Looking Up

I ended up making calls and finding out I had left my saddle and bridle at the "office" (boss' home)
of the pet sitting company I used to work at. While I was with the truck hauling Reno to our new
barn, my mother went to pick up my tack. Apparently my boss was a real jerk about it, but I didn't
want details. No need to ruin a good day.

My grooming box and good leather halter had been literally tossed by someone into a corner of the
tack room and subsequently covered with haphazardly strewn turnouts full of spiders... and my box,
brushes, and halter were covered in thick dust and spiders. I managed to salvage the halter with a
good few wipe-downs. The other stuff... I did my best to clean the brushes, but I'm just going to
end up getting new stuff. I'll try to find like second-hand tack shops.



So Reno moved from Poolesville, MD to Leesburg, VA and he's a lot happier now. On the day we
arrived, 12/12, he was introduced to his new pasturemates. He now shares space with two pony
mares (Olive/black, Adelaide/chestnut roan), a fleabitten Connemara/Arab gelding (Quinn), and
a brown mule gelding (Jackson).

Quinn wanted to show that he was king of the field, but instead of being a belligerent snot
(not like he ever is), Reno ignored him and ate some hay before having a good roll in the mud.



Since at that point it was over 70F, we all decided to initiate him into the farm with a good
medicated bath to treat his rain rot (old barn couldn't be bothered to check on him even once
even though it was supposed to be part of the board).



After he was all clean, shiny, and dried out, we let him back out in the field where he proceeded
to show us how happy he is to be at a new barn that will actually take care of him instead of
ignore all of his needs.



A week later he got his teeth floated (poor sedated pony) and his hooves trimmed, and we
discovered that my old barn, despite arrangements, had never included him in farrier visits
despite me paying for that as well. So my poor baby had WLD and a little bit of thrush.



We all made sure he was brushed down every day and had his rain rot and feet treated. Last
week, he had his mane pulled. I kind of miss the flowing, beautiful hair, but he looks handsome.



Yesterday, since we have a nasty winter storm coming, I went down to Dover and bought him
a new turnout. He has a decent winter coat, but just to be safe because we have some nasty cold
winters sometimes. His rain rot is almost completely gone now, his thrush and WLD are totally wiped
out. I'm going to give his hooves a little time to grow out (he still has some nasty cracking), but he
is pretty much able to be ridden again very soon. Everybody still loves him.