Getting out on the Trails

Each of the three days Erin was home last week we got both horses out for some time along the trails.  Thursday our friend Cari drove down for a visit and she and Jessie had a great time together.  Cari said that Jessie might be the one to change her mind about mares!  Friday after work we had a great ride together, and on Saturday morning we were out and about for an hour.  Each time the horses were more relaxed and seemed to appreciate that the Loop trail by the house was starting to become familiar.

Guinny has indeed been bolder with his little sister by his side when we come upon scary things along the ride.  Mostly.  Last week we found a new trail off the power line but were challenged a little by a rusty old abandoned bus. Poor Guinness was sure it was going to kill him! Unfortunately he refused to stand still long enough to see that it wasn't deadly, instead frantically backing up like a spider and spinning wildly 180 degrees to bolt from it.  Thankfully Erin rides him in the Amerigo dressage saddle (read: deep seat, long legs) for just that reason and though he's not trying to be naughty he just can't help himself sometimes. After about a half dozen spins with no sign of willingness to go forward (and almost clobbering Jessie and Shanna more than once on his way backward) we decided that proving a point wasn't a good idea right then.  So Shanna expertly led Jessie up to the scary pile of metal and she stopped to think about it.  Though Jessie looked really hard at it, she was willing to walk past it, leaving poor Guinness with little choice other than to follow his brave little sister.  This was exactly why we decided to add Jessie to our family -- because she has a good head on her shoulders (not to mention a pretty one) and we figured her boldness would help Guinny to deal with "scary" things like metal and water and shadows and people and deer and squirrels and logs and mushrooms and whatever else he swears is trying to eat him.

After awhile he was proud of himself and we decided to have him and Erin lead through the familiar woodsy trail.  There are some nice places to pick up a slow, collected canter and Big G was happy to oblige. After a minute he settled down and got used to the fit of his Big Boy Pants, leading at a canter for most of the rest of the ride! Shanna kept waiting for him to screech to a halt at any moment as he's apt to do, but he was awesome and brave and thoroughly enjoyed himself once he started to listen to and trust his rider.

When we got back to the house Uncle Neal was waiting to take our picture in the front yard!

They've both settled into a quiet life with us here at the house. We keep thinking we'll get out and ride with a trainer again soon, but schedules and energy levels and time off together have all been at a premium lately. We're still working on the barn little by little (it needs to have outside walls finished soon), in between busy full-time jobs for both humans. But the horses are content to snooze and play and hang out in their spacious paddocks until evening comes when we get out to stretch our legs together in the woods.

Shanna and Jessie went up the trail by themselves last week and poor Guinness just about lost his mind! We've clearly got work to do helping him to understand that his sister will be coming right back. It's expected that they'd both have separation issues (we've yet to remove him and leave her) so it's on our list of things to work on. Everything in time....

Meanwhile, there are few things more lovely than sipping our morning coffee in lawn chairs in the paddocks while Guinny and Jessie are having breakfast. Of course, the Big Guy loves his own lick of java too!

After all, he IS now living very near the coffee snob capital of the universe!

A little post-breakfast dirt coating

They're HOME!

Holy cow!  It's been a long summer of crazy hard work building our barn in the yard of the new house!  We feel like other than handle our full-time jobs, all we've done is prepare for and build that structure.  Shanna master-minded the whole thing and some of our favorite minions helped us get the job done. Our heart-brother, Neal, has been out there every weekend and lots of weeknights after work, and we couldn't have done a lot of it without him. Erin's Dad Al flew out and his long-time buddy Gary drove up to spend 3 days recently slaving away (but agreed it was an excellent excuse to play with Shanna's tools).  They did an amazing job on the roof and helped us put up the supporting beams in the individual stalls.  Their shingle work was fantastic and the structure is even nicer than we'd hoped for thanks to their expertise and eyes for detail. And our buddy Rachelle spent a day helping us clear out garbage from behind the pokey blackberry bushes and move chunks of cement (because she really just wanted to drive the Bobcat!). Thanks, you guys, for making this project easier on us!

While we were in the yard building every day, the horses got precious little attention from us.  We had our trainer Rachel ride them from time to time, but they were pretty much on vacation for a few months. We know they really missed the affection and snacks, but we think they understand that it was all for their benefit in the end.

