Learning experiences

I had a conversation yesterday with a girl whose horse has been experiencing lameness issues for quite a while now. She said a recent diagnosis indicated that the lameness would be a continuing problem, and that surgery was possible but would be expensive and might not be successful. Her family opted not to do the surgery and to try to find him a good home to hang out at. She has owned the horse for less than a year; I could only imagine the disappointment that she must be feeling.

It made me think of the trying times - big and small - that we've experienced with horses over the years. Buster, Katie's first lease horse, was sent back to the farm he'd come from when the stable we were riding at decided they couldn't use him. It was a sudden decision, we were not informed until the last minute, and he was basically loaded on the trailer immediately after she had a lesson on him, and off he went. Lots of tears of disappointment after that event (and a private vow by Horse Mom never to be at the mercy of someone else through a lease!).

There was Dude's hip injury. A prognosis that a year's time off would heal the injury, which for the kid meant an adjustment in plans, with no show season for two seasons, lots of hand walking, lots of time doing the care end of things.

Then there were the little things. Like the horse deciding to act up in a class, the horse losing a shoe right before a show, the horse going lame before a show.

In thinking about these situations, I considered how much my kids learned through all of these experiences, and really, how wonderful it was as a parent to watch that learning process, even though it was disappointing or heart-breaking at times. Compassion, responsibility, patience, flexibility, leadership, and invaluable "people skills" developed through interaction with other horse-crazy kids, and adults in their roles as boarders, barn managers, trainers, farriers and veterinarians.

While it was sad news about the horse in our barn, I definitely admired his young owner's ability to talk knowledgeably and confidently about her horse's condition and the plan the family had been considering for him.

Spring? Winter? Make up your mind, Mother Nature!

It's been one of those weeks. We started off with a H-U-G-E snowstorm that blew in over Sunday and Monday, depositing about two feet of snow in many northern Vermont areas. Welcome to March! Then we had beautiful crisp, blue skies on Tuesday and Wednesday, blustery winds on Thursday and Friday, sprinkles on Saturday, and rain/sleety snow on Sunday.

The horses were in on Saturday and Sunday due to the rain; the temps had dropped back into the low 30s and it was kind of messy. Not that either said, "Hey, thank you for thinking of how chilled we might get standing out in that freezing drizzle." Uh, nope. Both Dude and Bestie looked at me pretty darn expectantly when I arrived at the barn Saturday and today. I think the message they were trying to send was more like, "There's been a terrible miscommunication, we've been stuck in our stalls all day, and we want you to make it right."

My "making it right" involved letting each of them roll and wander around the indoor for several minutes. Not too exciting. But the roads are slippery mud and the path through the paddocks is ankle deep in slush, so we didn't have a lot of options. Luckily, having that roll and strolling around the indoor seems to take the edge off. That, and a flake of hay upon return to their stalls.

Play time with the ponies

The horses didn't go outside today because of the weather. I actually missed the worst of it because we had gone to Boston for a hockey game. Apparently it rained here in the morning, and then right about the time we were heading back north, the rain turned over to snow. Now the forecasters are calling for anywhere from 13 to 30 inches! (This is a bit hard to take because it was 60 degrees in Boston!)

After we got home I went to the barn to check on the horses. No one was around, which was great because the indoor arena was empty and I could let them (one at a time) drop and roll and walk around.

I always find it kind of funny to watch them with this opportunity. Dude's routine is to roll first thing, then get up all full of himself and prance around for a bit. Next he'll try to get me to play with him by trotting up and sort of tossing his head around and looking at me expectantly. What he thinks I'll do, I don't know. He doesn't really recognize personal space too well, so I always shoo him away, telling him, "You're way too big to play with." After about 15 minutes of wandering about and sniffing things in the arena he gets bored and goes to stand by the door to wait for me to put his halter on and take him back to the barn.

Bestie wanders around sniffing the ground, looking for the perfect spot to roll. She's a much more leisurely roller than Dude is, and when she's done she stands up and looks at me for the next step. A lot of times if I start walking, she'll walk right alongside me like she's on a lead rope. It's hard to get her to romp around like Dude does.

The short walk from the side barn door to the indoor arena was pretty soupy with about 6 inches of snow and water running underneath the snow. With temperatures in the 40s earlier in the weekend and the rain, there's some flooding going on in the area. I'll be surprised if the horses go out tomorrow - things need to firm up a bit. Can't really complain though; they've only missed two days of turnout this winter - that's got to be some sort of record.