The New Barn

There was no great barn hunt because I had a short list of barns (two) that I'd want to move to, and one of them had an opening in February, so I held the stall even before I interviewed, thinking that it'd be worth it for peace of mind.

The barn is where Peony keeps Spot, and Peony is just as picky, if not pickier, than I am when it comes to her boarding situation. I knew that the care would be exemplary and I really liked the facility.

TC and Spot wandering around, there are so many paths!

Obviously my favorite thing about this barn is that Peony rides there! We are so excited to be able to ride together (and we'll both hopefully have more media!). If anyone remembers, TC stayed the night at this very barn when we went to ride with Jeremy last August. Peony and Spot showed us around and it was SO FUN! We've already planned on doing clinics together, going on trail rides, and riding together at home. Plus we are going to get to hang out more often! Audit clinics, work out at the same gym maybe, and watch FEI TV/Mary videos/obnoxious horse tv shows all the time.

There are other amazing pros to this place as well. TC will be going into a 12x12 stall with about a 48-50 foot paddock. The stall has squishy stall mats, shavings (TC will be STOKED, he hasn't had shavings in over a year), and a fan. Every horse in the stalls gets put on the eurocizer 4x per week, and you can pay for extra days. I figure that 4 days a week to start is great, and if I am gone for a period of time or find that I want him to have more time, I will bump him up.

I get a cute little tack locker, nothing in comparison to my giant tack room at my current barn, but Andy will hopefully help me make it storage-friendly, and I can always keep things in my house (a loft on site!) and eventually in my future trailer.

My hippo gets to hang out in a water complex EVERY DAY
if he wants to! (he wants to)

There are two riding arenas, one covered arena the size of a long dressage court, and one ENORMOUS jump arena (it's a whole acre). Both arenas have jumps in them in the winter, but in the summer the covered is clear of jumps. I'm curious to see how I feel about always riding around jumps, but we'll see. The covered arena has lights for evening riding too.

Surrounding the property, there is a long gallop track that the owner keeps dragged, and a really cool cross country field. TC obviously won't be jumping out there, but he loves the water complex and I think that trotting around in the open every day/week/month would be SUPER good for our relationship.

The only cons with this barn are that TC will be in a smaller paddock than his current barn (though eurocizer will help with that, plus TC could potentially move into a giant private pasture one day if I stay there), there are no mirrors (there is a barn with mirrors nearby that I could probably talk to the owner about hauling into sometimes, and the owner of this barn has wanted mirrors so may put them in soon), and the footing is a little shallower than TC is used to (it's GGT footing though so hopefully this is acceptable for him, if not then I'll talk to the farrier about putting pads on or something).

I also am probably not allowed to bring in a trainer to ride with, but I'm kind of used to that since my current barn rarely allows trainers to come in. That's fine since I'm hopefully going to be in the market for a trailer by the end of this year (hopefully much sooner, gotta get my business set up), so it's just this year where lessoning might be difficult, but Peony has a trailer so hopefully carpooling to lessons will be a thing!

Following Spot to the cross country feild

I'm so excited that I get to move to a barn where I already have an instant barn friend. It's going to make the whole moving experience far less stressful! When I moved TC to his current barn, I had already boarded Rico there so it was low stress, but the barn before that I really had a hard time with. I'm definitely more stressed than I was when I moved him to his current barn, but it gives me peace of mind that I'll be living on the property and have already been there a bunch with Peony!

Onward and upward!