Draft Power

This last monday I had the wonderful opportunity of going to a draft-powered farm. This means that large, heavy-set draft horses are used to plow, plant, weed, and harvest the crops that are grown by the farmer. Just like the old days! 

As may be remembered from one of my earlier posts, I will be working with Stuart Schroeder in Sebastopol to learn how to drive a horse carriage. And I finally got to meet him and the horses earlier this week. If you would like to know more about Stuart and his farm and Percheron horses, here is the link to his website: http://stonehorse.biz/index.html

It was wonderful to have a chance to talk with him on Monday, as he has a lot of knowledge, experience, and connections. During the tour of his farm we walked through a large barn full of planting and harvesting equipment, wagons, harrows, and a tower of grass hay he harvested this year. He also showed me all of the harness equipment for the horses - there are so many pieces!

In addition to the tour we talked about this very trip I am planning; the real reason behind my motivation to learn carriage driving. He gave me some good resources of other people who have gone on similar trips as well as tips as to where to find a running gear for my wagon (that's the base part with the wheels - kind of important!).

Unfortunately, I did not get the chance to take any photos while I was there, but I will make sure to take some the next time I go! 

Overall it was a very inspiring event and I can't wait to learn more! 

My Baby Horse

Quite a lot and quite little has been going on for me this summer. Honestly, I can hardly wait for school to start again. Anyhow, I thought I should provide a brief update.

After being in some state of sickness - either better or worse, depending on the day - for more than a week, I found myself browsing craigslist, looking at horses. (I swear I was only looking!) One post had caught my eye when I had been "just looking" on previous days, and I found myself looking at the post again on this occasion. The pictures of a little paint horse stared at me through the screen and my heart nudged my brain, and my brain nudged my body, and before I knew I was calling the number in the ad to set up a time to see the horse.

The same day I went out to where he was located in Petaluma; and I fell in love! I made arrangements with the trainer of the barn I have been working at - also in Petaluma - and had him trailered there the next day. It quickly dawned on me, even in my tired, under-the-weather brain, that I might have been just a little impulsive and crazy for buying a horse in a matter of two days. But when you get a strong feeling about something, as I did about this horse, it almost seems wrong to me not to check it out.

I have now had him for about a month, and I love him to pieces! He is only 16 months old, so no riding for quite a while, but he is sweet as can be, so intelligent, and easy going.

Sometimes one feels an immediate connection with an animal or another person. This is what I feel with my new baby horse, Leonardo. (Leo for short) I hope to have him around for as long as he lives and will be taking him with me on my caravan adventure across the U.S. He may not be able to pull the wagon, but he's my friend, so I want him right beside me. Not to mention doing a little riding while the carriage horses pull the wagon. :)

Now that I have a rabbit (Little Miss Ellie Snowpea) and a horse, I have been told that I must not buy any more animals until my trip. I must say, I did not intend to have pets while in college, but they found their way to me anyway. And I am so happy that they did!

Life Continues

I have been wanting to post for some time now, but have lacked anything new and interesting to write about. Summer has proved to be slow, boring, and uneventful. However, I do have some progress on my project to share.

Last week I attended the Laguna de Santa Rosa Foundation Grand Opening celebration in Santa Rosa; the foundation is located on the corner of Occidental and Sanford Road. At this celebration there was a local man and his wife providing carriage rides with their huge percheron horses. Their business is called Stonehorse, if you want to look them up. They use draft horse power to plow and harvest on their farm.

I was kindly directed to this event by Shepherd Bliss, who owns Kokopelli Farm in Sebastopol, where he grows delicious Boysenberries! Yum! Anyhow, I talked with the couple of the Stonehorse business, Stuart and Denise, and have been invited to volunteer for them in exchange for learning how to drive horses! This will probably be starting in July or August, so I will keep you updated on that as the summer goes along.

I have been so excited by the prospect of learning to drive horses this summer that I have been watching Youtube videos on the subject to gain a preliminary understanding. This has been very interesting, as I have found that driving is both very different from and yet very similar to riding.

In addition to the horse driving, I have contacted a sonoma county horse rescue, SAFER, in the hopes of doing some volunteer work for them. This has less to do with my trip, but it feels good to help animals in need and it has the added bonus of getting me more in touch with the local horse community. I should be meeting with the volunteer coordinator tomorrow, so we will see how that goes.

This summer has brought me back to the horses, and I am so grateful!

Life. It's Falling Into Place.

Hello, my good readers!
I apologize profusely for neglecting to write for so long! It has been an incredibly busy and fantastic week for me; and due to the busyness I have been feeling too tired to write. But alas, I will get used to this new routine and be back in writing action!

