Work in progress

We have quite a big project going on right now. Actually, several projects. There was a grove of hemlock trees behind our house that we have cut down. There were several things that prompted this. The hemlock grove was between the house and the barns. During the winter, the grove of trees kept things so shaded that ice and snow never seemed to melt. This made it nearly impossible to get my horse trailer in and out during the winter. So, with the trees gone, I will have a lot more rooms to park the trailer and should be able go get in and out through the winter.

The back yard before cutting the trees. (2004)

The back yard after the trees were cut. Geesh, I'll need to plants some shrubs by the house now, it looks so naked with the trees gone!


We had someone come in with a portable saw mill as we are also going to be building a barn and we needed the lumber for that.

The pile of logs ready to be milled out


The lumber being milled and stacked

The excavator has arrived!

The stumps being removed (ack, what a mess....)

A load of fill being dumped in the new trailer parking area formally know as my back yard
The back yard after the rock and roots were removed and after being raked out with a landscape rake. (Yep, definitely going to need to do some planting by the house.....)
The back yard after being seeded, Fred is setting up the sprinkler in hopes of soon having a green lawn. (and yes, the seed as sprouted! YEAH)



The new well being put in

Guinea hens inspecting the water line trench....

There is water in the well!!!
Fred burying the water and electric lines
Fred cutting trees in the future riding arena






The riding arena area all cut

Stumping out the riding arena area

Putting the stumps out of sight

Louie in the shelter
The present equine shelter soon to be transformed into a barn
Fred digging the ditch for the barn footers

Louie's first Hunter Pace course

My friend Joanie called me to see if I was interested in going to a hunter pace with her and of course I was. I waffled back and forth on who to take. Good old Marie who I know I'd have a nice relaxing time and even be able to do a good portion of the jumps. Or Louie, the unknown in what would be a new to him setting. Well, I didn't have to think too hard, I just can't resist riding that long eared critter, and he's never let me down yet and.....there is only one way for them to learn it to be exposed the new things. So, Louie it was. Joanie picked me up at 9:15 am and we arrived in Starks at 10:45. Yesterday was the "official" pace with the awards and meal. Today was informal with just a small fee to ride the course.

I did not plan on doing any of the jumps as I have not schooled Louie at all for jumping. And I only have my Western endurance saddle. But, I did shorten my stirrups up to an acceptable jumping height, you know, just in case.......LOL. And my saddle doesn't have a horn........ So, in the end, we did do some jumping. Nothing over 2' but still......LOL. Louie was wonderful. He didn't fuss about the jumps at all or try to take me around them if I pointed him at one. But, at the height of 2' or less, he went over so super smooth that I could not even feel if from the saddle! It was great but not much "whoopie" factor involved. LOL. Frannie, on the other hand, was clearing even the smallest of jumps with PLENTY of room to spare! We came to a series of 5 log jumps along the trail at one poin going up a slight hill all under 2' so we went for it. That last jump was the biggest as it was two logs one behind the other so it was kind of wide. Louie hopped over the first 4 with no fuss and as he was trotting up to the last wider one I could feel him assessing the situation but not in a hesitating sort of way, just giving it a good look as we approached..........he slowed down just a bit as we got to it, then very lightly and nimbly jumped up ON TOP of the jump, :-O balanced on top of it like a goat for a moment while looking over the ground on the other side, then gently hopped down off the jump!!!!! I was laughing so hard I nearly peed my pants! He was clearly very satisfied with how he had handled the situation! LOL. I tried to explain to him that it really wasn't the best idea to jump ON TOP the jumps but I don't think he believed me. We did a couple small bank jumps but that was no issue as we do things like that just in the course of our normal trail riding. though one bank jump was into water and he did that just fine also. Both into and out of the water.
We only had one tense moment when we came out into a big field and Joanie and Gwen went in separate directions. There were a lot of jumps in the field and the others were galloping around, jumping, yeeehaawing, and just cowboying around and Louie had a slight mental overload and didn't know what he should do and l lost my steering for a few moments. But, he didn't bolt off, or do anything bad, he just locked up on me and when I attempted the one rein stop. He eventually just froze up in confusion. I gave him a moment to relax and did a few flexing exercises and he got his head back together and remembered it was ME he was supposed to be listening to.


