On the road again ...

Daughter settled and happy at college, check.
Horses moved and happy at new barn; check. Well, kind of.

Got them moved with no incident; in fact they were model ponies loading, riding, and unloading. Except that Dude made a teeny tiny misstep backing out of the trailer and somehow stepped on himself and yanked his shoe mostly off. So the barn manager very helpfully pulled it all the way off so that he wouldn't make an awkward, embarrassing shoe-dragging entry into the new place. And the good news is that our farrier is coming to the new place in two days to do another horse so he'll be able to tack the shoe back on. I need to remember to give him a call tomorrow with an alert.

Got them both situated in their stalls directly across from each other. I decided that was best, since I thought they'd settle in more calmly if they could see each other. And they did. Then, in consultation with the barn owner and manager, I decided to turn them out and see if they would get adjusted to new fields and field buddies while I was hanging around, rather than waiting until tomorrow when I'd be at work.

Grazed Dude for a bit before taking him out to the field. Bestie whinnied (she was still in the barn) and he would answer her in a tone of consternation. Then he spotted turkeys across the road. At least I think that's what he was looking at. I couldn't really tell if it was the turkeys or the black and white paint that was staring fixedly at Dude from a corner of a paddock. I thought maybe Dude thought the paint was a dreaded cow. I mean, who really knows what he thinks? Whatever the problem was, we had a few minutes of him snorting and running around me in circles, then he settled down. When I finally walked him down and put him in a field it was kind of anticlimactic; he strolled around, rolled, then positioned himself at the fence and watched the mares next door.

When I brought Bestie out she was really good. She went into the field quietly. Once I unclipped her she started trotting around with her tail in the air. Two of the mares pretty much ignored her, but Molly, a little Morgan with BIG attitude, was determined to show Bestie who's in charge. They finally reached detente with no mishaps and just a few isolated squeals whenever one would cross the other's line of vision. Dude would get very agitated whenever the mares would squeal. "No conflict, girls, let's all settle down and just be friends," seemed to be his line. Once the mares quieted, he parked himself in the corner up by the gate and alternately dozed and watched Bestie graze her way around the field.

I brought them in just ahead of the other horses at turn-in time, and that set up a whole new thing to get used to: horsey neighbors peering at them throught the wire mesh at the top of the stalls. Bestie wasn't too bad, but Dude absolutely could not settle down with his neighbor, for some reason. He'd grab a mouthful of hay and then snort and stomp around to glare threateningly at the perfectly nice mare next door. I picked out his feet and did the same for Bestie. On my way out I thought, what the heck, I'll put some Mellow Out in their water buckets. I'm trying to be patient and remember back to when we moved to Fairfax and EVERYTHING was scary for a few days. I hope that once Dude ate tonight he simmered down out of pure exhaustion ... lots of new experiences, and two turnouts in one day! No calls from the barn (yet) that he's driving anyone crazy!