Story Time: Little Rain & How to Royally Screw Up Being a Hero

Story time, cuddle up, get some tea! 

Once upon a time I worked at a ranch in Nanton, AB... a very small town, right on the highway, with a plethora of antique shops. It wasn't exactly the best experience, but, from the craziness that was Nanton came a lot of stories, a lot of madcap escapades, and a lot of laughs.

In the 3 months I lived there, I ended up living with a revolving door of characters, some of which I'm still in contact with, and will hopefully remain friends for a long time... others, well, no contact has been had. The cast of characters included 2 engaged norwegians, 2 post-undergrad brits (who, strangely enough, had both just received their B.A.'s in Anthropology... I'm currently in Anthropology.. 3 anthropologists living under one roof... in a ranch... in the middle of nowhere), 2 at times separated/at times together lovers, 1 random australian man who appeared for a short period of time, 1 barrel racer from Ontario, 1 strange little girl who rode about 3 times in the 2 weeks she was there... I think that's it? There was also my dog Moose, 2 cats Jewel and Leo, and a revolving door of dogs as well... I think 5. (The lovers were also dog "trainers"), AND 2 sheep! Add all of that up, add a dash of crazy boss, and we got a situation on our hands.

Anyways, you get the idea, it was a strange house, "the bunkhouse", and strange things happened there indeed.

One of my favorite stories, but also possibly guiltiest is the day I took home a baby deer...

Yes friends, that is me, cuddling a baby deer. (Awful photo of me, but, it proves a point) However, if you look really closely in that photo you can really see my roots showing... ie. my city girl roots.

But, we'll get to those roots in a moment, and start at the beginning.

Photo by Kristine Kjaerstad

It was another rainy, crappy day at the ranch and 3 of us were asked to go ride a quarter section a couple miles down the road, check fence, fix fence, report back. So out we went, bundled up, off to fix some fence. The ride was uneventful until about halfway through when the only boy on our wild west adventure, Tommy (norwegian #1), stopped us and pointed toward a baby deer, half hidden in grass. Jess (the barrel racer, and my comrade in the above photo) and I jumped off to look at the little deer. Here begins a very stereotypical boy-girl conversation when it comes to wild baby animals.

Tommy: "It looks as if it's mother has deserted it, it might be best for us to kill it."

(present day - I can't remember what utensil Tommy had on him to kill this poor creature, but, he was going to make murder happen. Actually, realistically, I highly doubt Tommy would have killed poor defenseless baby, but I'm sure he enjoyed playing the part of macho cowboy on the range.)

Louisa & Jess: NO! Absolutely Not!

Then...

Louisa (your hero!): Well, we could always bring it with us, and then call a wildlife sanctuary and perhaps they would take it.

& so began the adventure.

I proceeded to tuck the baby deer in my oilskin, mount my horse, and ride off in the sunset.

What was I thinking?

Photo by Kristine Kjaerstad

Poor baby deer, who we named Little Rain due to the soft rain that was falling all around us. His long, spindly legs kept falling out of the bottom of my jacket, and I worried he was going to fall right out. So, Little Rain was moved to Jess' jacket. For the first part of the ride the fence line had been pristine, and then, as luck would have it, we find and capture a baby deer, and the fence line went to absolute shit.

3 hours later (maybe 4? maybe 16? My mind is playing wild tricks with my storytelling) we arrived back at the ranch, deer-in-coat-in-hand.

Photo by Kristine Kjaerstad

Thinking we were quite the heroes, we appeared at the bunkhouse with Little Rain. Kristine, Tommy's Fiance (Norwegian #2), was quite unimpressed and declared that we had probably done something very stupid. She was right. I called a wildlife sanctuary, or bylaw, or some such thing, and got a nasty little wake up call about my heroics. Here is where my city girl roots are showing... badly...

Do any of you wonderful readers know what mother deer do with their baby deer while they forage? They leave them, they hide them in long grass and forage without them. Usually they stay in eyesight... so we were deer kidnappers, who traumatized a mother deer by deernapping her newborn baby.

Do you know why they can do this? Because baby deer scent is undetectable, they are born scentless, and so predators rarely find them.

