If you know me, you know that I cherish two things in life: my son and my horse. And then there’s the three dogs that are my constant companions. They rate pretty high up there too. But, Tim and Odin are my heart and soul.
If you know me, you know I’m a very passionate, emo-type person that feels nothing at less than 100 percent, and that overemotional-ness means that there has to be an outlet for all those emotions or I’d self-incinerate. Tim has all my love, but Odin gets all the runoff, just so that poor Tim doesn’t smother in motherly love. That’s how Odin shoulders a pretty big load in my little world.
Odin is as spectacular as he is “just a horse,” so to speak. I decided to buy a horse back in 2001, did a fair amount of shopping around locally, then succumbed to the save-the-poor-PMU-foals-headed-to-slaughter bullshit that sucks so many bleeding hearts in to the huge “rescue” racket. (PMU stands for Pregnant Mare Urine, which is collected and harvested for the hormones used to manufacture Premarin, a common drug to treat menopause.) I chose Odin from a photo, and he was delivered to me at the ripe old age of 4 months old. The photo above was taken in March, 2002.
A lot of major life changes have happened between then and now, but the two constants are Tim and Odin - and Jake, my Aussie Cattle Dog that is now showing his age quite a bit.
Yes, life changed quite a bit to the point where everything changed, and for the first time since getting Odin, except for a few months awhile back, we are now living apart.
You see, horses aren’t like dogs. You can’t keep a horse in the house, let it out to do its duty, and it sure can’t sleep in bed with you. Trust me, I’ve wished Odin could live in the house with me a thousand times. That he can’t come in means I spend more time outside, so that’s a good thing. But, since last year, I’ve lived in the city and Odin’s been out in the country with very good friends, and it has been killing me to be away from him. He’s doing just fine. Me, not so good.
Last year, we had drought here. That meant a sparse hay crop and a chomped down pasture. The drought is lifted now, just barely, but Odin’s pasture has yet to pick up this year. Not wanting to ruin my friends’ land by overgrazing and turning the pasture into a dust bowl, I had to come up with a Plan B. There’s a few more minor factors that play into the situation, but the health of the pasture plays a part in all of those other, minor factors, so it is the major concern.
Plan B came together today. I stopped at a stable on the edge of town and arranged to move Odin there on Wednesday. It is going to be a major change for Odin, and needless to say, I’m worried. He’s hasn’t been in a stable since he was a baby.
The stable is a huge training barn. There’s two trainers there, and one is a farrier as well. They train and show champion Tennessee Walkers. It’s a very structured environment with all the amenities. There’s wooded and open trails to ride, a round pen, and an enclosed area that doubles as an arena.
Odin will be much closer to me at this stable. I will be able to go out to see him far more often now. The structured stable life will motivate me to get more structured as well. I’ll move from hanging out with my horse to actually doing things with him, and that is a good thing. And, being around these trainers, I anticipate learning a lot.
So, stay tuned. I’m sure I’ll have a lot to blog about as the story of Odin and I unfolds.
