SUBSCRIBE TODAY Smiley face  Get updates via email! 




We Are Flying Solo

November 17, 2020

The Meanwhile Rides: Part I

I think we can all agree that there is never a good time for your horse to hurt himself.  However, throughout the course of Echo's travail, there have definitely been some aspects of timing serendipity.

Normally, spring/summer/fall means lots of work travel for me, chasing wildlife across 1/3 of the state.  Which would have exponentially ratcheted up the stress of having to care for him off-property (yes, next-door, but still another place I needed to be).  But the pandemic meant drastically less field work due to logistical difficulties & virtually no overnight travel.

It also turned out that Echo wasn't the only one who needed me around.  In one of those in-a-flash mishaps that horses excel at, Trainer Neighbour (TN) broke her leg.  Luckily, it didn't require a cast, just six weeks of crutches, but that really puts a kink in your ability to feed a boarding facility -- & ride your training & personal horses.  I finally got a chance to feel like a Really Useful Neighbour: not only can I give a horse a schooling ride without constant supervision, I can schlep feed buckets around with the best of them & thanks to Echo, I was there every night anyway.

I actually started picking up the occasional ride before TN got hurt.  She had a full schedule & needed some help keeping her lesson horse in shape & I needed to not lose all my riding muscles to sadness & atrophy.  The bonus for me was that said lesson horse was Rocky:  the kind of horse who makes it impossible not to smile.

Only Rocky pic I have - during which he took a nap
Rocky is a 26 yr.  old Quarter Horse & reminds me in some ways of Solo

  • He has a long back & a big spring in his trot.  
  • When you ask him to canter, you can feel him go "yippeee!"
  • He will attempt to convince you that his butt is only there to hold his tail on.
  • Nothing makes him happier than a jump (or something he can pretend is a jump...like a puddle)

And just like Solo, he is a kind chestnut with a big heart who will never stop trying for you.  He has a sweet, pocket-pony personality & he makes the most adorable treat face you ever saw.  Yes, he is a priceless gem.

You might have read "old QH who is the primary lesson horse" & thought, oh, that sounds like a dull ride.  You would be completely wrong.

Rocky makes you smile just by being precious when you are near him, but once you start riding, that smile becomes a grin.  Because he is wonderfully responsive to light aids & can give you as much forward as you may desire.  And since he is 26 & honest, you have the option of letting him do his thing so you can work on yourself.

This allowed me to do things like spending an entire ride focusing on riding turns & bends off my outside aids.  Or making tweaks to my position or balance without having to remind the horse to keep going.  Or experiment with different corrections to see which gave a better result.

Bc riding Baby Monsters sometimes doesn't include perfect equitation, lol
It also allowed me try different exercises to tune up areas where Rocky tends to get sloppy, like falling out of the canter into a racing pile of forehand or snatching at the bit when asking for halt.  Playing with my toolbox & finding new pieces to add.

And of course, this was all re-tuning me, rebuilding lost muscle, & with his trot suspension, kick-starting my core re-development.  Which prepared me for the horse we added next -- a horse who actually cares what you do with your seat & just might buck you off if you don't listen, a prospect which both interested me & dismayed me, because seat finesse is what I have the LEAST of.  Similar to Solo's belief about his butt, I feel that my HQ only exist to hold my legs on.

How it went comes next...     

November 11, 2020

In Which We All Co-Habitate Once More

That's right, Echo is finally back home!  

I decided to go ahead & bring him home this past weekend since we were supposed to get rain this week.  He was doing well in his enlarged pen & I didn't want him to backslide if I had to pen him back up just to keep him out of mud.  His own paddock here drains very well & doesn't get muddy.

So with the help of the always-fabulous Erica, we marched Gabe, Solo's substitute buddy, back home next door & returned with an (aced, just so I didn't get accidentally trampled in exuberance) Echo.

True to his good nature, he has transitioned back seamlessly to annoying us here instead of next door, ha.  It took him about 14 seconds to pounce on Solo's head for some Face Tag (during which Solo looked at me going, oh yeah, now I remember how annoying this kid is...).  After which, he returned to his normal pastime of meandering around his paddock & watching the world exist.

Echo in full meander
I'll wait a week before allowing him & Solo to be together again -- Echo has not been able to play with another horse for 4 months, so we didn't want to throw it all at him at once.  

I did sit on him once last week, just walking around for a few minutes.  It didn't feel great -- his feets are sore from not being on grass & his whole body felt tight.  But he seemed to enjoy getting out & doing something, even if he did get bored in about three minutes.  I at least know all the buttons I installed are still there.  And he behaved completely, which was the most important part.  He really tries so hard to be good.

