I didn’t get to post this morning, so now I’m going to go with something different.

When they start talking about a Hurricane it’s like the boy who cried wolf. Just like the news media, they get all excited, run around like a chicken with their heads cut off, and then the darn thing goes someplace else. BUT there is always the chance that this time it will come here.

Now I remember when Charlie was set to hit Tampa Bay. People threw their horses in their trailers and went to Orlando and Georgia, and where did the Hurricane end up going? Orlando and Georgia. We stayed put, but that time I left the horses out. The problem with loading your horses to get out of Florida is that everyone else has the same idea, with or without horse trailers. There are only two major highways out, I 95 and I 75. These very quickly become long parking lots. Horses are stuck in traffic in sweat boxes, unless you are blessed to have air conditioning for your horses. If the trailers aren’t moving, neither is the air inside. Then there’s the added thought of we’re out of gas and so are all the gas stations. Personally I’d rather ride out the storm at home than be stuck on the highway with horses in the trailer.

So this morning, as I’m doing my chores, one of my boarders text me and asked if I need help getting ready. For a split second I had to think, ready for what? Then it registered that the 11:00 a.m. update had come out. So right now it looks like it’s a possibility. I thanked her and told her we were under control.

The biggest thing is to remember what you did last time to prepare. First of all leaving town is not an option. I’m not doing that to my horses. If you don’t know anyone in one of the other states, you get there and what do you do? There is an option to go to the State Fair Grounds, but people make reservations in advance.

So here we stay. I’m very comfortable that we will fair well. We have in past years. Barn is well built, I just got grain, have hay, generator for the well, it’s just remembering what has to be secured.

The one boarder that was here this morning asked if the horses stay inside or out. She said there are various opinions about that. Well you have to take a lot of things into consideration. How strong is your barn? Is it going to collapse on top of your horses? How safe is your pasture. What are the chances that debris will fly in from the neighbors. Are your pastures large enough that the horses can run out of the way of UFO’s? Will your fences become UFO’s? Will your barn or other outbuildings become UFO’s? Your house, the dog house, your jumps, all can become flying debris. How strong are the trees in your pastures. These oaks in Florida fall for no good reason, so when you have a good reason are they going to stand?

I have dog tags that attach to the horses halters and tails. I guess I should pull them out, but chances are 1. The hurricane will change course, and 2. The horses will remain in the barn. I know this barn, it will stand. I have first aid supplies for any injuries and medications for everything else. Chances are that getting a vet here will not be an option. If trees come down on the road, they just are not getting through.

This, of course, is not just a Florida problem. This storm, or others, can run up the East Coast. I’d rather deal with something I know may hit us as opposed to a Tornado that just shouts “Surprise!” as it takes everything in it’s path. I don’t even want to think about what people went through this year with the fires in California, or floods.

So for now, it’s a wait and see. We’ll start securing on Friday, until then it’s business as usual. No thought of building an Ark, we’re high. The rest of Florida would have to be submerged for us to have water front property. If that happens, would the name Florida be changed to Atlantis?

There is always more to learn about horses. You think you’ve seen it all – heard it all – done it all…… and then, Wham!!! there’s something new.

Of course there are always new findings, new products, new ways of doing the same old things, but sometimes you just hear of things that you’ve never heard of before.

Between my neighbor and I we’ve covered too many problems. We check in with each other to see if either of us have come up against any particular thing. If the answer is no, we spread the knowledge between us so we’re covered the next time.

I’ve had laser done on horses before, I could only assume it worked. I had it done on me last week and you know what? It really did work. Who would have known. Went through the same thing with acupuncture. I used it on the horses, but not until it really worked for me did I believe it. Now chiropractic I had first.

Millions of horses are flown all over the world, in airplanes of course, all the time. I hate to fly, but I never gave it much thought when it came to horses. I’ve seen how it’s done. Don’t like it much, but it works. Do they get peanuts and a complimentary drink? But lately I’ve encountered many horses that have been flown over and I can’t believe the amount of them that have physical problems from the flight. When speaking with an equine chiropractor, I can’t believe the percentages that have injuries (unseen) from the journey.

Now lets just look at the facts. If you are purchasing a horse in Europe and flying it over to the United States I’m sure they are not flying Economy. You’ve paid a great deal of money for this whole adventure. Why are so many horses injured in the process? Why aren’t people more aware of the injuries these poor animals are left with? Why isn’t something more being done to protect their safety?

