Category: Horseback riding

functional fitness · Horseback riding

Farming is a Physical and Mental Workout

Diane Harper1 Comment

I board my elderly horse Fancy in a rural part of Ottawa. She lives outdoors and someone else feeds her daily so I don’t get out there very often these days. The exception is haying season, when it’s all hands on deck to get enough hay stored to keep the horses who live inside fed through the winter.

Farm math: over 30 percent of farm workers in Canada are women. The real number may be higher as many women may still be taking on informal roles alongside male operators. But the number is increasing and being documented as more women get operations and bank loans in their own names.

The place where Fancy boards is almost entirely women-run. Ingrid owns the operation. Jen is the manager. It’s a co-op where almost all the boarders are women, so they pitch in every day to do chores.

More farm math: on Saturday we stored the last of the small bales of hay for the season. Ingrid and Jen had to figure out how much to order to keep all the indoor horses fed until next year. They got just shy of 3,600 bales, or six big trailer loads worth. Then they had to figure out the odds it can be cut, baled, delivered and stored before it rains, coordinate all that with the farmers growing hay, and with the people who were going to put it away.

Once it was delivered the team needed to figure out the geometry to get it stacked with no collapses, how many people we needed to get hay off the trailer, up the elevator and into the barn, and how many doing the stacking with minimal waiting around.

Diane in a pink shirt with part of a trailer full of hay to her right. In the background, you can see the elevator leading to the barn. There is a single bale of hay at the top. She looks very hot and is grateful to have a break while the trailer is moved into place for unloading.

I’m glad I only had to do a couple of hours of grunt work. Even if it was hot, sweaty, dusty grunt work.

Saturday’s delivery was two trailers full of hay, so probably a little under 1,200 bales. Each of those bales weight 40-60 pounds. It took 11 of us (8 women and three men) a little under 2 hours to unload both trailers, move it up to the top of the barn using the elevator, then stack it.

I couldn’t lift the bales much higher than my waist. I am in awe of the people who were able to toss them to people working up higher.

A backlit view of team barn after the last bale was in place. If you look closely, you can see just how sweaty the two people in the front are: their shirts are soaked. Photo by Mel Donskov.

In case anyone is wondering, the outdoor horses get those giant round bales that need to be moved by tractor. How many bales, and the cost of a tractor, is a whole other set of farm math.

Two women riding Icelandic horses, red and orange fall leaves in the background. Charity riding– on four legs, not two wheels or feet
charity · fitness · Horseback riding

Charity riding– on four legs, not two wheels or feet

catherine w

Many of us have done charity rides or runs. We blog about it frequently. Samantha most recently did her PWA Friends for Life Bike Rally, as well as other more spur-of-the-moment charity riding. Amy has walked for Alzheimer’s research, Out of the Darkness (American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, and North Shore Juneteenth Association. Nicole has raised money running for the Canadian Diabetes Foundation as well as the Odette Cancer Center and spinning for Michael Garron’s Ride for Mind in Toronto. I’ve done the Bikes not Bombs ride in Boston a bunch of times, and others of us have done lots of charity events. Diane, our aqua-blogger (among other things) does a vampire swim every Halloween, with a donation to Canadian Blood Services (actual blood) or the Red Cross (money instead). Here she is with some water-loving friends, all dressed up for a swim a few years ago:

Diane (far right, with bandage from actual blood donation) and friends getting ready for their vampire swim.
Diane (far right, with bandage from actual blood donation) and friends getting ready for their vampire swim.

However, my friend Felicity did a charity ride recently, using a mode of transport that none of the bloggers has tried: on horseback. She and a bunch of other equestrian philanthropists did the Ride for the Cure in Woodstock Vermont, raising almost $40K for breast cancer research. She (and almost 50 others) rode 10 miles on a beautiful October day.

Felicity (right) and Alice (left, on their Icelandic horses, with bright orange and red fall leaves in the background.
Felicity (right) and Alice (left), on their Icelandic horses Segall and Hrollur.

Segall, Felicity’s horse, got a pink ribbon on his hind flanks in honor of the day.

Segall, having a snack, sporting a painted pink ribbon for breast cancer research.
Segall, having a snack, sporting a painted pink ribbon for breast cancer research.

Other horses were decked out for the occasion.

This pink tutu'ed horse and rider won for best pink outfit.
This pink tutu’ed horse and rider won for best pink outfit.
This woman's horse had things to say during her interview with the local news.
This woman’s horse had things to say during her interview with the local news.
Bigger and smaller people took part in the charity ride.
Bigger and smaller people took part in the charity ride.

If you want to watch a short video clip about the event, check it out here. Felicity herself says it was an easy, fun ride. If I find myself with horse transportation next October, maybe I’ll do it, too.

Looking this up online, there are (unsurprisingly) other horseback riding events for charity around. One of them is coming up in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina (where I graduated from high school): it’s the 41st annual American Heart Association Beach Ride, scheduled for early November. Wish I were there, with saddle and trusty mount. In the meantime, this will have to do…

Pretty impressive horse costume for bike, with rider dressed as jockey.

Hey readers– have any of you done horseback charity events? This was the first one I had heard of, but apparently they’re out there…