Izzy Comes Home

Feb 1, 2009 Super Goodtimes aka Izzy comes home to our barn. For the last week prior I have been preparing for her arrival. Her stall was stripped and bedded, new halter and bucket. Her teeth were floated, feet trimmed and she was wormed. Everything was falling into place. The day of her arrival we had a break in the weather. A whole 40 degrees but with Ohio winters that was a welcomed change. She wasn't keen on getting into the trailer and very nervous getting off. But once she was on flat ground she calmed down. We walked around for a little bit before taking her to the new stall. She was nervous but very behaved.

She met her stall neighbors Emma (a Clydesdale) and Angel. Emma loves everyone and immediately took to her, sticking her big head over the wall to visit. Angel on the other hand peeked through a hole in the wall and decided that she wasn't thrilled to have a neighbor. Izzy had a snack and was groomed. She even got her new halter.

After she spent some time in her stall I took her for a walk in the turnout. At first she was relaxed until some deer wandered out of the woods behind the barn, she got all excited and start to prance around me, rather than get run over I closed the gate and let her loose to explore. For a while she raced from one side to the other, doing sliding stops at each fence, she bucked and reared at few times and rolled in the snow getting soaking wet. She only stopped running when she heard it was feeding time. She trotted to the gate and waited for me to bring her in. Its hard to say if she is always going to be this exuberant. I'll just have to let her settle in to her new home and routine.

She whinnied out for a couple hours to any horse that would listen. And occasional reared and spun around the stall. At feeding time she munched on her hay but didn't touch her grain. This was the first time that she ever ate out of a ground feeder. We bought it to give her less places to crib. I decided to leave and come back that night. When I got there she greeted me at her gate, but I was worried that she had not eaten her grain (pellets), pooped or drank any water. I went in the stall and talked to her and rubbed her. I walk away to visit my other horse Chevy and when I can back she had pooped finally and was slowly eating her feed, and drank some water. Almost like she got permission from me to do that. I was finally relieved and was able to go home and not be so stressed out.