Introducing Fox Valley Nova

We're all still recovering from the horseshow, but we did get home safely Monday evening.  We ended up coming home with four horses, so a full trailer!  

The two in the back behind the screens were geldings that I brought to simplify transport to their new home in Georgia.  It was definitely easier for their new owners to get them from here than from NJ! They were picked up yesterday and headed to what sounds like a wonderful equine facilitated sports psychology program for volleyball players, coaches, and family members.

Lynx was in the front.  He came back with me and will continue on to his new home in KS  beginning of next week. I'm glad he's getting a few days of down time to recover from the trip and show before heading to his new home where he'll do competitive trail riding and some dressage.

Next to Lynx was Fox Vally Nova, my new project.  They were a little funny with each other during the trip, they had a very sibling rivalry thing going.  Whenever we stopped for water and a rest break and I opened the windows, Lynx and Nova would make faces at each other, but it was more of a "Kiiiim!  She's LOOKING at me!" than any kind of actual arguing.  I did find out they were in the same racing barn for a while, so they probably remembered each other and were just irritating each other for fun.

Nova is 5 years old and she's quite nicely put together, though I think she's got a lot of growing left to do. I measured her with a stick and level, and she's currently 16.2 and 1/2". I string tested her and she measures to 17.2 when she's fully mature! It's not out of the realm of possibility, I've had several big ones that didn't get their last half inch of height until their 8 y/o year...! We'll see how she does in the next few months.  Growth spurts and coordination are often at odds with each other!

Miss Nova got a haircut this morning to begin her transition to sporthorse life.  She also figured out the head tilt/lips wiggle to earn cookies.  She's been very fun so far.  I've missed having a youngster around, my current herd is getting to be elderly.  While I am grateful their brains have finally kicked in and they are a lot less work than when they were young and always causing trouble, it's fun to have a squirrely baby again.

She does like all the cookies I've offered her, and has figured out the head tilt and lip wiggle to ask for additional snacks.  I prefer this to getting mugged for treats, so I like to teach this party trick early.

She of course raced under the name Fox Valley Nova, and has been going by Nova since her racing career ended.  In this part of the country however, "NOVA" is short for Northern Virginia.  There's a general consensus around here that SOVA (Southern Virginia) is preferred to NOVA, so she may be called Sova while she's here in training.  It sounds similar enough that I don't think she'll get confused, and everyone here loves Sova!