Equipment Purchases

On Friday we picked up a 2015 Silverado 1500. It's a 3 year lease but for the time being it's all the truck we need and the price is hard to beat per month for our budget!

Today we went to look at a horse trailer. I'd found it on craigslist for an amazing price and brought a cashier's check just in case. Sure enough, it was a great trailer and we decided to bring it home! 

The trailer is a 2009 Eclipse, 2h straight load with dressing room. It's roomy, which is great for Gwyn. I can even lie down in the dressing room, which is a good back up for cold and wet camping at endurance rides!

The seller had put this set up of wood to hold hay bales in place so they wouldn't slide into the horses. And if you tie the horses, they can't eat at it. Genius! It's removable too.

Nice long stalls. I can't touch the ceiling when I stand inside.

Good floor. It's been stored inside and is no longer used since their daughter went off to college.

The center divider is removable

Tie rings and the lock to hold the dutch doors in back open.

Lots of hooks. The wooden bit is a whip holder!

Spare tire and an almost 3 year old

Mirror

I noticed a tiny bit of water coming in at the door when I tested out laying down but I plan to keep an eye on it for now.

We are now the proud owners of the Rochester Rd property in Dryden! Closing was today and it went smoothly!  Our last house purchase was from a bank so there wasn't much in the way of socialization at closing, unlike today! The current owners were there. I really like them. They're staying in the area and I'm likely to use Sara as a trainer for Gwyn to smooth out some edges.

I finished off today with a trip to the car dealership to check out and price Sierra 1500s. There's a deal going on now for 0% apr.  But when I came home (sans truck) and we priced out a base 2500 Silverado... there wasn't much difference in price and I'd get the features I really want, rather than the super expensive top of the line 1500. And with a 2500 I have some wiggle room with which trailer we end up buying.

So truck and trailer are next! It seems like we'll be ordering a 2500 soon!

April 27 arrival of Gwyn to Michigan!

Here's the video from Gwyn arriving from Washington at Hummingbird Equestrian, our temporary home until we can move into the new property! I finally uploaded the video!


Thank you Nationwide Horse Transport for once again bringing my best 4 legged friend to me from across the country. You did an amazing job again!

Trailer Shopping

 A friend of Eric's from high school has a horse trailer for sale and we went to look at it yesterday. It's a 2 horse Bison Alumasport, straight load gooseneck, 1999 model. I've included a few pictures here. I'm trying to figure out what I want to offer as a purchase price. This is the cheapest option we have right now, the other two trailers I'd be willing to consider are new... and much more expensive.

Space for a mattress for camping at Endurance rides and horse shows!

Lots of wasps nests in the windows and top part of the trailer. I'd need to go through and really clean the thing up.

Two escape doors.

The mats need to be reglued or just replaced on the ramp since they were originally screwed down. 

There used to be a trailer camera system!

Boards are good. 

Rust in places

Ceiling is 7ft, the entrance to the trailer is 6.5 ft It's the minimum height I'd prefer. I'm worried about the length of the stall with Gwyn.

The family who has the trailer is a working farm family and they had some HUGE tractors that Kaylee absolutely wanted to climb up on and 'drive'

Huge tire! Tiny kid!!

She's been invited back to ride along when they do the combine harvesting in the fall. 

Progress With Firefly!

I've been ordering supplies for the barn now that I have an idea of what I'll need and what's staying. Those things started arriving!

First to come was my order from Schneider's Saddlery. You'll notice that I'm not a devoted customer to one site. I shop around for the best deals and may add in a fun thing or two to get free shipping. After being an Amazon Prime customer for so long I'm loathe to pay shipping anymore, aha. 

Muck fork, ASSEMBLE!

Kaylee helps me.  I didn't realize that you don't use one tine so I may take this apart and put it back together with more purple than blue. Guess which is my favorite color? 

A Kaylee size pitchfork!

Rail Razers

The razers in action today at Hummingbird Equestrian

My SmartPak order. I got new half chaps, a Thorowgood girth to match my saddle of the same brand, a whip organizer for the tack room, lederbalsam for tack cleaning and conditioning and a sweat scraper/shedding blade.

I'm currently building up the courage to purchase everything in my Dover cart, but most of that is clothes for summer riding in the heat. 

Places to Ride and People to Ride with!!

I met a new friend (!!!) through the Michigan Distance Derby who will be living near me when we move and she recommended a few places to ride. She has the same dreams and aspirations as me and our horses sound pretty similar!! Even better!

I'm linking everything she recommended here so I can come back and find them for reference. It sounds like there's going to be quite a bit around me with less than an hour of driving so that's awesome! I'm going to have riding buddies!!

I also bought a manure spreader. And the rubber mats that are currently in the barn. Huzzah!


Cobblestone Farms A place for cross country schooling!

Ortonville Recreation Equestrian Association OREA A riding club for the Ortonville Recreation Area They organize work parties and judged trail rides, it appears! The recreation area has horse camping available as well as 6.5 miles of horse use trail and 2.5 miles of hiking.

Elba Equestrian Complex is horse camping only!! And about 30 minutes away to boot.

Windrush Farm is the site of a combined driving event! As a bonus, it's only 10 minutes from the farm! Gwyn's Auntie did CDE  and it's something that's always intrigued me!

Special Events and Festivals in the area!

Hunters Run Farms has a place to school for eventing and even hosts a Leslie Law Clinic!!

Our New Home!

We close at the end of this month on this lovely little 5 acre property in Dryden, MI. Today I went out with my husband to show his family around the house. We did this unofficially, the current owners invited us to it so they could show me the ropes and little details about the property and how it functions.

The two front pastures that you see on either side of the driveway to the house are the summer pastures with the heat tolerant/loving grasses. Everything was seeded and pasture managed. I will need to make sure I manage that appropriately. The back pasture is the spring/fall pasture with the colder grasses like alfalfa. It will green up first and stay green long after summer is done.

The fencing is all electrobraid and the big posts are cemented and below frost line so with a little extra corner bracing we could put in some tension fencing like RAMM or the recycled tire fencing in the future.

I'm hoping to purchase the manure spreader since it will be too small for the current owner's new facility. I'm also purchasing the existing mats in the barn.

There are several apple trees on the property that look like they will be dropping apples EVERYWHERE!  This makes me excited.

I've started ordering some things online for the barn soon enough I'll be chronicling getting everything set up so Gwyn can come home. A month and a half at most!