Year: 2010

I’ve been chatting with the company that makes a compressed pine bedding product for a bit now. I love all things innovative and environmentally friendly and their stuff seems to fit the bill on both so I am giving it a trial!

It’s like one – two – three! You dump the bags in the stall. Then you smooth them out level. Then you “just add water” enough to fluff the uncompress pine. Here you go.

ONE



TWO



THREE



I’m really interested to see how well it maintains. So far the horses don’t notice a difference and it’s QUITE easy to pick especially with the Shaken Fork which is a whole nother neat innovative product I am hoping to produce a piece on this season! We’re working a deal for HorseGirlTV® viewers to get 30% off! I think all you have to do is go to Shaken Fork website and when buying use our coupon code HGTV01 for the savings of 60 bucks! More to follow on this neat fork!

Carrara walked into her new wash stall and enjoy a rinse off on this warm winter’s day! I grabbed a quick shot and now realized I should have waited until I donned her Draper Equine Therapy cooler and anti-sweat sheet. We started this ride, rinse, Draper routine at Anky’s and I’m enjoying keeping it up here at our home stable!

Every afternoon, evening, late-night (depending upon the Marine Corps requirements for that particular “work day”) Ex comes home and the dogs know the sound of his car as most dogs do and as most dogs do they completely freak out that he’s back as if it’s been eons since they’ve seen him. It’s definitely fun for me as while I’m not jumping up and down wagging my tail, I am excited to see him too. 😉 One particular night Zita was extra excited and extra pushy so Ex picked her up. Now here’s my ramble about all that went through my head when he did this. It’s been an amazing journey for me to watch Ex grow in his love of dogs and how his personality has made little shifts as that love of dogs developed. When I first met him he tolerated Picollo and (I would guess) thought I was just one of those weird Ashland people who had a paralyzed dog that traveled the world with me. While one part of me might be a weird Ashland type person (think granola Pacific Northwest, tree hugger type) another part has just always loved animals, especially Picollo.

I won’t bore you with further details on my thoughts of the little changes here and there but I must include it was a shock when Ex came home from work a year ago and said “Would you like to adopt a Weimaraner?” whoa! Those dogs are insane, big, with lots and lots of energy which are all reasons why she was being given away. A colleague of Ex’s had bought her and she was just too much dog for their suburban lifestyle with two little kids that didn’t take fondly to be jumped on by an energetic pup about their size. It was with a little apprehension I said yes if they are okey with us doing a trial for her to meet Picollo. Long story short, we did the trial, we adopted her, sent her to much needed doggie obedience with an AWESOME trainer (check them out at http://www.rwrkennels.com), we closed escrow, moved to the farm and it’s been a great decision since! It was with this photo I realized Ex had completely converted from this kid who only ever had a goldfish as a pet in his childhood to this full blown dog lover. It’s been a nice evolution to witness!



Oh the irony! While I was typing this blog I notice Picollo and Zita curled up in the sun together. If you’re a dog lover and one of those “weird Ashland types” then you’ll completely understand how sweet this sight was for me while I was typing this particular blog. I love my little family!

While I was training with Anky, I took plenty of mental notes about how they did things like feeding schedule, turning out in fields, what type of stalls, footing, fencing and in general how they had their set-up operating. Of course this is just part of my MO when I’m at top barns and I love to see how the best facilities organize their horses lives. Of course my all time favorite public USA place is in the heart of the awesome Pacific Northwest is Devonwood. Those are the nicest folks with the horses safety so seriously in mind. They created a haven for horses and humans to work together not to mention their facility is absolutely GORGEOUS. They host a pretty fun show(s) as well and are home to some of the amazing FITS breeches photoshoots!

So, one of the things I thought that was really neat about Anky’s is how they setup their fields. I was imagining this massive barrier built from teak, old growth oak or some amazingly crafted fence posts when really it was a simple and functional series of 4×4 posts with 2 rail 1×6 planks. It gave me this great idea for the fields we’ll put around our arena and while it’s still a work in progress I have it functioning. Zita and I went out this morning with my awesome J&N Structures mug full of coffee to reconfigure the dividers. Once we get this rolling it will be quite easy to resize each field to accommodate just about any horse. Like Anky’s we have the step in posts and 2 strand rope as dividers with sold fence posts across the front and the back.

It was a beautiful morning, fun to get a little bit of physical labor to let my mind wander and we have four 60 feet by 90 feet mini-fields now for the horses! Here’s Zita. She loves to “kennel” in the back of the Jeep. Do note the awesome J&N Structures coffee mug they sent me for Christmas!



Oh and here’s Carrara grazing at Anky’s this past November. I need to get a picture of her and the little guy grazing here in our configuration!

I was just doing laundry (yes we all have to do it sometime) and realized that some people have suits they take the to the laundry while I have equestrian apparel. It’s was a nice thought that I can wear for work what I also love to do and that revolves around horses. Now after getting back from Holland I don’t have any qualms about going out in public in my riding gear (less my dress or polo boots) as it’s really common there and even the awesome ladies that work at The Tack Factory (Hi Ellen!!!!!! I miss you guys! Picollo says hello to Asha!). Training in Oregon and SoCal it wasn’t much of a thing but you don’t see to many dressage folks in this area so you do get interesting stares from the local farmers or military crowd. I’m proud of the life I have and the tasks and apparel that goes with it so I’ll be picking my fruit at the local market alongside the folks in their business attire with pride. Oh and with a little detergent, cold water wash inside out and hang to dry, my work clothes are MUCH easier, cheaper and better for the environment to clean! Yah!

