SWEETS

Horses are by nature herd animals; they don't fare all that well on their own.

And my poor horse, Najale, has been all on his lonesome for almost a year and a half now.

Enter Sweets, or Sweet Lady Grey (her full name).

Najale dances and squeals and gallops and races around, incredibly excited by the presence of another equine.





I put them in adjoining pens for a few hours until the fireworks peter out, and then let them formally meet.

A few more squeals - a couple well-placed kicks from each one - soon they are grazing together in harmony.









Looks like the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

2014, HERE WE COME.

I have put off New Year's resolutions for quite some time now, due to the likelihood of giving up on them around January 3rd.

I am going to try them again this year.

Have you ever wondered why my blog is named what it is?

"O friend, awake, and sleep no more!

The night is over and gone,

would you lose your day also?

You have slept for un-numbered ages;

this morning will you not awake?"

-- Rabindranath Tagore

So for 2014, I'm going to try to wake up. 

 

PART OF MY HEART IS MISSING

For the past two and a half years, I have had an additional six horses:

Triple A, Jo, Rachael, Sammy, Rue and Renegade, in addition to my own two, Najale and Sally.

I had Sally put down a couple of years ago, and Triple A died unexpectedly a few months afterwards.

Now I just have Najale.

I had been planning on keeping Renegade even when the owner took the other horses back, but doesn't seem like that was in her plans.

Horses are herd animals, and their social instinct is strong - it's one of the ways they can survive in the wild.

So Najale is not doing all that well on his own - he's bored, and lonely.

I guess I'm looking for an equine companion now.

MAKING FRIENDS

(An old song by Elton John that I had completely forgotten about - check it out at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSfIDT0kJ7s - please ignore the ad)





The landscape around here looks like something from Ireland, not southern Arizona.

We've had a decent monsoon so far this year, and everything around here is furiously blooming and growing and making this arid landscape look like the tropics.

And since I don't believe in mowing the eight acres of land our house is on, it's pretty crazy looking around here.

Since I got rid of our goats a few months back, I only have the horses to graze it down.

So tonight my husband was in charge of Renegade, and I took Najale out.

And I must admit to a completely alternative purpose.

Not just grazing.

But to get Najale and Renegade better acquainted.

If things go as planned, when all the other Arabs I am horse-sitting go back to their rightful owner, Renegade is going to stay with us.

So I need to help these two boys get along with each other.

What better way than to allow them to pig out together for a bit of time?

ESCAPED HORSE

I often feel guilty about the time I spend with Najale, my horse.





Not that it's ever a great deal - a few minutes here and there throughout the day.





But by the fact that he is one of six horses.




Only five aren't mine, I am just taking care of them.







So when I do take Najale outside of his pen, I feel five accusatory sets of eyes following our every move. One in particular, his pen-mate, whinnies almost continually the entire time they are separated.


This afternoon, I took Najale out to graze, and one of the horses, Sammy, took particular offence.

And opened his fence, slipped under the wire, and followed us.

He took some convincing to return to his pen.

FLASHING BEFORE MY EYES

I don't think of myself as a reckless person.

I wear my self-belt.

I take my vitamins

I look both ways before crossing the highway.

I even drive the speed limit. Really, I do - with a line of highly irritated drivers on my tail wherever I go.

But I do play around with horses a lot.

Even after having my head and left hand broken by 'em.

And tonight I almost had my life flash before my eyes.

I had a rope around my shoulder as I was taking a halter off of Najale when I suddenly realized Rue had grabbed part of this same rope in his mouth, and had it right in that handy spot where you normally put a bit in the horse's mouth.

Which meant that I could not simply pull it out of his mouth without Rue being willing to open his mouth - and since he is just a baby, he had no idea of what I needed him to do.

So he was backing up, confused about what was going on, still with the rope in his mouth. And the rope is suddenly tightening around my shoulder.

Now, Rue is just a baby, but he's a baby who weighs around 650 lbs.

So I got that rope off my shoulder faster than I thought humanly possible.

And then slowly and calmly convinced Rue that he needed to get the rope out of his mouth.

But I almost got caught in what could have been a very, very bad situation.

Wasn't quite a "my entire life flashed before my eyes," but I definitely saw the last two days.

WATER WATER EVERYWHERE

It's become warmer in Southern Arizona.

The horses still have on their winter coats, since it still gets down into the 30's at night, and are pretty uncomfortable during the regular sunny days here.

But there is normally a pretty brisk breeze, and they have very large water containers to help them cool off.

Except for one pen.

The colt, Rue (who I actually have been calling "Roo", as in Kanga and Roo, for over two years now), has discovered that if he works at it hard enough, he can tip the water tank over.

And somehow the simple joy of water gushing out over his little hooves just sends his little heart aflutter.

Without understanding the consequences of being without water for the rest of the day or until I notice that he has tipped over the water for himself and Najale, my horse.

And then I  feel all guilty that the animals are thirsty!

STEPPING UP TO THE ABYSS

What is fear?

Webster tags it as "A distressing emotion aroused by impending danger, evil, pain, etc., whether the threat is real or imagined..."

My favorite acronym is F.E.A.R. - standing for "False Expectations Appearing Real."

Because very, VERY few of our fears are "real" because usually the threat is only in our minds.

We are scared because of something the could happen - we are afraid of what people might think - we fear possibilities, not realities.



I, however, do have one very legitimate fear.

It's being injured by a 1,200 lb. animal.

