PONY HAS ARRIVED!!!!

On a dark and stormy night a large rig pulled up to my house around 9pm.  It was filled with ponies neighing away but there was only one on there my heart pounded with anticipation to see.

With snorts and wide eyes my girl came off the ramp.  The driver was happy to be rid of her since she had been a pain the entire trip.  They had to put her in a large stall and separate from the others.  Yes, she doesn't travel well but she's a good horse but he'll never know that.  He was happy to hand her off to me and be on his way.

The barn yard was muddy from rain for the past day and half.  Dani was full of neighs as she called out to horses up across the little valley from her.  She ate some beet pulp, hay and drank some water.  She wasn't in bad shape at all so I was pleased.  

The next morning she ate her supplement and still nibble on hay and bits of grass.  The mud seemed worse with equine pock holes throughout.  Dani moved in and out of the shelter, unsure of what to do.  She seemed less nervous and stressed this morning which is good.  She'll settle in.

And though it's yucky outside it's nice to have a view with a pony from my back windows!

Prepping the Barn for My Girl

Like the rest of the house...I'll get to that...the barn was very spidery and had several wasp nests that needed eradicating.  I started in the feed room with a broom and a long stick.  I sprayed the perimeter with Home Defense though I know I'm just going to have to keep on top of the spiders and other critters.

A good once over sure made a difference.  Then I picked up some free pallets and got those set in the room.

The back area needed some work on the uneven "stepping blocks" that were there.  In ten minutes I was able to make them relatively flat.  There we go, we're getting somewhere!

I started on the tack room next, I was happy that two saddle racks and a couple bridle holders were left along with several blanket racks.  After sweeping and despidering a little bit I rearranged some of the bridle racks and began moving my supplies into the room.  The tack room in my trailer became empty really fast!  I still want to move things around and get it all organized but at least it's all there an accessible.

Next I cleaned the aisle which had a layer of old hay or straw.  Some was pretty icky so I wanted to get that up and neat.  It uncovered some areas that need to be filled in with road bed or some similar type material that will compact down.  The barn yard also had a ton of hay.  I probably carted about 5-6 wheel barrow loads of old gross hay.  The plan will be to eventually grade this area and make it have better drainage with some type of rock that I've seen many use for high traffic areas.

The stalls had old and urine soaked pine chips.  I removed all that, swept the mats and added a couple bags of fresh shavings to one stall in preparation for Dani's arrival.  She won't be stalled but at least will have a comfy place in the stall.  I may need to get some more shavings.  The stalls need some work with grading the surface to make it smooth and compact since there are many dips.  One stall is better than the other.  The mats seem in good condition so I'll just have to remove them, fill in the dips and compact the area then reapply the mats.

With a hay net filled and waiting for her I was done.  Now I just need my pony!!!

Traveling Across Country

Steve and I left my parents house on September 9th.  We didn't leave as early as we had hoped, it took longer to get the everything set and ready and then we had to capture the two cats.  Steve drove the truck with horse trailer with the two cats and hermit crabs.  I drove the civic with the two dogs and spider.

After being on the road for 20 minutes Steve called me over the 2 way radio and said it smelled like poop in the truck.  We stopped and checked out the kitties.  Poor little Stubs.  I took her in her carrier into the civic to be able to clean out the carrier.  At least it wasn't a total mess.  She clung to my lap as I used tissues to get the poop out.  I may have gotten a little pee on me but oh well, who am I trying to impress.  She went back into the carrier reluctantly.  I cleaned up and then we were on the road again.

We had to drive slower with the trailer but made decent time.  After a pit stop we continued on and then there was a stink call again on the 2 way.  We pulled into a rest stop and I took care of Stubs again.  She was shaking so I held her a bit after cleaning up a little poop in the carrier once more.  She buried her little face in my arms but then looked out the window a bit before I put her back in her carrier.

Later that day we had to stop into a Petco in Missouri to get some cat litter since Steve placed the little box in a precipitous location in the horse trailer so it fell and spilled litter the whole drive.  Then we got lost and took some back roads (that you Google Navigator) until we heard banjos....luckily we finally found the hotel around 10pm.  We didn't have good luck parking the trailer close to the room so it was a pain unloading what we needed and getting the critters settled.  It was a long first day.

I am happy to report that the next two days went much better and were a bit shorter.  I'm also glad that Stubs didn't have any more accidents though at times she just mewed incessantly at my poor husband.  We made it into Durham and then spent 3-4 days in a hotel there before the closing.  At least it gave us some time to relax a bit.  The dogs got into a huge fight though and Spencer was bandaged on his head like some WWII soldier.  I was so ready to get to the house.  At least we made it across country in one piece.  More to come!

Unpacking

The next few posts will be out of order but I guess the 2 year old will come out in me right now...."My blog, my way".  LOL.  We closed on our house in NC on September 15th.  It was just me at the closing since Steve had to be at work in Minneapolis and it was one of those rare times he couldn't work around it but that's fine.  We got a power of attorney and I signed my arm off.

His parents were awesome and came up to help me unload the two PODs and the horse trailer.  We moved most of the stuff into the garage.  Then we set up the bedrooms, living room and office to start.  I'm overwelmed with all the boxes!  

I mostly have the kitchen set up where I can use it which is nice.  The kitchen has fewer cabinets so I am struggling with where to put everything.  Since we didn't have time to donate or have a yard sale before moving we'll probably make several trips to Goodwill before we are fully moved into the house.

Yes this wasn't a pony post but I needed to get something out to let you know that me, hubby and the other critters are doing well.  I'll try to get this blog caught up with other home stuff and then of course once pony arrives it will be back to pony time!  I can't wait to have her here!

Headed to North Carolina!

FINALLY!!!!!

New muzzle

Dani was rubbing a hole in her grazing muzzle so I decided to buy a couple extras.  I decided to try one by Tough One with larger breathing holes.

I bought some snazzy little protectors too since she's rubbing the fur off one of her cheeks in a spot. 

Reflecto-pony!

Well it didn't take long before she learned how to scrape the halter off on the fence!  The thing doesn't use a snap but instead uses velcro and not much. This halter is not Dani proof.

So I then found little disk inserts you can get for a standard cribbing muzzle.  They worked pretty well with her regular muzzle and are much cheaper than buying a new one.  I may be able to figure out a way to make the Tough Ones harder to get off for my silly mare since I like the design and since I have them, might as well put them to use. 

For now at least she has a working halter though the disk captures yuck underneath it so you have to clean it more regularly.  We'll see what we can do once we get to North Carolina....headed out and officially moving next week!!!