New Location: Henebry Farm

"There are plenty of things to do here!"

I have decided to move Ruby to Henebry Farm. It is a beautiful facility, about 40 minutes west of my condo in Richmond. Many of the boarders are members of Deep Run Hunt Club (so I should be able to hitch a ride with one of them on occasion), the farm has 120 acres of trails (including jumps), 7 square miles of fields for hacking, a lighted sand ring with jumps, cross country courses, and both a fully closed barn and shed row barns.

 (left: Ruby in front of the new barn!)

Adjusting to a new barn is hard on both horse and rider. For the horse, moving barns is equivalent of pulling your child out of school, moving to an entirely different city, and sending them off to school- with no connections and with no idea whatsoever how to find anything. Naturally, horses will (for the most part) stay with the same herd. Asking them to leave their herd and try to fit into a new one is super stressful -although, some horses seem to be able to fit right in no problem. Ruby has always been the "hi, I'm Ruby, now leave me be" type- I am not entirely sure if she just likes to be alone or if she somehow alienates herself from other horses..either way, she is scarily similar to me personality-wise. I would probably want to be off doing my own thing too.

Our move was mostly uneventful (mostly). Although I respect that the management has more horse knowledge than I, I really would have liked if they had let me load and unload my own horse. I would consider this barn a bit "old-fashioned" in training- I would have spent all day if I had to, moving up and backing Ruby out of the trailer until she loaded herself, but those who came to help insisted on using their methods. Typically, I would have jumped in and said something, but I have decided to sit back for a bit- maybe it is time to try something new, or maybe seeing there are scarier ways to do things will make Ruby appreciate how good she has it with me!

Still too early to tell how things will pan out for us. The scariest thing about moving barns is waiting to see if the people you are paying (and trusting) to take care of your horse, do so at your standards! One of these days I will be able to build my own little farm, and boarding will be a non-issue. Until then, let's hope everything works out for us here!