Another Moving Day

Today we moved another group of horses to the new farm. Of course I had been checking the weather forecast every 10 seconds for the last few days trying to make sure we were prepared appropriately for whatever weather might present itself. Well, every 10 seconds we seemed to have a different forecast. 70% chance of rain and a high of only 40 degrees (just under 5 Celsius for our Canadian friends). Then it was 50% chance of rain and a high of about 45 degrees (7C). Then it was a 30% chance of rain and a high of 52 (11C). And 'round and 'round the weather forecast went.

Needless to say the constant changing of both the predicted temperature and the potential chances of rain were driving me crazy. I finally decided to put rainsheets on the horses just in case it was cool and rainy. I always say that I don't try to anthropomorphise but talk about a classic example of just that! My whole reasoning was if it was wet and a bit cool I didn't want the horses to get chilled on the trailer. I think everyone was making fun of me for that line of reasoning. Thankfully the only rain we had today was a couple of periods of sprinkles.

We have this process down to a science now. The semi pulls up, several of us are standing there holding all of the horses waiting on the semi to pull up. We wait a few more minutes while the doors are opened, the ramp is set up and all is readied to start loading horses. We had the horses loaded, the ramp up, the doors closed and were ready to hit the road in about 15 minutes.


Once again the horses could not have been more cooperative. Every single one of them just walked on the trailer without a moment's hesitation even though most of them have not been on a trailer in a few years. A short trailer ride later they pulled into the new farm.

The Big Boys went on high alert when they saw the trailer pulling into the driveway. They watched us unloading the horses and took everything in for a few minutes, and then they decided to put on a show as only the Big Boys can do. They were running so fast and having so much fun I could hardly keep them in the viewfinder of the camera!

The Big Boys having a good gallop. I was disappointed when I watched this video, it was much more fun to watch in person! It looks more like a good canter than a good gallop on the video. They were going so fast it was hard to keep them in the frame and get a decent shot of them. The Boys know how to have fun!

Unloading of course went even faster than loading and within a few short minutes everyone was settled into their new pasture. We beat our record of an hour and 20 minutes to get the trailer ready, get the horses loaded, close everything up, drive to the new farm, open everything back up and load the horses. Today we accomplished this in just over an hour. I'm not ashamed to say that I was pretty impressed with this!


The newcomers did a bit of running around for a few minutes before returning to the regularly scheduled program of eating, rolling and napping. They shared a fence line with the big boys so they all know each other already.

Lucky, Lightening, Snappy, Noble, Slinky, O'Reilly and Spike checking out their new pasture

And a picture tutorial of the move follows below. Back with more fun pictures and videos from the retirement farm in a couple of days!

O'Reilly was the first horse on the trailer (that is Spike's nose on the right!)

Noble walking the runway

Lightening and Snappy waiting their turns

Slinky backing into his stall

"Back in the day" Snappy travelled around the world competing at the four star level in eventing with famous New Zealand eventer Mark Todd. Today's trip was a walk in the park for him.

Teddy, Snappy, Lucky and Slinky hanging out on the trailer

And they're off!

A short trailer ride later they pulled into the new farm

The Big Boys became very alert as the trailer rolled down the driveway; Homer and Tony watching

Hemi and Thomas were watching as well

After a few minutes we settled into the usual routine of eating and rolling; O'Reilly, Spike, Lucky and Slinky

Noble rolling with Spike, Snappy and Lucky looking around

Teddy in the front checking things out along with Spike, Snappy, Lucky and O'Reilly

Noble finally finished rolling and then said "wait for me guys!"

Grand saying hello to Snappy and Spike (the conversation went something like "hey, I already know you!")

Noble, O'Reilly, Spike and Snappy eating hay

Appreciation

The mares and Cuffie put on a fun show on Friday. I posted a video of some of the mares being silly in the frisky mares post a couple of weeks ago. The antics we watched from then on Friday make the video in that post seem like nothing. Unfortunately I did not have my camera - ugh! Maisie was the instigator this time and she was WILD. Running and bucking around the pasture. The next one to join her was Cuff Links the pony. He started following Maisie running and bucking along with her. Well not really with her but behind her, Maisie is about 16.2 hands and Cuffie is a medium pony but his little legs were going as fast as they could!

