New Barn Update

I haven't really told you guys in detail about the new barn.

We moved in on February 1st, during what is usually the nastiest time of the year in Maryland weather-wise, since it can be so unpredictable. Example: we moved the girls from Laytonsville, MD to Frederick, MD back in late February of 2015, and had to bump up the move-in day for the horses because of an ice storm that had materialized in the forecast out of the blue. Fun times.

This time around, I watched the forecast like a hawk leading up to February, but the weather for that week remained wet and in the 40s for that entire week, which was a huge relief.

My BO was given a full 30-days' notice in writing. We left on good terms. Literally the only reason why we were leaving was because we needed either trail access or a larger arena to ride in in order to enjoy the horses. I had loved that farm, its people and the way it was managed to the point that it took me an entire year to make the decision that in order to ride on property we were going to have to look elsewhere. This is a boarding requirement for me. I know some people haul out for every ride but I'm not doing that. We would not have moved to that barn if we had known in advance that the trails would be decimated by the owners.

The week of February 1st, we went out to the old barn to consolidate our belongings, load up the trailer, and take home the things that weren't going to fit at the new barn (storage space for boarders there is limited.) On the day of the move itself, I was kind of an anxious mess. We went through so much barn drama in Florida anytime we were switching barns that moving has left me with permanent PTSD.

So everything gave me anxiety that day.

I had thought we would have issues with the trailer, since we hadn't hauled in forever. But it was a non-event: we hooked it up, all the lights came on without issue when we tested them, and so we made our way to the girls' field.

My next concern was that the horses wouldn't let us catch them. This has never been a problem before, but I was in "What's the worst that could happen?" mode. So of course my anxiety was not helped when we pulled up at the barn with the trailer in tow and both mares looked up from their field...and took off galloping AWAY from us at sight of the rig.

They gave Carlos a run for the money when he tried to go catch them. I was grabbing the last odds and ends to put in the truck when I saw them gallop past him for the fifth time. It's a seven acre field. He couldn't chase after them on foot! They weren't afraid or upset in the least: they were out there having the time of their lives being difficult for him. So I dropped everything I was doing and very noisily made up two feed pans of grain for them, which I took out to the hitching post next to their field.

The girls stopped running around when they saw the grain, looked at one another, and then calmly walked up to Carlos, sticking their heads in their halters and letting him lead them out of the field.

I groomed them to make them presentable (they were covered in mud, which has been the theme this winter), and then we loaded them up.

I had worried that Gracie wouldn't load: she used to be difficult for it when I first bought her but thanks to consistent work and fun off-property rides, she has come a tremendously long way when it comes to loading. But! We hadn't done this in nearly a year, so I was expecting a regression.

Nope. She followed me right into the trailer, standing quietly for me to clip her in. Lily's desire to load was never a concern: as usual, she dragged me to the trailer, where she willingly hopped on by herself like she always does.

 So then I was anxious about the drive itself. It took all of 20 minutes before we were pulling up at New Barn's driveway. Also a non-event.

I had been worried about the field the girls would be in. This barn is self-care: you can rent a stall if you would like, but you have to do turnout, feeding and stall mucking yourself. They have a sort of co-op situation going on where boarders help one another out, so it's similar to the set-up we had in South Florida. We had elected the field board option, which meant the girls would be out 24/7 with a group of other horses. The barn owners took care of haying and watering the fields, so we didn't have to worry about that once the girls were out with the others.

In the meantime though, they had to be in an isolation paddock for one to two weeks. This is standard procedure at this barn with newcomers and I'm fine with that. The catch was that while the girls were in isolation, we would be in charge of haying them and potentially watering them too, which is an enormous pain in the ass in the wintertime when everything is frozen. I had known this going in, but the difficulty of the watering aspect of it had not registered until it was too late to change the move-in date. So I had spent the last two weeks leading up to the move fretting about work and 13 hour shifts with one-hour commutes each way and how long would it take to drag a frozen hose out to their paddock twice a day when it's already hard to get more than five hours of sleep on work days on a normal basis.