My busy schedule has pertained entirely to horses!!! For this reason, I have been smiling for joy ALL WEEK. : )  It all seems to be one amazing coincidence, but I suppose it depends on what you believe. My dear Mom happened to run into an old riding instructor of mine while she was grocery shopping. I worked with him from when I was 8 until I was 11 years old, then life happened and we went our separate ways. He invited us to the barn, I mentioned I still needed a job and how much I missed the horses, and everything fell into place from there! I now work at the barn exercising horses four days a week.

So for the first time in more than two years, I am back in saddle! This is a wonderful step back into life with horses for me; and great preparation for owning two horses for my wagon trip. However, I can't say the first week back riding horses hasn't been without difficulty. Going from no riding to two to three horses a day really gets those muscles working...ALL of them. For days it felt like every muscle in my legs, back, and shoulders were sore and knotted. Thank goodness we have a hot tub at our house!

But it is amazing how quickly my knowledge and skill in horse care and riding has come back! Yes, rather like riding a bicycle; you never forget! Having more than ten years of training previously hasn't hurt either, though, he he.

So, here's to a perfect summer of being paid to ride horses, make new friends, and learn new skills!

The Trail

Today I have been looking up possible trails, routes, and national parks to use. After looking up Amish buggies and how many accidents happen between them and cars every year, frankly, it's scary! From that I have come to the conclusion that I will not be traveling once the sun goes down - that's just asking for trouble.
I know that I will have to take roads from time to time, so I looked up safety equipment and road rules. Apparently, a horse-drawn vehicle is treated the same as any slow-moving motorized vehicle in most states. But you don't need a license plate. However, you do need an orange slow-moving vehicle triangle on the back, lots of reflectors, and proper hand signals while maneuvering. And of course, lights if you're traveling at night; but as I said, Not doing that!
As for finding trails, it's been tough going. Yes, there are lots of trails and parks across the country, but they don't all have routes passable with an 8' long, 6' wide wagon and two horses. So, my wonderful readers, if you have any suggestions or knowledge in this area, please let me know in the comments! You will have my deepest gratitude!

A Jumble of Thoughts

I have spent most of today mulling over more details of the trip and searching far and wide across the net for resources. There are so many aspects yet to be decided! It is so exciting, and yet almost overwhelming at times. So I thought it was time to post some of these thoughts to get them out of my head!

I had previously been looking for solely Gyspy (aka Vardo) wagon designs and possible places to buy a finished wagon. It quickly became apparent that the Vardo is European to the point that it is almost impossible to find them in the U.S., and even those are imported. Until recently - recently being two days ago - I had no idea how I was going to solve this issue besides building a Vardo entirely from scratch! I'm no woodworker, though I am willing to learn what I can, so this realization was quite upsetting.

However, the EUREKA! moment came yesterday when I realized that there is a Western equivalent of the Gypsy Vardo: the Sheepherder's Wagon! YAY! Can't say I wasn't a little more than over-the-top thrilled with this discovery... because this was a game changer for me! (Okay, I think that paragraph used up my allotment of exclamation points for this post, ha ha).

Now down to business. During my process of searching for places that build and sell sheep wagons, I discovered my other dilemma: Price. Some people might be able to drop $30,000 on a wagon, but I don't have that kind of budget. Well, I don't have a budget at all at the moment, but that will be something I get to in later posts several months from now. However, I also discovered a company in Oregon that sells wagon running gears. This is a great start if I do indeed need to build a wagon from the ground up.

I guess this is all in the design process category... so in addition to wagons and running gears, I have been contemplating what newer technology I would like to include. Solar panels, as might be guessed from my blog title, are at the top of my list. I am also considering a composting toilet, a modern camping stove, and a small outlet for charging the device I will be writing and posting to this blog with.

My other thoughts are to the animals that will be joining me on this journey. Two horses, yes, of a breed that is yet to be decided, though I am leaning towards the traditional Gypsy Vanner horses or Haflingers: http://gypsyvannerhorsemagazine.com/2010/05/gypsy-vanner-horses/ and http://www.haflingerhorses.com/
I also plan on having a working guard dog, but I have a lot of research to do in that area still. There is also the possibility of having milking goats or miniature cows along as well. Maybe even chickens? We'll see I guess.

These beginning processes are so difficult because it feels like maybe nothing will come of my dream for this adventure. Perhaps I need to ease off a little and let the project grow on its own while I take care of school and work during this semester and the ones to follow... But there's so much to be done!

I suppose it is especially hard because I would like to see something concrete, some aspect being turned real so that I know it is going to happen; but right now is not the time for that.

I wish I knew how all of the pieces were going to come together, but that is the beautiful mystery of the future, I suppose.