Bella arrives

It was so exciting picking up Bella at Turfway Park and meeting Becky, Bella’s Trainer. Becky is so nice and I really enjoyed finally meeting her in person.

                                

We had spent Tuesday and Friday at the Equine Affair and made a stop at Turfway Park on our way back. Bella was due to be picked up by our shipper Tony and we decided to be there and see her off. I even got to load her myself.

Tony is the best shipper we could have asked for. He really cares about the horses and does anything to make the journey as comfortable as possible for them. We all started off together, Bella leaving the track in her trailer right in front of us. Basti and I then drove ahead and arrived home about an hour before Bella. Since she was so well being taken care off, she logically arrived home safely in the evening. Yada, Bella’s stall neighbor from the track, who was traveling with her and went on to Main also looked good when she passed through here.

On his way to us Tony had picked up a mule, which he had to unload in order to unload Bella. We decided to have some fun and pretend that he was the “horse” I was waiting for. Everyone waiting with me, my friends and barn owners fell in love with the mule at once. She was very pretty… but then we unloaded Bella and I would have never changed her for the mule ;)

Bella is so beautiful! After unloading her she dove right into the fresh grass and the hay in her stall. I made her some mash and she ate a bit of it. It was too funny watching her making funny faces while doing so. She seemed a bit confused by the consistency of it :D When we came back for the second time after having dinner ourselves she was lying down sleeping in her stall. She got up to greet us and then soon laid back down while I was still in her stall. She is so very sweet.

Heart and her also said hi to each other. It wasn’t very spectacular. They sniffed when I walked Bella passed Heart and then Bella went on to investigate everything else…

Going to get Bella

Walking out of her stall at the track one last time

she walked right in without any hesitation :)

four white socks...

leaving the track... passing the security at the entrance

off she goes

waiting for Bella with Lori and Chris... Lori didn't want her picture taken... her reaction made Chris and me laugh ;)

here she comes!

Tony parked the trailer in the ditch, so Bella wouldn't have to step off from as high and not onto the paved road

Bella's first glance at her new home

Bella with her traveling mate the mule

the mule, which we pretended was my new "horse"

Yada, Bella's stall neighbor at the track traveled with her. She went on to Main

Isn't she a sweety?

mampf

unloading Bella

a nice rub is always good

Bella's first bite of Alabama grass

what a proud girl

first step into her new home

first time Bella and Heart see each other. Heart greeted her with a load Hello!

 

so cute!

it didn't take her long to find the hay

who's that girl? Heart couldn't stop looking at her

sleepy girl, exhausted from the trip and all the excitement

Sweet, sweet company for Heart…

Shortly before I left for Germany Hearts barn mate Sable left for a stable with a sand arena and only a couple of days before I returned from Germany Hearts second barn mate Getane left to live in a place of his own with a new companion. At first Heart seemed to like the peace and quiet, but after a while he started feeling lonely. We could tell he was looking for company, since he started pacing up and down the fence where the neighbors ponies live. You can see him doing so on one of the last pictures I posted.

I didn’t like him doing that and it broke my Heart watching him, therefore Basti and I started looking for a way to find him company. We went through several options… 

…we saw a miniature donkey that we thought of getting. It was so small it could have taken shelter from sun and rain underneath Heart

…we thought of taking in a horse that would have been given to us for free, but weren’t sure how easily we would be able to find a new home for him, if were to go back to Germany

… we thought about asking our friend if we could bring him over to her barn with her horse, that had recently become a single horse, but we didn’t want to leave our barn, since our barn owners had been put a lot of new things in to make it better and better and we really liked being there

… we considered getting another Bits&Bytes Thoroughbred, that was selling for little money, but weren’t totally convinced

…and then, when we came home late a couple of days ago and I looked at a newly posted horse from Bits&Bytes I totally freaked. There right in front of me, looking at me via my laptop, was the horse I had always been dreaming of. A gorgeous, tall and athletic chestnut filly, with four white symmetrically high socks, a beautiful blaze and the very suitable name Mi Chabela, short BELLA.  She just caught my Heart right away. The only problem was to convince Basti, since I was sure they would be asking much more for Bella as we had planned on spending for a second horse.  But then Bella wasn’t just any horse ;)

Well long tale short… in the morning I called Elisabeth from Bits&Bytes and convinced Basti to get her. It all felt much too good to be true, like I was dreaming. We scheduled the vet check for Saturday which still made me a bit nervous… but she passed with flying colors. When I was talking to Dr. Cook on the phone, he said “Well, I can’t find anything wrong with this one”. That sentence will stick in my Head for a long time. It made me so happy!

