My Soapbox for Equestrian Writings
If you’ve ever dropped your kids off at sleepaway camp, you’ll know how I felt how I felt when I took Zelda to the full care barn last Friday. “Look,” I said to her. “You’ll have your own paddock and a huge stall. There are lots of nice horses here — you’ll make new friends!” […]
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Five weeks ago, when I was lying at the bottom of a slippery hill in the rain, knowing that I’d done significant damage to my ankle, I realized that I would need to make some changes. Freedom and Zelda have lived for the past five years at a barn with extraordinary turnout (for my Boston […]
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When I was a kid, one of the songs we sang started, “Shoo fly, don’t bother me. ” Zelda is humming that now. The horse flies almost always show up around the 4th of July and this year they are right on schedule. Poor Zelda, those suckers have quite a bite. Even with a wonderful […]
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Like a kid in a sprinkler, Freedom loves to get spritzed with water on a hot day. Today, after taking Zelda to a Hunter Pace, I hosed her off. She doesn’t object, but she doesn’t enjoy it the way he does. I gave him a good soaking from outside the paddock. He’s the only horse […]
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Trust. The trust on this horse’s face says so much about his relationship with his human as the people around him work to rescue him. Almost 25 years ago, Fritz, a Boston police horse, fell into a sidewalk construction hole that had been covered by a steel plate. Police Officer Frank Pomodoro rushed to his […]
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Yesterday, Curly and Zelda staged a jailbreak, knocking down the electric fence and wandering through some thick brush. When the ground is frozen the electric fence doesn’t work that well, and with winter blankets to protect them, I doubt they felt much of anything. Unfortunately, Curly did not emerge unscathed. She managed to slice her […]
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One of the (only) downsides of the warmer weather we’ve been enjoying is the number of ticks has increased. Zelda, in particular, is a tick magnet. It’s not unusual for me to pick seven or eight ticks off her during grooming, sometimes more. She reacts quite badly to the tick bites and I can usually […]
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When I got to the barn yesterday morning, Freedom was nowhere to be seen. I was a bit late to feed, and usually, the horses are waiting by the fence, eager for their breakfast. I scanned the pasture. Nothing. I whistled for him. No response. The girls were there, nickering encouragement. So, I threw them […]
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