Saturday, October 31, 2009

Alexandre & Jasper settling in.

This morning the boys said goodbye to Pam's Paradise. Jasper said bye to Red, his most favorite playmate. I said bye to Mindy Lou, it was fun to see her so often! Alexandre didn't get to say goodbye to anybody because he was such a jerk while he was there.

Pam hooked up her truck to my trailer and we, plus my mom, drove out to Valleyford, WA this morning. Once you get off the highway it is a beautiful drive. Countryside with fall colors, fields, forest, and Hangman Creek. They unloaded well and we put them in the arena where strangely enough, Jasper ran around. Norm, the owner, is really nice and helped us unload stuff from my trailer into the tack room. He asked how many saddles I had and I said 3- the jumping, the dressage, and Alexandre's Aussie- an decided to leave the western in the trailer. I felt a bit guilty with how much space I was taking up with the saddles plus my big trunk plus Jasper's garbage can of supplements. Eek.

They're going to stay in the arena for a couple of days until he finishes making a few new corrals, when a lot of the horses will be re-arranged, and there will be room down in the big pasture for them. The trailer parking is down below next to the big pasture, and Norm showed us where one of the trails starts and GOES THROUGH THE CREEK. Yes! Water crossing! Think it's about a foot or so high right now. In that place anyway, I guess his daughter tried crossing somewhere else last week and her horse ended up in a swimming hole and swum. Literally. Woops. Brrrrrrr.

Unfortunately it looks like Al scraped his eyeball on something this morning and it was weepy and starting to swell. Luckily the vet was willing to sell me a tube of eye antibiotics without a barn call. $8.50 sure beats $100. I went back out this evening and gave him 2 doses. He was VERY good and held quite still. I think he actually realized I was trying to help him this time. That or he just remembered the cookies from last time.

They both seemed happy and content when I went back this evening. The place is way out in the country and is very peaceful. Al got goop in his eye and his forelock braided to the side. Jasper got groomed, his sheet put back on, and his bucket of supplements. When I left they were happily munching hay.

I feel like a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders. This is a long-term solution to my low-income self. You can't beat $150 a month for board. Yay!

2 comments:

Michelle said...

That's no joke! Well, I hope it works out well for you, trails sound fun. Any luck with job hunting?

Albigears said...

The job hunt has been extremely daunting. In the past 4 weeks I've found exactly 2 jobs that somewhat require my education and training and pay a somewhat decent salary. I've applied for both, of course, plus dozens of others that are horrible.