Casting Around

I've been casting around on where this blog is going, frankly waiting for inspiration, and we've had major distractions on the home front. But I heard an interview on the radio yesterday from a writer who said that in order to write, you have to do it. Her advice is to sit down for some time every day, preferably on a schedule, and skip waiting for inspiration.

My experience of the last couple of weeks tells me she is right about waiting for inspiration - it isn't going to just hop out of the closet and sit on my shoulder. I'll have to muddle along on most days without the guiding voice of a Muse.

Casting around turns out to be an apt title for this post. One of the older horses got cast in his stall at yesterday's barn shift. We got him up after after several minutes and he never panicked, so all ended well. But it was very hot and we could have done without the excitement.

When a horse gets cast, usually in an enclosed space, they have gone down to roll and ended up choosing a direction where they can't complete the roll without getting stuck against a wall or other blocking object. Even if they could solve the problem by rolling to the opposite side, which is sometimes possible, the horse will keep trying in the direction they first planned. That is one reason that the inside of horse stalls have to be solid rather than open slatted walls - you can't have openings where a horse could get their leg trapped if they get cast.

A horse can get cast if they are rolling around trying to relieve the discomfort of an intestinal blockage (colic), and that can end very badly. Yesterday's event was much less dramatic. All of the horses were hosed down because of the heat. When he was returned to his stall, the aging chestnut thoroughbred decided to add a comfortable layer of shavings and dirt to his newly dust-free coat. He has the biggest stall in the place with plenty of room to manage this safely, but this old guy could get himself stuck against a cactus in a 100 acres of desert.

Luckily he didn't panic or get scared, probably because this wasn't a new event for him. I tried sitting on his neck to keep him down until the other white haired volunteer got a halter and lead line to help pull him up. But I need to eat a lot more ice cream and fried potatoes to weigh enough to keep a horse on the ground. It didn't take much for him to put me halfway across the stall at one point - I was doing better when I was just holding his nose down lightly.

He came up fine when the other white haired volunteer leaned all 125 pounds of herself against the end of the lead line, though in hindsight we should have put a second person on the end of that line. The old guy got a second hose down, another round of fly spray and a brief walk around the lot after he got up. He was relaxed and enjoying the heck out of the extra attention. It is possible he planned this.

He repaid me for sitting on his neck later. We added water to everyone's grain and fed it in increments because of yesterday's heat, starting about an hour after the chestnut's second round of care. I went into his stall to check whether he had finished what he had so far, and he lifted his head to spray wet grain on my head and torso. I swear that if it had been anyone else he'd have missed dousing them with his dinner.