A NATURAL HORSE JOURNEY

Welcome to My Natural Horse Journey

Hi, my name is Lori.

I started this blog as an extension of my website, SkodesHorseTreats.com  Two years have passed and now I want to expand the purpose of this space to include another level of my life -- my spirituality.

Simply put, horses and my passion for them continually place me on a direct path to what I know and experience as God/Spirit/The Universe.

I hope that by sharing my stories with you, you too, will feel that connection inside of you -- the connection to the part of you that is as limitless and free as the wind beneath your horse's wings.

Horses, Money (or the lack thereof) -- and Faith

Many horse people I know are worrying about money in this rough economy. How are they going to afford to feed their horses hay they wonder? How will they be able to afford boarding costs? Vet bills?  One California woman got herself into such a state of panic -- before anything financially devastating actually happened -- that she had her horse euthanized for fear of not being able to care for him.

The fear around us is palpable. So much so that today I had to sit down and take a very deep breath.

I'm glad I did this, because it was then that the thought occurred to me to call  Marjorie. Marjorie is one of those rock solid people who doesn't worry much. She has too much faith for worrying. I love this about her and want to be more like her. Marjorie also is a terrific storyteller. Today she told me two stories I want to share with you.

Maybe you will relate to one of them  -- or both of them. And if you are worrying about money and your horses, maybe these stories -- which are true by the way --  will help you breathe easier. They did for me.

STORY #1

Many years ago, a woman and her husband moved to a rural town outside of Los Gatos, Califonia. Shortly after the move, the husband went on a business trip, leaving an important phone call up to his wife.

The point of the phone call was to give permission to a bank employee to transfer a large sum of money into an investment fund before a definite deadline. The bank made it extremely clear that the woman absolutely had to call before 3 p.m. on the upcoming Monday or the deal would fall through.

That Monday, the woman stopped her unpacking of all the boxes (remember she and her husband just moved into the house) and prepared to walk into the town where she needed to make the critical phone call (she and her husband didn't have a phone yet) from a pay phone. The woman took a shower, got dressed, etc. Then she started hunting for the dime for the call  as this was back in the day when phone calls were a dime. The woman looked and looked and Looked -- but could not find the required dime.

She grew frantic as she knew how much was hanging in the balance. She searched through boxes, through laundry, through drawers -- nothing. Then she prayed.

And she remembered that God does not take people half way just to drop them on their heads.

The woman decided to walk into town in complete faith -- someone will give me a dime, she told herself. Or I will find one on the ground. Something will simply appear. She just knew it.

The woman walked all the way into town. No dime.

The woman got to the pay phone. No dime.

There was no one anywhere to ask for one either. So the woman walked back home. She had missed the 3 p.m. deadline for the phone call. She was devastated.

She prayed again.

The only thing that came to her to do was to get busy. So she started folding laundry -- and guess what she found? Yep -- the dime!

Now the woman got really angry. Why would she find the dime at a time when it could no longer help her?What was the sense in that? She felt like God had played a dirty joke on her.

The woman walked back into town and called the bank, even though she knew it was too late. The bank officer picked up the phone.

"I'm so glad you didn't call earlier," he said. "Because that company you were going to invest in went bankrupt! You would have lost everything."

STORY #2

A woman is baking an angel food cake and runs out of eggs. She only needs one more egg but she doesn't have one and she doesn't have time to get one before the party she is supposed to go to.

She prays, knowing that God leaves nothing unfinished.

Unexpectedly, her neighbor knocks on the door.

"I'm going out of town and I have some groceries that I don't want to spoil," he tells her.

Inside the bag are some eggs.

THE POINT I GOT FROM THESE STORIES:

I am in a place where I do not, in the moment have the money I think I should have. I don't know if there is a really good reason I'm not supposed to have that dime I think I should have -- or if those eggs are on their way!

However I have lived long enough to realize that things work out. At least that is my personal experience. Lots of times things work out in ways that are far more brilliant than I alone could have maneuvered.

So.

I can stress and strain and worry and even throw a tantrum. This takes a lot of energy, but I could do it. Ask me how I know this :)--

Or, I can take a deep breath and know I have what I need right this second, whether I know it or not. And that maybe those eggs are on their way!

So let us ....

My ride into Heaven

In the summers, Vashka and I go for our sunset walk to the herb garden across the street -- a beautiful place where deer graze and Chamomile and Peppermint flowers give the evening air their scents.

