Successful Delivery! (weekend review #1)

I'm going to try to break up all the information from our trip on Saturday so that this doesn't turn into one giant monster post.

Oh, that and without a horsey within striking distance, the blog-worthy news might slow to a trickle.

Oh, that and I managed a whopping 3 hours of sleep last night for absolutely no good reason.  (current consciousness is courtesy of 8- actually eight - cups of coffee).

Saturday went fantastic.  The weather turned a bit, but 55 degrees is a perfect temp for hauling horses as far as I'm concerned.

I let Miss P stretch her legs for a bit in the indoor, though I didn't chase her since I figured the almost 3 hour haul would be enough stress on her poor, out of shape legs.

looking like a TANK

P has certainly, um... "filled out" in the past few weeks without our regular rides, but she looks cute, and although the picture doesn't show it, she was GLEAMING before we packed up and headed out.

We opted not to take the ferry, since I just feel more in control on firm ground, which made our trip almost three hours after factoring some weekend traffic.  We stopped once for gas and although P was warm, she wasn't sweating and was working her way through a majority of her hay net, which I took to be the sign of a content traveler..

As we got closer and closer to the farm, I got more and more nervous.  Google maps routed us on all the back roads, so there were points were we were essentially driving down one lane roads with absolutely no where to go should another rig meet us in the other direction.  There were a few totally sketchy farms and even some places that I verbally informed The Boy we would NOT be unloading at should our destination in any way resemble them.

He did a good job of calming me down and telling me to just wait and see.  Which we did.

What we did find at the end of our google-map scavenger hunt was a totally adorable little farm.  Nothing fancy, but certainly well kept and lots of happy animals meandering about.  I say meandering because, aside from the "herd" which was definitely relegated to a sectioned off pasture, there were happy dogs, a clever looking barn kitty, one llama and a one eyed horse roaming the property without restraint.

P unloaded like a champ.  Her eyeballs promptly removed themselves from their sockets at the sight of the herd, the dogs, the kitty and finally the ever terrifying llama, but I was proud that she kept her head and walked politely around the drive while we stretched her legs. 

The grounds are centered around a stunning old dairy barn, with a massive gabled roof.  Most of it is open inside, but there's a row of stalls each with big runs (though narrow) coming off the back end.  Otherwise, there's a cute pond, big ring, trampoline, and several large pastures sectioned off within the property.  The entire place is fenced (hence the roaming menagerie) and frankly it was nice to be somewhere with an open horizon where mentally you could just see beyond the property lines.

Happy Herd off in the distance...

 I pulled P's wraps so she could go get her kicks out in the arena, but that meant a remarkably close encounter with the llama.  Apparently the llama's main purpose is to scare the horses.  He's a desensitizing "tool" for the cowboy and sometimes he'll pony the llama on trail rides just to get horses used to not only seeing them, but god forbid touching such a strange creature.

P was skeptical but she bravely walked by as we entered the ring.  I turned her loose and OH MAN, did she move.  Tail totally flagged (I blame Supermom for all the exposure to arabs ;) ) and floating around like a little princess.  Not a hint of the sticky, mincy trot we've been seeing back at home.  I know we have other things to work on, but man it was nice to watch her really move out and float around like the proud lady she is.

Also nice? P made a point of checking in with me every two minutes or so while she was gallivanting around.   The Cowboy mentioned that he was impressed and that her check in was a good sign that she isn't shut down socially.  I guess that means we're starting in a good place, but more on that later.

After a bit, we put P in her own corral.  It's about twice the size of the paddock she had before, with a nice bit loafing shed.  She was calm until I walked away, then the antics started again...

The Boy and I stuck around for a couple more hours, watching Cowboy work with a couple of horses and chatting with Dr Finn, who was also there to meet us.  I'll dive into Cowboy's work tomorrow and describe Dr. Finn's plans as well. but it was overall a super reassuring and wonderful time spent with both of them.  When we turned our rig around and started to pull out, P really lost it and started screaming.  It's a good thing we were already moving, because I might have jumped out and stayed with her otherwise...

When we finally did pull out of the farm, I had promised The Boy a stop at one of his favorite restaurants from growing up.. The Three Crabs.  Frankly, I needed a glass of wine to help digest everything so we made a date of it and indulged in the finest they had to offer...

I loved these three crabs as a kid.  Refused to order crab as I was convinced I'd end up eating one of them...

 Clearly I was feeling self indulgent so I ordered THIS monster of a meal:

Approx 3,200 calories and 8 days worth of sat. fat

I love that you can't even tell what this is... but I can assure you it's DELICIOUS.  Beer battered fish sandwich, served open face on a toasted buttered bun, doused in clam chowder and topped off with cheese.  Who even thinks of that!?  I only got about halfway through but I loved every bite of it...

The Boy was significantly more restrained and got the traditional specialty:

Chomp Chomp

By the time we got close to home, it was nearly midnight which warranted simply parking the trailer on the street and dealing with the rig in the morning.  I got everything cleaned out, organized the tack room, which now holds nearly every piece of equipment I own, and took anything leather home for a Pony Club style MASSIVE tack cleaning session before storing everything for a few months.

It was somewhat relaxing.  I took absolutely everything apart, scrubbed, oiled, oiled again and even busted out the brass polish for all my buckles and hardware.  I don't think I've touched that stuff in ohhhhh.... ten years.

I got a happy text and pic from Cowboy yesterday, with a supremely content looking Pia, so all is good on the western front.

Time for more coffee.... or maybe a nap under my desk...