The Value of Planning and Planting

Many people that are strong influences in my life teach and agree on the value of planning and planting - my parents, pastors at church, people I work with - all of whom are successful people that I look up to.

It is so important to (metaphorically speaking) plant a seed - discover your life's desire - and work (plan) on having this come to pass. For me, it's of course my property and reaching people through it and doing what I love.

One of the beautiful men I work with up in the country when doing the whole stud thing works on a few different studs as well as running his own 50 acre property. He has commented often on how he wishes he'd planted trees on first purchasing the property over seven years ago. The time has quickly passed and he knows it would have been smart to take the time initially, to see the fruits now.

In the middle of a strong drought for us here in Australia, the upkeep of horses is proving to be difficult and very expensive - especially for those utilising these gorgeous animals as part of a business. My current boss who has the facilities to keep horses is taking advantage of this time, getting good horses cheap because she can afford to keep them while others can't. I'd much rather be in this boat than considering selling my beloved equine because I couldn't afford to keep him!

Always with my (yet to be purchased) property in mind, I am looking for ways to be able to set myself up to be self sufficient so that I won't suffer from problems that could have been at least lessened due to planning.

Trees provide shelter, wind breaks, shade and more importantly at this time I'm coming to realise, can work well as fodder. My boss has recently been pruning back many trees on her property - not as a big garden clean up, but because certain trees are quite appealing to the horses and work as a gut filler in this time where grass and hay is scarce.

The worker who has implanted into my brain the importance of planting trees on your property when first purchased has mentioned how valuable something like a lucerne tree can be - it's a big bushy plant that can act as shade or a windbreak but more importantly, is appealing to horses and if planted and allowed to grow, can be of great value in times of a drought. Curious about other trees that could do the same thing, I did a search on the net and have found a half dozen trees that could be used as fodder (and wind breaks, shade, fire protection, etc).

I also stumbled across the book - Managing Horses on Small Properties by Jane Myers - which I purchased online (74 horse books in My Library, now!). Check out http://www.landlinks.com/?nid=20&pid=4896 for info on this book. Listed in this book for good fodder trees are:
- Willows, especially Weeping Willows - drought tolerant
- Poplars - tolerate dry periods
- Carob
- Honey Locust
- Tagasaste (Lucerne tree)

Also take a look at Landscape Design on the Sustainability Victoria Website - ESHousingManualCh10.pdf
Did you know that:
- Dense trees and shrubs can deflect strong winds and channel cooling summer breezes?
- A tree shading a window can reduce a room's temperature by up to 12 degrees celcius?
- Deciduous trees provide summer shade yet allow winter sun access?
- Winbreaks are most effective when located at 90 degrees to the direction of the wind?

Some very helpful points on this .pdf file linked above. If you're going to invest time in your horses and have a property, why not invest in planning and planting as well? It'll only benefit you.

"Love means attention, which means looking after the things we love. We call this stable management." - George H. Morris, The American Jumping Style

Movies and Novels Igniting the Passion

There’s nothing quite like a viewing of the Black Stallion or settling in a comfy chair on a rainy afternoon and delving into the likes of the Silver Brumby or the classic Black Beauty. And really, this is where the passion for horses starts for many.

It’s been a very interesting week – working at one of the riding schools and ending up with new instructors and therefore learning even more while in the saddle. This has been topped off by a weekend of teaching today and a gymkhana tomorrow and Monday I’m going to another Thoroughbred Sale. And in less than four weeks time, South Africa! Guess I can’t complain about things being boring ;)

I had some friends over last night and yesterday morning in anticipation of wanting to eat lots of junk, I drove down to the local IGA store to stock up on the essentials – chocolate, icecream and Pringles. Where could you go wrong? My mistake – parking right in front of the Opp Shop next door to the IGA.

Now I keep telling myself that I won’t purchase any more horse books until I’ve read all the ones I’ve got (still got 15 of those to read. Well, now it’s 17). It’s a bit hard not to notice when you look up from parking the car and staring at you out of the shop window is the front cover of a book that definitely has a horse on it. Now horse books are enough to have my attention, but extremely cheap horse books? I’m doomed. So of course I wandered in and go figure, the book I’d seen wasn’t actually about horses, just had one on the front. But this led me to spotting A Horse Called Butterfly by Thurley Fowler. The front cover of a girl sitting in a tree looking completely unimpressed with a Palomino beside her jogged a memory of reading the book around fifteen years ago in primary school – scary!

So, I just had to add it to my collection and another – Pony Jobs for Jill by Ruby Ferguson that was on the same shelf. Addicted? Indeed.

I was telling a client about this at one of the riding schools that I was at earlier in the week and she commented how it was the movie National Velvet that actually convinced her to follow up on a childhood dream. Now with a child of her own who is old enough to be riding, she has finally acted on the desire to ride that was long ago ignited probably due to a similar movie or favourite horse book. It’s the likes of these classics that keep instructors and stable hands in work, I do believe.

Love reading horse related pieces yourself? Take a look at ridersnreapers.com – two pieces: Shivers and Taken Care Of. There’ll be another up there titled In the Midst of Adversity when the next edition comes out; a third horse piece I’ve written.
Got a rather large collection of horse books yourself? See if it compares to mine and tell me what I’m missing!

"There are only two emotions that belong in the saddle; one is a sense of humour and the other is patience." - John Lyons

Online Equine Library

Boy am I having fun playing rather than behaving and heading off to bed. Have been strolling through horse sites/blogs and found one that listed horse related books that the person owned/had read and out of curiosity clicked on the link.

This lead me to Librarything.com - a site where you can build an online catalog of all the books you have, drawing information from the likes of Amazon.com. Now, as someone who has recently posted about building up my horse related library, this was totally appealing! Curious to know what I've got in my library? Check out the search I have placed on the right hand column of this page a bit further down. Example, type in the word 'polo' and see what happens... totally cool!:D

You can also have on your blog/site a random show of books in your library like so:


"You Know You're A Horse Person When... ...on rainy days, you organize the tack room, not the house. "

For Me

If you can't get something out of your own blog, what is the world coming to? So I have a huge obsession with books - namely, horse books. Surprised? I know - of course not!

Currently I have around 70 horse books in my collection - this is discluding all my magazines and catalogues from horse sales. I have been telling myself for the past 18 months that I won't buy any more until I've read all the ones I've got, but it just ain't gonna happen! I love purchasing horse books. Once I've got my property established, one of my dreams is to have a library with books from all over, about anything horse related!

So I have a request for anyone who reads this post:
- Help me to grow this collection of books
- Help me to establish a library that contains fiction books for all ages; non fiction books on any and every discipline, health issues, nutrition, breeding or anything else horsey!

How? Easy, send me an email or reply to this post with the title and/or author of a book that you have or have read that you feel would be an asset in anyone's horse library. If you really enjoyed it/learnt a lot from it; chances are I will too!

The more information you can provide, the better - Title, Author, Subject, even a link to where I can purchase the book online if you'd like! I look forward to your suggestions :D

"You Know You're A Horse Person When... you consider a golf course as a waste of good pasture land."