Today's the day!

Woke up bright and early this morning.  Got a load of clothes into the washer, the "cat porch" cleaned up and their bowls cleaned and refilled, the horses fed and Duke brushed and sprayed.  Now Lizzie? . . . haven't done a darned thing to her yet.  I'm HOPING Buddy and Lisa will be around long enough today to help me clip her this afternoon. 

But the REAL high point of today? . . . well, the arrival of our new boy, of course!  

I still don't know exactly how we're going to arrange everyone.  At the moment, Bug's old paddock has been closed off for weeks since Lizzie had managed to slide the mats outside that stall door around until there were deep pools of mud around there, so rather than fool with them I just closed off that paddock and kept her in the corner one next to Duke.  So she IS used to that one at the moment. 

But on the other hand, it might be good to put Arthuray/Sweet Boy/?? in there so he would be between the two horses before turning him out with them both.  I don't know.  Both Duke and Lizzie will be out in the big pasture when we get home with him, so I guess we COULD just turn him out there with them since there's lots of room for them to run each other around to begin with.  I don't think Debbie worried about putting new horses in with him without introducing them to him and that was never a problem, so . . .  hmmm. 

I guess we'll wait and see how he seems to feel when we first unload him.  I think Duke will probably be standing right there on the other side of the fence watching him come out of the trailer - and Lizzie will probably be out in the back of the pasture pretending there's is absolutely nothing of interest going on.  That's just "them."  But what to do next?  Not sure.

Last night Mark and I went over to Home Depot and picked up a couple of waterproof 4-foot 2-light fluorescent fixtures.  He's going to put one of them on that beam between the barn porch and the porch outside Duke stall where they all get their feet trimmed. 

The light fixture is going to be installed under that beam there on the left above that railing to the left of that chair.

That covered space where that little cart is parked is where we generally put the horses when they're having their feet trimmed.  So now it should be bright enough to manage that just fine even at night.  (And once those super-bright lights over the stalls themselves go  up, it'll be plenty bright out there OR inside.) 

This winter, by the time Zoilo got over here after training down in Prairieville on Fridays, it's usually been pitch dark.  And we don't have the lights installed over the stalls yet, so it's been really hard to find a place that's appropriate for him to work.  This light should take care of that.  It may not even be dark now that Daylight Savings Time is back, but it's going to need to be possible to see well no matter WHAT time it is since he's going to have to be working on the new guy's feet OFTEN for a while. 

Installing the lights in the barn has been being put off for a good while.  But eventually, there's always a reason why something HAS to get done.  Glad the lights will be going up. 

Now we just need a good reason to get those three white rolls of stall liner that are laying there on the porch put up.  ;-D