Handing Over the Reins, slowly & gently

What a strange time we are living in right now.

But it is during this strange time that I am finally finding a way to be just a little less necessary around here, to do some stuff that I really used to enjoy doing a lot, to hand over the reins.  Very slowly. Very gently.  Just the way the horses like us to handle the reins.  

For the last few years I have been trying to make myself "unnecessary" around here.  And I have failed miserably.  Part of the problem is that it is hard for me to let go of something that I have been doing for sooooooooo long.  It is hard for me to trust others with the care of these rescued horses.  Greg and I personally, physically rescued most of these horses from starvation.  I mean, we (at the request of law enforcement) went and got them out of their bad place and put them into our trailer to take to a good place.  In most cases, we brought them back to health and in some cases we brought them back to life, pretty much.  For so long they have been my first responsibility when I get up and my last responsibility before I go to bed. I love taking care of them. I love them.  So that has been a part of the problem, as far as why it's been so hard to make myself unnecessary here.

Another huge part of the problem is that it has been really really hard to find reliable helpers to get all of the chore shifts covered.  If I'm going to be gone, we have to have some people around here that can clean a hoof, know what to do if colic happens, be able to do meds, special feeding plans, know which horses can be turned out with which other horses, know all of the horses and everything about them.  It's much more than cleaning stalls and filling water buckets.  From time to time we have had some really good volunteers.  And we certainly welcome really good volunteers.  But a really good volunteer for us, for the horses, is someone with horse experience, who doesn't have to be supervised once they are taught, who can hold a regular schedule hopefully at least 2 shifts a week, who considers this volunteer opportunity one of the most precious privileges in the world, and doesn't just show up when there is nothing else to do, and who wants to do this forever (or at least for many years).  And that's pretty dang hard to find, volunteers like that.  We used to be able to hire neighbor kids to come over on the weekends and after school and pay them 6 bucks an hour and they were happy to have the job.  Now, of course,  we have to pay a lot more than that!!!  And the horses are getting older and have more and more special needs, special feeding programs, meds, etc.  So now our paid employees get paid a lot more than they used to.  and even at that, I could tell you some unbelieveable stories about some of the employees who didn't quite work out here.

But now, for the first time in a long, long time, probably close to 15 years, I feel like I can start to hand over the reins a little bit at a time.  We have really good helpers here now.  We have Heidi and Kyrstin.  Kyrstin is going to help with some of our communications like facebook, this webblog, etc.  So you will be noticing some changes on here soon.  Kyrstin used to hang out here when she was in high school.  But then she graduated, went to college, got married, went to film school, lived in Hollywood, and I don't even know where all she has been.  But now, more than 10 years later, she's back!!!!  Heidi has been here for more than 10 years but mostly on the weekends as she is a full-time Vet Tech in town.  

So, little by little, I am finally making myself a little bit unnecessary around here.  I have even gone away overnight a few times this year.  Most of you will think this very odd, but I hadn't spent a night away from home for many many many years before this year.  Because I couldn't.  Because of all of  the animals that we take care of here.  And also because I don't really like being away from home.  I love being here with the animals.

It's just that , you know when people get a certain age and we start saying, "you know, I ain't getting any younger,"  well, that's where I'm at.  And there are some things that I used to do that I want to do again.  One of them is Reining!  So, once we got our chore shifts covered here and once I could let go of some of the horse care responsibilities here, I went in search of a Reining horse.  I wanted one already trained, because I was hoping to be able to show right away this year.  So, I went with a trainer  on my first trip away from home in I don't really know how many years,  a 5-day trip to Texas & Oklahoma.  And I bought Melody.   I ordered a new saddle, renewed my NRHA & AQHA memberships, got a new show bridle, show blanket, show shirts, chaps, a new hat, etc. etc.  Had the first show picked out.

and then you know what happened.  The virus.

Now there are no shows scheduled.  I don't want to stay overnight anywhere.  I don't really want to go anywhere.  How quickly life can change.  How quickly our plans and goals can seem like failures.  But of course they really aren't.  Things will get better.  We're just not sure when.  But when they do, I'll be ready!

What a strange time we are living in right now.

But it is during this strange time that I am finally finding a way to be just a little less necessary around here, to do some stuff that I really used to enjoy doing a lot, to hand over the reins.  Very slowly. Very gently.  Just the way the horses like us to handle the reins.