So, we had a great ride, it was an absolutely lovely day and Louie once again exceeded my expectations of him. And what a lively place to ride.

The Balsams and Colebrook September 2011

Grafton Notch, ME


This weekend was supposed to be the GMHA 3 day 100 mile competitive trail ride. Susie and I had planned to go and had worked hard all year conditioning for this ride. It is a tough one in the hills of VT. We both entered the ride and were so excited about going. But, as we all know, even the best laid plans can go awry. This time it was mother nature that changed our plans when VT was hard hit by flooding from hurricane Irene just a week before the ride.

So, I called my friends Jim and Mary Ellen who have a home in Colebrook NH to see if they were going to be there and if they wanted some company. It all worked out so Susie and I went there instead. We headed up Friday morning. Susie picked me and Louie up. It was a lovely day. Sunny and in the high 70's. On the way to Colebrook, we met Jim and Mary Ellen at the Balsams Resort to ride the trails there. This was a place where neither Susie and I had ridden and what a hidden treasure this is for riding! There are over 30 miles of trails and what fabulous trails they are. We had a wonderful time riding there. The footing on the trails are great but challenging with the hills. Louie did just wonderful keeping up, even on the hills, with no trouble. And it was so good seeing Jim riding Shaker again. There had been some concerns earlier in the year that Shaker would have to be retired due to lameness issues. But, it was found out this was due to having Cushings and with medications, Shaker is sound again and doing well. We got in a lot of nice long gallops. On one long grassy uphill trail that we galloped up, there were drainage dip every so often. The equines were jumping them and I felt like we were at a steeple chase! The view from the top of Abaniki mountain down on the resort and through Dixville notch was fabulous. We rode a trail that follows a canal that brings water down to the resort from Mud Pond. In one spot there is a tunnel that was chiseled through a section of the mountain for the water to go through. We stopped at Mud pond to let the equines drink and Jim poured water over them with a collapsible bucket he'd brought along. Louie was not sure he liked this but tolerated it without much fuss. There were tons of trails we didn't have time to explore so I can't wait to ride there again.

Mary Ellen on Hillbilly, Jim on Shaker and Cindy on Louie riding by the Balsams Grand Resort Panorama golf course


Jim on Shaker


Riding along the canal trail at the Balsams Cindy on Louie, Susie on Spark and Jim on Shaker


Galloping down the trail, Cindy on Louie, Susie on Spark and Jim in the lead on Shaker


Mary Ellen on Hillbilly, Jim on Shaker and Cindy on Louie on the Balsams Resort trails

Mud Pond at the Balsams. Cindy on Louie and Susie on Spark drinking


Mud Pond at the Balsams. Cindy on Louie and Susie on Spark


Mud Pond, Cindy on Louie


Mud Pond. Cindy on Louie and Jim dumping water on him to cool him off


Mud Pond, Mary Ellen on Hillbilly, Jim and Susie on Spark


Jim on Shaker on the way up Abaniki Mountain


Cindy on Louie enjoying the view on the Balsam Resort trails


Cindy on Louie on the Balsams Resort trails


Top of Abaniki Mountain. Cindy on Louie and Susie on Spark


Looking down on the Balsams from the top of Abaniki Mountain (2723 ft)


Mary Ellen with Hillbilly on top of Abaniki Mountain


Cindy on Louie at the Balsams on Abaniki Mountain


Cindy on Louie, Mary Ellen on Hillbilly and Jim on Shaker. Abeniki Mountain at the Balsams Resort.


