Arrival and new digs! - Move to Canada Stage 2

Arrival! It was almost dark and my phone camera is not working well.

We returned to pick up the horses from Wind Hill Farm as soon as the U-haul was unloaded and returned.  We also hurried a little bit to as another weather front was coming in the next day.  While moving our household goods we got to experience sitting on the 401 for 2 hours with the U-Haul due to multiple crashes during ice-snow road conditions. Once we started moving again I even saw a truck that was a little too eager to get moving fish-tail through all the lanes of the highway and end-up in a snowbank on the side (he was ok, but I am sure glad I was behind him and not beside!) I did not want to drive the horses in those conditions so we made sure it was a safe day for hauling!

All went smooth, we picked the horses up at Wind Hill a little before lunch then headed to the border.  Customs examined our coggins tests and healthy certificates fairly quickly (thankfully), but apparently horses are excluded from the tax-free list of goods for new immigrants. This meant we unexpectedly owed about $400 in taxes, based on declared value of the horses, to import the horses.  Good thing both horses are relatively low $$ value horses! (especially compared to fancy show or race horses!).  After that small surprise, we continued on the way and arrived at Cayuse Creek Ranch in about 3 hrs. Check out Sonny and Rogan's new home: https://www.gannydistancerides.com/ owned by Bob Coleman and Michelle Bignell, both accomplished endurance riders.  Cayuse Creek is adjacent to the 11,00 acre Ganaraska Forest, with 400 miles of trails (no more hauling out for conditioning!!!).  It also has a new indoor arena with clear plexi-glass in the side walls which lets loads of wonderful natural light inside!  The indoor is absolutely necessary for winter riding as the outside footing is generally to icy to safely ride this time of year.

The horses live outside, where they are happiest, with run-in sheds and round bales available 24-7.  Rogan and Sonny are currently in their own paddock for initial quarantine and the winter.  Once spring comes the gate is opened and they have access to grassy fields. There are stalls available for temporary use (feeding, medical needs, etc) and each boarder takes care of their own feeding as desired. I like this arrangement as I tend to be particular (LOL!) and can modify/arrange my feeding as I see fit!

Sonny laying down in the wonderful sand! (and please excuse my poorly functioning camera! The blinding white is all the lovely natural light coming through the clear arena walls!)

Both horses are quite settled in by now, though it has taken Sonny a little longer to get used to the indoor arena and activity of a boarding barn. Rogan has plenty of experience through many years of heading to training clinics in similar situations. Our riding/ground-work has essentially focused on relaxation and relationship to help Sonny become comfortable in the indoor -- it makes lots of noises, especially when the wind blows or the snow slips off the roof!  He is doing great and while each session may not start relaxed, they all end with lots of blowing out, licking/chewing, and yawning. It is also good to have both private and shared time in the arena.  The private time really lets me focus on my horse and getting him focused on me by ourselves (with the challenge of Rogan continually neighing from his paddock).  This simulates working on the trail by ourselves, or leaving a buddy horse at ride-camp!  Shared time is great and challenging too. Sonny is very social and concerned about what the other horse is doing-- on the trail or in the arena.  I think the shared arena will end up being a great simulation for focusing on me rather than the other horse on the trail.  When sharing the arena the horses continually pass and leap frog each other, another horse may be cantering when you are walking, and vice versa.  Essentially each horse has to focus on their activity and not fret over everyone else.  The may seem very basic for horses that have lots of arena time (like group lessons, etc) but is very new to Sonny!  Each time he relaxes, and in each new situation, he is coming to trust me more and I can see our partnership growing.

Rogan laying down

The other absolutely fantastic part of having a real arena is SAND!! I have always wanted my horses to lay down on que, but have never been able to achieve it.   A horse has to offer a behavior in order for you to shape it and relate it to a que (unless you want to use ropes or something else which is not my approach).  In West Virginia, I had shale, firm stone dust, and a little grass -- nothing consistently desirable to lay down and roll in!  Now the horses live in a icy-snowy paddock and I take them into an amazing sandbox, they love it!  Both horses have figured out to ask questions and watch me closely, so when I 'pawed', they pawed and quickly got a treat.  After they pawed they thought it might be fun to roll! When they layed down to roll they got the mother-load of carrots 😊 That stuck! - especially for Rogan.  He more than knows that treats are related to a behavior he offered (ie he will pick things up and hand them to you all the time, in exchange for a cookie).  I did remember to dig out the clicker (which they also have previously learned, click = desired behavior = cookie).  The clicker helps me pinpoint the exact behavior I am rewarding, so it helps the horses figure out the puzzle a little easier.  Rogan is starting to really understand, but he tries to see how little he can do and still get a cookie, so he will paw and look at me or bend his legs as if laying down then look at me. It is very cute, but while I initially rewarded the small tries, I now stand patiently and just watch him and eventually he fully lays down.  Sonny is also understanding, but first I have to ensure is relaxed, either through connecting groundwork or having Rogan nearby.  The downside to all this is all my equipment now is covered in fine arena sand, definitely will have to wash my pads and girth before an endurance ride!

