As August 3rd just passed I am reminded of just one-year ago when the girls made their journey home! River Rain and Skye Blue loaded into the trailer in Tennessee and drove the 16-hours straight through to their new home without a problem.

There was a welcome home “party” when they arrived with family from NY and as far as NC here to offer their support and welcome the girls home. (Watch the video below to see it happen.) They offloaded within a minute and felt comfortable, loved, and were eating and drinking within five-minutes! These girls always make me so proud!

God, I remember that day like it was a minute ago. I was so nervous, like really nervous, but yet SO excited! I only had Joey for a year and a half before the girls came and he hadn’t even moved home yet. Who the hell was I to take on two wild mustangs?

Joey was an off-track thoroughbred who has seen it all, been through it all. He was domesticated! These girls were quite different from Joey. They were “wild”. They have not been through much. Well, actually they really been through so much with being captured, holding, trailering, etc….. but you know what I mean, the day to day crap! Of course self doubt sets in. Can I? Will I? How do I? And all the other shit that I ALLOWED to play on in my head. Not to mention the fear. Not of them necessarily but just fear of failure, fear of not being enough, fear of… fear of… fear of… .

Then Joey, my knight in shining armor, followed just a short two weeks later. OMG… my horses are home, a dream come true! All the firsts right?! Every day walking down to the pasture. Oh the butterflies, the tingles, my heart exploding! It was all so exciting!

Remember to breathe Adrienne. Remember to ground yourself. Remember to breathe, just breathe.

I knew Joey would be fine with the girls, I just didn’t know how they would be with him. We kept them separated for a little over two weeks with only a fence between them. Immediately they were eating out of the same hay bag. Wow! This is going better than I thought!

I decided we were going to let one girl at a time join Joey. Okay River Rain you’re up. As you can imagine there was some kicking. Not real kicking, only about 2” off the ground. One or two of those kicks may have connected; but, I was like, okay, this may be easier than I thought. Skye Blue you’re next. That went exactly how I expected. Lots of chasing and kicking but this time there was connection. Oh crap! Joey I am so sorry. Here come the apologies, “Oh God what did I do? Joey are you okay? Are you okay with this?” Again, the self doubt, major fear and the rest of the mind playing games. After another week of this, I decided it’s time, now or never, and so the round pen panels came down. They very quickly created their herd dynamic and started to look to each other for comfort, safety, and fun.

The girls now look to Joey for comfort and to confirm that all is okay. One quick story example is when fireworks were going off loud and fierce, Joey just kept calm eating hay when the girls ran to him. He just continues to eat. Another loud boom. The girls “spook”, stop, and turn around looking at Joey who is still calmly eating. The girls finally turned and walked back to meet up with him and all three started to eat together. I then hear blow outs. Awe, release the tension, the anxiety. Good girls!

This past year has been full of changes, healing, learning experiences, blessings and “ups and downs” for us all. I have come to understand that the girls are helping Joey and probably even myself reconnect with our “wild side” and Joey is supporting the girls with their newly “domesticated side”.

It’s a whole year later and I have not regretted one second of all of these blessings. This little herd has filled my heart with so much love and confidence, and presence, and to stop second guessing myself. They are so close that it just warms my heart and brings me peace. We are herd!

Joey – The King
This past month we finally got some much needed answers as to what is going on with The King. Through many tests, diagnostics, and x-rays we have learned that Joey has tested positive for Lyme and also EPM. We all know that Lyme comes from ticks and other blood thriving bugs. EPM comes from the feces of opossums. Lyme mostly starts with affecting the joints (this could be the answer to why he’s walking so ‘outchy’) and both can and will affect the nervous system and energy level. Joey has started herbal treatments to support his body and to get rid of both of these diagnoses. Notice I have not said that Joey has these things as we do not want to take these on. This has only been his diagnosis. If you all could say a prayer, send healing energy, and hold space for a quick full recovery, we would really appreciate it. Despite this, Joey remains his kind, loving self and loves doing his “work”.