Again, the Goddess of Good Fortune or whatever was on our side: the isolation paddock where my girls were originally going to go into was taken by another newcomer. So my two went into a different paddock that had a heated automatic waterer!!! All we had to worry about was haying, which the BM was willing to help us with on work days at no extra cost, and was not an issue for us overall with the barn being just 10 minutes from home.

The girls on their first day in the isolation paddock.
Professionals, as always. I love that they are walking pretty much in tandem in these pics.

We did have to order the hay ourselves while they were in isolation (we had known this in advance), but at $5/bale for orchard grass hay that was ten times nicer than anything we could ever find in South Florida for $17/bale, we weren't worried about it.

Second truck load of hay that I unloaded myself at New Barn. I was tickled pink over getting to apply all of my new weight lifting knowledge to hefting these 60-lb bales into the hay locker. Lifting them off the ground involved the same movement as deadlift rack pulls, and rolling them up onto one another once the stack was over 4' in height required the same movements as lifting Atlas stones in Strongman events. 480 lbs of hay later, I declared my barn version of volume training complete, and I wasn't even tired. I headed straight to the gym!

And no joke: hay in South Florida has to be brought in from out of state, which is tacked on to the price per bale of hay. Travelling to find good hay was a given when you were doing self-care, and it was the #1 way boarders bonded at the barns I kept Cloud and later Lily at: several of us would often pitch in on a hay delivery to save on transport costs. You were still paying anywhere from $15-$20 per bale though. That was in addition to your board fee, which tended to run from $250-$350 for a stall at a self-care or partial board facility. You can then understand why it was common to pay around $700-$900/month for regular full care board at an average hunter/jumper barn.

One of the things I love about self-care boarding is that the horses learn to recognize your car and nicker at the sight of you. Here's Lily in golden sunlight on a frozen Maryland morning at New Barn, on a day I swung by to feed them after a Trainer session. They had spent this winter naked so far but the weather was so schizo after our move (freezing rain at 35 degrees during the day, teens and single digits at night) that I blanketed when necessary, since they were going through hay at lightning speed, didn't have as much room to move around in this paddock, and didn't have a whole herd to take shelter with against the wind. They did use their run-in shed when the weather was bad, but I figured the blankets couldn't hurt. 

Carlos snagged this one of G-Mare on a snowy morning when it was his turn to feed.

We had brought in some hay from the local feed store to tide us over in the meantime while waiting for our first hay delivery.

Everything was all set and in order...except that the girls needed their strangles vaccines at this facility, which did catch me by surprise.

Now, I'm a huge believer in vaccines. All of my animals are vaccinated. My horses are on my equine vet's health program, which means the vet comes out regularly every other month to give them their shots so that they are both spread out (you are far more likely to have vaccine reactions if you give a bunch of them together because you are overwhelming the horse's immune system) and always up to date. So I had not been concerned about this until the new BO was going over their records and asked about the Strep equi vaccine.

Shit.

This is the one vaccine that I have always had qualms about. It's highly controversial: the general consensus is that it is not considered very effective, kind of like the flu vaccine in that it can minimize the effect of the disease if the horse gets it but not prevent it entirely, and the IM (injectable) version is known to potentially cause more side effects than it is worth to give, like purpura hemorrhagica, which can actually kill a horse by making it bleed out. This vaccine has always terrified me, even as a veterinary professional. The intranasal version is supposed to be more effective, but it can also have side effects: snotty noses and swollen lymph nodes are a higher possibility because the vaccine is modified live and you are giving it right in the areas of the horse that would be affected by the disease for greater immune stimulation. So basically, it can  make the horse look like it has strangles anyway. *face-palm*

This was my own fault for not asking; I know some barns require it in this region but the strangles vaccine has not been a requirement at any other place we've boarded at so far so I didn't even think about it this time around. The girls would have to remain in isolation until they received their initial strangles vaccine and booster, which meant they would be in the paddock for a solid two weeks. This was not an issue for any of us. BM was wonderful about the whole thing and apologized for not mentioning it; she hadn't thought about it either.

