A new member of the family!

Today we added a new family member!  Her name is Willow and of course she's a Curly!

Denise was gracious enough to make this all day journey with me so I would have company and I would have needed help if I needed any.  And, of course, I wanted her opinion of Willow.  But I guess I should back up.  About a month ago I was working about 3 hours west of my house and I knew there were a few Curlies for sale in that area, 3 of them through a local rescue, and the other one through a dealer.  Since I was working over there I decided to make it a worthwhile trip and meet these Curlies and ride them, if they were broke, to start getting an idea of what I wanted for our next Curly.  After losing Rocky we weren't even sure we wanted another horse, but it became soon apparent that our pasture wasn't full unless there were 4 horses out there.  Rocky was supposed to be my husband's next riding horse, so I needed to keep that in mind.

Willow was the first horse I seen over there and she was at the rescue.  She had come in with 30 horses all at once just about 2 years ago.  All were emanciated and today Denise and I learned that Willow scored a 1 on the scale.  When I met Willow the first time I had the rescue owner ride her first, even though I had seen video of her being rode, swimming in water and coming out of the water, hitting a branch accidently and it not phasing her a bit.  After a couple of times around the arena I got on and while Willow did walk around the arena once, after that she stopped and pawed at the ground.  That, of course, worried me not knowing Willow, but I also knew that Cork did that at first when he was frustrated or didn't understand what I wanted.  The owner suggested she saddle a horse and we hit the trails around the rescue and I agreed just to see if it mattered, and it did!  Once we got outside Willow was happy and eager to go trail riding.  Something tells me she'll never be an arena horse.  It was like she was telling me, "Why do I have to keep going in a circle?"

On our short ride we went by many things that have been strategically placed around the trail, including a birdfeeder.  When we got near the birds flew up, the horses spooked in place and that was it, which I thought was a good sign.  On our way back to the barn, I told the rescue owner I was going to attempt to turn Willow around and go in the other direction.  Willow did turn around, tried to go back to the other horse, gave up and proceeded in the direction I wanted her to go.  I liked what I saw in her personality, but knew she had many wet saddle blankets to go.

I met the other 2 Curly horses that were available by walking around the pasture.  That day there were 70 horses at the rescue and there must be at least 5 acres fenced in, so we were wandering all over trying to find a horse named Stella who is sorrel in color and every time the rescue owner thought she spied her, nope we had to go another way.  Finally we found Stella and I was petting Stella and another horse bumped my arm.  I turned around and probably said something like, "Well, excuse me" when I realized it was Willow who we had left at the barn, or so we thought.  The rescue owner said, "Well, I think she's wondering why you're looking at anyone else, that you were here to meet her!"

I told the rescue owner that I liked what I seen in Willow, but had a few more to check out and would be in touch.  Well, life gets in the way, but I did manage to check out 2 other Curlies, but for one reason or the other, Willow was our choice!  So I filled out the paperwork and that brings us to today!

As I said, Denise and I took off early this morning, around 8:00, as it was a 4 hour drive one way.  It was great catching up with Denise.   Her and I never stopped talking!  Finally we get to our destination.  As I pull in, there is a truck and trailer in front of me with a horse in the trailer.  We naturally thought it was a horse being adopted out, but it was one coming in!   The rescue owner said 2 mustangs were coming in right behind us too, so we needed to make this short and sweet.  I was hoping to show Denise the other 2 Curlys but horses were in need, so we made it quick!

Denise took some pictures, but I can't figure out how to get them from my FB e-mail to here, so we'll have to forego those.  We discovered in talking to Carrie that Willow had been sent to a foster home for the winter and had a 7 hour ride the night before back to the rescue, so I really felt sorry for Willow having to get back in the trailer, but Willow didn't hesitate at all.  The 4 hour ride home we never even knew Willow was in the trailer.  We even stopped a couple of times and never heard a word or any movement.

Finally we get back home!  It's picture time!  My trailer the horse has to back out and she did it just like a pro!

Oh, and I forgot to say that Kitty met the horse with some trepidation!

As Willow got out she immediately looked around to her surroundings.

Her new brothers and sister didn't realize there was an addition in the driveway and were out back, but then Kayla heard the trailer and whinned and Willow answered in a small voice, but the turkeys out back were of more interest to Willow than horses.

After Denise taking quite a few pictures, we walked over to meet her new pasture mates.  Her ground manners at this point are very good!

Just a note that the marks on her legs are from the slant load gate in the trailer.  I think she's going to have a lovely mane once I start the "treatment"!  She's a chestnut liver color.  The rescue owner described her as "an old soul" and for her 4-1/2 years in life she does seem very mature and thankful for the good treatment she receives now.

She met her new pasture mates over the fence and I'll introduce Corky first tomorrow.

Corky is the middle horse and as you can see he's very intrigued with his new Curly friend.  But alas, Willow being a mare, she snubbed him and went for more hay!