Dude and Cullen BFF

These photos are of Dude and his buddy Cullen. With our departure from the barn looming, they got to enjoy a little gelding friendship moment tonight.

Dude and Cullen go wayyyyy back. I'll let Dude tell the story:
"When my family first bought me I was at a barn in Jericho. One day this little bay gelding showed up. He was young, maybe three years old. That was when I first met Cullen. He was so young my family and other people called him things like Cullen Flower and Baby Cullen. I said, "Kid, stick with me and I'll show you what's what." He was a good kid but he needed a lot of training with his girl and from me and the other boys. He hung out with us guys in the front field. We'd graze, check out the mares, and graze some more. Every so often one of us would have to go in with our people who wanted to ride. Those were great days. After a while, Cullen and his girl Jenny decided to move to a new barn with a group of other people and horses that were switching barns. Me and my girl stayed at the old barn. I was sad that Cullen left, and my girl was sad because her sister left. It just wasn't working out for us anymore at the old barn, so after a few months, we decided to leave and go to the new barn also. On the first day I was there at the new place, my girl and her mom went to turn me out and they took me to the first field, Cullen's field. When he saw me, he came trotting over to me. Right away we started chewing on each other's withers. It was great. We were friends together again. That's one of my family's favorite stories. Now, if I have my stall door open, he stops and catches up with me. If I'm in the ring when he's there, we have a visit. He's a good jumper. What can I say? I love that little guy."

Healthy Horse Workshop

Here's a good learning opportunity for horse owners in the area ... the Healthy Horse Workshop on Saturday, March 28, co-hosted by Vermont Large Animal Clinic (VLAC) and the University of Vermont (UVM) Horse Barn. Morning seminars presented by the VLAC vets will be held in room 101 at the Fleming Museum on the University of Vermont campus and cover topics such as equine dentistry, vaccination and deworming protocols, nutrition and more. Then, in the afternoon, the vets will do demos at the UVM Horse Barn related to gastroscopy, chiropractic work, lameness, powerfloating, and first aid and emergency. Both facilities are easily found on the UVM campus map.

Fees for the workshop are as follows: $15 for a full day including lunch, $10 for a half day including lunch, UVM students are free with their UVM id, and kids under 12 are free. Lunch is $6 for those admitted free. The UVM Horse Barn will be open and members of the barn will offer fun activities. Questions can be addressed to Mark Young of UVM at 802-862-2151. Registration forms can be downloaded here.

I've been to the clinic in past years and it is really worthwhile. There are usually plenty of opportunities to ask questions of the vets and attendees can catch up on the latest information on equine medical topics. This is the first year VLAC has teamed up with the UVM Horse Barn. In my opinion, it's a nice partnership—the seminar gains a spacious site for the demos and UVM gets the opportunity to showcase its equine program to the public. Also, the proceeds from the seminar will be donated to the UVM Horse Barn.

Nothing too exciting happening

Last night I got to the barn late because we had to get Maddie to the airport for her trip over winter break. I think it was close to 7 pm when I arrived, and Bestie and, amazingly, Dude had finished their hay. He's a slow eater so I was kind of surprised that he was done, but when I checked out his stall he had left quite a bit of the hay because it was stalky and leafy from milkweed.

They had been turned out earlier in the day so I basically wanted to clean up their stalls and get home. I think because they were at loose ends they seemed really pleased to see me; neither would leave me alone as I tried to muck. Dude kept coming over and sticking his head in the wheelbarrow, Bestie would stand smack in the middle of the stall, pretty much in the way no matter where I went, and look at me. I was like, "Sorry, guys, no entertainment from me tonight." After mucking I brushed off their turnout sheets, picked their feet, gave them each a portion of a flake to keep them happy until night flake feeding at 9 pm, and left. It was one of those days that seemed r-e-a-l-l-y long.

