Dreaming about going from boarding to a farmette

[NoSuchPerson]

There is no clear cut answer. No matter which route you go, there will be times when you wish you had gone the other way.

I’ve almost always kept my equines at home and do so now. At this stage in my life, I would really rather board and live in a condo. That would be the best fit for my current lifestyle and needs.

But, there are two things that keep me on the farm:

1. I’ve never had a boarding situation that didn’t eventually go south. Overall quality of care declined, BO/BM had mental health issues and disappeared, BO got stallion and started turning him out in the mare pasture without telling any of the boarders (yes, that really happened and yes, my mare got bred), BO stopped maintaining the facility… I think I have a little PTSD related to some of my boarding experiences. :lol:

2. I live in an area where good boarding is expensive and I’ve got a cheap house on cheap land.

The thing that I hate most about having the equines at home is that I don’t ride enough. I may intend to ride, but often get sidetracked by one thing or another that needs to be done outside - mow that pasture, fix that fence, scrub those water troughs… And then another day has passed and I haven’t ridden.

[imapepper]

[QUOTE=clanter;8905658]
is the farm thing going to be in the Celina area?

fire ants are pretty interesting to deal with and the clay soil is either harder than concrete or slick… also many of those wide open flat areas flood … then there is the wind… unless its summer when its 110F then everything bakes, sort of like being in a convection oven I think[/QUOTE]

I would like to be in Celina but unfortunately prices have skyrocketed here. So it would require more commuting.

[imapepper]

[QUOTE=allons-y;8905791]
OK I’m back. So, is this something you might like?

I do prefer alone time, if you don’t that could be a deal breaker for you.

Read everything Elementfarm said, she’s spot on.[/QUOTE]

I actually do like the alone time. I don’t really need social at the barn. For me the biggest thing is the initial investment and the commute because I won’t be able to work from home and I can’t quit my job anytime soon.

[imapepper]

[QUOTE=clanter;8905951]
if you are looking in the Celina area do some research on the proposed extensions of the Dallas North Toll Road through that area… well any area north of US380.

I was on the North Texas Council of Governors back several (well many) years ago and several proposed routes ran through the Celina

With the direction Dallas is rapidly expanding if you are in that area you would soon become like what happened to us, we got surrounded by the city.

http://www.co.grayson.tx.us/users/RMA/ProposedThoroughfareResolution.pdf

https://www.ntta.org/newsresources/reports/projectprogressreports/Documents/current_cpr/CPR_DNT4-5_secure.pdf

and page 9 of this has the east-west proposed routes of the outer-outer loops
http://www.nctcog.org/trans/spd/roadway/oloop/rol_executivesummarynov2011.pdf

looking at you board ID name, would you be working at Legacy Dr in Plano?[/QUOTE]

Yeah it’s a little scary. I have lived in Celina for about 6 years and currently board in Aubrey. McMansions are closing in on me and my quaint little town is getting busy. I am not liking it. The problem is…where to go. I don’t want a huge place. I am single and in my mid 40s. I have 3 horses. I would like a place between 3-10 acres. If money were no object, I would build one of those slick barns with the cool loft apartment above the stalls. I have truck and trailer. I do understand the work. But…I am very afraid of the $$ and the commute. I am to the point that I hate my commute now and I am commuting less than an hour.

I do work in that area but not for the reason you think LOL My screen name comes from my 31 year old QH.

[clanter]

[QUOTE=imapepper;8906192]
the commute.

I do work in that area but not for the reason you think LOL My screen name comes from my 31 year old QH.[/QUOTE]

I knew the president of that pepper company when it was independent back in the old days

The COMMUTE really becomes the question as the direction of rapid growth is aimed directly at you.

We ended up where we are just because the location was central for the work I was doing then.

I kind of know the area you are in, where the Dallas North Tollway makes it break toward Sherman that was the farm of some good friends who raised Morgans there.

With the commute in mind draw a circle from where you need to be to see the distances then look at the possible routes. Gunter maybe within reach? (got friends with horses there) The 377 corridor is real horsy but most likely would be the commute from hell

to add to your problems most of California is moving into your area

[imapepper]

[QUOTE=clanter;8906217]

The COMMUTE really becomes the question as the direction of rapid growth is aimed directly at you.

to add to your problems most of California is moving into your area[/QUOTE]

Exactly. You have summed my dilemma up with 2 sentences right there.