No muscle, but shiny. I wore my vest just in case, but he was uber-chill

Moving forward, I will probably just stick to light work on the longe.  It's not really necessary for me to sit on him at this point & it will allow me to watch him.  I will just see what he tells me he's up for.  Right now, that is essentially walking.  But hey, it's walking AT HOME & it's walking WITH NO STALL CLEANING anywhere in the vicinity.  Vast improvements...

October 31, 2020

The End Is Near!

 By which I mean...the end of cleaning that bloody stall!

To my relief & no small amount of surprise, Dr. Bob actually got to give us GOOD news on Tuesday:  Echo's fracture line is completely healed!!

 *pause for strange feeling...is that...dare we...hope?*

We are not completely done.  Echo still has some bruising in that area to heal & the lytic area around the toe is still filling in.  But now he is a "bruise horse" instead of a "fracture horse," which is somewhat less terrifying for "owner of horse."

The schedule is to let him out on a little larger paddock area (already done with success!) for the next two weeks.  If nothing untoward happens during that time, he can then come home & be in his paddock here for two more weeks & wean off the Equioxx, after which he can go back to regular turnout.

First grazing at liberty since July
I can also begin sitting on his sorry butt (well, technically, his sorry back) next week & tack walk him.  I'll bring along my friend, Ace, for the first attempt, of course -- I know he will try to be good, but he is holding in four months of PLAY-PLAY-PLAY, even a Very Good Boy can only contain so much.

Dr. Bob had us go ahead & transition out of his "fracture shoe" that farrier had devised, consisting of an extra sturdy draft horse pad, into a medium-soft EquiPak pad (forgot to take a pic of that), to provide a softer cushion for the bruising.  

Cut-down draft horse pad
I'm a long way from not holding my breath anymore, but it's a big step forward, so thanks for all the good vibes because they worked!!

October 26, 2020

The Hits Keep Coming

Poor Echo. 

Baby Monster has been on small pen rest since July. His shoulder was making progress, but there was an element to his limp which persisted in a way that nagged at me. I scheduled radiographs with a secret hope that Dr. Bob would tell me I worry too much & everything looked fine. 

That's not exactly what happened. 

I did, however, get an answer. Echo, at some point (same time as shoulder? Hard to say), fractured his left front coffin bone. No horse owner wants to hear that particular f-word (it prompts even heavier use of the OTHER f-word). I did what I do - research.

Coffin bones are heinously slow to heal (of course), but, as long as the fracture doesn't extend into the joint, the prognosis for full recovery is very good. Echo's fracture does not extend into the joint & that whole joint is very clean.  This is good as long as it doesn't change.

He needed to be restricted, though, & I didn't have the setup to do so for 4-6 months or more. Thanks to my very kind neighbor, he is staying next door instead while I once again borrow Gabe, who kept Solo company when I sold Encore. 

At least he got a chance to learn about pigs...
This means that every day for the past 4 months, I work, then I walk next door & feed/muck out the Pig Boy, who loves nothing more than to walk in circles in his poop & mince it into a shavings jambalaya. I come home & have just enough energy to check out, which is why it's taken me so long to write this. 

Dr. Bob comes tomorrow to do follow up rads & see where we are, if it is healing, if it has spread - given our luck, I give it about 50/50 at this point. Obviously, I am hoping for some good news. I keep giving this horse chances because he really is something else. This 6 y.o. TB has been in this stall/pen for 4 months, only coming out a few times a week for hand grazing. And I can take him out in his regular halter, no chains, no drugs, he is obedient & sensible & as adorable as ever. 

One of many chill graze sessions

I had been originally hoping to try & sell him this year -- he is an exceptional horse to handle & ride, but he shows little to no talent or enthusiasm for jumping.  He does have, however, an amazing potential for serious dressage, which I have neither the money, the inclination, nor the facility to pursue.  But this will all have to wait for him to hopefully finish healing. 

In case you are wondering what kind of crappy horse owner doesn't realize their horse has a fractured foot -- there was never any heat, no swelling, no digital pulse.  He wasn't terribly lame; it could easily have been an abscess or bruise.  So my advice to anyone who has a mild mystery lameness that doesn't sit right with you:  do the radiographs sooner rather than later.  

We could use some good vibes if you have any to spare.

June 10, 2020

Taking Action

I generally do not delve into too much social commentary on this horse blog, but we have reached new-yet-old levels of horrifying behaviour & I want to share a few things.

Some things shouldn't have to be said.  I'm going to say them anyway.

Judging anyone based on their skin color is wrong.

