Winter Break

For many last week was Winter Recess, Winter Vacation, February Break...I don't know. Whatever you called your time off from school and work, it was a week long opportunity for you to travel, enjoy friends, have family time, or start spring house cleaning.

What I loved was how a number of you included Sprucelands in your plans for vacation. I enjoyed your visits. I totally enjoyed teaching you riding lessons. It was fun.

You can see smiles of pure joy in these photos and quickly sense the satisfaction that comes with a good winter ride. After work on the flat and over a few fences in the indoor, we adjourned to Ring #1 and played. Gave Rosalie and her mom, Janet, a chance to trot and canter in the snow. What a feeling! Made their trip from Massachusetts worth the time. Rosalie rode Honey for the first time and Janet rode Patti.

Erin rides every Saturday too so she participated in this lesson. It gave Erin some time to visit with Rosalie. They remembered each other from summer camp.

What was awesome was watching Erin give Rosalie courage to canter in the snow. Erin already knows the freedom that evolves from that canter because she has learned that the snow slows Marea and that's a big deal.

So with cheers and whoops and hollers, Erin passed on her sense of fun to Rosalie and before you knew it, everyone was playing in our gradually melting snow.

We of course would love for our snow to melt but we keep getting more. Like we get a day where it's 40 degrees and then it's back down to 10 degrees and we have two more inches settle itself over camp. Sigh. I did see a red-winged blackbird at my feeder last weekend. There is definitely hope for the spring ahead. Anytime. Anytime.

Lily meets the Saturday Club

Saturdays at Sprucelands are often a busy time. You've read previous blogs about that. There are riding lessons, horses to feed, and always stalls to clean.

What is totally fun is when I get a call from my Saturday Club members. There message is always a cheerful request to come and work with me. They'll do stalls, groom horses, chip ice out of buckets, and help with feeding. It sure does boost my spirits when there are extra hands at the barn.

Last week I received such a call and we had a great time working together. I cleaned stalls and the girls bedded the horses. Then we fed and I was done at a reasonable hour. Best of all was watching the girls with Lily. They thoroughly enjoyed her.

Of course, if you don't know who Lily is then I will introduce you. As an 8 week old puppy, she joined us on Valentine's Day. She is an Aussie/Border Collie cross and she is quickly learning the ropes and routines of the barn. I like watching how she is with kids because after all she will be with campers this summer.

Pudge is coming into her own. She is a mother figure, company during frequent potty breaks, and a playmate. I am amazed at how patient Pudge is with Lily, and believe it or not, Pudge runs and plays with Lily on the front lawn like she is a puppy herself. Thank you, Pudge!

Madge in Jail

Life at the barn is pretty mundane these days. There is morning feeding, stall cleaning, night feeding and then home to rest for the next day's work. Day after day, no matter the weather, this is the same regular routine. I have often said that our barn manager is the unsung hero of Sprucelands. She keeps our horses alive, well and happy so they are sane and sound for camp in the summer.

On the weekends, I do the horses. Often a lesson student will show up early to help with Saturday morning feeding. Then in between lessons, I clean stalls, and when Saturday is done, I feed the horses and call it a day until I start over on Sunday.

Guess what I'm saying is that it's pretty much the same routine unless the horses spice things up. Sometimes they run down the camp road and I wonder if they're coming back or they break a fence or they put their head down into the round bale and come up looking like they have a new hairdo or they come in from the pasture with their halter dangling. Sometimes they are wearing their halter over one ear. Just for fun I call that the off-the-shoulder look.

Well, Sunday afternoon there was commotion in the back paddock just as I was about done putting grain in horse buckets. So I went to look and there stood Madge inside our very tired hay ring. Something is wrong with this picture, I thought. But then, considering fences have been even with the snow, I wasn't surprised. A horse could just about walk into that ring. So I smiled and told Madge she had a problem to solve. She said, "Well, aren't you at least going to take my picture?"

I went about my business. Started bringing horses in. There stood Madge wondering how I was going to release her from the round cell. I kept about my business and when all the horses were gone from the back paddock casually gave her the nod that she was the one with a problem to solve and she didn't like that one bit!!

As I let the boys in from the pasture, I heard Madge screaming for them to rescue her, but they trotted to their stalls much more focused on supper than Madge. I had to laugh. When everyone was in and watered, Madge was still wailing in the back paddock. I wondered if she would be there all night, but then it got quiet.

I went to look and Madge thankfully was standing at the gate, waiting humbly to come in with an "I'm so embarrassed" look on her face. All was suddenly right with the world. I laughed and patted Madge because she had at the least made the routine interesting and besides, I got some fun photos for you to enjoy.