Blog Hop: Virtual Tour De Barn

This is all covered in snow right now, but grassy views are much more pleasant.

Thanks to L. Williams and others who are bringing back this hop, it's time to take a tour of our lovely barn. Those of you who have been with us for a while will remember that Fox, Bails and I moved to our current facility in Hugo, MN from a barn south of the cities. We moved in part because board was going up at the current facility, but also because a friend was moving there, and they had a lot of amenities for a very reasonable price. Let's go down the list:

A - The heated barn, where my horses live in the poor kid stalls with slanted roofs, which is awesome and cheaper. 12x12 stalls with auto waterers, and a small indoor arena off the back. They hold a lot of lessons in this barn, and there's almost always someone around, be it the barn's population of teenage girls or other boarders. The circle is where my girls' paddock is; they go out together instead of in the big mare's paddock with the rest of the horses because Foxie is a wimp and gets bullied.

B - this is the second barn, unheated, with 10x12 and 10x10 stalls. In between the two barns is the pasture area where the outside horses live, and there are also some outside-always paddocks between this barn and the road. J's horse lives in this barn, and goes out in the largest paddock, at the bottom left of this image. The horses come in at night during the winter, but generally spend all summer outside except for feeding time. The larger of the two indoor arenas is the main face of this barn (stalls are an L shape around it), which isn't heated or very insulated. It's great, because that means it's generally emptier to ride in this time of year! 

C and D - These areas make up the cross country course, with C being the water complex and also a cool mound up and down between two trees and D being the bank and ditch area. There's a small path in the trees between the two, and  you can also get there via the track. We have questions through Training level, and due to clinicians coming through on a regular basis the fences get moved and improved a lot. 

E - I added this to note the rest of the gallop track, which surrounds one of the many hay fields (the barn makes it's own hay). The track is sandy, but isn't "maintained" like some of the fancy gallop courses. But either way, it's GREAT to have, and both of my horses have gotten to really stretch their legs on it. 

F - This is the outdoor arena. Usually there is some kind of jump course up, but the fences get torn totally down a few times each summer to accommodate the show arena (G) using it as a warmup ring. The footing can be a bit ishy when throughly soaked, but in general, this is one of my main riding areas. The lesson groups usually use the indoors for beginner lessons, and we have a lot of beginners, so I'm often the only rider out there.

G - Show arena. This arena puts on several barrel races and other events every summer, including a Gay Rodeo. I'm not even kidding. We don't get to ride in it normally, but the stands are Very Scary to Bailey, which is good exposure. I occasionally will do a ride in the grass "parking" area just to have a dressage ride on grass, which is nice.

In addition to making their own hay, the barn also has a large herd of ponies for lessons and an equally large herd of lesson horses, who go out on pasture each summer and are rotated around the farm. This somewhat limits the accessibility of the XC, but makes us focus on a variety of activities instead of jumping every single ride. Bailey has gained oodles of confidence over fences since we arrived, and I'm hoping this translates into more successful shows next year!