Fall Trail Exploring

Having Quest closer to home has definitely been a welcome change. For the first time in years, I don't feel guilty when taking my time at the barn. Being able to spend a few extra minutes grooming and scratching mareface in her favorite itchy spots before tacking up for our rides has been so nice. Those little moments are definitely things that I missed about spending time with my horse. 

With each ride, we have been exploring more of our new home and mapped out a lot of trails made by the state this year. They have afforded us lovely fall views and some visual diversity. 

Someone randomly decided to plant some corn...

Fortunately the trails have also been entirely devoid of hunters, despite being entirely within the WMA. T had mentioned that though hunting is allowed in the area , the animals have moved a miles away where ample resources were better found and I'd have to agree- so far, we have run into just small songbirds and one dead deer carcass which probably died from old age. 

Always wearing our safety orange tack and vest.

We also did some road riding on our third adventure to check out a powerline trail that T told me about. While we did reach our goal, the terrain was thick with brush and rocky - I couldn't risk injury to either of us so I took a few photos to memorialize our powerline adventure and turned home for better footing. 

Also riding on the road was a little gnarly when the occasional driver chose to be dumb and reckless. Thankfully Quest was an absolute saint and we stayed safe the whole time. She's just so good <3 

Moved In

It's been quite a whirlwind of a weekend but the barn move went smooth and quick. 

A very good mareface <3

I took a day off work for the occasion and asked my parents to watch Baby C while I was away to take care of my fur baby. I hit the road early and got to the barn about an hour before T and her rig were scheduled to arrive. After grabbing mareface from her pasture, I loaded up my tack trunk and saddle into my car, and cleaned up my tack area. 

We were ready to go sooner than I thought so Quest got a prolonged grooming session while I cried over untangling the giant mat in her tail....

Ugh....so much work left to do.

Fortunately T arrived early and pulled up to the gate for us to load on. Her trailer was a 3-horse slant with step-up. It's been quite awhile since I did any trailer loading with Quest and the last time she got on a trailer was our last barn move but I led mareface over and without a single hesitation, she followed me right on. Good mare! 

 T was super impressed, "Wow, that took like 2 seconds! You want to trade me your horse???" I grinned. T had been prepared for a lengthly trailer loading session and even brought cookies just in case bribery was needed. Quest still got two cookies for being the best girl. 

We pulled out of the barn less than 10 minutes after T arrived and hit the road to her farm. T was a great and conscientious driver which I (and Quest definitely) appreciated. We made good time with little traffic and soon pulled up to the barn. To my immense relief, Quest was barely sweating from the trip and she backed off the trailer perfectly without a fuss. Mareface was definitely on alert but she didn't do anything bad, just very aware of everything going on. 

While the barnhelp  finished getting her stall ready, I led Quest around her paddock and pasture for a tour, showing her the fence perimeter and her water trough. By the end of the tour, she was totally chilled out and ready to relax. I took off her halter and soon enough, she found her spot and went for a nice big roll. T let her other horses out of their stalls and the herd said hello to Quest over the fence. There was some posturing from Lady, T's main riding horse, but after Quest quickly showed her she didn't bide by that, all was well and everyone got along. 

The first stall with the open doors and the connecting paddock AND back pasture are all for Quest. 

 

I stuck around for about an hour or so to keep an eye on things and move some of my tack in. Seeing how things were going super well, I decided to chance a quick bareback ride in Quest's pasture right before I headed home. She totally didn't care and plodded along happily. T kept me posted on how Quest did that evening, and it sounds like she absolutely loves my horse (which is a very good thing!) 

The next day, I went back out to the barn in the afternoon with my treeless saddle and we did a trail ride in full tack. Mareface was definitely excited to be out but she settled down quick and we got in a lovely 4 miles in one hour. All done at her ground eating walking march - we didn't do any trot or canter since it was our first time out exploring the WMA trails. Looking forward to doing more rides though! 

I've so missed the view behind her sunset kissed ears <3