The next thing I’ve come up against lately is head/neck trauma in horses.

Now I know my old TB was not right in the brain, and Bob’s Appendix would get weird. We always said that when God was passing out brains, Toy thought he said trains, and Toy said I’m a horse and don’t need trains. It was a standing joke, but now I’m thinking maybe there is more to it. We’d just say he was seeing “Red Rats” let it go. He’d lose focus, start violently backing up, his eyes kind of go blank, he’d slip into the abyss, and we’d wait for him to return. He would back into trees, barbed wire, walls, other horses, whatever was behind him. You could beat him on the butt, but nothing would get his focus back. I had a TB mare that would just freeze, lock up, you’d wait it out and then she would just blow up, and it wasn’t pretty when she would land on a horse in front of her. When these episodes were done, you had a normal??? horse again. It was just something you learned to ride out. It was like her brain went on overload and shut down. Toy’s was more like a panic attack. My first TB I just chalked up to temper tantrums.

But now I’m finding different explanations. More scientific explanations.

My one friends has a horse, and she would say, his brain has checked out. Okay, I hear you, I’ve been there, but she wasn’t just going to work around it. She found people who believed her and offered real explanations. Vertebrates that are out of alignment either pinching nerves or blocking blood to the brain. She’s going to have a specialist look at him and see if there is anyway of correcting the problem. She would always tell me that he just wasn’t there (mentally). I guess she was right.

It’s funny. Years ago we figured there was really something wrong with these horses, but we didn’t know any better. We didn’t know we could look further into the situation. That perhaps something really was wrong that could have been corrected, but then 20 – 40 years ago, I don’t believe there were people out there that could have helped them. Medical and psychological advances in equine medicine have come so far, and nothing is out of bounds anymore. The old saying of “they’re just horses” doesn’t hold water anymore. Owners want answers and are willing to pay for it, and vets are more open to all this weird stuff. People all over the world are investigating all the strange issues that horses and horse people are facing.

I wish I knew then what I know now. I could have helped so many of the horses I loved. I gave them good retirements, but I could have given them many more years of wonderful rides. But from here we go forward.

Okay, it’s one of those things I read, and it touched my heart. Perhaps it will touch yours too. With the way my brain works lately, I may have already shared it with you. Humor me.

“Sit with animals Quietly and they will show you their Hearts…..Sit with them Kindly, and they will help you locate Yours.” Ramblings of the Claury.

It is so true. We gain so much peace from our animals, but only if we allow ourselves the quiet time to be with them.

We have so much to do that we just rush through our chores. Off to work, off to school, off to somewhere. But as the old saying goes “We need to stop and smell the roses.” We need to take time to just be still with our horses. We need quiet times in our lives to keep our sanity.

I know I’ve spoken about the times, on a cold winters night, that I would just sit in a 20 degree barn and listen to the horses munching their hay. My friend said that to me several weeks ago. Of course it being Florida it wasn’t on a cold winters night, it was probably on a warm summers night. But the point was that it is so relaxing just listening to them munch hay. Why? I have no clue, but horse people all know it to be true.

The quietness is peaceful, but the callings can be just as enjoyable, when your horse sees you and calls to you. Or perhaps just nickers to you. There are seven in the barn now and I know each one of their voices. I knew each one of my horses voices over all the 57 years. Some are base, some baritone, some tenors, some altos, and a few sopranos (mostly ponies). All pleasing to the ears when it’s aimed at your attention.

They are like your children. Have you been with a parent who has more than one child? When one of their children cries, they know which one it is. Your ears are tuned

How about with your dogs? I know what each growl, whimper, or whine means.

They are in our hearts and in our souls. Never be mistaken about this.

(Sometimes you just don’t know what day it is.)

Didn’t like that program much when I was young. Just wasn’t my cup of tea.

Two weeks ago was was a lead-in for this week. Now I don’t expect you to believe it, because I’m still having difficulty with it, but I’ll throw it out to you for entertainment, more or less.

The owner of the TB has a very special bond with that horse. I’ve had special bonds with mine, but this one is different. Can’t really explain it. She knows what he is thinking and communicating. I mean I knew what Desert was going to do at any given moment, and he knew what I wanted before I asked, but this is different. I’ve gotten strange feelings from this horse. Like he was smarter and more knowledgeable, just couldn’t put it into human words. Not a good explanation, but like I said, can’t explain any of this.

