Lindsay: [00:00:00] Oh, hey, it's me, the mud that you were hoping to complain about, but psych, it's winter again outside, Lindsay Lobella, and today I'm just going to be a talking head again on ya, because it's been kidding season, I've got bottle babies, the snow and the weather's been crazy, and there's just so much going on that I just don't have the time to do too much of things, but I'll see you Don't let that discourage you from listening because we're going to discuss some things that happened in the past or recent events and some really cool events that are coming up here in the future.

Why? Because you're listening to Rochester Trail Riders.

Did you know it's tax season? For those of you that have your horses at your house or are an owner of a boarding facility or Try to actually do this hobby farm thing for profit You're probably going through all of your receipts right now ready to just you know, rip your hair out and there was a tax guy on the [00:01:00] other day that I had a chance to sit down and listen to and He was amazing.

I'll make sure that there's a link to that episode. You actually can go back and listen to everything that's going on. But he had some really interesting things to say about what makes you a for profit farm versus a hobby farm. And a lot of it comes down to your attitude and how you respond to questions like, Do you enjoy having your horses at home?

And believe it or not, the answer is supposed to be no. Nope. This is a job. This is what we're, we're making money at this. Of course they don't enjoy my work. Believe it or not, the IRS doesn't care if you like what you do or not. And if you do like what you do, they consider it a hobby. So if for those of you who are panicking and think you might get audited, make sure that you take this time while you're doing your taxes to revisit your business plan.[00:02:00]

Make sure you have a clear goal of what you're going to do in the next year, three years and five years. Make sure that whatever you're attempting to do shows that you are trying to make a profit. For those of us, that do horses. And it might be a little easier than just the horse market alone. So if you do have a small boarding operation, you need at least 10 horses to be able to do that.

You need to bring in at least 10, 000 a year to do this, but depending on how you. Work your small acreage you can then add in other livestock which can help offset those costs and keep things at bay Chickens are great. They're fun to have around they eat ticks, but I've also dabbled with things like Alpacas and currently goats, which is why I'm going nuts because this is kidding season, which is fun It there's not much to do this time of year because the [00:03:00]weather is so nasty.

So it's just It's really fun to have something different going on in the farm while I'm waiting for the weather to brighten up and give me some, I don't know, motivation to get out on the trails and ride again. Because, let's face it, I'm a fair weather rider most of the time and I just don't wanna when the weather's not being nice.

And the goats give me something else to do. They also help keep my farm from overgrowing with things and preventing myself from using too much gasoline to mow everything down. So there's my two cents on while you're doing your, your taxes this time of year is sit down, revisit that business plan.

If you're thinking into making your farm into a business business plan, I can't stress that enough. Make sure you understand what your motivation is going forward and how you're actually going to make money doing this because nobody wants to get audited. It's not very fun. That aside, [00:04:00] there was some fun stuff here recently.

You, GVEC finally came back, had their winner extravaganza again. Fortunately I ended up missing it. I had another event that I had to go to, so I did not make it this year. Rochester Trail Riders, we will attempt to have a par party. Yeah, let's have a party, a table. at next year's event. Henderson equine clinic started their very first seminar.

Also, they did theirs on emergency horse topics. Holy cow. Tawna information. If you guys missed this one, they did record it and it is available on their website to be able to see and listen through again. Highly recommend that you They had some amazing information on when you should call a vet, the types of emergency cases they've seen, what is and isn't an emergency.

So I'll make sure that links in the show notes too. It's a great watch. What they also did [00:05:00] after that, after the entire seminar that they did, they had wet labs. So you got to go up and play with Like the ultrasound, you got to practice wound wrapping, and they do anticipate having more of these short seminars and wet lab events in the future.

So as I get a notification of them, I'll make sure I share that information with all you guys. So great topics for those of us looking to get a little more hands on and involved with the veterinary and the healthcare of our horses. Couple of things coming up show season. I am so excited. 2024 is. Got a lot of stuff coming in there for those of you that actually host show events.

I would like to revive the show calendar for Rochester Trail Riders. Please, if you have an event, I'll do my best to look through the Facebook feed and gather that [00:06:00] information. Send me an email. RochesterTrailRiders at gmail. com. Send me an email, let me know the date, the time, and by all means whatever link you have to your show site.

If that's a webpage, great. If that's a Facebook page, also great. Get me that information. I would love to compile it. And as I do these podcasts, I would like to showcase, you know, upcoming events. So, free advertising for you guys. Better to get that information over to me and I will do my best to pay it forward and get people interested in your show series.

And, uh, while we're on that topic, a little, little plug for Rochester Trail Riders. I have come up with a very broad challenge series. If you haven't been to the website recently, go to rochestertrailriders. com. I did a ton of work. Making sure all the links are updated and fixed. [00:07:00] Making sure all the maps are updated.

Making sure that my Google Maps are updated and the pinpoints are updated. So, check out RochesterTrailRiders. com and go along with that. I have trail challenge series for all the greenways. All the county parks and all the state parks and you can get master badges for these things. Whether you're doing all the miles on one specific rail to trail and they range anywhere from literally a one mile long trail to 120 mile long trail.

So, you can hike, you can horseback, and you can cycle. I know, you're like, but we don't like the bikers because they scare our horses. It's a multi use trail, folks. Just understand, that people want to get out and enjoy nature just as much as you do. And the best [00:08:00] way for us to bridge that gap and to educate everybody on what we expect as horseback riders is to pay it forward and make sure that they can enjoy the trails just as much as we can.