The site we'd picked for the barn was on the side of the house where there had been a large shed on a 14x32' cement slab. Unfortunately, the land surrounding the shed was pretty much a trash heap for the former owners. They had copious amounts of garbage and junk in the vicinity and we had a TON of cleaning up to do before we could even think of building. Eventually we got all their crap hauled away (in more than one giant dumpster) and got the land leveled and cleaned up of their nasty trash.

We decided to build a 2-stall pole barn with a separate feed room. The slab is the aisle and their stalls are built just off that cement. We've got cross ties and rubber mats, and soon we'll cover the concrete with rubber pavers so it's cushy and nice for their hooves. Eventually we'll enclose all the sides and even have some pretty landscaping, but our first priority was just to get it horse-ready so that Guinny and Jessie could move in and be with us forever.  By way of visual explanation we've attached photos of the build in chronological order below.

Guinness and Jessie didn't really know each other since they were boarded at separate facilities just up the road from one another. We had a few rides together but they didn't spend much time bonding. So when we introduced them at the new barn we were delighted to see that they ADORE each other -- just a few days after being home they've started mutual grooming and kissing each others' faces! Jessie historically hasn't even acknowledged other horses' existence, so the fact that she not only tolerates Guinny but seems to really be in love with him cracks us up!  She walks around her paddock squeaking and making cute little noises, and while each sleeps they guard one another. Much to our surprise Guinness hasn't made even one Ugly Face as he's so prone do to with most everyone else. Jessie is definitely the Alpha horse, and Big G seems to be happy about that fact!

They're so funny together. We never saw Guinness lie down and nap much at his last facility, but he seems to be making up for that now. His favorite activity (other than smooching on his girl) is to lie in the dirt and snooze. He is a rough sleeper, though, and Jessie's probably glad they don't share a paddock! He twitches and jerks, grunts and snorts. We have a funny video of him getting what appears to be some very deep REM sleep -- legs flailing and dust flying (you can hear crap he kicked up hitting the camera at the very end)! He's a total goofball....

We took our first ride this past weekend from the new property and all 4 of us had a blast.  We expected it would be a bit of a rodeo since neither horse had had much work the previous few months, but they were on their best behavior.  Jessie is a bit bolder than Guinny and he seemed to derive a little confidence from her about the new things we encountered. There is an 18-mile trail that runs just past our front driveway, but we were delighted to learn that there are miles and miles of wooded trails that branch off of that main Tolt Pipeline Trail too!  It's lovely back there in the forest and both horses, though not at peak fitness, thoroughly enjoyed themselves and their adventure. We'll slowly start building up their fitness (and ours) and find a regular training program with someone who'll work with us and our quirky schedule issues.

Life is very good now that our entire family is on the same property.  We still have tons of work looming ahead of us (finishing the last 100 shingles on the barn roof, fencing and planting grass in the large meadow on the other side of the driveway, finishing enclosing the barn walls, cementing the feed room floor, building a compost area for manure, and planting grass in their now-dusty paddocks). It's sometimes overwhelming to think of all the things left to do, but when we look back at the photos of where we started it's hard not to smile in satisfaction.

This is a life-long dream come true for both of us and we couldn't have chosen two more perfect horses for our family than Guinny and Jessie.  Please consider coming for a visit -- we've got a ton of space for guests and if you're lucky you can even get a guided trail ride!

 

Neal and Shanna at the original barn site (a disaster).

 

The poles are in and cemented!

 

Shanna managing the 16-foot board by herself 

(like she did most everything!)

 

Some of the metal siding removed from the shed.

 

All the trusses are finally in!

 

What will be the paddocks eventually was initially a burn pile.

 

It's starting to look a little like a barn.

 

Shanna in the rented Bobcat (some of the best $ spent), 

leveling the lower meadow for future pasture.

 She became a master at maneuvering this thing (after getting it high-centered once!)

 

Some of the gang taking a break (Gary, Al, Neal and Shanna)

Outer stall walls going up.

 Gary, Dad's awesome buddy, putting on the roof fascia.

 

Neal being hoisted up in the Bobcat

 

The boys pulled down the last of the nasty old shed!

 

Erin and Dad on the roof installing the shingles.

 

The stalls are coming along.

 Chaos.....

 

It really looks like a barn now!

 

With our new barn we obviously needed a new rig!

 

Jessie and Guinny meeting for the first time at the new barn.

 

And it was love at first sight!

 

They spend hours smooching on each other....

 

And we spend our mornings in our jammies smooching on them.

