Tuesday, September 25, 2012

kairos, dreamtime, and a black mare day




I've been reminded lately of how much time simply stops when I am at the barn. On Saturday I was scheduled to go to a writer friend's book launch party and help out with coordinating book sales. I went out earlier to ride Keil Bay and got completely lost in the process. I was giving him a bath when husband came out to the deck and called to me that I had 20 minutes until I was supposed to be where I was going. Fortunately she lives about 3 minutes away, but I had to finish up with Keil, get myself dressed, and get there.

Years back when we first moved to November Hill I had a clock run by battery that I kept at the barn. The time had always been perfect on that clock, but once it moved into the barn, it often simply stopped. Usually the battery was fine when it did this but the hands would just stop and time would stand still. The hands would eventually move again, stop again, and I finally gave up and removed the clock.

Our trainer when we first moved here broke her watch one day (the band) and left it in the barn. By the time I found it she'd already gotten a new one so she gave it to us so we could keep track of time. (ha)

That watch did the same thing. It had an alarm function that started going off randomly, the time was always either an hour off or not working at all, and at some point the watch ended up falling into a crack or getting buried somehow and periodically I would hear the beep beep beep of its alarm. We never found it. Eventually it died altogether.

I think we've figured out that there's no point in trying to keep track of time out there. It's kairos. And that is just fine.


On another note, I dreamed last night that someone built a house with a tennis court at the end of our arena. The tennis court was situated so that balls regularly came flying over the fence. I had some chairs sitting between our arena and the tennis court and went out there to "prove" to the new owner that we were pretty constantly being bombarded with tennis balls. He felt I was being unreasonable to ask that he install a net to keep the balls on his side of the fence.

This was one of those dreams that could have gotten stressful at about that point. But somehow I think after the day we had yesterday (more on that later) I needed a better outcome.

A visiting friend of the new neighbor walked over and sat down in my line of chairs. He agreed that I had reason to be upset, and asked about my horses and my riding. Suddenly I realized he was Paul Belasik. I ran to the house to get my copies of his books and had him sign them. We talked for a long time and I was able to get a sort of mini-workshop about my work with Keil Bay. As if that weren't good enough, he said at the end of the dream that he'd read MY books and loved them, and he actually quoted one of them. LOL! That was a quite fine transition from nightmare to waking up from a dream with a smile on my face.

And now for yesterday's action here on November Hill. I was grooming Salina and rubbing an itchy spot on her belly in the barn aisle. She was loving it. Suddenly the pony came over, put his head over the door of the stall he'd eaten breakfast in, and bit her square on the barrel. It was her blind side, and she wasn't expecting it, so it was particularly upsetting.

Her squeals rang through the neighborhood.

She waited a couple of hours before getting revenge. Around lunchtime, still in the barn aisle, she waited. I'd moved Keil Bay to the end stall on Salina's side of the barn, giving him some private time with the grass paddock. Salina and her donkey boys had the middle stall, the barn aisle, and the entire barnyard. The pony and Cody were on the gelding side of the barn, with access to all three stalls, the dirt paddock, and the back field.

Salina waited patiently until the pony made the critical mistake of going into Keil Bay's middle stall. The squealing resumed. I warned the pony to stay back. Daughter went out and warned him again. And then he stuck his head over the door and Salina turned around the kicked the stall door in.

I heard the squeals, the huge bang of hoof meeting wood, and went out there to find the stall door in pieces and the pony standing a few feet back in the stall with a huge splinter of wood fragment IN HIS MOUTH. He was chewing on it!

I put him out of Keil's stall and closed it off to all of them.

Later in the day Salina went after Keil Bay.

On the one hand, whew. What a day. On the other hand, hooray! I'm glad Salina is feeling good enough to be so feisty. And relieved that when she kicked the stall door in, all she got was a tiny bit of scrape on her hind hoof.

When we got to daughter's lesson yesterday evening, I learned from her trainer that all the mares down there were being feisty too. Must be the time of year.

Today I'm aiming for a nice ride and a quiet afternoon.

10 comments:

Grey Horse Matters said...

Salina brought a smile to my face. Good for her for standing up for herself. It's amazing how the will wait to get their revenge.

When Lifeguard was a young horse and boarded the owners daughter would go through the barn and hit any horse in the face that hung his head out. Well one day he was on cross ties in the aisle and when she passed he kicked her a good one in the shin. That horse had never kicked anyone before or after that but he got his revenge.

Weird about the clock and watch. Maybe you're in a time warp near the barn. I'm always amazed at how time passes so quickly when I'm with the horses too.

billie said...

Oh my gosh - good for Lifeguard!

I think we are in a sort of time warp out there. It amazes me how everything seems to just fall away except what is going on right that second. I love it.

Calm, Forward, Straight said...

Salina - layin' down the LAW... "Talk to the hoof!"

Cooler weather and big winds around here over the weekend had Val feeling opinionated and emotional too... on Sunday he just plain went to crazy town.

I got a late invite to join a book club last month. First meeting was yesterday. Having not finished the (very dry) book by Sunday, my dream that night featured me still learning my lines on the opening night of my big broadway debut!

Glad Salina is feeling great, and I loved reading about your recent rides. :D

Anonymous said...

Horse time is very different . . . and it's a good thing too.

Gotta love those feisty mares!

billie said...

C, LOL about going to crazy town!!!

billie said...

Kate,amen, horse time AND feisty mares. :)

Matthew C. said...

It's amazing how fast and powerful horses are, even older horses with arthritis.

I'm just glad both horse and pony seem to be ok after that incident!

billie said...

They are indeed powerful - thank you for fixing the stall door so well!

Victoria Cummings said...

Go Salina! She's still got plenty of spunk in her. And I love reading about your rides - it is a vicarious pleasure for me as I sit here in my splints. Getting lost on barn time is one of the wonderful things about owning horses. I've done what you did - forgotten about an appointment and had husband/daughter running out to get me to hurry, hurry, hurry. Whenever they can't find me, they know where to look.

billie said...

V, it is fairly amazing to me how much spunk she has... :) Sending good thoughts to those splints that they will soon fall off and you can work back into your regular routines!