Firewell
Well-Known Member
This is not really comp riders but this report does involve the sort of journey only Olympic horses or top racehorses undertake so I thought it would be OK to post in here 
.
Those of you who follow my posts will know that I have recently moved to California and today my lovely J arrived! It has been the mother of all moves into the unknown and after 3 weeks of living in a hotel room we move into our new house tomorow which I cannot wait for... However back to the horse!
J left England over a week ago amid many tears from my mum and those at his old yard who took care of him. I used a fantastic company called LOC to move my precious, precious best friend. They had been great from the off giving me a competitive quote and staying in touch with me every step of the way.
The day J left England:-
It was a nail biting week, I swear I barely slept a wink. J spent a night at a horse hotel in Dover before travelling through France and Belgium and The Netherlands. He spent a night in Amsterdam before his flight to LA. He ended up spending 20 hours in his flight stall with unloading and unloading before going to quarantine at LAX.
The night he flew I woke up in the early hours of the morning feeling sick with nerves for him. It sounds silly but I tried to send him telepathic messages saying it would be OK. Stupid but it helped me to fall back to sleep!
The day after he landed I got excited thinking he would be delivered. I then got a call from the US recieving agents and Jae was sick
. He had arrived off the flight really well but he had picked up a fever on the second temperature reading. The moment I came off the phone I burst into tears. My poor brave boy! I was so worried, would he get colic? Would he get better? The agent reassured me that it was fairly normal to have at least one horse every shipment get a fever, it's a big trip for the horses. He said that J was relaxed and eating and drinking well, he's a nice horse he said to me.
The next morning I heard that J's temperature was back to normal and hopefully he would be with me the today. Thank God!
Today I heard word that he had been loaded onto the truck and would be with me in a couple of hours! I have spent the past 3 weeks I have been here shopping around for the perfect yard for him. I am very lucky in that this is an amazing area for horses. It is the original breeding area for sport horses and throughbred racehorses and it contains the best vet practice in the whole of America plus yard after yard with top class facilities. It has been an education and slightly mind blowing! Even more freaky is all the yards are within 15 mins of each other! It is a right pocket of equine industry.
I choose the one that I thought best suited us and I hope J will like it.
I got to the yard early and when the truck pulled in I thought I would burst into tears but I managed to hold it together. Jae looked relieved to see me and I got him into his field (they call it pasture) straight away so he could roll and stretch his legs.
J arriving:-
- HOW AMAZING IS THIS TRAILER!!
In the X ties:-
In his new outside 'stable':-
A couple pictures of the yard. It has an incredible walker where the horses can trot round, an arena, purpose built jumping lane, a paddock with XC jumps and a hacking track around the fields:-
I am super pleased with how he looks after his long journey. It is a testament to the people who were with him but also his temperament. I had nothing but glowing reports back on his behaviour. What a super chap he is. He still has to get used to the new routine and feeding. These high quality establishments water their paddocks ( we hardly have any rain here) but it is still a very different environment. Please keep your fingers crossed that he does not get any stomach upsets, we are keeping an eye on him. I left him tonight with a cozy rug on (desert climate so cool at night) and lots of grass hay
.
I would love to talk more about the differences in the way they keep their horses here, it is fascinating and in a way more natural for the horse than how we keep them in the UK but my baby needs putting to bed. I can talk more about that if people are interested.
I am so pleased my J is with me. Hopefully tonight I will sleep well!!!
Thanks for reading.
.Those of you who follow my posts will know that I have recently moved to California and today my lovely J arrived! It has been the mother of all moves into the unknown and after 3 weeks of living in a hotel room we move into our new house tomorow which I cannot wait for... However back to the horse!
J left England over a week ago amid many tears from my mum and those at his old yard who took care of him. I used a fantastic company called LOC to move my precious, precious best friend. They had been great from the off giving me a competitive quote and staying in touch with me every step of the way.
The day J left England:-
It was a nail biting week, I swear I barely slept a wink. J spent a night at a horse hotel in Dover before travelling through France and Belgium and The Netherlands. He spent a night in Amsterdam before his flight to LA. He ended up spending 20 hours in his flight stall with unloading and unloading before going to quarantine at LAX.
The night he flew I woke up in the early hours of the morning feeling sick with nerves for him. It sounds silly but I tried to send him telepathic messages saying it would be OK. Stupid but it helped me to fall back to sleep!
The day after he landed I got excited thinking he would be delivered. I then got a call from the US recieving agents and Jae was sick
. He had arrived off the flight really well but he had picked up a fever on the second temperature reading. The moment I came off the phone I burst into tears. My poor brave boy! I was so worried, would he get colic? Would he get better? The agent reassured me that it was fairly normal to have at least one horse every shipment get a fever, it's a big trip for the horses. He said that J was relaxed and eating and drinking well, he's a nice horse he said to me.The next morning I heard that J's temperature was back to normal and hopefully he would be with me the today. Thank God!
Today I heard word that he had been loaded onto the truck and would be with me in a couple of hours! I have spent the past 3 weeks I have been here shopping around for the perfect yard for him. I am very lucky in that this is an amazing area for horses. It is the original breeding area for sport horses and throughbred racehorses and it contains the best vet practice in the whole of America plus yard after yard with top class facilities. It has been an education and slightly mind blowing! Even more freaky is all the yards are within 15 mins of each other! It is a right pocket of equine industry.
I choose the one that I thought best suited us and I hope J will like it.
I got to the yard early and when the truck pulled in I thought I would burst into tears but I managed to hold it together. Jae looked relieved to see me and I got him into his field (they call it pasture) straight away so he could roll and stretch his legs.
J arriving:-
In the X ties:-
In his new outside 'stable':-
A couple pictures of the yard. It has an incredible walker where the horses can trot round, an arena, purpose built jumping lane, a paddock with XC jumps and a hacking track around the fields:-
I am super pleased with how he looks after his long journey. It is a testament to the people who were with him but also his temperament. I had nothing but glowing reports back on his behaviour. What a super chap he is. He still has to get used to the new routine and feeding. These high quality establishments water their paddocks ( we hardly have any rain here) but it is still a very different environment. Please keep your fingers crossed that he does not get any stomach upsets, we are keeping an eye on him. I left him tonight with a cozy rug on (desert climate so cool at night) and lots of grass hay
.I would love to talk more about the differences in the way they keep their horses here, it is fascinating and in a way more natural for the horse than how we keep them in the UK but my baby needs putting to bed. I can talk more about that if people are interested.
I am so pleased my J is with me
. Hopefully tonight I will sleep well!!!Thanks for reading.
