Amazing Change
This is an amazing time of change for us.
Amazing, beautiful, thrilling, intimidating, exhilarating, bucolic, inspiring, exhausting, all-encompassing change.
Relative Something
*this* John W. Hays' take on things and experiences
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Relative Something 
Ian, that photo was a zoom-in, to give better view of the buildings, taken from the road that is the eastern border of our property. The front pasture has been cut for hay, but a neighbor told me that his cows wouldn’t eat it anymore, because it was mostly weeds. We may re-seed it for hay and have a local farmer cut and bale it in exchange for keeping some for themselves. They hadn’t had horses for a couple of years here, but used to have up to 17 mini-horses. They did not have any outside customers.
We are considering the near-by university agricultural program as a resource for young and eager help, once we get animals.
johnwhays
October 29, 2012 at 7:38 am
Re:They did not have any outside customers. So what was the purpose of the shop, which looks to be quite an impressive building? Yes, if you can get a re-seeding deal like the one you suggest, you will be doing well. Note, that horses don’t require as rich a pasture as cows, otherwise. However, in terms of creating winter feed, introducing more productive grasses makes sense.
Re: the near-by university agricultural program – there is amazing potential there – ideally, you might use knowledge from horses to set up a project to rethink agriculture. If nothing else the energy crisis is making us re-consider and incorporate older forms of farming. Hence, you might reevaluate any process in terms of experience – balance, timing, dominance, agility, power and collection – relationships – leadership, dominance, boundaries and community – creativity – authenticity, imagination and innovation – and transformation – what we become by embodying horse wisdom. Thanks to Linda K, we can identify these as the ingredients we can work with to create a better, healthier future. All these concepts can be systematically accessed and applied – but, in my opinion, have been largely forgotten or simply ignored. In short, you should have students lining up to get a taste of this overlooked archetypical wisdom.
Re:they used to have up to 17 mini-horses – interesting. One of the problems with horses is that they are potentially very dangerous because of their size and power. So I wonder if you can work with this type of horse and learn the above principles in a safer and more cost efficient way. Nevertheless, 17 sounds rather excessive unless there are people who want to buy them.
Ian Rowcliffe
October 29, 2012 at 5:48 pm
Thinking aloud, you might consider offering to stable someone else’s horses, so that they pay you a rent and/or return services to get the ball rolling with horse related activities – that is how Linda K got started, after all. In other words, get started by helping someone else get started, which ideally would be a win/win situation.
Ian Rowcliffe
October 29, 2012 at 4:17 am
It would be interesting to get an areal view of the property, John – like the one you came up with for us.
Ian Rowcliffe
October 28, 2012 at 5:23 pm
Yes! I did just that. I thought of you when I created it. You must have missed my post of September 1st. It might be an easy image to overlook, because our property border is a plain old rectangle. See: https://johnwhays.wordpress.com/2012/09/01/
johnwhays
October 28, 2012 at 7:09 pm
Right – I did read the post but didn’t take in the map. So you took the photo parallel to the drive way, did you? The area in front of the barn seems smaller, so I guess you could have taken it from further back to take in all of it. Interesting that the area was mown, suggesting the owners no longer had horses at the time. Did they tell you how exactly they worked and made use of the shop, for example. Clearly, if they had customers, they may well be worth contacting in order for you to consider catering to them. They may have even had volunteer staff… having a few friends around to help you and possibly keep an eye on things while you are both away could prove really essential. How far are you away from the local school?
Ian Rowcliffe
October 29, 2012 at 4:02 am