Newsletter Autumn 2009
Newsletter Autumn 2009
Owners Group Lessons: Will continue on Sunday afternoons @
Children’s Show: 21st November. English and western riders welcome. Classes will include lead-line, showmanship, trail, equitation, jumping and gymkhana games. Age groups will be divided according to entries. All are welcome! Lesson horses available for students to hire. No haul-in fees! New to showing? This is a perfect opportunity to experience a horse show in a fun, friendly environment.
Facility Equipment - ‘leave it as you find it’ policy: We maintain a tidy, safe facility. Boarders/students are welcome to use all the amenities available, however if you knock equipment over please be courteous and replace poles, cones etc. immediately. I find it very tiresome having to walk the arena, trail or cross country course replacing equipment etc. which other people have knocked over! Also, if the arena is clear of jumps when you arrive and you choose to put jumps up, please remove the jumps before you leave. For safety reasons, jump cup pins MUST always be placed in the cups when not in use.
Mondays: Please, urgent calls and e-mails ONLY! Owners: you are welcome to come and ride or visit your horse on a Monday; but please respect our privacy and the need for a day to ourselves. However if you have a health or safety related issue, horse or human, please do not hesitate to call. Horses in training will not be worked on a Monday unless we are ‘catching up’ due to weather, facility conditions, scheduling or other issues.
Lesson Students - Inclement Weather: We aim to operate year round. However, sometimes the weather dictates that it is not prudent to continue lessons or training. Cold air can be tolerable to below freezing on a calm, sunny day, however high winds often interfere with our schedule. I will call to re-schedule your lesson if high winds make conditions miserable, dangerous or just too cold to ride and teach. On particularly cold days wind chill factors MUST be considered for the comfort and safety of horse, rider and trainer. Cancellation fees will not be charged for cancellations due to weather conditions. For lessons paid in advance, full credit will be given. Please remember to bundle up in layers to ride or otherwise spend time here. Falcon can be cold and windy! You can remove a layer if too hot, but many people do not wear enough layers and then subsequently complain of being cold. Riding is not a fashion statement; be smart, sensible and WARM, your horse does not care what you look like!
Looking Ahead: Affordable Saturday clinics including dressage, jumping (including gridwork), groundwork, lunging, lateral work, will be scheduled soon – any requests?
BOARDERS:
Boarders ONLY Group Lessons: Starting Sunday 27th September @
Boarding/training/lesson packages available October 1st: Discounted rates for 3 month contracts are available only to current boarders; please contact me for details.
Turn-out Schedule: Starting in September, unless advised otherwise, all horses boarded here will participate in a regular turn-out schedule to include some ‘downtime’ in the east pasture or east arena. To help prevent injury, horses will be turned out individually.
Be prepared for winter!
Please be sure that blankets (if desired) are available for your horse. Generally speaking, healthy horses in good condition with adequate food and a shelter/windbreak do not need blanketing; however we do recommend blankets for horses over 15 years of age, for hard-keepers, and for horses in poor condition or without use of a shelter. According to veterinary guidelines horses should only need to be blanketed in extreme cold, windy or snowy conditions, but let us know if you have special requirements based on your horses’ individual needs. Basic daily blanketing is included in the monthly board fee. Please take summer fly sheets, fly masks and fly sprays/aerosols home during the winter season.
All horses are fed additional hay in really cold weather; remember it is HAY, and NOT grain which helps to keep your horse warm. Hay is provided three times daily and ice is broken and removed twice daily. Please understand if your horses’ water is not clinically clean when the wind has been blowing dust. If you use hoses then remember to drain them VERY SLOWLY to remove excess water. Frozen hoses during the cold days of winter make chores much more difficult for us
We urge you not to venture out if weather forecasts indicate extreme weather conditions. Highway 24 is notorious for snow drifts and icy roads and is sometimes closed at the Hwy 24/Constitution intersection as soon as driving conditions deteriorate. If you need to contact me, call 719-740-1099 or e-mail ‘tamarnia@hotmail.com’ (be aware that we can lose internet service during extreme weather so e-mail communication can be erratic). We have the necessary equipment and years of
