Relocation part 1

Guess who was barely able to survive the relocation?  Me!  Holy cow was that not fun but thankfully nothing horrible came up.  Originally I had 3 friends who offered to come to PA with me while I moved the horses and then that dwindled down to two and then a possible one.  Sigh.  SO was freaking out and was considering buying a $800 one way ticket back to MI so I wouldn't drive it alone, I am all "Dude, I am fine.  It will majorly suck, but I got it".  Thankfully S confirmed that she could come on 3 days before we left so he calmed down.

As stated in my previous post, I practiced loading/unloading twice a day until we left on Friday.  I had zero desire for someone to exercise their freedom to say No while we were on the road and on a deadline.  It helped so much, App went from a hesitant loader to one that will load by himself (as long as you have a whip in your hand).  Mia also fine tuned her skills by learning to load into the rear slot of the trailer.  Win!

How much stuff can be shoved into a 2 horse trailer?  A lot!

Thursday was extremely busy.  Originally I had the entire day for final packing of the trailer and house.  Well, best intentions right?  The closing was bumped up from April 4th to March 24th and was at 10a.  Yikes!  That meant I spent Weds night and Thurs morning cleaning for the 9a walkthrough and then didn't get back to the house and start packing until noon.  Of course.  I needed to be in bed by 830p, my all-day plan was just reduced down to 8 hours.  I loaded everything up which took most of the day.  My tack trunks had been reduced to 5, everything consolidated.  Took everything down, filled 4 hay nets, set aside 3 more bales of hay to bring, bought some Purina Hydration Blocks, brought 10 gallons of water, cleaned the barn and was ready.  The kicker is that it was 30 degrees and raining the entire time.  And not misting or sprinkling, but raining steady the ENTIRE DAY.  I got so freaking cold that eventually I went in the house for an hour and hugged the woodstove to try to warm up.  My jacket was soaked completely through despite swapping it out halfway through the day and only being "out in the rain" on trips to/from the trailer from the barn.  Ugh.

You will not count my saddle pads.  Or half pads.  You will not, judge free zone here!

Friday morning, at the bright hour of 5a, I was outside finishing up.  I strapped the 3 bales of hay on the back of the truck (since it had finally stopped raining) and wrapped everyone up.  App was surprisingly calm, usually wrapping for a trailer means 4-7 nervous poops and he gave only one.  Progress!  We loaded up without incident and S and I were off at 610a.  We stopped for fuel and drinks about 20 mins in and App was not a happy horse.  He was shaking and had himself pushed as hard against the back of the trailer as he possibly could.  His hind legs were well under him as he was pushing hard against the back wall.  Poor guy.  I brought him forward off of the wall with treats through the window and let them rest for a good 20 minutes before we continued on.  Sorry App, you are going to have to relax at some point!

Stopped along the PA turnpike

We stopped for breakfast about 2 hours later and App wasn't shaking anymore but he was certainly still pushing against the rear of the trailer.  Mia seemed pretty okay with things, though, which was nice.  We gave them a 30 minute break before continuing on.  When we reached the PA/OH boarder, we stopped at a rest stop and gave them a good rest.  We unloaded them and walked them around on the grass.  Mia was very looky and spooky at the big trucks going by on the highway but App couldn't have cared less.  Sometimes he really is Mr Awesome, I LOVE Mr Awesome!  Both horses LOVED the hydration block and much preferred it over an actual drink of water.  I was able to get about 4 gallons into them as they slurped on the hydration block/mush and it made me happy.  After an hour, we loaded them back up and surprisingly, they both went on without any hesitation.  Woohoo!  Groundwork for the win!

Just where did we end up?!

No matter, treats solve all issues!

We stopped for fuel about 2 hours later and offered them more water, which they didn't want, but when offered the same water with the hydration block they were all GIMME GIMME!  Ahh horses lol.  A 20 minute rest came to an end and we headed back out for the final leg.  Woohoo!  Thankfully the barn is pretty easy off to get to off of the interstate and despite the constant up/down of the mountains, we made it with no real issue.  The horses unloaded easily and gave us no issues as we settled them into their pasture.  I gave App a gram of bute to help him with any soreness and went home myself.  It was a full 12 hour drive and it sucked.  It was long and tiring but at least we had great weather, no traffic issues and I had a friend to help pass the time.

The appys in their new home