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I think most of you know, that we have another young mare here in Germany, that we have owned ever since she has been a foal. She will turn 5 in July and I have only recently gotten around to start her of under saddle. I was going to start her of at 3 1/2 years of age, but then we got sent to the USA and Cascara got to enjoy some more time in the fields.

Here are some pictures of her as a foal:

At about 12 months old:

14 months:

Yummy

out of proportions... ;)

16 months:

fluffy

baby girl

midget girl :D

22 months old:

pondering?

synchronous dancing

a new friend :)

Today my friend Laura came to the barn with me to meet Bella :)

two pretty Ladies :)

mule ears :D

settling in... sometimes isn't that easy...

Today is Bella's third day in Germany and I still can't believe she's here. Every time I go to the barn I have this huge grin on my face as soon as I see her. I just can't believe it's her standing in the field out there.

Bella seems to like our German grass. The little bit that is there for her to eat. Thanks to the long winter that lasted until a few days ago there's not much of it there yet. She seems relaxed out in the field nibbling away.

Other than the grass, she doesn't yet seem convinced of our hay and grains. She's not eating as much of it as we would like her to, for her to gain back weight. Our barn owner has tried mixing haylage into her hay and Bella does eat that much better, but I'm not a fan of it so I don't want it to be a permanent solution. I'm hoping she will start eating more as she settles down. Still, anybody any other ideas to get Bella more interested in her feed? Fortunately she does drink well and loves playing in her water trough in the field.:)

Today I put her in our indoor arena for her to stretch her legs... here's some pictures and a video :)

yummy grass! :)

http://youtu.be/1cHbku4C20g

Bella's journey - goodbye USA, hello Germany

So we moved back to Germany. Heart got  lovely new home at Bits&Bytes farm and Bella would move to Germany with us. While we returned to Germany Bella moved to Houston, Texas for a 30 day quarantine. 

Day of flight was April 10th. It turned out to be April 11th due to bad weather in Houston. We drove to Luxembourg to pick her up on Friday April 12th. They were due do touch down the day before, then they changed it to Friday morning. It ended up being Friday 11:40am. For us that meant long hours of waiting in the cold at the airports cargo pick up. 

funny truck we passed on the way - "Caution, toys on the fly" lol

gorgeous rainbow on our way to pick up Bella

Basti taking our new SUV apart to kill time while waiting

Our Toyota and trailer waiting for Bella...

a container with horses on it's way to the stalls. Maybe Bella inside?

The wind and rain disheveled both of us, but other than me I think Basti kind of looked cute like that ;)

disheveled me

the gate behind which Bella is waiting

Around 3:30pm we finally got the go to drive in and pick up Bella. They asked us if we knew our horse and when we affirmed that, they sent us in to go look for her. She was nibbling at her hay and I almost didn't recognize her. Her summer coat is so much darker than her winter one and she has changed to summer almost all the way since I left her in the USA. She also looked like she was really puzzled to see us there :) We took her out and wanted to load her, but Bella thought otherwise. I think she was sick of getting stuck in a trailer. It took us a couple of attempts and trying every single method we could think of. When all other horses were loaded and I almost out of ideas, she finally just walked in after me and a handful of hay. 

Bella waiting in her stall at the airport

first attempt of loading her. It took three.

non mum, not another trailer!

two hoofs, that's as much as she would give us for a long time...

I think it was around 5 by the time we finally had her loaded and headed out on the road back home. Another 7 hour drive ahead of us...  I guess it could have been a bit less of a drive, but our GPS decided to fail just there and than and the first part of the trip until it finally decided to do it's job again was a bit of a pass and fail without any type of a map.

We arrived at Bella's new home around midnight. All of us more than exhausted.

a gorgeous little castle on the way home

so which are hills and which are clouds?

Bella's first glimps at her new home. Not much to see in the dark...

inspecting her new stall and her new neighbours

When I came to the barn this morning to check on her she was in the indoor arena. They had put her in there around 7 in the morning so she could stretch her legs. She looked at me when I came in, but stayed at the opposite end like she was afraid I would stick her in a trailer again. I took her out and we went for a walk around the barn. Later the barn owner gave us a small grass paddock for her to enjoy the nice weather.

stretching her legs

what do you want mum?

looking at me from her paddock

Bella's first German grass ;)

looking at the horses in the other paddocks

!!!SHE'S HOME!!!!

new feet - new horse

When I told you about moving the horses I also told you about our farrier problems and their aftermaths concerning Heart. Well I am happy to say, that Heart seems to have made a full recovery. The difference it made in this horse is amazing. Where I used to have to push him he is now full of energy.

Yesterday we did a couple of small jumps for the first time in a long time and he really seemed to enjoy it. No stopping or hesitating or trying to outrun the jumps. Instead he pulled toward anything he thought we might be heading for, even if that something was a four foot jump, which we certainly will not be going for within the next couple of days;)

Heart gives you the most incredible feeling during the jump. He is one of those Horses who really make it easy on the rider. I have to force myself to stop again once we start jumping *g*

starting Bella

Starting Bella is such fun. This little girl is pure joy. She's pretty to look at - moving or not- and even though she does not yet have any idea what I am asking of her when riding she tries her best. I'm sure she will advance quickly. She has a good natural balance which helps a lot. I'm excited how she will jump once we get there.

A new home

Last Monday Heart and Bella moved to their new barn! I'm not sure what the horses thought but for me the move made me happy and sad all at once. I'm happy to be at a barn with all the facilities I need to properly train the two. It's a gorgeous barn. We have a little stall tract all to ourselves. There's an outdoor dressage arena with mirrors, a big outdoor jumping stadium, an indoor arena with mirrors and huge fans, a round pen and a cross country field. The horses have nice stalls and a big field to be turned out. What more could we ask for?

But at the same time the move did make me sad too, because I had come to love our little private barn. It was nice to have the horses almost in my back yard and with Bella and Heart being the only horses there it was almost like having a barn of my own. Our barn owners did so much for us, which I am still very thankful for. All in all I enjoyed being there very much and I believe the horses did so too. I guess there's pros and cons to everything.

So Now we will enjoy all the pros that come with this move. Heart definitely likes having sand underneath his feet when training. He seems thankful for the softer underground, which is much kinder to this 17 hand horses sensitive little feet. I hope it will help him on the road to recovery from the damage caused by an unreliable farrier. Don't get me wrong. I liked this farrier a lot until he decided not to show up anymore and not return calls either. By the time I managed to organize another farrier Hearts feet were beyond bad and I was freaking out. A couple more days and I'm sure I would have lost this horse (fortunately Bellas feet held up better). So I am more than thankful to our new farrier Sloan who pitched in as soon as I called and did an amazing job at getting Heart moving sound again within a couple of weeks. Sloan had quite a job to do with poor Heart who was in a lot of pain when he first met him. I've never seen Heart rear before or ever since, but only pulling of the old shoes was quit a job that time. I don't want to even start about how hard it was to get the new shoes on with only the minimum amount of nails to keep them on for at least a while. I was pretty impressed by the before-after transformation of the hoofs. But my two favorite things about this farrier are his patients with the horses even if they really act up like Heart that first day and most important that he is absolutely reliable! He will always call back and drive by as soon as possible if a horse pulls a shoe (which Heart has discovered he loves doing :( ).

No pictures of our new home yet, but I will do my best to get some within the next couple of days. For now here's the link to their website: http://www.cottonmeadowsfarm.com/