Golden Days - Adventures With Indy

Tuesday, January 28th
Golden Days

Transitions

“The only sure thing is change,” as the old saying goes. And, I suppose it’s true - comforting when you’re in a bad situation, not so comforting when you desperately want to keep the status quo. No creature lives forever of course, and horses have very long life spans compared to cats and dogs. Still, their lives are regrettably shorter than a human’s. Even though we know this going in, the time is always too short and the grief overwhelming. Still, life must go on…

I rode DJ within the week after I bought him. I’ve had Indy since May and haven’t ridden him yet. Sure, there have been “circumstances.” I wanted to give him time to settle in, and then he had all those castration complications that nearly cost him his life and cost us at least three months of time. I was at the point of saddling and bridling him - and even putting some weight in the stirrup - when I realized DJ’s girth was never going to work for Indy. Because of the unusual way my saddle is rigged, I had a problem finding the kind of girth I wanted in a short enough length. By the time I got the girth, it was winter and bitterly cold.

Yes, there were all those things. But there was also me - who hadn’t ridden another horse in 20 years; who had cried all day at the very thought of never riding DJ again. I needed time. Time to make the mental transition before I could attempt the physical transition of actually sitting on Indy.

I’ve been trying to figure out why the transition FROM DJ has been so much more difficult that the transition TO DJ. DJ was my second horse after all, and I loved my first horse SO much…

I was one of those kids who was born with a big, gaping hole in their heart that only a horse could fill. I was 33 before I managed to fill that void. His name was Sirron. He was a coal black 15.1h Quarter Horse. He was 16 when I bought him, but you would never have guessed it. He was as fit and frisky as a youngster - except he was well trained and new how to take care of a timid adult novice. Everyone who’d ever known him thought he was exceptional, and he surely was. He taught me to ride. We did everything. He was truly a dream come true, and God, I loved him.

We had a precious five years together before the unthinkable happened. A routine Coggins test came up positive. We thought it MUST be a lab error because Sirron had NEVER shown ANY signs of illness, but it was not. We ran three more tests, and they all came back the same. I had two choices: life long quarantine or euthanasia. Actually, since I boarded him, I didn’t have two choices. I only had one…

One of my friends at the stable managed to give me that other choice. He had a friend who had a remote cattle ranch in west Texas. He was willing to take Sirron and let him live out his life there. My friend assured me that Sirron would be well taken care of. I would still lose Sirron, but he would be alive and certainly, HE would be very happy.

The more I think about it, the more certain I am that this is the reason I could go ahead and ride and enjoy DJ so much sooner than I’ve been able to with Indy. Sirron was ALIVE. Sure, I missed him - terribly - but I knew HE was happy, and that made all the difference in the world. No matter how much I assure myself that DJ is happy where HE is now too, it’s not the same.

There is the time period involved as well. I loved Sirron as much as it’s possible for me to love, but I only had him for 5 years, and I had DJ for 20. That HAS to make a difference. That’s a big chunk of my life, suddenly empty. SO empty.

But it will work out. During this time, Indy and I have been establishing a relationship, so it’s hardly time wasted. Indy is SO darling - so sweet and funny. Every day I can feel him burrowing deeper and deeper into my heart. Soon, spring will be here, and we’ll be riding. I have NO doubt that he will be a wonderful partner. He won’t be DJ, and that will hurt, especially at first. But, the day will come when it will be okay not to be DJ. He will be Indy, and that will be MORE than enough.

I love you, Indy.
suzym on 01.28.03 @ 07:09 PM CST [link] [1 Comment]

Saturday, January 18th
Golden Days

The Hay Burners

For the past few weeks we’ve had snow on the ground, so the guys have been seriously “hitting the hay” for the first time this winter. If I’d ever wondered why horses were referred to as hay-burners, I’d have my answer - especially from Indy. And I thought DJ could pack away the groceries! Geez, can this boy EAT!

He doesn’t waste it by pulling in down from the feeder, then strewing is all over the place and not eating it. Believe me, he EATS it. I’ve never seen the area around the feeder so pristine. He even cleans up what Ms Ami - a champion hay waster if there ever was one - pulls down and never finishes. Of course, I realize he’s a growing boy, but Holy Guacamole!

