Mare Moving!

This weekend felt like Christmas.

The beauty of buying a new toy horse and then not bringing her home right away means that when you do bring her home it almost feels like she's brand new again.  So, you can imagine that in spite of a rather late night dancing on Friday, I bounced out of bed long before The Boy was enthusiastic about starting a day of three-hour-drives and horse hauling.

Adding to the Christmas-Morning-Effect was the fact that we also got to break in the new trailer while we brought Miss Mare home!  Which I'm pretty sure is the horsey equivalent of hitting the Daily Double in a category you actually know on Jeopardy ("I'll take "USDF tests for $400 Alex" beeee-doo-doo-dooooo)

Anyway, we loaded up on candy and Gatorade and hit the road.  When we got to Prairie's barn, the place was pretty much deserted (all the fancy horses are down in CA for a few weeks strutting their stuff).  One of the boarders let me know that she thought Prairie had only been worked once last week (hmmm) so I might want to turn her loose in the ring.  I thought that was a brilliant idea, so off she went.  She flagged around and bounced happily (although even when going "crazy" this horse still doesn't buck... I hope P doesn't teach her that trick...)

I whipped my iphone out to snag a video, but I think I caught that absolute least interesting 20 seconds possible.  Apologies for that, but if you want to see what a blurry horse looks like on a bad video camera in a dark ring.. watch away :)

Prairie was not enthusiastic about getting wrapped up and insisted that she walk around like a cat in snow for a full 10 minutes before relinquishing herself to the fact that her stupid-pouffy-wraps were not coming off.  I scrambled around to pack up the last of her things and then opened up the trailer to get the mare loaded...

Thanks to Star-the-Wonder/Ancient-Pony, I have lingering PTSD whenever I haul a new horse.  I cannot help but run the the rather long list of "how things go wrong loading" which Star really did do an epic job of teaching me firsthand.

Is it insane? will it kick through the walls? get stuck under/over the divider? rear? flip over? snap its neck? trample me? (or Denali's Mom)?? 

But P2 was a good girl,  She sniffed the trailer twice, stopped on the ramp for 2 seconds, then ambled her big self up into her spot and started munching hay  (Cue me starting to breathe again)

Oh good.  She isn't insane, isn't kicking through walls, not scrambling over/under the divider, no rearing, hasn't flipped or trampled anything.WHEW

"So Roomy! what was crazy lady worried about??"

We hit the road (after The Boy cleaned up the insta-poop that happens when you load a horse.  he HATES the insta-poop.  drives him crazy) and the mare seemed to be hauling smoothly.  When I checked on her after about 20 minutes she was cool, calm, and doing a wonderful job of keeping her wraps clean (a feature I appreciate). 

She walked off the trailer like a champ.  A drama-llama, but a champ and was happy to scope out her new digs.  She walked into her new stall, immediately drinking water and diving her nose into the hay (GREAT FEATURE) while I pulled her wraps.  I gave her a few minutes to settle before she got tossed out in a gravel paddock to unwind and enjoy the rare sunshine breaking through.

The shine is a lie.  That mare is covered in grossness. bath required.

 The Boy was a gem.  He helped unload the trailer and fill up my (very generously sized) tack locker before giving a sly "Hey Girl, can I roll up those shipping wraps for you?"  I will never, ever regret showing him Marissa's Equestrian Ryan Reynolds as he seems intent on one-upping that fictional standard...

Feel free to be jealous.  He keeps my polos, standing, and shipping wraps in total perfectly rolled condition.  He also fetches water, holds horses, secures butt bars and WASHES OUT THE TRAILER (omg!) without even being asked.  Yes, I know.  Swoon away...

I scampered about the barn for a bit, met a few other boarders (first impression - people seem nice!) and kept checking on my girl.  Finally I threw on her sheet, kissed her giant nose and called it a day.

I could hardly wait to get back on Sunday for our first ride... (which was awesome) but I'll save that for another update...

Here's the blurry video: