PONY FARM LESSON PROGRAM & SUMMER CAMP BLOG

Happy Valentine’s Day to YOU All!!! I hope you are happy and well this winter. The horses and staff all join me in sending you our best. I love Valentine’s Day because I enjoy telling people how much I love them, whether they are near or far! We love having you here and our farm would not be the same without YOU!!! So, hurry up and come back to visit.

Winter here at Pony Farm has been a great one, despite the amount of snow and cold. All the horses are furry and fat. The snow is so deep in the Small Animal Barn that the minis keep jumping out to come see us. They, and all the bigger horses, miss having you around to pet and love them. We did have a sadness though as we lost Lexus to colic. She was one of our wonderful Quarter horses. We worked for two full days to try and save her but she had a twisted intestine. It made us all so sad. I want to assure you that she did not suffer and had someone by her side the whole time. She is missed but never forgotten!

Lots of good progress has been made this winter. We have nearly completed an All Farm Recycling Program, including the building of brand new recycling stations and a trailer for all the separated material to be taken to the local Recycling Center. Wait until you see the new Grain Bin in the downstairs barn….Not only will the farm look neater and cleaner, but we will help keep our world GREEN!!! We will not waste anything!

Next on our list of things to accomplish is to start Composting….everything from the food at the lodge to the manure in the barn! We just went to a workshop on composting horse manure…What an eye opener that was. We produce 80 tons of manure a year with our horses. Can you imagine if all of that was turned into terrific organic fertilizer for the area gardens and greenhouses…Again, we would be helping our world while taking care of any and all pollution from run-off into the streams…You will be hearing much more about this as the year unfolds but we are most excited to work on this new important project. If you have any expertise or know of anyone who does, please email me and let me know. The more good brains working on this, the better!

We are also excited to be upgrading the bathroom in the barn with a sink, washing machine and composting toilet to replace the unsightly and expensive portopotties. We hope to have that project completed by the start of our Spring Lesson Program. We want to be able to welcome our favorite lesson students back with a nice new bathroom!!!

Speaking of lessons, our Spring Lesson Open House will be on Saturday March 14th from 1 to 4PM. We welcome all of you, new or former students, to come and visit us. We would love to catch up with you and tell you about all the exciting classes that will be taking place this spring. Lorna will continue on as the head of Pony Farm lessons for both kiddos and adults…She is always eager to speak to you on the phone so call her at 603-654-6308.

Perhaps the most exciting thing that we are planning this spring are a Pony Farm Clinic Series….We hope that fellow horse owners, neighbors, summer campers and lesson students will want to come to one or more of these clinics. We want to have both unmounted horsemanship clinics like learning how to lunge and long line, as well as how to better partner with your horse in February and March. We are working on hosting a riding clinic with our favorite Joe Lombard in April and will let you know that date. We are then working on hosting a Parelli clinic this spring and next fall. In addition, we will be having a Certified Horsemanship Clinic in June to help our lesson and camp staff teach even better….We will wrap up the year with a Pony Boy Clinic…Again, as the snow falls, we are organizing all of these great educational clinics so that we can all learn more about the amazing world of horses. We hope you will want to join us for one or more clinics! Lauren will have all the updated information on the clinics so call at 603-654-6308.

We definitely have our spring weekends on the calendar, with several of them already full. We invite you to join us for the Father Daughter Weekend or the Mother Daughter Weekend that had to be rescheduled due to the ice storm in December. We will also have an Adult Riding and Driving Weekend in May….So, there is just lots of fun going on at the farm. Come and enjoy things with us! Call Lauren at the office to find out more….603-654-6308!

Last but by no means least is SUMMER CAMP AT PONY FARM!!! The Pony Farm residential summer camp is nearly full for 2009…We do have a few openings in our one week sessions at the beginning and end of the summer. Take a look at all the fun that we have on the camp part of our website….It is just a spectacular way to spend a week or two of your summer here at Pony Farm. This will be our 38th year of camp. We already have most of our staff !!! It will be nearly 100% returning staff….We are gathering horses now, too…so we will surely be ready. Kris and I only wish it started tomorrow! Confirmations go out this week for those already registered…Also, don’t forget that if you refer a friend who ends up signing up for a session at Pony Farm, you receive a $50 gift certificate for clothes at the camp store…So, tell all your friends about those first and last week session this summer! Call Kris if you have questions about your session at 603-654-6308.

We will also be hosting three weeks of PONY FARM SUMMER DAY CAMP. Due to popular demand, we will be offering a riding day camp for the first time ever. We will be building a new ring and small barn in front of the indoor arena. This will not only beautify the area but it will surely give both day and resident campers all the facilities that they will need to have a great time without bumping into each other. We will reserve four horses for day camp so there will be daily riding using the new ring. The PF Day Campers will have their own club house and tack room out there too. We just miss our lesson kids too much to say goodbye all summer long…Call Terri to find out more….603-654-6308.

So, as you can see, things are hopping at Pony Farm. We are about to fill up the Small Animal barns with baby chicks and ducks, Bantums, two new lambs and a new mini donkey. Springtime is one of my favorites here on the farm as we get in the new babies…and start planting the seeds for the gardens. I love all the seasons on a farm….I adore spring with lessons and the farming part…then summer with the campers….Fall is terrific with the harvesting of the crops and the pumpkins straight out of the gardens…Then winter for sleigh riding and snow showing and skiing….In short, I guess I just love the farm…and having YOU here.

I really do have the best job of all because I just get to enjoy being with you! Please do email me with any of your ideas for the farm….or recycling or the clinics or the camp or the gardens or the composting or the horses. I love hearing from you, almost as much as I love having you come to visit…So, don’t be a stranger here at Pony Farm. On this Valentine’s Day, know that you and your family are indeed in my heart and makin’ me smile.


Gleefully,
Boo McDaniel,
Founder and Executive Director &
Biggest Horse & Animal Lover of ALL!