We were walking, me and my Prince of  Kings (that is the Russian Translation of "Vashka"),  when a man stopped us. He lives in a well kept house surrounded by a wrought iron gate. My first thought when I saw him was:  Oh, no, he is going to ask us to leave (technically, the roads are private). So we stopped in front of him with this story of being kicked out of Heaven in my head, when the man said: "Hi, would your horse like an apple?"

Oh! Yes!!!!

The man said he had an apple tree and he liked to go for evening walks to nearby farms and feed the horses treats. And so Vashka nibbled a crab apple from the man's hand, giving the man a feel of what it is like to have whiskers and tongue on your palm and of course the man had a big, little-boy grin on his face. Who can not smile with whiskers and tongue on one's hand?

Vashka and I continued onward, to his favorite place to canter across an open field, when we saw a garden of sunflowers in someone's backyard, the kind of sunflowers that grow as high as rooftops. I asked Vashka to stop just so I could stare at them -- I love sunflowers! And a man emerged from them -- a pot-bellied man with no shirt and a huge smile. And I thought: Oh, I hope he doesn't get mad that I am in his backyard trespassing -- on my horse, taboot!

"Can I buy some of those sunflowers?" I asked.

"Well, now I'll just give them to you!" he said.

Now this brought a huge grin to my face and the man laughed out loud I must have looked so happy. So he gave us a tour of his organic, backyard garden and I left with tender zucchini's in my pocket and the invitation to come and get as many sunflowers as I want  -- whenever I want.

It was an amazing evening -- one I hope to never forget, as I wonder: How many times have I thought someone was going to kick me out of Heaven when what they really wanted was to invite me in?

"SKODE"

The Worries and Wonders of Feeding Beet Pulp

Wow, have I had  mixed feelings about feeding beet pulp over the years. On the one hand I have seen the feed do wonderful things with horses who need extra calories, energy and fiber to their nutritional programs. On the other hand, I have also witnessed horses who bloat up on the stuff (as opposed to gaining solid weight), get cresty and even sore footed.

So I have swung wildly between feeding beet pulp almost religiously, to swearing off the feed altogether. Today, I say I sit solidly in the middle of the fence on this one, my conclusion on the feeding of beet pulp being: "It depends on the horse."

Here's why:

THE GOOD POINTS:

Beet pulp is highly fermentable (meaning digestible), has a low Glycemic Index (meaning it does not cause blood sugar spikes), and provides lasting, slow-burning energy for a horse. The food is a by-product resulting form the extraction of simple sugars in the manufacturing of table sugar. Thus, the pulp often has little to no sugar left in it.

Neither a forage nor an energy feed, beet pulp ranks in at 10 percent protein and 18 percent crude fiber. Easily digested by most horses, beet pulp can be safely fed in large amounts to horses because the energy derived from beet pulp comes from soluble as well as insoluble carbohydrates ( as opposed to grain, which is highly soluble). For a really terrific explanation on the difference between the two, the myths and realities of beet pulp, and exactly how beet pulp is digested by horses, please visit Veterinarian Susan Garlinghouse's website and read her articles on beet pulp.

One of the reasons beet pulp works so well for hard working horses and for thin horses who need to gain weight is that dry beet pulp has the same calorie content as oats. Also, endurance riders love beet pulp for its slow burning energy and its famous ability to absorb nearly 5 times its weight in water -- an absolutely wonderful way to hydrate horses.

All of these factors, combined with the relatively low cost of feeding beet pulp -- a 50-pound bag costs $13 in rural Oregon -- makes this food a nice addition to many horses' nutritional programs.

HOWEVER, before you rush off to the feed store to stock up, there are some downsides to beet pulp that are important to consider.

THE BAD POINTS:

1.) Beet pulp is a refuse that is unregulated as feed for horses (as is virtually everything else for horses). Over the years I have found the following in bags of beet pulp: a bit of string; a part of a bone; and several small pieces of metal!

Please sift through the feed with your hands and your eyes.

2.) While pure beet pulp is naturally quite low in sugar, manufacturers very often add molasses to the shreds or pellets as a binder. Because it is a binder, the ingredient does not have to be listed on the label. Several people I know of have had their beet pulp test in at a sugar and starch content of more than 19 percent! (10 percent is the maximum recommended for Insulin Resistant horses.)

