Day One

Sorry this is a little late as far as updating, but the past few days have been such a whirlwind! I've been spending all of my waking hours hanging out with Merry and trying to socialize with her, as well as enforce that I AM the herd boss! But I'll start at the beginning. My good friend Maria, and her two daughters Madisson and MacKennzie arrived promptly at my house on Saturday morning (Jan 24th) to start the 4.5 hour trek down to Marianna, Florida to the Jackson County Ag Center where my mystery mustang was waiting. Also in the car was my mom and also my 8 week old great dane puppy, Diesel.

We arrive at the holding center and anxiously get out of the car and rush over to the pens to do a quick survey. I was surprised to see there was an adoption going on at the same time as the Makeover folks were picking up. And I thought it was pretty scary that you could take a mustang home for just $25!!! They asked me if I would like to adopt one today as well, but I told them that one would be plenty! This one guy pulled up in what looked like a modifyed car trailer with bars that went all the way up and loaded up two yearlings… I wish I had gotten a picture of the thing - it did NOT look safe. They must be pretty desperate to move those horses since a lot of folks took notice and said something, but they let them go anyway.

Anyway… they told me Merry was in pen 8 with number 0071 hanging on her neck tag. I almost ran around to the holding area to get my first glimpse at the horse that was going ot be joined to my hip for the next 70 days. The kids saw her first… a pretty four year old bay mare with solid legs and big white star/stripe/snip that bordered on a blaze! I absolutely adore white faces so I was thrilled! She seemed calm enough hanging out with her buddies, and definitely wasn't the herd boss which was good!

After heading back to the office to finish the paperwork, I headed to the loading area with "receipt" in hand. I admit I was a bit nervous when watching some of the other horses being loaded. Some of them were having royal fits… banging their heads into the sides of the chute, rearing, bucking, kicking, trying to bite! Miss Merry though just walked calmly in and even stood there while the handler put my halter on her in the chute (which later I was very thankful for!). She walked right into the trailer, and we were ready to head home!

I had to borrow Maria's trailer (and her van, which was awesome to travel in!) to make the trip since all I have is the four horse with LQ and the BLM requires you to have a stock trailer. It is with great joy that I can say that Merry hauled like a lady and didn't do any damage to my borrowed trailer (yippee!). I remember when watching some of the other horses load, I whispered to Maria that I wanted to re-emphasize that if she did any damage that I would pay for it! LOL.

She hauled the whole way relatively quiety, and we arrived home in one piece. We unloaded her into the round pen, where I proceeded to take LOTS of pictures. She didn't want me in her space but she wasn't being mean or ugly so I called it a day after a couple hours. I was originally going to leave her in the pen that first night, but she started throwing a FIT when the other horses were brought into the barn… so - I decided what the heck and ran her into her stall. She almost dove into it and really took to it right off the bat! I think she knew she was home. I pulled out my book and just sat by the door on a stool and read for a while, then called it a night and went to bed. One interesting thing is that she does not seem to know what grain is or have any interest in learning, even now.

Well enough for the moment… will update on day two and three later! Enjoy the pictures!

Heidi