With the New Hampshire winter beginning with snow, we are preparing for Holiday Camp and hoping that the snow will stay so that we can do some sledding. We also hope for no rain!! During the winter months, the rain combined with the cold weather always creates ice, which is unpleasant for the horses and us people. We are one week away from Holiday Camp and are incredibly excited for thirteen campers to join us. We have a few counselors visiting as well for this camp, and we are equally excited to see them! Campers, staff, and families associated with Road’s End Farm are what make this place possible. We love getting visits and seeing members from our extended camp family!
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Each morning, the full time staff members at Road’s End Farm wake up and love all of the animals that live at the end of Jackson Hill Road in New Hampshire. Daisy, our yellow lab, is the farm dog that the campers love year in and year out. We have created a short film, dedicated to Daisy Dolittle the Delinquent, and we find it to have a different tune than our horse movies. We are so delighted that each camper that comes can love horses, cats, and dogs and we believe that all of these animals create the full Farm experience. These animals contribute to our camp program and we have found the campers love our household pets as much as they love the herd of horses.
With the new year at Road’s End Farm brought us two new cats. Melvin and Momo have come and made themselves at home at Road’s End. Hopefully, we will make a video of the cats soon, but for now Daisy has the spotlight. Please enjoy this short, one minute film with pictures of our favorite pup!
May is here and bringing cooler weather! The horses are loving the 50 and 60 degree temperatures! The herd this morning was particularly sassy and many of the horses were running around and bucking as we threw the hay from the trailer. We love watching the horses run free an have a playful morning. Only one more month until counselors and campers arrive and summer camp begins!
With springtime here in full force and the weather warming up, some of our horses are looking particularly well-fed. We are beginning to decrease the hay and grain we feed out to make sure our horses stay healthy. Many horse people know the intricacies of the equine digestive system, but for those who don’t we can share a little information about the uniqueness of horses digestive system.
Horses grasp food using a combination of their lips, tongue, and teeth. Their teeth never stop growing and essentially the constant chewing grinds down the teeth to a healthy level. Horses have one stomach that is relatively small for their size and a very long digestive tract after their stomach. We always want our horses to eat hay before grain and to have water available at all times. The reason Road’s End Farm has such a specific order of eating is because we
have so many horses and want to reduce the risk of colic (stomach ache) within our herd. Since grain is more difficult to digest, we want the horses to have hay and water before the grain so that it doesn’t put extra stress on their digestive tracts. Like humans, horses have a small intestine and a large intestine (sometimes referred to as the hind gut) which does most of the nutrient absorption. The horses then have a large colon and a small colon which
completely absorb the nutrients and prepare the waste for excretion! Horses actually have very sensitive stomachs and always want to be monitored for stomach aches. We always want to make sure each horse is accounted for at feeding and is happily munching on grain.
With colic, an upset stomach, as the number one cause of equine death, educating all horse people about digestive health in horses is one of the most important aspects of horse care. At Road’s End Farm, our horses are fed in the morning and at night time, a chore which every camper helps out with during the summer, and an opportunity to see the importance of maintaining a low-stress environment and feeding horses the proper amount of hay and grain with the opportunity to drink water.
As the annual letter wrote, we are concerned about finding enough campers for this summer. We are wondering how to spread the word about the all girls’ horsemanship camp at the end of Jackson Hill Road. We consider Road’s End Farm to be one big family and we are looking forward to welcoming new members of our camp family this summer. Our blogs usually are updates of the farm, but this post serves as a calling for all of our returning campers to please spread the word about Road’s End Farm! As a New England horse camp, we hope to have more girls experience the beautiful woods of New Hampshire and come see our herd of 67 horses.
With our camp program being a smaller operation, we also do not want to overflow the camp. We love having smaller ring lessons and smaller trails so that girls can get the most out of their time in the saddle. This summer, we are thinking we may have slightly smaller sessions, which will make for a truly special experience for the girls who come. Regardless of the size of the camp, we are confident that summer 2017 will be filled with laughter, horses, sunshine, lake swimming, horseback riding, farm chores, and lifelong friendships being created and longtime friends reuniting.
If you mosey up Jackson Hill, there’s a trail that connects a loop of overlooks. This picture was taken from one that faces Lake Spofford, where the girls swim. It is an especially lovely view at sunset, reminding me of the various perspectives that we tend to miss when we don’t look for them or can’t see them. ‘Carpe Diem’ is a famous slogan calling on all to seize the day and make the most of every opportunity. It would be handily joined to another calling on all to look up, look out, and look all around!
Please come for a visit, take a hike, give a hug, and enjoy the fresh New Hampshire air. We are always here and willing to share this beautiful land. The premises of Road’s End Farm have wonderful views for you to see and we hope each reader gets the opportunities to go hike the overlooks and embrace the woods of New England.
