I am fortunate that I keep my horses at home, which is 99% amazing! The only downside for me is lacking a "barn family" to ride and show with. I am admittedly a loner, but I do wish for fellow riders to enjoy daily rides and spend time together at shows. My closest horse friends either live far away or do not show, so it does make me slightly sad. :-( I did not take any lessons this past year, but the woman I ride with does not have a boarding stable or a ton of lesson riders, so even though it is fun to trailer out for a lesson, that still doesn't give me that community I crave.
Of course, despite that small downfall, everything else about having my horses at home is great. I get to make all the decisions and I don't have to worry about how they are being cared for.
We moved into our newly built house in April 2015, but the horses did not come home until December of that year. Once the barn was built, THEN we started on the barn. And by "we", what I really mean is my father haha. He has been a building contractor and owned his business Yankee Builders since long before I was born. Of course, I had always dreamed that one day my father would build my house, so it really is a dream come true that it happened! He doesn't build barns and he is not a horse person, so building the barn was a bit more...umm, challenging haha. He wanted to build things his way despite the fact I argued it wasn't how to build a barn. (Example, he INSISTED he had to smooth the concrete floor though of course a horse person knows you leave it rough for better traction. Hence the reason my barn floor is now completely matted....!!) I cannot complain though, because just the mere fact he built our house and barn is something I am quite grateful for and this barn will be standing long after we are all dead and gone. ;-) If only he would also pay the mortgage and taxes.....HAHAHAHA!
There are a lot of things I could point out that are not ideal, but sadly we had a budget (damn money!) so I couldn't build the true barn of my dreams. But the cool thing is that every year we save a little money to make improvements here and there, so perhaps by the time we pay off our mortgage, everything will be just as we always wished. But for having to stay within a budget, it is pretty perfect.
The barn has two horse stalls on the right side, with a small aisle and tack room in the middle, and to the left we have two cattle stalls and sawdust storage. We have a large front grass pasture/jump field, a small dirt paddock/ring, and a smaller grass pasture off this dirt paddock. Someday we plan to actually build a full dressage ring, but that needs to be saved for! We do have a long 1000+ foot driveway, so I often cool out a horse after a ride by hacking up and down and that is where I usually have to start riding in the late winter/spring for legging up, since we have 72927454 feet of snow until about April hahaha.
We abut a Christmas tree farm, and my neighbor generously has given me permission to ride through his fields and trails. There are some great hills out there, too. I am not allowed on his hay fields (OF COURSE), nor would I ride on them anyway. We do buy our hay from him (I have for years, even before building our home), so now instead of having to pick up the bales in the field, he just drives a full hay wagon over to our pasture gate and we unload it directly into our loft. After years and YEARS of picking up 500-600 bales of hay in the field on my own and putting them into my old barn on my own (yeah, my ex husband was a real nice guy), this luxury of having a hay cart arrive at the back gate is overwhelmingly lovely.
I love my little barn and being able to see my horses right out my window. My father wanted to have the kitchen sink facing out a different side of my kitchen, into the woods, but I insisted it face the front pasture. I knew I would be looking out that window enough that seeing my horses grazing was a must! ;-)
|
We started with this... |
|
And built a house... |
|
That looks like this! |
|
And then we started on the barn in May... |
|
And kept building all summer... |
|
Until we had this! |
|
These are the two horse stalls, in the process of being built. Totally found the stall grates (that are nearly identical) for super cheap at two different places. We painted them up and they look great! |
|
First day home! |
|
Still had to hang the barn door haha! |
|
The rest of the pics are from summer 2016 |
|
The tack room only holds the year end ribbons... |
|
This is looking out towards the cattle |
|
Summer of 2017, view from my porch! The kitchen window is right above me, giving me a great view! |
|
I prefer the top season LOL! |
|
Having a hay wagon delivered and putting bales on a conveyor is HEAVEN to what I used to do before! |
|
View down the driveway (you can see about half the driveway from here). This was Christmas 2015, I think! |
Of course, with a cute little farm of my very own, I needed a logo! I had wanted one before this, but it always seemed kind of silly. I am an adult amateur and I don't need to "brand" my farm or any type of business. Honestly, it was my husband who convinced me to do it, as he came home one day the first fall we lived in the house, with the name idea of Clover Ledge and had drawn his own logo. It was a silly spoof of a logo, but we figured we needed one eventually. We have a lot of ledge around (moved the house forward about 10 feet to avoid having to blast the ledge for the foundation!) and we have a TON of clover growing in our lawns and pastures. First we thought of Clover Hill Farm, but Ledge seemed more unique.
I asked a horsey friend to design it for us. She is a graphic designer and I knew she would do a great job. I basically told her I wanted to incorporate horses and oxen and stick with the green color. I think her design is perfect. It took a few tweaks, and she was very patient with me, and I just love it!
We did the horse in a dressage frame, even though I would identify myself as an eventer. Dressage is the basis of all training in my eyes, so dressage it was. And I love her idea to use the yoke as the way to indicate we have oxen instead of trying to design the right looking ox. Plus we would need two of them, since you yoke them together in a pair. So a dressage horse, jumping horse, and two oxen would be just too much! The four leaf clover obviously comes from the farm name, but it also is a nod to my husband's years in 4-H and we both feel as though we have been especially lucky in our life together. So it works well!
I LOVE your logo. And your house and barn are seriously the most adorable, charming, wonderful things I have seen. Our place came to us the way it is (for better and for worse) and while the pieces are technically all there, it lacks a lot of charm and thoughtfulness. Your tack room is to die for!! #JEALOUS
ReplyDeleteThank you! I really love it and that my dad built it is even more special!! :-) I spent MANY MANY years designing it all in my head haha!
Deleteexcept for the snow can i come live with you? Cause that place is PERFECTION SO JEALOUS :) thanks for sharing all that. Love it all. And love that the cattle have their own stalls too :) So cozy that barn!! I feel like i know you a bit better now :) And i love your dad built it all. how amazing. My dad did tile my floor once LOL does that count ? :) thanks again for sharing!
ReplyDeleteHahaha yeah the sn*w is the worst. I may have been born here in Maine, but I have never liked it!! I spent so many years thinking about what I wanted (and was slightly saddened by the idea I had to live within a budget lmao) but it really is my dream farm! (And ,yes, totally counts that your dad tiled your floor haha! Dads are the best when they can help us do that kind of stuff!)
DeleteI love this! Your property is beautiful!
ReplyDeleteThank you! Besides the sn*w, I love it! ;-)
Deleteomg that tack room tho and all those beautiful ribbons and mementos! such a lovely farm!
ReplyDeleteThank you! I am so glad to finally have a place to store and hang up all those awards and ribbons because MAN, they just don't look right in a grown up house LOL!! They looked fine in my bedroom when I was a kiddo though! ;-)
DeleteYour place is wonderful (minus the snow)! Not having a riding or showing family is the only drawback I have found in moving the horses home as well. Pros and cons to everything!
ReplyDeleteYes, the sn*w is the worst part LOL! And I think the lack of a barn family makes up for having the horses out my door. I don't know if I could ever board again!
DeleteSuch a cue little barn.
ReplyDeleteThank you! :-)
Delete