planBE

Exerting control in my little pocket of the world. Day 17 of increasing self-isolation. On March 4th my capitulation began with troublesome emails sent in the middle of the night warning of a potential travel ban for Canadians going to Central Asia with the risk of being sent to quarantine in old USSR army compound in less than ideal conditions. While some of our crew was already en route and I was scheduled to leave 2 days later, we quickly decided to cancel our trip and repatriate everyone back to Canada pronto. At the time some thought we were overreacting. I was relieved, although sad to miss this epic trip. The reimbursement process was a saga on to itself, but after much time, calls, and more time, it was finally resolved to 90% satisfaction. For the next 9 days we were all in limbo. We saw what was happening in the world, and with our students returning from Spring Break, we knew where things were heading. But none of our North American leaders were acting. And of course s

Today is Qs birthday but Im stuck at home doing the neverending conference calls with faculty and students as we move to online learning. I managed to make it to the barn yesterday to go for a walk on the road with Q as our trails are an icy mess. Q got his favorite (a banana) with his nicker treats and peppermints. Our walk out was pretty good, and I encountered a few dog walkers with their GSD and other working dogs that mentioned Q was better behaved than their dogs as they got pulled all over. Even on our return when something (the spring air?) got up Qs butt and he started prancing and snorting, he still strayed no further forward than my shoulder and just piaffed on a loose lead. So, I sang to him in the beat of his piaffe and we watched each other being silly. Happy 7th birthday!

When the dog bites. When the bee stings. We have been shut down for a week. At first most of my friends and family thought I was overreacting and being too cautious. Now everyone seems to have accepted our new temporary reality. I try to not think too much about how long this might last and the long-term impact to our economy or my income. Turning off the tv and getting lost in blogland has been a relief and I wanted to share a few of my favorite blogs and thank all the bloggers out there for the sense of community, the humour, the great pics and the brief window into a different world. It is healing. The Pusher - Lytha from horsecrazyamerican was the one who pushed me to start blogging a year ago. I love following her adventures across the pond with her beautiful horse Mag and donkey Bellis. She is courageous beyond measure to have packed up her American ways and adapted to a very different culture. Just knowing how she endures the daily scowling at the Aldi cash is a testam

Epic. The massive and exponential spread of COVID19 and rapid changes in public policy is nothing short of epic. I sit here watching countless hours of press conferences across Canada and USA, witnessing the closure of borders and President Trump finally changing his tone of casual disregard to one of concern and action. Finally! I must say that the ladies have been the real stars of these press conferences. Serious, well informed, empathetic and firm. True leadership. Our provincial premier Legault has also been stupendous. His bold moves before the number of cases had exceeded 20 in a provincial population of 7M stunned us all, but also spurred our inert institutions, like my University, to action. Finally! So Im on voluntary isolation. Not quarantine, and I still go outside for brief shopping, walks around the neighbourhood and a few short visits to the barn. But Ive curbed my movements by 98%. My hope is that my isolation stays voluntary during the next 2-6 weeks. Even my littl

It was a gorgeous day with mild temperatures hovering around +6 degrees celsius, blue skies, bright sun, and our volunteers had been out “en force” to groom our many kilometers of trails through the forest. It does not get better than this and the footing was by far the best of the entire year. I cantered a stretch so long that I was literally out of breath at the end and begging my horse to walk. He finally did. Reluctantly. It was awesome. My first canter stretch had me taking a curve on the trail to then come to a double team sleigh of beautiful haflingers head on. This team, and their driver, are regulars on this trail section and one of the more experienced teams we have. The owner does wedding processions with them. This particular stretch we were on was a bit narrow to let me pass beside them, so I doubled back a few feet, asked Q to jump in the deep snowbank, turned around and signalled for them to pass me. And that is when I said: “Wait. Can I take a picture?” The driv

I recently learned that there are 60 million horses in the world. While research has shown us that the domestication of horses probably began 5000 years ago in Kazakhstan, the proliferation of horses across the globe has supported our agricultural, industrial, touristic and recreational revolutions over the century, in addition to being of critical military support through many of those centuries. Where do you think the horses are? Let us begin with the top 10 countries in terms of horse population. Not the usual suspects. I expected to see more G10 countries on the list, and was certainly surprised by the low numbers for the United Kingdom. All this began when I realized that Canada has more horses per capita than the UK. Certainly our land mass has influence. As it does for Mongolia and Russia. The sheer numbers of horses per capita in Mongolia is staggering. No doubt the tourism boom will continue there for the romance of galloping across the Mongolia steppes. A friend of mi

Yesterday was day four in a row of trail riding. Usually at this point my pony starts to whither. Everything becomes relaxed and easy, and we enjoy much time on the buckle. We spend our time practicing with leg aids and neck rein and a good time is had by all. We have also had four days of epic footing. The best footing of the entire year. (no rocks, no roots, no mud, no bugs) Trails are well padded and the track is fast. My Q that I thought was so lethargic 10 days ago has shown me that he is all go-go-go! But I still figured that by Day 4 of constant riding, he would start to slow down. I was wrong. Yesterday he was all funny faces and ears at his buddy Shadow when we trotted side by side, and he definitely wanted to blow past him several times. On one canter stretch where Shadow was leading and Q was accelerating up the hill, Shadow spooked at some branch and my buddy B stopped him. Well Q was having none of that, and literally went to pass him ... until I stopped h