The Reincarnation of Boom Boom~

    We've become a society of throw-aways. Throw-away phones, throw-away shoes, throw-away dogs. When its no longer attractive, or important or fashionable...its easily sent away.  Newest~ Best~ Fastest~ Fashionable.  All descriptive words which justify moving right along to the next best thing. People get puppies and puppies grow and chew and dig holes. So the cool, cute, sweet warm puppy becomes work. And the lines grow longer at the rescues.

Boom Boom fell into that category. We suspect that he was an Arabian show horse. Probably driving or english pleasure.  All guesses. But pretty educated guess from the manners and reactions he has shown us thus far. Indications from the shape of his feet suggest a horse trimmed and weighted for many years. A dropped back and high head carriage suggest lots of time with an over-check and bitting rig. He is very close to l6 years.  Here is the part we don't get. He is sound. He's extremely smart. He is is so excited to see humans. He wants a job. Loves us unconditionally. But he ended up being dumped for $25.00 at an auction. No papers. No notes about who or what he was. Bought  by a woman with some issues...... 

When we got him in August he was very close to not being a survivor through a hard winter. Not as bad as some you see. But none the less he had lost all muscle..everywhere. And not an extra pound of weight to be found.

I felt bad for him. We had gone to see what prospects might be available at a location across town after seeing quite a number of ads for various horses.  It was sad. And typical of Arizona. Small pens. No covers. They did have fresh clean water. Hard ground. And no feed to be seen. I gave her $400 dollars to buy hay. Boom Boom wouldn't, couldn't take his eyes of off me. Not for one second. No matter which pen I wandered to or what aisle I walked down, he watched me. Like a hawk. I wanted to leave without any "projects". I couldn't. Caught him up with a halter I brought and led him to our goose neck trailer . He never batted an eye. Literally loaded himself. Commenced to eating. I don't think he even looked back.

Thats been six months ago. We've had his teeth done and just in the nick of time. He's been adjusted and oohed and aahhed over by everyone that's laid a hand on him. He so sound its scary. He has no chiropractic issues.  Tremendous range of motion. Talent. Oh, my gosh. He is barefoot. He does everything you would expect of an Arabian show horse. But, he wasn't needed anymore. Not fashionable. Not flashy. Not enough motion.

He has a home with us now.  A new career. A promise that he will not be dumped again. He has been reincarnated.

Tribulations of the YaYa

So, on a happier and more pleasant note...looking to the future is what I am going to do...I will daily give blessings for the wonderful people I have met on Facebook who have encouraged me on this journey called life.  But I digress. I have a mare that is supremely talented. With major issues residing within her from previous training. And because of my attempts to fix her...I sometimes cause more angst than calm.  My riding now has become almost but not quite very, very good. So, in the world of Connie and my way of thinking is that if I am riding correctly, fairly and gently it stood to reason she should give up her tension~ oh, be joyful my beating heart!  But it wasn't to be. And so I would quit and look for other venues for us to attempt  and make excuses as to why this lovely, talented mare just couldn't do it.  Sigh.

Then yesterday...a thought occurred and it was validated by my dear friend and trainer...what if it didn't matter how well I rode..how correct I was... or how badly I wanted this to be the perfect relationship!! My changing my habits and position still meant nothing to YaYa. She knows what she knows. From years of conditioning. So, it occurred to me that its my turn to be her teacher. To not just be the beautiful rider on the hot horse. Its my turn to give her direction ~ to show her a new way of thinking. Me being different for better or worse doesn't mean she will automatically be able to understand what I want from her. Granted, I'm pretty certain she loves the new me....I ride with empathy, softness and as much quietness as I can muster.  But she still doesn't know that her trotting like a hackney on steroids is  not the answer I am looking for. And I don't want to stifle her amazing desire to try to do what she knows. I simply want to reshape her energy.  Now its my turn to help her find that same softness, trust and fluidity that I am developing.  Its all about the certainty of acceptance.

The trouble with Facebook

January l6, 2014

Well, as I find that Facebook has depressed me to no end....I determined it was time to find some validation on my own...without the help of 370 people who will not even notice I am gone! I'm 58 years old. Things have become very complex in life. Families have trouble staying connected and we often find ourselves all sitting around looking at our phones rather than looking at and talking to our friends and partners. More and more studies show that the entire social media is actually taking us further from feeling connected and making us feel more and more isolated. And often depressed. Many people use Fb as a way to A) validate their lives B) make everyone else think their lives are perfect. And since we can't know the truth about their reality, we often assume that our normal life is somehow sadly lacking.  

Two years ago I didn't even know what Fb was or how it worked...and when I did ...I LOVED it.  Here were people that would "like" my pictures and my posts. Pick me up when I felt down. And generally make me feel loved/important. Then, quite by accident, I wasn't able to post for almost two weeks. Surprisingly enough, only three people noticed. It seems we have become conditioned to click "like" and quickly type  out short sentences like  "totally true" and "couldn't agree more" and "lol"!  Often I would post articles I found that were A) well written and thought provoking B) sourced from reliable sites and surprisingly, I found that  people will like, but not read~ at all!  But, out of the 370 friends I have I found a handful who did and had intelligent comments to offer. So, I had to wonder~ what is it that is driving us to get approval from folks we don't even know? What makes us feel so alone in such a crowded world?

These, and more questions I will ponder in the future....

One of the downsides of facebook for me, is that many of my friends are extremely passionate about the various conflicts  that they have decided to join up with. Save the wild horses, stop slaughter, rescue dogs...Mexican horses beaten to be Charro horses...the list goes on.  And all valid and all things that need to be dealt with or repaired or corrected. But, and this is the big but for me, it was depressing. It was never ending...please donate to this and contact this congressman and please help us get this legislation through. All worthy. All important. All needing to be brought to the public's attention. But, exhausting. Facebook was supposed to be a "social" media. A place to post your kid pic's and mention that you had a great ride. But, somehow it went far past that. Lots of adverts. Lots of personal angst played out on pages. Lots of moaning about life and the difficulty of being a photographer, horse trainer, farrier... And you can't just turn people off. Once they are your friends you  have to take the good with the bad... the drama with the boring. And no matter what fb settings you try to figure out ...it seems that the newsfeed will play it out to someone somewhere. Facebook has deliberately made it so obtuse that most of us can't figure out how it works...or how to limit what we see and what can be seen. I suppose its my failing to not delve deeper into the whole underpinnings and find out HOW to set up an account that is very limited in its scope...and that would entirely be my fault.