Thursday, May 23, 2019

Yesterday, I hauled the horses to Oregon’s west side over the mountains to visit our trainer. From my perspective in Central Oregon, after days of rainy weather, there was a worrisome possibility of running into rain while traveling to Lebanon through the passes, but aside from a running into a few sprinkles, the drive as usual was uneventful, and of course, curvy and slow.

I always plan and try to arrive at the trainer’s before our lessons, early enough for the horses to enjoy a little grazing time after their long trip. The lead photo above shows Rosie as a happy pig in tall grass–and best of all she’s not alone. My friend, Elaine, while recently visiting Bend, suggested tying Pimmy to a breakable collar on Sunni’s neck in order to lead all three equines at once. Well yesterday, the sight of that tall grass motivated me to try Elaine’s suggestion. I rigged up a collar for Sunni, and to it, hitched Pimmy, and Presto! The three followed me quietly, without separation anxieties, and grazed peacefully.

Later, the work with our trainer became an enlightening experience. First with Rosie, I learned more about how to exercise her, using long ropes. The ropes, handled correctly, can control the speed and directions of her trotting. I learned about bringing her closer to apply more control, or closer to regain control when she does as she wishes, changing gaits so that the ropes become loose and sloppy. As she trotted, I practiced handling the lines, alternately bringing her closer and then sending her out farther. Our trainer had me practice having the horse reverse in direction, as I adjusted my hands on the ropes, in a way to control her action and speed.

During Sunni’s session, we hitched this pony, a push-button, she has it together and is a dream to drive. Yesterday, I practiced handling the reins and turning her correctly while she’s trotting. The focus was to keep her body and head in balance while approaching and making a turn, and completing it still in balance. It’s striking how the action of driving a horse–applying the reins–is similar to the use of long lines in exercising a horse.

Later, driving home was challenging because we ran into rain, and in some places downright downpours. The windshield wipers swung to and fro at full-speed while we went through the highest reaches of Santiam Pass. A bit later again, the wipers returned to high action through the town of Sisters. Thankfully, beyond Sisters the rain eased, and prior to reaching Bend became a light sprinkle.

Dear Friends, it’s good to be home safely, and with elevated training goals. Diana

Wednesday, May 22, 2019

A short hello today, as I’m about to hit the road with horses and donkey, traveling over the mountains for sessions with our driving trainer. My truck has gasoline, is loaded with horse-related equipment, and all else is at-the-ready. My biggest concerns are possibilities of heavy rain in the mountains, or once over them in the Valley. I’ll give myself enough time to drive slowly, and if necessary, will take the “longer route” through Scio and avoid the narrow and curvy Tombstone Pass.

Today’s training goals are to strengthen and expand my skills with Rosie on long-lines. And then, seated in a carriage and driving Sunni, to practice the discipline of dressage.

Dear Friends, have a wonderful day. Diana

Tuesday, May 21, 2019

The rains continued, and once the horses were exercised, there were a couple of extra hours for an outing with the dogs. We piled into the Jeep to travel toward a desert-like area, it’s alongside a large canal that several years ago my friends, Julie and Dave, discovered and kindly shared with me. Floating on the canal, geese families with babies honked at my dogs. Plants on our path were moisture-covered and shiny. Before long the dogs were soaked, and before we finished walking, my wet camera failed.

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That wet weather created an almost dim atmosphere, but close observations of landscape details revealed myriads of sparkles.

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Drops of water and sparks of light dramatized all the plants, many of which were very tiny.

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The plants largest, most common, and dramatic were the Antelope brush. It abundantly lined our path, helping to guide us in a direction that eventually looped to the car.

There’s something wonderful about walking in the rain. It’s about not caring much if you’re wet, your shoes muddy, your cell phone struggling, and are with muddy dogs that will dirty the car. You feel in another time, gain a different perspective, and are freer from worries. Besides, a gentle rain makes a day more beautiful.

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Dear Friends, thanks for joining us on a lovely, rainy afternoon. Diana

Monday, May 20, 2019

This week, here in Central Oregon, you wouldn’t know it’s summer. Instead, it’s been so windy, rainy, and chilly that I pulled from storage cold-weather clothing. These mornings, while going down to feed horses, I’m really silly-looking, in a winter jacket that covers the upper part of my flapping bathrobe.

