After the terribleness that was her last trailer loading, Reina responded to the trailer with an "oh-HELL-no" look as soon as she saw what we were walking towards. Some clicks and treats later, and I had her loading halfway into the traler quietly and sniffing around. Finally, we got a bit of grain and willingly bribed her into it. Not the way I wanted it to go, mind you, but she was relatively relaxed the whole time and there was no drama whatsoever. The whole thing took maybe 15-20 minutes. Once Jeff gets his new trailer, I'm going to borrow it so that we can have trailer loading practice and bribes won't be necessary anymore.
Anyways! She rode really quiet and was a very good girl on the way to Jeff's barn. She backed out a little fast but was otherwise unphased; so I walked her to her new barn and into her new stall. She was up and wide-eyed but very obedient and responsive to me. I coaxed her into the barn with little to no issues, and then I walked her into her new stall and, much to my surprise, she walked right in and settled almost immediately. Good girl!
She got hay and got to look out her stall's back window and got fed grain as well. We turned her out with the other horses and they ran her a little bit, but settled in quite nicely without any mare drama to really speak of. She's already relaxing quite well and I'm loving the barn and its owner/manager! It's so nice and I have a really good feeling about this place. I feel spoiled already!
We have our own bridle hook in the tack room and a spot against the wall for my stuff as well as a saddle rack. Reina has the stall right next to the tack room (score!!) for when there's bad weather or during feeding time. Jeff's already working on setting up her feed schedule so that she'll put more weight on, and I simply can't wait!
Jeff and I walked to the back paddock with Reina and the other horses to watch and make sure they were getting along with one another nicely. Reina, my alpha mare, shockingly didn't put up much of a fight and was rather passive! It worked out fine, though, because the other horses seemed to accept her pretty readily. Perhaps she was just out of sorts and feeling less sassy than usual because she's in a new place and everything. The good news is that her trotting around gave Jeff a chance to see her move, and he commented (all on his own; I didn't ask!) that she was a pretty mover. Yay!! And on top of that, she was awfully adorable, loving on me and whuffling at me when she got nervous throughout the ordeal. I'm so glad she can look to me for emotional support!!
Rei had gone out to eat grass and was pretty far away while Jeff and I were talking. Suddenly, she turns and starts walking towards us, ears pricked, head low. I was like, hmm, what's she doing? There's no grass over here! She walked right up to me and off to the side a little bit, and stood there quietly until I came up and petted her shoulder. She turned her head around to look at me like "hi, Mom! Whatcha doin'? Will you stay with me just in case?" and she dropped her head in my hands and I rubbed on her for a few minutes. She's such a big baby!
She left after while, though, to go graze again and inch closer to her new herd. Jeff and I left them and I went to go home.
Did I mention that I have a great feeling about this place??
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