Duck's new barn

Here is my horse. She is the buckskin (or lighter colored one for those of you that don't know horse colors). For those of you that don't know, her name is "Duck." Yeah a horse named Duck. That is what happens when 3 year olds name horses (or any other animal for that matter.) This is also the reason I have a cat named "Cry Baby." But the name really does fit her horsenality, so Duck it is! PS this time it wasn't MY 3 year old that came up with the name! 

So Duck and I have technically only been together since we moved here from Illinois. She was owned by Jody, the owner of the barn in Illinois where I boarded my mustang Kira. Well Kira ended up going back to Utah and I ended up leasing Duck in March which was about 6 months before we left Illinois. Then when we moved Jody asked if I'd want to take her with me! YEAH! Love this horse, she is more like a Labrador Retriever than a horse. She is exactly opposite of my mustang which has made for a very interesting time so far. I don't do change well, so there has definitely been an adjustment period for me. I had Kira for almost 15 years prior to her going to her new home back in Utah. I guess it is akin to being married for that long and then getting remarried and having to learn everything new about the new spouse. Ok, so not THAT severe but you get the idea...

Oh and did I mention she is only 6 and still hasn't had tons of saddle time? She's pretty "green" by horse standards although she has a superb temperment and is very smart! So I know I still have my work cut out for me as far as my horsemanship and training goals are concerned.

So last Friday I moved Duck to to a new barn closer to our house. It is primarily a Hunter/Jumper barn.  She is in the "outer" barn which you can see a picture of above. This particular barn only has 4 stalls in it and the horses are turned out with 1-2 more horses when they aren't in their stall. Duck's new pasture mate's name is Kay and at first she was not happy to have Duck around. She kept chasing her off whenever Duck would get within 20 feet of her! But by Saturday (less than 24 hours later) they are best buddies, with both horses neighing for each other when the other was gone. Ahh, how quickly they make friends in new places. I wish it were that easy for me!

I am working at this new barn every 3rd weekend to help with board costs so now I am back into taking care of horses for other people again. This barn is HUGE! They have about 62 horses. The main barn (which I still need to take a picture of) has about 36 stalls. Then they have about another 20 lesson/pasture boarded horses in a big pasture. One big difference between this barn and most of the others that I have worked at is the hay bales. They use the large 1 ton round bales. I am so used to the kind you can pick up yourself! But these are only moveable by tractor! So we run around on a wagon pulled by a tractor to feed all the horses. And on Sunday we were accompanied by 3 teenagers in the front BUCKET of the tractor! Oh how I have forgotten what it is like to be a teenager and all about their quirks. 

Anyway back to the hay; watching them get the bales onto the wagon is very amusing. They are very good at it, but to me it looks like they are trying to stick a giant marshmallow with a stick! The attachment on the tractor to get the bales is just a big giant metal spike and they stick it in the bale and it has to be securely enough to move the weight of the bale without it falling off or breaking. Now that takes some skill!

I am so happy to have Duck closer to where we live! Before I was driving 20 minutes one way which really isn't that much, but with gas prices and my apparent lack of time while raising 2 small boys I need all the advantages I can get. I think that now I have it about as good as it is going to get (the barn is 2.5 miles from our house) short of having my own land!