Thankfully, rinsing the beet pulp before soaking can very effectively reduce the sugar level. You will want to put the feed in a strainer and rinse until the water runs clear. This can take anywhere from 5 minutes to 45 minutes. Shredded pulp seems quicker and easier to rinse than the pellets. But I still have a warning: If you skip this step and soak the pulp only, know that you are driving any sugars into the feed.

3.) Due to the metal machinery that processes the beet pulp, and the dirt and dust that comes in off the fields with the beets, beet pulp is notoriously high in iron. (Metal and dirt are naturally high in iron.) Dr. Eleanor Kellon DVM and equine nutritionist, has done copious amounts of research on the negative effects of excessive iron in the equine diet. Iron, as Dr. Kellon teaches people, is an inflammatory with which most horses, especially I.R. horses, are already overloaded. Please click here to join the Equine Cushings Group that she facilitates. Once a member -- it's free -- you can go to the "Files" section of the site and look up her research on Iron Overload and Testing.

Just as with sugar, the only way to reduce the iron content in in beet pulp is to rinse it before soaking it as. I was tempted to skip this part of the regime with a non-I.R. horse who boards at Skode's -- until I learned that once a horse absorbs iron into his system, it is in his system for life.

So as you can see, feeding beet pulp really is a "it depends" kind of feed. It depends on whether your horse really needs it and whether you truly have the time to take the necessary time and precautions to feed it.

Professionally, I have decided not to include beet pulp in the treat repertoire of my company, Skode's Horse Treats Inc. For while using beet pulp as the base of our treats would have allowed us to provide a much cheaper horse cookie or horse treat -- beet pulp is a fraction of the cost of flax or specialty hays that Skode's use as the base of all its treats -- I felt the risk and resulting time factors involved in ensuring a high-quality product that relied on beet pulp, were far too high.

Personally, however, I do feed two out of three horses on my ranch regular beet pulp mashes. Robbie, our 30-year-old boarder, receives his mash twice a day, as beet pulp is the only way to keep him from becoming too thin (his older teeth can not adequately break down hay or grass). And Vashka,  whom I am training for a 25-mile endurance ride this summer, also receives beet pulp with oats after conditioning rides. The combination feeds his muscles and gives him energy. Sunny, my Cushings horse, can not tolerate beet pulp -- he was chronically overdosed with NSAIDS before I met him and therefore is not able to tolerate highly fermentable food sources. Within 24 hours of eating beet pulp, Sunny develops loose stools and sore feet.

Be sure to check out the links in this story as you ponder your own decision about whether or not to feed beet pulp -- the two women referred to in this post are great resources to which you will want to avail yourself for years to come. Then, and perhaps most importantly, refer to your horse. He will tell you what he needs if you listen.

"SKODE"

Science, Spirituality and Horses -- Naturally!

My father was a microbiologist who loved to study things in their most minute form. He was also a prize-winning photographer who took pictures that captured details most of us never stop long enough to consider. I remember in particular one photo of an ice cube: You could see the frozen water lines inside the cubes -- a whole world of sub-zero intersections and criss crosses.

Vernon Yearwood-Drayton was a scientist who could explain things to the infentisimal detail no one else could. Yet he was also a spiritual man who would tell you in a flat mili-second that no scientist on earth understands the mystery we call Life Energy.

"It's all opinion based on the facts we have in the moment," my father said. "And those facts take us only so far for so long. Some things are unexplainable." So while my father was a scientist at NASA Ames Research Center, he also prayed and believed in angels -- the unexplicable energy he allowed to guide some of his most important life decisions.

My father would have approved of the approach I have taken in the nutritional care of my horses. Their feeding programs are based mostly on rock-solid science -- their hays are analyzed and the vitamins and minerals that they are fed balance the hays' imbalances, for example -- but there is also plenty of room in their care for their Spirits and my own Gut Instinct. While these two last things are unexplainable, I can tell you about memories that I bet will trigger your own :

* The times when I have stood over my horses' feed bowls and suddenly known that a certain combination of herbs -- was the perfect remedy for that horse in that moment (without knowing the exact healing properties of those herbs until I sat down later to study them.) 

* The times when I have reached for a certain supplement and known beyond any doubt that the supplement  had stopped helping my horse, or was even hurting my horse. (Time always proved my gut right).

*The "mistakes" I have made by feeding the "wrong" medicine, or over-dosing a supplement or therapuetic herb -- only to find that this was the exact dose that my horse needed to heal. This is percisely how we arrived at the perfect Pegolide dosage for my Cushings horse, Sunny. And how about the fact that that his therapy for his stomach issues -- problems that had been plaguing him for years -- began percisely on his 14th birthday ( I did not remember it was his birthday until a week later!)

Coincidences?

Maybe. But I honestly don't think so.

The opposite of science?

I don't think that, either.

To my way of thinking, spirituality and science are paths to the same end -- our healing, our horse's healing, and everyone's understanding of The Truth. To deny one is to deny ourselves and our horses  precious time and knowledge.

"SKODE"

An Old Horse in Our Hearts

When we open our hearts to horses, our lives change and expand in ways we never could have imagined..

My horse, Vashka, led me across the country in search of our own ranch.  On that journey, we met other animal souls who needed a safe and healthy place to live, too.

First there was Harley, the most amazing Shetland Pony I ever met (his owner decided he was too cantankerous for her herd). Then Allie, a Labrador Retriever (she had been abandoned on the side of a freeway). Then Sunny, a gorgeous Arabian gelding (who stopped winning hunter jumper shows and was cast aside as a broken toy at the age of 12.)  And now Robbie.

Robbie is 30 year-young Arabian. Neighborhood legend has it that he was quite the endurance horse in his day. He took his owner on 25 milers and 50 milers on a regular basis. He has that confident air about him of a horse who has "been there done that."  He does what he wants -- when he wants. Not in a rude way. Just a determined: "Let me show you how it goes you young wiper snapper" kind of way.

I met Robbie a couple of months ago. A young girl named Kaylee was riding him outside my house and something inside me told me to ask her -- I had never met her before -- if I could ride my horse Vashka with them. She said a quick and friendly "Yes" and we were off.  We were instant riding friends -- the kind that just fall into place. No one talked too much or too little. We enjoyed our mounts and our meandering trail rides the way females who love riding naturally do. Our get togethers became a regular occurrence. Everyday at 5 p.m., Kaylee and Robbie would walk through the front gate.

I remember the day Kaylee took Robbie's saddle off and was grooming him and I noticed for the first time how terribly thin he was. Even though he had a very thick, winter coat, we could see his ribs. It worried me. Kaylee and I made a pact.

Though she was leasing him from her neighbor, she promised to bring Robbie by my house everyday so we could feed him before we rode. Thus, began our regular beet pulp feedings, complete with all kinds of fresh herbs ground flax seed, alfalfa pellets, vitamins and minerals, and since Robbie didn't show any signs of Insulin Resistance, Kaylee's mom, Anna, and grandmother, Charlotte, contributed a big bag of fresh, whole oats that we sprinkled on top of his warm beet mash.

"You know he isn't going to live long," Kaylee said one day.

"Well you never know!" I said protectively. Slowly, but surely, I was taking Old Man Robbie into my heart.

A woman/angel named Jessica Lynn from Earthsong Ranch in California donated a big tub of pro-biotics, a supplement I have been feeding my own horses for years. I emailed Jessica and asked her what she would do if she were me.

"I'm growing really fond of him but what if I offer to take him on and then can't afford to give him all that he needs?" I wrote. "I already worry about my own horses!"

"Do what your heart tells you and then know the money will be there!" Jessica wrote back.

A woman with three of her own horses, four dogs and four cats, Jessica backed up her positive words with action: Within days, the Prozyme from Earthsong Ranch was at my Post Office Box. The all-natural supplement is a concentrated blend of horse friendly pre-biotics, 9 horse friendly probiotics and 6 digestive enzymes (aides) that promote digestive health while also optimizing the absorption of nutritional supplements.

"Let me know when Robbie runs out and needs more," Jessica told me. "I want to support him. It's my way of paying it forward."

And so a small group of women that span three generations have come forward to help a horse that is to many minds, past the age of helping. We're helping anyway.

Every few weeks, I take a rasp to his hooves and help his feet come back into shape after years of too-long toes and heels. Nevertheless, they are beautiful barefoot feet, some of the nicest I have trimmed -- for regardless of the initial overgrown look of them, they have a  definite form that is easy to find.

"Kind of like Michael Angelo's David," I tell Robbie.

He stands there with a knowing and dignified look about him.

The signs of his improvement have been quick an steady. His ribs are less obvious and there is a certain sure-footed bounce in his step. He follows Kaylee and I for his food, nickering deeply when we emerge from the house with his huge bucket of beet mash.