[clanter]

We were lucky to say the least as our land ended up costing nothing as we got the mineral rights, just wished we had bought more as a bare lot here is now heading north of $100K

[pony_grandma]

[QUOTE=ElementFarm;8905531]

• Similarly, you will learn more horsemanship skills. And Handyman skills. And Agricultural Expert skills. [/QUOTE]

You can brag about country life.

It will give you some credibility in rural Amercia :lol::lol: You will know how to stack a hay wagon, run a bush hog, fix a frozen or broken water main, fix fence, hang gates correctly …

But the A#1 is mainly the really knowing your horses, not just visiting them a few times a week. As well as they know you. The horsemanship just does not learn better than doing it yourself.

Good luck it is a complicated decision.

[gypsymare]

[QUOTE=imapepper;8905401]
Tell me the pros and cons. Tell me ALL about it The good, the bad and the ugly! Was it worth it financially? Are you able to ride more? Less? Do you get lonely/bored/lazy? Best question - Would you do it again?[/QUOTE]
Financially? Definitely not. Land is at a premium where I live and for the extra cost of the property and facilities I could board at a nice facility for the rest of my life.

I ride much less but I also have a toddler and another on the way. I am able to take my kid to the barn and spend time with my horses every day which I would not have been able to do if I was boarding. When I do have time to myself there are always things that need to be done… weed whacking and spraying, mowing, fixing fences, moving hay. DH is a huge help and does most of the property maintenance but he is working full time and going to college full time so sometimes things just don’t get done.

I don’t get lonely but I do get lazy. I trailer out to a weekly lesson so I’m somewhat held accountable.

I do not miss the drama of boarding. I don’t miss fighting with BOs who don’t know how to feed hard keepers and think they know better. I don’t miss seeing my horses ribs. I don’t miss paying for vet bills and wound care that could have been prevented with responsible management.

I would definitely do it again. There are big changes I’d want in the next property… less of an incline, some of the pasture is impossible to get large equipment–rollover risk. I’d also be looking for existing structures. Building was a huge nightmare for me but that’s a whole other story.

[TheJenners]

Just to add, I’m also self-care right now and that includes some light pasture maintenance and dragging the arena. It’s only me, so no co-op situation to tag team care. Yes there are days when I’ve worked a 16 hour day and while I know my horses won’t die if I skip feeding, I still feed. An efficient setup is key. Just mixing and dumping feed plus hay nets and setting up what needs to soak for the next day takes less than 10 min; I muck every other day because no one is locked in, so a total of 25 min (I’ve timed it) on those days to including dumping the wheel barrow. I already have a truck, horse trailer, dump trailer, tractor, wheel barrows and buckets galore… I close next month on my property and house construction will hopefully start soon after. Will it be stupid expensive? Yep, land on an island is stupid expensive because, yanno, it’s an island. Will I probably not ride very much over the next few years? Yep. Do I care? Nope.

I managed a 65-horse facility and I’ve run my own small boarding facility with a max of eight horses; I’ve cut out unnecessary crap at this point in my life and I CAN go out on the town or simply OUT of town. Out of town means a PCer to feed for me and my dogs will be with their auntie. I feed once a day and no one has died.

ETA: I see commute is an issue for you. The way I look at it? It’s a commute to ONE PLACE. Home. Not a commute to home and to the barn and back and work.

[dkcbr]

[QUOTE=imapepper;8905401]
Tell me the pros and cons. Tell me ALL about it The good, the bad and the ugly! Was it worth it financially? Are you able to ride more? Less? Do you get lonely/bored/lazy? Best question - Would you do it again?[/QUOTE]

It’s great to have your horses right in your own backyard and to see your dreams of good horsekeeping actually come true. I say that even as someone who has been fortunate to find satisfactory boarding barns for a horse life spanning over 40 ( :eek: ) years. Having my own farmette is a memory I will treasure for the rest of my life. And there is something rather admirable and “gritty” about meeting all of the challenges head on, knowing you and only you are responsible for the well-being of your horses and the facility, come what may.

