11.17.08
Taking care of Connie’s lady mare
I was given the chance this summer to take care of Connie’s beloved momma mare, not once, but twice, for several days in a row both times, while she and hubby took their boys on a couple of carriage drives! I can’t begin to tell you how BEYOND ecstatic I was!! I’ve taken care of horses on my own before, but never this wonderful mare that I have come to love as if she were my own!!
Willy mare photographed by Horse Gal
I was so thrilled that Connie thought enough of my abilities to put her precious mare in my care. That means SO much to me. Connie is my mentor and I respect her so much. The fact that she put her faith and trust in me makes me feel like I’ve really come a long way! Not that Willy needs very much care! She’s pretty self-sufficient, but she did need to be grained and hayed and have some attention paid to her!! In addition, I also considered it my responsibility to check her out for any injuries or problems that might crop up while Connie was away. And what better way to get experience and knowledge with horses than one-on-one time with them out of the saddle?
Contented as always when grass and companionship are available!!
I would go over to see her two times a day and we spent a lot of wonderful quality time together. When the boys are there, it’s SO hard for me to decide how to split my time up between the three horses!! With just Willy, I could devote myself 100% just to her! Almost every time I got there, she would be in her stall. [She has 24-hour turnout so she must have been waiting for Horse Gal to show up!] She looked lonesome and I’d like to think she was waiting for me, however, we all know she was just keeping out of the bugs! I would groom her and constantly tell her how beautiful she is and how much she is loved. Even though she doesn’t know what I’m saying, I do hope that she found the tone of my voice soothing and comforting and that it made her feel good. She just loves having the top of her tail scratched, so I did a lot of that.
Before I arrived for the second week of caring for Momma, she had sustained a cut high up inside her left thigh. Connie left me instructions on how to care for it. Once again, I felt so excited that not only was I feeding her, now I was able to do some medical care for her too. A first for me!! It certainly wasn’t major surgery that I had to do– all I did was put some antibiotic ointment on this cut and I also put some salve on a growth she had on the back of her foot. But this is something I’d never done before and once again, I was feeling so great because I was doing something new that was important to her well being!!
I didn’t know what to expect… Would Momma let me do it? Would she try to move away from me when I went to apply the ointment? She was perfect!! She let me do what I needed to do. I can’t tell you how empowering something as small as putting salve or ointment on a cut made me feel. I just felt I was really learning more about horsemanship. It was yet another building block in my goal to become the most knowledgeable and experienced horse gal I can be. I want to have good horsemanship, and there’s a lot more to that than just riding. However, as good as all that was, it got even better! Read on, fellow horse lovers….!