I am enjoying the slow, bonding time that arena play allows, but am also looking forward to checking out all the trails this spring!  I am hopeful that my improving connection with Sonny will carry over to training rides and competition too!

Move to Canada - stage 1

Lunch break at Blue Ridge Travel Plaza in NY

Life has been busy and it took a while to get the computer set-up so this is written a little after the fact.  Also my cell phone camera is basically trashed so the pictures are lacking too.  But the whole family (horses, cats, and ourselves) has successfully landed in Ontario, Canada. The plan was to move the horses to a short-term boarding facility while we moved ourselves, then return and pick up the horses.  That is basically what happened and we got very lucky with the weather, our pre-arranged travel days were all mostly between storms. 

Prior to the trip I started both horses on preventative doses of Gastrogard and made sure they had salty mashes the day before (just like we were going to a ride!).  We headed north from West Virginia with the horses and took about a 1 hr lunch stop 1/2 way through the trip (about 4 hrs).  We had pre-picked places that looked safe to unload the horses for a bit, and ended up choosing the Blue Ridge Travel Plaza http://blueridgetravelplaza.com/ .  It worked fine, the ground was little icy (especially after Sonny knocked the water tub over!) but no problems.  We arrived at the short-term boarding facility in Pulaski NY late that evening (around 8 pm).  The owners were very welcoming and helped us get the horses settled in.  However, the facility was not was I expecting, the owner's had said the horses would be outside as much as possible, but apparently we had very different definitions of "as much as possible". Essentially Rogan and Sonny were going to be turned out into a round-pen sized indoor arena for 2-3 hrs each day while the stalls were cleaned.  Not ok!!  The stalls were also very small, I would guess about 10' x 7' -- I don't think Rogan could stand fully in the width of the stall. I was worried about Rogan casting himself as he is a fairly big horse.  The stalls also didn't have heated water, which was very concerning as both my horses are used to a Nelson heated waterer keeping the water about 50F; the owner gave fresh water 2x daily (which rapidly froze as the low was about -26 F) and Rogan and Sonny just aren't accustomed to that routine.  The other big red flag was all the other horses in the barn had non-breakaway, including rope-style, halters on all the time.  Another big safety no-no!  The horse's also seemed a bit wound, not happy and relaxed (probably from excess energy being stalled all the time!). And the barn was very crowded, old, with hay, and electric wires -- it seemed like a huge fire hazard too.  I was pretty concerned about a fairly high risk of impaction colic for my horses with so many big changes at one time (significantly decreased movement + loads of hay + plus cold water only given 2x daily). On the positive the owner was very knowledge about horses and very thorough - if he had a different facility I would trust him to take care of my boys!  We stayed overnight and then the next morning I made a call to the other nearby facility on horsemotel.com, Wind Hill Farm.

Rogan and Sonny relaxed in the stalls at Wind Hill Farm

Row of newly built stalls at Wind Hill Farm

Randy at Wind Hill Farm was very welcoming and re-arranged his schedule so he could accommodate us last minute.  We headed north for about another 1.5 hours and arrived at his farm, just south of the border, near Thousands Islands NY.  On arrival we unloaded the horses into adjacent, new, 12' x 12' matted stalls with heated water and wall slots so the horses could see each other and feel comfortable.  Both horses immediately cocked a hind leg and relaxed (well Rogan had to pee in the fresh shavings first!).  For the week layover, the horses had use of the whole indoor arena as a run-in shed with access to 5 acres of snowy pasture (alternating outside time with Randy's personal horses).  We blanketed them (as the high temperatures were forecast to be well below 0F for the next few days -- and the low Sat morning was -26 F!  I felt very comfortable leaving my horses in Randy's care at Wind Hill Farm! Then we headed back south as fast as possible as another front was blowing in and we didn't want to be on 1-81 in a snowstorm.  We didn't quite beat the snow, but we did safely make it home late that evening to start the next phase of them -- ourselves, the cats, and all the stuff!

Indoor arena -- i.e. Best Run-In Shed EVER!!!

Outside of the barn/arena (and the dangling fencing strand is Christmas lights, not barb wire!)

Parking the trailer for temporary storage into a snowbank