Horse happenings in VT

We're on the backside of winter, so at this point area horse happenings start to appear on the calendar. One fun event is Everything Equine, which will be held at the Champlain Valley Exposition grounds in Essex Junction, VT on April 25 and 26. It's a two-day event featuring demos, vendors, guest speakers and a horse performance show on Saturday night. I always find the presentations very interesting and helpful ... you get to hear the latest on feeding, pasture maintenance, supplements, medical issues and more from experts. Definitely a worthwhile event for anyone interested in horses.

The second event already on my calendar is the Whispering Pines 4H Club's annual tack sale. Scheduled for May 9 (also at the Champlain Valley Exposition), the sale gives everyone a great shopping experience and the opportunity to buy needed items at bargain prices well before show season kicks in. There's usually a good selection of consigned clothing, footwear and saddles, plus an assortment of other horsey items ... things for kids, halters, brushes, blankets, etc. We got a beautiful leather halter and lead for Dude at the sale one year at a bargain basement price.

It's a consignment sale, so a portion of the proceeds go back to the consigners, but a portion also supports the efforts of Whispering Pines 4H, a very active horse club in our area. I've started going through the "pony pile", the collection of plastic storage boxes in our basement, and have a pretty good assortment to take to the sale. As the date gets closer, there is usually an ad in the Burlington Free Press outlining the consignment procedure; in recent years they've had a Friday evening drop-off for sellers that minimizes the craziness on Saturday morning.

Kind people in the world

I got a call early yesterday that there would be a little memorial for Jen's horse Ariele at noon. Amazingly, Laura, the owner of the barn where Jen had planned to move Ariele (and where Dude and Bestie are heading at the end of the month), offered a burial place for Ariele right there on the property. Laura is a very warm, generous and kind-hearted person. Randy, who works at our current barn, offered to move Ariele from the clinic to the new barn and bury her. A small group of us gathered to say goodbye to Ariele, shed tears and share a few laughs remembering some favorite stories. Jen laid flowers on the burial spot and said a final goodbye to her girl. Ariele's place is in a back corner of a pasture, right along the treeline, a quiet and beautiful spot. Thanks to the support of Laura and Randy, it is wonderful that her final resting place is on the property where her mom Jen had expected Ariele would be so very happy.

Another horsey angel

Bestie's neighbor Ariele passed away last night. She got sick over the weekend, and it was all very perplexing. It first seemed like a colic, then like a virus, and she ended up heading to the clinic at 2 a.m. Wednesday after running a fever, not eating, and just not seeming at all right. The vet treating her at the clinic has her own horse in our barn, so the questions would get fired at her when she'd arrive at the barn over the last couple of days--no rest for the weary. After Ariele's fever came down, the prognosis was "cautiously optimistic." I'm sure we all saw a glimmer of hope; I know I did. And then I got an e-mail from Jen late last night with the sad news.

Ariele was a tall, fine-boned bay mare with a beautiful face, with a perpetually wide-eyed kind expression that made everyone who passed her stall want to reach out and pat her. She was a princess with a full wardrobe of blankies and coordinated saddle pads and wraps. She and Jen were a team, a team that enjoyed the give and take of a solid relationship filled with love, and a team that now can hold their special memories of their time together in their hearts.

To the lovely Ariele ... peace.

Food for thought

I read the following poem on the blog "Saving Argus," which tells the amazing story of a big-hearted woman in California who rescued a horse who had been confined to a stall for many years, and how he ultimately found his "forever home" at her place with all her other equine "kids." I highly recommend the blog. I think this poem gets to the root of why I can't let Dude and Bestie go. I feel like taking good care of them now and enjoying them is my way of honoring their contributions to my kids' childhoods. It's a pretty simple pleasure for me.

To The Owner Of This Horse
~ author unknown

Alone I stand in this dark stall - staring into space
Wondering how this came to be my final resting place.

I think back on all I did for you and try to understand,
Why you would let me fade away beneath your very hand.

I gave you all I had to give, and still you wanted more,
I pushed myself so you'd receive the very highest score.

I forgave you when you were too quick to punish or to scold,
I just remembered you were young, and wished that you were old.