 

Geez, it's a shame they're so tense and can't seem to settle in....  ;)

Guinny's Got A Sister!

At least, we hope that's how he chooses to see her, as opposed to The Woman of His Dreams! It's always a risk having a mare and a gelding in the same family, but we're confident that he'll only be well-behaved about it and suspect that her little tomboyish personality will lend itself well to the "friends" rather than "lovers" situation.  We introduced them the other day for the first time (they're being stabled at farms less than a mile up the road until one barn has 2 stalls available next month) and though Big G. looked at her with googly eyes, she really didn't even seem to notice him standing there.  When he got in her face, she pinned her ears and gave him the Stink Eye....  Poor fella.

Our little family feels complete now that we have two horses to love on and learn from and grow with. It's been fantastic having Guinny in our lives since March and we're very excited to be moving him and his sister to our own property in a few months when the barn is up and the pastures are all fenced. Since the new house is finally officially ours (it took more than 6 months from offer to close on this amazing short sale property) we've been working like crazy to get the place horse ready. And shortly both horses will be right there in the yard, only a stone's throw from the 18-mile Tolt Pipleline Trail that meanders by our front door!

Our new zoo.... er, home!

The back yard, soon to be lush pasture for Guinny & Jessie!

The front yard as seen from the house
(and the 18-mile equestrian trail is just behind those trees!)

Unfortunately our ride together on our own two horses for the very first time wasn't properly documented with photos (wtf?!), but we do have a few pictures of the adorable Jessie.  It seems weird and blasphemous to talk much about Jessie the Little Sister on Guinny's blog but in an effort to conserve time and Internet bandwidth (for now) we'll do so.  We're pretty sure he won't mind.....

In a moment of serendipity Shanna noticed a beautiful mare on DreamHorse (where we first learned of Guinness) from a barn in the same town as Big G.  When we decided to go meet her we asked Shirley and Stan if they'd be willing to meet us -- not only would it be great to see them again but they obviously have an eye for a good horse! And it turns out the barn was literally 5 minutes up the road!  So Erin and Shirley met to have a look at darling Jessie. She's a 15.3 gorgeous bay Hannoverian/TB (like Guinny!) eventer who has excellent dressage and is a jumping machine. She and her former owner, Lucinda, made an awesome team and we are thrilled to know such a sweet woman as Lu. She and Jessie obviously adore each other and we're looking forward to being a 1/2-way stop for Lu at the new house when she's road tripping during college breaks.  It'd be perfect for her and Jessie to be able to hang out together on the trails!

Look, Guinny -- your little sister isn't afraid of flowers!

Not afraid of much, it would seem!

We're excited to bond with Jessie and learn to ride her this well!

So, there's been a lot going on lately between getting the new house habitable for horses and humans (and dogs, cats and birds) and trekking down to Wilsonville, OR to pick up Jessie. Then Shanna had surgery (which sucked but means a pain-free abdomen from here on out!) and Erin left for a 10-day trip.  Thank goodness for our trainer Rachel, who loves riding both horses and is keeping them exercised for us this week. Shanna is able to get out and love on them every day, adjust Jessie's blanket (the poor girl doesn't like our Junuary weather), stuff them full of treats and gently keep their coats looking nice. Good therapy for everybody!

Now, since it's his blog, back to Guinness.  He had his first massage since he's been with us -- Kim worked on him for 90 minutes and discovered all sorts of things. The poor fella's got a lot of knotty muscles -- pretty legit reasons for his Ugly Girth Face!  His fanny is tight and sore too.  So we've stopped taking him up the logging road hill for now.  :(   Once we work on some of his soreness those will resume, but for now we're focused on keeping him straight when under saddle (he still wiggles a lot) and building up his rear end. He's such a good boy for his rides and though we really miss the hack up to the meadow, pretty soon we'll have miles and miles of mostly flat trails to ride along!

It's been tough to plan a show so far this season with what feels like a million different obligations -- we need clones!  And Erin's had a tough time managing to get weekends off with work, but July is looking promising for a schooling show for both horses.  Most of our time will be spent working on the house and barn, but our plan is to be moved into the new place and living there the first week of July. If our fathers are willing to fly across the country for a week of hard physical labor, we expect to have the barn up and ready for Guinny and Jessie by the end of July. Fingers crossed!  But all work and no play is really a drag, so we'll likely hit a local show of some sort soon.  Jessie is really chilled out and relaxed by nature, so we think her personality will be a positive influence on her more lively brother!  Maybe she can talk to him about those plastic flowers....?

