Good People

Hi, it’s me, yes, I still blog. Sorry for the radio silence lately.

I have been traveling a ton for work and I also went home to the northland over 4th of July for some R & R and things have been non-stop since then. My days seem to vacillate wildly between getting seven hours of sleep and getting only three or four because I have to hop yet another flight somewhere. I try my best to sneak in rides whenever I can but while I am gone, I KNOW Harley is being very well cared for.

 

Right before the holiday, I spent some time in Medellin, Colombia. Lovely city. I had never been there before but I don’t mind traveling to Colombia for work because it is fairly easy to get to and Colombians are very nice people.

Except when they are trying to kill you with calories.

 

This delicious heart attack on a plate is called Bandeja Paisa and is THE meal in Medellin. I was visiting with a group of doctors and hosting a training course at a hospital. We finished a little early with our case observation on the second day so one of the teaching docs, who lives in the US but is originally from Medellin, insisted we all go out and have Bandeja Paisa to get the true Medellin experience. He ordered us all plates and then proceeded to order himself a salad. Well played, doc, well played.

After the course, I caught a plane home to the northland and got to spend some time with these two old codgers.

My vacation was devine! The weather was gorgeous and a wonderful break from Indiana’s sticky hot summer so far. I spent my nights relaxing with my family in the screened porch, ate every food that can possibly be grilled, and there was even Tequila tasting with my parents and one of their friends.

Everything was perfect until the evening of July 3rd when I got one of those novel sized texts from the barn owner about Harley. I had that terrible heart-sinking feeling when she said that Harley was frantic in his stall- pacing, twirling, nostrils flared, sweating. She said she hadn’t heard very many since it had been raining, but the neighbors had set off a few fireworks fairly close to the barn. Harley was terrified of the noise and because he is currently in a small barn with no other stalled horses (I know, I don’t like this arrangement either) he was panicking.

We talked out our options and I communicated with Harley’s owner to see whether he had acted like this previously or if there should be other reason to worry. She thought about turning him out in his paddock so he wouldn’t feel trapped, but his paddock is right along the road so too close to where the fireworks were being set off and she was concerned that he might run through the fence. She brought in a sweet old arabian gelding who is normally pasture boarded to hangout in the enclosed breezeway outside of Harley’s stall so they could have some contact but it wasn’t enough. I felt super powerless and super awful that she was having to deal with him in the rain, no less, and I wasn’t even in the state. I threw out the notion of calling the vet and even trying some Dormosedan if we ran out of options. I told her to make sure she was safe while handling him- he’s a very very good boy but, ya know, fear trumps all of that. She did call the vet to consult about the sedative but they didn’t think he’d need it. Instead, she hosed him off to cool him down, and brought him to their personal barn. Their barn is a mile or so back from the road, down a hill by their house. It is a much larger barn and a couple of their own horses were stalled in there, too, so he had calm buddies as well as a big fan to help dull some of the noises. He settled right in and was totally fine after that. I thanked her about a thousand times and she sent me a photo of Harley making himself right at home in their barn.

It gives me so much piece of mind to know that they were truly concerned about his well being and bent over backwards to make sure he was okay. All’s well that ends well! And I could finally get some sleep.

I am back in Indiana now, and very much hoping that the rest of my summer can include much more of this:

And this:

and much less of this, no matter how pretty it is:

Does your horse mind the fireworks? How often do your barn owners/managers communicate with you? Do you worry about your horse when you travel?

swl