Classifying someone based on any attributes they can't control is wrong.  You are not better than someone else just because they have cells that grow with a different shade than yours.  Human behaviour, choices, ethics, & intelligence are not dictated by the colour of the sack that holds their organs together. 

Someone else is not less deserving or less worthy or in any way different from you just because they fell out of their mother on a different side of an imaginary line drawn by dead, greedy white men.  

Racism, just like sexism, is wrong.  Both should be named, called out, & shut down on sight. 

White people, of which I am one, don't like to hear it, but the truth is that we are not that special.  If you have found success in your life in this country & you are white, at least part of that success is because you didn't have to battle the colour you were born with.  Part of your success is absolutely due to pure luck (hint:  if you immediately thought 'no', that means the answer is 'yes').  Plenty of other people worked just as hard & harder than you did & wanted it more.  What they lacked was the key ingredient of opportunity, aka luck.  It's up to us as mature, thoughtful adults to realize that accepting this does not denigrate us, rather it's an important step to recognize both the humanity & the struggle of others. 

I could dig into that in extensive detail, but what I want to do instead is talk about how we can move forward.  Because it takes ACTION from all of us who did have that luck in the form of parents or other family/connections who could help us out, in the form of access to education, which creates choices, in the form of a job when we were looking for one, in the form of relative safety when we speak up -- change is possible, but to have meaning, it will require force from us to overwhelm the fear & resistance of those in power.

What that action looks like is going to vary based on our individual capabilities & strengths.  I don't have money, so in this society, I have little power.  Even my vote is crippled since I live in a gerrymandered district.  However, I can still effect meaningful change.
When I started working in conservation, I quickly noticed that it is REALLY REALLY white (it's also really, really male, but I won't get into that for now).  For much of my career, I've been banging away at that drum & trying to find ways bring more diversity into our conversations, our meetings, & our conferences.  Because it's not just about what people look like -- it's about the diversity of life experiences, cultural backgrounds, values, interests-- these are what make our communities & our programs better & that was sorely missing in our agency.

It's been a puzzling problem to tackle, because I knew that at least in the hiring decisions that I had a say in over the last 15 yrs, it was definitely NOT due to discrimination against diverse applicants.  We were simply not getting any qualified applicants who weren't white people.  And for a long time, we barely even had any that weren't white guys with brown beards who hunted & fished (yeah, sadly, I was a major component of our division diversity for a while).  So what were the barriers that prevented people from even getting to our entry level (you can be a technician with an associate's degree from a community college)?

We're a long way from a solution, but I can share some positive things.  A few years ago, my statewide professional society started sponsoring bilingual outdoor family events which are geared towards our hispanic communities.  This is a small-but-huge step that our agency is part of.  I wish I could be more help with those, but alas, we don't seem to have many French-speaking groups in NC.

The big effort though, that I am very excited about, is a result of a grant we were recently awarded from a national program.  I am part of a small sub-group of employees who are working on concrete steps to broaden the diversity of our partnerships both internally & externally.  There is a solid workplan & momentum that I am thrilled to finally see.

This effort, called Partners For Inclusion, is a 3- pronged approach, recognizing that you need diversity within in order to successfully engage the diversity of constituents.  It includes critical elements like creating opportunities all the way down to elementary levels for kids to see people they can relate to & for people to see that natural resources belong & are relevant to everyone & there are so many different ways to enjoy them.  It's hard for people to fight for environmental justice if they don't feel included as stakeholders.  It's about being better communicators, which includes both reaching out AND listening.
Many need to be coaxed out of their shells...
I mention this for two reasons:  one, I wanted to share something positive in this cacophony of violence & soul-wrenching sadness.  Two, I want to challenge each of you, if you haven't already, to look around you & identify a niche where you can contribute to opening doors & creating opportunities where they may be lacking.  Where you can give a voice to someone unheard, or even better, create a safe space for that voice to flourish.  It's easy to shower out words of support on the internet -- I do hope that some of them will cause detractors to at least stop & think, but words will never be enough.

If you can support protestors in any way, that's great, do so.  But don't feel helpless if you can't, because there is a great deal of important work, some already in progress, much more that still needs to be done, that lies ahead of us.  That work, to ensure people have access to their basic civil rights & an equal opportunity at choosing their own path through life, will take commitment for a long time, from all of us to see it through.  Because make no mistake, if someone else's civil rights can be trampled on, that absolutely means yours can be too.

Every society is only as strong as its weakest members & helping someone else does not reduce you.  Taking care of each other strengthens us all.  Conversely, standing by & letting others fail merely dooms us all to an inevitable tumble into the same abyss.

It's up to us whether to choose to build a bridge instead.