Kalvin spent his morning and early afternoon as usual, eating and hanging out with Jackson. I apologize for the PG rating on these photos. For some reason, he was dropped down all afternoon. Happy? Relaxed? Needs to pee?
Katy arrived around 2:30 and got Kalvin ready to go. She wrapped his legs for the trailer ride and then loaded him onto our trailer. He stepped right on, only pausing to take a bite of hay from the bale sitting just inside the trailer door. Katy took a bale of our hay to help him transition to the hay at the Shea Center.
When we got to the center, he unloaded and walked calmly with her to the round pen where she put him to chill, roll and run around while setting up his stall.
Get a load of this arena. The footing is amazing; the same footing used at the World Cup. It's a mixture of sand and silicone. We were drooling with envy. They have the same footing in the round pen.
While Kalvin was cooling his jets, Katy gave us a short tour. The mounting blocks are designed for wheelchair access and allow a therapist to stand on either side of the horse, helping the rider mount. It's very similar to the setup described in Courtney King-Dye's article about her rehab (in the June issue of Dressage Today).
There are two tack rooms at the Shea Center. One is for hippotherapy horses and the other for therapeutic riding. Courtney recently "graduated" from hippotherapy to therapeutic. The tack rooms were amazing. First, we went in the one for hippotherapy. Each horse has their own bucket of brushes (spotless) and tack.
The therapeutic riding tack room was huge. And clean. You could have eaten off of the floors. I kid you not. And all those beautiful saddles? Donated by Custom Saddlery --- which makes me feel good about owning one.
Outside the tack room, on the barn wall, was a huge white board with the horses names and schedules. This week the therapy school is on vacation and they are having camp instead. Katy says she misses her therapy kids. Able-bodied kids are a bit wild and wooly.
The barn was amazing. The Shea Center is in San Juan Capistrano so the climate is about as perfect as you can get. Not too hot in the summer since it is on the coast, and not too cold in the winter. The barn is a wide open structure with a roof. The roof was full of skylights so it was full of light. There are two aisles, dividing the barn into four areas. The stalls are very large and open with stall mats covering some sort of footing that was very squishy and soft. It felt like walking on a mattress. I couldn't help but think it would be good for Jackson's feet. The stalls were clean, the aisles were spotless, and the horses didn't have a speck of dust. They were all groomed and in good weight, relaxed and content. The energy of the barn was very peaceful.
Each horse had two cards. One had feeding instructions and the other gave information about the horse. Here's Annie, for example.
Meanwhile, Katy was busy grooming Kalvin and getting him ready to be tucked into his new stall. He came down the aisle like a bride on the arm of her father (well, Katy), greeting all the guests and enjoying the attention.
He settled right into his stall, digging into his hay and then going off to meet the neighbors.
I think he's going to be just fine. How could he not be? He will see Katy every day, be surrounded by new friends with enough access for mutual wither scratching, and great footing. Life is going to be very good for Kalvin.
