How we'll get to our new home

Baasha now lives alone with Ronni, the shetland baby. The other Arabs went away for training (endurance conditioning, I assume). Since this happened, and slightly before, Baasha decided that Ronni is his best friend forever and they cannot be apart, not even for a moment. In fact, when I came to get my horse today, he HID from me. Usually he comes right up, happy to see me, happy to go away with me. How rude. I cleaned up the paddock for the next hour, ignoring him, but every so often giving Ronni a bit of carrot, because eventually I'd need to lead Ronni out too, because if he's left alone, he'll go through the fence. It's his electric-fence proof shetland coat that lets him do this. I've never seen such a coat on a horse. Pure fluff.

Well Baasha, since you're not happy to see me today, (I know he saw my riding pants) I'll just take your little friend away.

Ronni doesn't lead, so I needed the carrots to bribe him to follow me. Suddenly Baasha came running. She's taking him away!!!!!!!!!

Oh, you wanna come too? Good. I put on his halter and took them both to the barn, where I had a huge hassle trying to get Ronni in a stall, and Baasha not. Ronni would not go in without Baasha, and I didn't want Baasha in. Pulling on Ronni is like pulling on a tree. Not budging. Pony ended up pissing me off, and when I finally did leave the barn with Baasha, Baasha actually NEIGHED back to the barn. Like, 3 times. Calling to friends is so not allowed. Neighbors walked by as I yanked on his halter feebly. He knows he's not supposed to call when I'm with him, but he is superbond-o-matic horse and he's now bonded with Ronni.

Then a neighbor yelled at me for riding my horse on a trail that horses are not allowed on. I said "I saw no sign." Then I felt guilty and got off and walked him a lot, but the ground was completely soft, not frozen, and not wet at all. It was a perfect day for really moving out.

I hurried him down the trail, on a mission. Oh, I forgot to tell you my plan. I plan on riding Baasha to our new home next month. It's not THAT far, about 25 miles, and that's just the kind of challenge I love. My man was on the phone today with both cities, asking about riding trails or possible ways to ride from one city to the next. This is what I pay my 38 Euros per year for my horse to have that license. Horse trail expertise from the government folks. Well, it turns out these government folks don't have the expertise I'd hoped. They said, "Would you like to buy a map that shows where the trails are? We're not really sure where, so we can't help you on the phone." So my man paid the 4 Euros for some maps. Isn't he awesome, to help me with my plan like this? I told him I'd call the city of Seattle sometime, if he needed me to.

I got a little lost, even with a GPS and a map. I was supposed to take this particular trail, and I just lost it suddenly and ended up on another that was so beautiful (no horses allowed, oops) that I couldn't resist. We flew through it and he never once stumbled. It occurred to me that he used to stumble a lot, back when he wore shoes. It used to freak beginners out, cuz he'd trip so often on a trail ride. He simply doesn't do that anymore. And he's way older and more arthritic now.: )

Darn it, he was covered in sweat tonight, but it's not really that cold out. We met some really nice horses in pastures today, no less than 4 horses came RUNNING to us, on separate occasions to say hello. I laughed and Baasha said hello. He's allowed to nicker hello, he just can't neigh. I pointed to his tail and said, "Let me just demonstrate to you beauties what a clean tail looks like, because I see you all could use a washing." Those were some muddy happy horses. Baasha waved his tail in the breeze, and it caught the light and glistened silver. I said, "Good work!" to myself: ) (It's been a while since I've washed it - the water's been frozen.)

BTW, earlier, as I led Ronni and Baasha to the barn, Ronni was walking at Baasha's tail, making it hard to drag him along. I stopped and went around to see what the deal was, and that little brat had Baasha's ENTIRE TAIL in his mouth, bone and all. Good grief! You know I sprayed that "anti-bite" spray on well tonight!

We rode on and on until I realized I was nowhere near where I needed to be to make this trip to our new home. I had hoped to get 1/4 of the way there today, just to see if it's possible.

Oh well, it was a great ride. It got dark, I got turned around a few times very close to home, just because it was so dark. Baasha was fascinated with late-night dog walkers in the distance. He was posing, staring off, he looked like a painting, except for the wavy sweat patterns. I walked so much today, I'm totally exhausted now.

Totally exhausted in that good way. I kissed him and he put his forehead into my chest. When I led Baasha and Ronni out into the paddock, they both drank together at the trough, and turned and walked away from me without a backward glance. I'm happy for the next 4 weeks, no one will be beating up on Baasha and stealing his food and putting bite holes in his new blanket. Who knows, he may even gain weight!