The First 36 hours

Well we all survived.  The first night I slept really well (after a night check). Charlante laid down through the night and there was fresh poop and pee in her stall. She didn't dive into her breakfast but rather picked at it.

I had to go to a course for the day (it had been rescheduled due to weather) but Ed said he could handle it. He turned out Irish and Lexi but we left Charlante in. While she was good about being alone she wouldn't eat or drink while they were out so Ed brought them in at 1:00. He said that they were happy to come in.

When I came home I put on a lead and halter and took her for a walk. I wanted to show her the paddock. the problem is that the snow is so deep and she didn't know what to make of it. She was getting upset so I brought her back in. We have a good 3 feet of snow in the field. It's beyond ridiculous- we never get this level of snow! Until it goes down quite a bit I can't turn her out- I don't want her to get hurt as she doesn't know how to deal with it.

I fed the horses their supper and Charlante picked at it again. I know that you're dying to know what I'm feeding. Since Charlante was on the road and only getting hay (5 days in total) I thought that it made the most sense to gradually introduce her to my system gradually. I decided to start her on a mix of soaked alfalfa and beet pulp with a wee bit of oats. The idea being that I would gradually increase the oats. Because beet pulp has had the sugar all extracted often molasses is added back in but  the stuff I buy is unsweetened. In looking at what she ate, it seemed that she was not liking the beet pulp. It is also possible that her system was out of whack from the travel. I know mine was from the trip to Australia!

In the evening I went out the barn and brought Charlante out to the cross ties. She was a little nervous at first but has excellent cross tie manners. As I groomed her she began to relax more and more until she was blowing. I have this little curry comb that is excellent at getting out the loose hair and she loved it. I picked out her feet and she was really good about lifting her feet. A few times she tried to take it back but when I held on she just stood there. As I went to the next foot she would lift it up. I love a well mannered horse.

I stood at her head and held my hand out. She sniffed it and pulled back a bit. I just waited. She sniffed again and then softly lowered her head and place her forehead against my hand to rub it. Which I did. I'm allowing her the space to come to me and not trying to push it. We repeated that a few times.

As I was with her an idea hit me. I put her in her stall and headed back into the house. I grabbed the molasses out of the fridge and headed back to the barn. I drizzled some molasses on her food and stirred it in. She dove right in.

This morning I fed her soaked alfalfa, oats, vitamin and a drizzle of molasses. She dove in and ate it all.

Turns out the Princess has a sweet tooth.