i have heard of him and how great he is. right now I use Mike Mullen. He travels down to Florida for winter and stays, I think, near freehold here for the summer. He is very good too.

I don't know anything about Mike Mullen, but he must be good if he does the FL circuit horses!  Good for you! 

I was delighted just to find a sane dentist, I can assure you.  LOL  Bill has a looooong waiting list--I got in on a referral from my vet, who loves me --and I had to book a year in advance for next fall!  But he's fantastic AND very nice.  I've had several, some better than others. The last one I tried made me so angry it was all I could do to control my desire to assault him with a hoof pick in mid-mouth.  There's nothing like a rabidly sexist male to really get my dander up, and that guy pushed every button he could find to try to get a rise out of me.  The free-range idiots will be the death of us!

Good for you. That guy must have really deserved it. LOL I know what you mean. Men can be real jerks. My old farrier was like that. My husband almost kicked his butt. 

LOL  Good for you husband!

I've also fired two farriers, one in mid-horse, for being total jerks.  I mean, I understand that these are difficult jobs, but if you're going to abuse me or my horses, I have to draw the line.  I know the dentist was showing off for my SO.  If I'd been alone, I'd have ripped the man apart the first time he insinuated that a "little girl" like me must get a lot of help with the horses from my man.    I mean, excuse me???  Do you hear yourself? 

 Wow. that is just wrong.I can't believe he said that. I'm short and "frail" as some people would put it, but that doesn't mean anything. My old farrier had said several times that my husband would have to hold the horse because I don't look strong enough. Boy i showed him. My dad's horse went to pull away and I was able to hold him, the farrier was shocked. He was in even morse shock that I told him he was fired! Now I have a nice farrier who actually shows me and tells me what he's doing so if I want to start doing it myself I culd. He even gave me his tools that he uses so I can practice. I'll never switch farriers again. The vet I used to have, made a coment about hay. I went to show him the bale and he thought I wouldn't be able to lift it. HaHa. I did, by myself. I can't believe men can be like that. 

Ha!  My farrier is the same way, and he did the same thing.  In fact, I had another farrier who I loved who gave my daughter a pair of his old chaps and a full set of his old tools so she could practice.  My current one is fantastic.  I've been using him for about six years now after having used him years ago when he was barn farrier where I was boarded.  I'll never switch on purpose, but I know one day he'll retire or move out of the area, and I'll be sunk.  :(

Do you mind telling me who your farrier is?

Speaking of doing things yourself, just last night I was in a conversation with my SO's family and somehow the topic of my diesel tractor came up.  Someone asked me what I (personally) do with it (and laughed!).  I said, "Everything."  They all just looked at me and I changed the subject.  I get tired of explaining it.  I use the tractor every day.  It's MY tractor that I bought new a few years ago.  I have a grade blade, a box blade, a York rake, manure spreader, a bale spike, pallet fork, seeder, flail mower, and a really big, high-lift front-end loader, and I use all of them.  They're still not getting that it's MY farm.  My SO is a diesel mechanic, so he keeps the machinery running, but I'm the one who does the daily work (and gets thoroughly peeved when he uses my tractor and leaves the seat in the wrong position LOL).  He's got a tractor of his own--a Ford 2000 with a loader and all--but he prefers mine with the canopy and the power steering. 

 My farrier is Matt Smith. He lives only 5 min from me and I believe he travels the whole state. He's great with the horses. Never lays a hand on them. That is so cool that you have a tractor that is your very own. What brand of tractor do you have? I am looking to get one, and I like the sound of yours.

Can I ask what type of footing do you have in your arena? I have to start mine from scratch and i don't know where to start. Also, where did you get the materials? Thanks for your help.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaa!  You sad the "f" word!    My life here has been an endless search for footing and sawdust.  LOL

My "arena", as you so kindly call it, is a 100 x 150 outdoor with probably the crappiest footing you would be able to tolerate.  I've tried several things.  What I've NOT tried is having the arena professionally installed because in this township that qualifies as construction of a building and adds onto your property tax bill.  Can you imagine?

Anyhoo, I started with dirt with good drainage (it was a corn field) and lots of rock.  Two years later we were pretty much rid of the rock (everyone who came to ride had to pick rock before and after, and we had very popular rock-picking parties with beer).  Then I tried everything the locals recommended from mulch to sawdust to varieites of sand.   I'm very fond of shoulder stone for filling low spots everywhere.  I'm on a first-name basis with the shouder stone people. 

