The best laid plans...

Ever feel like a higher power sometimes steps in and changes the plan for you? Today I volunteered for Bluebonnet Equine Humane Society - I went to trailer my new foster horse to my house and 2 others to another member's barn. I had high hopes that I would be bringing home a sweet pony for Samantha, but someone up there had other plans for me today. The cute little mare that I had seen only in pictures turned out to be uncatchable. Very smart, but wanted nothing to do with humans, which did not bode well for the idea of a little girl's pony - at least, not without intense training and time, and even then the personality of a horse is not likely to change that dramatically. So I ended up instead bringing home a 16hh gray mare, who I suspect is an OTTB due to her tattoo (which I will look at later). In the pen with 3 other 13-14hh horses, she looked like a giant, and was not what I was planning on bringing home. However, her kind eyes spoke to me and she walked right up to me in the paddock while I was trying to catch/separate the other mare.

She loaded easily and trailered well. You could tell the way that she walked right into the barn without hesitation that she had been cared for well at some point in her life. I will have to get a reading on that tattoo and find out who she is. She did not pause at walking into a stall, either. Both of those things surprised me somewhat, but at the same time didn't surprise me coming from a mare off the track.

She spent the afternoon sniffing the other horses and figuring out that I really did keep bringing her handfuls of grain with flakes of hay.

Tonight, she rewarded me after I had let all the other horses out and was cleaning the barn, she poked her nose into the aisleway and let me rub her forehead and stood for quite a while as I scratched and rubbed on her neck - just like Penny used to. I wasn't expecting that, but was so grateful for it. Even Arwen wanted some scratches ,too. I guess they missed me on my vacation. It is so good to be home and back into helping horses - they really need me. And somehow, this girl chose me to help her get back to health. I am looking forward to the journey. More soon.