Places I train, Part 1

This is our hoop building where I train at home when it's too rainy or windy to be outdoors, which has been a lot this spring. It would be an awesome building if the Farmer didn't insist on filling it up with big round bales of hay and random pieces of equipment. Right now, it's only about half full of bales, leaving a perfect space to train.


Our cats hang out in the hoop building. That is Winnie in the foreground and Beauty in the background. Winnie is friendly, Beauty is a psycho cat. The cats make Phoenix a little crazy. They sit up on the bales and watch us train and are great distractions. Raccoons hang out there, too, although I never see them. They are always mucking up the cats' water bowl and/or carrying it off. Seriously, I never know where I'll find the water bowl. Apparently this is great fun if you are a raccoon.

During the winter, I train in this upstairs bedroom at our house. There's room to do lots of stuff. I use the plank and the cinder blocks along the wall to make a shelf for geraniums and any other flowers I bring in before it frosts in the fall. The bedroom isn't heated but the plants do great up there and its wonderful to train in February with a lot of blooming flowers.

The upstairs hallway works great for heeling as long as we "think thin." Believe me, I keep my elbows in! It's a good thing this photo doesn't show all the chips in the woodwork from having dumbbells bounced off it. At least I haven't bounced one off the hallway window. Yet.