Horse Shelter

I wish I'd started this blog right from the day we moved here, that way I'd be able to tell you all the funny mishaps that we went through each day. Believe me, there were a lot.

We used some old logs from the property to build the frame, and then bought the supplies to do the rest. Using the logs was a great way to recycle materials that were already here, and we liked the idea of keeping the shelter as natural as possible. Horses do have a tendency to chew on things, lol, so we thought why not give them trees as posts. Of course we took the bark off and smoothed them out. That was a challenge on it's own!

We didn't have any fancy tools, so we did everything by hand. It took us days to strip the bark and smooth out the logs, and as you can see, the boys got super creative when it came to installing them in the ground! lol. What we didn't find out until nearly a year later was that our geothermal pipes ran along the very same area we built the shelter, yikes! Luck was definitely on our side as we somehow managed not to hit a single pipe.

The kids helped after school.

We even recruited family to help when they came to visit :)

Libby was very helpful...

...as was Ruby

They made sure Mike was doing a good job, offering pointers as he worked.

Ruby & Libby have arrived :)

About a week after Roxy came to be with us, Ruby and Libby arrived. Roxy was happy to have friends :) They all got along right from the start. I wish I had videos to show how much fun they had running in the fields together, so cute!

Next project: a shelter for all the girls...

Roxy

October 2011

The fences are finally completed, now it's time to go shopping. We need water troughs, mineral blocks, grains, hay feeders and oh ya, hay! 

Brytann (our vet) told us about the hay she brings in, it's excellent quality and all her horses have always done amazing on it. Okay, deal! Wait...he only sells 1000 lb round bales...yikes!

Now would be the perfect time to look for a tractor! We were sad to learn that Brytann was in the process of moving to her new place in Kelowna (which meant she would no longer be living just down the road). On a good note, she was more than happy to stay on as our vet and still had a lot of regular clients in the area so we'd still her as often as we'd like, whew! 

In her process of moving, she had decided to sell us her old tractor, which was perfect because that was about all we could afford! It had certainly lived a good life on her farm, and now it was about to get a new home. Now we had a way of moving the 1000 lb bales. 

Mike arriving with our first load of hay!

Luckily the property came with an old barn, perfect for storing hay.

Now that we have hay and supplies, we were eagerly waiting for Libby and Ruby to arrive. A couple days later, we got a call from Brytann. Some clients of hers were about to head south for the winter. They usually take their horses with them but this time they decided it wasn't a good idea to take their older mare. They were worried that they'd have to put her down because they wouldn't have time to list her for sale and weren't sure anyone would buy her. She was still in great shape and excellent health and they really just wanted to find her a good home, but had to do it quickly...that's where we came in. 

Meet Roxy... 

We fell in love with her right away. She's so kind and gentle. In her younger days she was quite the barrel racer, and believe me, Mike found that out pretty quickly during our first arena session! Our tenants (they rent the 2nd house on the property) had left up some barrels in the arena. We didn't think anything of it until Mike gave Roxy the go ahead to go faster. The second she saw the barrels she knew what to do, unfortunately, she didn't convey her racing abilities to Mike until it was too late. Before we knew it she had raced to the end barrel and when she came around it Mike's foot had slipped out of the stirrup, Roxy felt this and immediately banked to slip his foot back in then headed for the 2nd barrel. Luckily she listens extremely well and stopped as soon as Mike said whoa. Let's just say from then on out, we make sure there aren't any barrels in the arena ;)

Meet Libby & Ruby

Shortly after arriving here, were fortunate to meet a wonderful vet name Brytann. We were ecstatic to know that a highly sought after vet would be living just 5 minutes from us! As we started to get to know her, she told us about some horses she had for sale, and after meeting us she knew we'd make a happy and loving home. It was a match made in heaven!

There was one horse in particular that we were going to meet. A gorgeous black and white paint named Libby. She was only 2 but had been started with excellent training.

Needless to say, Mike fell in love right away!

As Mike got to know Libby, Brytann mentioned she had another paint mare, very dear to her heart, named Ruby. Ruby was 4 and ready to ride with lots of training behind her. She was way out of our price range but we thought well, we're here, let's at least see her.

As Mom and I were walking around the field, Ruby would follow close behind, nudging her nose into our coats, being super friendly and lovey...yup, she knew what she was doing! SOLD! Mom and I decided to purchase her together, she absolutely stole our hearts :)

So now the race was on! We had just bought 2 horses and needed a new field to put them in. There were a few areas on the property that were already fenced in and ready to go, but since the previous owner ran cattle, all the fences contained barbed wire. That had to go! Then we started looking at the large field that was basically our 'back yard'. We couldn't think of a better spot! This way, we'd get to keep a close eye on them every day :)

So, we ordered new fence posts, new barbless wire, rented a post pounder and away we went!

Dad had to clear a few bushes out of the area to make it safer for the horses...meanwhile I'm pretty sure he just about tipped over a few times, lol.

The new posts separating the 2 large fields.

Once the posts were all in, it was time to drill 5 holes in each post and run endless miles of wire. We wanted to get it done as quickly as possible, and since Mom and Dad were only home on the weekends (they worked in town during the week) it was up to Mike and I to string all the wire. We worked as fast and as hard as we could, it was not an easy job. But it was worth it to know we were building a safe fence for our newest additions :)