Welcome Buddy

This morning my friend and I headed out to collect Buddy the pony and bring him home. You always kind of expect the worst when loading a horse you don't know, so we tried to be realistic in our expectations. It turned out to be incredibly easy with Buddy being a very cooperative well behaved gentleman. Actually, that describes how the whole day has gone. I've never seen a new horse added to a herd with such little drama. 

First a meeting over the fence.

Actually, Major provided some drama. See the ears? That pretty much describes his opinion to begin with. Buddy seemed completely unruffled by the large horse trying to eat him.

Then it was time to move him into the dry lot. Vienna had seemed very interested over the fence.

This was within ten minutes of meeting. Vienna did set her boundaries initially catching Buddy in the side with a double barreled kick. Once again, he was undisturbed and just moved away. 

They spent the day in the dry lot together and even ate the hay I put out for them without fuss. By late afternoon Buddy had decided that this was an interesting adventure, but he was ready to go home and spent some time yelling at a stall door. Poor thing. G. (who is in love with him) spent some time keeping him company.

At dinner time they both came in and had their food and hay. We did put the divider up because it's a smaller space and food was involved. Everything was actually very peaceful.

Notice Vienna eyeing Buddy's hay.

So far, so good. He is a sweet and adorable pony and Vienna has been active and interested in things in a way I hadn't seen since before she got sick. It will be a while before Buddy and the big horses spend time without a fence between them, though. 

And one last thing to share. When J. was redoing stalls, he made some changes for me that makes the barn a lot more functional and allowed me to get things off the floor of the aisle. First are shelves to hold grooming supplies.

Then behind the hay he built a shelf to hold things I only need to get at a couple of times a year, such as blankets. 

We might have enlarged a stall, but these things make the barn seem a lot bigger overall.