So, back when we lived in the northeast, I used to think of November as the month that I started really dreading the cold and snow that was soon to blanket the world. I am not a fan of the cold. And back then, when I was boarding and riding after work (including long commutes and very structured days in the office that would be unthinkable now, post pandemic) the thought of slipping and sliding on the way to the barn, pulling heavy blankets off and trying to groom and tack up and then pile quarter sheets and coolers back on to ride “without dying,” was not very appealing. Ditto the thought of sliding down to the (dark) indoor, fumbling around for the lights, hoping the horse did not spook at the hiss of the lights warming up – or later, at the snow sliding off the roof at random moments, and let’s just say I basically held my breath until Spring had finally returned, months later.

I have escaped all that!

Fall and winter here in south Florida just mean nicer more temperate riding days and a break from having to cut the grass every ten minutes or so, as we do in the summer. We do get a bit of fall color – nothing like the gorgeous forests of the northeast – and my beloved Plumeria’s leaves turn yellow and fall to the grass. And we have some really glorious riding days.

This is also the time of year when we start planning farm improvements. Because the regular maintenance stuff slows down quite a bit – did I mention having to cut the grass every ten minutes in the summer? – we have more time and bandwidth on the weekends to do other projects. Next up, we will be installing more paddocks in the field we bought to expand the farm last year. And I have an idea to put in a galloping track around the perimeter, too. Lots to do!!

Well, we all know Florida has a hurricane season and hey… luckily, we are NOT talking about those kinds of storms. But we have Had Some Rain here these last few days. I’m thinking about getting the horses water wings to use for turnout. They’ve been such troopers; I try really hard to make sure they get out as much as humanly possible, and despite the squishy ground, we’ve been able to turn them out daily, until today when the paddocks were just too darn wet and they had to settle for a bit of hand grazing. Fortunately they are all very sensible and when they go out and I tell them all, “MAKE GOOD CHOICES,” they mostly do.

The arena drains amazingly well and so we’ve still been able to work a bit. The last round of rain was over the top though, so for the moment we are stuck with tack walking. I suppose it is better than nothing, but … sigh. The upside though is that we have some really lovely visitors, including this wonderful junior heron!!

He’s enjoying the semi-temporary “pond” in the center of the field. Those will eventually be paddocks for use in the winter, when the weather is way drier, because that is always the best grass. The bottom half of this field will be reserved for riding, since we really do like to get out of the arena. And the entire thing will (eventually) have a nice properly surfaced galloping track around the perimeter!!

Last Thursday we had the hottest day in recorded history, apparently, and the trend is continuing. We are riding the horses lightly, early in the morning, when it is still comfortable for them (and us.) They get a bit of time in their paddocks to munch on some grass afterwards, but by 11 or so, they want to come in and hang out under their fans. Seemed like a good time to take a trip… to what might be the horsey center of the universe: Aachen.

The standard of riding there, and talent of the horses, is otherworldly. It is amazing to watch any of the disciplines there, and we spent many hours watching the dressage, of course. But there is also crazy good show jumping!

The other really fun discipline I like to watch there is the driving. Boy, some of those horses are fantastic movers!! I would be very tempted to take them into the dressage arena.

Of course, for me, dressage was the main event and watching so many wildly talented riders and their incredible, jaw dropping horses was super fun and also very inspiring. I particularly love to watch the warm up arenas, seeing both the preparation for competition and also the horses and riders who are just hacking. One thing that struck me was how many times the top riders would practice a particular aspect of their ride – even “simple” things like walking through a corner or trotting on to a diagonal. And I am not talking about drilling; rather, it was calm, quiet improvement until those steps were right where they wanted them. Incredible. Those who know me, know I pretty much idolize Charlotte Dujardin, and I particularly enjoyed watching her rides. She had both Times Kismet and Imhotep competing this year and they were fantastic.

Hopefully our weather will return to normal soon and we’ll have more of our own horsey and farm updates. We have gotten some fun things started for the house, which still needs a LOT of work!! But here is a teaser:

Well, it was the late fall 2017/early winter 2018 when I started this blog to keep track of the creation of Hedgerow Farm. I really thought we would live there forever… it was such a beautiful, peaceful place and we we absolutely loved it. It was an amazing refuge during the acute phase of the pandemic, and we were very, very fortunate to have that sanctuary. So much has happened since then!

