When I pulled into the barn yesterday morning, I could see Izzy whooping it up by himself. The sun hadn't yet cleared the tree tops, and the air was just slightly cooler than it had been making it a good day for goofing off. He was bucking and gallivanting around his paddock in what seemed like a happy-to-be-alive dance. I rolled my eyes in exasperation of course because I had assumed he'd be tired after his long drive from the day before.
Apparently not.
Apparently not.
All that room, but he's squished into the corner!
I had already planned to give him the day off, especially after being stuck in the trailer for five hours the day before. Giving him a day off at my previous barn always carried a bit of stress as I never knew what mischief he would cause in his boredom. At the ranch, I don't have to worry about it. He's got plenty of room to run around, and if he digs a hole or bangs on the fence, nobody cares. I left him to himself and met up with best friend and her mustang, Rio.
Speedy and Rio - both distracted by something that we couldn't see.
After our stroll around the neighborhood, we dropped Rio and his rider off at home, and Speedy and I walked back to the ranch. I let him graze on the grass and then I sat in the shade and gave my tack a good cleaning. The ranch was quiet except for the buzz of insects and the sounds of the horses munching their morning breakfast.
Speedy's row of stalls.
Izzy has an older stallion to his north and three horses immediately to his south. He is enjoying their company. I've already taken a small bucket of treats out to the horses in front of Izzy in an effort to get to know them and their routine. I've also been doling out cookies to the stallion who seems to really enjoy the extra attention.
He's hard to see, but the stallion is down in the shade visiting with Izzy. There is an alley between the two fences so they can't actually touch each other.
Speedy seems to have finally settled in as well, so he got turned out for the first time last night. The ranch owner will feed, and then open Speedy's paddock gate each night. In the mornings, his gate will be closed so that Willie can enjoy his day out. The horses will alternate at each meal time.
What horse wouldn't enjoy hanging out in the shade watching the river flow by?
I go back to work officially on Wednesday, but I'll have to go in on Monday or Tuesday to get things ready for my students. I already spent Monday afternoon setting my classroom back up after the summer clean-up. All of this means that my daily four-hour barn visits are over.
The view from Speedy's row of stalls. He now knows where my car should be.
When I get to the barn now, it's going to be hot, really hot, and our summer heat lasts until Halloween. While it's not quite as hot in October, we always have several days over 100 degrees. By November, our temperatures are more tolerable. That means that I have 10 weeks of hot afternoon riding in front of me.
North of the stallion is Archie and his gal in their equally large paddock with attached grass pasture. Just beyond them is the arena.
Both horses have today off as we're driving over to the beach for the day with the dogs. It is such a relief to know that Speedy will have had twelve hours of turn out and Izzy can run off his energy any moment that he'd like. I'll still be at the barn every day, but now I won't have to spend my time waiting for horses to finish their 20 or 30 minutes of turn out.
I think we're all going to be a lot happier.
I think we're all going to be a lot happier.