... except for big, stupid, blundering humans.

Photo by Kristine Kjaerstad

Wildlife lady also informed my that Little Rain was probably absolutely petrified as, (in her words), a "massive predator has just been clutching him to their chest for half of a day". Well wildlife lady, when you put it like that...

So.. back into the car we went, on wildlife lady's instructions, and Little Rain was hiked back to his homeland, and placed back into his grass. Thankfully deer are not one of those animals that will desert a baby if it has human scent on it, so she said the chance of the mother returning and taking him back was very likely.

We went back the next day, and he was gone.

Photo by Kristine Kjaerstad

I have since told this story to people, most of my friends commiserate with my foolishness, however, an old rancher once laughed out loud in the middle of the story and said, "You do know that they leave their babies in the grass right?"

No sir, No I did not.

Lesson learned.

I like to think now that Little Rain is a papa deer (... i have absolutely no idea about deer reproduction, so maybe he's just a teenager now? giving his mom sass? Skipping school and smoking cigarettes?) and that he is telling his children the harrowing tale of the day he spent with humans.

Little Rain, the Human Whisperer.

Natural Humanmanship.

& that my friends, is the story of Little Rain 

& how to royally screw up being a hero.

A Glimpse: 3

Barn Life:

Jäger does not like having his bridle-path trimmed...

but he does like his mama

especially when she gives him stud muffins AND lickits. 

Best horse-cookie day, EVER.

Blog - meet Caron & Jäger! Caron is also the owner of Quiz, and lurks this blog enough that I placed her photos up without permission, because I'm a spectacular friend.

Riding Diary: 13

It has been forever and a day since I wrote my last "Riding Diary", so without further ado...

Horse: Quiz! (aka princessbabymarefacecutie)

Time: 1 Hr

Ride: So, this was the first time i've ever ridden in our outdoor arena, in 25 c weather, at 630 at night - NO LESS. How awesome! Aside from the thumb sized mosquitos that are already plaguing us, and our horses, what a wonderful day to be riding! I was in a t-shirt, I could feel sun on my face.. life was good. 

My ride predominately went really well, I've pretty much been "off" of riding this month, other than a couple little rides here and there, and a pretty disastrous lesson at the beginning of the month, so I was a little worried. Compound that with Quiz's (thought-to-be) mini abscess last week, and the fact my muscles, especially tummy, are all jiggly balls of goo, I expected it to be a bit of a train-wreck.

Maybe the Sun-gods were on my side.. who knows. Warm up went well, they were excavating a pond in the back pasture by the arena, so there were bob-cats, quads and tractors, and although Quiz's ears were a little like "uhm, what is that?" she sailed on through. Plus, I've noticed I'm becoming more and more natural in my posting trot. I think I'm becoming more aware of the big picture of rider + horse.

We started at a jog, and moved into the lope. My trainer commented that Quiz was settling down and not trying to break/push as much as she used it. It all kind of clicked yesterday, like the ride just felt really, really good. I had her on a loose rein for the majority of the ride - we even jogged on at the loosest possible rein - one handed, and for the most part she kept up a nice, slow, jog. Perfect!

My trainer had me working on rollbacks in a circle, so she would get me to lope, stop me wherever, get me to rollback, etc. etc. My rollbacks are a little iffy at times, Quiz was walking out on them quite a bit at the beginning, I just need to focus on really guiding with my rein hand and physically looking where I want her to turn. By the end we got a couple good rollbacks in there.

Then we moved on to loping around two barrels, she had me circling a barrel, coming out of it at a wide circle and then moving into the second barrel, circling it, and then again coming out wide. For this exercise I need to focus on keeping my hand closest to the barrel wide and open, but not dropping my hand. I also need to keep my back straight and really sit in those turns, only cueing Quiz with my leg when she begins to break down.

All and all I had a really good ride, and walked away with some concrete stuff to work on. Good lesson all around.

Next Time: Rollbacks - guide more with my body and don't expect her just to plant her back feet because I think she will. Think of a rollback as more of a fluid motion.

