There is no place like home

Posted March 30th, 2010 by Nealia

When will the rain stop?  They say that we have hit records for the most rain in March.  I feel sorry for the horses outside as the pastures get real muddy.  Jason had the plumber tune up the sump pump system in the house.  Why that is important is that the central 15 acres of our property runs the length of a narrow valley and the house and basement sit in the lowest point.  We have had water in the basement but usually because the equipment has failed.  When the property was built the water control issue was taken care of as there is a large retention pond at the beginning of the property and another at the end all connected by a large underground culvert with drains at the surface.  We never know the amount of water we may get because its usually 2 days after a large rain when we know how the water is coming from higher elevations through our valley (sometimes I call it the Kingdom of North Wind) to the first retention pond through the underground pipe and out through the back retention ponds past the pastures and on to the neighboring state lands.  So far so good this year despite the snow melt and the recent rain.  Knock on wood.

We are back home from the trip to the World Cup tryouts in Missouri.  Jason survived being alone at home and kept the business moving.  The dogs took the brunt of us not being home especially our Great Dane.  She does not get along with Jason because of one incident when she first came to our house.  Suzie is just afraid of him and barks when he comes from downstairs, when his cell phone rings or when his name is called.  She knows all of that.  Jason said she stopped eating when we were gone just for a few days.  She has not done that in the past I do not think.  Last year we had dog sitters when we were all gone at horse shows and I will have to get that lined up again.  Since we got home yesterday she has been following me everywhere and so close that I cannot stop real fast or we’ll have to go to the vet to get her extracted.

Worked on putting up some new videos on the rescue website for some of the horses this afternoon.  We still have about 15 ready for adoption.  Also the donation program has taken off a little more and we are getting more inquiries about what the donation terms and processes are for Saddlebred Rescue.  I think a new donation horse is coming in this Sunday.  Lessons are also picking up for Anne in the barn.  We have our first horse show in a couple weeks which is a small warm up show that Mark puts on.  We are reviving it this year as we really need a warm up show before we hit the road.  We held the show before from 2004-2006 so its going to take a couple years to get people to come back.  It’s a long story why we stopped holding the show and it’s not worth dragging you through the details.  Trying to figure out this year’s show schedule has been a real pain.  The USEF show dates were all readjusted a week ahead this year and many venues do not necessarily follow the USEF show calendar and thus some shows didn’t adjust their dates.  This created new show conflicts etc and it’s a bit of a mess at some points of the summer.  I guess we will adapt.