Guinny loves hacking along the logging road to visit his little deer buddies

The view at the top of a hilly gallop! (no worries, we pulled his mane after this shot!)

Guinny Got an Owie

But no worries -- he's back to normal now.  Or as "normal" as our handsome weirdo can be!

We had a great week of lessons last week (before the closing of our new house and the subsequent slavery it has required) and then Big G managed yet another booboo.  He's the king of owies, our boy!  And we can't figure out how it happens.  There are no sharp edges in his stall or paddock and there isn't anyone close enough to kick him.  Silly horse!

So after a few days of bandaging and cold hosing he was back to full health and the cut on his leg is nearly imperceptible.  And our horse nursing skills are getting the rust knocked off!

Before his owie we had 3 great rides in a row, all culminating in a trip up to the top of the logging road to partake of the beautiful view of the mountains and valley below.  He really seems to take a moment and appreciate his surroundings.....

This week is mostly being used to get the house in move-in condition (and soon we'll put up horse/dog fencing and a new "barn" for Guinness) so Rachel's putting in some training time. Erin will squeeze in a ride today before the movers come so she'll pass along kisses from all.

Rachel sent us this picture of Guinny in his paddock yesterday with his new little Quail Buddy. He looks really happy, doesn't he?

Guinny Gets Amped Over Fences

We had a jumping lesson today since it's been about a month since the last one.  Our boy definitely loves to jump, and for that we are exceedingly thankful.  But Guinness also tends to get himself worked up when he jumps, and today he was lit up!  Shanna started out the lesson getting him soft and supple, paying attention to what was being asked. She's working on sitting his gorgeous trot and he responds by making it as smooth and light as possible.

After they were going nicely as a pair Erin got on for some small jumping efforts. Guinny can hardly contain his excitement at the prospect of jumping, and it really is a blast to be on his back in those moments.  Unfortunately, he also sometimes gets a little strong and demanding, trying to be the one calling the shots about pace and direction.  He likes to run around like a maniac after he's bounded through the air, and when we try to slow him down he gets pissed off.  The more he jumped the more keyed up he got, the more Erin had to get after him with "I'm the rider and therefore the boss" maneuvers. Which further pissed him off. But it wasn't long before he came to the conclusion that the better behaved he was the more he could actually jump (because when he was having a naughty moment all he got to do was circle and flex his head and neck). We ended on good note with a great 2.5-foot jump, and everyone was pleased.

What Guinny sees in his mind's eye during our jumping lessons!

After our rides we've been heading up the logging road to the top of the mountain, and yesterday despite the pouring rain, Guinness decided he wanted to canter almost the entire way up.  Our biggest concern up there is that we'll come upon deer and our handsome fella will lose his mind.  But he proved us wrong when he and Erin rode upon FIVE of the four-legged creatures, and Guinny was a rock star! We'd just come to the flat spot on the trail about half-way up when Erin asked him to walk. It's not like he gets winded and needs to catch his breath, but it's nice to have a break for a minute. As we rounded the bend there stood 3 female deer, and surprisingly Guinny was the last to know! Once he spotted them he stood gaping, eyes wide open and head straight up like a giraffe, but he didn't move. They eventually sauntered off and despite being a little keyed up Guinness walked forward on the trail like a champ (and Erin had her hand wrapped around his mane just in case!).  We picked up a nice canter again (his gait and path while out on the logging trail are all his choice, so it cracks us up when he chooses to canter anyway), and bounded up the hill like a rocking horse.  As it opened out into the meadow he had settled into a really nice rhythm and it felt like he could go on forever. And then we spotted the next 2 deer, both juvenile males with fuzzy antlers. Again Big G. didn't see them until everyone else had become aware, but Erin brought him to a walk and kept a secure leg on him while he calmly passed the curious creatures, never losing eye contact.

We are looking forward to our first cross-country schooling trip, though the next one on the books in 2 weeks for the farm isn't going to happen for us because Erin will be working. Our goal is to compete in a horse trial by season's end, but since we have yet to see how Big G. will enjoy or behave running cross-country, it's all still a big question mark. (Although everyone suspects he'll eat it up once he's out there -- and maybe it'll cure him of his plastic flower phobia, learning what a bad-ass-future-eventer he can be flying over previously unknown obstacles!). There definitely will be, however, lots of dressage and hunter/jumper shows in our future.  Our biggest hurdle here is a set of wheels for Guinny, but we think we've got that one handled.  Soon!

