Tuesday was the day. We moved. It's worse than moving house ! Until you collect all the horse paraphernalia in one place you don't realise how much you have. Rugs, stable mats (that needed scrubbing), feed bowls, feed, tack, toys (ball, tarp, cones etc) all have to be collected and loaded in the trailer. Then at the other end comes the task of deciding exactly where each piece has to go. And, with Ritchie directing operations, I do mean exactly where it has to go ;-) !!
We were very fortunate that ours friends Gary and Helen, who own Dodger, offered to help. Without them it would have been hard to get it all done in a day. The stable at Shana had to be cleared out and dusted to at least start with a nice clean environment for Bonitao to stamp his mark and smells on. This took some time as did the laying of our stable mats. They had been cut to fit the box at Manor farm and as a result they were in two different sizes. Jigsaw puzzle without knowing the final picture is a good analogy.
Finally everything was installed and all we were missing was Bonitao. Back to Manor Farm with the trailer to collect him. Trailer loading has always been a bit of a drama with him, but we had had the foresight to load him on Monday, let him stand in the trailer for around an hour then fed him his dinner. Thus the trailer became a haven of safety and, more importantly for Bonitao, food.
The result is that for the move it only took around 10 minutes to load him with no coercion, sticking rigidly to the principles that had meant I had never been allowed to take Filly to James Roberts. At Shana we are allowed to take the trailer into the indoor school to continue his training, so I hope we will soon be loading him at Liberty.
The drive was entirely uneventful, with Ritchie following, acting like a worried mother hen in the car behind. On arriving at Shana we did the most important thing we could do on arriving with a horse at a strange yard, made tea. This gave Bonitao time to settle in the now static trailer and be fed there again. Thus his last impression of the trailer was not one of a shaking, rattling metal cave on wheels, but yet again as a source of comfort and food.
We let him inspect the yard as he pleased after disembarking the trailer and then settled him into his new stable. He is next door to a pretty ex polo pony mare and the stable has a grill between them so they can see each other. True to form he totally ignored her and went to his hay net to start eating again.
There is more to tell, but Ritchie has a lesson at Shana in an hour which I am keen to watch.
Suffice to say the move went physically very well, but emotionally it was a wrench to leave our friends at Manor Farm. I think both Ritchie and I shed a few tears at the parting (though as a man I would never let it show of course). I would particularly like to mention Amy (the head girl), Perry and Wendy. Thanks for all the help and look forward to seeing you all socially in the future.
We were very fortunate that ours friends Gary and Helen, who own Dodger, offered to help. Without them it would have been hard to get it all done in a day. The stable at Shana had to be cleared out and dusted to at least start with a nice clean environment for Bonitao to stamp his mark and smells on. This took some time as did the laying of our stable mats. They had been cut to fit the box at Manor farm and as a result they were in two different sizes. Jigsaw puzzle without knowing the final picture is a good analogy.
Finally everything was installed and all we were missing was Bonitao. Back to Manor Farm with the trailer to collect him. Trailer loading has always been a bit of a drama with him, but we had had the foresight to load him on Monday, let him stand in the trailer for around an hour then fed him his dinner. Thus the trailer became a haven of safety and, more importantly for Bonitao, food.
The result is that for the move it only took around 10 minutes to load him with no coercion, sticking rigidly to the principles that had meant I had never been allowed to take Filly to James Roberts. At Shana we are allowed to take the trailer into the indoor school to continue his training, so I hope we will soon be loading him at Liberty.
The drive was entirely uneventful, with Ritchie following, acting like a worried mother hen in the car behind. On arriving at Shana we did the most important thing we could do on arriving with a horse at a strange yard, made tea. This gave Bonitao time to settle in the now static trailer and be fed there again. Thus his last impression of the trailer was not one of a shaking, rattling metal cave on wheels, but yet again as a source of comfort and food.
We let him inspect the yard as he pleased after disembarking the trailer and then settled him into his new stable. He is next door to a pretty ex polo pony mare and the stable has a grill between them so they can see each other. True to form he totally ignored her and went to his hay net to start eating again.
There is more to tell, but Ritchie has a lesson at Shana in an hour which I am keen to watch.
Suffice to say the move went physically very well, but emotionally it was a wrench to leave our friends at Manor Farm. I think both Ritchie and I shed a few tears at the parting (though as a man I would never let it show of course). I would particularly like to mention Amy (the head girl), Perry and Wendy. Thanks for all the help and look forward to seeing you all socially in the future.
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