| |
|
|
The Couch In the Barn
The Mental Side of
Riding With
Martha McNiel, LMFT |
|
 |
|
| |
|
|
Shift Work |
by Martha McNiel, LMFT |
| |
For four days in a row the thermometer topped 100 degrees. After a day of cleaning stalls, turning out horses, filling water buckets twice and assorted work around the barn, I was beyond hot and beyond tired. Then I sat down to start writing this column.
|
| |
All day I'd been hearing the words of the Kenny Chesney and George Strait hit country duet "Shift Work" in my mind. Part of the lyrics to that song are as follows:
|
|
|
| |
"He's hot, sweat drops, 'round the clock
The door never locks
And the noise never stops
Night or day
Workin' seven to three
Three to eleven
Eleven to seven. |
| |
Talkin' about a bunch of shift work
|
|
A big ol' pile of shift work
Seven to three
Three to eleven
Eleven to seven."
|
| |
Earlier that week, I'd been an interested observer of an online discussion about the pro's and con's of boarding one's horses vs. keeping one's horses at home. Both situations have clear advantages and disadvantages. But the main point of that discussion, to my hot and tired brain, was how much work it is to care for just one horse. And if you have more than one horse to care for, that involves even more work! |
|
 |
Seven to three |
| |
 |
Three to eleven |
|
| |
But before I got this column finished, the Summit Fire broke out in the mountains near Santa Cruz, CA, which are about a 20 minute drive from our barn. All day we anxiously listened to fire news on the radio and watched the wind-whipped plume of smoke fill the western horizon, wondering how many homes and ranches would be destroyed by the wildland fire and how the horses up there were faring. |
| |
Within a few hours of the fire's discovery, local internet message boards and telephone airwaves were filled with offers of help and assistance from the equestrian community. Evacuation trailers were hitched up, tanks were filled with precious diesel or gasoline, and hay and supplies were organized and moved to the evacuation site. |
| |
As I finish writing this column, I learned that the fire is supposed to be contained today and the horse evacuation stables at the Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds are being closed today. At the height of the evacuation, approximately 250 horses were temporarily housed at the fairgrounds. |
| |
Once again, all I could think of was how much work it is to care for horses! And how it really is too much for one person to care for one horse. |
|
Whether you own one horse or 100, horses require "shift work." I believe it really does take more than one human to care for one horse!
|
| |
Whether it is daily feeding, cleaning, exercising, watching over, or covering vacations, foaling, evacuating during an emergency or some other unusual situation, our horses do best when we humans work together in "shift work." We have to cover all the shifts to provide the best care for those precious, fragile, four-legged creatures.
|
| |
Following is an excerpt from an open letter that was sent to local equestrian groups at the conclusion of the Santa Cruz Summit Fire.
|
| |
"To all Equestrians,
First of all let us begin by saying thank you - thank you - thank you, to everyone who helped out our fellow equestrians during the Santa Cruz/Summit Fire incident; everyone was awesome!
For those of you who responded when the call went out for evacuation trailers - Thank you.
For those of you who volunteered your time at the Fairgrounds Evacuation Center - Thank you.
For those of you who made donations towards feed & supplies - Thank you.
For those of you who transported the feeds and supplies - Thank you.
For those of you who signed up to transport horses and livestock back to their homes through volunteerswithhorses@earthlink.net - Thank you.
For those of you who set up and staffed the donation spots - Thank you.
To all the feed and supply stores (like Half Moon Bay Feed & Fuel, Pastorino's Feed, Portola Valley Feed - to name a few) who collected donations, who delivered supplies and who offered discounts to people who were donating - Thank you.
And anyone that we might not have mentioned - Thank you."
|
| |
 |
Eleven to seven |
|
| |
Do you see all the shifts that were covered during that evacuation? And how many humans it takes to adequately care for horses? |
| |
If you house your horses at home, you need someone to feed and water and watch your horses when you are gone or have to work late. If you house your horses at home, it is quite possible that you may have collected so many horses that now you have to hire someone else to clean up after them all. |
| |
If you board, you pay others to feed and clean when you are not there. You go on vacation and know that someone else is watching over your horse. Someone else will deal with fence repairs and manure removal. |
| |
But regardless, if you own or care for horses, you are involved in "shift work." Horses require too much care and attention for one person to do it alone. Think about all the people who help to care for your horse(s) and let them know this week how much you appreciate them covering their shifts! |
| |
| |
Read comments or post your own comments to this article at the bottom of this page. |
| |
| |
Martha C. McNiel is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and a NARHA Registered Therapeutic Riding Instructor. She is the Founder and Director of DreamPower Horsemanship, a therapeutic horsemanship program serving children and adults with mental, emotional and behavioral problems. She is a professional member of the North American Riding for the Handicapped Association (NARHA), the Equine Facilitated Mental Health Association (EFMHA) and the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists (CAMFT). She can be reached at dreampowerhorsemanship@hotmail.com. Her website is www.dreampowerhorsemanship.com. |
| |
| |
Copyright © 2008 All rights reserved. The above article is the property of the Author and may not be duplicated or redistributed in any way without permission. |
| |
| |
 |
| |
Reader comments for this article |
|
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
| |
| |
