New Places, New Faces

November 20, 2012 AmandaLeave a comment

I moved Tristan up to Vermont on Sunday, quite uneventfully. We got a bit of a later start from Flatlands for the best of all possible reasons – visiting Lindsey Epstein Pottery’s new storefront and eating cookies thanks to an incredibly thoughtful send-off – and arrived at the barn after dark. Tris was a little snorty but settled down great and ate hay and then grain quite happily.

His stall in his new barn is smaller than at Flatlands, and that first night he did a lot of circling around to try to get anywhere new in the stall, but by the time I visited him again Monday night he had figured out the dimensions and how he could back up and turn around without circling and pacing.

He went out a half-day his first day, and should be going out a full day today; the barn typically does half-day turnout but will just be swapping his pastures so he can stay out the full day. Stupidly, I pulled his foot wrapping on the first day thinking “the ground is frozen solid up here, there’s no mud to get into it!” and then realized a) it softens during the day and b) he has had that sole covered for 3+ months now. I’m not as worried about the sole – he’ll have to toughen it up again sometime – but tonight I am going to do a thorough flush of the holes and then see if a bit of duct tape across the holes will cover the adequately.

Speaking of the holes in his foot, everyone up here is duly impressed. They’ve grown down nicely, and there’s a good 1.5″ of hoof above the holes back to the coronet band. It is not perfect hoof – there is a small bulge still – but it is solid and growing. Now, just to keep it going.

My biggest concern right now is that though I asked the farrier to re-shoe him before leaving, he apparently did not do so, and his toes are getting fairly long, which means the crack in the RF has re-appeared and overall the shape of the foot is not good. The barn manager will be letting me know when their farrier is next due to come out; it may be that we can get him out soon after Thanksgiving, which would be ideal to get a consultation, put a pad back on that RF to help the sole, and trim all around. I’m going to pitch the idea of pulling his shoes for the winter – we’ll see.

That should sum it up. I am LOVING having him only 20 minutes away from home, and only 10 minutes from one of the museums I work at. I have checked on him twice a day without any difficulty, and it will be heavenly to get home at a reasonable hour after work.

Changes

October 31, 2012 AmandaLeave a comment

Last night was my last night at the barn, and stupid Sandy ruined it.

There was no power, hence no lessons, hence hardly anyone around. I saw and said goodbye to a few people, but am missing many more. I had to pack all Tristan’s things in the dark, consolidating everything and making sure his foot wrapping supplies were handy, packing all my saddle pads away. I wanted both to keep clutter out of the barn aisle in my absence (not that I am ever messy, but sometimes things fell off my trunk, and I wanted to avoid that) and to make sure that everything was snug and secure so that when I return to pick him up, I’ll just be able to hitch and go with a minimum of fuss.

It took about an hour and a half, all told; it would’ve been less if I hadn’t had to keep picking up and putting down a flashlight to check on zippers and comb the floor for anything I might’ve dropped. It was also pouring rain, such that it made every trip from trailer to barn to car a misery. Figures. I battened down the trailer, closing all the windows tight, making sure nothing was leaking and everything was packed in a tupperware or trunk.

Finally, I put my flashlight in my pocket, grabbed a brush, and groomed Tristan in the pitch dark. I’m not sure I could have done that with just any horse, but I kept one hand on him and one hand on the brush, and talked or sang softly to let him know I was still there. I ran my hands over every bit of him, the swoop of his withers, the scar on his left hind, the bit where his mane falls on both sides of his neck. He paused eating his hay every so often and stood quietly and tucked his head in toward me, letting me trace his blaze and kiss the softness of his nose and fuss with his ears the way I used to when I was teaching him not to be head shy.

Then I gave him some peppermints in his feed pan, and latched the door, and sobbed for the first 15 minutes of my drive home, great big wracking sobs that hurt my throat and that I just couldn’t stop. Leaving good places is never easy, no matter how good the next step will be.

moving to vermont

Vermont or bust!

October 12, 2012 AmandaLeave a comment

So I can finally announce my exciting news: Tristan and I are moving back to Vermont!

I’ve been saying for years now that my life goal is to move back to Vermont and buy a horse farm, and now I have half of that goal accomplished. I’ve accepted a new job with a history organization up there, and my last day in the Boston area will be November 2.

I’ll be going up next weekend to find a barn for Tris, but our tentative plan is to put him out to pasture for the winter, let the foot grow out, and then re-condition with lots and lots of trail riding in time to get back in action for the spring.

The good news for me is that board will be significantly less expensive in Vermont, so I may finally be able to start to rebuild the finances that have been wrecked by this summer’s vet bills!