Like a lot of people I suppose, we made some lifestyle changes during that time, and one of them was moving to a new state.

We had started spending winters in FL a number of years ago, and in fact there are some pictures and thoughts from the beginning of that adventure in the chapter called “The Hedgerow Team Heads South.” A bit later, we bought a condo in Wellington, right across the street from the Global Dressage Festival, and really enjoyed having the opportunity to watch world class competition all season long. Of course, that meant boarding the horses during the winter months – the condo didn’t come with stalls!

I had a good bit of fun renovating the condo – I went very modern and monochromatic. Here are a couple pictures that show how it turned out. We did it “all at once” before we actually moved in, so it was easier than doing the piece-by-piece renos we’ve done in other homes.

It was really different from living at the farm. We felt like we had a “city condo” – but one that was literally steps from the horse show, and of course, being anywhere in Wellington is horsey heaven. Everyone is walking around in riding gear, there are tons of tack shops and feed stores and so one… my idea of heaven on earth. Getting to watch the very best riders in the world, day after day… there is just nothing like it!!

But geez, boarding.

Through the years, before we had our farm, I was fortunate to board at some really lovely facilities with some truly fantastic people. And of course, if you are a busy professional (or busy parent, etc) then having the convenience of boarding is truly a luxury.

But it is just.not.the.same as having your horses at home.

We did fall in love with Florida, and with the Wellington area in particular. We kept pushing off our return date and started looking for small farms with palm trees. As you can imagine, they are a bit of a hot commodity here. We looked at the half dozen properties that were in our price range. We had a number of substantive conversations about whether some of the properties we looked at could be renovated, or needed to be torn down so we could start over. Since we work at home, this was, er… not optimal.

We didn’t find anything that worked for us, so we went home. Back to beautiful Hedgerow and our life in GA. It was lovely, but we kept half an eye on the FL market.

And then one day, a new farm for sale popped up. It was only 5 miles from our Wellington condo, in Loxahatchee Groves. Six stalls, nice paddocks, and a huge arena with mirrors!! And the house was a ranch style, similar to what we had in GA. We were smitten, and decided to buy it.

The new Hedgerow South:

It was much smaller than the property we had in GA, and I was a bit worried about having enough paddock space. But shortly after we moved in, the land next door became available and we were able to buy it and enlarge the farm to have more paddocks, and space to hack outside of the big arena.

The arena, complete with GGT footing and full set of mirrors:

The skies are gorgeous.

The view toward the expanded paddocks/hacking field.

The barn is literally steps from the house/pool!

And so here we are, at Hedgerow South. The barn has lovely big stalls with big windows and a wide aisle. In the evening, when we sit out by the pool to enjoy the sunset, the horses are right there with us!!

And so a new adventure begins.

We spent the late summer and early fall getting the barn set up and the horses settled in. We are (mostly) unpacked and organized; the plan is to enjoy the holidays and then get started on the house. It’s got lovely bones and I am really looking forward to it … and to picking up this blog to chronicle our progress again. So much has changed, but the heart of Hedgerow is still the deep love of the horses we are so lucky to have in our family. More on the horses next time!

For now, happy holidays from the sunny south!!

Lest you think we have abandoned farm projects as we do the house…!  Oh, no – the horses wouldn’t put up with that, haha.

This past week we finally got the “bucking paddocks” done.  Well, I say done, but that’s not *quite* accurate; I’m waiting for the barrier I ordered to block off the lane to the run in shed.  But for now, the horses seem to be OK with the simple rope barrier I put up instead.

We do get a fair amount of rain here at certain times of the year, and one of the challenges we have with the amazing grass that FarmOps grows is that it can be a bit slick when wet.  So when we did the additional cross fencing of the big pastures recently, I had the fence guys put in a couple more sections to give me two smallish bucking paddocks between the arena, the sacrifice paddock and the back fields.  I would guess the small one is about 20 x 40 and the larger one maybe a bit more than double that.  We put in french drains and a gravel base so they are super stable even after a downpour.   The horses got to try them out this weekend after we had a huge storm;  it was nice that they could still get out of their stalls instead of being stuck inside (and it was also nice to have somewhere to put them out while we did the barn!)

