If there is an art, I haven’t found it yet.

A dear friend has been having “episodes,” as the doctors refer to it.  He seems to become unconscious. His blood pressure drops too low, and has a few other symptoms which I won’t go into.  When he comes out of it, everything is normal.  The funny thing is it always happens around lunch time.  They thought of low blood sugar, but no it wasn’t anything to do with that.  They considered the time since he took his morning meds.  No, that wasn’t it.  He has been going through months of tests, at many different hospitals, but as to finding out what is causing this, they have no idea.

What happened to the old days where doctors knew their patients.  They knew their families, their lives, their individual problems, what they ate, where they worked, and what they did for fun.  Now the doctors depend on machines to tell them what is going on in a person’s body.  They don’t even ask the patient or the families questions to try to figure out what is the cause.  If the various tests don’t show anything, they don’t have a clue.

We, with horses, know that watching them is our best indication.  They can’t tell us, so we become “Super Sleuth”.  A friend from church, not a horse person, asked how we know what is wrong?  I told him, they tell us if we listen.  Body language, the typical – temperature, gum color, heart rate, respiration, swelling, pain, are our techniques.  Of course we do resort to x-rays, and ultrasounds too, but initially it’s our eyes, ears, nose (thrush, infection), and observation.

We’ve become so technological that we have lost common sense.  Could it be the 80 pills this man is on.  One pill counter-acting another pill that is correcting something caused by another pill?  At least we don’t do that to our horses.

Evaluating takes time and patience.  That is something our medical associates don’t have anymore.  You more or less become a number, not person.  You have to fit within the list of symptoms, or the doctors are lost.  You have only this much time allotted for them to figure it out, or they throw you out of the hospital and move on to the next case.

We are so blessed that we do not treat our horses like that.  Although sometimes I am not sure.

We evaluate what the horse needs in the way of nourishment, in the way his feet are shod or trimmed, in the fitting of his tack, and what tack is necessary and what tack is overkill.

When purchasing a horse we evaluate if this is the right horse for a person or the right person for the horse, his conformation, his attitude, and his athletic ability for the particular job we have in mind.

As teachers and trainers we evaluate what techniques will work best for our current problem or need.  This should not be a rushed decision, a lot hangs on your approach and conclusion.  With a quick thought you may make or break a horse.  You may cause success or injury to a rider.  It is so important to take all things into consideration before making a move.  It doesn’t always come down to an oops let’s try again.  Sometimes in life there are no “do overs.”

When evaluating anything important, take your time, look at all the facts and consequences of your upcoming actions.  Gain all the wisdom on the subject that you can, and go from there.

Let’s keep the art of evaluation alive, at least where we can.