Even though I had to leave Ocala to come back home last week (am I super salty about the fact that it’s currently 44 with 9000mph wind here, but it’s a lovely 75 in Ocala? Yes. YES I FREAKING AM.) Megan’s group all arrived last week, so now WTW East is officially up and running, hosting it’s first ever group of sporthorses and seasonal boarders. Patreon members, I posted a full length video tour for you last night (check your dashboard) but I also wanted to share some photos here as well so everyone could see how the farm is looking. I’ve been getting updates about how everything is going now that everyone is settled in, and it’s fun to see some sporthorses giving life to the place.

Not to say that there isn’t normally life at the farm… it’s got a fully-established racehorse mare/foal/young horse boarding business in place and there are plenty of horses on the property, but ya know… an eventing operation is just different from baby horse boarding. Different infrastructure, different routines, different kind of horses, etc etc. The front part of the property has been dedicated to them, with all the young horses and broodmares moved to the back 2/3 so that everything stays totally separate and there’s no intermingling of horses.

The finishing touches are pretty much all completed now, things like crossties and tack hooks, the jumps and cavaletti are being put to use, and there’s a dressage arena marked out. The front cinderblock barn is also full of horses for the first time that I’ve seen. The former racehorse operation really only used this barn to prep the youngsters that were going to the big sales or for foaling out mares (there are two double-size foaling stalls) so as a sporthorse person it’s fun to see it come to life in a new way that’s a little more in line with my own version of “normal”. I mean, I know the seasonals are only here for a little while, but it’s a glimpse into what it could look like for me once my own horses and stuff are out there, and that’s exciting.

The tack room is also complete, all the racks are up and everything is organized the way they want it. This space turned out really pretty I think, Michelle did a great job with the paint and the decorations. Looks fancy! There wasn’t a tack room in this barn originally, this room used to be an office, but this space is perfect and transformed really nicely.

I think the very most exciting thing though – and a very big deal – is that the arena got finished! They had a very short timeline to get this done, especially considering the extremely high demand for arena builders in the Ocala area right now. When I was there they were on the last little bit of base, and now it’s finished, they’re just watering and working it to finish prepping it for the horses. Hopefully they get some rain this week, that’s what it really needs. It’s not a HUGE space, but I think it’s a very good useable size, especially since it’s out in the front field where you can also ride on the grass. It makes for a nice flexible area that you can do a lot with, I think.

It’s hard not to get excited about things when you see the farm being used exactly the way you had envisioned. It was definitely a major time crunch to get things ready in time for these guys to arrive, but everybody really worked their butts off to make it happen, and it shows. Now I just have major FOMO because everybody is there having fun without me. Soon. Soon…

A few people have asked what we’re doing with the t!ny h0use, and we’ve decided it would make more sense to sell it rather than try to take it with us. We already have a place to live on the farm there, and don’t really have any infrastructure in place to be able to easily put the t!ny somewhere. We’d have to build things, which would be a project on top of about a hundred others, and given everything else that we have to consider with this move it just makes more sense to take something off our plate. We LOVE the t!ny and don’t really want to part with it, but it’s definitely the more practical thing to do. If you know anyone who might be interested, let me know, I would love to see her go to a good home!