getting ready for winter

some must have :

long johns

scarf/hat (or toque for Canadians)

light gloves

work gloves

sunglasses

tea bottle (with grid)

good warm socks (still to come from bass pro on my way back)

warm jacket multilayer compatible (hideous but 15$ at the coop it isn't bad)

what else?

the saskatchewan flag is actually a must have for homesickness because I know it's comming that way too.

comments to the pictures

I wrote that entry once before and internet being itself, it got lost. So this is going to be short and synthetic.

really busy time before leaving, getting ready to get the cows in and sorted. Fall being the season when the most cows and calves are sold.

fencing. nearby pasture for the next 2 months and pens for the winter.

preg checking at George's. so he can decides wich heifers he's selling. Wonderfull experience working cows with April. Best time of the summer I think.

The grass is low so it's time for everybody to go home. So, time to castrate the yearlings, Casper and Haggis, before Dale pick them up.

The colt, Georgie, 4months, had a hernia. So he got fixed be Ed the vet.

the cold is starting so we follow with cutting and choping wood for the stoves.

There were 2 horse meetings. The big horseshow from the horseclub with one day english and the other one western. For convinience reasons I ended up doing a trail class with April. First time there and even I was really impressed by her. Calm, focussed but a little bit confused on the L sideways and the gate. Great for a very first time as a green horse without specific training. too bad I can't take her home with me, she'll do a perfect TREC horse.

One competitive trail ride at Kelly's. April jumped so good for a second time. Amazing feeling too.

Oh and I rode her bareback. There is no word for that. It was almost as good as the cow work at George's.

=> really pleased with my last week with April. I miss her really a lot already. and believe me, I'm not a cheesy person.

Now I'm in Salmon Arm after a few days in Jasper. The rockies are still gorgeous, even more than in summer I find. The acrage I'm staying is a really different enviroment. There are lots of opportunities to learn and the temperature is milder. So let's see how I settle down in a week.

Salmon Arm

First sorry for not having written in a while.

So as you know I had a magnificent trip from Jasper to Salmon Arm. but what happened since then?

As usual, settling down to a new house ended up being quite challenging for me. I left chaotic but beloved Meadow Lake for the unknown which is a british family with very british runned stables. 10 horses : 5 full time in the paddocks and 5 are in stables at night and in the paddocks during daytime. We can only ride 3 of them, the rest is either to small (a pony) or boarding horses.

The helpers' job is to feed, move and muck out the horses morning and evening. Exercice them following Becky's (the boss) training program : a rotation of flat work, longeing, jumping and (very) short hack.

So in term of riding, it's only english style, depending on the skills of other helpers every second or third day and no more than 2h a day. After training April on my own and riding up to 5-6 hours a day it is frustrating. Although I get  that in term of helpX you meet all kinds of people and as an host, you have to have time to ger to know and trust your helpers. One sign more that it's time to come back home and build my life.

With time it's getting better here and there a lot for me to learn in term of training eventing horses and of course english riding. Becky looks like a great teacher so I hope I'll get a lesson from her soon. :-)

I'll keep you updated of my riding progression.

Otherwise Salmon Arm is really big and civilized compared to ML. I even got an haircut (successfull).