Heading down from Abaniki mountain. Jim on Shaker, Cindy on Louie and Susie on Spark


Cindy on Louie and Jim with Shaker coming down Abaniki Mountain


Cindy on Louie, Susie on Spark and Jim with Shaker taking a break coming down Abaniki Mountain



Just after we pulled out of the farm where we had parked to ride at the Balsams, Susie and I heard a loud snap from the trailer. It didn't sound good so we pulled over as soon as we could and Susie got out and walked around the trailer to see if everything was ok. She didn't see any problems so we continued on to Jim and Mary Ellen's home which is only a 15 minute drive. When I got out of the truck there, I dropped the grill at Louie's window but he did not stick his head right out as usual. I took a look in and noticed that something did not look right. Susie's trailer is a 3 horse slant load and Louie was loaded in the stall at the back. He could not get to the window as the tack room wall was in the way! ACK! I know THAT is not right! I hurried to the back of the trailer and opened the door and see a very squashed Louie. A saddle had fallen off the rack against the tack room wall. The pins holding the wall top and bottom and popped out of place and the whole was had swung in on Louie squashing him against the stall divider. He was standing there quietly but was backed up hard against the rear strap. We had to push in forward to release the tension on the strap before we could unhook it. There wasn't much room for him to move but he did it and we got him out. He was thankfully unharmed and didn't seemed at all bothered by any of this. PHEW!

We put Louie and Spark in a pasture together. We kept a careful eye on them for a while as we didn't know how they would be together. The got along wonderfully and were good together all weekend. Susie was sleeping in her trailer as it is a nice living quarter trailer. I settled into the spare room in the house. I just love Jim and Mary Ellen's home in Colebrook. The tun outs come right up to the porch so you can sit out relaxing and the horses and mule come right up and hang out with you. What is even more fun is the barn is attached to the house and the spare room is partially over the stalls. There is a window next to the bed and you can look right down into the stalls and watch the horses. I want a house like this!!!

After we had the equines and ourselves settled in, we relaxed on the porch. Mary Ellen put out some chip, crackers and dips. We gabbed for a while then played a game of scrabble. A young girl, Emily, that lives next door came over and played with us. Mary Ellen had prepared a stir fry for supper that she cooked on the grill and Susie had baked some brownies for desert. When we fed the "boys" that evening, Louie had a slight melt down when I led him away from his new best friend Spark. I didn't want him to think it was ok to act like this so I did not let him go right back to Spark. AND, we were only a short distance away! It took a while to get Louie to eat his supper but he eventually did. Silly boy!

I woke up during the night hearing a strange sound. I looked down into the stall from the window beside my bed (how cool is that!!!) and saw it was just Shaker scraping a salt block with is teeth. Then I woke later to a thunder storm. It was poring rain. I quickly went back to sleep both times and slept well. I was up fairly early as was Jim who was busy doing ..... whatever he was doing..... I wasn't really paying attention as I made a cup of tea and went out to sit on the porch and watch the horses and mule. Soon everyone else was up and we all watched the sky as we had breakfast and planned our ride for the day. It was not raining but sure did not look very promising. We decided we were going to ride and take our chances. It stayed cloudy all morning but it did not rain and we had a wonderful ride. We came back to the house and Mary Ellen made us ham and eggs for lunch. Then Jim drove Susie and I into town so we could buy something to cook for supper. Susie and I wanted to cook supper for Jim and Mary Ellen. When we got back from the store, we went out for another ride. It had gotten very warm and humid so we stayed to trails in the woods where it was shady. The trails were lovely but tough so we it was a slower ride. Just perfect for a warm evening. Once back to the house, we fed the equines and settled them for the night then Susie and I made supper. Well, more Susie then I. I am not much of a cook so was of limited help here. I helped Jim shuck the corn on the cob and put that on the stove along with the green beans. I did cut up some cheese and set out cheese and crackers. (See, I can do something.......) Susie cooked barbecue chicken on the grill. It was all delicious, even if the beans did have tails...... (insider story). We had purchased some ice cream and chocolate sauce to put on the brownies for desert but were so full from supper we never did have this.

Susie and I headed home first thing on Sunday morning. We would have loved to stay longer but both of us had a lot of things to do and we needed to get home. We had a wonderful time though. It is a beautiful place to ride and Jim and Mary Ellen are so much fun to ride with. I hope to be able to go up again this fall.


Jim and Mary Ellen's home in Colebrook

Louie and Spark in the pasture in Colebrook

Emily in Colebrook

Jim and Mary Ellen, the tree farm in Colebrook


Cindy on Louie. The tree farm in Colebrook

Cindy on Louie and Susie on Spark crossing stream