Winter Musings

Luckily for us, fire season has been relatively chill. We are at the beginning of October and I've been able to keep TC in work. That's great! But fire season could absolutely pick up and ruin our fall and winter as I rehab TC's lungs. Fingers crossed that won't be the case. But either way, I'm wanting to keep riding through the winter given how things are going. 

But, without a covered arena, I've been trying to figure out what to do about the winter. The ranch will remain livable for TC, he'll have at least his 50 foot paddock off of his stall (12x12) and porch (12x12) and then he'll have the sacrifice pasture (probably another 50 feet out and 50 feet wide) when it's not too muddy. It's mostly how to keep him in work when it's raining. 

TC's paddock, this whole pad is mud free in the
winter!

The arena will hold up to some rain, but it gets sloppy quick and doesn't dry out too quickly. I don't mind riding in slop but not the whole winter. Plus, I don't have the gear to ride WHEN it's raining. I could certainly acquire rain clothes but I dunno, I'm not super interested in riding when it's pouring rain onto me. Plus I'll have just bought a new saddle. 

We are not scheduled to get a ton of rain, but I also don't want to assume that I'll be able to ride all winter and then realize too late that I should have made arrangements. 

These are my current options: 

Find a Haul In Barn

There are covered arenas in the area that I could probably haul into. The pros of this are obviously that TC can stay at home in his giant paddock and when it's not raining, it'll be great. If we end up traveling this winter (unsure if that will happen), it's easy to just take off and let him hang in his pasture with excellent care and a lot of room to roam around. 

The downside is that I'll have to haul to a barn and back to ride and wow doing that when working, that's going to be tough. I'm worried that we'll have a long storm that takes the ranch arena out of commission and I won't be able to make the time to haul him out. 

Move to Kate's Barn

Kate's new barn is great, TC and I have been there a few times and they have a huge covered arena. The paddocks will not be the size of what he has at the ranch, but it'll be just for the winter. The barn is the same distance from my house as the ranch, so that's helpful. My mom also said that she might want to put Sunny over there for a rider in Kate's program (or me if I can keep riding him with my new job) to keep going and for her to ride through the winter so she can get a head start on riding him next year. So that'd be cool to be able to ride together there. 

Downsides, I don't really see any other than having to share a covered arena and having TC in a smaller space. I don't know what spaces are available yet so it's hard to know what that is going to be like. I don't know how small of a paddock I'd be willing to put him in. We'll see! 

No matter what, we lose these trails to the rain
in the winter, boo!

Move to Local Trainer's Barn

Local trainer's barn is only 20 minutes from my house. They have an amazing covered arena and even have hills where we can climb in the winter. That's huge because TC's stifle usually gets iffy over the winter because we can't do any hill work on the trails. There's also local trainer! I could take two lessons a week and we would be so much better off! 

The major downside is that the paddocks are small and there aren't many of them. Most of the horses are in box stalls and turned out for a few hours a day. If we couldn't get a paddock, there's no way I'd put him through that. They do have a gelding pasture but I don't know how muddy those get and if it's just temporary, it seems silly to try to put him in a pasture. 

Buy a Giant Tarp

I've literally thought about investing in an arena tarp for the ranch. One of the barns in the area has had luck with theirs. I haven't looked into this to see how much it would cost or what the logistics would be. But this would be the ideal situation. Tarp the arena during storms and give him a day or two off when it's the worst rain. Then just roll the tarp off the arena to ride in it right after the rain. I've contacted a company for a quote just in case. It'll probably prove to be too expensive and too tedious but it sounds like the best of all worlds to me. 

By the way, covering the arena is not an option with permits and costs and things. I wish! 

Local trainer's arena is soooo nice, such good footing
and mirrors too!

I've ruled out all the other barns in the area just because they either have long waitlists for stalls with paddocks or they don't have good footing in their covered arenas. So we'll see what ends up happening! I need to contact both barns to see what paddocks they have. I'm thinking of moving him just for January and February. It usually doesn't rain here until mid December and the first few rains don't do much to the arena footing so it's no big deal. 

