It was like an Alfred Hitchcock movie here when a massive flock of birds decented upon the farm!







Craziness!

What a beautiful birthday present to me! I looked out my office window (like I do every morning to check the arena conditions) and it was so beautifully drug by Ex with the very welcome spring sun stretching across it! Now I do know in a couple months I’ll be begging for fall weather but for now I’ve been saying I’m just so excited to be given the opportunity soon to complain about the humidity and heat. Haha!



Now even though the trees are still bare the bulbs have come out and are opening! It still is touching on freezing at night but it’s so nice to begin to see color coming out and this place really does get amazingly green and so lush in the spring summer. It’s fabulous! Next year we’ll do the covered arena and riding will be brilliant ALL YEAR ROUND! Yah! These are some of the bulbs by the front entry.

Our new footing additive for the dressage court arrived and I’m just sooooo excited to unwrap it, get the arena base dialed in, find the proper sand and get the footing mixed, spread, laser leveled and then just get to ride, ride, ride no matter how many buckets of water these North Carolina skies dump on us!

The product we’re going with is pictured to the left and is by German Geo Textile Footing (specificially we’re using their GGT Jump Blend) and the picture below shows about 3700 pounds of product which is standard for sand blending with our 20×60 court. It works with outdoor and indoor courts and it’s intent it to reduce dust, retain water, provide impact resistance, help prevent packing and should extend the arena surface lifetime by about 10 years plus none of their products contain ANY glass fibers and in working with them to learn about the product they seem like a great company with lots of experience. It’s been used since 1992 in Europe but is pretty new to the states still so I’m really looking forward to using it!

More specifics will follow when we start working with the installation (we’re doing a series of webisodes on footing in the coming weeks!) and of course much more as we start to train on it as well. It looks REALLY similar to the product that was in with Anky’s arenas so I’m going to ask her or Sjef about that just out of curiosity!

Yes I’m quite excited to share a picture of my new custom cut Petrie Anky Elegance Dress Boots. I loved the fit on my Petrie Anky Polo Boots so much that riding in my stock Petries felt more like riding in paddock boots and half chaps. While the stock Petries are über comfy, I don’t know much that’s better than a solid quality crafted pair of riding boots specifically cut to the exact measurements of your feet (especially if you have narrow feet and tiny calf muscles like I do).

As you’ll see from the picture, they are beautiful and they are custom to my feet so all I’ve done so far (that I don’t have so much spare time right now) is stand while working on HorseGirlTV at my laptop and stretch/bend a bit while wearing them to help break them in. I’m waiting til the weather warms and is more consistently dry to actually ride in them but if they boast anything like my Petrie Polos then it’ll be a matter of riding in them twice in slight discomfort and then on ride 3 feeling like they are a second (albeit stiff) skin!

Many thanks to Ellen at The Tack Factory for her mastery of custom boot measurements and all her well educated advice on Petries, specifically the Anky line! All the folks at The Tack Factory in The Netherlands are AWESOME and I simply love looking at and riding in my new boots!

Thinking it would be helpful to donate to a tree association, Ex did. He didn’t realize that by donating to a tree association (namely Arbor Day Foundation) they would sell/giveaway our mailing address to SOOOOO many places that the little money that was donated was surely spent in marketing propaganda coming in our mailbox (or what is more commonly referred to as Junk Mail). We’ve been snail mail spammed for months now working to get off these other lists.

So starting with that I’ll throw in that by joining the Arbor Day Foundation they send you 10 very VERY young trees so that’s a nice return on your donation for sure. Ex thought it would be nice to have oaks and I do agree that oaks are quite beautiful but also slow growing. The long and the short of it is we ended up with 10 seedling type oak trees now planted in pots. Not really knowing what to do with them here and knowing we couldn’t plant them in a pasture without them getting dug up, eaten or otherwise killed by a horse it came to me. Ex has quite a few colleagues that are buying houses and what a great housewarming gift but a cute little tree!

One step further to wrap the trees I thought it would be nice to use only what we have around the house so no buying wrapping, bows, etc and only reusing stuff. So the wrapping isn’t the prettiest on the planet but it’s unique and, I think, sends a nice message. This is our first little tree to give away and I think it’s just too darn cute in it’s red, white and blue trappings!

So take heed… feel free to donate to worthy causes but perhaps figure out some way your address doesn’t get handed round to all the other foundations that will send you cards, letters, “gifts” asking for money therefore negating your original intent. Here’s the tree picture! Too cute!

I thought this was a great promotion and it’s starting today so check it out! Leave it to Equestrian Collections to offer a great and timely contest that’s with our safety in mind!

Equestrian Collections is very happy to announce that Troxel Helmets has agreed to sponsor their Facebook Contest this week. Go to the Discussions page under Troxel Helmet Contest and share a story of how a helmet has prevented you or someone you know from being seriously injured.

Next, become a fan of Troxel Helmets on Facebook so you can see your story posted on Troxel’s fan page and Safety Center Headsmart Blog. Equestrian Collections and Troxel Helmets will each choose one winner on Friday, March 19, 2010. Each winner will receive a Troxel Performance Package, which includes one Troxel helmet of your choice, one Barn Beanie, and one Helmet Tote. Equestrian Collections and Troxel Helmets strongly believe that all riders should wear a helmet. By sharing your stories, we hope you can help us to convince others to choose to wear a helmet.

You can also buy a helmet from Equestrian Collections website and get $10 off your order of $120 using the coupon code below: