Take A Bow

And so, my friends, we come to the untimely end of my journey. After a lot of praying and thinking, debating and talking, I’ve decided to come home. It wasn’t the easiest choice to make, but once I decided, I felt at peace immediately.

The reasons for my leaving Taylor Made early are numerous, interlaced, and a little fuzzy. Attribute my departure to the fact that I do not want to find myself working in the Thoroughbred industry for the rest of my life. I knew that in this business, everything must come down to the bottom dollar, but I probably underestimated it. There is something precious to me when I can spend time with each individual horse and truly know their personalities, or even allow them to have personalities. Give me time to spoil each horse and create a trust. That’s worth any dollar amount to me.

Adding to the hardship is the stress of the internship. Daily work was fine, even dealing with difficult people shouldn’t have been that hard. Honestly, this internship wasn’t any harder than anything I may have experienced in my previous work experiences. What made it difficult was the lack of my support system. Yes, you. You, reading this blog, play a central role in keeping me sane and calm. My church, my family, my man, my horse… they are all vastly important to me. Remove those resources from me, and I realize how little I can handle in a decent manner.

True, I will not get a recommendation from Taylor Made. And I may not be able to put this work experience on my resume`. I changed plans midway and paid a decent amount of money for it. I let a couple people down and worried others that my decision was a mistake.

Also very true, I feel happy again. I can return to what matters most to me. I am two steps closer to really knowing where I want my life to go. And I’m ready to meet this new chapter of my life with my full faculties.

Maybe Taylor Made didn’t turn out to be the magnificent adventure I had always hoped for. But that matters little to me. No adventure is worth it if I can’t find a way to stay happy throughout it. As a friend put it, it's not enough to know what you want. It's just as important to know what you don't want.

Music

With this internship, I've had to make various adjustments to my life. For example: my sleeping habits. When was the last time I started looking at nine as bedtime? Oh, wait... when I was working at Noah's. Better example: transportation. Without a car here, I have to be positive I am planning ahead and making sure I have a way to and from work every day. In addition, all my errands are completed on my day off. But the biggest example of a life adjustment? Church.

I work on Sundays, and I have no car. So it cuts out any opportunities I may have to explore churches and find something to attend during my stay here. Needless to say, I've had to work on other ways to keep my faith strong. And thankfully, God knows me better than I know myself.

God knows how much I connect with music, how much it can influence me. One day, Jess and I were driving on our way to class and she was setting the stations on her car radio. She came across KLUV without knowing it and tuned it in simply because the song playing was rock. So I listened gratefully to the words of the song as it talked about God's glory. Perhaps Jess has caught on that the station isn't "her style," but it still remains on the dial.

Then, Sunday last week, I was dutifully working on our 20+ stalls when I strangely recognized the melody coming from our small cassette radio. At some point, the classic rock station had turned to a Christian station, and I heard a song that I have sung in church hundreds of times. I couldn't help but smile. Oscar, who speaks little English, didn't understands the words. Rovel wasn't listening close enough to listen. So for a few precious minutes, I was able to let the music revitalize me and remind me that God is still here.

Perhaps I'm not as on top of devotional readings as I would like to be. Perhaps I haven't made it to church in over two months. But God's reaching me in a way that fits these life changes, and it's comforting. And it's keeping me mindful of Him through the days.

No Room At The Inn

That's all we can hold, folks! Yesterday we received our last mare and foal and the result is a completely full barn, including the wash stall. It brings us to a grand total of twenty seven mares and twenty three foals in the main barn, four barren mares in the lower barn, and seven mares that are living in the field. That's sixty one individual equines that are under the care of Bona Terra B. Then, of course, there are seven more mares from another field who will move over to Bona Terra when they get closer to their foaling dates. Whew.

If nothing else, I'm getting really good at handling mares and foals on my own, and finding the most efficient way to get chores done. With a barn this full, down-time is a rare gift. And if we are working with the blacksmiths or doing pictures, or if the vets have a full load for us that day, time is even more precious. But, as I found out yesterday, it is possible to do all the chores absolutely necessary in four hours. We need a little extra help, but at least it's possible!

Why so full? Over the past few weeks, mares and foals from New York, Florida, and California have been shipped in to Taylor Made. A few are owned by Taylor Made, but most are here because the owners have hired Taylor Made to sell the mares and foals. They will go through the broodmare sales and weanling sales that happen later in the year. It's great for business.

Thankfully, our foals have remained healthy, as well as our mares. There's a strange sense of accomplishment seeing the paddocks full of content of horses, swishing their tails in the occasional sunlight.

Last Tuesday the interns took a field trip to Ashford Stud to have a class on breeding. It was pretty fantastic. Ashford is one of the premier breeding establishments in the Thoroughbred industry. They are par tof Coolmore, a company that has farms in the US, Ireland, and Australia. The stallions they stand are some of the most influential studs in the business. It was pretty fantastic. Thunder Gulch, Johannesburg, Lion Heart, Scat Daddy... they were all there. Petting their heads was like shaking hands with celebrities. I loved it!!

When it rains...

... it pours. This week has been insane, and pretty full of bad luck. We've lost a few horses due to various things. The situations are not that common in reality, but because we have such a high concentration of mares, those rare cases show up more often. Today was the pinnacle of the bad week. It would be hard to beat the chaos of today.

At 1pm today, I literally stood in the barn aisleway, totally confused and lost. There was so much activity, such a disturbance in the daily routine, and so many people that I honestly couldn't think of what needed to happen next.

Parked at the east end of the barn was a group of trucks belonging to two vets examining one mare's recovery from laminitis, the two managers, and the three vets plus one assistant that had just spend two hours at the barn with a sick mare who had to be euthanized. Inside the barn were piles of old bedding tossed out by the four extra grooms who came over to help with chores (we only had 3 stalls of 27 done when they arrived), and the tractor with manure spreader taking up the entire aisle. Out front was another set of vehicles, including the truck and trailer that arrived to pick up the deceased mare. At the west end of the barn was another truck and trailer delivering a nurse mare for the newly orphaned filly. All together, we had 21 people scattered throughout the barn and more trucks than a rodeo parking lot. And we still didn't finish the stalls for another three hours.

If there is one thing I'm learning, it's that the only plan that you can have is to be flexible. An agenda perfectly planned for the day will quickly be turned inside-out and upside-down as our beloved equines show how unpredictable they can be. Our day today was supposed to be busy, but still manageable. By ten-thirty, all our hopeful plans had been thrown out the door.

On the brighter side, the filly who lost her mother today is one of the best looking babies I've ever seen. She's huge! She's the size of other foals a month older. Her chestnut coat is accented by a bright blaze and three striking stockings on her legs. The circumference of bone on this filly's legs is substantial and she's filled out a lot more than you would expect to see on day-old foals. I hope to have pictures of her soon. This is one filly I'm going to have to keep tabs on.