Horsey Thoughts

A journal of my training of my new almost two year old paint/percheron filly. Interspersed with time management issues, mommy stuff, and normal daily woes.

Friday, July 28, 2006

Is it too much to ask for my horse to have water?

What a nightmare! I knew Sarah was away for the last couple of days, and I went to the barn yesterday expecting dirty stalls. What I didn’t expect was to find the horses without water and to find out they hadn’t been fed breakfast yesterday! I’m so angry!

So I paid my babysitter yesterday so that I could go to the barn, clean all three stalls, feed and water the horses, and let poor Lola have a bath and graze. Why do I find myself worrying about whether or not my horse has water on a 95 degree day? Isn’t that part of what I’m paying board for? It really sucks that what is supposed to be my “relaxing” time was SO stressful. Ugh. I'm not asking for any fancy care here, I'm asking for WATER. I don't think that is too much to ask.

Today, I ended up dragging the kids to the barn because I was worried about the horses not having water again. As it was, there was very little water left when I got there. Sarah did show up while I was there and cleaned stalls, but it really bothers me that no one is more stressed about the horses running out of water.

I really wanted to work with Lola this week and get her driving game as strong as I could before we try to move her on Monday. Hopefully I can get in another barn trip on Sunday. It sucks when I have to spend the little time I have with my horse cleaning up and I don’t get to do anything fun.

Since I seem to be in a mood to rant, I mind as well go into my next problem with the barn yesterday. Sarah’s friend shows up with her boyfriend who doesn’t really ride. They tack up Sarah’s two horses and say they are going out on a trail ride. The guy is nervous, so of course the horse gets nervous. What does the girl say to do? Of course she yells on him to get a grip on her mouth, pull her back, and give her a good kick if she doesn’t listen. YIKES! It makes me crazy. Why are people so terrible to their horses? So they ask me to walk the horse to the end of the driveway. Why the guy would even go out when he couldn’t control the horse is beyond me, but not my problem. I help them walk out, and a few minutes later I see them switching horses. Now the guy is on the young thoroughbred. They try to leave and end up coming back again. They walk around the ring a few times, more yanking to turn and of course lots of yanking and kicking to stop and “make the horse listen” and they venture out on the trails again! Yikes. I’m thankful no one got hurt. I’m so thankful I discovered Parelli. I wish more people would learn that there are so many better ways than being rough on these poor animals.

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