Winter goings on

Well this Winter has certainly been a doosey!! We have not ridden much at all in the last three weeks. Christina was able to get a couple lessons in today with some of our die hard kiddos and will hopefully get a few more in tomorrow. More bad weather looks to be on the horizon for mid week-- that is definitely not what we want to see :(

A few recent happenings (I dont have much to report on!!)--
Some of you may know that Rosie has been on stall rest since the fall- she has just recently started being allowed to be ridden for 5-10 minutes at a time at the walk per day. That will slowly be increased over the next month. You may just happen to see her participating in beginner lessons some time soon. We have been hand walking her 4-5 times a week, or as possible with this terrible weather, and are hoping she comes through this tendon injury able to continue on teaching the younger kids about position and learning to post the trot!

We had the first of 2 foals born on the farm this past week! She came a bit early and surprised us all. Her name is Maria and her momma is one of the Standardbred broodmares "Becca". The 2nd foal due will be Shea's and she is due some time in May :) Karolyn has posted a couple VERY cute photos on facebook!

Looking toward Spring we have been planning lots of fun things, however, we can't do any of them until the horses and ourselves are back in to riding shape. It is very important to remember that at this point in the year the horses have basically been on vacation for 2 months! It will take them awhile to get back up to the kind of shape we had them in during the Spring/Summer/Fall months. You may find us doing lots of flat work/pole work these first weeks that we finally get to have lessons going on a regular basis again. So while you may be looking forward to jumping-- just remember, the horses need to be fit enough to be able to do more strenuous things, otherwise there is a much higher risk of them getting hurt. Imagine trying to run a marathon with no prior training! Its very similar-- the muscles just aren't there!