MyLight, Lily and Harmony joined in next. The whole group would run and buck their way across the pasture. They would reach a fence line and stop and we would think they were done. But Maisie was full of herself for some reason and she would take off again after a few seconds and the rest would follow her. We knew something was really in the water when Missy joined in and ran along for a few strides and threw in a little buck. In the years Missy has been here I've seen her canter/gallop only a handful of times and I've NEVER seen her buck until Friday. After about 10 minutes, during which time I must have lamented my lack of a camera at least a 100 times, the finally settled down and went back to grazing.
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Late last week I was driving past the farm as I needed to run a few errands. There is a second driveway that is about a quarter of a mile past the main driveway. This driveway leads to the old farmhouse but the gate is always shut and padlocked so it is more of a driveway that doesn't go anywhere. The gate is set back about 80 feet off the road and occasionally people will pull into this driveway and hop out of their cars to take pictures of the horses. As I was driving past I noticed a car was pulled up to the gate but I didn't see anyone around. I pulled in behind it to make sure everything was ok and the car was not broken down.

As I walked up to the car the driver's window came down and I realized there was a lady in the car. She asked if she was blocking my way and I said no, that I was checking to make sure there wasn't a problem and that she wasn't having car trouble. She told me that she drove past the farm on a regular basis and decided to pull in and watch the horses for awhile. She said she had always meant to stop and admire the horses as she had been horse crazy since she was a kid but had never had much opportunity to be around them. She then said that one of her parents had passed away very recently and that just sitting in her car watching the horses was bringing more peace than anything else had in the last few days.

We talked for a few minutes and I explained that this was a retirement farm for horses. Then I pointed out some of the horses that were closer to us and told her their names and their backgrounds. She learned about Maisie, Lily, MyLight and Cuffie. She was so appreciative of the opportunity to just sit and watch the horses and learn a little bit about them. She kept thanking me over and over and I invited her to come back and horse watch whenever she was driving by.

It was a good reminder that sometimes the things we take for granted every day can be so meaningful to someone else. It was amazing how a few minutes of time with a complete stranger made such a difference as she quickly went from being on the verge of tears to animated and excited as we talked about the horses. When I originally pulled in behind her I was annoyed at taking the extra time to check on the car as I had a lot of errands to run. I ended up really enjoying my few minutes with her. Life is funny like that sometimes.

Leo and Tony

Hoffy, Baby and Trigger

Sebastian napping while Faune and Romeo hung out

Bonnie napping with Cinnamon, Sky and Lexi hanging out

Traveller and Sparky napping

Winston and Faune

Murphy

Dutch, Wiz and Clay

Boo, Fuzzy and Clay (and Bella the dog)

Justin and Murphy

Darby and Ogie

Maisie, MyLight and Harmony

MyLight, Maisie and Harmony

Fuzzy, Alex, B-Rad, Wiz, Murphy and Ogie (napping)

Strange Weather

Our snow has come and gone. The little bit remaining that had not melted was taken care of by the rain we had yesterday and today. Today was one of those odd weather days where the temperature falls during the day instead of rising. As I was feeding this morning it was almost 55 degrees and sunny. This would be a normal daytime temperature for us at this time of year. After this past week I felt ready to break out my shorts and flip flops. Normally I would find 55 degrees to be cold but today I actually appreciated it.

It started raining about mid morning and it rained off and on all day. The temperature fell throughout the day from the 50's down to 42 degrees. To say that the weather has been uncharacteristic and odd lately would be an understatement. I have had trouble finding anything to like about it.

As I understand it a lot of areas in the south had a decent amount of freezing precipitation yesterday. It was hovering a few degrees above freezing with precipitation moving in which can always be cause for disaster. We ended up with rain. However the weather forecasters were going nuts predicting our impending demise. Yesterday at about 10:30am one of the people who helps us on the farm received an automated phone call from the school system on her phone. They were calling all of the parents to let them know that the schools would be closing at noon. Keep in mind nothing had actually happened at this point, it wasn't even raining. But just in case they closed the schools anyway. Of course the schools have only been open for a few short hours this week! The rain didn't move in until about 3pm but the kids were already home.

