Riding Ring

Riding ring BEFORE anything was done --- August 2004

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Riding ring after some fence clearing

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Croquet in the riding ring --- October 2006

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Riding ring --- September 2007

It's hard to imagine how much the riding ring has improved since I first saw this little farm four years ago. Previous owners used the ring as a paddock (i.e., horses lived in it), so most of the grass was gone when I first arrived. Very tall and hardy weeds quickly took over. The fence was falling down in places, boards were missing, and some of the rusty gates were tied on with bailing twine. I had this vision of a grass riding/agility ring, so we started with a tractor/bush hog combination and then many many hours with the DR trimmer followed. Fences were repaired, gates were removed, and one large stump was taken away. Thank you Ed. Weeds eventually got thinner and grass got thicker and thicker. Now of course the area is mow-able, and all fences have been cleared and painted with primer/paint. Thank you Joanne (first painting effort) and Dan and Tray. Probably a few more coats of paint to go, but it looks SO much better. Of course, no horses or dogs have benefited yet, but hopefully that will change in the year ahead. John, Laura, Christine, Jack (brother, sister-in-law, niece, nephew) and I did have a wonderful game of croquet there last fall though--- and it worked just perfectly for that. :-)