Snowy dawn at the new barn, arriving to feed the girls.

We made arrangements to have the vaccines given, making sure they didn't coincide with any other vaccines. I gave them oral Banamine (no injections after intranasal strangles: your horse can end up with bastard strangles at the injection site) after the initial intranasal vaccine to ward off the side effect demons, and then spent the next three days with Carlos on snotty nose watch while having nightmares of all the potential complications they could ever have from the vaccine. (Though this article would help me feel better about the whole thing. Whatever you do, don't read about people's experiences with the strangles vaccine on COTH, mmkay?)

The girls' noses remained clean, their appetites amazing, and their temperatures normal. I breathed a sigh of relief and was a lot less stressed about giving them their boosters 14 days later.

They ran around and bucked and played immediately after their strangles boosters. So silly.

If you think I've been lackadaisical about the horses while on my hard-core fitness journey, this should all set the record straight. >:P There was just only so much you could say about doing life/health/soundness checks, trimming feet, grooming, and limited arena rides at our previous barn.

And yes, I still made it out to the gym 5-6 days/week through all of this, just like I normally would. #noexcuses

Dry, cold weather worsens both of Carlos's and my asthma though, which is what usually sets us up for bronchitis in the wintertime. (This is the only time of year you might hear a slight wheeze when I breathe. And yup, I still work out through it. Working out actually helps keep it under control.) Normally I would have ridden the horses the first day we arrived at this barn, but it got postponed to several days later because just the idea of riding in an indoor, even a fairly dust-free one like the one at this barn, made my bronchi spasm.

We made it out with the intention to ride on a chilly, overcast day that was originally supposed to be in the 50's, but ended up being in the lower 40's. We both felt better asthma-wise and had taken every allergy med under the sun to boot. We pulled both mares out of the paddock and I started getting Lily ready. The weather was changing as another cold front was moving in and I think the air was charged with static: she was AMPED and jumpy. Static is the #1 cause of her jumpiness in the winter; normally she is a steady Eddy when she goes into anestrus this time of year. On this day though she was SO jumpy that she was making me quite angry. (This has always been my #1 response when she gets this way. I just haven't really talked about it on the blog before because I would force myself to work through it and things would eventually be okay.) She jumped when I tried to gently brush her face, she danced around and tried to bolt when I removed her sheet, she fidgeted the entire time I was grooming her. I had placed the Alta on Lily's back and had started slowly tightening her girth when she randomly threw her head up without provocation and tried to dance away from me. I felt my blood pressure skyrocket. I calmly followed her and finished what I was doing, stepped away from her, moved over to help Carlos start grooming Gracie, and then called it: I was not going to ride Lily. I did not feel like dealing with her drama. All that was going to happen was that I was going to continue to get mad at her over something she could not control (her response to the weather) and then I would have to calm myself down before getting on her, and then I would deal with the initial anxiety of whether she would still pick up on my real feelings (she's good at that) and be jumpy for the rest of the ride or if she would just calm down once I was on her (like she does 99% of the time when she is in full work. Except she has not been in full work for a while now.) I. didn't. feel. like. it.

And it's 100% okay to not feel like it.

So I untacked Lily, and swung the Alta onto Gracie instead, then turned Lily back out into the paddock with a pan of grain mash to keep her entertained.

Gracie cocked a foot and took a nap while we finished tacking her up. It was an insane contrast to Lily's behavior prior. Gracie don't care, Gracie don't give a shit.

And that's what I love about her.

As described in my previous post, I don't think she had ever been in an indoor before. She followed me wide-eyed into the dark barn, her ears swivelling with questions, and into the darkness of the hallway that led to the indoor's sliding door, where neither of us could see a thing. She kept her nose 6" from my shoulder and I could feel her breath quivering, but she followed without hesitation. She snorted in surprise when I opened the door and she saw the covered space lit by natural light shining in through the windows. But she stayed with me without either barging into my space or spooking away from me. There was always slack in the lead rope.

"What is dis space?"

