Lilly Arrives

Meet Lilly.

She's our newest horse. She's a super-social, little tank with a set of lungs that can be heard in the house, over the tv, while it's raining.

Lilly is Grandma's. She's spent the pandemic working on her health and has expressed riding again as one of her goals. She and Carrie have been playing research team and Lilly was the first horse that they felt warranted an in-person visit. 

Well, now she's here. I heard a bang and saw the women unloading while I was in class.

Lilly's spent almost her whole life on the same, backyard farm with her brother. The pair were the only horses on the property and went up for sale together. Coming to our barn was a big shock to her system.

I walked down during my lunch break and Lilly seemed people-oriented and even a little clingy. She does "kisses" and muzzling up to Carrie. I might've been jealous if horse breath wasn't a thing.

I had said we were done buying horses, so I wasn't happy when I heard we were going in halfsies on the Haflinger. However, Grandpa told Grandma "Happy Anniversary!" before the ladies left. She'll be board free, but Carrie hopes to find someone who'll do a riding lease like Barbara does with Maddy.  

Grandma didn't stay for long after Lilly was situated. She came inside to use the facilities and chat for a minute before hopping on the road home.

That left us to do the barn thing. Carrie set up a temporary lot a little while back. She'd made it for Maddy to have a turn-out while she was healing up and Pockets was squatting in her favorite dry lot. Basically, it's a few fiber glass poles driven into the ground with lines attached to the arena fence. The lines hook up to the ladies' fence to gain a charge.

The temporary lot is now Lilly's lot. The blanket is actually Eowyn's. Lilly's broad enough it (mostly) fits her!

The current plan is to move Eowyn into the exclusive in-between lot and put Lilly, Maddy, and Abby all out together (I guess we're sorting mares by the ending sounds of their names). But that has to wait until Maddy is healed up.

In the meantime, Carrie is smitten with the new girl. How do I know Carrie is smitten? She put hearts on Lilly's supplement cups.

"They're not hearts! They're flowers!" Carrie protested.

No, the flowers are on the lids.

No one else received the special artistic treatment!

Lilly's still coming to terms with being with us, though. She was whinnying all night. Carrie said it's a sign she's trying to bond with another horse. I heard her in the house even while it was raining and Carrie had the TV on.

Lilly tried to bond with Maddy, but in typical Maddy fashion Maddy said "Stay away from my hay!"

So Lilly has to content herself with running up to any human that gets within reach to nuzzle.

It will take some time, but hopefully Lilly finds a buddy and works her way into the herd.

And hopefully Grandma keeps up the pace on her health journey and I can take some pictures of the two of them!

And it would be even better if Spring hit and the ground dried up when they did their first ride, but whatever comes to pass will come to pass. Welcome to Shal'dorei, Lilly!