Working with Sarah

Early days...

Sarah and young Nahani

The new big paddock out back had one fatal flaw... the gate off of the sand ring was in a low spot. Early in the spring it was so muddy that once my rubber boot stuck but I kept going, face first into the mud!  Not a happy mama!

So we couldn't use that gate.  The other option was to halter the horses and walk them out of the sand ring and through the top gate, hair raising! First this involved haltering Lincoln who didn't want to be haltered.  I' d chase him round and round in his stall, get one ear in, he'd toss his head up and the whole thing would come off. I barely knew how to put a halter on, I didn't trust him, I didn't like him, I didn't want to be in the stall with any horse and he was so friggin big! After I got used to horses, I liked Lincoln well enough.

So I was always soooo grateful when young Sarah would ask if I wanted her to help with turn out. YES I DO !!  What I was feeling wasn't terror but strong apprehension,  grave reluctance. The thoughts of those big hooves right beside my feet.  The knowing that this big animal, who is twitching and snorting and bobbing around can't be held by the six foot rope I have in my hands.  Thank god, it appears not to know this.  I think to myself, animals can sense your fear, don't be afraid, don't be afraid ...

The down side of the top gate, besides being out of a fenced enclosure, was the fact that it was muddy and slippery getting there and really slippery just inside the gate. So much so that once inside both the horse and I would slip down the hill a little.  Oh. My. God thoughts of an upside down horse, flailing legs and upside down me in the middle of this. Sarah's presence would help me keep my shit together.  Three horses to go out, she'd do two, I'd do one but I'd man the gate for her second pass out.

Sarah and Heather

Another terrifying thing about this whole thing was the fact that the first horse wanted out while we tried to put the next ones in. They would dance around right in front of the gate while we had another horse on a string on the outside of the gate that was intent on eating the grass just outside the gate and also dancing around. Hold the string, fiddle with the chain and the bindy little hooky thing that holds the gate shut, open the gate without it slipping out of our hands and flinging wide open, getting next horse in before previous horse runs out or bites the horse one of us is holding onto. That was about it, that was enough heart pounding excitement for my morning, on one coffee.

I wish I had a picture of Sarah standing in the driving rain trying to get the horses in the barn during a thunderstorm.  She lives nearby and would keep on eye on the weather too.  She would leave her house and drive over to the barn to bring them in, hopefully before the storm broke.  This day, not that lucky.  She stood out there, soaked to the skin, trying to coax the stupids inside.  Good girl, hard worker, good friend.