My Trip To A Horse Farm

          

Out the kitchen door. You can see how close the horses are. Her dog loves to roam around and visit the horses.

My trip to a horse farm......also known as my sister's new home!  She doesn't own the horse farm, but is renting a cottage on the farm that is just steps away from the horses. The owners, Jim and Carol, had renovated half of a barn into a cottage for her mother when she got ill and now they rent it out. Yes, I said half of a barn. You wouldn't even know it was there, but it's so cute inside! They installed plenty of windows and sliding doors on the sides that overlook the horses so there is a great view all day long. The horses can even get right next to her back deck if they wanted to, and at night they do tend to graze in the weeds that are close. So neat!




My 6-year-old niece off on her riding lesson.

As part of their lease, my 6-year-old niece gets free riding lessons. She is in heaven! She has always been an animal lover and I think she feels quite at home on the farm. She also gets up at 7am to help Carol with her chores. She gets herself dressed and off she goes! Her job is to help clean out the poop from the miniature horses pen. She rides on the four-wheeler with Carol and they go around and feed the animals together. It's really quite cute. Carol has a heart of gold to put up with a 6-year-old tagging along wherever she goes. : )


The view for my morning coffee. Audrey is off to help Carol with her chores. Girls on the right, males on the left. I'm sure there is a proper term for the horses, but I don't know them, lol. Mares are girls, right?

My niece doing chores.

                               

I had a few days off last week so I drove down to see them. My sister and her daughter moved in a few weeks ago as my sister is going through a divorce. It happens and quite frankly she is better for it. I'm not going into details, but it was not a healthy relationship. Needless to say my visit with them was less stressful than in the past, lol.


Of course there are a few cats roaming the farm.

                                

 

My niece spent part of one day at the Ohio State Fair with her dad and then spent the night at his house, so I get to spend some 'girl time' with my sister. We ate bad things, drank too much wine, and stayed up way too late, but it was great getting time with her all to myself. She has been living with stage 4 breast cancer and is doing very well on a research trial through The James Cancer Center at OSU. I'm so happy she is now in a healthier place mentally too.

Horses waiting for breakfast. In the back is the barn for the mini horses, ducks, and chickens. I learned that miniature horses protect the chickens from coyotes and that is why they are together in the same pen.

Back to the horse farm. Jim and Carol used to breed and break horses, but they are now retired and have a few boarders and their own animals to tend to. They have about 12 horses, 3 miniature horses, 4 roosters, 4 hens, a handful of ducks, four dogs, and now a coonhound out in the barn that just had puppies. Anyone want a puppy? : )



Lucy the coonhound and her puppies. They are staying in the horse barn.

I can't wait to get back and visit as my trip this time was too short. I drove down Wednesday morning and had to come back Friday afternoon. It was my 10th wedding anniversary so I had to come home. : )  We celebrated by going to Zoar, Ohio, for their Harvest Festival. I'll share those pics another day.

And of course I did some hooking while I was there. So neat to sit there with the horses.

~Michelle