Wintering in Arizona

 Well, two weeks in and things are settling down.

We are currently at a private barn in San Tan Valley. Fellow equestrians have been asking me to reveal my location, but the owner, J, has asked that we keep where are staying on the down-low. He isn't sure if he wants to be a horse motel, but so far he is extremely happy with us.

It is just us, a couple living in a small two bedroom house and the owners, who are staying in a super nice RV on the property. The owners live in Minnesota and bought the property as a foreclosure so they would have some place to spend the winter. They rent the house out to T & L full-time. T & L have two horses - a mare who is in foal and a gelding. So, our two horses have a couple of other horses to converse with.

My horse is still healing from his cinch sore, but it looks like it might finally be healing. I ordered some special rigging for my saddle so I could use a fire center rigging for the cinch to prevent future cinch sores. I am waiting for that to arrive this week so I can get back in the saddle.

A fire center rigging loops in the regular D clip used by the latigo and the read D-clip. It prevents the cinch from moving forward and rubbing the skin, causing a cinch sore. It required a longer strap than the standard latigo.

We paid rent for the last part of November - just two weeks - by mutual agreement with the owner. Neither of us wanted to make a longer commitment just to see how we all got along. We checked in with them yesterday and they said they were really happy with us and we can stay as long as we like and come back whenever we like. So, I guess we will be re-upping to stay here for another month.

The pregnant mare is constantly hungry. I guess she is eating for two. She bangs her feed bucket regularly anytime it is empty. T had asked us if they were waking us up when they left for work in the morning and I said, "No, but Angel banging her feed bucket all the time gets a bit annoying." He agreed and said he would think about taking it down, but so far it is still hanging on the corral, getting banged.

Ari has been riding Lennox almost every day and says the local trails are really nice. We also have our stock trailer ready to go, so hopefully this week or next we will start riding and exploring the trails.

In the meantime, I am doing some work in my office in the back of the trailer, so I am overall pretty darn happy.