We do want to get your feedback on what you want us to do in 2015, so please tell us your thoughts at: https://www.surveymonkey.com/
I wanted to take some time to fill you in with some of the things we've experienced and where we are heading into 2015.
This year we had our foals Sola & Symba who share the excellent bloodlines of Balius, as well we are delighted that Jesse is the owner or the other foal, Gaia. We look forward to seeing great things from these foals in the future. We don't foresee anymore horse breeding for us in the near future (or maybe ever), that was enough stress for me!
Molly also had her first litter of pups, a litter of 5. Everything went well and we love playing with the little balls of fluff. Lona is currently pregnant and expecting her first litter of pups. We plan to continue breeding Corgis, and will alternate our girls so they only have 1 litter per year. Stay tuned for when the next litter of cuteness arrives!
Our flock of chickens seems to have grown out of control.... we went from about 5 chickens to now about 50 - and they hatched themselves with no help from us. We enjoy letting our chickens live a very natural life and we plan to continue letting them hatch some chicks, but now we are limiting them so they don't hatch quite so many. We'll likely be selling eggs next year. Currently we use the eggs and chickens for ourselves.
This year I've spent a lot of investment in my own learning and development - there is always so much to learn! I participated in clinics with Don Halladay, a jumping workshop with Kathy Baar, a ground workshop with Maureen Owens, Centred Riding Workshop with Peggy, and Centred Riding lessons with Esther Johnson.
I plan to continue with centered riding and may even pursue my instructors license n this field. I am also continuing with Parelli Natural Horsemanship and still have my eye on doing my official levels assessment.
It was another great year of both summer camp for kids, and summer weekend camp for adults! There is always such a variety of learning, and we were thankful to this year's coaches Alexandra, Anastasia, Danica, Marcie, Caileigh Anne, and Paige at camp!
We were back in the show ring this year in the bronze series at Blue Star Farm - boy did that feel good! Thetis and I were reserve champion at the last show and year end champion, along with student Alexandra who were year end champion in their division. Maya, Morgan, Christina, Paige, Alexandra, Cailey, and myself all competed and brought back many smiles and ribbons - we'll plan to do it again next year.
We also hosted our own show series which went very well and we will try this again, along with our first extreme cowboy competition - super fun!! So we will definitely be doing that again.
If you look around the farm from beginning to end of the year you see many changes - new fencing, shelters, new arrangements in the tack room, new obstacles, etc.
Next year is going to be massive changes - you won't even recognize our place by the end of 2015.... among the biggest changes is a massive 270ft x 80ft indoor arena... which means a lot of renovations of fencing, shelters, paddocks and rings.... and yes thats bigger than the Ricoh where they host the Royal Winter Fair :)
We're also partnering with other equestrian centres in the Natural Horsemanship Association to host a new series of shows and horse agility which will be brand new for 2015! We hope you can take part in these exciting new events.
As I sit here and write all this, I am in the waiting room just about to get lasik eye surgery done, so I think it's safe to say everything is going to look a whole lot different!