We went with round bales this year for the first time - over my long held misgivings. We didn’t have much choice. When I say Mike and I make our own hay, I mean we GROW it. We do NOT cut, rake and bale it. Even if we had all that equipment, it’s pretty hard to picture either Mike or me standing on that hay wagon, tossing those 50 lb. square bales up on the stack as the binder spits them out - ha ha. Heck, I’m not supposed to even LIFT them anymore because of my prosthetic hip. Well, enough said about THAT picture!

So, we hire the actual cutting and bailing. The problem is, not many people are in the baling business any more, and those that are - like our guy - have a hard time finding help to do the grunt work of tossing those square bales. Sigh. Even teenagers refuse to work that hard these days. Anyway, this being the situation, the hay guys around here all have an extremely strong preference for doing round bales. The equipment does all the work, and all they have to do is drive around. We have always square baled the hay for the horses, and then round baled the rest to sell for cows. This year, however, our guy hadn’t been able to get any help, and wanted to round bale it all. I reluctantly agreed.

These are medium sized round bales - about 500 lbs. so Mike and I rolled as many into the barn as we could stuff in there, and hoped for the best. That was a pretty funny picture too, folks. :o) I swear Indy and Ami were laughing…

Actually, things have turned out quite well. We’ve gone through two of them now, and the hay has been in super condition - soft, green and oh, that WONDERFUL smell of good hay. And, as I indicated above, the horses seem to agree. It’s a bit less convenient to feed than the square bales. Instead of tossing a flake, you have to peel loose hay off the bale, and it takes quite a bit of that to equal the more compressed flakes. The upside though is that you have a much better chance of catching weeds and other problem spots that you might miss in the middle of a flake, no matter how careful you were. Since I guess we’ll be doing this from now on, it’s a good thing it’s working out!

The snow has mostly melted off now though, and they’ve both gone back to grazing quite a bit. Hard to believe we still have that much grass this time of year, but it’s there. I seriously doubt they’re getting much nutrition from it, but they ARE having fun. :o)
suzym on 01.18.03 @ 10:59 AM CST [link] [2 Comments]

Tuesday, January 7th
Golden Days

Leave It To Beaver

Well, it looks like Indy has another nickname - as if he needed yet ANOTHER one. Beaver - as in chewing the bark off any tree he can reach. Thank goodness, there aren't many within reach of his babyish choppers!

Our place was a working farm not too long before we got it, so, since what we’re using as pasture was under cultivation so recently, there aren't any trees inside the fence line except for the huge oak just back of the barn. We put wire around it some time ago since the Beav was snacking on the bark. Not only am I unsure how healthful oak bark might be, we didn’t want him to kill that wonderful tree that shades the barn.

There are lots of trees OUTSIDE the pasture fence on all sides except the west where there is a working field. Fortunately, almost all of them are far enough back to be well out of his reach. On the upper part of the east side though, there is a “wild” strip between us and another field. There are some trees there that ARE close to the fence, and they’ve come under attack. In spite of having three feeders full of hay - one outside, two in the barn - and grass easily reachable under the thin snow cover, both he and Ami were gnawing on those trees the other day like they had nothing else to eat. Arrrrgh! HORSES! I don’t even know what species most of these “volunteer” trees are, and I don’t really care so much if they kill these trees, but I sure don’t want the trees to kill them!

In the past, we have found vinegar to be an effective equine repellent. So, there I was, out in the snow trudging up and down that fence line, spraying vinegar all over every tree and weed within the reach of my sprayer. We have been planning all along to clean out and redo this fence - looks like that may move up in priority.

It’s hard to stay mad at those two Goofballs though. Yesterday morning, as I was TRYING to make my morning coffee, they were putting on such a show running and playing in the snow that I let my coffee get cold watching them. Are they worth all the work and worry? OH YEAH!
suzym on 01.07.03 @ 07:57 PM CST [link] [2 Comments]

January 2003
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