Barrel Exercise - Keep my hand closest to the barrel wide, open and up, don't drop the hand, thus allowing her to drop her shoulder. Only cue with my leg when she needs it, otherwise she'll just speed through the turn. Watch my shoulders - keep my body upright and slightly back through turns and while cueing for speed.

& now, because I never remember to take photos, or have anyone to take photo of video of me, I took a little video of Quiz post-workout. I was told by her owner that the second she got in the arena she would roll, well two videos later she had yet to roll. Hence my over eagerness when she actually did..

Quiz is so cute, my dorky self is not. I hate listening to myself over video. haha

The "Need" List: ... who am I kidding?

As many of you now know, I am planning on officially buying "my" horse come summer. As many of you ALSO know... I have a bit of a shopping problem. (So much so that I have about 4 "oo look what I bought you guys!" posts lined up but refuse to post them one after another due to how insane it makes me look.) So what does it mean when you buy a new horse, your first horse no less - shopping, duh.

No more using other people's stuff - I gotta get my own!

I'm a big girl now!

.... with a very "in the red" bank account.

So, what's on my "Need" list:

1. Cowboy Magic Detangler

I love Cowboy Magic, but i've been hearing that detanglers that have silicon in them (so CM, or Vetrolin) can be actually very damaging because they dry out the hair. So either, use them sparingly (ie. when your horse decides to play hide and go seek in a burr bush) or use other products... like MTG. I've heard LOTS about MTG, (that it's awesome for post-wound areas, that it smells like bacon...) but i've never used it. Thoughts?! MTG vs. Cowboy Magic - GO!

2. Grooming Caddy

3. Rope Halter

My debate here is plain rope, or rope with rawhide/braided nose band? Knowing me, I will most likely end up with both... it's a sickness.

4. Mane & Tail Conditioner 

Honestly, one of the most exciting things about buying my own horse will be all the grooming possibilities! I am a sucker for braiding, bathing, clipping, you name it, I'll try it.

Poor boy.. the other night I was watching a youtube video on how to do hunter braids... he'll end up working the ranch looking like he's reading to go jump.

5. Mane & Tail Shampoo

6. Personalized Halter

Okay.. so maybe this isn't a "need", but Chick's is having a wicked sale on these, and for under $30 I think that's a pretty good deal.

7. Bell Boots

I'm a big fan of Professional's Choice, I've heard good things about some other boots lately, but around here, Professional's Choice is definitely #1, and I'd worry about spending the money on another company, and then not be happy with their product.

8. Various Grooming Supplies

- Shedding Blade

The list of small grooming supplies goes on & on & on... curry combs, hard brushes, soft brushes, face brushes, hoof picks, shedding blades... normal stuff. Then my mind begins to wander, do I need a braiding kit (... I do not braid), do I need a bot knife (never have I used such a thing), perhaps I need a tack trunk...

9. Cooler

I'm planning on buying my blankets come September for the boy, I want to have his exact measurements before I drop that much money. However, in the summer the ranch I work at is prone to massive thunderstorms/hailstorms/even snow in August... and a lot of time we ride in all of that, so a cooler would really do the trick to keep him warm during the lunch break/after those really bad, wet storms.

10. Buckets!

You know your a horse girl when... you get excited about the idea of buying certain styles and types of buckets...

That's it for now, I am sure the list will continue to grow.. for example, I need a horsie first aid kit!

That's another post all together.

Sigh...

Image Source

On Monday I rode Quiz, and after I got off I noticed she was limping. She didn't feel off during the ride, so, your guess is as good as mine what happened. Sore muscle, mis-step, small abscess... who knows, who knows. Anyways, poor princess baby face is off, which means no riding for me this week. Hopefully she's better by Monday so I can get some real-life horse-time in, otherwise, it's more talk of imaginary horses, and blogging about random things for all of you to read!

What can you do when your favorite sport relies on another physical being to participate in? Sometimes I question why I love horses so much, oh right, because of their soft fuzzy noses, their big doe eyes, their aura... the list goes on. I'll stop complaining for now and go back to my virtual horse world.

