Day Eight: A little about the barn/stable where your horse lives.
I'm lucky to have my horse (and donkey) at home. I actually only have 1.5 acres, but we lease around thirty that adjoins the back of our property. I was going to take a video or get pictures for this post, but due to the storms everything is a mess, so I'll just go back and find pictures of what it used to look like.
This is the three sided shed on our property. We were going to close in the front and build a loft, but unfortunately the barn got totaled in the storms. We're thinking of going with a different one when we get it replaced, but I'll just have to see if the insurance company will pay for it.
I even put pea gravel in the barn to stimulate frog and sole growth in Chrome's hooves. I loved having the gravel in my barn because when I cleaned out his hooves if I had to put one down it didn't just fill back up with dirt. :) It also drains really well.
On the land that we lease there is a big, old barn that's falling apart, but still usable at this time and two big ponds. Below are pictures of the lease land last year when we first got it. We've cleaned it up quite a bit since then.
I picked up all of the debris, but I don't like that it doesn't drain well at all! It's making me miss Chrome's pea gravel lol.
So that's where Chrome lives. Maybe when we get all of the buildings replaced I'll be able to get new pictures or video. :)Also I wanted to mention that the past two days I've worked with Chrome on his leading on the road just in front of my house. I'm having to reteach him to lead with his head/neck at my shoulders instead of his shoulder by mine because he can be pushy. I'm also clicking when he lowers his head. Once I have him positioned where I like on my left I'll work on my right. From there we will work on halts and trotting in hand. I'm also working on voice cues to help with our ground driving when we get to that. :)
Have you started on ground driving yet? I loved that with Riva! We went all over the property - thru gates, over 'bridges'. I believe it was one of the best experiences I have had with her. I think because of all the time we spent on this, she is much braver than our 11 yr old and 15 yr old TB's!
ReplyDeleteLooks like a lovely place to raise a horse. I have to ask though, What storms? Did I miss a blog here? I swear I've read EVERY single one (literally) :-) and I didn't read anything about you suffering storm damage. I hope you will be able to recover your losses quickly.
ReplyDeleteKelly, I haven't started ground driving yet. I still have a year until he turns three (a year and nine days actually) so I figure I have plenty of time. I'm working on his voice cues right now. When I walk him on the road I have dropped back to walk behind him (he did great), but I haven't tried to steer yet. I did make some driving reins though. :D
ReplyDeleteMary, I posted about the wind damage on my main blog at http://myfarmerlife.blogspot.com The post with the pictures is here http://myfarmerlife.blogspot.com/2011/04/wind-damage-pictures.html
I just got back from there, Holy Moly! I am so glad you got through it and that the animals are OK, what a huge job you have ahead of you! I wish I could help. Thank you for reading my silly blog, it means alot! :-) I have many dog training questions, but I will save them for another day.
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