Of course, the challenges also include financial ones, which I didn’t quite foresee…

I found that by the time I:

– paid a substantially larger mortgage & taxes for the house and barn and acreage

– paid higher insurance to cover the increased value and liabilities associated with the above

– paid to install a ring surface (not enclosed by a fence because too much $) so I could school on an even surface rather than always riding in the pasture

– paid someone to mow the turnout fields periodically because I didn’t own a tractor, just a riding lawn mower

– paid for hay/bedding/feed (oh and absorbed the price increases that I didn’t really foresee)

– paid the routine costs to keep a babysitter pony so that I could take one horse away without leaving the other horse alone and freaking out

– paid for a shed to store the hay/bedding/feed because the storage area that was available was needed for the pony :lol:

– paid for someone to haul the manure away to reduce flies, worms, and rodents because the property was too small to spread the manure, plus I didn’t have the equipment to do it (too expensive to buy)

– plus considered the fact that I wasn’t riding as much as I had hoped because what with doing the barn work, commuting to & from work, working full time plus, and taking care of my dogs, plus spending every Sunday with my elderly mom 30 miles away which often included bringing her out to the farm (so make that 60 miles round trip), I didn’t have much time and energy left over to ride or even do a lot of brushing and spending personal time with each of the horses by his or herself…

I should mention that I lived by myself and it may be that if I had someone to help out with the work occasionally, it probably would have been better from a work standpoint. Plus, for some odd reason I got a bit antsy the last six months or so about riding alone and it became less romantic/fun.

… plus it got to where I faced a decision of whether or not to spend approximately $13-14,000 to get a tractor because my lawn mower died and I couldn’t even drag the ring nor mow the lawn and I would have liked to be able to maintain my own pastures, snowplow my own driveway, etc. but ka-ching! Simultaneously, I needed a fair amount of fence repair/replacement, and I am not handy enough nor do I own the right equipment to do more than minor switching off of broken rails and retacking no-climb wire…

…So, in view of all this, I had to conclude that, for me, selling the place and going back to boarding seemed to be a better deal. Bear in mind, too, that once you own a place, it may be a bit more difficult to get out from under it if you decide at some point that it wasn’t the right move. It is at this point that I like to remind people that managing other people’s barns and doing all the day to day horse care and even facility maintenance is NOT the same thing as the enormous financial responsibility that comes with owning a horse property.

I’d say if you have a good financial base and you won’t be completely alone in the venture, go for it! Heck, go for it anyway - you can always sell and go back to boarding. I don’t regret my venture a bit!!

[Libby2563]

[QUOTE=imapepper;8905401]
Tell me the pros and cons. Tell me ALL about it The good, the bad and the ugly! Was it worth it financially? Are you able to ride more? Less? Do you get lonely/bored/lazy? Best question - Would you do it again?[/QUOTE]

Starting with the finances: I’m a crazy person and I keep a spreadsheet of all my expenses. I have a sheet for monthly variable costs like hay, feed, bedding, fly control, deworming, labor, land maintenance, etc–basically everything I pay for now that board used to cover. I have another sheet for all of the start-up costs, meaning major infrastructure and equipment investments. I also have a cell in the spreadsheet that tells me how many years it will be before bringing the horses home will have paid for itself, compared to boarding. Last I checked it was at 11 years but I just installed auto waterers, a new run-in shed, and a dry lot so that should have gone up significantly. That’s a pretty long time and it will go up every time I make improvements, while hay etc isn’t likely to get any cheaper (but board costs may rise too, so there’s that). It is definitely possible to do things cheaper than I have though.

The good: All the things people have said about seeing your horses every day, controlling their care, minimizing your commute, etc. To be honest my horses seem about as happy and healthy as they did being boarded, but I never had any truly awful boarding situations.

The bad: My biggest problem with having them at home is getting away. If I’m going to be gone for a week or more, I usually take both horses to my trainer and she is wonderful to board them for me even though she hasn’t ended up riding them either of the past two times I’ve done that. It’s a load off knowing that they’re somewhere safe and nothing catastrophic will happen at home while I’m in rural Africa with no internet access. I’m not sure she will always have space though. I did recently find a great farmsitter (an old friend) who watched them for a week and that went wonderfully. I also have a neighbor who works at the farm next door and he helps out for a weekend sometimes, but there is a language barrier that can sometimes produce interesting results (like the furry 2-year-old who hasn’t been blanketed all winter and may not remember what it feels like well enough to not freak out getting a medium-weight blanket casually thrown on him).

I would recommend cultivating a relationship with someone who lives nearby and can help in a pinch by paying them to help out once a week or so. That way if you ever get stuck at work or have a family emergency you have backup who already knows the horses and the routine.

Of course, you can minimize the labor required to care for them by setting things up well, but I still want someone knowledgeable to handle and eyeball them every day. And when a horse needs stall rest or something, then all your work-minimization plans are out the window. My ideal would be 24/7 turnout with a run-in, but I don’t have enough acreage to keep it in grass so I built a barn. It’s definitely more work if they’re stalled for part of the day. When I had a temporary horse-guest for a couple months who could only tolerate a couple of hours of turnout, I was extremely stressed by all the extra labor.