Now I can’t wait for her to arrive here!

a fast-forward off the last months...

Here we go again… a lot of time has passed… Hearts leg has healed, the weather has turned nice and I have returned from Germany. So now it is time get going. But let’s start right from the beginning…

A couple of days after our first trail ride, just before Christmas, Heart had his feet done for the first time since he came to us. Unfortunately the farrier must have tried to correct the angel of the hoofs to fast and also took too much of the hind hoofs, causing Hearts left hind pastern to puff up badly and leaving him saw on his feet for weeks without end… it kept us from doing any work at all for a very long time.

By the time we finally did get the OK from the vet to start working again the weather had turned so bad, that everything was flooded and we couldn’t do much more other than ride up and down our road, which fortunately is a dead end and therefore not very busy.

When the weather turned nice again, therefore giving our arena a chance to dry out, I had to go back to Germany to get my VISA.  This was only planned to take about two weeks, but turned into a month until I was able to return to Alabama. Not that I didn’t enjoy the time there. It was a great time. I loved seeing my German friends again and it was awesome riding several different horses. I think it taught me quite a bit… so thanks to all my friends who let get onto their lovely horses!!!

So now I’m back and am so happy about it! It’s so good to be back with my boys and girl…

I spent the first week longing Heart to get him back into working. I brought back so many things from Germany, one of them being a longing aid. It’s like a long rope, that you attach at on one side of the bit, run it through the front legs up over his back on to his other side, back through the front legs and clip it onto the other side of the bit… it shows the horse the way down, while longing and it has helped as sooo much. Finally Heart has learned to stretch his long neck forward/downward instead of running like giraffe or just curling up his neck, nose close to his breast.

Tuesday I got on and rode him again for the first time in a very long time after longing him with a double longe for a couple of minutes first. Heart was great!!! He was nice and relaxed and walked and trotted while chewing on the bit… We didn’t do a lot, since he had had his shots on Monday and I didn’t want him sweating, but the little we did was fantastic! So now we are back at work and we will have to see how things go on :)

Ever since I returned from Germany I’ve been taking our new pup Maddie to the barn with me whenever I wasn’t working heart. She is very good around Heart and will listen to me, when I tell her to keep away from his hind feet. So today for the first time I took her with me, although I was planning on riding him. I had no idea, neither what she would do, when I got up in the saddle nor what she would do, when Heart would start moving faster than in a trot… She was sooo good. I started off with a walk down the road to get Heart warmed up. At first she looked at me like to say “ what are you doing up there?”, but then she started sniffing around and just went with us… She didn’t really listen when I tried to keep her away from neighbor’s doorsteps, but other than that she was a very good girl. She even resisted chasing after Felicia's cat, that just sat in front of her in the drive way. Instead she turned around and came running after us!

I then went into the arena to work with Heart. Maddie just followed us around, but didn’t get upset or anything and she always kept her distance from Hearts hindquarters. I walked, trotted and cantered and she was absolutely fine! I’m so happy about this… it’s nice to have a dog, that is good around the horses and that I will be able to take on trail rides with me. Now we only have to work on the ‘listening to commands’ part ;)

To cool down, we rode around the pasture and this time it was Heart being good and not even twitching when Maddie all of a sudden squealed bloody murder… She must have gotten too close to the electric fencing and went running like the fencing was still chasing her… but she’s fine and has hopefully learned her lesson ;)

Since people have been asking for pictures and I keep forgetting to take the camera to the barn, today I tried taking some with my cell phone camera. It is kind of heard taking pictures, when you don’t see what you are taking a picture of on the screen, hence they aren’t the best, but you can see how lovely green our pasture has become! :)

grazing at the very end off our lovely pasture... isn't it nice and green???

in his favorite corner

yawning :D

Maddie girl- my new companion on trail rides ;)

best picture I could get without seeing while he was walking towards me...

searching for the company of the ponies on the neighbors field