This mare, you guys. Those that remember three years ago, when this horse knocked me over in the field, giving me a concussion that required a hospital visit and 3 months of recovery, will appreciate how far she has come.

I took her to the center of the arena and set her free.

I stood quietly in the center and let her do her thing. She stayed in a circle around me without any cues from me, spiraling out to the edges of the arena to explore it while running around, and then spiral back in towards me when she felt insecure and later as she was calming down.

She ran around for a good 20 minutes, changing direction at my request, while I laughed at her silliness: she was all dragon snorts and flagged tail for a good long time before she finally settled down and asked for permission to come into the circle to me.

She is so gorgeous. Even chubby and out of shape, she is the most beautiful horse I have ever owned, both inside and out. If I could have gone out and designed a horse for myself, it would have been her.

Laughing, I made her trot around some more, just to make sure she was truly done with the high spirits.

She was, so I asked her to halt and called her in to me.

The ride was a non-event. She was happy and listening and willing, despite not being in consistent work for so long. Despite never having been in an indoor before! She jumped a little at new sounds, like someone in the hayloft next door and ice sliding off of the roof, but she kept right on going at my request.

I was grinning like an idiot the entire time I was on her.

Case in point right here. I was having so much FUN. Riding should be FUN!

"I would happily trade Lily in for a second Gracie," I said wistfully to Carlos.

So yes, I am still see-sawing about Lily's destiny. It absolutely does not mean I don't love her, it has to do with the fact that if I'm going to have two horses, I would rather have two that are low maintenance and fun to ride, that I don't have to always be worrying about. Or just have one low maintenance horse that I can enjoy, period.

My hesitation is always "What if she ends up in a feedlot auction?" Because this is the clincher: I have never sold a horse. I have never given up on an animal. I keep my animals for the entirety of their lives.

We chose this barn with its facilities and its proximity to home to see if I can find enjoyment in just riding in the arena with Lily again. We'll see. We're going on three weeks here and I still haven't ridden her because my gut has told me not to. Not yet. And I'm 300% giving myself permission to be as black & white about all of this as I feel the need to be. I'm not looking for advice or recommendations or pity, but I'm not going to sugarcoat any of this nor try to find some grand existencial meaning to it just to make readers smile or like me more. Not with this. This, it just is. All I'm doing is telling you how I'm dealing with it because that's what I do on this blog, because I always hope that if I write bluntly about something I'm coping with, maybe it will help someone else in a similar situation. If only to let them know that they are not alone. That is, in a nutshell, the true intent of this blog.

Anyway. On February 20th, the girls finished their quarantine and I was cleared to turn them out into one of the mare fields. I was thrilled with the field location: it is the closest to the two arenas and I can actually see my horses from the highway on the way to and from work on my surgery days!!!

It was a Monday so Carlos was working and I was off. BM had texted me which field to put the girls in. I turned Lily out first.

She flagged her tail and did her best Arab impersonation as she trotted and cantered around, getting a kick out of all this space she now had to move in. There were 5 other mares in the field. They all looked on with quiet interest, letting her be silly on her own.

Once Lily had settled down, I went to get Gracie.

Gracie was chilling at the back of the paddock when I went to get her. No separation anxiety, no whinnying, no running like a madwoman because her bestie was gone (in case you're wondering, these are all the things Lily would have done if I had let Gracie out first. This is Lily's norm. Lily has always been herd bound. The reason why she can still find it in her to concentrate on me when she is away from her friends is because she considers me a member of her herd. Only took me years to achieve that...)

Gracie came to the paddock gate when I called her, stuck her nose in her rope halter, and calmly walked next to me down to the mare field with ears pricked attentively.

There was somewhat of a scuffle at the gate because Lily wanted to exit to join her sister while I was trying to get Gracie out into the field. Two other mares had shown up to investigate the newcomers, and I really didn't want to get caught in the middle of a kicking fight, so I had to shoo everyone away, which of course startled Gracie. I was finally able to convince Lily to back the fuck off so I could lead Gracie safely into the field and release her.

