Adjusting

Where is Sully?!

Over the past few days, Dino and I have both been adjusting to our new home. I absolutely LOVE that the barn is 1 mile from my house, and I can pop over there whenever I want to see my pony. On nice days when I have the time, I think I'll run there instead of driving!

Yesterday after work we had our first solo ride at the new farm. My only goal for the day was to end the session with a pony who was relaxed, confident, and listening, and was prepared to take as long as he needed to do that.

In contrast to the extreme anxiety about standing in his stall that Dino displayed on Sunday afternoon, he was MUCH more relaxed about it yesterday and was able to be confined and eat some hay without having a total freakout. Progress! Of course he was a complete and total mud ball, so I had to spend a lot of time grooming, but I'm happy he's also relaxed enough to lay down and roll!

Learning to love his new space

Since we had some heavy rain earlier and the dedicated "arena" field had just been seeded, I decided to go on a nice walk around the perimeter of the parcel where the barn and the house are, do some hill work, and check out the corn field to the rear of the turnout pastures.

Ready to roll!

I had to spend some extra time at the mounting block getting Dino to focus and stand still, but he stood like a rock after a few minutes. As we headed down the hill towards the corn field, I sang silly songs to keep both of us calm - I admit that I was a little bit nervous, too! Every once in a while Dino would stop and crane his neck to see where Sully and the donkeys were, and I'd let him look for a minute before proceeding.

Good Boy Dino

We got down to the corn field, did some on-the-bit walk work, and then walked back up the hill. By this time both of us were definitely more relaxed! Down the hill again, this time with a confident swagger. Dino was settling into the ride really nicely, and was less and less concerned with where everyone else was the longer we rode. We ended with a great trot up the long, steep hill and called it a day. It was a very successful first outing all by ourselves!

It's a bit damp out...

Today I was planning on riding at 7am before work since the rest of my day is going to be super busy, but the weather was not on my side! Very rainy, very wet, and Dino was very soggy. So instead I threw both ponies a flake of hay to munch on and just hung out and watched them. Dino is very aware of where Sully is at all times, and is actually very submissive to him. It's a little weird seeing my pony at the bottom of the totem pole! Thankfully Sully isn't mean at ALL, and just moves Dino with a "look" instead of outright chasing him. Dino was meandering in and out of both stalls to snack, so I was really pleased with that. He even touched noses with Mabel the donkey!! I hope that after the first week at the new barn is in the books he will be much more comfortable in his new home.