Days 20 and 21
Day 20
While we were cleaning stalls in the morning, Laura approached me and asked me to go to the feed store again to pick up some more senior feed and some rice bran. I dabbled with the idea of stopping at Starbucks for a Caramel Apple Spice, but I decided against it because it was something of an impulse and I don’t need to spend the money (although Sabrina and Evie were talking about ice cream a few minutes ago and now I want to go up to Baskin Robbins even though I REALLY don’t need that). Anyhow, when I got back the vet had already arrived to look at Roulette again, because Brittney had said that she hasn’t gotten much better since she hurt herself in the field.
The day’s meeting/discussion was Large Animal Rescue with Brooke, whom I’ve seldom seen around the office and whose identity I was never even really clear on before today. The meeting was supposed to be 1-3, but we started about 10 minutes late and ended almost 45 minutes late. She did a presentation on how they generally conduct a rescue, how they keep people safe, who they generally have around what needs to be done to make sure it happens as quickly, easily and safely as possible. After her presentation we went outside to play with Pegasus, the name given to the horse mannequin DEFHR uses for Large Animal Rescue Training, and who in his previous life was apparently one of a collection of animal statues outside a veterinary clinic. Brooke and Gavin wrapped Pegasus up in a complicated series of straps that was kind of neat when it was all done, and Brooke went over the proper way to flip or drag a horse that needs to be repositioned.
After I showered in the evening I went about polishing my resume, finishing my reference sheet and finding some pictures to send off to Shane Adams. When I got to the part where I actually have to construct an e-mail and send it, I panicked a little. I mean, this is a HUGE step for me. It’s the first post-graduation application I will have submitted to a legitimate, real-world employer, and as if that wasn’t enough to freak me out, he is a somewhat intimidating guy who has the power to give me one of the coolest entry-level jobs in my field, a job that could only open doors for me as far as my dream job is concerned.
So yeah, I’m a little freaked out. And I mean “a little” in the sense that the Pacific Ocean contains “a little” bit of water and I’m “a little” bit obsessed with Great Big Sea//Hanson/Star Trek.

Day 21
The temperature was significantly higher than the previous day, but it also rained pretty much all day long. We had very few volunteers in the morning, and the vet came out again to look at Roulette… and Persian.
Persian is on stall rest again for now. Last night was the first night he has spent at pasture since he started colicking, and when he came in this morning with Maura, he wouldn’t touch his food. He had a snotty nose, a racing heart and a temperature of 103.5. He was put in a stall, with Maura across from him (in case he was contagious) and the vet came at around 10:45. We thought at first that the cough he’s had was just a result of his allergies, and he’s been on antihistamines for a few days. He’s back indoors now and still having his vitals checked, but because he’s not in any real danger the residential (sigh of relief) only have to continue checking on him when we go to bed.
We had our final demos with Sara as well. We spent some time on round pen work and some time on loading. Cayenne is an expert in the round pen, and made it look easy. However, the thought of training a horse to exercise like that is a little overwhelming. Sara says it’s a lost art – something that’s misunderstood because noobs can screw it up and that’s mostly done these days by cowboys and natural horsemen. It does look interesting despite looking difficult, and if I ever get a job at a ranch where I get to learn how to drive cattle, I will hopefully also learn how to round pen train a horse.
Razberry was very well-behaved for the loading demo – it took Sara maybe three tries before she was walking into the trailer, and another two or three times before she was doing it willingly on her own. We moved on to Isaiah, whom we weren’t sure would cooperate. He took a lot longer, because he was feral when we brought him in and he’s been shut up in a stall in quarantine for several weeks (he finally got to go out with the other boys about 2 days ago) and clearly was terrified that there was something on the trailer that was going to eat him. By walking into the trailer with him, Sara got him to understand that everything was fine (she had clearly used the same tactic on Isaiah’s brother Jethro at some point in the past).
Our final victim was Adam, whom I call “Admiral” in honor of Admiral Adama of BattleStar Galactica fame regardless of the fact that I don’t even like that show. Adam was terrified of the trailer and thoroughly confused about why Sara, whom he had before now implicitly trusted, was forcing him to walk into its gaping maw as though this was a normal part of his daily routine. Adam has his own routine. He knows it, and he likes it. He lives outside in the pasture with his buddies all night, eating hay and running around like an impish, carefree colt. He comes down the chute in the morning, goes to his feed station, eats some warm, mushy, delicious feed, maybe gets groomed and pampered a little, and goes back out to the pasture, where he stays overnight, eating hay with his friends and being a horse. The next day he does it again: Pasture, feed station, pampering, pasture. This was different. It was a deviation from the norm. It was scary and different and confusing.
I don’t know how long it took Sara to get him on the trailer, but he was awfully spooky for the whole experience. Sara followed him backward multiple times for a solid 15 feet before succeeding in getting him to step forward again. The first several times he got on, he turned around and ran off immediately. Finally Sarah walked him onto the trailer and had Alex shut the door almost completely behind her until Adam calmed down. He then walked off the trailer like a normal, non-schizo horse a single time, and Sara decided that that high note was a good one to end the lesson on.
I will be home in a matter of days. What an odd and amazing thing.
♥
SM