Who did we piss off?

Earthquakes and Hurricanes are not normal occurences for Delaware. When I listened to the news earlier in the week and they kept saying Delaware would get a direct hit from the Hurricane we went into prepare for the worst and hope for the best mode.

Kurt had some buddies come out to help us move everything inside. We keep our property pretty tidy but moving a jump course, jump chute and all other farm implements inside is a lot of work. Our contractor had delivered a load of stonedust just in time and we shored up the riding ring, patched up our dry paddocks and did all that we could to prepare.

When we moved to our farm it was super dry and we didn’t realize just how low it was. We had gotten some heavy rains and realized we had a lot of work to do in grading. Over the past two years, we have graded the fields to slope towards the tax ditch. We installed a big tile well in the front of the barn with a pipe to the tax ditch, installed gutters that run into the tile well, put a tile well in the corner of the lowest pasture with a pipe that runs to the tax ditch and a few other drainage measure. This spring we replanted all the fields with max q fescue and orchard grass which have heavy roots and hold up well to both drought and flooding.

We got about 13″ of rain between Friday-Sunday and while our fields are very wet they are draining well. Our riding ring looks awesome! It’s wet but in great shape and will probably be rideable today. Our sacrifice paddocks which are right off the barn are wet but not at all muddy (stone dust footing) so the horses have somewhere to be turned out on while the paddocks dry.

The horses all seemed pretty relaxed and happy even in the high winds that we got. I think we had some gusts up to around  50 mph maybe a bit more and they were scary. I can tell you if we ever get more than that I would not want to leave my horses in the barn. My concern was  the trees that line all sides of our property and also our neighbors who have junk everywhere. I didn’t want their junk flying around and risk hitting the horses so I left them in.

I had an added stress during the storm because Rusty had left to go on trial with a potential new owner 🙂 She came the day of the earthquake to try him and fell in love. She is a local rider who was looking for a TB but it had to be one of the super quiet confidence building types. She got on and you could instantly see her start to smile. They came back to pick Rusty up that same night and had him just a few days before the hurricane was the arrive. He passed his vet check and settled right in. She told me he was super relaxed and even laying down sleeping in his stall during the hurricane. The farm staff said he was one of the quietest horses in the barn. No surprise there! She assured me she was 100% sure she was buying him but she just wanted to have her husband watch her ride him because he will be part of their family. She had ridden him but her hubby hadn’t gotten to see him go because of the hurricane. They enjoy horses together and it’s a lifetime decision so everybody has to be on the same page. It makes me so happy that Rusty will be spoiled rotten. Happy endings really rejuvenate me and keep me eager to keep finding awesome homes for all of our horses.

I have some people interested in Auto Pilot so I hope he is the next to find a home. I will be bringing a CANTER horses or two back to the farm soon. Keep checking back to see who the new arrival will be.