Turning Over a New Leaf

So today, I pulled the Trigger.  Har har har...I'm so funny!  I wrote up a letter of notice, went to the barn, packed up all my stuff, and waited for Trigger's new trainer to arrive to come pick him up.  She's the one I looked at a couple horses with earlier, part trainer, part horse trader/dealer, so she can probably find him a buyer more quickly than I could on my own once he's ready for that stage.  Right as she and her husband pulled in with their trailer, another truck and trailer arrived.  It turned out to be the barn manager and HER husband (and all four of her kids).

Earlier in the day, I'd been debating how much "notice" to give (essentially how much money to pay, since I was pulling him with no notice), but it was made moot while I was packing up and realized I had no idea how much a month of board was, so whether I decided to pay all, half, or one day, I didn't know what to base it on.  She raised the rates beginning with October, but never gave the signed copy of the rate sheet back.  So I had left a note saying to send me the bill, and figured I'd still mull it over.  (I'm pretty sure the original agreement said 30 days, but she never returned my signed copy of THAT, either, and had breached plenty of what we'd agreed to both orally and the standards of care for what a boarding agreement should imply, if not items that might have been in writing, but again, I don't HAVE a copy).  Anyway, she was there, so I just sucked it up and paid the full amount for October, and gave my 30 days notice and left with a clean conscience, and while I'm not sure she won't LIE about me to people, she can't say anything HONESTly bad about me or my integrity.

Trigger did NOT load willingly.  He reared and struck at the trainer's husbands, but with a little whip pressure when he stopped moving, and release of pressure when he did move (in the right direction), he figured it out relatively quickly and got tied in, clamped in behind the divider, and we headed out.  They said he wiggled and jiggled the whole way, but luckily it was only a 15-minute ride or so.

He didn't back out very nicely either, but the trainer and husband were nice about it, saying they'll work on that.  :-)  They settled him into a pen for the night, and will turn him out with the herd tomorrow.  I need to pick up wormer and bring it out tomorrow, too.

Trigger settling into his overnight accommodations

While we were standing around chatting, about lots of things including trying to figure the best time for me to go out to their place tomorrow to do up the paperwork, they mentioned that they're going to a riding play day thing tomorrow, and they invited me.  I demurred, talking about how out of shape and heavy I am, and they have a horse who's a total dead head that someone THREE HUNDRED SIXTY POUNDS has ridden (and apparently hung off the side of without the horse falling over), that they're willing to haul to the event for me to ride there.  So I guess I'm going horseback riding tomorrow!  Woo!