the Sage By Nature blog

I recently embarked upon an eight day trip through Oregon and Northern California and back again to my home state of Washington. I am California-born and raised, so it isn’t uncommon for me to visit.

What is unusual is that this time my husband and I packed two young children and one very large dog into a Dodge Charger along with our luggage, bags of snacks, bottled water, and various boxes of Crayons and toys for the children’s amusement while stuffed into our mobile sardine can.

The trip reminded me that “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” and that you can pretty much count on rainbows at the end of storms – even if they take a while to appear. Many thanks to Crayola, Hilton, probiotics, and credit card fraud departments…

So what does all this have to do with horses?

Well, when I returned from California I moved Sage to a private barn, one that I had discovered a few days prior to leaving on my road trip. I felt it was time to move her, maybe past time, for various reasons. Mostly I knew in my gut that Sage was still not in the best situation for her, alone 24/7 in a large turnout; it was large, but she was still alone except for the horses on either side of her and the cows behind her (the cows that would be slaughtered in full view of her this Fall).

Physically, she and I had overcome some huge challenges with her body and her hooves, but I was convinced that emotionally there was still a lot of room to help her. And if I help her emotionally and mentally, the physical will be better able to resolve itself.

That has been easier said than done, for just as the California miners worked so diligently panning for gold but finding iron pyrite, so I have felt over the past eight years trying to find Sage the best boarding situation. These places often turned out to be sparkling pyrite amidst lots of plain brown sucking mud.
I had formerly picked facilities based upon what those facilities had to offer my horse. This time I made my decision based upon the owner’s horses. After all, horses can tell you a lot without words, and they often mirror their owner as well.

I felt comfortable with the woman, but I had judged a person wrong in the past many times. I was, however, fairly comfortable trusting my judgement of the horses.

The big gray Percheron/Thoroughbred was the one who really convinced me. A gentle giant, he appeared completely serene and composed, he looked healthy, and he left me with a profound sense of suitability about the whole situation. He and the two other horses with him walked around all day on acre after acre of gently sloping grass.

At night the horses are brought into a stall, and this is the one area of concern that I had. Sage had taught me that on no uncertain terms she did not like stalls; I had come to have an aversion to them myself. However, these horses were out roaming pastures for 14 hours a day, rolling, grazing, and playing together; perhaps Sage would settle into a night in a stall (one with no bars across the front) after all of this daytime camaraderie. With all the overwhelming positives of this situation, I felt I owed it to Sage to give it a try.

I moved Sage on Sunday, and while she was a bit uncertain about the whole thing that day, she seems to be settling in just fine. Her poop is normal – a huge indicator of her state of well-being – and the owner told me that she walked right into her stall the third night without a halter or a rope on after the three other horses had settled into their stalls. She is part of the herd now, and the herd is in the barn by night.

It was still nice to have my horse choose me over the herd, as much as I want her to be happy in her new home. I was selfishly pleased that she came to me when she saw me yesterday and hung around the barn until I left.

I am looking forward to my first ride this weekend on a new sage green bareback pad that should arrive today. Oh, did I mention that there is a gorgeous outdoor arena with the best footing I have ever ridden on and the place is closer to my home than the last?

It is hard on a horse to change homes, and Sage has had to do that too many times in the past eight years. However, perhaps we have finally found our gold and can stake a claim to a place for a long while. We have definitely earned it!

(For more background on Sage and our 8 year saga, see my website)