On riding: I think I ride slightly less but not because I don’t have time (I save major projects like mowing, arena dragging, etc for weekends unless I have unanticipated extra time on a week night, so on days that I work all I have to do is clean stalls and ride). My older horse is no longer competing and my youngster is only 3, so no one needs a ton of work at this point. When I boarded I had to travel to the barn if I wanted to check on my horse and spend time with him. And if I was going to drive all that way, I might as well ride. Now I know they are happy and I get to see and touch them, all without leaving home!

I don’t get bored or lonely or lazy. I am an introvert anyway so alone time at the barn is perfect for me! I do half-lease my older horse to my best friend now so it’s great to see her when she’s there on weekends, but otherwise I’m very happy to be alone. I’m self-motivated enough not to get lazy.

Would I do it again? I think so. I’m feeling a little more ambivalent now than usual because I just spent a ton of money on the dry lot etc and had a hard time arranging 36 hours away from home this past weekend (and I was taking the tougher horse with me!). No doubt life was easier when I boarded. I keep striving to make horse care as easy for me as possible, but every supposed improvement comes with some unanticipated work. I would have an easier time of it if I just stopped trying to make things easier I think!

ETA my conclusion: if you have just one or two horses and have good boarding options in your area and they are affordable and the commute doesn’t kill you, you may be better off boarding. If you have a larger herd, for example if you’d like to be able to keep your retirees at home, a farmette can make sense. You can make it more or less work depending on how you set things up. Your horses will dictate some of that too. Whatever you decide, good luck and enjoy your horses and riding!

[imapepper]

You guys are really helping me out. And making me think about some additional things to put on my wish list. It’s so helpful to hear about what you guys had to put in to make your properties work, what issues you had and the PITA factor on making changes. Also gave me some ideas of wanting to be within driving distance to a place with a nice indoor that will let you pay a fee for ride time in the extra crappy weather. I am leaning towards doing this but I think it might take some considerable time, research and financial planning to make it work for me. My favorite thing about having horses is sitting in the aisle of a freshly cleaned barn listening to happy horses munching. And I miss that now that I am boarding.

[clanter]

make sure you home is horse friendly also, several times we ended up with the miniatures running down the hall looking for food after they broke in or if you have children such as my daughter she would bring her horse in to watch TV as it was too hot outside for man or beast, so she said

[DHCarrotfeeder]

[QUOTE=imapepper;8905401]
Tell me the pros and cons. Tell me ALL about it The good, the bad and the ugly! Was it worth it financially?[/QUOTE]
No, not unless you try to account for the cost of getting everything “your way” in a boarding situation. I believe the primary value of having your horses at home is controlling their care.

Are you able to ride more?

My wife is the rider and the answer is no, she rides less. Now this is her doing - she also picked up a couple of broodmares, plus younglings, plus a geriatric adopted mare, plus a few boarders. With 11 horses in the barn, she has significant hours to spend.

Even if you kept it more apples/apples and considered boarding two or three and keeping two or three at home, boarding offers much more time for you even if you have to drive 30min each way.

Less? Do you get lonely/bored/lazy?

It is drudgery to clean the same stalls, scrub the same buckets, and mow the same grass day in/out without a break. There are some who pay a caretaker when they want to vacation but see my reason for owning a farm.

Best question - Would you do it again?

Given where we ended up, with 8 horses, boarding is not an option. But IMHO it’s a valid question for a few horses.

[allons-y]

One other point for me having a farmette. I really just love the whole thing of having land and space of my own. It’s only 7 acres, but I lived almost 30 years in a congested Florida town while DH worked on the Space Shuttle. I would be weeding my beautiful, tropical backyard, stand up to stretch my back, and be nose to nose with the next-door-neighbor. I could heard the neighbors fighting, playing, watching TV, etc, etc. Looking out my kitchen window, to see my close neighbor looking out his, in at me. Everything and everybody was just.too.close.

I’m a nurse, up to my ears in everyone’s wants, needs, demands - physically and emotionally, day after day, year after year. AND I’m an Introvert in the first place! I love the job, love the work, can’t imagine ever being anything else.

BUT, I gotta get outside so I can BREATHE. Just sitting on the porch, smelling the new mown fields, listening to the birds, watching horses graze, dogs play…it restores me. I can go back in there to the struggle (for their lives and healing) because I’ve been recharged and rested by the peace and nature at home. So I would do it all again, even without horses, for my mental health.