So the last couple of days I’ve been bringing them in the barn because of afternoon storms. When it’s time to go out I would get the old dude and walk him to the next stall to get the TB. Old dude hasn’t wanted to come out onto the concrete because he’s had sore feet from all the wet. I usually treat them for a few days and they are fine, but my back has been out and bending was not an option. So he would get onto the concrete, walk the couple of steps to the TB’s stall and stop. I’d get the TB out and he’d start walking for the back door which is only about eight feet from his stall door. TB would be walking and the old dude has planted his feet and was not going anywhere. I’ve got one horse ahead, one horse planted and me in the middle being stretched like Gumbie. So the TB stops and waits while I play tug-of-war. Well two nights ago the TB stopped and looked back like “what’s the deal?” So talking to him like he understood me I said “his feet hurt and he doesn’t want to move. Do something, talk to him.” Well the TB turns around and walks back, licks the old dudes neck by his mane, then nudges him and he (old dude) walks out beside us. Okay that was weird, but I’ll take it because now I can get on with turning everyone out and feeding.

Okay, comes the next night and we’re back to the same situation. This time I didn’t say anything. TB stops, turns around, comes back to the old dude, (now remember I didn’t say anything) nudges him behind the elbow three times. No movement on the old dudes part. TB then grabs the cheek piece of the halter and drags him out the back door by the halter. I started laughing and just walked along with them. As soon as they were out the back door the TB let go and we proceeded to the pasture.

Of course I thanked him for his help, but was in total shock as to what I had just witnessed. I’m still in shock. Today my back was better and I treated the feet, but I can’t wait to see what tonight brings. Once again I’m not giving any direction, just being a bystander in this whole scene.

Well I didn’t play that game the next night. When I took the old dude out of the stall I kept him walking out the door. I did that for two nights in a row. Left him outside the door on the grass, went back in and got the TB. That worked well for two nights. The third night I put the old dude on the cross tie to do his feet (it’s right by the TB’s door). When I was done I put the halter on the TB, unclipped the old dude and went to walk out. (Now let me say that I didn’t clip the throat latch on the halter because I was just turning them out, and taking the halter off. I also know that the old dude isn’t going to do anything stupid. So once again, without me saying anything, the TB turns around and comes back for his friend, who isn’t moving. Without the throat latch being closed the cheek piece was closer to the eye, so the TB grabs the back of the nose band and starts to pull. Old dude said “I’m not moving.” After several tries the TB lets go and then proceeds to take the skin on the old dudes jowl between his teeth and gently pulls him. He was so delicate on how he did this I was amazed. At this point I just yelled at the both of them and out the door we went. Old dude got the message.

You can believe it or not. I still don’t.

Happy 4th of July everyone! But it may not be happy for all our animals. Some of them just can’t handle it.

Now let’s think about all the “war horses”. They weren’t bothered by artillery fire. People shoot guns off the backs of horses now and in days past. It’s all a matter of how you condition your horses. Now dogs on the other hand, are not always interested in working through this particular problem.

So here we face another 4th of July. Are you prepared, and do you know how your horse will take to it?

Now the horses that have been here for a year or more are fine with it. I have never had a horse on the property that wasn’t okay with the pretty sights and loud sounds. It might have something to do with Florida and all the intense lightening strikes we have, or maybe it’s something else. I like to feed early and be home for the 4th of July evenings, just in case. My horses are all turned out in their pastures. They actually like to watch the fireworks. They run down to the pond to get a better view. But this year I have two new horses who I don’t know. I’ve put calls out to their owners to see if they have any idea of what reaction to expect. One is a hunt horse and probably has heard gun fire before. The one from Germany, I’m not really sure. The owner said he was put in the barn and seemed to do fine. He’s the curious sort and would probably like to watch, but he also uses any excuse to run around.

So the question is do you put them in or leave them out? I really believe they prefer being out. They can see what’s making the noise and if they want to get away from it they can go to the other end of the pasture. I worry that they will feel trapped in their stalls. They can’t see what’s going on, but they hear the noise. They are confined and can’t run away. Now if you have a horse that will panic, running away might not be a good idea, especially if they’ll run through a fence.

So it’s really up to you and your horse. You know him/her better than anyone. If you have a small paddock that they stay in, there is no place to run to.

It’s a judgement call, and you are the judge. Have a safe happy 4th. You might also consider conditioning your horse through the year to prepare him for the 4th of July next year.