Eventually I hit on a great combination of mason's sand and road grit for all-year-round decent footing.  Naturally I couldn't leave well enough alone.  I found an outlet for reasonably-priced shredded rubber, but the tractor-trailer wouldn't fit in my ring.    The sand/road grit place went out of business, so I called around and got a couple of loads of "equestrian sand".   I don't know which equestrians thought this was a good product, but I'm not among them.  It's washed sand from a concrete plant.  Nice enough, but it holds WAY too much water.  It's either deadly heavy (wet) or totally dusty (dry), and in the winter it tends to freeze hard.  If it weren't for the road grit I already had in place and mixed with it, I wouldn't be able to use it from December to March. 

Are you glad you asked? 

 I don't know Matt Smith, but that's a great recommendation.  Is he new/young? 

I have a Mahindra tractor.  It's the mid-size model, not the huge one.  I don't know how I got along without it!  The Ford is functional, but a couple of hours of wrangling with the non-power steering and controls that were designed by a psychotic chimp, and I'm ready to call it quits!  I can use the Mahindra all day and not feel it.  And it's been extremely reliable.  Cliff does the regular oil changes and stuff, and that's all it's needed.  There's one poorly-designed rubber boot on the loader hydraulic control that I have replaced several times, but it's a two-minute job that I've gotten really good at. 

 I have the same problem with the township. It's crazy.

I should have a rock and trash picking party. My arena area is an old junk yard for cars. The past 10 years we have been finding car parts that wash up when it rains. I also have a grading company right next store and their trash blows over the fence into the pasture.  

I'm not liking the fact that I need to put in a new arena footing any more. Thanks 

Matt Smith is in his late 30's. I'm not sure on exactly how long he has been doing it, but he does have a lot of clients. The day he came out he had over 120 horses that he did, so to build up that many clients, hes probably been around for a while.

I will have to look into the tractor you have. It sounds like a dream to own. Thanks for the info. 

Dukey, go to Mahindra and check it out.  I chose that company for several reasons, not the least being the machine offers as much lift and power as any of the "big name" tractors but at a much lower price.  I mean, I still paid about $17,000 new for the thing, but that was considerably less than a comparable Kubota or John Deere.  And the loader was included in the price, not an add-on. 

If you do get a tractor, buy a grade blade and a york rake.  You can get rid of most of the garbage in your ring area with a couple of days of intensive dragging.  It really speeded up the process for me, I can tell you!   Mostly now I just have occasional small rocks (half-a-fist size and smaller), but I also had tractor parts and draft horse shoes and the like working up through the soil from when this was a working beef cattle farm about 100 years ago.  I think after 11 years we've probably pulled up most of what was buried, at least in the ring and pastures.  The woods are a different story.  I keep finding stretches of barbed wire on trees I swear I checked a dozen times. 

Your story about the blowing trash hit home, too.  My road is a convenient short-cut for kids from the neighboring high school.  Since it's technically a low-volume road, the cops don't patrol it.  As a result I make regular treks up and down my road frontage picking up beer cans, soda cans, juice and water bottles, Micky-D wrappers and bags and so on.  PITA!  I have a paddock that is close to the road, and I always have to check to make sure there's no broken glass or toxic stuff tossed in there.  Last summer I found a half-empty beer in the middle of my hay field.  Since there are trees along the road, that could only have gotten there if someone had been in the field drinking.  Very frustrating.

I especially hate that I get weekly messages from the various farm and horse-oriented groups I belong to with lists of things we can do to get along better with our neighbors.  I'd like to see the neighbors get a mailing suggesting that farms are not public land and they need to respect that!

Thanks for the info on Matt Smith.  He must be really good to have that many clients! 

 Thanks for the link. I love the tractors. When I get one I will definetly buy the grade blade and the york rake. That would be a hugh help.

The pasture is on a road that is a back road to Rt 9, so there are alot of people who throw stuff out the windows of their cars and it lands on my fathers property. 4 years ago, someone threw a cigg butt out of their car and set the surrounding woods on fire and we had to evacuate. It's not right. The state trooper barrics is a block away from us and they don't even travel down that road as much as they should.

You are right. I think the neighbors should get a letter too. I have a neighbor, the grading company, and they are just horrible. One time my old belgian decided she didn't want to stay in the paddock and broke through the fence and let the horses out. My x-boyfriend that works there told me they guys didn't care and to let them run out onto route 9 and get hit my a car. Thankfully I am still somewhat friends with him and he blocked the driveway with his car so they couldn't get out to the main road. The guys didn't even want him to tell us that they got out and to let them be.  I also have a neighbor on the back road that caught the horses for me, at a diffrent time, and brought them back and put them in the stalls for us. NOW that was nice.  I am glad that not everyone in the small town is so cold hearted.

Well if your farrier retires before mine does, I would highly recommmend him. 

