Free Time

The horses have been at their new home for two full weeks now. They have adjusted well and are loving it out there! They are still on the grass round bale, but most times when I arrive they are grazing in the lower part of their pasture. Spring has arrived now and we are enjoying temps in the high 50's to 60's :) We have managed to go on two short trail rides! To say the girls (Pixie and Willow) were great wouldn't be accurate, but they weren't horrible either. Pixie was a bit better than Willow on yesterdays ride. But since we hadn't ridden in a week, they have only been out one other time, and the wind was steady at 20 to 30 mph with gusts into the 40 mph range we had the cards stacked against us! All in all it wasn't bad we just had to stop more than once to focus and I had to dismount to cross the big bridge cause the river was rushing underneath so neither of them wanted to cross first, lol. We ended on a good note so that is what matters. I hope today's ride will be a bit more relaxing, they aren't forecasting high wind again so that should help.

Back to the title of this post...the horses have settled in nicely, but I am still having adjustment issues. I have way more time on my hands then I used to. I now have no commitments in the wee morning hours and it still feels strange. I can handle not going out to the barn for up to three days in a row, but then I discover I get cranky if I even think I won't be out there on that 4th day!   We are spending an average of 5 hours out there on our days off and I try to make it out after work one or two days a week to spend about an hour with them. It really isn't that far at 40 miles away, but it has to be worth my time to drive out there. Our SUV does well with gas going out there, but driving my 3/4 ton truck out there is hard on the wallet.  It has been a relief to not have to worry about where the hay is coming from or when we have to go get it. And I look forward to not having to stack 5+tons in the summer heat. Although stacking hay did keep me in shape. I guess I will have to make sure I stay on top of things at the gym. (which I have not been as of lately). In a lot of ways I miss self care. I loved self care in the sense I was in control. I never had to worry about their care since we were the caretakers. Now I have the best of both worlds because I finally found a barn that is willing to do 24/7 feeding. They had a new round bale in the minute theirs ran out last week! One of the best parts is my barn grows all their own hay! So I never have to worry about a sudden diet change nor do we have to worry about the hay being bad.  And with that I am off to go see the horses. Today we are getting Char out again to go on a walk to the river.