Beautiful Barns at Nightfall

How many times have you looked at your barn at dusk and loved the way it looks? It seems so perfect, the warm glow of lights shining from the windows and the way the light spills from the doorway as you bring the horses in from pasture.
April is barns at night month! If you have always wanted a beautiful photograph of your barn at dusk make an appointment. I have the know how and the technology to make it happen :)

THE BRAIDING BOOK IS HERE !!!!

Hot off the presses I have just seen a Copy of the new braiding book Titled "BRAIDING Manes and Tails" by Charni Lewis. This is a beautiful book! It covers 30 different basic braids, everything from Dressage to Drafts with wonderful pictures, illustrations and step by step how to. It is a perfect time to read this book prior to upcoming show season. For anyone looking to perfect their braiding skills and make a little money on the side at shows this is THE book to have! My own horses never see the inside of a show ring but looking at the beautiful braids in this book I am inspired to go out and learn a few. I especially like the ones designed for long manes and I really want to learn the dutch braid for tails, it has such a polished look! Meaders supply www.meadersupply.com has the book in stock but it has been selling almost as fast as they can get them, it retails for $22.95 give them a call if you want to order a copy or hold one for you. Happy Braiding!

Book Review:The Horse Training Problem Solver

Our Horse of the month for April is Scarlett a lovely Irish Sport horse and since she and her owner Linda appear on the cover of this book I thought I would introduce you to a great reference book for your equine library. The Horse Training Problem Solver by Jessica Jahiel has a wonderful readabilty to it, just imagine short stories, questions and answers and a "how to" all rolled into one. I particulaly like the fact that the book encompasses a variety of different training methods and techniques, always emphasizing what is best for the horse. This book is great for the new horse owner, for someone getting back into horses and also for the experienced horse owner. I've had horses most of my life and I found this book to be useful as a reminder for training methods I had used in the past, but had forgotten about, it gave me a new perspective by encouraging me to try different training styles and it reminded me about the virtues of things like proper warm ups. So, next time your at the tack shop take a look at this book I think you'll like it!

How could I forget Jeffrey ??

Here it is almost the end of March and I forgot to introduce you to Jeffrey, the March "Horse of the Month" Actually Jeffrey is teamed up with his owner/trainer Jennifer Wilson-horr and together they are an incredible duo. To read about Jeffrey and Jen's 2007 accomplishments please check out their website at www.cedarhill-farm.com . But the real story here is the determination and years of work that have taken place behind the scenes. I have known Jennifer for a number of years and although she has been sidelined more than once because of serious injuries, she has the type of determination that all of us should envy. Jeffrey is her 4 legged proof of how to make a comeback with style!

Meaders Supply, a great company to do business with!

If you are a farrier or a draft horse owner, Meaders Supply is probably a household name but for us average horse owners we don't always think of shopping there first, but we should. Meaders is not only a beautiful place to visit, it is a well run family business by some of the nicest folks on the planet! No, you won't find boots and breeches and specialty items (other than draft) but you will find a great selection of everyday items such as leads, supplements, grooming tools, buckets, stall mats and more. Their annual Farriers day open house will be happening April 26 and is a great event to attend. What if you don't live locally? The good news is Meaders has an online store, check it out at www.meadersupply.com , you can see pictures of the store interior or shop the online catalog.

Free Snow, Delivery Available

Yeah, That's right FREE! take all you want please....... in 20 years of living in Maine I have never seen this many storms, 19 with #20 on the way, or this much snow.
The snow pack is so high in the horse yard that they now walk down into what I am beginning to call the "run-in cave" I have to keep the 100 gallon water tank filled up to the top because the snow pack is so high on the outside of the tank once they drink down the first 5 or 6 inches of water they can no longer reach the water in the tank because it is below the level that they are standing on. The snow level is so high in the pasture it has reached the bottom of the top rail of my 3 rail fence, and I am not talking about drifts. But it could be worse......OMG what am I saying

Politically Incorrect

They, whomever they are, say that a good blog should be neutral, but with our politcal arena beginning to look like a scene from "dancing with the stars" I just had to comment! Personally I like Hillary, and I attended my very first caucus last week because I felt it was important to be counted. As a variety of people spoke on behalf of their candidate, I was amazed at the reasons ( or lack of) why some folks chose Obama, "because he wrote a wonderful book", "because he is inspirational", "because he is good at community service work". The last time I checked we ( the USA ) are a world leader, a world country, involved in a global economony, on the brink of a global warming disaster with a war going on that has made things very unstable. It is going to take more than inspiring speeches and a best selling book to fix this. Stephen King writes great books, but I don't want him as a president. Jimmy Carter is a really nice guy who does great things with habitat for humanity but that did not make him great at foreign policy. For the most part Obama does not write his speeches, he is just very good at reading them, is this really a good reason for him to be the next president? because he reads well? I want someone with experience that knows and understands the way Washington works, someone that has seen it first hand and knows the players. Someone that can take charge on day one. This country does not have time for a newly elected president to be learning the ropes no matter how wonderful he is at public speaking. Most people that support Obama have not even looked up his voting record, for the most part he and Hillary voted very similar BUT the big differnce is there are many times that Obama did not vote, in other words he did not make a decision. I want someone that if faced with a decision will make one based on the information. Hillary has what it takes, but sadly we live in a society that casts votes on personality, like an episode of "dancing with the stars" where actual ability does not seem to matter when the audience votes. Do you really think great speeches will influence terrorists, will world leaders be asking for an autographed copy of his book. Personally I want a world leader that is ready to handle the job, if I can't vote for Hillary, I'll vote for McCain.