We scurried about all weekend long, almost at a frantic pace, each with their own chore assignment to get the horses in the new barn. The goal was to get them in by Sunday night and believe me, they were going in one way or another. Michael's job was to clean out the mess in the garage so that Jerry would have a place to put all the big new power tools that he had to buy to build the barn. We also now needed to fit the small tractors and big mowers back in there that had been living in the barn while under construction, so Michael had his work cut out for him.
Dan got stuck having to take hardware down from the old barn and strip everything out of there, and pick up tools and boards and basically the whole construction mess that was in the isleway.
I leveled the stalls and added some 22 bails of shavings, put the new hardware on for the new buckets and feeders and got them all hung up. Jerry made some holders for all the feeders to slip in and out easily for washing. I have those little manna pro mineral thingys that work good for feeders. Everyone got two of those in the stalls: one for their feed and the other for their minerals.
Jerry built Sonny's stall door, installed all the hinges and latches and hung all the stall doors.
We got the horses in by 4:30 and put them where I already had it figured out for a year. Didn't work. They all had their own ideas. Most of them were upset, confused and decided not to participate. They were a nervous wreck for a while and wanted to go back to the old barn. There was a lot of digging at the doors, pacing, and well Ebbie just decided she was leaving and began to hurl herself over the door, but missed. I was very surprised at this because they had been hanging out in the barn for two years and knew where they were. Jerry came and served them a bite of food (wasn't dinner time) and some hay and eventually one by one they settled down. Except Sonny of course, but we knew how that would go. As soon as he found out that he lost his way to watch traffic and keep an eye on the new mare across the road he lost it and decided to rear a few times, buck and plow the walls down, bulldozer that he is, until I got after him for it. I do so love going in the stall with him when he's nuts, but it always works. Then he did the "I'm so misunderstood routine" and quit. The nose went down in the hay and then he found out that he had a great view of part of our yard where he could watch me and back door and seemed ok after that.
They had a good night. I thanked Merry Beth for not crapping in her water bucket for once in her life, and praised Angel for not backing up to the wall to smear her poop on it too. Everyone was covered in shavings, so they all did rest comfortably last night. Even Sonny. Once I let him out this morning, he banged on the gate for 10 minutes to come back in. Go figure. I threw him his hay and then he was ok and went trotting out to watch the traffic pass by and see what the mare across the road was doing.
There is still much to do. We have to hang lights, do a hot water hook up, (the lines are already laid for all that) hang vinal siding, add gravel to the driveway so I can pull the truck up to unload supplies, insullation, and the list goes on and on. But right now they are IN so that's the most important thing. Here's some pics.
There are 12 actual stalls 10 X 10. The first one on the left temporarily has my junk in it until the concete floor is poured for my tack room. The 2nd on on the left is empty. Sonny has a double stall 10 X 20, and I have another empty stall on the right at the end.
Dan got stuck having to take hardware down from the old barn and strip everything out of there, and pick up tools and boards and basically the whole construction mess that was in the isleway.
I leveled the stalls and added some 22 bails of shavings, put the new hardware on for the new buckets and feeders and got them all hung up. Jerry made some holders for all the feeders to slip in and out easily for washing. I have those little manna pro mineral thingys that work good for feeders. Everyone got two of those in the stalls: one for their feed and the other for their minerals.
Jerry built Sonny's stall door, installed all the hinges and latches and hung all the stall doors.
We got the horses in by 4:30 and put them where I already had it figured out for a year. Didn't work. They all had their own ideas. Most of them were upset, confused and decided not to participate. They were a nervous wreck for a while and wanted to go back to the old barn. There was a lot of digging at the doors, pacing, and well Ebbie just decided she was leaving and began to hurl herself over the door, but missed. I was very surprised at this because they had been hanging out in the barn for two years and knew where they were. Jerry came and served them a bite of food (wasn't dinner time) and some hay and eventually one by one they settled down. Except Sonny of course, but we knew how that would go. As soon as he found out that he lost his way to watch traffic and keep an eye on the new mare across the road he lost it and decided to rear a few times, buck and plow the walls down, bulldozer that he is, until I got after him for it. I do so love going in the stall with him when he's nuts, but it always works. Then he did the "I'm so misunderstood routine" and quit. The nose went down in the hay and then he found out that he had a great view of part of our yard where he could watch me and back door and seemed ok after that.
They had a good night. I thanked Merry Beth for not crapping in her water bucket for once in her life, and praised Angel for not backing up to the wall to smear her poop on it too. Everyone was covered in shavings, so they all did rest comfortably last night. Even Sonny. Once I let him out this morning, he banged on the gate for 10 minutes to come back in. Go figure. I threw him his hay and then he was ok and went trotting out to watch the traffic pass by and see what the mare across the road was doing.
There is still much to do. We have to hang lights, do a hot water hook up, (the lines are already laid for all that) hang vinal siding, add gravel to the driveway so I can pull the truck up to unload supplies, insullation, and the list goes on and on. But right now they are IN so that's the most important thing. Here's some pics.
There are 12 actual stalls 10 X 10. The first one on the left temporarily has my junk in it until the concete floor is poured for my tack room. The 2nd on on the left is empty. Sonny has a double stall 10 X 20, and I have another empty stall on the right at the end.
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