Horsey weekend

This weekend was a weekend full of horsey adventures!  It started with an early morning Friday so that I could finish my surgeries before my good old man Sam came down from the mountains.

Let me back up- Sam was one of my first horses as a kid- I started him from the ground up and was even the first person to ever ride him!  We had a great run of it but he kept coming up lame and we didn't feel it was fair to make him keep working with that many issues as a young 7 year old. He has since spent his retirement in the mountains with many acres to roam and cattle as buddies.  I have always felt guilt having such a sweet horse so far away from constant human interaction so I knew one day I wanted him closer to me.  When we bought this property we didn't originally want to fence it but after a few 8 hour mowing marathons Justin threw up his hands and said we need something to help!  In came fencing for 1.5 acres and the plan to bring Sam home! Since then it has been a waiting game with the wedding around the corner and work crazy.  I finally put my foot down after Thanksgiving and said we need to figure out how/what we are going to use for a shelter for the horses.  That is a whole other blog post but we built a BEAUTIFUL lean to shed for them in a little over a month.

The logistics of bringing Sam down looked grim but my dad has some wonderful friends up the mountain who offered to bring him up for us so we wouldn't have to worry with the weather. The forcast for Friday was great and they loaded him in a stock trailer with a heavy blanket and trekked down the mountain.  He came right off the trailer and went into his new home and started munching on grass- not bad for a guy who has been in the mountains for 15 years!  Since he seemed so content I decided to give him some time to settle in before Star came back home.

he had a rough life up there. What a wonderful view!

Saturday was another huge day for me and horses.  Rea- a 6 yo Trak. mare that I bought from my lovely neighbor was debuting at her and I's first show!  I had her since early November last year and made the purchase official in December! We had a rough start with a puncture wound directly over the hock but she is such a lovely mare with a great disposition.  The morning started out in all the wrong ways- the truck wouldn't start - it was a bit miffed at being left out the night before in the cold (26 deg).  Then the ball in the back of the truck wouldn't come up and then we finally got the trailer pulled out and realized the registration sticker was 2 years old.....we almost threw up our hands at that point and scratched but Dad came to the rescue! From there it was smooth sailing the girls loaded beautifully and Rea acted at TTC as if she had been there multiple times before. Our tests were a little tense but she had a fabulous warm-up.  We walked away with a 73 in Intro A and a 70 in Intro B.  I am beyond proud of what we have been able to accomplish in this short time even with injuries, crappy weather, and crazy work schedules.  The next show planned is in March and is a hunter show where we plan on jumping :)

Running around in their new home :)

Sunday morning started by hooking up my tag along trailer and going to check on Rea and Ace and bring my old man home.  The girls were happy and ready to go out for the day- appreciating their day off. Start jumped right into the trailer and when I brought him to the new pasture he ran around like a spring chicken. Poor Sam was trying his hardest to keep up.  It was wonderful to go out yesterday and give them both kisses and carrots before bed.  What a wonderful life!  The Gooch Farm is coming right along :)