Getting Settled

Last Tuesday I had Olly trailered to his new home, Ft Eustis Stables. I have mixed feelings about boarding my BigRedHorse. Everyday I would look out my window (bedroom, living room, den and kitchen windows show the horse paddock) and see my boy just hanging out and being happy. I love walking out my back door every morning and seeing my boy and hear him whinny to me, that he loves me. It is breaking my heart not to see him as soon as I wake up. On the other hand, I think he will be happier to be a part of a herd. He has always been a clingy type horse. He can make a friends faster than any species I have seen. He has already been whinnying to a tri-color gelding across the way. He is still in the quatentine stall, and tri-color is free. This paint is quite the frisky boy and is always stirring up trouble...I hope this isn't a warning...you know like when your kid says this is my new friend, he met in detention. Not the best place to meet new friends.

So, I get Olly to the barn and notice that one of the barn doors is unhinged. Broken. So the second stall it is, but it only has one door. Where is the ventilation? No run? I was starting to get pissy. They must have a quarentine turn-out. To my surprise, Olly will have to be stalled in a 12x20 stall for 10 days. Who is the freaking nut that came up with this idea? My fire-breathing-dragon will be in a stall for 10 days. Sheesh! So I call up ODR (Outdoor Rec)and asked who is responsible for the vet bill when my horse gets heat stroke? It was 96* with 90% humidity. He was sweating more being in that crappy stall than he did the 45 minute trailer ride there. So the "manager" of ODR, the most NON horsey person I have ever met. starts reciting the SOP to me. Ummmm. I know what the standard is, I signed the papers. What I didn't see as "standard" was old rotted wood, no run, let alone a turn-out, and poor ventalation. So the "manager" offered so kindly to fix the first stalls hinge and add another door. We still have to deal with the rotted wood and not turn-out, but it was slightly better.

Crappy Quarenting Barn

My poor boy sweatinghis ass off

I met one person at the barn who seems to have knowledge. There is always one at each barn. In Hawaii, it was Stacey, here it is Tiffany. AND!!! She has a BN eventing paint! WIN!!! She is my new friend. lol This weekend I will be setting out with my Garmin and HR monitor and see how much work my BigRedHorse needs after his time off.


Of course, Olly just goes with the flow. He doesn't like being in the stall, he is now starting to refuse going back in. I have to enter first and give some enouraging words. I don't blame him at all. I wouldn't want to go in either. I DO make sure I go and let him  out in the round pen (shhhhhh...don't tell ODR) and let him hand graze for at least 15 minutes. I think that helps him more mentally than phsyically.

Ohhh Clover Heaven!!

So Tuesday I notice that the weather turned a bit cooler. Time to ride! I decided to go with the dressage saddle, since it is the most comfortable saddle ever (Crosby). I soon found out that I should have chosen the close contact (Wintec). Oh, and the elevator bit would have helped too, instead of the loose ring. I needed the extra stopping power. I knew what our ride was gonna be....3 weeks not being ridden, stalled for 5 days (so far), a new place with tons of smells, and HUGE military equipment driving everywhere. I needed more than my helmet. I needed elbow, wrist, knee and shin pads too. And maybe a parking brake. He was alert and totally listened and hardly spooked at anything, suprisingly. If he questioned anything, he just stopped and kinda side-stepped. I would make him sniff it and touch it and we moved on. The huge trucks we no problem at all. He is used to having 18-wheelers drive by. I think the drivers were more afraid of spooking Olly, than Olly actually spooking. (it's nice to be able to say that now!) We started out walking down towards the river and past the "home" of all the big trucks. We walked and trotted, which quickly turned into a canter. I waited to see how many srides it took for his canter turned into a full gallop. I never gave him a loose rein. Any guesses?? 2!!! That's right, 2 strides. Basically those were his, I am digging-to-get-going strides. All I had to do was talk to him and he slowed down. What a good boy! At the intersection there is a huge staging area, where all the soldiers set up their stuff...great! My horse is being Speed Racer and now we have an audiance. Just as we turned around and started to head back, my phone rang. It was the school nurse. An audiance, speed racer AND a phone call. This was gonna be entertaining....We only walked, and I use that word loosley, a few feet before I just had to get off or I was gonna eat dirt. As soon as my feet hit the ground he was lunging himself around me in 6 foot circles...at a trot. I am sure everyone thought, "What in the hell is worng with that horse??" Oh, but the fun doesn't stop there, I had to get back on. Ever hear of the flying dismount? Well, I did a flying mount. As soon as my weight pushed in the one sturrip, he took off trotting. I brought him back to a halt...sternly and made him stand for a whole 2 seconds I am sure it felt like eternity to him. Then, I let him go. I wish I would have  had my GPS on. I would have loved to see how fast he was going. I could feel the power and happiness evaporating off of him. It took just seconds to make it back where we had started. We continued on down in the opposite direction and crossed the road to go down to the river.

I let him get his feet wet and cool off and then we headed back to the barn.
Once we got back I unsaddled him and decided since the humidity was lower I would hose Olly off and let him graze. I walked over to get the hose and WTF??!! It was gone! A little FYI...that was MY hose I brought from  home. The hose that the barn provides has about 3 holes in it, one hole being bigger than the hole at the end. I was FUMING! I stompped all the was to the NON-quarentine barn and started my search. All the way in the back barn someone hooked it up to water all the horses. OK....there are so many issues with this situation that piss me off...
1 What happened to "if you use it put it back?"
2 That is the quatentine hose..my horse has been watered with it. It can now contaminated all the other horses, but my horse isn't allowed in the arena, round pen, or any common area. Whatever.
3 No one even asked to use it. How rude.
4 No one even said sorry.
After writing a nasty note on the marker board about me having to bring in my own hose, no one even was like, "oh, sorry." WTF man?? I dragged that bitch all the way back to Olly and hosed him off.
I gave hims some fresh water, from MY hose and some sugar cubes and headed home.