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! 

Offer Made!

Since our house in WA is under contract now, due to close near the end of May, we decided to move forward and put an offer on a property in Dryden, MI. It's a 5 acre property on Rochester Rd complete with 3 stall barn, tack room, hay storage and sand riding arena. The house is perfect for our family and I'm sure Kaylee will love the play set in the backyard. There's lots of pasture space, already set up for rotation and it's all fenced with electrobraid.

If things run smoothly we could close on the new house 2 days after we close on the old. Here's to smooth transactions and accepted offers!

Gwyn eats her last meal at Shadow's Equestrian Center

Moving Forward!

We are officially relocated to Michigan. At this point we're just waiting on our house in WA to sell before we can start property hunting here in the midwest. That awesome house in Dryden I mentioned a while back  has sold (SADNESS) but there are a few others that have just as much potential.

I'm afraid to visit them until I know I can put an offer down that is competitive and desirable to a seller. One at the top is also in Dryden/Metamora area.

We also have another that's closer to home that might allow us to offer retirement board but it depends on how terrible of shape the house is in. The barn itself looks awesome, 8-10 stalls, 20 acres, close to work for my husband.  Whatever we buy will determine what our farm becomes. It's just a glimmer for me right now but soon... SOON!


See you then ;)

In the meantime, have a throwback video of Gwyn scratching herself on a hay round

Throwback Video

When Miss Gwyn lived in Florida with Cheri.  Also pictured are her cousin Nyx and Aunt Blanche (the leopard Appaloosa)