Sweepings December 2010 - January 2011

Time flies

Snow on the ground, breath showing in the air, must be December. Oh my, time flies. We start worrying about mosquitoes, and keeping our animals cool, and suddenly we have to think about frozen water and safe footing.
Luckily we have several good writers who are ahead of me in thinking and planning. Jessica Wentzell helps us work through what to wear to keep warm and cozy for our winter riding. Mary Pothier has come up with a good list of 10 steps to safe winter riding. And for procrastinators like me, Shelley Goodwin has spread out the planning for safety over the full year. Shelley suggests writing it down, and that is good advice. Make a plan, write it down, and read, and read, and read again your notes.
We have a few new columns and features coming up in 2011, and we hope our readers will get them off to a grand start. We will feature barn tips in the coming months, and need your input and ideas. Here is one suggestion we have received: Want to cut down on your time spent in mucking boots? Invest in a rubber mat for your stalls. This not only increases drainage but also allows you to cut down on the amount of sawdust used therefore, making it easier to fork through.
Please send your time and money saving tips to dvlmail@eastlink.ca with “barn tips” in the subject line.
Sending us material by email reminds me to ask again for help from our readers. We receive photos, many of which we want to use, but we often run into the problem that the photos are not high enough resolution to reproduce well in the magazine. If you have your camera set to take the most pictures, rather than the best quality, those pictures may not work for the printed page. They might be fine for website use, and look great there, but that doesn’t mean they can be printed successfully. We are always looking for photos, and if you send us low-resolution copies, please let us know if you have a better quality, higher resolution version available. You should email your photos to Angie at dvlproduction@eastlink.ca. If you are unsure of the quality, let Angie know and she can check it when the photos arrive.
We have a guest editorial this month from Mike Gallagher. Mike is the president of Equine Canada, and we want to welcome him and thank him for offering Equine Canada’s view on the ongoing controversy between the national and several provincial associations. We can hope there will soon be a resolution that suits all parties.
And still in New Brunswick, this is farewell to Vanessa Packman after her eight years of service providing us with the New Brunswick Report. We would like to thank her for her work over the years, and wish her well in whatever her busy life brings next. Vanessa may not be totally gone from our pages. She has some great ideas for stories that we hope to print over the next few months.
Best wishes to all of you for your holidays. See you next year; take care of each other. AG