So I had a great first ride on the gelding and completely forgot to blog about it or post pictures. Dang you Twitter account! So yes, I did Tweet this picture and, for whatever reason, remembered this morning I did not blog it! Zoinks! So this was post first ride on the gelding and no, he still doesn’t have a name yet. I’m thinking Sir Bolero since he’s a Sir Donnerhall (Sandro Hit) out of a Bolero mare then I could just call him Bo as in the Bo from Dukes of Hazzard (the original, not the crappy movie remake) as he is quite handsome.

Sorry, I digress. Here’s the picture. He was awesome! Ex refused to let me off the lunge for the picture and told me he’d never been that nervous in his entire life. What? This guy (Marine) who studied combat life saving, trained in combat, deployed to Iraq and is someone who I personally consider a pretty brave human was nervous? Guess it’s different when it’s his wife that could potentially be bucked off. 😉 The long and the short, the little guy was splendid and he’s now going quite well without the lunge around the arena even and touching on some really basic leg yielding plus he long lines soooo nicely it makes me want to take up driving! Nah! Not really, I like riding too much. So without further delay here’s the picture.

That title sounds like it should be some classic rock song but really it’s just simply stated that we put the chickens in the sun today. They are currently in the old hay barn under lights but it was such a lovely day that why not get them some vitamin D! I think an chicken tractor is in order at some point this spring and can’t wait for these gals to start laying again! I think they are almost finished molting so hopefully they’ll be back in the nests boxes shortly after!

So I’m about to start trying out this bedding I found which seems quite innovative. I know nothing first hand but from reading about it. It’s 100% pine sawdust, twice filtered for dust and compressed using 10,000 pounds of pressure into a pelleted form. We’re going to swap bedding this week and start using it. It should be as easy as pouring a few 40 pound bags into the stall, spreading evenly and adding water to fluff. I think the innovative Shaken Fork I use should be perfect for this product actually! A couple reasons why I’m so interested in this bedding?.. We currently have 4 acres so space is a concern and shavings bags do take up a large footprint. These bags in this picture is about a 4 months supply of bedding for 2 horses!! So lower carbon footprint based on the shipping plus much less space requirement at your stable. Another big selling point for me is we’re wanting to compost and taking little steps to sustainability so the less bedding we pull out and more just manure that we pull the smaller and more rich pile we’ll have! Well, I’m excited to try and and SOOOO thankful that I have a job where I can test really innovative products and meet such kewl people in the industry! More to follow and we might even do a webisode on it! So stay tuned or as we say… Tune in. Tack up.

Yes, the gelding doesn’t have a name yet but I’d really like a great name since he’s for resale. He’s just too cute but I don’t want to give him a cutesy name as there’s such great movement in this guy that he needs something a bit more powerful. Well the name aside, he’s doing great and we’re going walk, trot and canter around the arena now and he’s starting to get it. He has great changes in his pasture that I’m kinda bummed my plan is to sell him this year but who knows what will happen. I still have a safety person present and Ex has been that person for me. He snapped a couple of quick photos with the iPhone while I was lunging. I think he’s still a bit too nervous and busy watching to snap some while I’m riding around but we’ll get some soon and post. I’m also planning some video and photo shoot with the mare soon so that should be too much fun and hopefully yield some great footage and images. Oh and for those techie viewers, nope… that isn’t Photoshop! The weather these past few days has been simply amazing! So the grass is still it’s nice winter brown but the sky has been spectacular!



Yes I know I’m lunging with a helmet on but I put it on when we walk out to the court so I don’t forget to attach it to my head before mounting. Tehe!

Equestrian Collections, English Riding Supply and HorseGirlTV teamed up to giveaway an ANKY Remy Carriat Dressage Saddle. We’ll be announcing the winner on February 28th so remember to Tune in. Tack up. with us here at HorseGirlTV for the winner announcement! We just sent a Tweet today about the finalists selection so if you’re already following up on Twitter then you already know! Submit finalist selection entry to Team HorseGirlTV for the drawing in March by filling out the form online at http://team.horsegirltv.com.

This FREE, brand new ANKY Dressage Saddle is valued at $2800.00!

Any taxes are the responsibility of the winner. The decision of the judges is final. The winner will be announced on here and on Equestrian Collections sometime in March so remember to check back!

This contest is void where prohibited by law. If we have a winner located outside the US, they will pay shipping of the saddle.

Best of luck to you all in this awesome give away! A big thanks goes to Chris at Equestrian Collections (http://equestriancollections.com) for putting this all together AND more importantly providing the give away saddle! Thanks for your support EC! As I always say, thanks for watching HorseGirlTV and we’ll see you next time!

Tune in. Tack up.

Angelea and Team HorseGirlTV!