It was actually incredible how much rain we got (and the real bummer is that it was gorgeous all day while we were doing chores and only started pouring when it was time to ride!!)

But we did get a really gorgeous sunset out of it…

Which is part of the fun, I think.

This spring, we’ve started to work on the house.  I think it might have been in one of my very first little posts that I talked about painting the house in white with black or grey trim.  That finally happened and I love it.  It was painted to match the barn, of course.   Here is the before and after:

We’re doing some work on the interior as well.  The kitchen is probably the biggest project so far.   The original space wasn’t the biggest, but it was functional.  However, the cabinets were likely original to the house, and not in very good condition, and the storage was pretty limited.  So we bit the bullet, installed new cabinetry and a new counter and backsplash, and extended the storage into what had been a small  hallway to the laundry room to create a butler’s pantry.  We’re pretty happy with how it’s coming along.  The painters are actually here today to do some finish work, and then we’ll move on to the great room.

For those who like the before and after comparison, here is the start and, er… middle I guess.  Not quite finished yet!

We’ve still got to put in the pot filler, and replace the chairs.  But it’s coming along.

Lest you think the ponies have been totally forgotten, we are still working on more options for turnout.  We’ve had a drainage system installed in the area leading to the back pasture, which will soon become a couple of small all weather paddocks for use in wet conditions.  And we’ve decided to cross fence two of the larger pastures so that we have more flexibility with respect to turnout and pasture rotation.  That should be done in a couple of weeks.

It’s always something! But great fun.

So… as previously mentioned, after getting quotes for the covered arena, we realized we could spend quite a lot of winter time in FL for the same price, and we could enjoy much warmer temperatures in addition to all the nice sunshine!  That was an easy decision, LOL.  It is such a gorgeous place – each farm is more gorgeous than the last.

The horses settled in really well and I think they’ve enjoyed the change as well.  I wasn’t sure how well they would travel together – they can be a little snarky to each other in the barn.  As a precaution, I put the solid headwall back into the trailer and gave both boys huge nets of tasty alfalfa to occupy them on the journey, and all went well.  They are now stabled next to each other in a barn that has the nice grilled dividers and interestingly enough, they are now acting like besties.  Go figure.

Wellington in winter is equestrian mecca.  The sheer number of gorgeous horses and talented riders is simply amazing.  And oh, the shopping. Geez.  You could really go crazy!! We’ve been going to Global to watch the CDIs and wow, is the quality incredible.  Such an inspiration.

It does give you a really clear mental picture of what this sport is supposed to look like (!) which is great motivation for my own lessons. Feeling very blessed to have this opportunity.

 

So once again it has been awhile since I have posted an update, but after receiving a (very nice!) comment from a reader, I realized I had never posted the actual “after” picture of the barn.  It took me forever to choose the paint colors, and we’ve started focusing on improvements to the house vs. the pony facilities lately, which let me procrastinate on that decision.  But we’re heading into cooler/wetter weather now and wanted to get the barn painted before that really kicked in.

So… here is what we chose.  I am very happy with how it turned out!

We did end up painting the cupola as well – same colors as the barn doors.  I keep forgetting to take a photo of that!  But surprisingly, it is especially pretty at night.

Still needs more landscaping and so on but that will get done in the spring.

The next “horsey” project is to fence the arena.  This was another issue that we really debated.  I love the open look of the training surface we put in, and for now we have deferred the idea of covering it; that would require a variance and I just don’t have the bandwidth for that project at the moment.  (Plus, once we got the quotes on the construction, I realized I could winter in FL with both the in-training horses for YEARS for that kind of money, LOL.)  So – for now, that is the plan, and the arena has gone on the, “maybe someday,” list.

But back to the arena fencing.

As I mentioned, late fall and winter here is generally quite rainy.  We have worked so hard to improve the pastures, while still allowing the horses to have the maximum amount of turnout, and have been pretty darn successful.  Well, I say we… but really it is my fabulous husband who has done all the work.  (He now refers to himself as “FarmOps.”)  We had grass even through our late summer drought, when other farms in the area all looked really crispy.   But we all know what shod hooves do to nice grass when it’s super wet, and when that goes on for weeks or months… it’s really tough on the turnouts.

