Over the river and through the woods
Everything is settling down at the new barn and we are developing something like a routine.
It goes like this: show up, clean stalls and refill water buckets, work Ro, torture Ro, work Dezi, feed, turn out.
We don’t torture Dezi because he’d just roll his eyes at us and do whatever was asked. Ro, on the other hand, gets offended. I’ve figured out, for example, that she will walk past the port-a-potty all day long—as long as I walk between her and the port-a-potty. If I walk on the outside? The thing could kill her. She’s sure of it, and she does not understand why I can’t comprehend that.
But she seems to be coming to terms with the horse-eating port-a-potty, so when I saw a temporary bridge (some planks across a little muddy ditch) had been set up, I asked her to walk over it.
It took a few false starts, but she went—and then gave me a There, I did it. Now hose me off and let me eat dinner. look.
I’m mean. I made her walk over it again.
And then, after hosing her off at the non-scary hose, I took her over to the scary wash rack. It’s set against the tree line and is really dark. She hasn’t been thrilled about it since we got there, and I hadn’t pushed the issue yet since there was another hose we could use to rinse her off.
The wash rack took a little more convincing than the bridge, but the same technique that works to get her on the trailer got her in the wash rack. Once she made up her mind to enter the wash rack, she was really calm about the entire thing. We hung out for a minute and then left.
At which point she gave me an omg wtf was the point of that? look. Anticlimactic, much?
Tomorrow: the wash rack again, and then… the swimming pool. It’s even bigger and blue-er than the port-a-potty.
I now possess the wisdom of the ancients
Today was Chiropractor Trip #2. Trip #1 did not go so well, which is to say it didn’t go at all.
Trailer loading this time went much smoother, and we made it to the chiropractor’s without incident. The mare’s owner warned them ahead of time that the mare had been acting out and they discussed options in case the mare objected to any adjustments that might need to be made.
After getting some history and doing a visual look-over, the vet went over to the mare and started massaging her head, talking quietly to her all the while.
I have seen college students high on pot and holding a full plate of brownies on their laps who looked more tense than the mare did. The vet could have asked her to jump through flaming hoops of fire and she would have, as long as she could have a face massage at the end of it.
For the rest of the session, she stayed relaxed, with big, soft eyes. Even when she got a little worried, she looked to the vet for reassurance. Beyond that initial conversation with the owner, sedation never came up. The vet was the mare’s new BFF forever after that head massage. Every once in a while, she’d steal a glance at her owner and I: See this? See what she’s doing? THIS is the life I deserve. I am staying Right. Here. Forever.
Owner and I called a timeout and huddled in a corner. She has a new BFF. She’s stubborn enough that she might not come home with us. What if we learn the jedi facial massage thing? Would that be enough? How much will we have to bribe the vet to teach us that?
Fortunately we didn’t have to resort to bribery and the vet showed us the secret to the head massage at the end. After due consideration, the mare decided that we knew the most important bit and that she would come home with us after all; she hopped on the trailer like a pro.
I looked around online to see if I could find a diagram that shows where the pressure points are, but I can’t. I am heartily afraid of being sued—although I have no idea why anyone would bother; the only thing I own are massive student loans—so I’m not going to try to describe it. However, even for people who are skeptical of massage/chiropractic care for horses, I’d recommend getting someone who knows what they are doing to show you some basic things you can do at home. Apparently not all horses adore the head massage the way this mare does, but if you can find The One True Thing your horse likes… like I said, I think this mare would jump through fire to get this particular massage done.
Heck, she’d probably load on any trailer you pointed her at, if she thought it’d get her this head rub.
It’s like a tailor-made reward for her, and that alone made the appointment worthwhile (says the person who wasn’t paying for the appointment and was just along for the ride).
Name This Horse
Ro’s a green QH/Arab cross that I’ve been helping her owner with. She’s actually Dezi’s full sister, although you’d never guess it unless you saw them moving together. She’s about 14.3/15 hh and has had about 20 rides under saddle, so still pretty green. Very smart. A total princess.
Her barn name is a shortened form of Rocket, because, well, calling a chestnut mare Rocket is just asking for trouble.
However, her owner is filling out registration papers now, so if anyone has suggestions for a registered name, let me know.
Me, I am mostly thinking along Latin/Greek lines:
- Corinna (an Ancient Greek poet and, later, a pseudonym used by Ovid’s lover in the Amores. Means ‘maiden.’)
- Eurydice (wife of Orpheus, meaning Wide Justice)
- Terpsichore (Greek muse of choral dances)
- Meliora (better things)
- Euphrosyne (one of the three Graces, the goddess of joy)
- Metonymy (a rhetorical figure where you replace the name of a thing by something associated with it, such as using ‘sweat’ to mean ‘hard work’)
- Arcadia (has come to represent an ideal bucolic/pastoral location)
- Aida (reward, present, helpful—depends on what origin you choose for it)
- Suki (Japanese for ‘beloved’)
- Briseis (the woman coveted by Achilles and stolen by Agamemnon during the Trojan war, causing Achilles to withdraw from the fight for some time)
I keep chewing over some variation of ‘wine-dark sea’ that would work and can’t come up with anything. The Greek for ‘wine-dark’ is oinos, which isn’t very appealing.
Or names beginning with Ro-—Roxanne, Rohanna, Rochelle, etc.
As you can see, I’m at a bit of a loss. Apparently, all my secret names are for geldings. Suggestions? Ideas?