As you might have figured… I could hardly sleep last night! I actually woke up around 3 or so in the morning dreaming that I was working for some screen printing shop in Iran or maybe India and they told me I was fired and I had to leave within an hour and I was all upset because I couldn’t figure out what I needed to take from my apartment because they were making me leave the country and I only got two suitcases!!! haha…

Yeah, chips and salsa are not a good thing to eat before bedtime…

SO of course, I arrived at Bill’s about oh, 45 minutes early. But I knew he’d be fine with it, probably out taking care of his own horses and all, and so within a few minutes, we were all on the road!!! Bill’s got a nice big old truck and trailer and we were riding in horsey finery! His granddaughter, Emily, wanted to come along for the ride and that was fun. She’s a great little gal and a terrific horsewoman! She ran barrels and other horse contests the day before and won a bunch of money!!! It was sure fun to have her along because she was just as excited as I was about the pony!

Well, the drive out was nice, we all chatted and within no time, we were there! Beautiful farm, just really nice. The aunt of the family that actually owned the pony, met us and took us over to the big barn that he was staying in across the street. They had emailed me to say that he was a little on the dusty, dirty side as they hadn’t had time to get him all groomed up. That is fine… I can’t wait to play pony beauty parlor. And they said he’d been a pasture pet for five years!

Oh my. Five years? I will admit, I lay away most of the night thinking… what did I get myself into! All I could picture was a fiesty, little, half-wild, dirty pony! And thank goodness, I was pleasantly surprised! At first the aunt told us she thought he was a gelding, but we were looking at a solid little thick necked stud horse! We found him calm and charming! Hooked the lead rope on him and he just walked right out with me! Emily got in the trailer and I just started him off at a nice pace and he loaded right up, not a care in the world!!! I passed him off to Emily and she got him tied up so he wouldn’t bounce around all over in that big trailer!!! He whinnied once to his barn mate and then we were off and back to the farm in no time!!!

Introducing Cody, our new little beautiful Shetland Pony Stallion!!!

He’s about 12 years old, and is a flashly little gentleman. Four white socks, nice look, trots and gallops beautifully. Nice form. He’s a little on the rotund side, but not toooo big, considering he’s a stud. Like Bill said, if he lost too much weight, he’d look a little lopsided with his thick neck. He’s certainly not been starved! He walked right into the yard like he owned it and was whinnying to the goats and sheep right away to come and admire his wonderfulness! Haha… it was funny. He was busy looking around and I do believe he found the place to his liking.

First order of business was to see to his feet. They were definitely in need of a good trimming and Bill had all his tools to give him a going over. Cody was more interested in checking out his new crib but he was very tolerant until the last foot! Isn’t that always the case? He did try and kick at Bill a bit, and Bill gave him a little talking to and pretty quick Cody knew he was dealing with a pro and he settled down immediately. Bill was sure that he was just a little overwhelmed by all the excitement and just didn’t want to stand there ANY MORE…

One of my first objectives with him is to work with his feet a little bit. Pick them up, get him used to standing for it, hoof pick and clean often. Just get him comfortable with the whole idea. Bill plans on coming back shortly for a little touch up and I want him to see a good change in Cody.

We turned him loose after that, to let him have a chance to explore and visit with his new herd mates. Right away, Cody dashed around the yard and trotted a bit, then a little gallop and then a little rear up like he was some sort of wild mustang! He was a happy boy! He just ran around a bit, then started to check out the yard a little more carefully. He found the goat boys to be kind of boring, as they just ran away and hung out on THEIR bridge. They love the bridge…

The sheepies were TOTALLY into the pony. After all, he was their color! They followed him all over the place, trying to figure out just what he was. Cody was just too busy checking everything out… the chickens, the kitties, the whole dang estate!

After a while, we let him check out his new pony barn and he approves. And what was sooooooo cool, what that when I went out there later on, with a carrot, I just called him and he looked right up and galloped over to see what I was hollaring for. He gladly took the carrot and I had no problem just hooking him up to the lead and walking him around. It’s apparent that he’s had some nice training at some point as he stands comfortably, let us currycomb and brush him all over and we even braided a little of his mane! He was easy to catch, easy to load, and really pretty tolerant to having his feet done in the middle of all these new experiences. He’s needs a good bath and cleanup, he’s a bit dusty and all, but he’s not that bad at all. (Though, he REALLY needs a good conditioner on his mane… haha… it’s a little on the dry side!)

