Happy Halloween!!!

"Ernie" is a Quarter Horse gelding owned by Lisa Filsaime, and received his Halloween Haircut from Meghann Belser. Long Island, New York

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Stable Spotlight: Double H Farm

Double H Farm in Ridgefield Connecticut is no ordinary stable. Lavish woodwork, decorative metalwork, climate control, a full line of training equipment, and a professional staff make this one of the premier riding facilities in the country. I am in love with the perfectly manicured grounds.

For me the highlight of this amazing facility is the 3.5 acre derby field complete with two open waters, double liverpools, a table bank, a slide bank, a grob, a ditch and a hedge jump. It was designed by International Equestrian Design's, Robert Jolicoeur.


On its 87 acres, Double H Farm features two beautiful barns. The main barn has 20 stalls, four grooming and wash stalls, and laundry, tack and feed rooms. It also features a large trophy room and lounge, two offices, and a full kitchen. The second barn, built for the breeding operation, has 14 stalls and two grooming and wash stalls. It also has laundry, tack and feed rooms, and one office. Additionally, there are 8 stalls in an outside shed row that are used in all but the winter months.


Double H's training facilities include a five horse walker, a treadmill, an 80 x 180 foot indoor ring with excellent Travel Right footing, and a large 135 x 280 foot outdoor ring with perfect ESI footing.Finally, with its beautiful land and open spaces, Double H has 11 large grass paddocks, and four smaller sand paddocks. There are also numerous paths throughout its wooded areas for gorgeous and relaxing trail rides. Looks like heaven to me!

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My little three year old

Although over the past couple of weeks, Mazzy hasn't been able to be ridden much do to rain, loosing a shoe, etc. she was awesome yesterday and today! My trainer rode her yesterday and I got to watch, which I haven't been able to do lately because I am at work when she rides her. Then I rode Mazzy today and she was phenomenal. Her canter is getting much more balanced. So far she has been making great progress. I have my fingers crossed that she continues living up to my expectations.





Mazzy's puncture wound is getting better. I have been cold hosing it for 20-30 min a day, treating it with triple antibiotic ointment, and giving her oral antibiotics. I am hoping it will close up by next week. I switched her stall to a hopefully safer one where she won't impale herself. However, I couldn't find what she injured herself on.

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Puncture Wound

Poor Mazzy somehow punctured her elbow, on what I have no idea. A friend of mine noticed it when I got to the barn tonight and was leading Mazzy out of her stall. It probably happened last night after I left due to the way it looked. I wish someone had noticed it earlier today. There was heat, discharge, and swelling so I called the vet (an emergency call of course due to the time) and then I cold hosed it while I waited, luckily my wonderful vet came right out. She game me some antibiotics, but due to the location there wasn't much more she could do except put some Betadine antibiotic ointment on it. Luckily Mazzy was up to date with her Tetanus shot, which can make the difference between a horse that recovers from even a simple-looking wound and one that dies from a bacterial infection. As long as she stays sound and it doesn't swell more I can keep riding her. By the time I took care of all of this, it was too late to ride. There's always tomorrow.

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October's Featured Etsy Blogger: MadebyMelissa

Congratulations, Melissa, for being chosen as the Etsyblogger of the Month! Her shop is stocked with adorable toys, blankets, scarves, washcloths, dishcloths, potholders, earrings, necklaces, and bracelets.

She is having a Halloween BOGO Sale! Buy any Halloween item and get a second Halloween item for 50%!! Refunds given via PayPal.

Cute Candy Corn Charm Earrings
Halloween Star Baby Blanket



Please take a look at her Etsy shop and her blog.
http://madebymelissa.etsy.com
http://madebymelissa.blogspot.com

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Huntington Gardens

Chad's mom gave us a membership to Huntington Gardens, which is right down the street from us, so we activated it Sunday and went for a stroll through the beautiful botanical gardens. The property covers 207 acres, of which approximately 120 are landscaped and open to visitors. More than 14,000 different varieties of plants are showcased in more than a dozen principal garden areas. Among the most remarkable are the Desert Garden, the Japanese Garden, the Rose Garden, and the Chinese garden. There is so much to see, a library, art collection, gardens. We will be returning many times to take it all in.

