My daughter, Lauren and I came to what we christened Six Meadow Farm five years ago.  We had been living in the city and boarding our horses.  It had always been a dream to “move to the country” and with Ally off to school and Lauren finishing 8th grade, it seemed like the right time.

So we called it Six Meadow Farm, a fancy name for a little homestead of-you guessed it-six acres- carved out of farm land about 50 miles from Houston. We had six horses then (counting ownership in half a horse to remain behind and a friend’s horse that we had agreed to board in return for helping us build our barn). Of the six horses, all but one came from a now defunct local horse rescue.  Sarah and Sharelle Petty did more good for more horses in a short time than anyone I have ever met-a story for another day. We had four dogs-two rescue Dobermans and two dachshunds. And no cats.  The dobermans reliably (and without remorse) killed cats.  But a Mama Kitty took up residency in our tackroom and now despite my best efforts at spaying and neutering-we have many cats.

We had a little house, we needed fencing, an arena, a barn, stalls, another driveway for the trailer and countless other things we did not think of originally.  It was a start.  It was an education.  Essentially, it was Lauren and I, with the occasional (and much appreciated) help from my son-in-law and friends.

Five years later, we have found that we did a lot of things correctly.  We had the vision to face the horse barn towards the morning sun and away from the brutal Texas late afternoon rays.  We learned our property floods (but drains pretty quickly) and how to keep horse’s shoes on in the “gumbo” mud of the spring.  We have seen months of endless rain (2007), a hurricane (2008), and the worst drought of years (2011).  We will take the drought over the endless rain-just saying-just my opinion. 

Lauren is now in college, attending a local community college, until she has to move away to finish.  I commute 135 miles a day.  We make it work.

Had a surprise great weekend.  I have been struggling with my health (stomach, blood pressure), my mother’s need to move to a higher level of assisted living and the on-going pressures of work and too many animals. I had agreed to work as the announcer at a horse show Sunday and was stressing out about having no weekend for me.

The first crop of hay was in and I had neglected to tell my friends that hay was available.  Friday night I realized my mistake and we made plans for them to come down and pick up the hay.  My friend, Caroline came with her daughters, Arianna and Abby.  They brought their Mustang rescue, Ellie Mae.  We ended up have a great time riding, jumping and looking at pictures of the horses.

 I seldom have friends come and cannot believe how much joy it brought for both Lauren and I to share our little world.  It is hard to leave the social environment of the boarding barn and have your horses at home.  It is great to always have them nearby but sometimes riding is more like a chore than the joy it is supposed to be.

We loaded up 30 bales of hay.  Put Ellie Mae in the last slot of the trailer

Mustang Ellie Mae says this is a long way from hunting for food on the prairie!

and watched them head for home.  I am going to make sure we start a new tradition of riding playdates.  How great!