What comes next..

With life changing as it has this year there has been a lot of uncertainty in what comes next. At this moment looking at the next few months, I am honestly just trying to make it through the winter here in Ohio. My goals for this winter is to keep the horses fed, watered, and healthy so we can make it to spring. To make this a little easier on human and horse we rely on a little technology… Heated water troughs outside AND heat tape on the spigot inside the barn, along with a cozy tack room that has an almost brand new heater after 40 some odd years.. Thanks Joe for that!

Quality forage is the first step in keeping our horses happy this winter. About a month ago we put up around 230 bales of good quality grass and grass alfalfa mix hay that the horses have been chowing down on since. Forage keeps everything inside the horse moving in the way that it should. I learned from my grandparents and articles I’ve read that it’s a good thing to make sure horses have something in their bellies before they go out and eat any grass that might be frosted or even under snow, if we get any, so we make sure they have grain and hay in the morning before they’re turned out for the day.

This will be three years since I started using a heated trough which has been awesome, now we have two for the girls and boys separate pastures. This helps keep the horses hydrated even when its cold outside. The next thing I would have liked to have done is to put heated buckets in each stall, that might be a requirement for a future barn/property.

Keeping horses healthy is always the goal for me. Our horses get their routine vaccines, dental work, and their feet done. Thanks to one of my lesson students, we also have availability to use her BEMER products to keep the horses feeling and moving good. I have also been looking into finding a new chiro for the two old ponies to make sure they’re adjusted and moving freely.

So what comes next after winter? Well the plan is to keep saving for a down payment, hopefully for a place with a few acres that way I can keep on teaching my lesson students as well as keeping up my little herd of family bred horses. Spunky is just the start of my little herd and I added on with her little girl Fern. Now if we keep adding on is up to if we can find a place. I am hopeful about it!