The Big Move

 The Big Move

It has been a time of many changes.  First of all, the mechanic who was supposed to fix my leaky gas tank on my 13-year-old car refused.  He said there was so much rust underneath that the car was not safe to drive.  They had trouble just getting it on the lift to take a look at it.  It was time to get a new car.

I spent a few weeks shopping for it, and ended up with a 2019 Chevy Cruze.  I have to confess, though the car looks nice, drives nice and fits into my budget, part of the reason I picked it was its name.  Yes, I chose a Cruze because of my dear horse, Cruiser.  The car is even red, and Cruiser was a chestnut.  I plan to put Cruiser's name sign in the car.  Of course, no car can be to me what Cruiser was to me, but I can smile every time I think of the name.

Once that was out of the way, it was time to focus on the big move.  We had to move our horses to a new boarding stables at the end of the month.  Since we were at the old stable for nearly 20 years, that meant going though a lot of accumulated junk; throwing out and consolidating things and deciding what to bring to the new place.  We would have less space to store it there, but that isn't such a bad thing.  Most of what I had I didn't need to keep at the barn.  It's just that when you have had 3 horse with all their various medical issues and training projects over 20 years--it just means there is a lot of accumulation.  Ellen had the same problem because she had 2 horses.  Kevin had no such excuse.

Moving day finally arrived.  We were out early for our morning ride with Shari.  Unfortunately, we couldn't cross the river because it was too high.  Ellen, Shari and I rode up and down the hill three times.

We had a lot of time when we got back to the barn because we didn't want to move them until they ate their lunch, so Ellen and I went for a walk in the park and then a quick bite to eat at Burger King.  When we got back, we cleaned out their stalls and packed up our cars.  The horses all knew there was something up.  We then got Kevin and walked them over to the new place.

It is only 4 doors down the street, so that wasn't a big deal.  The guys led well.  Their stalls were ready with some hay for them to munch on, and we worked out all the details with the owner.

We took Cole for a walk to look around.  He was very alert and didn't even try to do any tricks.  I let him out to play; where he had a good roll in the mud.  He did spook at the fountain in the pond, and then he got scared to step on a rubber aisle mat on the way back to his stall.  That was easy to coax him onto--I just had Ellen walk on it first and he was happy to follow her.

Ellen decided not to take Dante out.  Kevin was still at the old barn cleaning out his old stall when we left.

Later that evening, Kevin and I went to check on them.  I thought Cole would be the most worried about the move, followed by Dante and Starry would do the best.  Starry is such a laid-back horse--and Dante, too.  Cole is the excitable. energetic one.

I was so wrong.  Dante was very relaxed.  Cole was a little excited, but after we walked around in the indoor arena, he settled down nicely.  He started doing all his tricks--and that was a terrific indicator of his mood.  He was talkative when I put him back in his stall and didn't stay with him, but that is how he always is.  He likes his people with him all the time.

Starry was a big-time wreck.  Even though this was hours after we moved him, she was still neighing, circling the stall and pawing incessantly.  Kevin did lead him around in the inside arena for quite a while, and he did much better, but as soon as he got back in his stall, he would start up, again.  We were really worried.  It didn't help that Starry kept hearing Cole calling out.

The barn owner was keeping an eye on him and said she would check him later and call if there was a problem.

I believe that Starry was upset because he was away from his friends.  He was acting much like Mingo did when I weaned him from his mother.

We never did get the phone call, so we just had to wait and see him the following morning.

We did have one more big change that day--the clocks changed and we gained an hour to sleep, but none of us slept well.