Erin's got another lesson today so stay tuned for an update again shortly.

Guinny's Diggin' his New Digs!

It's been just over 2 weeks since our Handsome Fella moved to his new barn at Rachel's place. And like his 5 other stablemates, he seems delighted with the situation.  He's got the penthouse suite and is livin' large.  The field that adjoins his spacious paddock is giant and filled with knee-high grass, and one can feel the bliss radiating off him when he's out there.

Both Guinny's mommas have been improving with each ride, and Big G. himself has been learning, building muscle and expanding his trust of and love for us. We generally keep our arena rides and lessons short and to the point, and we always end on a good note.

When we pull up to the farm he's always outside in his private paddock, sometimes snoozing, sometimes deep in thought. And without fail he comes to the fence, greeting us with a friendly sniff and once in awhile a horse hug!

Life at Rachel's barn has settled into a nice routine and all 6 horses seem very content with their new situation.  Other than the two of us, the rest of the boarders are preteen girls who shower all the equines with carrots, cookies and pink & purple equipment. Since they're in school all day we are guaranteed quiet time almost every day before 3pm, which helps all of us concentrate in our lessons. But when the girls arrive the horses clearly soak up all the affection and chatter!

One of the best things about the barn is the long logging road that starts on the property and goes high atop the hill. It's a steep incline and about 15 minutes later it empties out of the forest into a beautiful sweeping boggy meadow. We're hopeful to find more trails and roads that branch off of that one, but for now it's been fun to take Guinny on these "trail rides" -- his enthusiasm evident and his glee is palpable! His first ride was with Shanna and while he was a bit nervous he was willing to go forward with only slight prompting.  Eyes wide, Big G's head was on a swivel, much like a child at his first carnival.  Since he doesn't have much experience with terrain and elevation gains, his down-hill steps were tentative and mini.  He would almost shuffle down the hill, not quite sure what to do with his legs.  Each successive ride up and back down the hill has brought even more enthusiasm and confidence, and today's included a brisk trot and even some keen cantering. It's amazing to us that by the time we get to the top Guinness is hardly winded -- he must have extraordinary lungs!

It's hard to say who has more fun on those logging road rides, but everyone's joy is evident.  We are increasingly more in love with our handsome boy, and very excited about our futures together.

We have been planning to ride in tomorrow's local dressage schooling show, but this past week when we hadn't received our ride times (or any information for that matter) we called the show secretary.  It turns out that our entry form was never received, and unfortunately there is no more room and there have been no scratches. So, our debut won't be happening this weekend.

But it'll take place soon, and with the progress we're making we're expecting our experience will be even better and more fun. And we promise to get video and great stills!

Despite the fact that we won't be competing this weekend we did take the warmish sunshine to bathe the dirty beast. And as is his custom, he insisted on helping!

And after he dried we decided to try this activity called "planking" -- it's all the rage these days: http://www.planking.me

With muzzle in the grass, indulging in his favorite pastime, Guinness didn't seem to even notice the lack of tack (or helmet) for the situation, thankfully.  He can be such a spaz sometimes, but when he's comfortable and pleasantly tired, he's almost bomb-proof.  Or at least plank-proof!

Guinny's Done Getting High

Great news for us and our boy!  It turns out that the reason Big G has been acting like a spaz all this time is because he's been getting FOUR QUARTS of GRAIN EVERYDAY! The poor fella can't even think straight with such a ration!

Once we discovered this grave error (it's not the first time we saw he was getting grain and asked them to stop) and put up a giant sign on his stall door, it's been awesome to see how he's quite a gentleman. And now he doesn't really even want to be lunged before a ride!  He's consistently great under saddle and has very few freak-outs now that he isn't high as a kite on grain.

