A new barn and time to get started!

This weekend Rose moved to her new barn for the next 6-weeks, where she will be getting started! We got to our old barn bright and early Saturday morning, to get her ready to haul down the road, as well as do a bit of housekeeping before we left. She had managed to rattle the bolts off of her hay feeder door recently, so we fixed that up and I also had to strip her stall and pack up my few remaining tack and feed room items. All in all, we were done and had her loaded within one-hour! After a brief farewell to our old barn and half-hour drive later we navigated our way to the new barn, road detours and all, and arrived with a curious but not too-hot Rose. She backed calmly off the trailer and seemed to settle into her new stall and run pretty well. She is stalled next to a big beautiful black Oldenburg gelding named Logan, whom she instantly bonded with. Much to her dismay, there is hot wire on top of the run fencing keeping her from bonding too closely! Oh yeah, and she got to re-learn what hot-wire was. After getting her settled we headed home and I hoped that she would take to the new barn and surroundings well.

What can I say but I love our new barn! Saturday night I got an email from the trainer letting me know that she was doing well and a little anxious, but not more than to be expected. My fiance was extremely impressed about how organized and on top of things that they are, and I have to say that I am too. I had initially decided to not visit Rose today and devote Sunday to my studies, but that didn't happen. All morning I just kept wondering how she was doing and finally decided to just go out and see her. As you can imagine, that was a recipe for disaster when it came to actually getting any studying done! I don't know what I was thinking. There was no way that I could not go see her. Off to the barn I went, no GPS needed this time.

When I arrived, everyone was extremely friendly and welcoming. It was a sunny-ish day, so the barn was buzzing with activity, quite the contrast to the previous morning. Apparently Rose had been calling to Logan, who was off with his mom, shortly before I arrived and their abrupt love-affair was the topic of conversation. As I walked down the aisle, I greeted a few boarders and their sweet calm horses. I have never been in such a calm, quiet and happy barn before. One of the ladies I met today welcomed me to "nirvana" and I think that she was spot on. This barn is definitely nirvana. I found Rose in her spotlessly clean stall with a nice big pile of hay, happily munching on her lunch. She seemed a little out of sorts at first, but instantly relaxed when she realized who I was. I decided not to lounge her, as I wanted her to just keep settling in today, before her real work begins tomorrow. Instead I took her out and hand grazed her in the pasture for a while until she seemed to really relax. There was an exciting moment where I led her over a culvert in the pasture. I wasn't sure what she'd do, but decided to take her over it anyway. She looked down at the ditch and calmly followed me right along. I my heart instantly warmed to the thought of the trail rides that were in the our near future.We finished up spending a bit of time grooming in the cross ties and just hanging out in her stall. Lately she's taken to licking my hand like crazy and actually cuddling me with her neck, which I find completely adorable. She's really starting to grow up finally and is turning into such a lady!

Stay tuned, tomorrow is her first training session and I cannot wait to hear how it goes!