AH! Here we go! CT was a trip and a half! It was such a great experience for me. I finished throwing the last box in my truck, kissed my horse goodbye as she was leaving a day later then I was. Julie's house/farm was absolutely spectacular (as you can tell from the above pictures).
My mom drove out with me and stayed for a few days while I settled in and got into the flow of things. Work started promptly at 6 am, with lunch from noon-1:30 and work until the days tasks were done and the horses could be fed at 4pm, only to bed fed again at 830pm. 4 meals a day they were eating better than I was! It was a Tues-Sunday job with Mondays to do my own thing, like sleep and eat. It was hard work and a lot of work but very fun and I learned a lot of what to do and what not to do! Julie and her husband were great, they acquainted me with some of their friends and would take me out to their dinner parties, they treated me more like a friend then an employee. I appreciate everything that they had to offer.
Not only was there a nice barn, with cobblestone floor, large padded stalls with cameras but the rest of the farm was spectacular. A large outdoor arena with great footing and huge OUTDOOR mirrors, I hadn't seen such a thing! I thought it was great to have mirrors in an indoor and these people have them outside! It was absolutely gorgeous! There were trails that I could take the pony, Rolando and Hannah on next door and hills so I could keep Hannah in shape. There were several areas of turnout, the grass paddocks where the horses would be turned out individually with boots on and I would sit and watch them for an hour then bring them in. If it rained then they would get turned out in the wood chip paddocks and watched and brought in. Down below was a lovely round pen where Julie and I worked her young horse Milano and where I would sit on him on the longe line until he was ready for the outdoor arena. It was a breathtaking house and farm.
November rolled around and we began to put the finishing touches on preparing the farm to be closed down and for us to move out and down to Wellington, FL for the winter.
The horses, Davi, Cola, Milano, Rolando and Hannah were all ready to get down south for some warm weather. I had the horses all cleaned and body clipped and they were ready to warm up.
They had an tremendously amazing rig. A huge top-kick truck (like a mini-semi almost) and an air-ride Pegasus horse trailer which could be converted into just about anything from a box stall to a regular trailer slot. We finished loading all the gear the night before and we planned to leave at 5am the following day. We woke up to large heavy rain drops, but despite the weather I rolled out of bed and brought down my last suitcase and fed the horses. Once all the horses were ready we made sure everything else was loaded and then began loading the horses one by one. We finally got everyone in and settled and set down the road to make an overnight stop in North Carolina. We made it to North Caroline in the evening and were able to let the horses out for a few moments to stretch their legs and eat some grass. We headed to a hotel to get some sleep.
Again and early morning and a lot of driving. We could feel the weather change the further south we got. We had to pull blankets off the horses and turn up the AC in the trailer. Yes, AC in the horse trailer, royal animals! We made it down safely, taking a lot of breaks to refill hay nets, offer water and check on the horses. Milano was slightly dehydrated so we kept a close eye on him and had vets waiting at the farm in Wellington when we arrived.
That's all for now, read more later on the Florida part of my adventures!
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