Past and present

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

I have some gratuitous dorky photos of me and Hampton to start out the year (I am sure you are used to these types of photos by now), and unfortunately a sad story to tell. So read on.

Keeping weight on decently so far this winter. I've been giving him soaked
alfalfa cubes to help him out. Meanwhile, I have totally slacked on
keeping him clipped/mane pulled. Hippie horse.

On NYE, we joined a fellow boarder for a walk to the very back of the
property and back. (We rode for over an hour!) This includes several awesome hills to torture Hampton ...
work Hampton's butt. It was so quiet and beautiful - even for the
dead of winter.

Still working on our Third Level stuff in the arena when we can.

Matching Horsewear fleeces! Not dorky at all. Nope.

I just ordered new bits for Hampton's double. These were the most basic, generic bits
to start out with. He's earned some updates.

More dweeby goodness

Me and my niece! Her first selfie. She may have had too
much eggnog on Christmas though. She is drooling.
(ok maybe it was me who had too much eggnog)

And that brings me to a rather sad story.

On Christmas Eve I stopped by the farm where Hampton was born. His sire still lives there in fact. I'm not sure I wrote too much about it in this blog, but I also worked as a trainer on this farm for about a year. The owner breeds larger type hunters/foxhunters/jumpers/sporthorses. 

She built the big barn in 2006 I think? I still had T-Bone at the time and boarded him there as well. It is a nice barn. Really nice stalls, 2 washracks w/ heaters, an indoor arena, an outdoor arena and acres and acres of pasture. The barn office was snazzy with leather couches, TVs, an office and big windows to see into the indoor. There was even an apartment in the loft. It was always sparkly clean (for a barn), the horses all fat and shiny with perfectly pulled manes. It was a busy farm (52 babies were born in the year I worked there - Hampton was one of them!). 

Basically what happened was the owner had too many horses (175 at one time), and ran out of money, and then slipped into depression.

She's now down to 12 horses - 4 stallions- and the rest are about Hampton's age and not even halter broke. When I arrived at the farm - I was immediately sad. The outdoor area was nothing but overgrown weeds. The fences were broken. Grass not really mowed. Broken and rotting jumps strewn about. On the porch there was old halters and various other pieces of junk piled up. As I walked into the office area - you are overcome with the smell of a cat box. So much dust and dirt everywhere. There are holes and tears all over the leather couches. Various junk strewn about.

I walked over the aisle where the horses were. Hampton's sire, Fletcher, greeted me at his door.

Fletcher says oh hei!!! He is a big sweetie and enjoyed some lovin's.

I notice that the stalls have not been cleaned in ... a while. Like, a good while.

All the horses had tangled manes. They were in good weight, but it appeared to me that they

have not, or do not, go outside. There was no mud on any of them and we all know that chances are this time of year, if your horse goes outside, there will be mud somewhere.

It was so heartbreaking to me. I mean I don't believe the horses are in danger, but it was so obvious that the passion that once was there, is gone. Very heartbreaking to see what depression can do to a person.

Several of the "young" horses (between 6-8 years old I believe) appeared to be quite nice. It's really a shame that they cannot even LEAD. Because now they are too big to really wrestle. Who wants an unhandled 7 year old? So who knows what their futures hold. No half-brothers to Hampton, however.

BUT - I did find out that his mother is still living! She is in her mid-30s! Wowza!

I did end up having a wonderful chat with Hampton's breeder and my long time friend and mentor (she used to be the breeding manager when the farm was doing well). She basically agreed with me and said that the barn's owner is depressed - sometimes not coming out of her house, and out to the barn until 3 in the afternoon. But what can you do? 

She's not sure if the farm will be sold, or what will happen to it.

Just hate to see this stuff happen.