Welcome Home Chance!!

Chance is finally home! I can't believe this day finally arrived. I couldn't get everything done that I needed to get done on Saturday evening. Now that I have a job, it is hard to fit everything into one day. After work (it sounds so weird saying "after work") I had to go to the feed store and pick up tons of last minute stuff for Chance. Shavings, apple picker, grain, alfalfa hay, some more brushes etc. So I got home and spread out 4 bags of shavings, I had to add more shavings into my horse trailer, take all the tack out of my trailer, and since my OH worked a 12 hour day, he couldn't get home before dark to unload the hay and grain, so I could hook up the trailer. So this morning, my OH hooked up the trailer for me and took the dividers out, while I slept in a little bit. I am still sick with the nasty cough. So we pulled out of the driveway at 9:00 a.m. We arrived at our destination at 9:30. We got the trailer backed up to the corral. The farm owner D, helped us get situated, and she let Chance into the corral. It took some time, but around 45 minutes later, Chance was in the trailer! Thanks for all your help D! I think Chance ran around in the trailer the whole way home. Poor thing. But she wasn't crying at all. We pull into our second driveway, the one that takes us back to the horse's pastures. I was expecting our girls to run down to the fence once they saw the horse trailer. We have never taken the horse trailer out to the horse's pastures before. We stop the truck and we see this........everyone just standing around, not a care in the world. Hmmm.......



I get out of the truck, my OH goes to shut the gate. I can just set Chance free right here. This long run opens into Chance's pasture. Then Chance whinny's. Oh no! Here comes the girls, goats and the Appy boy, running like wild, down to the fence. Now they know something is going on!



Now the girls are interested in the horse trailer.Oh, they look so proud!! And look at those goats running in the background, I think they were just as excited as the horses and the humans!



The Appy boy made it down last. He was all full of snorts! Silly Appy!



I open the door to the trailer, Chance comes to the door, stops, looks around, then jumps out. She runs down to the gate, and the boy and her sniff noses.Check out the neck of the boy, he was acting all stallion like! I think someone has a new girlfriend!



She ran back and forth between the horses for awhile, then we decided we needed to get her up to her pasture. I couldn't round her up past the horse trailer, she was scared to fit through such a narrow space, it is a tight squeeze with the fence being right there, but there was plenty of room for a horse to get through. So I put a lead rope on her and very carefully led her through. Believe it or not, this was her first real leading experience, and she did awesome! She was prancing along, but was definitely scared. She followed me right on by the fence, goats and truck. She kept following me to her pasture, where my OH shut the gate, and I set her free.



She was so cautious about everything, the dirt we just put down to fill low spots, she was scared of, she didn't want to go very far in the pasture, but she was definitely curious in it all. She'd walk around, sniff, eat some grass, eat some hay, trot, run. She did it all. She even ran full speed, couldn't stop in time and slid into the fence. I was a little worried after that, but she just needed to figure out the fence line and she would be fine. I added more flagging tape to the fence, down lower so she could see it better.



She wasn't too sure about the water trough, but she did figure out that it wasn't something to be scared of, and drank plenty of water.



The girls were so excited, they had to take the front row seats.



The goats weren't too far behind.



Chance became more brave as time went by. She started to relax and graze.



She stopped to eat some hay.



I love her shadow in this picture, it looks like a cartoon character!



Unfortunately, her pink bucket got in the way in this picture. She moves so fast, it is hard to get a picture of her standing still! Where is my picture taking sister when I need her!



I bet Chance will be covered in shavings tomorrow. I know she really wants to roll in them, but was too nervous to do it. See the gate on the left that my OH built for me? On that side of the barn there is a weird space that I didn't want Chance to go into, so my OH built a gate, I can store a wheelbarrow, apple picker or whatever I need too, on the other side.



Brandy took a huge interest in Chance. She did not leave the fence for hours. She wouldn't even take her eyes off of her. All the others eventually got bored with the new addition. But Brandy, nope, she was in love!



I was finally able to get a picture of Chance running. She did a lot of that today. I have actually never seen Chance really run before! So that was a lot of fun. She sure can move! And her extended trot is to die for!!



She kicked up her heels a lot.



Chance and Bailey met for the first time. The dogs will need to learn some manners around a baby. They think she is just an over- sized goat, not that we have any of those around here!



By evening, Chance had calmed down. She did a lot of pacing, but she seemed to have no more go or bucks left in her. She grazed, drank water and happily munched her hay. Hopefully in a couple days, she'll be settled right in here at the Painted Creek Farm!