House-Hunters: Equine Edition

What a crazy adventure this house-hunting-for-the-horse has been! Good news though, we found a place that we absolutely love. Some of the other places were nice, but had strange rules like "no coming at night"--well, I don't like not having access to my horse at certain times and some days I need to come late. Or they had more unsafe things like barbed wire fencing, which is just an accident waiting to happen with my accident-prone horse. However one place checked all the boxes and it's a full-service boarding facility. This means that many people board there and there are other "amenities" like arenas, washing facilities, all different types and sizes of stalls and pastures, and trails! Most importantly, they take amazing care of the horses. The waters were crystal clear, unlike my last boarding stable where they refused to scrub the waters nor let you touch them, and they feed a variety of hays. Overall, they're very accommodating and professional.

This stable has a free-feeding pasture that is likely the best option for Calvin. Currently, two other teenage horses are being allowed access to orchard grass hay 24/7. The owners of these horses rotate cleaning pasture and filling up the hay net, which I would also have to do. In a way cleaning the pasture again is annoying, but at least the other owners will contribute, with Calvin and Graf I was cleaning for two horses every time I was there! The only other option was a pasture with alfalfa feedings 2x/day, which I wasn't sure would be enough with winter approaching as horses eat more in the winter to stay warm.

I talked to the manager of the stable about wound care as Calvin would still need treatment on his sores. They said it would be easier to monitor and treat him in a stall, so I may have to house him in a stall temporarily (maybe a week or two) until his wounds are fully healed. The price is right with this facility and it was clear the other boarders were very pleased with the care and more importantly, all the horses looked happy.  Also, if anyone wants to ride with me they do horse rentals at $10/hour for a trail ride! This place was recommended to me by my vet as she frequents this place and even said "it's a place I'd keep my horse," truly a great find.

I'm moving him to this new location this Sat and I can hardly wait!

One of the many arenas available.

I gave calvin a rinse off yesterday, here he is standing in the 94° heat falling asleep.  He's looking a little scraggly, I'd trim his mane but he needs it for fly protection right now.