JULY 22 - SUMMERTIME

SUMMERTIME Well, kids……I guess it’s about time to fire up the old fingertips again & give you little update on life here at the ranch. Well, it’s summertime - & you know what that means……hundred-degree-plus temperatures day in & day out; the advent of our annual monsoon, where the humidity goes way up & we can find ourselves dodging – or standing under - towering thunderstorms; the incessant whirring of the fans in the barn; flies; a time when only the hardiest helpers are around. Yeah, all of that. The funny thing is, the horses never seem to mind – only us two-leggeds. The horses know that there’s nothing they or anyone else can do about the weather. And they accept it. They’re going on about their business just like they always do. Eat, play, poop, eat, snooze, poop. Ah, the life of a horse, huh? But this summer, their lives are even a little more bearable in the torrid afternoon heat. Our great friends at The Home Depot near here have made a wonderful donation to us: they’re in the process of putting misters in all over the ranch. So far, the barn & shed row are completely finished & they’re in the process of installing them on the field side. Yep – even in the big shade structure in the middle of the field. Not only does it make the kids feel good, but it’s saving a lot of time & energy on those real, real hot afternoons when we’ve had to hose down every horse on the ranch to cool him or her down. Yay, Home Depot! And, especially, Mike & Frank! We’ve moved a few guys around in the past few weeks: Chance, Studley, Slayer & the Iron Man. By that, I mean we’ve moved them into new houses. And it’s working out very well. Because Chance (aka Chauncey) still guards his house as if it’s his castle - & with so many volunteers & visitors coming through – we thought it prudent if we kept him away from the two-legged traffic flow a little more than he had been. We decided to move him over to Tarzan’s old place – that real big paddock over at the end of the ‘hallway’ on the field side. And, because Studs is his buddy, we thought he should be near him, too. And, that because Slayer & the Iron Man could’ve used larger digs, we’d do something with & for them, too. So, we moved the Iron Man into Chance’s big old double-wide at the end of the shed row & Slayer into the adjoining double-wide (Studs’ old place). Eric & a couple of helpers rearranged the fencing over by Chance & Studley – took out the fence that had separated Slayer & the Iron Man & moved one whole fence side so that, now, Chance & Studley are partners again with only a fence between them (not a mini-‘hallway’ any longer). And, I’m happy to report that all four boys are really digging the new arrangements. Buddy. Ah, Buddy. If you’ll recall, he had a pronounced limp in his right rear leg for quite a while. Thinking it might be his back, we had Dr. Wood (the vet/equine chiropractor) come & fix it (he did have plenty of problems back there). But, after three or four weeks – with me riding him in Dr. Wood’s prescribed figure-8s, he didn’t seem to be improving. So we had Dr. Rollins look at him. And he took x-rays & found that Bud has very little cartilage left in his hock. The cartilage rides between the two bones & acts as a cushion. About the only thing that could be done was to inject some steroids into it & hope for the best. Which we didn’t do, by the way, but were considering it before things began to turn around. See, around the same time, it seemed that Buddy was blue. He didn’t seem at all happy. Maybe it was the pain in his leg & maybe it was something else. Something more emotional. Or a combination of the two. We decided it was time to make Buddy happy again. And thus began our nearly-every-day Buddy time. I’ll get the halter & he & I go for long walks. Wherever he wants to go & for whatever duration he chooses. We always go to the big mesquite tree at the south end of the arena & he eats some leaves & scarfs up some of the dried seed pods that have fallen (we call them ‘Fritos’ – more on that later). Then, we’ll walk all through the desert area, stopping & starting wherever he wants. Then, it’s up the lane, around the barn & into the breezeway. He hangs out in the breezeway for quite a while, being fawned over by whomever’s in the area & getting more than his fair share of carrots & treats. Finally, after periods of almost an hour out & about, he goes home. Not that he really wants to – he loves his new routine – but he knows that lunch isn’t far behind & good-naturedly heads to his house. I’ll tell you – it’s made a world of difference in that boy. You can feel the happiness vibe coming off him. It’s a difference of night & day. His gentle spirit has become a happy gentle spirit. It’s so good to see & so good to know that we listened to him, heard him & did what it took to make it happen. Here’s the kicker: no more limp! Good, Buddy! I spoke of ‘Fritos’. At this time of the year, the mesquite trees drop their dried seed pods. And the horses love ‘em! They can’t have too many of them, but up to a dozen? Sure. And nobody loves Fritos more than Mistah Lee & Miss Akira. Well, most of the others do, too, but nobody’s quite as vocal about it as those two. We’ve spent a lot of time picking them up off the ground & filling buckets with ‘em. And, every evening when I do my last walk-around, everybody on the shed row side gets a nice big handful dropped into their feeder. As I make my way over to the shed row, I can hear a nightly equine chorus of, “Yay! Fritos!” I guess it’s kind of a learned liking for them, though. The kids on the field side all look at them & sniff at them & say, “Yo! Jimmy! What the hell is this?!? You tryin’ to poison me or something?!?” Funnier’n hell. Those guys are relegated to store-bought treats & there are certainly never any complaints about them, either. We’ve also just begun our ‘Alfalfa Hay Drive”. The price has finally begun to drop a bit. BTW – the editor of Bridle and Bit told me the other day that the main reason for the exorbitant prices over the past year was that Japan’s alfalfa crop had been wiped out by the tsunami - & they would & did pay almost anything to import it. Funny how a natural disaster on the other side of the earth can affect 29 horses in the Arizona desert, isn’t it? Anyway, we’ve gotten a darned good deal on hay, recently, & are trying to get enough in here to last us until at least Labor Day. And you can help, too. Just go here: http://tierramadrehorsesanctuary.org/HowToDonate.html & you’ll be doing the Horses of Tierra Madre a world of good. Thanks. Also, keep an eye out for our upcoming Olympics promotion. It should prove to be a five-ring ton o’ fun. More on that real soon. Oh - & if you’re in the area, please come to our very first Comedy Night at the American Legion Hall in downtown Cave Creek on Friday, August 3rd. That WILL be a ton o’ fun because we’ve lined up comics that have appeared on Comedy Central, A & E, Showtime & The Improv. As you can tell by the photo, Solo was listening to one of them the other day & knocked himself out. Okay, kids. That’s about it for today. I’m going to try hard & write a new weekly blog. I know it’s been a while since the old ‘daily’ days & it’s been too long since my last one. We’ll try to find a happy medium. So, weekly, it is. In the meantime, let’s be nice to each other, okay? Remember – we’re all we’ve got. Peace. Out.