tales of a barn sale, and ponies in my driveway

This has been a highly stressful week for me. I heard through the grapevine about two weeks ago that my barn had been sold. I was really taken aback by it because I hadn't heard anything about it directly from my BO, but I decided to let it play out and see what happened. I wasn't too worried about it.

Then last week my BO told me they had received an offer on the farm but it still had to go through inspections and all sorts of preliminary paperwork, and she didn't seem too confident in the whole thing. This made me feel even less worried about the sale.

Then a fellow boarder told me early this week that the farm had passed inspection, but I never heard anything from the owners about it. I completely freaked out because there was absolutely no communication about anything, and I decided to plan for the worst (being kicked out by the new owners) and I immediately started searching for a new barn.

Then the new owner was suddenly at the barn this weekend, moving her horses and belongings in. None of the boarders had any head's up that this was going to happen, so we were all very surprised. Thankfully the new owner seems really nice and was happy to communicate with all of us as to what was going on. I feel a little bit better about the situation, mostly because I know I am not going to get kicked out on the first of next month, and I'll even be able to continue to work off my board as I have been doing. I am sure changes will occur and I will do my best to roll with it and see the positives in everything.

Of course all of this was compounded by a whole lot of nonsense at work, so between the barn and my job, I was feeling very overwhelmed this week.

Lucy has been doing ok. She has been so forward and absolutely nothing slows her down and she has been exhausting to ride. I've been riding her in her new bit and she certainly seems much happier in it, but it's still constant half halts/setting her up/enjoying a stride or maybe two/her falling apart/rushing/half halts/setting her up/on and on and on. The whole ride.

Here's a recent video:



I was feeling very disheartened last night but today, a friend came and picked Lucy up and we took Lucy and my friends horse RiRa to a near-by trail system. We actually parked the truck and trailer at my house, unloaded the horses, and walked to the end of my road, which connects to the trails. We had an absolute BLAST! I fell in love with my horse all over again. She was a superstar. She took her time getting on the trailer, BUT she wasn't naughty or belligerent at all; she just wanted to have a good look and a good sniff before getting on. It was a step-up trailer, too, and she's not very used to those. I ended up picking up one of her front feet and putting it on the trailer and then bribing her forward with a crinkly candy wrapper, and she walked right on!!

She was quiet for the ride over to my house (about ten minutes), unloaded great along with RiRa, was good to tack up, and was so brave and so happy out on the strange trails. She did have a good-sized spook twice, both times because dogs ran up around a corner and it was the sound of the leaves and the running dogs that got her, I think. Luckily I had my heels jammed down to China and I hung on!

Here are some photos:

happy ears! she is a totally different horse out on the trails.

Nicole and RiRa! RiRa is a QH/Belgian cross and he is
awesome.

after our ride, back in my driveway. my neighbours
weren't quite sure what to think of this!

pony love!