The Move

There's nothing to start off the New Year like moving horses.

I didn't decide to move them because care was lacking at the old barn.  It is in fact, a wonderful place and I would go back in a heartbeat if things didn't work out.

But the new facility is a few miles from home and it makes it easier to pop out and see the girls when time is running tight.  The price break also helps a bit too.  :)

The facilities are pretty nice as well.

But let's back up to the moving part.  New Year's Day was our target move date.  The wonderful frozen Midwest actually cooperated by not having too much snow or ice in the way. 

The downside was that I was recovering from a bad GI bug and wasn't feeling very up to dragging out an immense amount of horse related tack and equipment out of my old barn (as my husband says, I may have too much horse "shit"). 

My Knights in Shining Armor came to the rescue.  J, who had been mentioned in this blog plenty of times, came for New Year's Eve and managed to clear everything out of the barn while I was still working.

What a trooper and a champion!

My other friend came over on New Year's Day and oversaw the hooking up of the truck and trailer and was the designated driver.  ;) 

It was a cold, windy day and the girls weren't particularly enamored about getting on the trailer, but with a little bit of persuasion it happened and we were off and running.

The new barn owner is wonderful.  This facility has automatic waterers and while both horses have drank from them before, I was worried about the horses adjusting to them with such bitter cold weather sweeping in.  The barn owner (and her family) left the outside light on by the waterer so the horses could find it, trekked out in the evening hours, and dutifully watched to make sure both mares were drinking and not getting dehydrated.

Pretty incredible.  It definitely eased my worried mind.

So, so far so good.  I look forward to warmer weather when I can get out and enjoy some of the trails at this new barn!