Part of me hopes that we will have a mild winter so I don't have to move him, but most of me hopes to get drenched because we are in a terrible drought. 

Boarding in the Bay

Horse keeping in the bay area can be... challenging. And it's getting even more challenging. I teach on the peninsula (in the heart of silicon valley) a couple days a week and got wind of one facility preparing to close permanently (with two others possibly following) in favor of, from what I hear at least, building condos. There's also been threats to the area where I board - various barns and land being put up for sale with the looming worry that developers will buy it. The times, they are a changing.

Westwind barn, still standing

I grew up in Cupertino (that town your iphone defaults to) and my family kept horses in Los Altos Hills, riding distance to Westwind Barn. I'm sure this means nothing to someone not familiar with this area, so essentially, I grew up in the suburbs of what was becoming Silicon Valley, kept my horses about 20 minutes north in a very horse friendly (at the time) neighborhood in the backyard of TC's breeder's parents' house (the connection that led me to him, incidentally) which was across the street from my grandparents' house (they are now long gone and that house is also long gone, sold to a major player in Silicon Valley so they could tear down the house and the horse facilities to build a gigantic guest house mansion with multi-million dollar views of the bay).

I rode along the roads, looping in and out of pastures and open space, riding down to visit friends who kept their horses in their backyards nearby. I rode to pony club once a week at Westwind or for the occasional schooling show, but most of my childhood was spent on the trails or on the roads. Westwind was mostly pasture and large paddock board with some stalls in the main barn, there was one arena and a large field to ride in, and most people who rode there rode their horses over from their houses/private barns to ride vs boarding there.

I love getting anonymous messages like this, makes me feel
like a real blogger that what I post annoys people enough
to comment like this! This post is semi-inspired by that but
also by a few barns closing/coming up for sale nearby.

Fast forward to now, nearly every house within riding distance of the barn I grew up at is a McMansion with the horse facilities either bulldozed or in ruins to serve as rustic decor. Other than a piece of land with no road access that is on a very steep hill, prices go as low as 2.75 million for 1.5 acres of undeveloped land if you'd like to live there but don't have the money for the typical 5 million dollar homes in the area.

In addition to those crazy prices, the housing market in the bay area has so many cash-only investors where you have to offer huge sums of money over the asking price and sign away that you're fine with not having an inspection in order to buy something. You see something somewhat affordable for you, cool, you're now battling 9-15 other people to get it and at least two of them are showing up, cash in hand, willing to buy it without even walking inside. My friends have literally written sweet letters trying to appeal to property owners about how they'll use their house in addition to agreeing to no inspection and offering 10-15% over the asking price. They're still turned down. So even if you had the money to live there, it will still take probably 8-10 offers and searching for months to get a place. If you had the money, it's well worth it for the beautiful views, lack of commute, and ever increasing housing market that never seems to crash as low as the rest of the country in times of economic downturn and comes back up way faster.

This was TC's first ever schooling show and this facility is being
torn down, no more horses (it once housed over 100 of them)

So that area in Los Altos Hills is wild, maybe you're okay with not having your horse on your own property and would rather board in that area and drive in like I did as a kid. Well, the house I grew up in is now worth 2.3 million dollars. It's a 2,000 square foot house on a 7500 square foot lot (my parents sold it 10+ years ago so they got a payout but not a 2.5 million dollar payout). You can board your horses a mere 20 minutes away (uh it'd help if you didn't work so you can plan your drives to avoid traffic that will more than double that commute) for about $800-$1000 per month at a nice barn, $500-700 at one with some issues.

The nice barns ARE nice. But the paddocks are not large (the nicest barns seem to have the least amount of space), there's no real turnout, and often times the barns will require training with trainers that charge what might seem like an outrageous amount of money because they too have to live nearby and keep their horses at the facility. Why waste space on turnouts when you can stuff more horses in your facility and sell off unused parcels for tons of money? Pfft.

