Today we moved another group of horses to the new farm. Of course I had been checking the weather forecast every 10 seconds for the last few days trying to make sure we were prepared appropriately for whatever weather might present itself. Well, every 10 seconds we seemed to have a different forecast. 70% chance of rain and a high of only 40 degrees (just under 5 Celsius for our Canadian friends). Then it was 50% chance of rain and a high of about 45 degrees (7C). Then it was a 30% chance of rain and a high of 52 (11C). And ’round and ’round the weather forecast went.
Needless to say the constant changing of both the predicted temperature and the potential chances of rain were driving me crazy. I finally decided to put rainsheets on the horses just in case it was cool and rainy. I always say that I don’t try to anthropomorphise but talk about a classic example of just that! My whole reasoning was if it was wet and a bit cool I didn’t want the horses to get chilled on the trailer. I think everyone was making fun of me for that line of reasoning. Thankfully the only rain we had today was a couple of periods of sprinkles.
We have this process down to a science now. The semi pulls up, several of us are standing there holding all of the horses waiting on the semi to pull up. We wait a few more minutes while the doors are opened, the ramp is set up and all is readied to start loading horses. We had the horses loaded, the ramp up, the doors closed and were ready to hit the road in about 15 minutes.
Once again the horses could not have been more cooperative. Every single one of them just walked on the trailer without a moment’s hesitation even though most of them have not been on a trailer in a few years. A short trailer ride later they pulled into the new farm.
The Big Boys went on high alert when they saw the trailer pulling into the driveway. They watched us unloading the horses and took everything in for a few minutes, and then they decided to put on a show as only the Big Boys can do. They were running so fast and having so much fun I could hardly keep them in the viewfinder of the camera!
The Big Boys having a good gallop. I was disappointed when I watched this video, it was much more fun to watch in person! It looks more like a good canter than a good gallop on the video. They were going so fast it was hard to keep them in the frame and get a decent shot of them. The Boys know how to have fun!
Unloading of course went even faster than loading and within a few short minutes everyone was settled into their new pasture. We beat our record of an hour and 20 minutes to get the trailer ready, get the horses loaded, close everything up, drive to the new farm, open everything back up and load the horses. Today we accomplished this in just over an hour. I’m not ashamed to say that I was pretty impressed with this!
The newcomers did a bit of running around for a few minutes before returning to the regularly scheduled program of eating, rolling and napping. They shared a fence line with the big boys so they all know each other already.
Lucky, Lightening, Snappy, Noble, Slinky, O’Reilly and Spike checking out their new pastureAnd a picture tutorial of the move follows below. Back with more fun pictures and videos from the retirement farm in a couple of days!
O’Reilly was the first horse on the trailer (that is Spike’s nose on the right!)
Noble walking the runway
Lightening and Snappy waiting their turns
Slinky backing into his stall
“Back in the day” Snappy travelled around the world competing at the four star level in eventing with famous New Zealand eventer Mark Todd. Today’s trip was a walk in the park for him.
Teddy, Snappy, Lucky and Slinky hanging out on the trailer
And they’re off!
A short trailer ride later they pulled into the new farm
The Big Boys became very alert as the trailer rolled down the driveway; Homer and Tony watching
Hemi and Thomas were watching as well
After a few minutes we settled into the usual routine of eating and rolling; O’Reilly, Spike, Lucky and Slinky
Noble rolling with Spike, Snappy and Lucky looking around
Teddy in the front checking things out along with Spike, Snappy, Lucky and O’Reilly
Noble finally finished rolling and then said “wait for me guys!”
Grand saying hello to Snappy and Spike (the conversation went something like “hey, I already know you!”)
Noble, O’Reilly, Spike and Snappy eating hay