Robbie has been a full-time guest at my ranch since Saturday. I had been planning on having him stay for only the weekend, but by Monday morning I found it too hard to let him walk out the front gate. His owner and I spoke on the phone and she says she wants what is best for him and she is guessing that if she spoke horse,  he would probably tell her he would like to be here at Skode's Place. We have decided to take Robbie's stay here one day at a time.

I can see the determined Arabian from my office window, standing tall beneath an oak tree. Both horse and tree are old and dignified. A part of Skode's that already feels impossible to imagine any other way.

"SKODE"

How to Soak Your Horse's Hay the Easy Way

When I started soaking hay for my Insulin Resistant horses, it was a huge ordeal. I did not, as they say, quite have the routine down.

I will share the story with you . Just try not to laugh to hard at my expense!

"You need to soak the hay to see if the sugars in it are causing the inflammation in your horses' feet," my vet told me.

"Okay," I said.

From there I went into my hay barn, grabbed a pad of hay and brought it into my bathroom, where I put it in my tub. This should work, I thought. From there I proceeded to fill the tub with water. Suffice to say that the Roto Rooter man had a good laugh as he wrote out my bill. And I learned that one does not soak one's hay inside the house!

From there I tried all kinds of ways to soak hay. I tried putting it in a wheel barrow and placing a stone on top to weight it (hay floats and it's hard to soak something that floats!) I also tried putting the hay in hay nets and soaking, and then hanging from trees to drain. My neighbors thought that was interesting.

A few years later, I have a routine down that is A LOT easier.

I put the the hay in the biggest ice chests I can find at Walmart. I can put one large pad of hay -- which weighs about 5 pounds each -- in each ice-chest. I then fill the chest with hot water, cover, and let sit for 30 minutes. It's a lot like making tea, only with hay. The smell is absolutely devine.

The horses love their "hot hay" and look like they are eating spaghetti when the strands hang from their mouths as they gobble it down. In fact I am now convinced that Vashka and Sunny prefer their soaked "hot hay" to dry hay!

But back to the procedure of soaking hay.  Once the hay has soaked for 30 minutes in hot water or an hour in cold water -- these times are enough to reduce the sugar contents in the hay by as much as 30 percent -- you take the hay out and drain it.  It helps if you have a strong back and have already placed your ice chests on an incline. I simply pick the chests up by the handle with the lids on but not all the way closed, and tilt the chests.  Most people pull the plug on the chest that drains the water and let most of the water come out first. However you drain your hay, the important thing is that you do it  thoroughly before your horses eat it, as the waters are filled with the sugars from the hay.

Now pull the hay form the chests and take wherever you need to feed. Some people are able to keep their hay inside the chests after draining. However i find that there is still water that stands in the bottom of the chest (because the plug in the chest is about above the ground). Even when the chest is tilted, the water does not drain completely. This causes the hay to sour much more quickly than if it is put in a hay tray.

A hay tray is a lot like a baker's drying rake. My handyman Jack and I, have created eleven homemade hay trays made out of oak and plastic trellis. I have put many of them around my horses' dry lot. They stand about two inches above the ground so air is able to circulate all around they hay. When placed in the shade, soaked hay stays fresh all day long -- even in the very hot South Oregon summers.

Soaking hay is now part of the daily routine at Skode's Horse Ranch. It is no longer an ordeal that feels like an intrusion on my daily life. It has become a part of my daily life. I think this is one of the keys to having healthy Insulin Resistant horses -- finding ways to care for them that work for the humans, too.

* Special note: I am writing a short manual on how to make the hay trays I mention in this story. Check back soon for this.

"SKODE"

Fast Help for Horses with Sensitive Stomachs

When the barometric pressure drops and the temperatures shift drastically -- which can happen by as many as 40 to 50 degrees in single day  in Southern Oregon --  Vashka, our Russian Arabian, gets gassy. I'm sure I don't have to tell you how serious colic is, whether it be gas colic or any other kind of colic.

So before things progress to anything worse than gas, I take action.

Over the years, I have breen able to refine these actions to three easy steps that really work for us at Skode's Horse Ranch. I'm excited to share them here with you because I know they work.