Since my farrier is almost as old as I am, I'm guessing he'll retire first.  LOL

Route 9 is a bad road! Not as bad as, say, 80 or 78, but bad enough.  I'd certainly be peeved if the neighbors just watched the horses go out onto the highway without even trying to stop them.  A friend of mine had a bunch of horses get loose one night.  They made it all the way to Route 206, which is a lot like Route 9.  Some kids on drugs actually ran the horses down on purpose.  Hit 'em once, backed up, hit 'em again.  Killed a couple and seriously injured a couple.  Very sad.  They were stupid enough to toss their knapsack full of drugs and paraphernalia over the guardrail where the cops could clearly see it.  Duh.

Most of my neighbors are nice.  One even spent an hour in what was then a cornfield keeping a loose horse occupied while I dashed home from work to catch him, and she was all dressed up to go to her father-in-law's funeral! The ones who were already here when I bought the place and built the barn went out of their way to tell me how happy they were that I'd done such a good job and hadn't opted to develop the land.  It's the new development-dwellers and the high school kids who are the bane of my existence.  And there's one big-time commercial farmer who believes he makes the rules in this area and drives everyone crazy, including me. 

Trespassing is trespassing, no matter how many acres you have.  A developer dumping piles of rubble over the property line where he thinks it won't be seen is trespassing.  The neighbors who insist on setting off illegal fireworks over my hay field are just idiots.  Now they've moved behind me and set them off over my woods.  They're still idiots.  The ones who let their dogs run in my field are idiots AND trespassers.  The one who complained when I fenced the back pasture because (are you ready?) it interfered with her access to the rest of my farm for cross-country skiing is in the "Both" category. 

I've got a very cordial relationship with everyone, but my tongue is a bloody stump from the number of times I've had to bite it to keep from telling some of them exactly how I feel. 

 206 is a bad road. I've had a pleasure of driving on it before. I am sooo sorry to hear about your friends horses. Those kids are very supid. I hope they got sent to jail for a long time. 

That was very nice of your neighbor to keep him occupied and wait for you to get home. I am glad your neighbors appreciate you not turning your land into a development. The land that is left is very precious and we need to preserve it for as long as we can. 

Like you said, trespassing is trespassing. I had a neighbor who let his dogs run without a leash. The dog ran into the field and got stepped on by my dads Belgian. The guy had nerve to blame my father and tried to sue him for it. it was thrown out of court and the guy got a fine for not having a dog on a leash.  I can't believe that your neighbor had the nerve to say that it interfered with her using your property. That's just tooo funny.

We're far enough up 206 so we don't have the heavy traffic like Princeton.  But during rush hours it's still bad enough to be a hazard for horses.

That's unreal that your dad's neighbor blamed your dad for his dog getting stepped on!  I can easily picture that happening here, so I'm always nervous when the dogs are running in the field.  I figure either I'm going to get dumped and injured, leaving my horse running loose (so I can get sued, right?  LOL), or the horse will jump on the dog (and I'll get sued).

My daughter was working a young training horse in the ring one day when the idiot neighbor's dog ran in and started snapping at the mare's heels.  The guy ran over and stood on the other side of the fence saying, "What should I do?  What should I do?"  My daughter said, "Well, how about getting your dog?"  Duh.  So the guy climbed the fence, breaking a board as he climbed.  He grabbed the dog and left . . . and left the broken board without any apology or offer to repair the damage.  He's the same one that built the new development house abutting my woods. At least before, when he was across my hayfield, I could see where his dogs and kids were.  Now I have to just hope they're not out there in the woods when I ride out. 

I wonder if all this stuff is just a NJ thing.  I don't hear other land owners with the same complaints.

 That's funny that he's asking your daughter what he should do about his dog. I mean really, go get the dog! He's a real idiot. I can't believe that he broke the board and didn't even apologize for it, or offer to fix it. 

I know the feeling about the dogs and kids in the woods. My dad has a private driveway next to the woods and people with their dogs, atvs, and bikes go thru there. Someone actually made a trail half way down the stree and it goes right to my dads driveway, so the people think they should be able to walk down it whenever they feel. One time I was brushing my horse, her butt was facing the driveway, and all of the sudden she jumped and almost knoced me over. I look over and there are people with atvs coming straight towards the fence where her butt was. I was sooo mad.  My horse get's very spooked at atvs when they are coming up behind her. She has no problems with them when they are in frontof her or off to the sides. This is all because I was riding her with a friend and her horse and 10 of them came barreling down the trail in the woods and almost clipped the back end of my horse. She bolted, which I don't blame her for at all, but ever since then, she can't have any coming up behind her or she's gone. 

I also wonder if it's just here in NJ that these problems arise.