Kisses and social distancing

-
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 little freedoms are precious to me.







I stayed away from the barn over the weekend because there was no need for me to be there when everyone else was also. But I did go this morning and had a great lunging session, plenty of grooming and stole some kisses. Q was happy for the attention and even happier for all the treats I was giving. Nicker treats, apple crunch, peppermints, and the almighty carrot.

I didnt hang around for coffee, and kept 6 feet away from anybody in the barn. I washed my hands thoroughly (I probably wash those hands 100 of times a day because I simply can not seem to stop touching my face!) and avoided touching anything unnecessarily. But it was so nice to get out of the house and spend some quality time with my horse.


Footing conditions on trail are at their worst ever. Rain, freeze, ice, yuck. So being barefoot we are condemned to the indoor probably for another 2-3 weeks. So its a good time to be stuck at home. But I still hope to sneak out to the barn for kisses and carrots every couple of days. Probably more for my own sanity. Every bit helps.




Comments

  1. TeresaAMarch 17, 2020 at 9:34 AM

    I'm going to be working from home starting tomorrow. Looking forward to hunkering down on my little farm. Ironically enough, everyone in our province is practicing security except for health authorities. They are driving me nutty.

    ReplyDelete
  2. lythaMarch 18, 2020 at 10:36 AM

    Nice choice of halter. I have two exactly like yours. One in use, and one on my living room wall, Baasha's.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Q gets acupuncture

-
Image
There is a wonderful veterinarian-turned-acupuncturist that works in our area, and Q gets an exam and sometimes a treatment once every six months. With our latest saddle restuffing, I thought it was good timing to take a look. This lovely older gentleman has over 30 years of equine acupuncture practice (in addition to 20 years as an equine vet) and many a story to tell but the biggest stories come from his patients and his magic hands. While I have never tried acupuncture on myself, I have been successfully treated for many ailments with osteopathy and I believe in the body as a system that can often heal itself. So today was the day, and I watched him do several treatments before it was our turn. Q had no back pain or soreness, but his weakness in the left hind was flaring up and probably connected with the increased work on collection over the last few weeks. So, he got some needles and then I watched him slowly drift to sleep as he licked my arm slower and slower. After these
Read more

The Arctic Winter Riding Handbook

-
Image
Annual Trail Rides: 29/200 Here in Quebec, Canada, we have variable weather patterns in winter from springlike sunny days of +10C to arctic freeze of -40C. While winter officially goes from Dec 21 to March 20, we find that it really begins on November 1rst to April 30th. SIX MONTHS OF WINTER! Our other three seasons are much shorter as a result. Aside from the cold, winter also brings a new set of challenges for footing. Deep snow, sheets of ice, crusty snow can bring about dangers to horse and rider and also increase fatigue and injury if not careful. For the truly committed, a set of four winter shoes with studs and plastic snowball inserts, can make a world of difference. Particularly if icy conditions are commonplace and restrict turnouts. I currently keep my horse barefoot, and as a consequence there are a cumulative 2-3 weeks a year where turnout is limited if not impossible and trail riding is off the table. I also benefit from an indoor arena when this happens, so it really is
Read more

What the whip?

-
Image
Im no stranger to spurs, whips and nosebands and I understand their purpose. However I have chosen the slower path to training objectives and have foregone all of the above in my work with Q. Which has been working well so far, in part because Q has a lot of try and is very sensitive. Despite the icy trails, I still made the trek to the barn today and was planning on riding in the arena because ... I just realized I havent cantered in 2 weeks! Partly because of poor trail footing, partly because of rambunctious Q, partly because of slower training objectives. Regardless, I woke up this morning with a mission. A canter mission. We were in the arena with two other trainers, one in reining, and the other in dressage. All was good, and it was just about managing traffic and keeping left-to-left despite their circles, spins, canter half passes, and protruding dressage whip, etc. I had a good session with Q and I was really happy with his canter-to-trot transitions from my seat. We
Read more

Gloomy November

-
Image
I feel like I am in good company when I say that life and work has taken me away from riding these last few weeks. I finally made it back to the barn during an epic windstorm with over 1,000,000 homes without power. No surprise that I didnt ride that day. I did make it out to the woods yesterday for my first time in two weeks and boy has the scenery changed. From golden colors to barren trees, from sandy trails to muddy bogs, from blue skies to hail storms. It’s time to be well dressed, with jackets, gloves, and good socks. I have been dutifully practicing the long reins every day for 15 minutes, and Q is a quick study. We now do nice transitions between collected walk to collected trot, and during one of our teardrop turns Q offered me a leg yield to my squeal and delight. He stopped and raised his head to me, saying that if I was going to squeal that much he deserved a mint. I obliged. He also taught me a lesson today. Yesterday, I was doing our standard trick at the fri
Read more

Harvest season

-
Image
Was a lovely day spent in an apple orchard with a deluxe food basket for two and a bottle of local cider. The weather was brisk but sunny and it was lovely to be surrounded by an abundance of ripe fruit! Q got the day off after five days of good rides. He will get all the treats tomorrow with some nice grass if all goes well.
Read more