We had a couple of warm weeks, and fortunately, one while my visitor was here. Earlier, as the summer approached, I watched Robins multiplying and scouting for worms, Blue birds building a nest in my barn, California Jays diving for tossed peanuts, and Starlings returning to their summer lodging among the barn’s roof supports.

In our earliest rain, a big earthworm that wiggled into my garage appeared half-dead when I spotted it. I rushed it to the garden, covered it with dirt, and hoped it might survive. That was the only attention to the species that I paid, before seeing a New York Times article about an “earthworm dilemma”: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/20/science/earthworms-soil-climate.html?action=click&module=Discovery&pgtype=Homepage

According to the article, Canadian scientists are seeing in the boreal forest, the world’s most northerly forest, much evidence of earthworm activity–highly unusual, because native earthworms disappeared from most of northern America, 10,000 years ago, during the ice age. The current earthworms are an invasive species from Southern Europe, brought to Northern America by settlers centuries ago. They survived the ice age and are thriving.

This got to me: “As the worms feed, they release into the atmosphere much of the carbon stored in the forest floor [and] climate scientists are worried.” Worms speed decomposition, which releases carbon dioxide. Scientists calculate that earthworms currently occupy 9% of the Northeastern Alberta forest, and will occupy 50% by 2049. Worm feasting reduces the depth of leaf litter and reduces the forest’s native plants, so nonnative plants can enter and force out endemic plants. Scientists predict that the worm activity could eventually turn forest into prairie.

There’s evidence of earthworms also having spread to parts of Alaska’s boreal forest, where their biomass (total mass) is 500 times greater than that area’s moose population. Those earthworms on the edge of the northern boreal permafrost, will increase the pace of melt and the release of carbon.

There are no known methods of eradicating earthworms from boreal forests. Scientists are cautioning people to avoid transporting worms to unaffected parts of the forest. They’re also watching Asian earthworms–a new invader–moving toward Southern Quebec and Ontario.

Dear Friends, elements that affect climate include critters beneath our feet. Diana

Sunday, May 19, 2019

Yesterday while working at Costco, I spent a couple of hours in the pharmacy section handing out samples of a protein drink. I was surrounded by many high protein choices, in powders and liquids, and nearby were shelves with boxes of protein bars. All products promised to supply about 20 grams of protein per drink or bar. Shoppers stopped at my demo table to sample powdered drinks, and many who simply passed pushed carts containing products that promised high protein consumption. I wondered what drives an increasingly high interest in consuming lots of protein.

I ask customers about this and a common response, especially from those who routinely exercise, is that protein builds muscle. Certainly, there are muscular types browsing through the protein section and selecting items. So do others, out of shape and often overweight. Other curious products are protein supplements directed at children. Many passing parents encourage their kids to sample protein drinks. I wonder why its good or necessary to supplement kids with high protein.

In the pharmacy, passers-by routinely swallow all kinds of high-interest samples, and often hand them to their children. The tables often offer samples of multi-vitamins, flu-preventions, digestive helpers, testesterone support, artery health, and just about anything thought to enhance bodily welfare, reinforced by package claims.

I asked a fellow worker, a slim, physically fit fellow who’s also a part-time food coach, why supplements and extra protein seem necessary. He said, they’re not, and that folks who eat routinely from the main food groups, avoiding most sugars and fats, don’t need “the extras”. His easy recipe for healthy eating is having a good salad daily, tossed with an appropriate variety of high-value foods. He says that such salads provide adequate nutrients for optimal health.

He explains that the high interest of shoppers in protein is because of money pumped into advertising by the meat industry. I understood, realizing that we’re impacted by advertising almost without noticing. We’re vulnerable to ads that pop-up on our social media for products we’ve explored, even with very casual interest. After time, numerous reminders can “get to us”.

I’m a victim, too, inundated by advertisers. And I’ll not take it any more! I’ll toss my aging stash of protein bars and powders, which anyway aren’t tasty, and resume eating from the basic food groups. I liked my co-worker’s description of fulfilling salads, that provide adequate nutrition.

Dear Friends, shopping in big box sores makes sticking to the basics difficult. Diana

Saturday, May 18, 2019

On an earlier and much warmer May day, my visiting friend, Elaine, accompanied the horses and me across the mountains for sessions with Megan, our driving trainer. Elaine has known and helped to train both my horses since they were fillies. I was happy she would see how they’re currently being worked with. Rosie is in rehab from an old injury, and Sunni recently has been trained for driving. We’re joined by my sweet donkey, Pimmy. She baby-sits whichever horse is left at the trailer to wait patiently while the other takes a turn with our trainer.

