Right Angle

My heart goes out to some friends of the Sanctuary. Easter Sunday they lost one of their dear horses they recently got back. I don’t know the entire situation and at this point, I’m not sure that I want to. But losing a loved one is very hard and our sympathies go out to them during this time of loss.

I was thinking about loss last night during chores. With Jim being off and possibly depressed, I started thinking of the inevitable. The only two on my watch list right now are Jim and Babe. Jim because he’s depressed and Babe only because of her age (although she put on weight over the winter!)

Most of the horses at the Sanctuary aren’t old. We welcomed them in before I had my criteria established and before I knew I wanted to be a Sanctuary rather than a rescue. I’m hoping that we won’t have to deal with any loss this year (besides the loss of our longtime supporter and role model, my grandma). We’ve had to say goodbye to a number of horses over the years and it seems we’ve lost one or two since 2007. Of the ones we’ve lost, all but four were due to old age. Two due to health reasons before they came to the Sanctuary. These two showed immense aggression so we did what we thought was best. Another was a pasture accident although she did have health problems, and the last the vet killed although she did have health problems also. I can rattle off the names and the reasons for the loss but it takes a lot of energy.

While I was looking at the herd the other day, I started thinking that maybe we looked more like a feedlot rather than a normal farm. I’ve kept the horses in a drylot to protect the pasture over the winter. So I started thinking about what it would be like to go to Musick’s feedlot and try to pick out a horse. I tried looking at the big herd without knowing the personalities and quirks of each. If I were given the opportunity to go to Musick’s feedlot to bring someone home, how would I choose? What criteria would I use? Would I look at confirmation? Would I try to pull the weakest from the lot or try to find the one that has the easiest chance of finding a home quickly? Would I look at color? Would their eyes tell me?  I doubt I’ll ever be given the opportunity to pull a horse from Musick’s but I’ll keep thinking of those that are stuck in that situation. It worries and angers me that I am less than an hour away from a feedlot and I’m doing nothing but sitting on my hands. I know that my hands are tied and I can’t bring anyone else home. If I am to bring someone else home, he/she probably wouldn’t come from the feedlot. But there’s so much potential standing out there and I could be making a difference and I’m just sitting on my hands doing nothing.

I need the connections to get in and scope out the situation. I know there’s a win/win possibility but I need to figure out the right connections and the right angle to make it work. Anyone have those connections?