Movie Review: The Horse Boy

So after all my horse/even non-horse friends telling me to watch this documentary I finally did a couple nights ago. (Yay for finals procrastination and netflix!) If you haven't seen it/read the book the story is about a family, whose only child, Rowan, is autistic. Along with being non-verbal, he suffers inconsolable tantrums, incontinence and doesn't show interest in making friends. However, Rowan has a keen sense and relationship for animals, horses in particular. His father, a journalist, grew up riding, and is also very interested in shamanism in relation to healing - these two loves give birth to the idea for the documentary. Basically, the family embarks on an epic adventure to Mongolia where they proceed to visit shamans and sacred areas on horseback. 

It was a pretty emotional story. Rowan initially refuses to get on the horses, and instead focuses on the van as his area of safety. This is especially problematic as the last leg of the trip, to visit the historic reindeer herders, is only passable on horseback. His shamanic experiences seem traumatizing, coupled with them making him drink vodka, his mother washing herself "down there" with vodka (on camera...), and then his parents being whipped repeatedly. The whole thing seems absurd and unbelievable... how is this suppose to help Rowan's autism? 

His father begins to ask the same question, and my heart completely broke for him. I've heard that the rate of parents of autistic children who end up divorcing is exceptionally high, due to the massive amounts of stress caused by the illness for all involved. There are quite a few scenes of him just completely breaking down over the whole situation, and questioning who he is as a father. It's very compelling, and beyond the absurdity of where they are, and what they are doing, there is a very real story and a face to families who have autistic children.

Eventually, Rowan begins to ride and seems happy, they make it to the reindeer herders who agree to perform a shamanistic ritual to rid him completely of the evil spirit of his maniac depressive great-grandmother they believe to be harbouring him. In the end, the experience seems like a good one for Rowan - he builds and develops a bond and friendship with the interpreters son, and after the ritual he begins to get over his incontinence, as well as playing with other children, and being more verbal.

The horse side of the story is pretty insane. When they first arrive they are told the horses have been ridden for 3 days to prepare them for "western riders" aka... they were broke 3 days previous. There's a scene where one of their film crew gets bucked off by a bucksin, who then proceeds to run into the Mongolia sunset... seriously. haha The father touts Rowan around on the front of what appears to be a wintec synthetic western saddle, while at first his mother can't stand more than 30 minutes on horseback. The poor woman... she is definitely the skeptic of the couple, and not a horsewoman, and also ends up getting kicked pretty badly by one of the horses. Just not her trip I guess. The Mongolian horses are of ancient, ancient descent, and they sort of look like wild mangy ponies, of all colours.

Overall, I really enjoyed "The Horse Boy", I thought it was a really interesting look into a parent's struggle and triumphs, and love, for a child who has autism. Rowan's bond with horses is fascinating, time and time again horses are used as tools for therapy, communication, bonding, etc. They really are amazing animals. Everyday I work at my camp I feel blessed to experience children around horses, there is something just different about how children interact with horses, to me, it is completely sacred.

I tried to look into how Rowan is doing now, it appears the family has started a treatment program working with horses and children with autism, and there is a blog of Rowan updates. However, I couldn't find any information on whether of not they believe the shamanistic rituals actually helped Rowan in the end.

If you haven't seen it - definitely check it out!

My non-horsie mother..

Today, I was bugging my mother about how she never listens to me, she has just arrive home from a little vacay in Arizona. When I showed her a picture of Jingle (the paint in the header), I asked her...

Well Mom, what's his name? ... uhmm.... JINGLE!

(Point 1 for Mom.. seeing as i've been talking about this horse for two years.)

His registered name? ... oh god, I don't know..

Okay, well what kind of horse is he? .... palomino?

No mom, that is a colour of horse .... okay, thoroughbred!

What about the horse I take lessons on, what's her name? ... oh ya, the horse that you ride that, that girl owns...

yes mom, that one. ... uhm, I have no idea.

I love her, she honestly is very supportive of this dream of mine, and always has been. However, in her own words, "oh what... i'm not good with names!" ... or apparently breeds and colours of horses. Yes, my tobiano bay APHA gelding is a palomino thoroughbred.... what can ya do?!