The obvious solution would be dry lots, or a sacrifice area.  And originally, that was the plan.  But the one paddock that would be best suited to that kind of conversion – the one with the run in shed – also (of course!!) has the Best.Grass.On.The.Property.   I mean, perfect, lush, yummy grass.  All the time.

It’s because of where that paddock sits, toward the back of the farm and in a spot that holds water fairly well next to the creek.  There are some nice shade trees too, which helps in the summer.  I just can’t bear to tear it all out.   And the other spot I might use, which is the smaller paddock close to the  barn that we refer to as the sacrifice paddock, has really gotten re-established so the grass in there is good too.  Plus, when it is super wet out, the slope by the gate there makes it sub-optimal, even with all the reinforcement we installed last year with the 57-stone.

So that leaves me with the option of fencing the arena, and using that as an option of last resort, so to speak, for getting the horses out in bad weather.   I have been very impressed with the way that surface holds up to water, and even when we’ve had very fresh (dare I say naughty?) horses – they have never punched through to the base, and the surface is never the least bit slick or slippery.    It’s not ideal, and I am sure my arena contractor would be horrified, but we built this place for the horses’ welfare, and if that means that every spring I need to do some extra maintenance on it, I’m prepared to do that.  So we’ll see what happens.  The fencing goes in next week, weather permitting.

It has been awhile since I’ve written… and that is mostly because we have been busy enjoying the farm.  There is always something to do;  it’s a farm, after all.  But this is the quiet season, and for the most part, we’ve just been taking some time to look around and consider how incredibly lucky we are to live in such a beautiful place.

On Sundays, I am usually the first one stirring, and my favorite part of the day is going out to feed the horses.  Even though we are in the south, it gets cold enough here some nights that I close the doors up at night check in the late evening;  the horses really enjoy having their windows popped back open so they can enjoy the view while having breakfast.  And truly, is there anything in the world more satisfying than the sounds of horses munching on their breakfast?   I put a coffee maker in the tack room so I could sit out there with a hot drink and hang out to enjoy it.

We also have visitors 🙂   The Heron is one of my favorites, and he comes almost daily.  Here he is enjoying his “beach” a few days ago:

As you might expect, we have learned a lot over this first year here.  One of the things we’ve been experimenting with is different approaches to pasture management.  We are very fortunate to have good, established pastures for the most part.  My DH, who now refers to himself as, “FarmOps,” has done a fantastic job of maintaining the farm so that the horses always have tasty grass to enjoy.  (I am the one buying muzzles and counting the minutes out on that tasty grass, LOL.)   We also changed the configuration of the pastures to some extent, first by necessity when we were installing the arena and had to move some fencing around, and then later by design when I wanted more flexibility for turnout, particularly during rainy months.

When we arrived, about a quarter of the property consisted of one really big back pasture.  We used it a lot during the summer, because it goes all the way down to the creek, and has a quite a bit of nice shade.   This time of year, though, the lower half stays a bit wet, and particularly with the new horse in the mix, it made more sense to put a fence through it to create a new paddock on the upper portion.  This created a nice, fairly level, well drained turnout paddock and also allows me better use of the side pasture, since I can ensure that all the horses have a bit of company in sight, even if my neighbors’ horses are elsewhere.

We’ve been making very good use of our Solarium, too.  Well, some of us have.  My new horse is convinced it is terrifying.  Every time I bring him in to the wash stall, he stops, cranes his neck up to look at it, and does that half-snort, half blow-y noise that lets me know he is not a fan.  Poor guy.  He sees the other horses hanging out with it on and you would think he’d figure out it feels NICE.  But it hasn’t happened so far.  Oh, well.  Everything in its own time.

The next project is to improve the lighting in both the aisle and the wash stall.  But for now it is fairly functional, and having those heat lamps really makes for a nice environment when grooming or tacking up on a cold day.

Speaking of which, it’s supposed to rain later today, but right now it is beautiful out.  Off to go ride some ponies.   Merry Christmas, everyone!!