Another New Chapter

Well the horses have moved!  A couple weeks ago I loaded up the trailer with most of my horse stuff from the tack room and then on Friday we put the horses in the trailer and said good bye. I can't say that I didn't tear up a bit walking the boys out of their pasture for the last time.

Both boys loaded like champs. Rediscovered that Axel likes to paw while in the trailer. But other than that it was an uneventful 3+ hours on the road for home.  Took the boys out of the trailer and showed the around their new home.  The first few days they were confined to the barn yard while we were still running wire for the rest of the "pasture."  There was quite a bit of waist high grass in the barn yard so we hoped they would help that out a bit.  When we'd drive by later we couldn't even see the horses the grass was so tall.

The boys seemed to think the grass was just fine.  They found a spot where the lane starts that they could stand and catch a really nice breeze and they discovered a spot where the bugs were at a minimum near the water tank.  The line to the automatic waterer leaks so we had to put in a water tank with a float instead but it's pretty easy to fill, just turn on the pump for the well and let it run while you are feeding.  The float stops the water so it doesn't overflow and you can just turn off the pump when you leave.

On Saturday afternoon I decided it was time to drive down and get Haji and bring him home as well.  And my husband let me drive the truck and trailer down and back by myself.  Guess he's decided I'm an okay driver after all (as long as I don't have to park backwards).  So I successfully made it down to Luverne to get the old man. He seemed pretty excited to see what the trailer was all about.  Though he balked a little walking up to it, he did finally jump right in.  After I closed the divider he realized he might be leaving and had a few parting words to say to his buddies.  They ended up running down the pasture next to us as we drove down the driveway.  For some horses that sure gave Haji a hard time they didn't want to see him go.

Haji and I made it back to town unscathed and in one piece.  The boys ran him around a little bit when he first got off the trailer but after that they all calmed down and went to work on the long grass.

On Sunday we finished the fencing and turned the horses out in the rest of the yard.  Cody and Axel ran around a bit but Haji was a lot more reserved.  So far as I know, they haven't spent too much time exploring the place.  They have about 5 acres, some wooded, some yard, and some longer grass.  When I stopped on the 4th of July Cody and Axel were in the yard by the garden and Haji was in the barn yard.

They've already gone through all the feed I had bought so I had to call in and get more.  Guess I'm going to have to buy in a little more bulk if I'm not going to be out there every weekend to check on things.  Kind of an added complication of being so far away from the horses but we'll have to make do.  Cody and Axel's old owner has been feeding and making sure Haji gets his 10+ pounds of wet feed so I'm hoping he'll start fattening up soon.  I'd really like the horse chores to be as easy as possible but right now Haji is at least 100 lbs under weight so he needs to eat as much as possible.

My next complication will be getting a farrier out hopefully on the weekend while I'm there to trim everyone and shoe Cody.  Hopefully we can pull shoes this fall and he'll be barefoot for the winter and do well and not need shoes in the spring.  Maybe I can learn to trim and save some hassle in that department.   I wonder if there's a weekend crash course in hoof trimming?

This blog is going to quickly turn in to "long distance horse keeping."