Heza Lady's Lad is 23, and I have owned him since he was 5! My first horse, my teacher and friend, will be moving home later this month. I am extremely excited at the idea of seeing him every day (the first in our nearly 20 yr love affair), but am also a tad nervous about having such a high maintenance critter around given that all the others are such easy outdoor keepers!
Laddie hates the heat, cold, flies, & has soundness issues... He will spend the summer and early fall outside with the other horses. In case the whole herd of 8 will not get along, I will be building a new paddock & refinishing a shelter for him this coming weekend to stay in with his Belgian friend Dan (at least for the time being). I hope to be able to safely integrate Laddie into the herd in a few weeks - Dan will be the bridge. He will doubtless be very excited to see his old team mate Colleen again!
When Drummond is home in July we will start rebuilding the south side of the barn. The stalls are all good, but a new ceiling & outside wall needs to go up in order to prepare the place for Laddie to move inside in September. It will actually work pretty well, as I will move Power the 28yr old CanadianX inside with him. The two will spend nicer winter days outside (Laddie with a blanket on) and every night inside. Power will find this a bit difficult, but he needs some extra TLC as he ages. I am sure that he will quickly adapt to a warm stall on cold nights and hot bran mashes regularly!
If any of you are around this coming Saturday (May 10th), we will be putting a work party together to help with the new fencing and getting the shelter ready for Laddie.
Woohoo! The old man is coming home!!!!
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