Later on in the evening, our friends came down with lots of their whole family and Cody was just as nice as could be. He stood and greeted everyone, nibbled a little grass while their granddaughters patted him and braided his mane. He didn’t mind Maggie or I leading him about and he didn’t have any trouble with some of the menfolk, either, Cody is one mellow dude for the most part. I got him to trot in a nice wide circle and he understands whoa, really nicely. The lady said he was supposed to know driving, and that they got him at the Hillsdale livestock auction. I believe she said he was an Amish cart pony, but I’m not totally sure about the Amish part! I was floating pretty high at such a nice little pony coming into my life!!! Once he gets all settled and content in a few weeks or more, I will see about getting a little training harness and set of long riens and we’ll start slow and see where he might be.

He was being such a good boy and just so laidback and calm that we decided to see if he might let one of the granddaughters sit on him. Her dad and their other son in law, got ahold of Georgia and held her up over Cody’s back, one on either side. One had his lead rope and the other gently set her down. She was there for about 2 seconds and Cody was not having it. He pushed back on his haunches and thought good and hard about flipping a little buck, but they had Georgia up and off in no time flat. Cody settled right down and was fine. He’s not going to be ready for rides for awhile, that’s for sure. There is no way I want to be rushed or pushed with his settling in and training for our routines. It was good to see his reaction and know that he was ready for that. And our neighbors has had horses and all, are good with them and there was no yelling or anything bad, it was just a quick little test and we got our answer right away. He’s not a riding pony. Not yet. I’ll keep my eye out for a nice little saddle blanket and we’ll work on getting him comfortable with that first. And slowly add a little weight, a sack of beans or something, just nice and slow and easy like. There’s no rush, so we’ll just add that to his list of goals and training program. Right now, he just needs to be pampered and settle in and just learn the lay of the land.

I went out to check on him in his little barn and he was pretty content. He came right over the gate with his ears perked up and nice and he nuzzled my hand, snuffling my shoes. I think he’s just ripe for a little TLC and attention. He’s a nice little fella and I’m just SO excited to have him here at the farm. I took him out into the back pasture on a lead rope and let him graze a few minutes in the clover and tall grasses. He was in heaven! He looked like a little wild mustang out there, the grasses up to his shoulder and him chomping away like a little happy pony! I don’t want him to fonder on too rich a feed, so he only had a little time, but he was fine with it. He found a little crab apple from one of our trees and that was a happy snack. I need to get Jessy to take some beauty shots of him out there in the sunshine and breezes tomorrow, maybe after I give him a bath and a good grooming. I felt just like all the characters in all the books I’ve adored for years… and I just couldn’t believe that I had my own little pony on a lead rope in our lush wonderful pasture! Getting that all safe and fenced is going to be a big goal for us now! I know everyone in the herd will love to be out there…

And if just getting a pony wasn’t enough for ONE DAY… our little piglet arrived today with all his buddies! I stopped down at the neighbors to meet our little weanling! He is a red duroc heritage hog and oh boy, what cuties!!! They are hardly as big as a housecat, but just as cute as can be. We have christened him Sir Loin of Pork. Haha… Sir Loin was not really that amused as he dashed about the big barn stall with his litter mates, not really sure what was going on! I am really interested in learning all about raising feeder piglets because I might like to try a pair in the springtime. This will be a good learning curve for us and a teaching time. Our nuggets are going to start going to finishing school next week, so, that will be interesting… our first homegrown farm raised meat. The pigs will need about 6 months till they are ready. The little guy cost $25. And his first bag of feed I think will be about $15 or so. We’ll be saving all our table scraps and bread store deals, anything and everything that a pig would like. Right now, the little guys are on piggy baby chow, to get them going and started. But judging by Sir Loin’s messy little chops, he’s a good eater and we are proud of him!

Well, as you might imagine, I’m exhausted! I need to get my butt in bed and take a little break from all the excitement and such of this fantastic day. Tomorrow is another day… but I have to get my work in or my Mom is not going to let me go out and play with my pony. (Jessy is a tough boss, let me tell you!!! haha…) She made me promise that I would get all my work done before I got pony time, so I guess that means I only get to visit him a bit for chore time but then it’s nose to the grindstone for a while…

Hope to have some more pictures tomorrow and more news! Night all!