Lily Up to Bat

With Megan on the disabled list, Lily is getting a crash course in big horse life. Last Thursday we stuffed her on the trailer (with the aid of 2ccs of ace and about 2 hours of convincing) and transported her to the barn where Megan is.

In the course of 72 hours, she learned about coming in and out of a stall, standing on cross ties, bathing and grooming on a wash rack, ground driving, the indoor arena and saddling. She's truly getting the whirlwind course and she's lapping it up! I would bet that I'll be on her in another week. If she gets overwhelmed of course I'll slow down, but for now she's simply eating up the attention and everything I'm asking of her is no big deal. I swear she looked at me yesterday and said just get on already.

Thankfully both of my saddles fit her. I had to have the new jumping saddle reflocked (stuffed with wool) slightly but the saddle fitter thought they would both work for her which is so funny since she and Megan look so different. I'm just relieved I don't have to worry about saddle shopping.

The other big revelation besides just how wonderful her mind is, is how darn BIG she is. I just didn't think she was very big. She's still skinny and lanky and in the field she seemed small. Well, from the perspective of 2 feet behind her honking huge butt when I'm ground driving her, sister is NOT petite. Once we get some more meat and muscle on her, she is going to be even lovelier -- all but a bonus since I'm most in love with her willing generous nature.

Megan is also happy to have her back and they are loving being turn out buddies. They are obnoxiously attached to one another, but not so much that Lily doesn't focus on me when I'm doing something with her, so I'm not bothered by it.