We stared out in the Palm Garden. More than 200 species of the most decorative and botanically interesting palms that will survive Southern California’s cold, wet winters and hot, dry summers grace the hillside just south of the entrance and wrap around two sides of the jungle garden.

The Palm Garden leads into the Jungle Garden, which features a high forest canopy, an understory of trees and shrubs, climbing vines, and leaves of giant proportions. Plants commonly associated with the tropics grow here, including orchids, bromeliads, gingers, ferns, palms, bamboos, and many members of the calla lily family, such as philodendrons.

The Huntington grows more than seventy-five kinds of bamboo. Six species form dense groves and passages around the lily ponds.

The four acres that make up the lily ponds have two large and three small ponds. Then we went through the subtropical gardens and onto the Australian gardens to see lots of beautiful Eucalyptus trees. It was cool and shady.

Occupying nine acres on the slopes of a canyon, this is one of America’s oldest, most elaborate, and gracefully matured Japanese gardens.

There is a bonsai court with an amazing selection of bonsais. They look like miniature versions of old, weathered trees found in nature.

As fascinating and beautiful as the other gardens are, the jewel of the Huntington's gardens is Liu Fang Yuan, or the Garden of Flowing Fragrance. Opened last year, it covers 3.5 acres of its planned 12-acre footprint. Sheltering woods were left undisturbed to create a natural backdrop and a man-made lake shimmers in the same deep spot where water naturally collected on the Huntington property after heavy rains. Chinese architecture and rocks from China's Lake Tai, placed around the water's edge, are balanced with native features such as California oaks.

The Rose Hills Foundation Conservatory for Botanical Science featured an orchid show. Gorgeous!

We then stopped in one of the art galleries, the Virginia Steele Scott Galleries of American Art. There was a beautiful collection of silver. I love old silverware.

My legs were so tired by this time so we decided to come back soon and see some more. What an amazing place!

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Scout

We decided to name her Scout. She had a big day today. I took her to the vet this morning to get some antibiotics for her cough. They looked her over, cleaned her ears, trimmed her nails and assured me with some good nutrition, a bath, and some TLC she will be fine. She was a good patient with her tail wagging the whole time. She is a little shy, but very friendly. I then took her on some errands and she was a great companion. She rides in the car perfectly, sat quietly just watching out the window.

I then took her to the barn. Mazzy got cast in the turnout from rolling to close to the edge, but thankfully she didn't panic and managed to scoot herself around and get her tangled legs out. The turnouts there are really hazardous, but there is no other option unless I don't want my horses to leave their stalls. She did pull a shoe in the turn out though, so another day that I couldn't ride her. What a bummer! The rain this week put a damper on things. So last Sunday was the last time I rode her. I rode Kylie for a little while, but didn't want to do too much because the ring was like cement since it hadn't been dragged since it was sealed for the rain. It felt like a paved road. Ugh! So I took Scout home to get some things done around the house.

How can people be so neglectful of their pets??? Not even sure if Scout was ever someone's pet but I assume she was. I found five big fat ticks on her so far (gross!!!), so she for sure was wondering around somewhere far from here, but I guess I'll never know her story. In the nine years I've had Murphy he has never had one tick. They just aren't that common around here, and he goes everywhere. I was hoping the Frontline would have kill them, but they were very much alive. I gave her a bath today, which was probably the first one she has ever had.

Murphy is the best big brother!!!

Topaz isn't quite sure about Scout yet. If I hold Topaz she is ok, and Scout is very gentle with her, but if she is on the ground she get nervous and runs. I tried explaining to Topaz that we needed to rescue Scout and give her a nice home, just like we did for her, but I guess I wasn't explaining it in a way she could understand. I'm sure in a few days they will all be hanging out.

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Our new family member

For the past few weeks we have been frequenting the humane society often, looking for the perfect dog to rescue. Murphy definitely needed a buddy, but we just weren't sure if we were ready. We found several we liked, but we didn't make a decision quick enough and they were adopted. We were at least happy that they found a home.

Tonight we adopted a dog from Good Dog Animal Rescue that kind of looks like a coyote. We aren't positive what breed she is, but they said she is a Louisiana Catahoula Leopard Dog. A what??? She is about 6 months old and very sweet. Curled up and sleeping peacefully, she has settled in so well already. She has a very unique merle coat pattern in patches of grey and black. We are still deciding on a name.

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