New Beginnings - Backyard Pony

With full board where Sophie is being very pricey and me having a barn full of hay stashed away I wondered if I might as well just bring Bridget home when I picked her up from the vet's. 

Plus, covid. While the internet assures me I can't be contagious this far into the game, I still very much have a cough and head cold like symptoms and am thinking the boarding barn and general public will continue to thank me or staying away.

Our little barn and property are still a work in progress, but there is a newly fenced paddock right off the covered area in front of the barn. Bridget is no trouble at all and not one to test fences or be concerned with machinery or work going on. She's also not normally a big fan of other horses and will choose to hang out alone if she can. If ever there was a pony happy to live in a backyard semi construction zone barn, it would be her.

Happy at Camp Bridget. I still have work to do leveling and putting mats down in the actual stalls in the barn, but the covered area in front of the stalls is more than big enough for her to get out of the elements.

So, I went for it and moved her in. And of course she's happy....there is a ton of grass with all the rain we've had so I had to divide her paddock into thirds for a more gradual mow. I was looking around last night and thinking that if I only had Bridget and was careful with paddock management, likely I wouldn't need to feed hay most of the year - I forgot just how ridiculously fast the grass grows up there.

B's very efficient mowing service hard at work

She hadn't been ridden in about 3 months and I'm still pretty under the weather, so I hopped on for a 15min stroll around the block last night. What could possibly go wrong?  

Spicy and snorty but she never puts a foot wrong.

I have some tentative upcoming plans for Bridget, so there will be a lot more walking for fitness in our immediate calendars. 

Right now, I'm just deeply appreciating having her home on our own property and being able to pop on and go for a ride whenever I like. Sophie will be moving in once things are farther along, but I'm feeling a bit like a bad person at the moment - having one horse to care for is so easy, and there is zero herd bound drama. I miss seeing Sophie regularly a lot, but I'm appreciating this quiet time.