I have been hurt before, by this particular animal and other horses in general. I've been thrown, stomped on, knocked over, bitten, kicked and head-butted. I've had stitches, extended hospital stays, lots of bruises, and more than my share of pain and achiness (did I just invent that word?).

So just a smidgen of my fear may feel legitimate.

But I also know horses very well - in particular the one I own myself - and am fairly confident of my ability to boss them around and AVOID the aforementioned injuries.

So today, fighting some of these aforementioned emotions, I took this one animal and spent some time working with him alone in a separate location.

And wasn't hurt in the slightest.

A DEATH IN THE FAMILY

It's difficult as you watch loved one grow older.

They get grayer - they get more absent-minded - they get skinnier without trying.

And then suddenly they can't breath - their chest hurts - they need to see a doctor.

And if all things work together for their good, they pass fairly quickly.



Triple A (aka "Always An Angel") is the oldest of the seven horses I have been watching for the past two years for a friend who is stationed in Germany, and she began not eating anywhere near as much as she normally does two days ago.

When she is feeling healthy, there is very little that can deter Triple A from feed of any kind - and she will fight with the best of them to get it - so I was a little concerned, but also certain she would be back to her normal combative self soon.

Then yesterday, she refused to move - another unusual sign - and then shortly after everyone had been fed in the late afternoon, she collapsed.

And passed after only about twenty minutes.


As anyone who loves their animals knows, it's just as difficult as a human death - it's a family member gone.

And somehow having her body underneath a trap in the corral is worse. You can't just easily dispose of an equine body - it's $150 worth of digging for just the grave.



And you normally can't just hand the job off to a mortuary.

YOU LIKE HORSES, YOU SAY

This post will make sense to horse people.

But not the "oh yes I love horses" people.

Not the "gosh I like riding" and "a mad gallop is the most fun" and "when can we go riding on your horses?"

I'm talking about and to the mucking out, detangling, curry-combing, hoof-picking, fly-spraying crowd.

Those of us who feed twice a day. Who clean out and bleach water troughs, who lug heavy salt blocks on to pasture. Who clean brushes and saddles and ropes. Who sit up nights waiting for a foaling mare, or walking a colicky gelding.

Yeah, horse people.

So -  when a "oh yes I love horses" person wants to come over and go galloping off on one of your horses, are you as mean as I am?

Because I always tell them, "Sure! Come on over!" and THEN watch as they struggle through grooming, saddling and then finally GIVE UP when they have to clean out the hooves.

I must admit it is a great deal of fun.

And my horses never get one of them on their backs

SHUFFLE SHUFFLE SHUFFLE

Before you invite an entire house-load of guests over for the next long weekend, you spend at least a few seconds figuring out who is going to sleep where and with whom.

It might be as simple as putting all married couples together.

Perhaps a bit trickier with the boyfriend/girlfriend situation.

Then all women in one area - all guys in another? Or mix and match? First come, first served?












With horses, some additional factors will usually come into play.

For example, will one horse keep the other from eating?

Could there be prolonged battle sessions with kicks, squeals and high-speed chases?

And how do you mix up the sexes? Put the old girls together? Keep the colt with the gelding? Where to put the two mares that keep coming into heat?






At least they normally don't expect Martha Stewart welcome packets.

Oh, no. They do.

A HERD VS. A CROWD

The Encarta dictionary (the one comes automatically with Microsoft, and with which I argue vehemently more often than I agree with it - not that it changes the definitions for me or anything) states blandly that a herd is "a group of animals" while a crowd is "a large group of people gathered in one place." 

So I have a crowd of a herd now.

Before 2002, if anyone had had suggested that I might complain about having EIGHT HORSES, I would have laughed. Well, laughed and then probably wept at the simple thought of having a horse of my own (this is before I got on anti-depressants; I cried a lot more).

Then in 2002, I abruptly acquired a gorgeous Paint colt for a purely token payment (a friend had to choose between living in Arizona or staying married). And then within a few weeks, was given an abused Thoroughbred mare (all because I mentioned to my husband I wanted to get a neighbor's goat to keep the colt company).

The pair were immediately and emotionally joined at the hip, which limited my wishes to actually ride the colt outside of the pasture (the mare would quite literally go into hysterics if the Paint went out of her sight).

So for quite some time I have had two very large, furry pets to fed, brush, listen to, and love behind my house in the empty Arizona chaparral brush three miles from the border of Mexico.

And when a friend was selling her horses before a move to Germany, I told her if she had problems getting them sold, let me know.

She did - have problems getting them sold, I mean. With the economy not completely tip-top, people don't have an extra three or four thousand to spend on a pure-blood Arab, let alone outfitting, feeding and upkeep.

So I offered to take one or two of the mares to help her out - went over to her place to make more formal arrangements - to find out she wanted me to take ALL SIX.

Now, I did take a stand. A very firm one.

That I wouldn't take the stallion.

Come on, someone is moving to Germany in the next few weeks - she doesn't have any options, really, other than abandoning the horses or something like that.

Yeah, I'm a wimp, I know. I even ended up taking the stallion - but kept him over at a neighbors until he was gelded.

Now I have eight extremely vocal equines in my backyard, ranging in age from 6 months to 20+ years - one is a registered Paint, one is a registered Thoroughbred, and six are pure-blood Arabs.

Did I suddenly become wealthy and elitist and just didn't notice it?

And if I did, do I have to become a Republican too?