My eight friends and I have been passing this stupid cold around since November. It’s fine for them, but us horse people cannot stop while we’re on a Z-Pak.

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So Bob bought a two year old boat. No hours on it, and I think I know why. It’s all computerized. Everything on this boat is inter-connected through a satellite. Now I’m challenged. I have a flip phone, brand new, but I’m not dealing with all these apps. I have a hard enough time just answering his phone.

What ever happened to the old way of boating. Just you, the boat, and nature. The breeze, the waves, the stars, and true north. That was the old way that sailors had been doing it since the beginning of time.

We stood there on Sunday and couldn’t even figure out how to check to see how much gas was in the thing. Oh don’t get me wrong, she’s a beautiful boat. At least this one still has a ships wheel. Some of the new ones have a joy stick. This isn’t Atari! This is serious stuff.

So sitting at the kitchen table this morning I realized that horses will never come with a “Joy Stick.” We will never need an App to enjoy our animals. There are some things that will remain apart of nature. There are some things that will remain one on one. There are some things that technology can’t mess with, and this is a “Good Thing.”

I know it’s winter and we are struggling to get through it into the season of mud, but this too shall pass, it always does.

As horse owners we all know that anything can happen. No matter how careful we are, stuff happens.

Now I’m not a gambling person but, I do believe that somethings are a 6 million to 1 chance. I also believe, if it’s going to happen, it’s going to happen on my farm.

Actually it would be pretty funny if I wasn’t the one laying on the ground.

So here’s the scene. I’m feeding. Dropping grain in the same buckets, that have been on the same fence, with the same electric fence wire for years. Now I would not let anyone else do this, but I do. (How stupid is that?) So when I put blankets on, or take blankets off, Zoey will sometimes touch the wire with her nose, spin around and come back and let me finish, and then eat. It’s very low voltage when it’s on, and it surprises her more than anything. I touch it all the time. Not very bright, huh?

Well this day I had undone her leg straps, surcingles, and was going to undo her front straps (like I said – put on from the front to the back, take off from the back to the front) when she picked her head up she touched the wire with her nose, spun around, the surcingle flew through the air and guess where it caught? Yup, right on the electric wire. Now tell me, what are the chances of that happening? Seriously! Thinking about it now – the surcingles where on her right side, she spun to the right, how did it end up on the wire which was on her left? Well in my yard, obviously pretty good. So she feels something grabbing her, like the fence and she pulls harder. The wire pops all the insulators (Before the blanket ripped. Rip stop really works folks.) giving the wire a much wider bow. We use the strong wire since they break it regularly, and it rots very quickly here in Florida. As it’s popping the insulators, it smacks me in the back of the head and I get pushed to the ground. Now is this funny or what?

Went for my regular doctors visit yesterday and because you’re old, once a year they ask you questions like, do you have suicidal thoughts? Are you depressed? Have you fallen in the last year? So of course my questions was “what do you consider falling? Do you mean like when two 45 pounds dogs slam into you at 90 miles and hour? Or when you get body slammed by a horse? Or dumped? Or get knocked to the ground by an extended electric fence wire? Of course the nurse just looks at me like I’m the crazy one. (There may be some truth to that.) Or do you mean just catch your foot on a throw rug and hit the deck? She said yes, that one. So my answer – no I haven’t fallen.

So what’s my point? Well it’s kind of like, we as horse people, get ourselves involved in things that most non-horse people would never even consider, but it’s just a part of our lives. We get up, dust ourselves off and carry on. We think, why did I do that, how stupid was that, I’m not going to do that again. After all, how often does a 6 million to 1 experience happen in ones life time? I’m not sure, but I’ll let you all know the next time it happens.

We all get lazy. We take short cuts when we’re in a hurry. I can sit here and preach to the choir, but I still do stupid stuff. I also still hit the ground. What was my thought on this whole thing? Well if I’m going to hit the ground I might as well Fox Hunt, enjoy myself, and make the fall worth while.

Used to make a point of falling off once a year (not on purpose of course). It keeps you from developing a fear of falling, and keeps you humble. Don’t do that much anymore, just haven’t done anything stupid while on a horse. Not yet. Give me time.

Well I lost track of the days and weeks, so I’ll just post one now and get back on track next week.

So I’ve mentioned about the horses being slaughtered here in Florida, and I doubt this is the only place that this is happening. Things like this don’t get much attention by the media.

Why not? We’re tax payers. We spend our hard earned money at various stores, especially caring for our horses. It’s time to make a stand, everyone else does.

I feel so helpless. People keep asking me “what are you going to do to protect your horses?” Well one woman came to me and said she heard a veterinarian on a news channel the other day, who brought up a good point. He commented on the meat these people are harvesting is tainted, poison to humans. The light bulb went off. A lot of the drugs, wormers, and supplements state right on the containers or bottle, “Not meant for horses intended for human consumption.” If we can’t stop them from butchering our horses, maybe we can stop people buying the meat, which in turn will stop them. I do know that they will continue selling it as long as there’s a market (which by the way is a “Black Market). But it certainly won’t hurt to try.

We need to flood the news media with this point. I know these people have no conscience and don’t care if people die, all they want is their money, but what else can we do?

We need to go to anyone who will listen with this information. Police, government officials. It’s a thought and we need to try.

Well since this post was written around Christmas I’ve been hard at work, not successfully, but at work. I contacted three of the local TV stations. At one of the stations I have a personal friend who is a news reporter. His hands were tied because he’s only allowed to report in one county and all this is happening out of that area. I sent emails to two of the other stations and have gotten no response. I did speak to someone at the news desk at my friends station and was told that the incident took place on the outskirts of their viewing area and if it happens closer to Tampa they’ll report it. I told them that there was an unsuccessful attempt closer, but no horses were killed so they couldn’t use it. They had reported on one several months ago, but until something happens in the Tampa area it’s not news worthy. Another happened closer the other day, but they got away before anyone could do anything and the horses were left with rope burns and one of their dogs had holes in it. I don’t know if they were gun shots or what.

More people are watching and disrupting the slaughter, but it will happen again.

The news idea had good points and bad. Yes if we could catch these people and make an example of them it would be good, but it could also bring out the wackos who would be copy cats.

Several people who intervened have seen these people and now the hunt is on. I’ll let you know if anything comes from this.