A day chill day on the farm with Macey

For years my dream was to have a farm. I wanted to wake up at 5am and milk my goat, and ride my horse at sunrise and feed the chickens all while my loyal dog followed behind me. Now that we have a farm of our own, is it everything I dreamed it would be?

Well.... the short answer is no. No it isn't. Not even a little bit. In fact it's not anything like I imagined it would be. It's stressful, It's frustrating, there is always a new project to be done, and sadly it isn't a seasonal thing where you only have to work when it's nice outside. But, It's also pretty great.

So what does our little farm consist of, you might ask? Well we have our ducks, our chickens (who think they are ducks), our goats who are always making some kind of noise or getting into trouble, and our nosy bottomless hay pits running laps around the field ( in other words, horses). Now, don't get me wrong, I love our animals. Especially mine in particular (2 of the ducks, Flynn the horse, Layla the boxer, and Luna the Mini-Lamancha goat.) but boy, are they a handful! Especially when you already have a bit of a busy schedule.

My day starts at different times depending on what day it is, on certain days my day starts at 8, and others at 10. I know, it's not healthy to have such drastically different sleeping schedules day by day, but sometimes that is just how it works out. Either way, my day starts with getting dressed and ready for whatever I'm doing that day. Say it's a day I don't have to go anywhere; in this case my day starts just as anyone else does. Next, my brothers and I feed all the animals that need to be fed (dogs, goats, chickens, and ducks) which isn't as easy as you might imagine. The ducks and chickens won't be quiet until you feed them, and the goats won't even let the food reach the bowl before they try to eat it. I go back inside for coffee and sometimes breakfast depending on if I'm hungry or not, which usually is a protein shake or whatever we have left in our ever-changing landscape of a fridge.

After all of this, I usually sit on my bed for at least 5 minuets dreading having to do schoolwork. I make sure to sulk, possibly groan. Then I get it over with. About 2 hours later, I'm done. Homeschooling benefits, my friends. Thank goodness. This is usually about time for my boots to go on, and I head into the field to spend some bonding/training time with Flynn for an hour or two, which is a great time of day and I usually thoroughly enjoy it. Sometimes there is a bit of a fight to get him to listen, sometimes he's an angel, and then the extremely rare occasion I fear I may leave with a bite mark or a black and blue bruise from a powerful kick (Which I know deep down he probably wouldn't do, But you know horses do horse things).

Afterwards I usually check on the animals and make sure they all have water, look to see if their are eggs to collect, and other odd chores here and there, usually watching the goats fight each other for the highest spot to stand or knock over their own water bucket. Then it's usually time to take Layla for a little walk down to the creek where she happily plays in the water or searches for who knows what and barks at squirrels scampering up trees. This is my version of taking her for a walk, sense we don't have a sidewalk on our little country street. It's usually evening by this time, so I'll go back up and if it's nice outside, enjoy the sunset with our horses and Layla. This is the one thing that is anything like I imagined and one of the best parts of my day.

This is an overview of a very calm day, other days of the week are busier with places to go and things to get done. Sometimes there is a hurt animal to attend to, or a goat escape route to block, or even a runaway dog (Which did happen once, needless to say Layla's 'alone time at the creek' privileges were revoked.) and sometimes you have awful days. It's messy, and it takes work. But, in the end it's really fun. You get to spend most of your day in nature and with your animals, and there are few better things to do that are so therapeutic in this crazy stressful world we live in. I hope you enjoyed this little peek into what a chill day is like on the farm!

Until next time,

Flynn's training log #2

This is the second post in my series of training posts logging Flynn's progress with me. *this is not an instructional series. Please do not take this as advice or as a training method. There are many great horseman and women that make free content on the internet that can teach you how to train your horse, but this is just my personal log and for those whom enjoy reading about my relationship with my horse and our progress as a team*

 Today Flynn and I worked on basic respect on the ground. We have been doing this for a few days, as we had a bit of a setback. You can read more about that HERE. We worked on lunging and he did well, but not quite as good as yesterday on his cues. We had a bit of trouble with the canter cue on the right side, he continued at a trot without picking up the pace. He began nodding his head again so I corrected him by making him back up. When he tried it again, this time pawing the ground challenging me, I made him lunge and lunge and lunge and then invited him into the center. He tried it one more time nodding his head, and I sent him off into a canter and switched his directions and made him work harder when he was disrespectful. By the end of the session, he was much better and leading better too and seemed a little more with me. I could tell he didn't want to be with me, but that'll come back with time. Horses need constant maintenance on their training, and set backs can be discouraging, but there is nothing like seeing results in your horse and your horse begin to trust you. We will get back to where we were, slowly, but surely. Horses never lie, if you aren't making progress or you have a setback you need to think over how your doing things and adjust to the horse.

As mentioned earlier, this is not an instructional post, however here are some great sources for horse info:

Rick Gore- Think like a horse- thinklikeahorse on youtube and thinklikeahorse.org

Clinton Anderson- Down under horsemanship- Down under horsemanship on youtube and downunderhorsemanship.com

Carson James- carsonjames.com

I don't agree with any one person on everything, but these horsemen know horses, and understand how they think. And I disagree with some on certain things but in general they are all really good with great info.

Flynn's Training Log #1

I've decided to start keeping track of my training sessions with Flynn, and my horsemanship and techniques to keep track of how Flynn grows, how I grow as a horsewoman and how our relationship grows. *This is not an informational log. This is so I can keep track of our progress, and share it with others, but please DO NOT take this as training advice. There are great free videos and articles online with training information. I have only had horses for a few years, and relatively new to training.*

Today we took it easy. A few days ago Flynn became aggressive when I tried to lunge him on the left side by swinging the rope. He began to threaten bites and kicks and to rear up and buck. I made sure to get him to move his feet in the right direction and then let him go, as I could tell it wasn't a good day for a 2 hour session or even a 1 hour session. I didn't want him to think he could get away with that behavior so we lunged a little more and then he was free to go. My confidence was slightly shaken, and I could tell mutually we lost a bit of trust and I lost some of his respect. So, we took off about 2 days with just me visiting him in pasture for scratches and brushing and I sat up above him on the fence to get some sort of respect/trust training in, but no halter.

So, for today's session we worked a bit on basic fundamental respect exercises, such as lunging. He moved off a little slowly the first few times I asked him to 'walk on' and clicked, he looked at me and slowly went into a circle so I had to step it up a bit, sense he wasn't really paying attention, and I asked him to trot and clicked. When he was slow to act I swung the whip at the ground. I worked on direction change and his cues, on yielding his hindquarters, and backing. After a short 20 minuet session or so, I let him go and spent some calm time just petting him and talking to him to just help him to feel calm around me.

Next session I want to work more on the fundamental respect exercises, such as lunging and his cues, and backing up. At the end of the session I'd like to accomplish earning more trust, and respect and possibly working on his fear of the jean jacket I wear. He tends to spook at it when I take it off and it swings around. Hopefully we can regain a bit of trust in each other, and regain the calm relationship we were starting to gain.

'Till next time!