Pippin Took Has An Adventure

Pippin spent the last few months learning that life as a pampered horse in a boarding barn isn't half bad. In fact it is pretty damned awesome. By the end of two months she had him tying, sleeping in a stall, getting trimmed every six weeks, wearing a blanket, wearing saddles, worming, and charming the vet. And all of this happened without fuss or stress. She isn't one to rush a horse and didn't go into with a particular timeline. If it had taken him six months for him to tolerate being in a barn without stress that would have been fine with his mommies. But he just keeps surprising everyone. As long as he gets a chance to think about things and everyone stays calm this little guy will do pretty much anything you ask.

Look ma I tie!!

There was room in the new barn and no guarantee there would be room later. My hip recovery hasn't been going well (more on that later) so I would have rather waited a bit but I have a crew of people around to help so we said "What the heck. Send him down!" He loaded up for his foster mom without pause. The wonderful hauler had several delays on the first leg of her journey so she was already running late picking him up. She ended up having a flat tire and had to wait for rescue as a storm rolled in and the sun went down. She was so tired and her home was on the way so she ended up stopping there. He wasn't sure he wanted to get back in the trailer in the morning but she has been hauling for years and often works with horses who are barely halter broke so they arrived at my place on schedule. He arrived a little sweaty but not overly worried.

Ex wild kill pen stallion rides in style. 

When he is worried he reverts back to being very people shy. He didn't want me to stand behind his head and wasn't ready for petting when he first stepped off the trailer. However, he was nothing but a gentleman. He follows right next to you without putting so much as an ounce of pressure on the lead. If something is scary he just wants to pause and think about it then marches right along behind you. By the time I left he was seeking out attention from strangers.

Did I hear a treat wrapper?

I spend several hours at the barn to make sure he settled in. One of the big horses is away at training so he gets a HUGE stall for the month. It is at least 14x14, open on 2.5 walls and has bars on the solid walls. He has a 360 degree view of the entire barn from his stall. The routine for new horses is to be in a stall the first day. Then day two they slowly get introduced to the herd. I wasn't sure how he would handle being in but he was happy as could be. There are lose horses on the property and they all came to great him. He seems so fascinated by everything. He just stood there munching his hay watching the activity.