This week we have been moving horses all over the place. The season is winding down now and we don't need to have so many horses at La Quina; we need to save the grass that we have for dry season. So this week Velvet and Archie moved over to a wonderful farm of 40 hectares with waterfalls, rivers and tons of grass. Velvet had a tendon injury so she has been off work for a while, well she seemed fully recovered when she was galloping around the new farm playing with Archie. I will get some photos of the waterfall (it is spectacular) this week but i will have to wait for my husband Chris to get back as he has the camera. 


Chris has taken a well earned surf break with our neighbour Joey. They gone down to the Southern Zone to a place called Pavones. It is beautiful down there. Enjoy it Chris, i have tons of work for you when you get back!!!


The two new horses Tequilla and Bryon were also moved to a new pasture this week. They didn't like the change in grass for the first couple of days and i was worried we would have to look for somewhere new for them; they were very underweight when we got them, so we didnt want to lose any of the weight they had gained, but thank goodness they love it now. 


Other great news this week; the wonderful Brita Rizzi of Barefoot saddles US has donated one of their amazing treeless saddles for Moro. Moro is one of our rescue horses that has proved really difficult to fit a saddle to. Brita was very thorough and had us take many photos of Moro from different angles, that way they can plan how to pad out the special saddle blanket that you need so that the horse is not only comfortable, but able to develop a better stronger back! Incredible. Barefoot Saddles and particularly Brita are well known for their wonderful generosity and love of horses. They support many rescue and therapeutic riding centres. We will be eternally grateful for them helping us with our rescues down here in Costa Rica. You should check out their website www.barefootsaddles.net they are all treeless saddles which goes great with our belief in natural horsemanship. When Moro's saddle arrives i will put up a photo of him wearing it!


The photos today are of me with Tequilla, one of our new horses, please excuse the state of us both it was Sunday!!
The second photo is off Chris and Byron the other new horse, ditto for them...it was Sunday.
The third photo is of the very clever designer of Barefoot Treeless Saddles and the next is of the wonderful saddle kindly donated by Brita Rizzi. Now we just need to find a way to get 9 more!!!!

This week we have had lots of afternoon rain so we have only been doing tours in the mornings, but a burning questions has been unanswered; where do the monkey's go when it rains? We can normally track them to a rough area of the farm when it is sunny, but in the rain they seem to disappear. We think they go deeper into the forest to get more shelter, but no one ever seems to see them go! When i find out i will let you know!!haha


We have a new guide this week called Nancy (also a Brit) as Julia is on holiday's in Canada and enjoying the high life on boats with wine!! Good for her, she deserves it. Nancy has been great and seems to have the wildlife magnet on, her groups have been lucky enough to see lots of monkeys, Toucans, and parrots. I had my own great wildlife moment yesterday when a white nosed coati (like a large raccoon with a long nose), he came running down a tree in front of us and took a huge leap down to the ground and ran off! He was beautiful, but quite old i think. We have seen him around before. He is getting more used to us and hangs around a bit more which is nice.


The new horses are coming on great and Tequila will soon come to the main farm to join the others, but Byron is going to take a bit more rest time and gain some more weight before he has to work out his place in the herd. Poor Velvet pulled a tendon in her back leg whilst playing around in the field so she is on rest break now. 


Chris has been busy building another barn to provide more shelter for the horses in the coming rains, he has made this one away from the main barn instead of connecting them. The problem with a herd is you always have very dominant ones who like to stand in the middle of the big barn and not let anyone else in!! 


Well, i had better sign off now as it is Sunday and we have to go feed the horses!

I can not believe it is August already and we have now been on the farm for 8 months now. It has been great, but challenging of course being it is virgin forests that needs constant managing. But we love it and are very happy we made the move.


Julie is leaving for Canada this week for some much deserved R and R, but hopefully she will hurry back as she is "El super guia" (the super guide)


Tuesday we have a friend coming to check out the tour who has bet me $10 he can lasso a cow! Should be funny as he has never done it before. I think my $10 is very safe in my pocket!!


We have been planning this week our hiking tours that we are going to be introducing next year, these are going to be amazing, we can cater to families just wanting a rain forest adventure to our full on hiking nuts, do we ever have a mountain for them to climb!


The new horses are coming along great, we are moving them to a field with more grass on Monday so they can continue to gain more weight, they are so sweet, i can't wait to get them on the main farm so i can start playing with them properly.


Remember we told you about the desperately ill "Mama" dog that we picked up. This is her after her emergency operation. She has a huge heart and is a fighter thats for sure. She is slowly gaining weight now and will be ready for adoption anytime now. Any takers???