The more affordable barns do have issues. Poor footing, lack of lights (or even lack of electricity as a whole), small stalls/paddocks, no turnout, bad fencing (so many pastures in this area have barbed wire fencing), no covered arena, stalls/paddocks aren't cleaned (so you have to do it yourself), etc. I teach at a few facilities that I'd never in a million years keep my own horse due to one or more of those issues.

Me on Shawnee (we hauled him nearby so stopped to take him
out of the trailer in the non-horsey suburb of my childhood) in my
front yard of my very boring childhood house, now worth
2.3 million dollars

Due to the lack of boarding facilities, the number of people who want to ride and have horses, and the cost of maintenance (expensive area = pay your workers more, hay is expensive, property taxes, etc) the boarding facilities don't have to be as nice and/or can't afford to be as nice as you'd expect them to be for the amount of money you're paying. When you have a waiting list a mile long, if one boarder complains that your footing isn't that good or that their paddock isn't big enough, or that the fencing sucks, you can just tell them to leave and grab someone else off the list. No barn in the area is hurting for boarders because...

Facilities are closing left and right to sell to developers while private barns are being turned into vineyards or pools in the backyards of estates because why take care of horses at home when you can just put them elsewhere? So the barns have long wait-lists and are putting horses wherever they can to stay afloat themselves. Being a barn owner in the area means turning down huge sums of money (I'm talking tens of millions dollars for property that the new owners would just tear down and put in condos because each one of those will sell for 1.5-2 million dollars) all the while hearing that your board is too expensive, your fencing/footing isn't safe enough, and your paddocks are too small.


Things are way better in the outskirts of the bay area. It's why I live there. But there are still challenges. My rent is literally 55% of my take home salary from my office job, my commute is just under an hour one way, and I have to work a second job to make ends meet. But I can live 10 minutes away from a barn that is affordable to be at and IMO, has no cons for me personally.

Purchasing in this area isn't as bad, there are actual horse properties to buy for less-than-outrageous amounts of money! For example, you could buy this nice horse property on one acre for 1.2 million dollars. Not a lot of space for amenities though, maybe you're okay with just riding in the small pasture or hauling out every day. Want more room? Well, there are a few boarding stables for sale in the 2.5-4 million dollar range for sale, except like I said, you could be fighting developers with deep pockets who are able to pay in cash and who don't care how nice the facility is or whether it is making money because they'll just tear it down. Oh or you can get a whopping 10 acres for only 2 million! Such a deal, but you'd have to develop your horse facilities yourself and the house is only 900 square feet, looks like it could use a renovation and it sounds like there's a lot of paperwork associated with that property with the state, weird.

I feel like this sometimes with my constant working

The prices sound great right? Except down here, you're looking at a 45 minute commute to the bay area (since my job on the coast in academia will not pay that mortgage) without traffic, and traffic easily doubles or even triples your drive depending on how far you need to go and at what hour. The one highway from my area backs up starting at 5 in the morning and is still iffy around 11. Getting home from the bay on a weekend also has major traffic (which annoys me EVERY TIME lol). These tech companies pay well though, you can work at Google and make plenty of money to buy one of these properties... but you're looking at a 1.5-2 hour commute. Public transportation? Well, from one of those properties, you can drive thirty minutes to the station and then the train takes 1.5-2 hours and only leaves at three times in the morning (and also only comes down that far at three times in the afternoon).

In terms of boarding, there are more barns in my area than on the peninsula and not as many of them are under threat of being sold/developed (still a threat though), which is great! But the pickings are still limited.

I'm very lucky at my barn. It checks off nearly all my boxes. The footing is not only safe, it's downright great, there are amenities that help me enjoy my horse (dressage court, mirrors, covered arena), the fencing is safe, and we will be moving into a large paddock in the next couple of months. But it took me 9 months to get into and that's with me knowing the facility owners very well and offering to move into a smaller paddock first. I can't teach there or have my own trainer come in either, which is fine with me because I like having my horse at a separate facility than the one I train at and I have a trailer to haul to my trainer with. There's no real turnout (turnout paddocks are just a bit larger than what he has now), though I can turn TC out myself in a decent size space but I have to stay there with him and there's a max time limit. There's also no trails, but there are great trail facilities within a 30 minute haul.