Obviously, each horse is an individual and if you have a horse prone to gut issues, or God forbid, colic, you will want to be in close contact with your veterinarian. That said, here is what we do:

1. A well-steeped herbal tea mixed with about 2 medium sized handfuls of cut and and sifted peppermint leaves, 1/4 cup cut and sifted Ginger Root and a small handful of Parsley. Place into a horse-size tea strainer (about 5 inches in diameter) and let steep in a litre of very hot water for 30 minutes to an hour. In an effort not to scald the peppermint leaves I do not use boiling water, but rather very hot water just about to boil.  Make sure to cover the tea as it steeps so that the volatile oils from the herbs do not escape into the air -- you want those as they are very consituents that most help your horse. Pour over grass hay pellets (not oats as oats are not as easily digested.
2. A live probiotic. Probios Gel for Equines works well, comes in a tube and is easily administered. Available at most feed stores nationwide. It's not cheap -- two doses costs between $5.49 and $6.50. However, it's a great jump start for a troubled horse who needs quick help. Afterward, you can always follow up with a powdered form for maintenance, which I strongly suggest. My equine nutritionist likes Ration Plus for maintenance.
3. "Gastricol" homeopathic spray from rivasremedies.com -- this combination of synergistic homeopathics is so effective I keep a bottle (comes in a spray pump) in my home, truck and emergency care kit. I have seen horses with upset stomachs start to yawn and express relief within seconds of administration. You have to pay shipping from Canada so it's not cheap. But I'll tell you what -- your peace of mind is worth it.

If you need a horse-size tea strainer, we sell those, as well as the herbal tea combinations mentioned in this post. Go to www.skodeshorsetreats.com and click on Our Herbal Teas in the left hand column under "Gourmet Menu."

I hope these action steps work as well for you as they have for us. I would love to hear about your experiences.

"SKODE"

         

How to Start Your Own Successful Horse Business

I get quite a few emails from people who tell me their dream is to have their own, full-time horse business. They work professional, sometimes very highly paid jobs. But they want to get out of the rat race so they can be happy.

"How did you do it?" they ask.

Here is the absolutely most important piece of advice I can give: Do what comes naturally. Do more of what already makes you happy.

Let me say that again. Don't seek the happiness. Do not sit there trying to dream up ideas that will make money. Instead, do more of what you already love to do!

Let me give you an example:

I know a woman whose absolute obsession in life is essential oils and horses. This woman makes the most divine, aromatic essential oil mixes for horses. And they sell like crazy. She is always back ordered. And she doesn't even have a finished logo for her products!

So forget about the 1-2-3- step approach to "making it in the horse world."  Forget about the way of thinking that says getting started in business means you have to go through struggle and hardship and work "really, really hard."

Imagine, instead, that there is a reason that doing what you love brings you so much joy! Imagine, that part of that reason is to share that joy.  What we need most on this planet -- more than anything else, in my opinion -- is joy.

If you could spend all day doing something just because you love it so much, what would that one thing be?

Nothing makes me happier than nudges and nickers from a horse. If you have been following my blog or my website (www.skodeshorsetreats.com), then you know I got into this business because of my determination to find safe, low sugar/low carbohydrate horse treats for my Insulin Resistant horses.  Nothing else existed -- not in the feed stores and not on the Internet -- so I made my own. First I made trail mix treats -- treats I thought a horse in Nature would choose if he could go on a nature hunt and pick whatever he liked -- and then I made horse cookies and then brownies and....well the ideas never ended!

I spend many happy hours researching horse nutrition books and going to local herb farms to find delicious and interesting things for horses to eat. I never did this to make money. I did this because it was my idea of fun. My business evolved naturally. It happened because I was simply being me. Then one day a friend walked into my garage and asked me if she could buy some of my treats. That was my first sale for Skode's Horse Treats, and the birth of Skode's Horse Treats Inc.

So sit for a moment and ask yourself: "What do I love most to do ?"

"SKODE"

How Harley Kept His Promise

Anyone who makes a lifetime commitment to a horse, faces the dreaded day when they will have to say goodbye to their cherished friend. That day for Harley and I came much earlier than I wanted.

This story is for those who face the heart-breaking decision of euthanizing their horse. It is also for anyone, who under any circumstances, has had to help their friend go to that place we call The Rainbow Ridge. This is a true story. It really, really happened.

I hope it brings you even a fraction of the hope and comfort it continues to bring me.

March 11, 2007: I looked into my Shetland Pony's big brown eyes and we talked, woman to pony. He tucked his nose beneath my armpit and said he was sorry. But it was time for him to go.

