I believe I mentioned that I’m not very good at keeping up with a regular blog. If you’ve been following this one, you’ll know what I mean. But there’s been a lot of activity on the farm the past couple of years and in spite of semi-retirement, there never seems to be enough hours in the day. Enough excuses – here’s some highlights to catch you up and hopefully, I can do better from now on.
The Barn – This really deserves its own blog entry and I will do that. But the short version of the story is that in summer of 2017, we converted a roughly 20×30 quonset hut to an open air barn for the horses. The project took a lot of elbow grease to clear out the last of the storage items and prepare it for new tenants, but it turned out nicely and gives the horses a place to get out of the occasional bad storm, to have a foal in quiet surroundings, or to recuperate from an injury.
The Transport – Inspired by others who have transformed a minivan to a carrier for mini horses, we found and bought a well-used Ford and began the transition. Long story short, while it would have suited the need, trying to economize by buying an inexpensive used vehicle was short-sighted. It was unreliable and the last thing you want with a van full of horseflesh is to get stuck along the roadside somewhere on the island where help could be hours away. So we sold the van and converted the pickup truck for hauling horses in an emergency. Still not a satisfactory solution, but we’re working on something better.
The Herd – The really big news, which also deserves its own blog post, is the addition of two new broodmares. A month ago (March 2019), we brought Toyland Tira Lena and Sunrise Estates Tiki Doll to the farm from the mainland.
They have since been renamed around the barn to Mocha and Au Lait, continuing our coffee theme, and are settling in nicely. Of course, bringing more horses means reallocating space, especially since new horses need to be quarantined for a couple of months, which led to . . .
The Lower Run – To make some room for horses, the barn now includes an adjacent 2400 square foot run that allows Mr. Peaberry to have a much larger space. I can open or close the gate to provide or deny him access to the run directly from his stall, but am finding that he prefers it open so he can flex those studly muscles on a regular basis. He’s a sweet stallion, but being able to have 24/7 access to this run has only improved his disposition. I’m still figuring out how to move mares around to keep him company and them bred or not, as planned, but adding this fenced space in the lower coffee grove (which required removal of about two dozen coffee trees) definitely gives us more options.
So that’s at least half a dozen individual blog posts I can fill in over the new few months. Keep following . . . comments and questions keep me going, so please feel free to add either.
Mini-horses in Hawaii 