur which was presented by Dr. Gerd Heuschmann to FEI president Princess Haya. This voice of a majority, no matter if they are experts or amateurs, should be seen in the big picture: as an outcry against abuse in the warm up ring no matter what training system. The huge amount of signatures reflects that the global image of the sport appears to be a bad one, in spite of the positive publicity a Totilas brings.

-- Astrid Appels

my almost desperate desire for spring

I'm generally a fall and winter person - I love autumn best, but the landscape of winter, with the bare trees and branches against a winter gray sky and the muted colors is also very appealing to me.

Most of the time spring is a bit too "busy" - everything coming to life again, color bursting into full hue, and the noises of insects and frogs - it all combines into one big buzz for me. Overstimulating.

This year though I am craving springtime. When I look out at the yard, the barnyard, the paddocks, the fields, all I want to do is head out there with the mower and the harrow, mulching the leaves into tiny pieces, dragging the manure out, and cleaning everything up. Problem is, between the cold and the rain/snow, it's either frozen or mush, and so everything sits out there looking forlorn and ugly.

I want to cut everything back: the trumpet vine on the front porch (have done that), the butterfly bushes, the small trees that have grown into beds. I want to go along the edge of the woods and push it back to where it's supposed to be before trees and shrubs leaf out and make the job more difficult.

I want to widen the labyrinth path and clear the underbrush and fix fencing.

I look at the barn and see the need for repair and sprucing up. I look at the deck and all I can think of is power washing. I'm thinking of things like white wash and resurfacing stall floors and ordering loads of crushed stone.

The urge to put things into order is huge.

At the feed store I found myself gazing lovingly at composters that turn and roll. Elsewhere I was looking at seed starting kits and thinking of raised beds in the back yard.

I don't know when spring will arrive, but there's a very good and reliable sign. Salina is shedding. She always sheds first each year, and once I see the sprinkling of loose hairs on her back, I know we're at least on the other side of the hump of winter.

The bulbs in the beds are also out, so I'm taking that as the first uprising of green that will hopefully lead the way for everything else.

When the redbuds bloom and the carpenter bees start buzzing, I think it will be safe to say it: spring is here.