The arrival

So today my little Arabian princess finally arrived. It was her first time in the trailer, and apparently she travelled well. We unloaded her in the field, and walked her into the yard. She was really spooky, as everything was obviously very new to her, but really all she did was to stop and have a good look at everything.

Once she was safely installed in her stable, Tommy plastered himself agains the bars, and immediately started to ingratiate himself with the pretty young new arrival. Faith appreciated this, and soon started nibbling his face and neck gently. Tommy was in absolute heaven!

So we left her to settle in the stable for a couple of hours. Then it came to turning everyone out, Tilly and Tommy in the front paddock, and Faith in the back paddock.

Faith wasn't massively keen on having her headcollar on, so I just spent half an hour in the stable chatting to her, giving her carrots, and trying to find her itchy, groomy spots. After a while, she felt that we had made friends enough to let me put her headcollar on.

Initially, I thought that I would turn her out first, but she really wasn't keen on leaving the stable, and the security of the others. Tommy was getting really impatient to be out at grass, so I turned him and Tilly out first.

Faith was really anxious not to be left behind, so I managed to coax her out of her stable, and onto the yard. However, she was really reluctant to go from the sunny brightness into the dark barn to reach the field gate. We let her stand and think for a bit, then Michael walked through the barn to hold the second gate open. Lo and behold, Faith just followed him, bless her socks! What a brave and trusting little girl.

Once out in the field, she trotted around for a little while, and settled down to eat. She would return to the gate now and again to have another carrot from me, or go to the sand paddock gate to check that Tilly and Tommy were still around. These two were busy stuffing themselves with grass, and only occasionally glanced up to see that the new arrival was still in the vicinity.

So all in all they were out for about four hours or so, and it was all very peaceful and civilised. Then I brought Tilly and Tommy in for tea, and Faith stood at the gateway to the barn whinnying. I went into her paddock and put her headcollar on. This time she led more easily into the barn, although she was still very alert and a bit jumpy. Once back into her stable, in close proximity to Tommy, she visibly relaxed, and started munching on her hay.

After clearing the fields up, I spent some time with Faith just chatting to her, and eureka! I managed to locate her itchy spot on her neck, and spent a lovely ten minutes just scratching and rubbing her neck and back. In return, Faith started playing with the velcro on my sleeve, and quickly discovered how satisfying it is to undo a piece of velcro, and listen to the sound it makes!

So I think Faith had a positive first day. She is desperate to be in the field with Tilly and Tommy, but we will give it a bit more time, and see what tomorrow brings. Particularly as my neighbour is having a new horse delivered as well, so there is likely to be some hysterical neighing and running about from the direction of her place. Plus it is so blinking windy, that I certainly feel a bit unsettled, let alone the neddies.

Faith is a sweet, tusting, brave little filly, and I just love her to bits!