Simple.
You are addicted to horses.
Not, "Oh, I would like to have a horse one day."
Or, "Horses are so gallant; we would be best friends like in the book My Friend Flicka."
You simply must be near them, see them, ride them, serve them.
You remain a ten-year-old barn orphan forever in your heart. You will do anything to get to ride.
Fix fences, mow pastures, grease tractors, dig up broken barn pipes, feed like clockwork two times a day, no matter the weather, rub legs, soak hooves, clean sheaths, pop abscesses, get stepped on, get kicked,then bit, worm them, wipe their butts under the tail and MUCK. Muck. Muck. Muck.
The only thing horses in their free time do more than eat is CRAP. The third most practiced activity is trying to kill themselves on anything in the pasture.
So, your first duty, unless you are wealthy, and you won't be for long if you have too many horses, is to get out there at daybreak, feed and water, check them out for overnight calamities, and start MUCKING.
If the thought of scooping poop with the attendant hordes of flies in a hot summer makes you queasy, please think about leasing a nice horse at a training stable where the help does all the work and you get to sit and look pretty when you arrive while your paid trainer tells you how great you are doing.
But you will never be regarded as a true "horsewoman" or "horseman." And don't try to talk horse with the help. Respect their input when they care enough to share some insight.
Even the Royal Family knows how valuable their stable staff is. I will bet you even the Queen has snuck down in the dark to listen to the contented chewing of hay and soft nickering, taking some peace in the smell and sounds of her barn. Now actually shoveling some muck might be stretching it, but you can see how she acts around horses and dogs and you know she is experienced.
I am about to upload a video from my ranch showing how I spent New Year's Day 2012: not to whine, but everyone else I knew was sleeping in and there was no one there to help me. That's how it goes some days.
But as my cavalry officer father used to say: "Better hurry up and get to the barn. Your horse is depending on you."
I might grouse some about mucking and tending all the animals at Bridlespur Rescue Ranch, especially since I was abandoned by my mate of 22 years and left with about $90 and two months behind in bills, but I have made it seven months since the abandonment by Ebaying my dead parents' heirlooms and pawning personal items. Thank you for reading my blog and sharing my days with the 35 rescued animals at Bridlespur.
I will shortly upload or link to my You Tube video or website in order to show the twice a day treatment necessary to take care of a really gross bacterial infection in horses called Pigeon Breast Fever.