[stb]

[QUOTE=allons-y;8906917]
One other point for me having a farmette. I really just love the whole thing of having land and space of my own. It’s only 7 acres, but I lived almost 30 years in a congested Florida town while DH worked on the Space Shuttle. I would be weeding my beautiful, tropical backyard, stand up to stretch my back, and be nose to nose with the next-door-neighbor. I could heard the neighbors fighting, playing, watching TV, etc, etc. Looking out my kitchen window, to see my close neighbor looking out his, in at me. Everything and everybody was just.too.close.

I’m a nurse, up to my ears in everyone’s wants, needs, demands - physically and emotionally, day after day, year after year. AND I’m an Introvert in the first place! I love the job, love the work, can’t imagine ever being anything else.

BUT, I gotta get outside so I can BREATHE. Just sitting on the porch, smelling the new mown fields, listening to the birds, watching horses graze, dogs play…it restores me. I can go back in there to the struggle (for their lives and healing) because I’ve been recharged and rested by the peace and nature at home. So I would do it all again, even without horses, for my mental health.[/QUOTE]

I agree with this. Even if I no longer had horses I would not want to leave my farmette. The quiet, the privacy, the view from my front porch, and the stars in the country sky make me feel like I have finally come home.

[imapepper]

[QUOTE=allons-y;8906917]
One other point for me having a farmette. I really just love the whole thing of having land and space of my own. It’s only 7 acres, but I lived almost 30 years in a congested Florida town while DH worked on the Space Shuttle. I would be weeding my beautiful, tropical backyard, stand up to stretch my back, and be nose to nose with the next-door-neighbor. I could heard the neighbors fighting, playing, watching TV, etc, etc. Looking out my kitchen window, to see my close neighbor looking out his, in at me. Everything and everybody was just.too.close.

I’m a nurse, up to my ears in everyone’s wants, needs, demands - physically and emotionally, day after day, year after year. AND I’m an Introvert in the first place! I love the job, love the work, can’t imagine ever being anything else.

BUT, I gotta get outside so I can BREATHE. Just sitting on the porch, smelling the new mown fields, listening to the birds, watching horses graze, dogs play…it restores me. I can go back in there to the struggle (for their lives and healing) because I’ve been recharged and rested by the peace and nature at home. So I would do it all again, even without horses, for my mental health.[/QUOTE]

That does sound nice. I work in the mortgage business and it’s to the point that I don’t want to talk to anyone but my dogs, horses, and chickens.

[swgarasu]

Cons- it is more expensive. At some point I think though with the way boarding prices keep going up, that we will come out ahead. I could not have afforded to board 2 horses, but I could afford to keep 2 at home.

You are tied down if you can’t find someone to take care of the horse- to a degree. I believe horses are happier outside, and my horse has a run in and a pen made of panels. The panels were expensive, but she cannot break them and there is no other maintenance besides priming and painting small areas where the paint has gotten chipped. I feed lots of good hay, and she can get by overnight with a large, small hole haynet (those things can hold like a bale). Longer than that, a neighbor or friend will horse-sit for me. They don’t mind because I make it super easy- just stuff a haynet and check the water tank. They don’t have to clean because she stays outside 95% of the time and I just give the pen a good cleaning when I get home- it’s pretty big and she’s not one to intentionally stand in manure. It’s actually been more of a hassle getting the dog taken care of when we go away.

Not having an indoor- this does suck in winter, but I can usually still ride some - it might just be a 20m circle one day, but if it doesn’t snow again right away I shovel the other 20m circle (my arena is about 20x40). With an “8” shape you can work on a lot of dressage.

Not having lights for riding- though we did add a bright (little too bright, unfortunately) light outside, and I’m planning to experiment with an LED work light.

Your house will get dirtier (at least, mine did). I don’t make housekeeping a priority, and it seems like things get dusty faster than they did when I didn’t have a farmette. It’s not horrible, but I do think it’s a little dirtier.

It is more work. You have to feed and pick up manure, and my arena was hand built- I dug out some old posts, cleaned up the ground, shoveled and carted and dumped fines and sand, and I rake by hand. We put up the fending ourselves- again, I used panels, but dug holes and set the posts (to be fair, hubby dug the holes with the auger, I’m not big enough). But I like being outside and getting exercise, I hate gyms and won’t work out in one. I like that I’m accomplishing things with my effort.