We first worked with Rosie, a highly trained and capable driving horse whose gaits are a little off from an old injury that has unbalanced her hips. We’re working to correct this with a veterinarian chiropractor who specializes in sport horses. He wants Rosie exercised regularly to strengthen and realign her hips. Our trainer has helped me learn to use long-lines to exercise the mare.

Megan was pleased with Rosie’s progress and had me practice handling the ropes in ways more advanced than simply circling the horse. I learned that the ropes can substitute for verbal commands, and ahead, see more to accomplish with them. Although soon, we’ll probably start hitching Rosie, I’m hoping for more of Megan’s instruction with long-lines.

Next, we turned our attention to Sunni, which meant hitching and driving her. Elaine’s always handy camera captured nice in-action video of this pony–providing visuals that show how much routine driving has strengthened Sunni and improved her balance.

Each time I drive her–Oh, what a wonderful pony!

Dear Friends, horses require so much work, and can be so much fun. Diana

Friday, May 17, 2019

A long-time friend and I met up at Worthy’s, for a beer and a burger, and to exchange perspectives on current politics. We’re of similar minds politically, which held true this time and gave us lots to talk about. I won’t bore anybody by trying to explain our politics, except to say that sometimes ya just gotta let it all hang out. And we did, our words tumbling rapidly.

There’s lots good about friendship. Years ago, we worked together as sample servers in Costco, before she decided to quit and enjoy more family time. What’s held, even from our Costco days and our briefest conversations, is that we see eye-to-eye on macro and political situations. In this country to my mind, particularly after 2001, citizens have witnessed increasing social and political havoc. Even living in a small community away from the biggest mainstreams, I feel impacted by the larger economy and try to follow the overarching politics.

Take 2008, when the housing market dropped more suddenly than one could blink. For many of us, the value of our homes fell to amounts far less than we were obligated to pay for them. Like others, I stayed low hoping for the best during the five years it took this nation to dig out of that failed-housing ditch. Take 2018, from October through December, when the American stock market lost a hugely significant portion of its wealth. My funds sunk along with those of others, as rapidly as our home values had sunk ten years earlier.

We’ve luckily experienced economic corrections while managing financially to hang on through the worst. In these days, my economic worries are renewing in light of loosening lending restrictions, for example, on banks for home buyer loans. Such emerging worries aren’t fodder for conversations, unless between friends sharing points of view.

My friend and I lunched and talked, without resolving concerns; but the activity of talking without much self-monitoring releases the pressures of internalized thoughts and feelings. This made discussing such fun that we’re planning another lunch soon.

Dear Friends, the “Forget Me Nots” suggest a past, maybe sweeter and slower. Diana

Thursday, May 16, 2019

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I usually study what’s overhead: the sky, birds, mountain tops; or at ground level, animals, buildings, fences. Since finding an app that identifies plants, I’ve been looking low and around my property, and usually where my feet are placed, for tiny sprouts. I’ve discovered more identifiable wildlife than my novice self ever could have imagined.

It’s evident from the above views that quick glances might not capture the jewels hidden among rocks and grasses. I went out and tiptoed, looked carefully, and found bunches of little lovelies that my app immediately identified. Once it was clear that these plants had names and histories, I couldn’t bear thoughts of trampling, mowing, or heaven forbid spraying.

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Those above were in one general area. By walking around and looking carefully, I found many more types of plants. Some were on their way to blooming and others seemed rather spent.

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There were additional plants that I didn’t capture on a downloadable camera. Those were tiny growths on ancient lava rocks and lots of mosses. But I’ll go outside again with an appropriate camera and with my identifier app. Experience is the best teacher, and now, I know how to find, photograph, and identify these courageous, alive pop-ups.

My neighbor, Frank, whose property is larger than mine, once explained that by using appropriate software, he had made an official count of his trees, finding some 400-plus. In those days, I couldn’t see much advantage in counting my trees, but maybe I’m moving in that direction.

Dear Readers, how these little discoveries can make my blood pulse! Diana

Wednesday, May 15, 2019

Good morning Central Oregon, after a rare rainy day. Hope that on this damp morning-after everybody feels as good as the early Robins chirping beyond my kitchen window.

