A farm needs a horse, right?

Pleasant Dreams Farm has our first horse. Ahh how far we have come since our first chickens in the backyard of our last house back 10 months ago. Wow. I picked Ava up today, thanks to a new friend loaning me her trailer. This little secret has been in the works for a couple of weeks. The kids have no idea, they will find out tomorrow.

Since I don't have my own trailer yet, I decided to take Ava right to the vet for a check up before bringing her home and returning the trailer. I hated having to do another stressful thing to her today, but she took it all in stride.
She got a clean bill of health, except for a pretty massive worm load...which probably explains why she is a good 50 lbs under weight. Ava is a 16.2 hand Thoroughbred, she is 8 years old and HUGE hahaha.

Ava got a couple vaccines too. The thing I was most concerned about were her back legs. Ava was a dressage horse until about a year ago, when she was chased by another horse into some barb wire fencing. She sliced herself up real good. Thankfully her left leg just has some nasty scars but nothing lasting. The right fetlock area (joint above the hoof) was not quite as lucky. It looks to have healed up pretty well but it does have some lasting fluid build up and of course lots of scar tissue. She is not lame at all, so the vet OK'ed her for trails and beginner level dressage and just to watch it and see how it goes as she ages.

Gosh she is gorgeous. He previous owner took her on after she got hurt, spent a year nursing her back to health. She was so sad to find her a new home, but she is having some health issues and wanted Ava to get more use. She felt so certain that Ava was meant for us and the kids that she just gave her to us...it was super sweet.

We had planned for her to be pastured pretty much 24/7 and only in this small barn if the weather got really really bad...the vet also said pasturing her will be the best to keep her leg in good condition. However due to her worms she needs to spend her first week or two mostly in this stall, so she doesn't drop worms all over the pasture to potentially reinvest herself later.

She is settling in pretty well, the kids don't know she is here yet. We will surprise them tomorrow.

The stall is not huge, but it will do in a pinch.

I hope you are ready for lots of pictures of Ava!! She is so photogenic.