New Digs

So, when I moved into Morelli’s I really didn’t think I would ever leave. It was exactly what I wanted in a barn: small, quiet, horse care came first, open trainer policy and open discipline. But over the past year, things had changed. The focus at the barn shifted from open discipline to more focus on the Hunter/Jumper crowd, and it had expanded from a small barn (25 horses) to a larger barn (45 horses) without an expansion of the facilities. And the quality of care began to suffer. The final straw came when they got into an argument with my trainer. It was time to move on.

I took Friday off work and moved into the new barn.

Ashke on Thursday when I was there to move obstacles

He really did a number on himself

I met one of the other peeps moving to the new barn and we helped each other load all of the things. We made a run to the new barn to unload, then went back and hitched up the trailers. My peep loaded her two horses, one of which is Ashke’s sweetheart, and we said our goodbyes. I shed a few tears, not because I was leaving, but because my previous dream of staying there until Ashke died was broken. It was good while it lasted, but he needs to live where I have a say in the amount of food he is being fed. I have been struggling with his energy level for the past four months (he would be bottomed out 35 minutes into our lesson) and they haven’t been willing to feed him any more (which was not the agreement when I moved in). He hasn’t lost weight, but his body shape has changed, his poop has gotten much smaller and although I had added some steamed oats to his lunch bag the extra food wasn’t making any changes in his energy level.

The first thing I did when we arrived was the heated wash stall with warm water.

It took the better part of an hour, but he ended up clean.

The run is 48’ long and 12’ wide

The stall is 16’ x 12’ with an open front.

There is eight inches of shavings in there. Super well bedded.

He got to graze on the grass, but by today it was brown and trampled down.

He gets 3 flakes of alfalfa and 3 flakes of grass twice a day, plus 3 lbs of grain in the morning.

I’ve put him back on the Smartpak supplement (joint, salt, tri-amino) to help support his SI area.

This is the East end of the arena. If you enlarge the pic you can see the 80’ round pen in the corner.

The 80’ round pen does not even use a quarter of the indoor arena.

Middle half of the indoor.

The horse on the far side is a 16.3 Friesan. 

West end of the indoor.

It is literally 4 times the size of the indoor I have been riding in.

There is a large outdoor as well.

Stall aisle. Today, we put up chalkboards for information, and bridle hooks for the halters.

Ashke in on the end, Ardee in the run next to him, then Maggie, Kat, Earnest, Finn, Noosh and  Laz.

They all seemed happy to be in real runs.

Ashke moved from an 18’ run on a slant, to 48’ on the flat.

I’m getting pretty good about being able to park the trailer.

Amanda’s dad built the tack station that is now in the middle of the tack room.

I created blanket hangers out of pvc pipe and metal brackets, plus I added a bridle hook for my leather halter. 

I might need to do some additional organizing, but I do have my blanket box in the spare stall. 

The barn has heated water for bathing, and comes with all the perks for one flat price. The man who tends to the horses really like them and they respond to him in the same way. He refills the water buckets two or three times a day, they don’t skimp on hay and he has a ton of shavings in his stall. 

We had our first ride today and he was spooky and uncooperative to saddle, I think because Ardee was outside and he kept glimpsing her in the outdoor arena. Once I had the saddle on, he settled, probably because we joined Ardee in the outdoor arena. I think they should settle in the next week and not be so clingy to each other. It has to be hard to move from one place to another. I think as they all get comfortable with the new place, his anxiety will drop. 

In the arena, he was stiff and tight. We worked on our lateral work to loosen him up: shoulder in and haunches in at the walk and trot. Then serpentines trot to walk to trot first and then to the canter-walk-canter serpentines. We then did the 20 m circle at the medium canter then the collected canter on the 15 m circle. We finished up with some canter half-pass, which are really coming along. Tomorrow, we are going to Circle Star to do a dress rehearsal practice for the show next weekend.