It’s March 11th, and we’re finally beginning to see the light at the end of a long, dark tunnel called Winter.
It’s been a rough one. I mean, I’m a horse person, so by “rough” I mean, as rough as my #fwep could be. Brody’s been cleared to go back to work, and Siouxsie is on the road to fitness as well. But we all know that the road to fitness is full of bumps and potholes, and frankly, riding over those potholes is starting to get tiresome.
Sioux and I are making great progress, but it is easy to forget how far we’ve come when we keep bumping up against old constraints. She’s very tight in her lower back because she had to be locked up in a stall for most of the winter. At night anyway. So I need to add an extra 30 minutes to our sessions so I can:
- Groom her
- Put a heating pad on her back
- Stretch her stifles, shoulders, back, and psoas muscles
- Lunge her to get her warmed up so she doesn’t get the Spring zoomies while I’m on her back
- Do at least 5 minutes of ground work with her to reinforce my leadership role in our relationship, and then
- Finally tack up and walk for 30 minutes
I mean, it’s fine that I have to do all of those things to make sure she’s comfortable and safe to ride. It’s not really a problem. In fact, spending the extra time with her is wonderful. When you have other things nagging at your schedule, though, it is hard to fully relax and enjoy every moment. There’s always a small voice telling me to hurry up or skip a step and move along. I’m aware of this voice these days. In the past, the voice wasn’t even a voice, it was more like a knowing; like I just hurried all the time and skipped steps whenever I thought I could, just to squeeze everything I felt I needed to do into one ride with Sioux. And forget about Brody. He didn’t mind being left alone for two years, and that’s pretty much what happened. I ignored that little fella for almost two whole years.
Now, it’s Me we’re talking about, so of course I kept an eye on things like his general health, nutrition, weight, feet, teeth, and that that. But I didn’t exercise his body or his mind in all that time, and I feel badly about it today.
I knew that neglecting B wasn’t good for him, so I offered him up for a modest lease arrangement and found just the nicest, most perfect friend for him. Megan came twice a week to groom, ride, and spend time with Brody here at Hoo Hollow. She was easy on him, but made him huff and puff just enough to keep his aging body from getting rusty. And he’s a trustworthy guy. Brody knows when to be a total gentleman and when we deserve to be reminded of the fact that a horse is to be respected for being, and behaving like, a horse. With Megan, he was always a gentleman. There were times when he had more energy than usual, but it wasn’t anything of concern, and Megan is a nice rider who can handle anything Brody might dish out; which again, isn’t much. My little Appaloosa gelding is a very good judge of character. I love that about him.
He’s also different than Siouxsie. In fact, he’s different from most of the horses I’ve had. He is a very calm, confident guy. He likes to be left alone, he LOVES to eat, and he is never in a hurry to go anywhere. Ever. This makes him easy to overlook when the flashy thoroughbred mare joined our family. Granted, she demanded a lot of my attention because she was sickly, scared, and confused. I spent a lot of time figuring her out, as well as fixing her body, and Brody sat on the back burner for a while.
Now that spring is on its way and both of my horses are ready to work again, I’m committed to working BOTH of my horses. I don’t know if Megan will have the time to come back and ride Mister B like she did last year. If she can’t, that’s okay. I will be glad to make the time to keep him working and enjoying it. If our country can get a handle on this stupid coronavirus pandemic, maybe we will get to foxhunting again. He would love that.
So today, I reached a point with my work where I could call it a day and go out to the barn to play with my horses. I call it play, and technically, it is my form of recreation, but if you know horses, you know that playing with them is only a fraction of what it means to live with them. The lion’s share of horsemanship lays in the responsibility we have in keeping our horses healthy, sane, and relaxed. If we want one hour of fun, we need to put in 16 hours of horsekeeping in one form or another. That leaves about six hours for sleeping, eating, and generally being a human being… if we’re lucky.