Bittersweet

After a weekend of driving up and back from Georgia, I stopped by the barn on Sunday to clean the pony up for her move back to my trainer, only to discover she did what all horses do when put out in wet conditions and pulled her left front shoe.  This is a horse that has only pulled one shoe in the 4 years she's been shod.  That time, she simply stepped out of it.  This time, she twisted it and actually took a piece of her hoof with it.  A small piece, but a piece all the same.  Luckily enough, the barn manager was able to locate the shoe (right next to the hay spot in the field) with nails and hoof piece intact.  I contacted my farrier, who was able to fit in a swing by the farm midday on Monday.  By 12:30, she was fixed up and good to go.

The bittersweet part of this is the move.  This whole move to the farm by myself was kind of to prove that I have the tools and ability to take care of Violet on my own.  Well, not totally on my own, since she is still boarded, but at least be able to keep her going without the constant oversight of my trainer.  While I have the tools and ability now, I do not have control over the weather and the footing at the farm.  Now it's been 5 weeks that Violet has basically been out of work, with the exception of once or twice a week lunging and 2 pretty bad rides.  With my impending surgery, it just makes sense to get her somewhere that she will get legged back up and her skin issues taken care of.  And it won't hurt that she'll get clipped while she's there.  And I can reclaim all the blankets that are hers that the trainer has in her stuff.

So Sunday I didn't bathe her the way I had planned.  She wasn't too dirty, and I figured it might make her skin worse.  I got the text that she was on her way, got out of work early and drove to the farm.  I got there about 5 minutes before the trainer did, just long enough to put on her shipping boots, but not long enough to get a picture, or to give her a quick brushing.  The trainer came it, we grabbed the box of tack, SmartPaks, Sweet Alyssa half pad and her fly gear and loaded it in the trailer.  She grabbed Violet's slow feed hay net (which she HATES, but keeps her from looking like a Thelwell pony) and I grabbed Herself.  Violet knows what the shipping boots mean, and when she saw her favorite 3 horse slant load, she was beside herself, prancing a bit while I asked her to wait for the hay bag to go in.  She basically loaded herself, with a smile on her face.

And off she goes.  I later got the following text "She arrived safe, happy, and already has Charlie nickering for her."  She is happy to be where she can be properly appreciated.  She has long been held as the prettiest in the barn by people, but certain horses in the trainer's barn have treated her this way all along, as opposed to those at the current barn, lol.  So now, I'm down to one lesson on Saturday.  But here's to a happy, healthy pony, and the ability to go on walks around the cross country field to warm up and cool down.  I have missed that.