Fason Arrives at Bit of Honey

After a very fun visit with Carrie in Oklahoma, yesterday we said our thank yous and goodbyes, then loaded up to begin our trip home to Colorado.

Fason leaped into the trailer, then was happy to hang his head out his window for a photo shoot.  He was a rockstar for hauling these past two days to Colorado from Oklahoma.  He loads like a champion, and just needs to learn how to back out of a step-up trailer.  Fortunately my rig can accommodate a horse of his size, even if he has to turn around before coming out.

At our first rest stop Fason and I took a couple selfies in between his sips of water.  He was a hit at the gas station.  A girl scout was selling cookies at the truck stop, and she came over and asked to pet him.  For safety reasons we said no, but told her she could watch him from a safe distance.  She stood there for about ten minutes, until her mother called her back to her girl scout cookie table.  She continued to stare at Fason from there. 

We spent the night halfway in Russell, KS at a horse motel called M Bar T Ranch.  The people were nice, the facility was safe, they checked health papers, and let us humans sleep in the living quarters of the trailer.  The guy who got us all checked in was floored at the size of Fason.  In Kansas as barrel racers he and his wife mostly work with shorter compact quarter horses, occasionally appendix quarter horses who are retired racehorses themselves.  But nothing as large as Fason.

Once I had the horse settled, Sara and I went to Sonic for dinner.  My rig wasn't anywhere near small enough to fit in the drive through ordering stations, but there wasn't a restaurant where you could go in.  We didn't realize that, so we ended up standing in the kitchen ordering our chicken fingers and milkshakes directly.  The employee serving us was very befuddled with this aberration from his normal routine, but after entering our order into the computer three times and running my card twice he managed to get us food.

We got an early start this morning and arrived home around noon.  There were several people around, including my hay guy, the folks helping him, my husband, my friend Joan, as well as our friends who live downstairs.  Because of this we got some fun photos and video of Fason's arrival at Bit of Honey.

After I had Fason unwrapped from his trailer ride, and once I turned him out in his large secure paddock, he showed us just how pretty his trot will be.  Here is some video of him romping around:

https://www.facebook.com/kim.leonard.100/posts/10208685274466724

Some video of him meeting his new neighbors over the fence is here:

https://www.facebook.com/kim.leonard.100/posts/10208685243345946

I did have to move some horses around to accommodate everyone.  I moved my ponies and Samson to the west pasture, since they are the wooliest and I need to get to them the least often.  After they were moved everyone else settled down nicely.  Fason still looked out of sorts, despite having a full tub of hay and clean water.  I went into his paddock to brush him off and blanket him.  As soon as I put the halter on him he heaved a huge sigh, and stood perfectly still for me to brush him.  He looked so relieved that someone had arrived, who was in charge, and who was doing something familiar for him.  After I had him clean I held up the closed front blanket, and he emphatically lowered his head and dove into it so I could toss it over his neck and back, then fasten all the buckles.  Such a gentleman.  Luckily he and Highboy wear the same size pajamas.

His face just looks so tired to me, I imagine he is exhausted after this trip from Turfway Park in Kentucky all the way to Oklahoma City, then on to Wellington, Colorado.  He has been so well behaved.

After caring for the other horses who needed attention, lastly I fed dinner.  I carefully introduced Fason to a small portion of my mash concoction.  Fortunately after a cursory sniff and sample taste he dove right in.  I have to introduce this new feed slowly and carefully, since he was on a very different diet at the track which lent itself to fueling a racehorse.  I'm now trying to put weight on a sport horse, but I'll increase the amount of feed and increase the fats and calories gradually so that I don't upset his digestive system too much.

Tomorrow will be more introductions for him to my elaborate routine, so that he sees while it's a different routine than at the track, it's still a dependable list of activitites he can count on for mental stability.  This is really important for the track horses to help them adjust to normal horse life.  I look out the window from the house and see Highboy is already coaching him over the fence and explaining that Bit of Honey is a totally fun place.