Saffron Supports our School Gardens

Did you know that Saffron (and Godivan and Riverton) are actively supporting school gardens all over the Los Angeles area by donating finished organic compost?

My three horses produce a combined 150 lbs A DAY of quality manure.  I compost every last bit of it, using three O2Compost systems and, once a month, Bob Papp comes by to haul off the finished, ultra high quality, organic compost.  Bob then takes the compost around to dozens of schools in the Los Angeles area for their gardens, which produce pounds and pounds of produce!  That's about 1.5 tons of finished compost, folks. Per month!  Manure that is not only NOT going to landfill but is actually helping our communities.  Oh yeah.

Many thanks to Bob for his endless energy and wonderful nature.  Bob does all of this out of the goodness and generosity of his heart and a lifelong passion for gardening and our future gardeners.

And a big Thank You to Warren for building my compost bins and helping out with the back breaking work of loading the finished compost, garbage can full by can full, every month, rain or shine.

Vote for Saffron on MAY 15th for America's Favorite Trail Horse!

GO TEAM SAFFRON!  The finalists for America's Favorite Trail Horse have been announced on the ACTHA site.  Saffron and I are in the first group and voting begins on MAY 15th for us and runs through the 18th.  Make sure you tell EVERYONE you know to go and vote for Betsy & Saffron!

Saffron at the Beach

Here's a great picture of Saffron at the beach with Sofia on her back.  Saffron does double duty here in Palos Verdes.  Not only is she MY wonderful trail and camping pony, she has also taught several young women to ride and taken them through Pony Club.  (note:  All of the girls wore helmets on the ride and just a few of them took them off for the pictures before putting them back on :-)

Saffy & Riverton Playing in the Rain

We had a huge hailstorm followed by heavy rain the other day and I walked out on the deck to drink my coffee and check on the horses to see how they were doing in the downpour.  This is what I saw from the deck.  Typical horses, they didn't even seem to notice that it was pouring and were happily playing with each other.

The dog barking in the background is our neighbor's dog.  He loves to get the horses all riled up and they love him.  If he loses interest in them and they are feeling playful, they'll go over to the fence and hang their heads over and lick him until he starts barking and jumping again.  Crazy horses!

Saffron forges the river in Norco, CA

My friend, Alyssa, and I headed up to Norco, CA for a weekend of fun in March, 2012.  We spent 3 days trail riding, competing in an ACTHA CTC and, on the last day, riding a few miles into town to go tack shopping and catch some lunch.  Nicknamed "Horsetown", Norco is such a cool town and  has hitching posts and water in front of nearly every business.

One of the things I love about Saffron is that traffic, including blasting motorcycles, fire engines, big rigs, garbage trucks, etc., don't bother her in the least.  They can practically brush by us and she won't even flick an ear at them.

We don't have much water to ride through where we live, so it was a real treat to ride in the rivers there.  If it had been a little warmer, I would have taken Saffy's tack off and let her play in the water a bit with just a halter.  She REALLY wanted to roll in it and did some flamboyant water slapping with her front hooves.

Like my hat?  Guess what, it's not a hat, it's a shade brim on a helmet.  Everyone I met on the trail loved it and couldn't believe it was actually a helmet.  Finally, a brim that makes a helmet look like a hat, not a pumpkin, on your head.  The helmet is a low profile one by PegasusHelmets.com and the brim is the Da Brim from JustEquus.com  It has the best sun protection I've ever seen and stayed on through our gallops and in the crazy wind we had that weekend.  Order one now, summer is coming and you are going to WANT one of these!

Annie, the Westie Rescue, hitches a ride on Saffron

My husband, Warren, and our two Westies, came on a hike with us.  Our smallest dog, Annie, got tired so we let her hitch a ride on Saffron's ample posterior for a while.  There's not much that bothers Miss Saffron, the ultimate trail horse!