Guest Blog Post: Granite at Camp : Entry One

Guest Blog Post from Jen

Granite at Camp…Entry One May13, 2012

Hello to all of Rachel and Granite’s blogger friends!  Granite successfully arrived at summer camp yesterday.  I want to share with you my experience with him…and that is selfish because this experience is about him!  But considering the situation, I am finding that this is an amazing gift to me. Thank you Rachel!

Rachel shared in her last blog that my sweet old man Maverick was sick…well after 6 days of major sickness he was finished with the fight, we euthanized him on Friday morning.  Absolutely devastating to me, amazing the way the 4 legged critters get under our skin!  I still hurt, still feel a tremendous emptiness and will for a long time but let me tell you how much I love Granite and how he can fill a void!

I also owe Rachel and tremendous amount of gratitude for sharing her amazing guy.  The plan was in the works before Maverick got sick but as it all unraveled the timing and the plan worked out perfect…Granite and Rachel are saving my life right now…I LOVE both of them (no Rachel, I’m not drunk, I love you when I’m sober! LOL)

So my new friends…here is the update!

Friday night I hooked up the trailer and pulled it into the driveway to find a shredded trailer tire…OH CRAP are you kidding me?  My amazing husband Scott can fix anything and put the spare on in less than 30 seconds…then got up early and went tire hunting for another spare for our trip to Granite’s home…a local look didn’t give him the tire he wanted for the right money so he said…I’m going to take you over there…since I had no spare that was a really good thing.  He also felt sorry for me cuz I had a major sobbing melt down over Maverick the night before.  Great Man!

So off to get Granite…had a great visit with Yvonne, Rachel’s barn owner, she is AMAZING and the critters at this farm are equally amazing!  They are so well cared for and loved.  What a great place!...Maybe to great…Granite was reluctant to get on the trailer, but he doesn’t have much experience.  (I have a trailer…it will be parked in Granite’s turn out area and he will eat in it!  We will get him past that!)

Granite is a wise man…he was thinking why do I want to leave here when I have it so good…brilliant boy!  Nothing was crazy, just required a lot of coaxing, babying and patience and he got on…of course, good boy!!  The funny part of this and I hope you all can envision this…Yvonne had the leadrope and was in the trailer working the front, I was gentle support behind…there were a lot of sugar cubes, carrots, grain (Total bribery to the horse that will eat himself sick….) At one point I looked at Scott and said Yvonne needs another carrot so being the amazing patient hubs that he is (that is so NOT in to horses) he brought another carrot…held it outside the escape door, because Granite was half way on and made G come to the carrot.  At one point…Granite’s head was out the escape door looking for the carrot and his to hind feet were at the middle of the ramp.  That boy stretched himself like a slinky…I was howling!  I hope you all can picture that!

OK…boy on, had a great trip to High Point and my barn.  He got off a lot faster than he got on, translation…to fast…we will work on that.

Turned him out and he was the chill monster.  He was fine.  The three horses at my barn were the peanut gallery staring at him and wondering where the heck he came from.  Since Pickle tore up her stifle a year ago there has not been much coming and going, they are easily entertained.

After about an hour he started running which stressed me out.  Is he lonely? Is he stressed?  He could see the other horses but was turned out alone so I lured the goat out to be with him.  Thought he needed company.  Well G was happy for the company and chased the goat who is 3 times wide as she is tall, he was playing, she…not so much. She is still limping from the run!

Time to bring G in…saved the goat and brought Granite in…let him chill in the stall for about and hour with hay and fans.  Called Yvonne…and just asked about the daytime thing and she confirmed he was a weenie ( sorry Rachel) about the bugs…I have a Cadillac version of a fly sheet…it fit great so he went back out with the fly sheet and did great with the relief!

We left him in a stall last night decided better to be safe than sorry and he did fine!  He is actually in Pickle’s stall (my horse with the stifle injury)…all the stalls are connected to turn out, so she was out and he was in her space. OMG friends…I don’t know if this blog is G rated or not but they were disgusting…she immediately acted like she was in heat (winking/squirting) and Granite….well I will just say he is well endowed!

Nuff said! J  Night went fine…turned Granite out this morning to stretch his legs after being in the stall all night and got on him about 11 for his first ride at camp.  He wasn’t perfect and I didn’t expect him to be but he was perfect for a 5 year old that was at a new place and had only been there for 24 hours. 

He was very forward…did I mention my ring is just a field, no fence?  So we just hacked…didn’t ask for much we just worked, zigged, zagged, serpentines and circles… I cantered one time around in each direction but everything else was trot work.  After about 45 mins he finally chilled, got soft and bent to the right.  We quit at that very moment!

Cooled him down, turned him out and not long after I turned him out he laid down, flat on his side for a 10 minute power nap.  This kid kills me…he is hilarious!

Love him, love his mother, love his mothers boyfriend and dog too…Just an amazing crowd of perfectness….Rachel is really hard on herself but the rest of us realize she is brilliant, beautiful, sweet, compassionate and totally amazing!