Queen Of Munchkin Land

I'm pretty sure that in the few days she's been here, the other horses have accepted Disco as their leader. Roxi is like her little shadow, Casper gets out of her way even if there's food involved and Summer just leaves her alone all together. I think Dee enjoys living in munchkin land!
Yesterday was her first trip ever to an indoor. We had some minor mishaps, and she's going to have to learn to load on the trailer with just me, but we got over to Nancy's safe and sound. She was a very good girl getting tacked up in the barn aisle, and then came the big task: going inside the indoor. As I slid the door open, I'm pretty sure her eyes popped out of her head... there were jumps! mirrors! birds! She ogled all the jumps, stared at herself in the mirror and just generally scoped the whole place out. Once I'd walked her once around in each direction, Nancy held her while I got on. Now, she hasn't REALLY been ridden in a few weeks. I'd jumped on her the day before, but the ring was an ice rink and we just walked. Needless to say, I was expecting some fireworks... I mean, a 3 year old in a new place that hasn't been ridden in awhile? Surely there is going to be spooking, bucking or something, right? WRONG! She was an absolute doll, getting straight to business. I just did walk/trot, and we worked on her transitions a little bit... her last trot - walk transition was actually not terrible, since she didn't turn into a giraffe, so I quit with that.
I must say, I was quite impressed. Most of the time, she was stretching and relaxed, coming quietly from behind. I was very, very pleased with her, and I think she'll be quite nice eventually... it seems like she's very sensible under saddle. Now, if I can just get her to stop being such a witch on the ground, we'll be all set!

"We accept you, one of us! Gooble Gobble!"

Disco made new friends yesterday! I tossed her out with Roxi and Casper first, since I was a little worried about Summer. Roxi was first to investigate, and after touching noses for a moment, Disco commenced with the squealing. She squealed at Roxi, she squealed at Casper, she squealed at nothing much in general. As all of this squealing was happening, Disco was exploring the paddock. Roxi quickly decided that she is Disco's new shadow. Maybe it's because she can't really see and Disco is awfully big, so she's hard to miss.
Anyway, after those three had gotten used to one another and were more interested in the hay piles than eachother, I brought Disco in, fed dinner, turned Disco back out and then let Summer loose. Well, just as Summer realized that there was a new horse out with them, Casper and Roxi went charging over to Disco like her little back-up crew, so Summer just said hi and the two began eating from the hay pile (after a totally non-commited squeal from disco).

Discotrax!

Well, it's official. As of yesterday I am the new owner of Disco, a 3 year old TB mare. Megan and I drove up to Millbrook in the FREEZING cold to get her vetted, and once she had passed with flying colors, we loaded her up and brought her home to Litchfield. She was very calm and collected about the entire thing. When I went to take her out of the trailer, I undid her from the trailer tie, hooked on her lead rope and tossed it over her neck, and then undid the back of the trailer. As I was standing at the back of the trailer, all of the bars and doors down and ready for her to leave, she just sort of turned around and looked at me, as if to say "excuse me? why aren't you UP HERE? Shouldn't you be leading me down?" But a little coaxing convinced her that it was not such a big deal and she calmly wandered down the ramp.





Casper, Roxi and Summer thought she was a totally big deal, and there was some curious through-the-bars sniffing with minor squealing (mostly from Disco) but no striking or otherwise bad behavior. I'm hoping to toss her out with them today, so fingers crossed that all will go well.
Once she got in her stall, she set right to gobbling down her hay - always a good thing. I let her do that for a bit while I unhitched the trailer and got her stuff situated, then I took her out for a mini-tour of the property (a mini-tour because walking up the driveway more closely resembled trekking through the frozen tundra, with very high, totally frigid wind.)
She took everything in stride.







Following our little tour, it was time to introduce her to her new blanket, which she was none to thrilled about. Those hind leg straps were EVIL, and she wanted to teach them a lesson, which meant almost kicking me, which resulted in her getting in trouble. She responded to getting in trouble by squealing at me, throwing a small fit, and then standing like a little soldier while I did up the rest of the blanket. Oh mares. I forgot what divas they can be!