Hubby sort of resents the time I spend mowing and tending the arena. He resented me spending hours at the barn when I boarded though, so that is no different. This way if he wants to grab me for something he just has to hollar out the back door.

Pros- the care for my horse- I feed her lots of nice hay and beet pulp that I don’t mind soaking, and supplements that I don’t mind measuring and adding. She’s got more room to live in. I can blanket/remove blanket easily.

I see her twice a day. She is always happy to see me. It’s a pretty great feeling. Even when I don’t want to get up, I’m happy to be out with her once I am. I often spend extra time out with her even when I don’t mean to. The sunrises are beautiful. The sunsets are beautiful. The moonlight is beautiful. I never took the time to appreciate the sky as much when I boarded. I like to just stare at the horse and the property and just walk around a little.

I do ride more. I went from riding generally 2-3x a week to 4-5x a week, and I do not think my riding would have advanced if I still boarded. Driving to the barn, getting the horse, taking her into the barn, sometimes having to deal with other people in the ring or the crossties- it was impossible to get a ride in if I only had an hour. At home, it might be only 30 min of riding, but 2 extra 30 min rides a week makes a difference- and usually it’s not that short.

I have my arena to myself, the footing is not too deep, and there is no barn owner’s junk stuck in a corner. I don’t have to pay for my trainer to give me lessons at my house. I am fine with riding alone, I feel like my horse and I are pretty much communicating with each other the whole ride so I don’t feel lonely.

No commute to the barn. Whenever you want to visit horsey, step outside.

Kiddo also doesn’t have to be bored at the barn while I ride- if his dad isn’t home, it doesn’t matter, he hangs out in the house and if he needs me he can just come outside.

[Jersey_Fresh]

[QUOTE=imapepper;8905401]
Tell me the pros and cons. Tell me ALL about it The good, the bad and the ugly! Was it worth it financially? Are you able to ride more? Less? Do you get lonely/bored/lazy? Best question - Would you do it again?[/QUOTE]

We just moved our horses home to a small farm/farmette (we have about 11.5 acres).

Financially: Sorta of less expensive? We went from paying two mortgages and $750/m for board. Our Mortgage on our new place is less than one mortgage plus board combined, so that part is less. We bought a house on land, so had to build a barn. arena and put up fencing. Because rates were so low, we opted to put a large down payment on the house and take a HELOC out for building the horse property. We live in a very horsey area, and have a prime location (good schools, minutes from downtown) so we felt confident that we would get our money back by building.

We are aggressively paying the HELOC off, so right now we are paying more than what we were spending on board. But we also have a a few self care boarders, so if we wanted to, they would essentially pay off the HELOC for us.

That being said, we did not become house poor moving my horses home-we still go out to eat, travel, etc. I dont think I would have done it without that financial flexibility.

Riding: I am sure this will change in the winter, but I actually find I ride more. I can squeeze in a ride when I don’t have a ton of time which I wasn’t able to do when I had to factor in driving 30 minutes to where he was boarded. We have arena lights, so I can ride before work or when its dark so that helps a ton.

Social: I trailer out for lessons once a week, and have a bunch of people I ride with and go to hack out with (we have a great equestrian park here) and with a couple boarders, I don’t miss the social aspect. At my previous barn, I mostly rode alone anyway. I especially don’t miss dodging lesson kids or dealing with snotty college kids.

Cons: Its a lot of work. I have a system worked out, but I get up earlier before work. I could not do it without my husband helping me out. He mows, drags the ring, fixes fencing. I bring my horses in when I get up and feed them, he turns them out for me. I suppose the winter will be tough, but down here its short and really only February is bad.

Mud. I hate mud. I never hated mud to the point that I do right now.

We have a couple of good farm sitters lined up, so leaving isn’t an issue for us. They charge us about what we paid for just the dogs and a cat. But I do find that you have to plan way earlier.

What do I love? I love having my horses in my back yard. I love seeing them every day, even if I work late and only have few minutes to feed and turn back out. When they were boarded, I wouldn’t drive an hour round trip to say hi for 5 minutes. I love not seeing my horse ribby and walking the fence line for hours, and dealing with a BO who refused to change his situation even when my vet said he was getting thin. I love that if I think I need to up his feed or change it, I can. If I think he needs more hay, I can give it to him and no one is going to argue with me. I don’t miss a BO who took out her dislike of me on my horse.

I will also disclose that in order to make this doable we have a cleaning person and we both cook dinner, so I have minimal “indoor work” to do.