Another barn in the area that is slowly being gutted to make
room for non-horse activities

I'm a firm believer that horses should live out (my parents have all their horses out in pastures with stalls/paddocks attached), I don't disagree with that comment made on my blog last week. It is better for them and if I could, I'd keep TC at his breeder's forever (but amenities are not what I need and that spot he had was not his to keep, they did me a HUGE FAVOR by letting me come in temporarily). I see the pastures on the east coast and midwest and I can't help but to be envious. TC would love to live on 10 acres or more, with a ton of friends, eating fresh grass rather than hay that costs $22 a bale.

But for right now, I think I'm doing a good job keeping him well taken care of in a tricky area.

Another barn currently for sale, hopefully the
new owners will keep it as a boarding stable

But I will put this offer out there: if anyone would like to rescue TC from his horrible fate of being owned by someone who lives in the bay area where he doesn't get enough turnout, his adoption fee is $50,000. Or, you can contribute to my fund to buy him his own barn where he can have more room, I'm sure he'd love that. I think I'd need about $1.5 million for the property and another few hundred thousand to build the barn and arena. Also he'd love some mini donks so I'll plan on buying him some of those, don't worry.

Or I can just keep plugging away with my two jobs and my crazy commute and hang onto my current barn as long as I can, we're both happy there and that's all that matters to me.

High Maintenance

Enjoy some pictures from my ride on TC this last Friday (I don't have much to say about it, he was great, so great that I purchased him after it) while I tell you guys why my horse is still living at his breeder's. This is long, so feel free to just scroll through the pictures, there are lots! And more pictures are coming when I actually talk about how awesome my horse is in tomorrow's post.

Omg this horse, right?

This canter is insane

I've always been a high maintenance horse owner. I don't think I'm that high maintenance as a human. I'm definitely not the most low maintenance person ever (type A all the way) but I know when to shut up and let shit slide.

I've never been good at that with my horses.

I love that I can sit like this on him now

NECK MUSCLES, also it's finally time to lower my stirrups! Yay!

It's not even that my horses are high maintenance. Okay Rico was, but it's hard to argue that my barefoot, pasture-living baby horse is (although he will get shoes soonish). I just know from experience that the more careful I am with their care, the more likely I am to a) stay safe b) stay sane and c) feel good about how I treat my animals.

And let me just say that I'm not one to judge other people against my own standards. Like I only feel safe riding with a helmet but I'm not about to go yell at someone at my barn who always rides without one. I don't like having my horse in a box stall (unless he was literally ONLY in to eat food), but I know that a lot of people think it's fine and I wouldn't think that they were bad horse owners because of it.

He's getting a lot more scope to his gait, all the better to murder
my back when I can finally sit his trot

His canter is a touch lateral on this side and he gets a
little retracted, working on it

So in making my boarding decision for TC, I need to feel like my decision is going to keep both of us sane, both of us safe, and make me feel like I'm giving him the best care that I am physically, emotionally, and financially able to. Let me break it down.

I need a boarding situation that is safe for both of us. One part of this means that I feel safe from being injured. This could mean that I won't say, board my 4 year old at a barn where I have to cross a busy road in the dark, or I won't board at a place that doesn't have a decent amount of rules about safety (like if your dog is going to chase my horse, keep it on a leash).

I also need to feel like TC is safe from injury. So no barbed wire fencing (there are SO many places here with barbed wire) or bad footing either in the arena or in the paddock/pasture that could lead to a pulled tendon. I also need to make sure that it's not a situation where I feel like TC would become unsafe for me to handle, for example a barn that didn't have a safe place to longe, or a stable situation where I feel like he might lose his shit on me.

He's a little btv here, but it's such an improvement in how he is
lifting through his withers, when he develops more through his
back, he'll be able to open up that throatlach better

Canter needs massive work (and the left more so than the right)

I need a boarding situation that keeps both of us sane. I want to feel like I trust the barn manager/owner to notice if something is going wrong. I want to be able to go on vacation without ruining it by worrying about my horse. I also want TC to feel comfortable and happy. In a place where he is all by himself or cooped up- he might go nuts. I want him to feel comfortable with where he lives, since he'll be there a lot more than I am.