"I'm not afraid," he told me through animal communicator Mary Getten.

"I will try really, really hard to come and see you in my dreams."

March 14, 2007: I told Harley I would share the lessons he had taught me. I told him everything he went through would help other ponies.  We laid in the sunshine in the pine shavings outside the barn. A few hours later, the vet came.  at 3:30 p.m., I walked my friend to his favorite pasture. I grabbed his mane and whispered my final goodbye, trusting my little friend to keep his word.

The First Dream:  Harley's kiss was sweet and tender and full of love -- nose to forehead. A comforting little boy energy, as if to tell me: "Don't worry! I'm O.K."

I bolted awake.

The Second Dream: The pumpkin colored pony with the thick, golden mane ran as fast as he could through the silver gate and into the pasture. He loved the way his strong feet and legs connected to the muscles in his shoulders and in his entire body. He made me feel that, how exhilarating that felt.  "I'm a powerhouse," he thought at me. "Close to the ground but ready to fly."

Harley was flanked by two other ponies -- a black and white pinto and a chestnut. The three of them laughed as they burst into the wide open pasture.

The Third Dream: The early morning mist covered the Oregon Mountains. Harley walked easily, quickly, across the rock covered ground, his strong hooves impervious to their sharp and jagged edges.  Vashka and Sunny, Harley's close Arabian friends, greeted Harley with great happiness.  It had been a few weeks since they last talked.

Groggily, I made my way out the front door and into the paddock to feed Vashka and Sunny. It had been so hard to make the mental transition to caring for two horses instead of three. I had to keep telling myself: Two feed bowls, not three. Two blankets, not three. To treats, not three.

"Harley's not here anymore," I kept reminding myself.

But on that morning, there were three horses, not two. There was Harley, as vibrant and alive as ever.  He was so shiny and golden, as if he had eaten a thousand vitamins and been dunked in the sun itself.

"Harley!"

"Lori!"

My pony walked to me and nuzzled my hand.  Yes, it was really him. Completely healed. Completely happy. He wanted me to know that. So he had kept his promise and come back to show me.

He had kept his promise.

Now it was time for me to keep mine.

"SKODE"

Horses and Gratitude

Every morning for years, I have been sharing gratitude lists with my "gratitude buddies" via the Internet. It has been a wonderful way to keep me grounded in the goodness of life, and to give me a way to bond with my long-distance friends.

Through sharing these lists, we have learned a lot about gratitude. One of my biggest awareness's is that gratitude isn't only for things or experiences that I judge as "good." It's also about being grateful for what I judge as "bad."  I know that sounds weird. But here is my reasoning:

When I am grateful, simply for "what is," having faith that while I may not understand or agree with reality, if I fight with reality, I will lose.

"But only 100 percent of the time," according to my friend Byron Katie.

Fighting with reality is exhausting. For example, right now my horse Sunny has some issues with the circulation in his feet. My equine nutritionist and I have been trying different herbs on him, working on adjust the dosages just right for Sunny. It's hard to see my horse go through this -- I would much rather give him the Magic Bullet and be done with it.  So here is where feeling grateful for "What is" really helps me.

When I'm grateful for even the struggle that Sunny's issue represent, my heart and mind open enough just to let in the thoughts: This experience is teaching me a lot. I am learning that I have a lot of perseverance and compassion and my horse, Sunny, has a lot of patience and stamina. I am so grateful for that.

Even as I wrote that, I took a deep breath.  And in the next moment I do not feel quite as constricted and afraid.

Gratitude is becoming a way of life for me -- a way to appreciate whatever is. As time unfolds, we see the tapestry of The Big Picture, not just the threads. But when we are in the moment and the feeling of whatever is going on, we sometimes need help with perspective. At least I do. 

Horses are so immediately here for us. The ones I know aren't dwelling in the past or projecting in the future. The self help field has recognized this and developed entire modules of behavior modification using horses as their main therapists. I haven't been to these workshops. However I know the feeling in my soul when I stand and simply allow myself to be with my horses.

I feel grateful.

Perhaps you know the feeling.

Please do check out my new page -- Skode's Gratitude List -- where I have begun a regular journal of gratitude with my horses. The page allows comments and TrackBacks and I would be thrilled if you would post your comments. Perhaps we can start a global horse gratitude list.  In the meantime, I plan to type away.

Gratefully yours,

"SKODE"