I want to be a school kid in the south again, they close the schools on the mere possibility of winter precipitation. Ahhh, the good old days. I remember celebrating any time the mention of snow was put in our forecast. Whether it actually snowed or not the odds were good that we would be getting a day off from school. Then I would get my mom to drop me off at the barn so I could spend an extra day with my pony!
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I've posted the rest of my snow pictures below. Only 9 more days until Christmas and I am NOT dreaming of a White Christmas!

Bush loves his Dover turnout blanket

Justin

Boo

Maisie

Cuffie, MyLight, Missy and Harmony

Lucky and B-Rad were playing over the fence

Fuzzy and Clay

Rocky

Toledo (Rampal munching hay behind him)

Romeo

Rocky, Johnny, Rampal and Toledo were having a pow-wow about something

Stormy

Johnny and Rampal

Valentine and Johnny

Toledo sporting a snow muzzle

Gus, Sebastian and Asterik

Jason, Good Canadian

As everyone knows Jason is from Canada. Jason has adapted quite well to life in the south and he has even developed a southern accent (much more noticeable than mine, the native southerner). The one area in which Jason fails as a southerner is his response to snow. It must be ingrained in him from all of his years in Canada, because when it snows Jason has to do something. This instantly gives him away as being non-native.

Actually as I mentioned in my last post we southerners do something in response to snow - rush to the grocery store. As far as doing something about the snow itself, well we generally do nothing. I've never owned a snow shovel in my life because it would never occur to me to shovel snow. Why bother when it is going to melt anyway? Schools are closed, anyone who thinks they can get away with it doesn't go to work, and snow is generally cause for a holiday. We eat all of the junk food we bought at the grocery store, go outside and play in the snow for a bit, snuggle under a blanket and watch movies and wait for the snow to melt. This generally does not take much waiting.

Not Jason. As soon as Jason saw snow in the forecast he didn't rush to the grocery store but instead dashed off to the feed store. Why on earth would he do that are you asking me? It isn't to get feed, we are well stocked, but to get bags of loose salt for the driveway.

The day it was supposed to start snowing (possibly up to two whole inches) Jason says to me "I'm going to do a pre-emptive salting of the driveway." It isn't even snowing yet and he already has to get out there and do something! I just said "ok" as it seemed to be really important to him. Whatever makes him happy.

Then it finally started snowing (they had already closed the schools before the first snowflake hit the ground) and Jason says "I'm going to go put more salt on the driveway." Ok Jason, knock yourself out. The next day after the snow had stopped the driveway was clear enough to safely travel up and down the hill without 4WD. This however was not satisfactory to Jason. He went out and put more salt on the steep parts so they would be perfectly clear and dry. He talks a lot about "bare and dry" when it comes to addressing driving surfaces after it has snowed. For anyone not counting we're up to three trips salting the driveway now.

Today he proudly pointed out to me that the entire driveway was clear. For anyone who has been to the farm you know there is a LOT of driveway around here between the barn and the two houses. I didn't have the heart to point out to Jason that the parts of the driveway that hadn't received any salt at all. (not the pre-emptive salting, the while-it-was-snowing salting, or the post-snow salting) were also perfectly clear. Because it had melted. I think it would have crushed him.

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I always take a lot of snow pictures. I think it is because everything looks so different with snow for a background. Here are a few of the 15 million snow pictures that I took.

Lightening and Noble were playing while it snowed

Lily and Missy

Spike, Lucky and O'Reilly

Faune and Asterik getting a drink of water. Trough heaters are great inventions. We don't need them often but they sure are nice to have a few days every year. I would like to thank Jason for putting the drain plug de-icers in 7 troughs for me - there are advantages to being married to a good Canadian!

Chimano

Darby and Ogie

Dutch, Wiz, Alex, Murphy and Fuzzy

Justin eating breakfast with Clay behind him (who was wishing he was still eating!)

Cuff Links and Missy

Harmony

Teddy

the cows napping in the snow

Romeo (with his signature one ear forward and one ear to the side), Faune, Winston and Gus

The new farm had a lot less snow, a little bit more than a dusting. Grand, Hemi, Leo, Trigger and Thomas

Levendi, Ivan and Apollo

Hoffy

Hemi and Thomas

Chance

A colorful picture; Ivan, Homer, Apollo, Tony, Levendi, Leo

Elfin