Dolly and Juliane Ainslie Sheridan copyright 2012
As you can see Dolly is now in regular training. She loves her work--in sport horse lingo she "has a great work ethic." No longer the semi-feral and terrified package of skin and bone when she arrived, she is full-bodied, putting on muscle, and she loves people. A year ago all she did was try to make herself invisible. She avoided interacting with other horses--didn't join in the herd antics--and would not assert herself in any way. Where they were, she wasn't. A survival mechanism, I think. But now she thunders around the pasture running, bucking, playing--even instigating it-- expressing the sheer joy of being alive--fully alive! And when there are treats given out she now presses forward with an attitude of "I think I should have some of that!"--a healthy entitlement great to witness.
It could have ended up quite badly for me, this decision to take a horse out of a slaughter pen. I thought I was being fairly careful by choosing a one-year-old baby. I mean, how much could go wrong in one year? Actually, an awful lot--she could have had a club foot, kissing vertebrae, and scores of conformational issues that I couldn't see. I looked at a lot of horses offered from "Feed Lot Ten" (translation: to be sold to the "killers"; those who bought horses at the meat market price and trucked them to slaughterhouses in Canada or Mexico). Most were full-body shots but hers only a head shot taken at some distance over the diseased back of another unfortunate one, less fortunate as it turned out. There was something about Dolly's eye, though partially obscured by the flash of the camera, that drew me in. I scrolled passed, went back, scrolled forward, but kept returning to her. Okay, her! I swept any and all concerns aside with impulsive optimism. As those of you who have been reading this blog for over a year know, I called and bought her over the phone with a credit card. Sixty dollars. For all I knew, her left eye might have been infected and shut.
Now, here's another shot of Dolly at work with Juliane, just this past week.
And today, Sunday, is her--and all the other horses'--day of rest:
The weather today was perfect--fifties and too early for bugs. There was pleasant breeze. Dolly allows me to come as close as I like with my camera, and its weird-sounding shutter and sometimes disturbing flash. Here she's dozing, the ground a pillow for her muzzle:
Dolly Ainslie Sheridan copyright 2012
Tomorrow at zero dark thirty--a phrase I learned in the Navy, and it means "early!"--the airport van is coming at three-thirty a.m. and since we just pushed the clock forward it's going to feel like two-thirty. Jim and I are off to Boise, Jim to work and relax, and me just to relax. House and horse sitters both in place. When we return it'll be time to start gearing up for show season. I already received e-mail notification that "Dressage at Saratoga," held Memorial Day weekend, is open for entries. Yikes--I haven't even renewed my United States Equestrian Federation membership! Also, the horses will all need their spring shots. Added to which, my friend in Concord has seen and heard quite a few foxes and is pretty sure another litter of kits will appear under her barn this spring, too. I'll be unable to resist--again--what is becoming an annual rite of spring --taking photos of these enchanting little creatures as they run and play among the buttercups! This photo was the litter last year before they were threatened by an unfriendly coyote and their mama re-homed them to the safety of my friend's barn:
Fox Kits Ainslie Sheridan copyright 2011
I will end with a photo of Dolly's eye, just over a year since the picture at the auction was taken. If you look closely, you can see the sky, the trees, her pasture, one of the other horses, and what I think might be a reflection of me.
More news about Highway (he's doing well) and Idaho soon.
Thank you for reading The Windflower Weekly --
Ainslie
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