Moving: Part III

Today is the day. The halter has had the trailering fuzzies applied (I believe I heard Donnie call it the "special kid halter"), the shipping wraps are sitting ready, the blankets are packed, the tack is ready to go... Just don't know if I am. This is such a paradox for me; for weeks I've been looking forward to getting out of dodge, but slowly that feeling has come creeping up, the knowledge that this will no longer be my barn home. All horsepeople have two homes: their human house and their barn home. The co-op barn has been my barn home for the last 4 years, and I will truly miss it. Donnie, AKA guy-who-lives-in-apartment-attached-to-barn, has become like a father to me. There was a connection that was forged in the process of recreating the tack room, matting stalls, putting up sliding doors, creating pastures and making this place habitable for those who have become a part of it. I will miss the quiet of the place. I will miss watching the rain through the walk-out stalls Stella and Ernie enjoyed so much. I will miss (yes, never thought I'd say this) the wind-tunnel effect that occurred when someone opened up the garage door to go up to the arena with a horse. I will miss Waco Hanover, one of the old ex-pacers, banging on his stall front for someone to let him out or feed him. I will miss the countless late night spent lounging in lawn chairs in the barn aisle, talking about nothing and listening to the horse's chew happily. I will miss the camaraderie, the laughter, the ongoing maintenance that we performed with such pride. And of course I will miss the boarders. The unique group of people and horses is what made the co-op barn: most of them had "new starts" with their owners, just like Ernie and Stella have had with me. There's Annie, the 6yo QH mare who is papered and from a very nice line, though no one would ever know it because when she came to the barn she was rainrot-y and had been living out with two Scottish Highlander cows. Laura, her human, cleaned her up and loved her and now she's a totally different horse. Then there's Mag, a purebred Arabian who Kristen brought in last year. He was thin and scraggly after being a show stud and she's turned him into an event horse. There's Gypsy, another Arabian, who packs around a teenage girl like a champ. I've never seen her spook or even look twice at a thing while that girl is with her; she's truly a wonderful mare. I will miss this place. I'm happy to be moving on, but I will miss it dearly. I know I'll be back to visit but when you are used to driving out twice a day every day, visiting just doesn't seem to cut it.