Our posts have been sparse lately because we took a week of vacation and flew out to Lexington to spectate at the Rolex CIC-4****  Three Day Event. One of our former trainers qualified her horse to ride in her first 4 star event so we went out to support her and enjoy the sights (since goodness knows neither of US will ever compete at Rolex!). It was a super fun week and we were freshly inspired by the pair that came in second place (only by a slight time penalty on cross country), Allison Springer and her mount Arthur.  Artie's personality reminds us both a lot of Guinness -- he's goofy and spooky and can be overly excited. But Allison has believed in this guy forever and it's clear that they're a solid team. Even when Artie is a spaz, she is somehow able to get him to focus on the task at hand -- a 5-minute dressage test or a 12-minute cross-country course. We fell in love with the pair and are eager to figure out how Allison is able to channel Arthur's high-strung moments into brilliance.  Because if Artie can fly around a huge stadium course with 4-foot verticals and huge oxers cleanly, despite all the spooks at the in gate and another freak-out on his way out, we can certainly learn to do the same with Big G.

So far our trainer Rachel has been very helpful with getting Guinny to focus, which is sure a lot easier now that he's not amped up on grain. He was settling nicely into his routine at RockMeadow, and we're sure he'll do the same at Rachel's new barn. We moved him just a few days ago to her new facility and he seems very happy there.  He's made a strong friendship it seems with his next-door neighbor, Monty.  Apparently they're thick as thieves, which is funny because all the rest of the geldings at the former barn strongly disliked Guinny.  The feeling was mutual, though he was definitely a ladies' man....

We're sure Guinness will thrive in this smaller, more focused environment. He's definitely the king of the hill with the end stall and the largest paddock. When we first arrived he settled in and ate his lunch (after walking calmly into the trailer like a total rock star) while his humans attended to other matters. We arranged his copious amounts of stuff in the new tack room and then hand walked him around the property. It's lovely this springtime and the creek through the place is flowing strongly. This, of course, was a new opportunity to spook.  But no worries -- we'll have him jumping it in no time!

Walking around the indoor arena was also quite exciting as there is a low-hanging anti-bug mesh that surrounds the structure. In order to go in or out the horse must duck slightly and walk under the material. As you might imagine, this was the perfect time to act like a spaz. So we walked in and out, in and out, in and out (more than a dozen times) until he'd do it like a gentleman. He cracks us up.....

Our first show is set for just over 2 weeks from now. It's a tiny little schooling show at Bridle Trails in Redmond, the public-use equestrian venue. Erin and Guinny will be riding in the Introductory Test A and B classes, and it looks like they're the first to go early in the morning. Which will make it tricky for Guinny's entourage, we know. But since it's such an informal event, how about we agree to get it all on film and video and post it here? That way it saves a number of lovely Canadians a lot of hassle. And when we compete in our first actual horse trial/event later in the season we can have a big spectacle and party of it then?

The other good thing about waiting to have visitors is that we just learned this week that the house we put on offer on way back in October (a short sale = lots of paperwork) was accepted and we will close by month's end.  Once we get unpacked there will be lots of space for guests to stay, including eventually Big G himself!  Our plan is to erect horse fencing and eventually a barn, but for now it's a very good thing that Guinness is at Rachel's so she can ride him a few times a week while we're working.

He's coming along nicely and just in the week we were gone we can see that Rachel's rides have helped increase the muscling in his hind end. He's starting to move a bit straighter (which is good for our centerline trot in the dressage ring!) and he loves to jump. We are really eager to start some cross-country schooling with him soon, too!

Oh, before vacation we took him out on his first "trail ride". We walked down the road from RockMeadow and found a lovely series of wooded trails. It was tense going at a few points for the Big Fella, as he's clearly not used to walking on unlevel ground. He kept picking up all 4 of his feet like a cat in wet grass! But with Momma Shanna walking in front, Momma Erin in the saddle and Uncle Neal walking in back we spent about 30 minutes out in the woods. Guinness did a superb job of staying calm in the face of all sorts of new things, and really his only major upset came with the combination of soft footing that was slipping as he was trying to climb a steep hill while his on-foot buddies were starting to get a little too far away. But we worked through it and despite being completely sweaty after a half-hour at the walk (he soaked through both saddle pads!), he really seemed to enjoy himself.  We are eager to get him out on the miles and miles of trails that start at his new barn -- good for his mind and his budding new muscles!

Below are a few photos we took of Guinny's arrival at the new place the other day. He's getting new shoes today as well and we'll post pictures of that soon!

He can go in and out whenever he pleases!

The view from Guinness' paddock across the creek to the indoor arena.

One of his 5 neighbors (Monty, his favorite isn't in the shot).

King of the hill with the largest paddock, of course.

Checking out the smells in the new stall.

In, out, in, out, in.....