I want to feel like I'm doing my best in terms of choosing a boarding situation. There are limited options and all have pros and cons. Part of keeping me sane is knowing every day, while I'm at home, work, or out, that I chose the best situation for him out of all of my options.

Ahhh that hind leg, he is figuring it out

So much suspension at the canter

That doesn't mean eating ramen every day and selling my car in order to pay for my horse to be at some fancy place. I certainly am not putting him on all the best supplements and getting the best farrier in the area and doing chiro/massage every other week for him. I could always be taking care of him at a much higher level. But for me, there is a minimum requirement that I need to hit for me to not be rushing out of the office to rescue him from his living situation.

I have to make sure I'm doing the best for him physically- the location is a good place for HIM to be, he is safe and feels comfortable. I have to make sure I'm doing my best for him emotionally- that I don't put him in a place that, say, is so far away from my job that I frequently get to the barn so frustrated by the traffic that I'm more likely to have shitty rides.

I also need to do my best for him financially- I can't just throw him at some shitty barn to save money (the board varies drastically in this area from 250/mo to over 800/mo), that isn't okay in my mind. I don't want to cripple myself financially though, I mean obviously there is a limit, but I'm not going to sacrifice any of the above to save money.

One of my favorite pictures :)

He's so sproingy at the canter

So where does this leave me? I'm not moving into my new barn on Sunday.

Unfortunately there was a mistake in communication that I take full responsibility for, where I thought we were getting a stall and paddock and what we were actually getting was a box stall with very limited (<1 hour per day) turnout. For me, this is not enough for him. He is four years old and has been living in group pasture for all of his life. To take him from that into a box stall does not feel right to me. They've been very nice to offer me additional situations that would not be permanent. And while that would be fine if he were Rico, I don't think shuffling him around for the next few months would be good for him. So I am backing out.

He is the best

I feel terrible saying no this late in the game. But I do not feel good about moving him into a situation that a) is going to make me feel like I'm not doing my best for him, b) is possibly going to make him very upset and angry, which c) may put my well-being in danger if TC is feeling cooped up and takes it out on me.

But it's an amazing barn and I was looking forward to being there in the future. I will be on the wait list for a permanent stall and paddock.

So tricky at the canter, but I love that he's trying

Sometimes he's low like this and I'm totally fine with it, given
what his tendencies are. His throatlach isn't too closed and he is
letting me access his back.

So as of this weekend, I'm living a little more than an hour (no traffic) from my horse. That's fine. I trust his breeder and that facility to keep him safe and to let me know if something is going on. I have a schedule in place where I can ride him on weekends and once a week on the weekdays since I have the ability to work from home once a week.

He is in his pasture and so doesn't need a ton of riding to keep him fit enough for my short rides. I am forgetting about showing or making progress for the next few months. I would rather give up what would have been my awesome 15 minute barn commute and have to drive nearly 3 hours round trip to see him than give up his and my sanity and potentially put myself or him in danger.

Luckily, being up here means I can see barns each day after work. I've already got a few places to check out that are maybe a little further away than I had initially wanted to be (but still closer than my current barn!). But again I'm willing to sacrifice my commute to keep this horse, and therefore myself, happy. I just want to do my best as a horse owner, whatever that means to me in particular.

So much fun that I can't stop looking at his neck, ugh

See his left front hit before his right hind? Lateral. But I think he
will get better with more strength and confidence

What do you guys think? Do you have specific requirements like this, or are you a little more laid back?

With all this drama happening, I started feeling... not regret from purchasing him, but just remembering that owning is so much more stressful than leasing. Like I could go lease a horse at a barn that only offers box stalls and I wouldn't think twice about it because it wasn't my decision to put the horse there.

I'm not one to lease though, especially at my level, it's hard to find someone who won't take advantage of me even a little bit. Been there, done that.

He's so light