Horse homecoming -- day two

We went over to load up Bug yesterday afternoon and as usual she just trotted right up into the trailer - no problem whatsoever.  Then Mark noticed a huge wasp nest on the wall of the trailer RIGHT next to her hip!  Yikes!  So we calmly backed her out and put her back into her stall while Mark got rid of the wasps in the thing.  Phew!  I am SO glad she didn't get stung.  That could have put a serious damper on her willingness to load up whenever we like.  We're pretty fortunate that way.  None of our horses ever give us any trouble -- they all seem to love to travel.

Anyway, once the wasps were disposed of, we loaded her back up and brought her HOME at last!  She backed out of the trailer, took one look around and immediately started grazing.  One happy girl!

She's been stuck in a stall over there at Al's ever since the vet came by last week because of her ear abscess.  We decided it would be way better to bring her here and allow her to come and go from her stall and graze in her paddock.  And sure enough.  The moment she got out of the trailer we could see that she was absolutely ecstatic about being out and having grass at last.  

I've been topping her feed with her meds and she does still eat it all - but not immediately.  She likes to wander in and out and eat out of her bucket off and on instead of all at once.  Seems like a fine idea to me.  

This morning I went out to see what condition her stall might be in.  It was pristine.  Hmmm.  So I went out to look around the paddock.  Didn't see a thing.  Oh, no -- did she have some sort of digestive problem???

Well, let me start at the beginning.  There was a big hole in her paddock where the  root from a fallen tree was pulled out, so we had some dirt delivered and dumped in the hole.

The hole that was in Bug's paddock where we pulled up the root from a fallen tree.

There's the dirt pile that got dumped over that hole.

Okay, see that narrow space between the dirt pile and the fence where there's no grass to speak of?  THAT is where Bug has been going to poo - every time.  I'm telling you, that girl is SOOOO tidy.  It's a wonderful thing.  

Bug's "toilet facilities" -- behind the dirt pile.

I ran a few errands this morning.  Since we don't have gutters on the barn yet, water is constantly pouring off the roof and down along the doors.  Even when it isn't even raining, water pours off of there every morning just from condensation over night.  So I went down to Tractor Supply and picked up a bunch of stall mats to put outside their doors so they won't have to walk through the mud to get into their stalls.  I also picked up a 100 gallon water tank that we've decided to put between Duke's and Lizzie's paddocks with mats around it.  (I'm just going to have to keep filling up the little bucket I put  in Bug's stall for her water until Mark gets the water lines run and their automatic waterers installed.  

Anyway, it's 2 o'clock right now, and Mark is out reconnecting the water line that goes out to the faucet on that end of the house by the barn (the line got cut when the garage door openers were replaced a while back - long story).  Once that's done, we're going to fill up that water tank and go bring Duke and Lizzie  home!