Working through the fog.

I’ve been a bit absent in the blog writing department of late, I apologise. But the truth is, I’ve been struggling. In many aspects. Life very rarely goes as dreamily as planned, and events of this year haven’t been an exception. 

As a family we had our ‘bucket list’ 6 week UK holiday adventure. It took up a huge amount of brain space in the lead up, in preparations and organisation of all of the things. Here’s the big tip. Planning to go away for 6 weeks, and trying to make arrangements for 2 businesses, 8 horses, small animals and a property is a fairly sizeable task. Then throw in the family and holiday planning element. 

When I purchased the Andalusians in November last year, I had grand plans that before we went away, I would have them working in both singles and pairs, all of their basics established, then they could have a 2 month holiday while we were away, to let it all sink in. We would come back, pick up where we left off, and all would be hunky dory. 

It wasn’t to be. A couple of months before leaving, I realised we weren’t going to meet my self imposed deadline. Nothing major, but there were small things that slowed progress, that needed to be addressed before moving on to bigger things. While disappointing, in the grand scheme of things, it is better to take it slower and do it properly, then rush them, scare them, then have to fix the damage. 

In time for our holiday, we sent some of the horses to their holiday agistments, with some staying at home with a house sitter, and off we went on holiday, a mixture of horses, cars, museums and London things. It was an incredible 6 weeks, which went incredibly quickly. On the very day we went to fly out, we were struck with what we thought was food poisoning. This made for a rather challenging day, followed by a rather uncomfortable flight, and on our arrival home, we were incredibly jet lagged. We got home to find more challenges with sick horses due to incorrect feeding, which ultimately cost Calvin his life, even after an emergency dash to Morphetville vets. 

Over the next week, consumed by grief from the loss of Calvin, tail end of gastro, and then testing positive to Covid, the temptation was there to just throw in the towel completely. I could barely stand to look at the horses, and it was only due to the amazing honesty of Angus and Henry, that we got through the few jobs we had booked in.

It took nearly a month to crawl out from that cloud. The weather was awful, my yards were slush, bookings and therefore income were non existent. Through these struggles, I had to recommence the training for Monty and Luna, to try and get them back on track, especially as the loss of Calvin, meaning my workforce had been cut by a third. This in itself was a challenge, as my negative energy really didn’t bode well with the sensitivity of the Andalusians. 

One of the main challenges with these lovely horses, is their separation anxiety, which at times we seem to be getting on top of, then it will rear its ugly head. When Monty and Luna are together, they are generally pretty chilled. The can be separated at home, while being worked individually, and they manage. Take them away from home, then tie one up while working the other, results in all sorts of fire works. As their holiday agistment was in a paddock together, this problem had escalated significantly on our return. 

In some ways, it is great that they are so keen to be together. When working in pairs, this will be one of their strengths, however before we get to that, I need them to be working in singles. Luna is very forward, and has a great work ethic. She doesn’t like pressure on her halter, so she does tend to pull back. Monty is rather lazy, and if there is a way out of work he will look for it. This not only makes it very hard for them to keep pace with each other while attempting to work in a pair, it also makes it a bit challenging to leave one tied up while working the other. 

I thought I was managing it and working through it, until I attended 2 seperate club days a few weeks apart. There were many positives to take out of the days. Lunas floating has improved out of sight, they were quite relaxed in a new environment, and seeing new things, but the fireworks and over reactions about being taken away from each other, even though they were still perfectly in sight of each other, has meant I will be taking more drastic measures, and moving monty to a friends place, while I continue their training separately. 

What upset me possibly more though, is hearing the feedback from people, about the poor behaviour of my horses. Isn’t it funny, how news of failures travel so much faster than news of positives. Rather than being seen as a learning experience, it is a criticism. Its just going to make the success seem so much sweeter, when we work through these curveballs, and I have these beautiful, sensitive creatures understanding and trusting the process, pulling the carriages as singles and pairs.