It's Been Awhile...

And the days went by like paper in the wind

everything changed, then changed again

It's hard to find a friend

It's hard to find a friend

(To Find a Friend, Tom Petty)

So a lot has happened since my last post. Truby got winter ulcers for the first time since moving to Arizona. It took me longer to catch on than it should have, but she only had ulcer problems the few years we lived in Pennsylvania (fair play, Tr00bs, PA gave me ulcers too) and she's not a huge fan of Bermuda hay. Not eating forage is her Big Tell her stomach hurts, but I missed it because she'll eat her Bermuda, but it's also normal for her to be picky sometimes. 

She lost a ton of weight (approx 125 lbs) by simply NOT EATING ANYTHING OMFG PLEASE EAT I DON'T CARE WHAT JUST EAT SOMETHING.

New Year's Eve she came down suddenly and dramatically with a high fever. Because everyone loves holiday emergencies, right? Luckily our vets are awesome and Dr H came out right away and helped Truby feel better. 

Truby's "Everything hurts and I'm dying" Pose

The best pony for tubing

And as suddenly as she fell sick, she got better. None of the other horses had any problems. We did send off some test samples, but nothing showed up. HORSES.

So with all this going on, it was easy to ignore the falling standard of care by the barn owner and her staff. But it was there. And as much as I tried to ignore it and make up for it, I finally decided it was time to move on. This was a far harder decision to make than it should have been, but finally, finally I decided we had to go. 

Since Husband and I had the amazing luck to be moving ourselves, I set up Truby to move a few months down the line. After all, moving is stressful, so let's move one thing at a time, right?

Nope. I stopped by the barn one afternoon and found that instead of feeding Truby "one or two handful" of hay pellets our friend said she was feeding her in the afternoons, she was being given pounds of barely moistened pellets and a bunch of flaxseed. Um. When I asked (nicely)WTF was going on, I got verbally attacked. By someone that had been a friend. Deceit and lies for weeks, then spewing vitriol at me. At least I knew why Truby had been suddenly colicking all the time. 

Tummy hurts, would like to die pls

I moved her the next day.

I'm still, more than 6 months later, having a hard time with what happened. I won't go into details here, but it was bad, and it hurts. 

New barn owner was surprisingly calm when I called her and asked if I could move Truby ASAP. Sure, a stall was open, move whenever you want. She was totally not concerned by the fact that I was basically hysterical, and was willing to let the crazy person with the skinny horse move in. 

Nothing is quite as embarrassing as showing up unexpectedly with a noticeably underweight horse at a new barn. And having to admit that no, I didn't just pick her up at the kill pen... But I was met with kindness, and Truby settled in right away. In fact, as soon as I hung her haynet, she put her head in and start munching away. New barn owner said she's never had a horse settle in as quickly and easy as Truby. 

Custom made dino sugar treats

I really like our new place. First of all, it's called Cloudbase, and the boarders are called "Cloudies". How is that not the best thing ever?! I love it. It's a very, very nice place and the care is absolutely top notch. The other boarders are all friendly and nice, but I haven't been trying to make any close friends, in a once bitten, twice shy way. Although we do have a couple of good barn buddies already. The horse caretaker is amazing, I swear he has a spreadsheet of each horse in his head. He knows all their habits and makes notes of anything even slightly different. 

Very happy to have her treat ball in her new stall

The first super hot day of summer, Truby had a minor colic, and it was caught immediately and I was called immediately. You may have noticed, but Tru's super dramatic about any illness, but recovers quickly, and this was just the same. Not having to worry and wonder how long she'd been sick is such a relief. 

IT SNOWED!

So while change is often hard, Truby and I made some changes. Life hasn't been perfect, but I don't have to worry about the quality of care, or if someone is even around to notice a problem. As another change, Husband and I moved out of the apartment complex and into a house. The friend we rode with a couple times, L and Dixie (who also boarded at Cloudbase) moved out of state, but didn't want to sell or rent to strangers. I told her she'd easily get more renting it out to someone else, but if she could stay in our budget, we'd rent. And she could, and we did! We're in a slightly different part of town, and Truby is a little further away, but it's a nice, quiet neighborhood, a comfy house (it has a fireplace!) and it has a POOL! This is the best thing to survive a Tucson summer. Nothing beats coming home, hot and sweaty and jumping right into your own pool. We are so, so lucky to have the opportunity to live here and it works our for everyone. 

We have amazing sunsets to the west

Looking east, we get a great view of incoming storms