Both mares took off galloping.

Yes, they are filthy. Yes, I groom them. But it's freaking mud season around here. This is what unblanketed field board horses look like in Maryland in early spring, regardless of how well pastures are managed. Once winter is over, I just want to fast forward into summer so we can skip the rainy, slushy, muddiness of spring. The colors are beautiful and all that but it is the season I like the least because I just can't stand all the mud! It makes me crazy.

They were SO happy!

They eventually quieted down and wandered off to the far side of the pasture, close to the creek which is the field's main water source. I followed them on my side of the fence, walking all the way down to the stream and calling them to me: I wanted to show them the water. The girls acknowledged that I was calling them but didn't come.

Mares are like cats.

Right then, the two mares that had been at the gate when I turned Gracie out, a naked chestnut and a blanketed gray, showed up around the corner.

They walked up to my two, touched noses with them, then continued on their way towards the creek.

The gray and the chestnut on the far right, coming over.

The gray and the chestnut walked past my two. Gracie was paying attention, Lily was staring off into space.

On the far left you can see the chestnut and the gray's rump, covered in her blue blanket. She was drinking from the stream. The chestnut is standing right at the one other spot where horses can go down to the water to drink. Gracie was paying attention and Lily freaking out about God knows what. 

Here is where both of my horses settled down and paid attention to what the chestnut (outside of the photo) and the gray (you can still see her blue rump on the left) were doing: drinking water. I swear the two mares showed my girls where the creek was and how to get to it. I got goosebumps while watching. It is so freaking cool to watch these creatures that don't speak communicate with one another.

The gray came back up the bank and waited for the chestnut. Note that my two had walked up closer to the edge of the creek here. The three mares just looked at one another quietly while the chestnut finished.

The chestnut came back up the bank and the four horses took off running together.

And that is the story of how Lily and Gracie got welcomed into the herd.
Herd dynamics and animal behavior in general never cease to blow my mind.

We returned the next day in the afternoon (yesterday!): it was 79 degrees outside and you bet I was taking advantage of that!

We pulled Gracie out of the field and I tacked her up with just her bridle and the bareback pad. I then took her to the enormous outdoor next to the main barn.

View of the snow-covered outdoor on a different day. It didn't fit in the cell lens all at once.
Yes, it has stadium lights. This used to be a formal training facility; BM's husband is a Western horse trainer but is now focusing on his main career as a civil engineer and trains off-site instead, which allowed them to open the facility to boarders. Y'all should see the round pen behind the barn! I noticed it for the first time during this ride. Eventually I'll get proper pics and give you guys a virtual tour. :)

This photo might give you an idea of the arena size.
This is zoomed in, btw: I was riding in the middle of the arena when Carlos took the photo. The footing is stone dust, which Gracie approved of. Her main reason for hating arenas is because she has a hard time with deep footing given her arthritis. She didn't mind the footing out here at all. We had a lovely, lovely ride!


Every gait, every circle, every shoulder-in and haunches-in was perfect.

Her canter made me swoon. It was beautiful: uphill, relaxed, rhythmic.

And yes, of course I rode in shorts. :D

This one is in the photo collage above, but it's just such a perfect example of a relaxed, uphill rack that I have to feature it by itself.

I rode her for exactly 30 minutes timed: it was quite hot out for the horses and she still has her full winter coat. I didn't want to overdo it, and that was still enough to get her quite lathered up around her chest and face. She was hosed down in the cool shade of the wash stall with warmish water (yup, this barn also has both of those things. G-Mare is a princess and hates cold water, even when she's hot). She was then tied at the hitching post by her field to dry off while I fetched Lily and groomed her. Lily had mud encrusted even between her ears! I was tempted to just bathe her but I knew she was just going to roll in the mud immediately again once we put them back out in the field, so she just got a thorough currying and brushing. She looked like a dark bay again instead of some weird tan-spotted snowflake Appaloosa. No pics taken of Lily's before and after grooming, so you'll just have to believe me.  ;)

And that's it on the equine front for now.