I always carried you safely through each trial and each course,
And all I wanted in return was for you to love this horse.

Yet here I am - alone and cold - a mere shadow of myself,
With our pictures and Blue Ribbons still displayed upon your shelf.

I do not feel selfish, in this, my final plea,
I just want to understand why you did this to me.

I know that as time passes, people will change their ways,
And children will grow up and forget their younger days.

But how does one forget a friend - someone they once adored,
And start looking at their old champion as nothing but a bore?

Now I know my coat has faded and my eyes, they aren't so bright,
But I assure you that within my heart still burns a quiet light.

Yet, here I stand alone and scared of what may lay ahead,
Will I ever know another kindness or have a warm dry bed?

So people, when you buy a horse, just please remember me,
And what sadness I endured despite the life I tried to lead.

Love your horse with all your heart - give him all you can,
Do not forget to rub him with a calm and soothing hand.

No matter what life brings your way - remember till the end.
When you break your horse's heart, you betray your truest friend.

Happy thoughts

Last night it was really cold so consequently it was pretty quiet at the barn in the late afternoon. For a while it was just me and Kara, who was feeding last night, and the quiet sound of horses munching hay and grain (love that!). I was finishing up with Dude and Bestie, just about ready to get ready for yoga when Jen came in. She has been serving as the birth coach for a friend, and her friend had her water break yesterday morning, so they were at the barn kind of killing time before having to head back to the hospital a bit later in the evening.

As Jen took care of her horse Ariele, Jen's pregnant friend and another friend that had been in the car came into the barn to walk the aisle, since the doctor had told the expectant mom to walk. The whole situation was just so amusing to me and it made me feel so happy ... Jen running around doing Ariel's water and cleaning her stall, her friend walking around the aisles and talking to the horses, who were all placidly chewing their hay. I was imagining what her friend would say to her child years from now, "Yes, I spent the night you were born in a horse barn, talking to horses." The whole thing seemed so funny and yet so right.

Then I went to yoga and our opening chant was something like, "May all beings find happiness and well being." As we started the chant, my thoughts flew immediately to the baby, wishing he or she a good life. It might sound kind of crazy, but to me, the peaceful scene at the barn seemed to flow right into the same peace at yoga, and it felt like a good omen for Jen's friend's baby. I didn't see Jen at the barn today, so can't wait to hear how it all turned out.

Good intentions fall by the wayside

A few days ago I vowed to myself that I'd start spending more time at the barn and actually get back into working the horses. The couple of frigid cold snaps we had in January had really sapped my barn energy. The horses were getting turned out most days so it was easy to talk myself out of taking their blankets off and doing much with them.

Now, a new month. I find that I usually feel reenergized in February. It seems brighter out and less wintry, the days are getting longer, and I just feel perkier! I rode Dude on Friday and lunged Bestie on Saturday, but by the time I got to the barn Sunday it was just after haying time and I was beat from cross country skiing in Stowe all day. Then today I didn't get out of work until later, so arrived at the barn just after haying time AGAIN. When that happens on a weekday I start feeling kind of crunched with no time to do anything RIGHT ... work horses, make dinner, get some work done at home in prep for tomorrow, laundry, blah blah blah. So I gave them both a good brushing and departed. They were perfectly happy, and certainly don't seem to care that my vow seems to be, hmmn, not very long-lived!

I did talk to the owner at our new barn and got their feed squared away and shared a few laughs about their personalities and my opinion on how their personalities will affect the new stall and turnout arrangements. Summary: Dude, hey man, no sweat. Bestie, This stall is MINE and this field is MINE and you'd best recognize that I'm in charge here if you know what's good for you. Heeeee.

I still need to call the vet later in the month and give them the change of address. I feel a list in the making :). Item #1: Clean out tack trunk. There's a lot of stuff in there that doesn't need to be transported to a new home. It's similar to all the old gunk that accumulates in a medicine cabinet; stuff that you see and think, "Geez, when did I use THAT?" It'll be like an archeological dig. Can't wait.