Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!

Weird phrase, eh?  Apparently it originated in Vegas when a chicken dinner costs less than $2.00 and if you won $2.00 they would say 'Winner!  Winner!  Chicken Dinner!' or something to that effect.

Well, I have a winner.  Hopefully.  I'm waiting to hear back from them to make sure I can move in at the end of the month but I brought home the paperwork and confirmed with my husband.

Barn #2 is the barn where we'll be going.  It's definitely farther out, but when I arrived and EVERY SINGLE HORSE WAS OUT in a big giant field with at least one other horse, I breathed a huge sigh of relief.

Then I was shown the stalls which are giant and open.  There are walls between the horses, but no bars or anything, so the horses can hang their heads out and see the neighbors across from them.

The facility is huge, but there aren't that many horses.  There's a small barn up front that has 8 stalls and then a larger one in back with maybe 12?

I was concerned about the last feeding being at 4pm, but the person I talked to today said that I could put in a slow feeder so that Licorice would have food all night.  Yeah!  The horse are out on grass, though they do have what they dubbed The Jenny Craig area if horses get too fat.  I will need to monitor Licorice in spring since he did have a founder episode.  I will probably consult with my vet about this to make sure we do it right.  I think he'll probably be fine as long we don't let him get fat.

Under saddle, Licorice continues to challenge me.  My friend Sarah (who has balls of steel) came out and rode him for me on Saturday.  He went immediately into trot numerous times without any fussing.  She had a great ride on him.

Then I had my lesson with him today.  As soon as I swung a leg over, he sucked back into the pokiest walk ever.  When I asked him to walk on, he sucked back farther.  When I asked him to trot, he cow kicked.  He kicked at the girth and then he bucked.  Then he went to the worst, slowest trot ever.  Then he bucked again going into the second worst trot ever.  Not a great day.

I'm going to have Sarah continue to ride him.  She's a bit heavier handed than me, but she's no nonsense and Licorice needs to get worked.  I need to think about what my game plan is as I am not having a good time trying to muster up confidence to ride my horse.  Our relationship has improved a hundred thousand times on the ground, but under saddle it has degraded to the point of not getting anything done.  Lame.

Look for happier news as we move to a barn with turnout from dusk to dawn every day!