Settling In
This past Sunday, Irish, our new “baby” moved to the farm in Archer. One of my friend, Kaite’s students, Dawn was kind enough to help us out – she has a truck and trailer. We got him settled in his stall pretty quickly and while we continued with moving all of his stuff in – food, blankets, shipping boots, bridles, halters, etc. – the other horses came up to the fence to greet him and introduce themselves. Damien, especially seemed to take a liking to him, as he stood by the fence for quite awhile keeping Irish company.
Now, Irish doesn’t really have much of a winter coat so he has to be blanketed this time of year to keep warm. Andy and I don’t blanket our horses – in fact, I’ve not ever blanketed my horses so I had no idea how the blanket went on – how hard could it be, right? Well, there’s all these little hooks and straps here and there and bless his heart, Irish was so patient while I walked around him a million times trying different things out. At one point I could have sworn I heard him say “Do you know what you’re doing?” To which I responded “No, Irish, I don’t know what I’m doing.” And he just stood and let me figure it out….until I gave up and called Kaite. I felt kind of silly b/c how hard could it be. But when I’m trying to do something I’ve not done before, it’s a challenge. At any rate, Kaite helped me figure it out and I went back out and fixed his blanket.
After I went inside last night, I was a worrying mom – thinking, “is he warm enough?” – “does he like it here?” – “is he going to be okay out there tonight in a new space with new noises?” – forgetting that he IS a horse and that he doesn’t need too much worrying over – especially since God was watching over him all night – and sure enough, come morning, he was just fine – even whinnied at me for his breakfast when I walked out the door.
I decided I’d work from home today just to keep an eye on Irish for a little longer and sure enough – he’s still just fine…. he was fine all day. I heard him a few times whinnying at the other horses.
He seems to like it here on the farm even though he’s on stall rest for a bit longer to heal his leg. You can see the longing and excitement in his eyes to go out with his new found friends to run and play. And at the same time, he’s quite relaxed in his new digs – settling in as if he’s been here all along. He even seems to like our dog, Dakota, though Dakota isn’t quite sure what to make of such a big horse.
I will be continuing to post more photos and will be writing Irish’s full story on his page soon.