Monday, August 06, 2012

 

While I Was Out

I still haven't figured out how to put line breaks in this thing. I lie -- just figured it out. Hopefully later today.

Anyhow, while I was out I did a number of things. I went to several fibre fests, I walked in the woods a lot, I took a whole lot of photographs, and oh yes, I got a horse.

I heard that. Three of you just did a *facepalm*, two did a *headdesk* and there's one of you sitting there, reaching for the smelling salts, saying in a frighteningly calm tone "of course you did. That's the EXACT thing that someone living on the edge of poverty should do. Yes, a horse." I'm pretty sure you're going to need a little lie-down now.

So, yes. I got me a horse.

I'll explain how, but this is going to take a little while; you may wish to go and get a beverage. I'll wait.

When I was young (I'm over 50 and still feel like I'm about 20, but people in stores call me "ma'am" so I'm assuming I'm old now) I had two friends. I wasn't the sort of kid who had 50 friends over after school and went everywhere all the time. I wasn't one of the cool kids. I wasn't athletic, I was quite indifferent academically and I wasn't the sort of pretty that was in fashion at the time. Oh sure, I was pretty enough, I suppose, but I was old-fashioned pretty. I would have been a catch oh, maybe about 50 years ago :)

So there was me and there was Wendy and there was Angela. Angela and I were fast friends, I mean in-your-pocket-living sort of friends from when I was seven or eight.

When the time came, we went to different high schools, and although we still saw each other sometimes, we drifted apart.

I moved to Ontario when I was 14, and we never saw each other again after that. I thought about her often, and once this whole interwebs thingie happened I Googled her a few times. I never forgot her, but we never reconnected. (Wendy died when she was 16. No reconnecting or Googling for her, alas.)

Last October, I looked for Angela on Facebook, and there she was! She has an unusual-enough last name that I knew it was her, and so I sent a friend request, while feeling like a creepy stalker. I didn't know if she would remember me at all. The request was accepted immediately. Apparently she'd been thinking about me all of these years also, and had just been talking about me a day or two before that and wondering where I was and how I was doing.

I wasn't at all startled to find out that she was living out in the country, with cats and dogs and goats and chickens and horses. My daughter and I started going out to visit immediately. I think even on the first visit I just sort of walked into her house, assuming I would be welcome. I may have knocked; I don't know. I certainly haven't at any point since. I just assume her house is one of those places I can always go.

"Home" has to do with the heart as much as it has to do with family.

Anyhow, my daughter and I have gone out there to ride her horses a number of times since then. A few weeks ago, when I got out of my car on her farm, there was a horse in the lower paddock and it called out. I immediately went down to see who was yelling, and then came back and asked her who it was in the lower field. She said it was a horse she'd been boarding for a little while until the owner got her field properly fenced. We went down there together and she took the fly sheets off of the horse and I fell in love. On. The. Spot.

I mooshed all over this lovely skinny Thoroughbred, and after I left, Angela told the owner how much I loved her. The owner asked if I would be a good horse owner, as she was looking for a new home. Now, I wasn't in a position to take on a horse -- that's just crazy talk. But, I friended the owner on Facebook and we talked and well yeah, the inevitable happened. After an hour or so of talking, I ended up with a horse.

Total asshole move on my part, and I admit it freely -- I mean, who gets a freakin' HORSE without even discussing it with their partner?. (apparently I do) But it was going to happen anyhow and sometimes it's easier to ask for forgiveness than to ask permission. I am in a turbulent and sometimes-confrontational relationship, and I give way on a lot of things; but apparently I had found my line in the sand over which I would not cross. I waited out the week of non-speaking and the week or two of displeasure and a little sniping. I think it's almost over now, as when I went out to see her yesterday and put the carrots in my bag, Ben reminded me to take an apple for her also.

If any of you know anything about Thoroughbreds, you'll know the name Northern Dancer. My beloved Bella Aviva is his great-granddaughter (and is only 3/4 of an inch shorter than he was ... he was a little horse with a huge heart). She used to race, but she blew a knee out during a race in 2010. She's supposedly technically able to race again and is young enough to do so, being only five, but she won't be doing that any more. I love the running of the gee-gees, but it's not a kind life, and she doesn't have the ZOMG RUN RUN RUN I MUST BE FIRST fire. She's a pleaser and a lover. She shouldn't be a racehorse, even if it wasn't too late for her to go back.

Right now she is a paddock pony and we're feeding her day and night to get some more weight on her. The previous owner did wonders with her and she was starting to fatten up a bit. She's as happy as a pig in shit these days, hanging out with three other horses and eating high-grade feed a couple of times a day (beet pulp, alfalfa, grain, vitamins and corn oil I believe), plus treats and tons and tons of fresh grass. You can hardly even see her ribs any more.

Later she will be maybe doing some trail riding and we may try a little dressage once my riding skills advance further than "throw your ass on the back of the horse and hope you don't fall off." She's looking good and this week Angela is going to start working to get some more muscle going. I should be able to ride her in a couple of months, at most. So yeah -- that's part of what I've been up to while I've been out :)

So ... how YOU doing?

Comments:
Congrats on your new lovely horse. I may have to use your horse story as a mitigating story for whatever I may do in the future. "Well at least I didn't buy a horse!"
 
Thanks for sharing this story - I was wondering how the horse had come about. You're an amazing woman Rabbitch, and I admire the hell out of you.
 
Well I for one approve, if only because I have been falling in love with new dogs this summer.

Glad to see you're back. I've missed your posts & that special Rabbitude you bring.

I get paragraph breaks in Blogger by hitting Enter... apparently Canadian Blogger is more relaxed with that sort of thing?
 
Glad your back. I really missed you. Hope you and the little one and spouse are doing well.
 
Well, oh, um...You are NEVER boring. Maybe you can rent her out for photo ops and children's parties to cover the cost of feeding her.

When do we get to start knitting hats for the horse?
 
Pictures of your horsie please! She sounds like a doll.
 
No comments?! That must be rectified at once. Here is a comment.

Gobbled up your post, as I always do. It gave me a bit of indigestion but I'm over it now. :-)
 
Sorry--that last comment was from Ryan. Er, not sorry that it was FROM me, just that I goobered up the identifying oneself part.
 
You should ride your new horse to our wedding! I want a horse so badly, I hope you will post a lot about your new baby so I can live vicariously through you.

Also, SO JEALOUS.
 
Glad you're back. I really enjoy your blog.
 
As I come from a family that contains a couple of members who prefer horses to people, I am not the least bit surprised by the love-at-first-sight and to-hell-with-the-consequences parts of this tale. Good for you, for going with the feeling. I hope you and Bella have a loooooong and happy relationship. And how wonderful to reconnect with an old friend, even if there hadn't been a horse in it too.
 
Dude, you are one seriously brave woman. Money is good and all but you can't take it with you when you go. You took in a lovely animal that you obviously adore, it will adore you back. Congrats. . . just don't start spinning the hair. I don't care what anyone says, that shit smells!

love & hugs!
 
as someone who sold her horses to afford her children, and never was able to afford for her kids to ride, i salute you! this obviously was meant to be!

only yesterday i was musing about what a klutz i was into my mid-20s, often falling, kicking myself in the anklebone, etc. somehow, horses reset my balance (as well as doing all the other wonderful things horses do) and i've rarely fallen since.

please keep us posted on your lovely lady's progress.
 
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