Healthy horse standing in pasture with environmental water conservation symbols, promoting sustainable horse keeping practices.
Spring Cleaning
Beautiful flowering cherry tree with pink blossoms in a farm setting, surrounded by a horse and a person, promoting sustainable horse keeping and land management practices.

I don’t know about all of you out there but I am chomping at the bit for spring! We’ve been having such sunny, warm weather with big blue skies—great for riding and accessing future outdoor projects. Spring is starting to wake up. One day last week as I was riding saw a beautiful little butterfly flutter past—its small but brilliant flashes of color made my heart skip a beat with joy. Today I saw a few other flying insects buzz past.

I’ve also noticed a few pesky signs of spring, like flies and gophers. All this makes me start pondering what I can do now to prep for spring and an easier, more chore-efficient summer with LOTS of ride time!

Matt and I are planning to build some new and fun trail obstacles. This evening we did a little planning trip to measure and photograph similar trail obstacles, making notes on how we want to build ours. Matt listed out materials and costs. I looked at the calendar for dates when we can schedule a work party.

Equine barn on a sustainable farm with pasture and manure management practices for healthy horses and land conservation.
We plan to build two large trail obstacles in front of our indoor arena where each of the big dirt piles currently are.

I have also undertaken a giant spring-cleaning of my office with high hopes of moving my desk in front of the window instead of facing the wall as it’s currently doing. This, my friends, is a mammoth undertaking as I think I have eight years of paperwork, books, magazines, and interesting, but half-baked projects piled everywhere. I motivate myself by thinking how freeing it will be to de-clutter my life—and be able to look outside as I work.

My friend Sheri suggests tackling spring-cleaning by taking a picture of an area in order to “step back” and see what it really looks like and what might be done to improve things. She has been updating labeling on feed bins, light switches, grain supplements, and anything else that helps aid someone else to care for her horses when she’s gone—in anticipation of summer vacation times.

She also suggests taking equipment like weed-whackers, mowers, and tractors in for tune-ups now before things get really busy and the grass is needing to be cut every three days. Sheri also suggests a vinegar and water solution be used to wipe winter’s green mold—and caked dust or mud—off white fencing.

What are your favorite, or not so favorite, early spring rituals and activities? Share with us over on our Facebook site. Who knows, you may see your suggestions in a future blog!

Alayne

Picture of Alayne Blickle
Alayne Blickle
Alayne Blickle is a lifelong equestrian, ranch riding competitor, and the creator and director of Horses for Clean Water. Well-known for her enthusiastic, down-to-earth approach, Blickle is an educator who has worked with horse and livestock owners since 1990, teaching manure composting, pasture management, mud and dust control, water conservation, chemical use reduction, fire preparedness, and wildlife enhancement.  Blickle and her husband raise and train their mustangs and quarter horses at their eco-sensitive guest ranch, Sweet Pepper Ranch, in sunny Nampa, Idaho.
Picture of Alayne Blickle
Alayne Blickle
Alayne Blickle is a lifelong equestrian, ranch riding competitor, and the creator and director of Horses for Clean Water. Well-known for her enthusiastic, down-to-earth approach, Blickle is an educator who has worked with horse and livestock owners since 1990, teaching manure composting, pasture management, mud and dust control, water conservation, chemical use reduction, fire preparedness, and wildlife enhancement.  Blickle and her husband raise and train their mustangs and quarter horses at their eco-sensitive guest ranch, Sweet Pepper Ranch, in sunny Nampa, Idaho.

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