June 30, 2021 - Farewell

Last night, we had a visit from our late guest again. Around 11:00 PM, there was a short 'hello' bark. We were just having dinner. I went outside and petted her. She accompanied me to get the laundry from the horse washing machine in the lab. It's about 230 meters each way. Normally, I don't like being alone in the dark at night. But here, it doesn't bother me at all. And especially not when accompanied by a livestock protection dog with bear paws. Although... she has gray hair and isn't as agile anymore, you can hear her breathing. So I wait for her, not the other way around.

Today in the morning, we woke up earlier because 2 mares are leaving us. One is the yoga teacher's horse and is going to Belgium, the other one we have ridden and is going to Austria. That's why we did the hind hooves. We already did the front ones on another day because the foals can't hold the balance for that long yet. Then we showered them and made them look nice. In retrospect, this wasn't necessary because the transporter from Mallorca arrived and didn't come until around 2:00 PM. That's why we worked the horses as usual in the morning. Nick put a saddle on a young stallion for the first time and then mounted it. It was pretty unspectacular - goal achieved! While the transporter rested in his truck, we had lunch with everyone from the stud farm. On Friday, an intern is returning to Germany after a several-month stay. When we put the red-yellow (Spanish colors) halters on them with heavy hearts as always when these halters are used, it was 'Adios'. We practiced loading them with Nick's horse trailer. Today, they saw a truck for the first time and got in like old pros. Just for this reason alone, Nick and I couldn't breed horses. I hate it when they get on and we will most likely never see them again. We hope they will find a good place and herd. Have a safe journey, sweeties! The transporter's wife isn't feeling well, so she wasn't here today. It's crazy, he drives all alone with these young horses across Europe. He invites them in and out for overnight stays all by himself, then others join in, and he's completely relaxed: Spain including Mallorca and the ferry, Portugal, France, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Belgium! I can't even think about our return trip yet... I wish I had his nerves. Because the horses we invited are young, but they were prepared for the transport and are well-behaved for their age. He said today 'That's how I love it.' But it's not always like that... Sometimes he encounters situations where he has to practice for 2 hours or the horses only just know what a halter is. Last time he was here, he said: 'So far, we haven't left anything behind' and grinned!

And here come the next ones already: A young mare that should be transportable to Switzerland, 3 young stallions are brought in from the pasture, 1 yearling has made eyes at an intern. That's why she wants support in handling. And then there are the slightly older ones to worry about (3) and the other 3 mares and 3 stallions that we've been working with for a while. If we wanted more, there would be enough. But since Nick and I have certain ideas about how we like to work with the horses, we'll leave it at that for now. There's always something new coming up, and we still have our own horses with us.

We integrated the new mare in the evening after the other two had left.

Then the vet was here today. I'm very glad that he sees the injury on Fly's nose the same way I do. It's getting smaller. He didn't bring the endoscope with him even though it was a check-up today. That's why he examined it with his headlamp (even though you can't see that far up) and his finger... Well... I'll continue rinsing the nose with the garden hose and then applying antibiotic ointment. Next week, he will most likely and hopefully bring the endoscope and take a look then.

Nick went shopping today and fixed some things in the evening. I took 2 of our cats for an evening walk on the stallion pasture.