The Sarabear Chronicles: Part I

THE ARRIVAL


Our newest and final resident, Sara (a.k.a. Blue Seranade, a.k.a. Sarabear), was donated to the farm last month.  Her owner was selling her other horses, but due to Sara's abusive past wanted her to go somewhere she would be well cared for and understood. Sara arrived here safely on a weekday afternoon. Thankfully, this gave her plenty of daylight hours to adjust to her new surroundings.  She unloaded in a big hurry, but since it was a four hour trip to get here we could hardly blame her. She was a bit nervous at the change of scene, and let us know by snorting softly several times as she looked around her new environment.  Even so, she was a perfect little lady as we made our way to her temporary quarters. 

Something that I found interesting was that one of the shippers referred to her nervous snorting as "An Arabian thing", which surprised me. It's not a breed trait at all, but simply an expression of equine anxiety. A precursor to those frantic whinnies, if you like, should the stressful situation escalate.  Shadow, our resident weenie, snorts at things on a regular basis. Have you ever heard it before?


We walked Sara slowly around the area we had fenced off for her so she would know exactly where the boundaries were.  Initially, she was more interested in the grass than anything and spent the first 30 minutes or so with her head greedily buried in it (yum :o)

We left her alone to acclimate, but hung around outside for a bit to make sure that she was settling in, and to make sure the returning school bus (next door) did not cause her to have a coronary...thankfully, it didn't. The bus drivers are required to "bleed the brakes" which is super loud (although it doesn't last long).

The Girls had been at the top of the hill initially, but hot-footed it downhill to see what was going on.  Rina, Lady and Taya decided fairly quickly that Sara was "a nobody" and should be completely ignored and thoroughly snubbed.  The threesome immediately returned to the hay pile at the top of the hill, with noses and tails haughtily in the air.  Bella however, who is the loner of the group, turned out to be absolutely fascinated with her new neighbor. 

Apparently it was mutual, as the two of them spent an entire hour completely transfixed and staring at each other across the fences, which I thought was pretty funny. Sara eventually went back to chomping away on the grass, but Bella continued to stand and stare until it was time for supper. Maybe she finally found herself a friend. Wouldn't that be nice?



Watch for the next post: Joining the Herd