Friday, June 15, 2012

G's New Home

Well, we packed up and hit the road at 10:30 this morning, and G walked off the trailer 30 minutes later in horsie paradise.  I took a bunch of pics, hope you don't mind me sharing! 
Driving up the driveway to the barn



Pastures to the right of me pastures to the left, here I am, stuck in the middle of grass lol!


This side has the winter pasture and a larger one behind the trees. Its accessed from around the back side of the barn.  Its really cool how she set up these paddocks and gates.  She can channel them through to any area she wants.

This is G's temporary digs for the first week or two as he is transitioned onto grass.  He has the ability to go in and out of the stall, with a hot wire running between his area and the other two stalls where the head mare and gelding come in and out of.  They have access to the pastures during the morning hours and then again at night.  On the other side of the gate behind the barn is Willy and Candy, both ponies.  G and Candy have been flirting all day over the pipe gate.  This is where G will have access to the winter pasture with Candy on Sunday.

G learning to eat out of a hay feeder

Inside the barn, G is in the last stall on the right.  There are two wires that cross over the back door so the ponies can't come in the aisle, but they have access to the stall on the left, as well as the run in that will be G's winter home should we decide to stay here rather than find an indoor arena for the winter.

The fence line continues behind the runin with a lane that takes the horses over to the winter pasture.

The view from the barn....you can't see the owner's house



 So far I'm thinking that G is going to just love this place.  He didn't whinney at all when we got there; we had a few squealing matches with him and the head mare, and the pony mare Candy, but that was about the extent of it.  But, when the owner opened the gate and the other two horses hightailed it out to the pasture G finally became unraveled.  He ran to the end of his paddock and whinnied loudly several times; out came the runny poop and he ran back to the barn.  Rut ro I thought to myself this could be a problem.  As I was standing in the aisle of the barn, G looked out to the pastures and whinnied again, and within 10 seconds both mare and gelding were running back to the barn to see what his problem was.  Heavy sigh, and he was happy again.  So the game plan is that they will have access to the pasture all night and Candy his fence buddy will still be out there so he has a buddy.  I sure hope he respects the hot wire and doesn't try to get out there.  We're not afraid of him getting hurt as much as getting sick on over eating this lush pasture!  I'll hand graze him again tomorrow, and Sunday he'll go out with Candy for an hour and a half.  She'll do that for a couple of days and then increase it 20 minutes every couple of days until he's up to 3 hours.  She'll try to add a second horse, then a third.  Once he's there, he'll be able to be introduced to the herd as a whole.  Fingers crossed this works.  Our favorite vet will be out next Friday for his final two spring shots and I'll get to talk to him about nutrition now that he's off grain and eating grass. 

The bummer is I can't store my trailer there, so its in our yard.  Probably not so bad though as I can keep the windows and roof vents open and not worry about it getting rained in. 

Hubby called me as I was driving home to tell me there was something waiting for me when I got home. Our new Sky Chair!!  These are soooo awesome, and boy did it feel good to end the day with my feet up and a smile on my face!  More fun tomorrow!