So I have these trail challenges open, horse friendly trails, to hikers and bikers and horseback riders. And if you are somebody who enjoys trail running or cycling yourself, you can also get these badges for your discipline. So check it out. The county parks badge, they span Monroe County, Genesee County, and Erie County.

It's all of the Western states. Finger Lakes region. I'm asking that you guys to obtain a badge. You do five miles at five parks and you get a badge. There are ultimate badges. So if you happen to hit every single park in that list, you, there's an ultimate badge you can get. There's also [00:09:00] a winter version to help those folks like myself, maybe get out and enjoy the county parks.

And In the winter months. Same thing for the state parks. Gosh, I forgot how many I got on there. There's a ton of them. I have, as I said, every park that I could find that was a horse friendly trail in western New York and in the Finger Lakes region are on there. Some of them are including camping sections that are local that are not Otter Creek.

So check those out. As I get to each of these locations myself, I'm writing detailed reports on all of these things. And I am going to be putting together an ultimate guide. I asked your opinion on Facebook for information on what you would like to see for a quick chart. I'm taking all this information as serious as I possibly can.

And as I hit every single one of these locations, I will make sure I compile all that information for you into a guide. [00:10:00] Some of you folks asked if this will be free. I will do my best to make it free while I enjoy doing this. It is incredibly time consuming to do this information. So there is a little, you know, swag spot on the RTR website.

You know, you can buy a patch, get a t shirt kind of thing, maybe some stickers to promote the site and to help pay it forward. It costs me about 1, 200 a year just to have everything there, plus my time on top of that, and it takes time and effort to put all this together to manage the Rochester Trail Riders page.

I'm not asking for a handout. I'm just saying, hey, understand that while I would like to keep these things free, I do not currently take advertisement at all. So, I'm not spamming you guys or selling your information. This is all out of the goodness of my heart and the fact that I really love doing it. 

And, [00:11:00] uh, I will, again, I'll do my best to keep things as affordable as I possibly can for you guys while also making sure that I don't put myself in the poor house while doing it. 

One other big event that I have coming up that is specific to Rochester Trail Riders is Monroe County's Pick Up the Parks Day is coming up on April 20th and I'm getting together as a group organizer to work with Monroe County Parks to get all of us horse riders on a cleaning detail for Menden Ponds Park.

I picked Menden Ponds Park this year because that is the most heavily traveled Horse traffic park that we have in our area. If you are looking to help us out and volunteer and be part of this, so we can pay it forward and make sure that they understand that the horse community, we love to use the trails and we are willing to keep our parks up and running and beautiful so we can keep horse traffic on all these great Monroe County [00:12:00] parks that we have available to us.

So if you want to do this, There is a link in the show notes or head on over to the Facebook page or head on over to rochestertrailriders. com. I have a form to sign up. I will be collecting all of you guys that are willing to volunteer all the way up until April 5th. That is when Monroe County wants me to submit all of our volunteers and to give us a work detail by the 20th of April.

Events on the 20th start at 9 a. m. They are asking that we show up at 830 a. m. And be prepared to be out in the brush. and work. We could be doing anything. It could be wood trips around a playground. It could literally be trail clearing. It could be mud management. Who knows what they're going to assign us to, but I want to make sure that Rochester Trail Riders, equestrian community, we show up with a good group of folks to pay it [00:13:00] forward to Monroe County Parks to make sure that they keep us horse people happy and we keep them happy by respecting the trails.

So, hopefully, I'll see a bunch of you guys there, and I'm looking forward to our first annual Pick Up the Parks Day.

Oh, couple of fun things that I saw coming up. Let's see here. Fiddle sticks farm. If you guys don't know, it's out towards burgeon area has a half mile long racetrack and they started this series last year.

You can trailer in and run their track. She keeps it nicely groomed and she has speed series events, you know, like Fastest mini horse, fastest draft horse, fastest stock horse kind of thing, fastest walk, fastest trot, you know, an actual canter around it. Check it out. It's Fiddle Sticks Farm. She's out in towards Bergen.

Really great spot. She's going to have some trail events coming up also. You can, uh, work with her to trail her in and utilize the, the [00:14:00] courses she already has set up for trail events. And fun one to check out. Just so, uh, a little shout out to go over to Fiddle Sticks Farm. And one last thing I saw on the Rochester Trail Riders page, which doesn't come up often, is a full time farmhand.

I know a lot of us ask for, you know, weekend help, hour here, hour there, but I noticed that there was a full time farmhand for Sugar Hill Farm in Victor. They are a private Arabian breeding facility, and they are looking for somebody to work for them. full time. So if making a horses, your career is your thing, go over and check out sugar Hill farm and see what that's all about.

Pretty sure that's going to wrap things up today. Please one more plug before I close this thing out. Email me events. I want to know what's going on this summer. Ooh, which does remind me Avon New York just [00:15:00] elected a new mayor mayor Hayes, from what I understand, he is looking to keep our relationship with the equestrian community.

Going, I haven't had a chance to talk to him myself, now that he's been elected, I will wander over there and be like, Hey, I know I don't live in the village, however, I do utilize the horse show grounds that the town has put, or village has put together. So with that being said, Fingers crossed that we get to keep all our events going through the village of Avon.

And if you did not know the Avon driving park is gorgeous, has their track that's over there and brand new stall facilities, a gorgeous ring. So there are several horse shows that are held on the village horse show grounds. And I'm looking forward to a great season. We'll With the village of Avon.

Well, that wraps it up and until next time, remember to respect the trail, [00:16:00] wear a riding helmet, and please clean up at your trailer site. Happy Trails!