Yesterday, I hauled the horses about 20 miles to our sport-horse veterinarian. We left the east side of Bend in a thin rain that got heavier approaching Tumalo, and finally, turning onto the Old Bend-Redmond Highway, became downpour. I hauled slowly on that two-lane and relatively busy roadway, and looking through the rear-view mirror felt sorry for vehicles lined behind my rig. Too bad, because with a load of horses, I’m a slow-goer.

The vet watching Rosie trot in circles saw how exercising has improved her trotting strength and footwork. In walking, however, she still tends to lift her left rear leg high, and in moving forward brings that left hoof too close and nearly in front of her right rear hoof. He performed a second full chiropractic workup, and suggested that her tendency to lift and cross that rear leg stems from an uneven pelvis, which has affected her hips. He focused on adjusting her hips and pelvis, says the conditions are old, difficult to adjust, and so, Rosie will receive a monthly chiropractic work-over. As hoped, he gave the go-ahead to hitch, and slowly re-strengthen her to the drive.

Afterwards, he watched Sunni move and assessed her leg strengths, again this time diagnosing slight hock pain, especially in her right rear. He suggested continuing to drive her, and watching for problems. Alternatively, he felt it okay to medicate and avoid potential signs of overwork pain. During the past months, I myself experienced a first-bout of arthritic knee pain and felt powerful relief from an injection. So yesterday, I opted for hock meds. The vet, on injecting her right hock, showed that it was releasing fluid, which confirmed an inflammation. Later on arriving home, Sunni happily bounced around and faux-kicked more than usual. I surmised she felt real good.

Moving forward, I’ll continue driving Sunni 4-5 times weekly. I’ll start hitching Rosie for strengthening work in the dry lot. These horses will keep me highly focused on improving my driving-handling techniques.

I had been planning, in a few weeks, to take Sunni to Washington State, for a multi-day training event and driving competition. But now, it seems more sensible to continue working routinely with the horses, and delay competing until we’re physically stronger and more capable of meeting higher demands and pressures.

Dear Friends, hoping you enjoy horses enough to continue riding with me. Diana

Tuesday, May 14, 2019

Those expressive eyes, now soft, and her perspective relaxed. Maybe visualize me standing nearby, holding her lead rope and seeming as unworried as she. But neither of us is completely calm. She’s alert to her surroundings, something unexpected instantly could energize her. That possibility and because she’s much bigger, keeps me attuned to her energy levels.

The piece of leather floating beside her eye is the headpiece tail of a breakaway halter that she’s worn for years. The halter’s a bit too large making it simple to slip on and off her. A breakaway halter is designed, in case a a tied-up horse should fall or rear, for its leather to snap apart, freeing the animal and thus avoiding a bad injury or broken neck. This type of collar particularly is recommended for horses being transported by trailer.

The pictured horse is Rosie. Since her harness is easy to put on and take off, I often use it on my other horse, Sunni (she once had her own breakaway that became lost). The other day, Sunni was wearing Rosie’s halter and tied, while being tacked up and prepared for pulling a cart. This event usually is quiet and calm, but suddenly Rosie galloped noisily across the dry lot beyond Sunni’s vision.

Sunni tensed and stretched to look around but was hindered by driving blinkers, and picking up more of Rosie’s vibes, her energy increased. Rosie was spotting in the distance new horses being moved into a usually empty corral, and was focused, her body tense, her energy high. And Sunni picked up on and responded physically to every bit of the drama.

The usually compliant Sunni ignored my calming efforts, and needing to be with her herd tried pulling backwards, but couldn’t get loose. When she attempted to rear, the breakaway leather snapped and set her free. She paced the paddock fence, and like Rosie stared into the distance. It would be necessary to pause and wait until their energies dropped.

When finally Rosie moved away but still watched those distant horses, Sunni calmed a little. I put her into a backup halter and with a long lead lunged her several minutes, to work off any remaining edge. Once she seemed very settled, I finished tacking and hitched her to the cart for our drive.

Over the years that I’ve used breakaway harnesses, none ever snapped. Thankfully, this time it did, for otherwise Sunni might have hurt herself. After she brought me home from our drive, I searched storage areas for her missing breakaway harness, and now by switching it around, use it with both horses. Soon, we’ll receive a supply of newly-ordered breakaways, and in the future, Pimmy, too, will wear a halter that can pop apart.

Dear Friends, we must always be alert to all possibilities, good and bad. Diana