Filed Under: Unexpected Happiness

 It's feeling like my favorite time of the year. I love the sunshine of summer, but I'm not a hot weather person. Our winters and springs are pretty dismal - mostly grey and rainy, which I actually do appreciate in their own way. But autumn, before the big Pacific storms start rolling through, is where it's at.

Ideally I would try to keep the horses out grazing until at least November (or whenever the ground is too saturated), but like last year, the grass in their summer field died an early death due to the heat. We're needing a two or three weeks of this cooler, damp weather to let it come back. So, the ponies are homebound, mowing the paddocks here, and I'm getting a test run of our winter routine.

Baby lawnmowers are not reliable mowers and easily distracted

Last year, the one thing I felt could have been better was more winter turnout space for the youngsters on the really nasty days. They're far more active than I had even expected. At 18 months (already!) I actually do feel like they're starting to be slightly less active, but of course they are also almost double the size they were when they got here, so space still feels a little tight when they really get going and the grass areas take a beating. I mean, of course it would, somehow I have 3 horses on one acre (with an additional 2 acres at the neighbours, seasonally). 

They are getting big. Tradey again having an awkward stage, he's so bum high!

Buck looks full grown.

Sophie, weight looking better than mid summer, but still maybe a little too 'fully grown' (and in need of a tidy up)

I like reading the online forums where some poor innocent person will ask how many equines are suited to a certain piece of land and the answers are anything from "I have 20 on 5 acres" to "any more than 1 horse on 20 acres is cruel and unsustainable". In our neck of the woods there are forested mountains, icy mountains, lakes, and oceans. A flat, level piece of land is rare, and probably serves as a riverbed or draining point for all that mountain run off. We don't have pasture land, per say. So I can always tell who's probably from the general area, because they're like "Oh, my barn has 50 horses on 10 acres and the turnout is really good for here". I'm not pretending that's ideal, but it is what it is and everyone seems to make it work. 

Buck with his pony cottage, living the west coast lifestyle 

I boarded in the general Vancouver/coastal area for many years and the horses always seemed happy with the different barn set ups, but mud was commonly an issue in winter, and the paddock size often wasn't what I would have liked for their main outdoor space. Again, it is what it is, and the horses seem to thrive...so this isn't a critique, more just the things that felt important to me to prioritize if the horses were to be at home again.

There is a dump truck worth of gravel installed in this paddock one year ago and it's taken an absolute beating and likely will need a top up next year. BUT the truck is ~$450 and that feels like good value compared to the days of paying to board in ankle deep mud all winter. Also in this picture - Sophie, who was feeling very proud to have 'snuck in' to the boy's paddock while I did chores.

I thought for years I needed a bigger property to make it happen, but the reality here is that no matter how many acres you own, the winters are exceedingly wet and the horses will need to be off the fields and in a sacrifice paddock or on a track system for at least 6 months of the year. Not saying places with big winter turnout aren't out there somewhere, but they're super rare.

G and I both don't view living in this specific town as our end all be all and after literal years of driving real estate agents nuts looking for agricultural suited acreage that simply doesn't exist here, our plans adapted and we figured we'd just make the best of what we had and push the bigger property dream out to the future, along with relocating to another area. 

Ponies in the backyard ARE pretty cool

Creepy Sophie in her barn. My little grooming area is here outside this window and she likes to keep a very close eye on things (and gets quite resentful it's not her getting the attention)

Very, very grateful for this little arena space. I feel like this is what makes things functional - I can ride and longe/ground drive in the winter and it doubles as baby pony winter turnout. I had planned for a 20x40/60x120, but was able to widen it by about 20 feet. So it's more like 80x120 and it made a huge difference, well worth it. I also get questions about the lack of a fence all the way around. Personal preference,  I like how having it open makes things feel bigger.

The really fun thing that's come out of the past couple of years is that our tiny horse property doesn't feel like much of a temporary compromise at all. The logistics of living geographically isolated really stink and I'm ready to say goodbye to those, but our little acre?  It was never supposed to be the dream, but I actually love it so much that I keep pushing ideas at G that involve us keeping it and coming back here seasonally. We'll see where the future takes us, but the present is pretty good.