It is the end of March! It is now officially Spring and we are starting to see warmer days and nights, shedding horses, and rain and thunder instead of snow and ice 🙂 So of course, the ride season has begun as well in the NE region and I had hopes of doing Foxcatcher 50 again, but given the holiday weekend it is held as well as no riding in Feb due to snow/ice/mud issues, we are forgoing that and plan to make No Frills our first ride in 2021 as an LD.

In other news, Skyler and I took a (long) day trip to NC to try out several standies available from SRF at New Journey Farm. She rode a range of them starting with 14.2h, then onto 15.2h, 16h and finally a 16.2h horse! She fell for a 16h gelding, aptly named “The Future.” He raced as a pacer until 2014, but trots under saddle. I took Friday off work the next week and we went back to pick him up ❤ He’s been here at home about 3 weeks now, she is still smitten, he is slowly putting weight on, the wound on his hind leg is healing, and he is continuing to settle in. She’s ridden him a few times in the pasture and being led down the road and he is so sweet. It appears he had some type of cart/buggy accident to cause the wound on his hind fetlock, and I have found scars on his knees and a pastern that could also indicate a fall. Sadly, his injury and lack of treatment of it, is likely why he ended up dumped in a kill pen/auction. He will now always have a large hind fetlock, and the scars will be there, but they do not hinder his riding and he isn’t lame/sore on anything. His hooves of course are also in need of correcting, with signs of multiple prior abscesses still in process of growing out. He is a very kind and thoughtful horse that I look forward to seeing bloom! His & Skyler’s “colors” will be purple and red (that Beta halter is being adjusted to a new size as it is too small!) and we think he looks sharp as it all comes together.

I also finally found a “new” trailer for Skyler and I to work on together outfitting it for us to go on day rides and eventually she can join me on some camping trips. It is currently at my trailer guy’s place in need of some TLC between new tires, wiring fixes, and installation of an extended hitch to help with clearance on turns with a short-bed truck. Eventually it will get a paint job too as it is pretty faded on one side where it must have been parked against the sun…don’t think we will be sticking with the red/maroon though!

Like so many others, I had a LOT of mud to deal with this winter … In addition to having the field boosted for spring with dragging, lime, fertilizing and over-seeding, we had a longer gravel driveway installed (now have a gravel spot to keep the trailer) and gravel dust put under their shelter. It rained the very next day and can already see the grass sprouts out there! Prophecy will be back in a muzzle this weekend it seems, and I will likely get one more round bale if I can figure out when!

Early March our schools went to Phase 4, which means Skyler gets to go 4 days a week and Asher finally gets to be IN SCHOOL for 6th grade 2 days a week (“first day” pics below). That also means our schedule has gone completely haywire with getting them dropped off and picked up at different times, and to soccer and everything else going on! Slowly returning to some sense of normal, but also means more chaos 😛