horses – Page 27 – The Hermits' Rest

Red Wolves, Birds, and Plant Delights

Other than taking a brisk walk for a break, I worked all day. I got some photos of the strip where the condos are.

However, we did manage to sneak back to Brookgreen Gardens to their Low Country Zoo before it closed for the day. I really enjoy that place. It’s lush and cool, plus it’s covered in native plants. Score!

I really didn’t see many of the animals, but this horse was friendly. And attractive.

Lee and I always enjoy looking at the bird exhibits, so we said hi to the hawks and owls, then wandered down to the aviaries.

The swampy area with the black-crowned night herons and ibises was beautiful. Lee thought some were statues. Then one caught a fish!

Then we enjoyed the river otters a long time, because, well, otters are incredibly fun to watch. They were in their glasses-in area, so no photos, but you can imagine all the fun. Eventually we headed to the duck pond, where much cuteness was waiting.

You know me, I spent a lot of time looking at the “free” exhibits, like insects and spiders. I saw some new ones, too.

Ok. The reason we actually drove back here was to see their newest exhibit.

The zoo has acquired a pair of red wolves that they hope will breed more little wolves that can be re-introduced into the wild. I knew that people were trying to build the population back up, but never thought I’d get to actually see some of these critically endangered canines. What luck that they just opened the exhibit! Rather than type all the info out, I’ll let you read the signs I photographed so I could refer to them.

They built a beautiful space for them “where the deer used to be” as the people giving directions said. It will eventually be large enough to roam around in, too. And yes, we were lucky enough to get to see them both, just lounging around by the fence.

They seem much smaller than gray wolves, but maybe these are still young? I hope the program works out! Oh, and there was something else in the exhibit, the part they are still working on. There were two wild turkeys just wandering around eating. They were not captive. They were just there!

I can see why turkey vultures got their name. Only the blue head helped me ID it from a distance.

We had dinner in Murrell’s Inlet, where all the restaurants are. It was fine, and I enjoyed the marsh view, but there weren’t many birds. One tree did gradually fill up with pelicans. A new one glided in every five minutes or so. I guess that tree is a favorite roost.

You can sorta see pelican heads in the most distant tree (or bush).

I’m really glad we got out. I needed it, especially the quiet. The zoo was so quiet at times that it was eerie. Here at the condo there’s always background noise of air conditioning, waves, or screeching kids. The quiet was a balm to my heart and soul.

Ooh, We Did Activities

Today Lee and I made up for yesterday and engaged in vacation-like activities, which is sort of unlike us. We even got out of the condo before noon, which may be a Lee record. I say this lovingly, of course.

We just knew if we left we’d discover something as fascinating as this plant, called pumpkin on a stick. I want one!

First we headed off to our favorite local spot, Brookgreen Gardens, which I have written about before but am too lazy to link to it. It’s an amazing old plantation that has been painstakingly turned into a wonderland of sculptures surrounded by gardens that set each sculpture off perfectly. We were disappointed to find that the main indoor exhibit area was closed, because they were switching out exhibits, but happy to learn the new exhibit opens next Saturday, so we can go then.

Luckily my childhood favorite poem is still here to see.

Instead, we walked over to the permanent sculpture exhibit, the Offner Sculpture Center, which we’d never been to before. That was wonderful! There were many studies for the larger works on display in the gardens, plus interesting bronze medals, and many other works by a variety of mostly 20th Century American artists. There were many by Anna Huntington who started the collection, and also a great many by Richard McDermott Miller, who had many fascinating self portraits and human figures. There was also a film about how bronze sculptures are made, featuring him. Quite interesting.

Anna Hyatt Huntington liked statues of horses a lot, so there are many here (and many large ones in the gardens for horse people like me to enjoy.)

After the sculptures, we ate in what was once the plantation’s old kitchen. Everything was fresh and delicious, and we had a nice conversation with the woman who was working there. This is a very out-of-the-way spot, so it was quite serene. And there were brazen birds who wanted to share our food.

We will be going back there for a night exhibit, perhaps, and also to see the zoo, which has a new red wolf exhibit. That will be interesting. Yeah, I can come up here and just go to this one place repeatedly and be adequately entertained!

After a bit of a rest and some sun gazing, we went to Topgolf, which was our reward for doing the annual tedious sales presentation. (This is a building you go in where you eat, drink, and try to hit golf balls into targets.) We lucked out and got a reasonable, fun couple to play with and ended up having a good time. Whew—I was worried my obnoxious new acquaintance, Steve, who crops up everywhere I go, would be paired with us and I’d drink too much. I was a bit concerned when I saw the couple brought their own clubs, but I ended up second, because the husbands were trying too hard. Kathy, the wife, had paid attention at her one lesson and drove straight and true. Of course, I was so busy watching that I didn’t get any photos of her.

I was glad that rain held off until this evening. We got a full day of fun in before I have to go back to work. I always feel better when I get to surround myself with art, gardens, and really cool insects..just look at this immense grasshopper!

Eastern lubber grasshopper
(*Romalea microptera*) which can be three inches long!

Hi There, Ranch Neighbors

Yesterday I wrote about farming, about which I don’t know much. Today I enjoyed residents of our greater ranch community, which I understand a bit more, and always get much peace and pleasure from.

I was delighted to see that the folks whose cattle live here had put some cows and their older calves out behind us. I recognize many of them, which is kind of cool. Some cows have been here since these folks first came here.

The cattle brought some friends with them, a little flock of cattle egrets (Bubulcus ibis). These small herons have spread across the world as farming practices have made their lives easier. They hang out near cattle and other large mammals and keep them free of insects and ticks.

Their expansion is fairly recent. I remember them being an exciting newcomer when I was a small child in north Florida’s cattle country. Mom loved to see them sitting on the Brahma and Hereford cattle.

The resident great egret is graciously sharing the pond. I’m not sure how the green herons are taking it. I haven’t heard them in a couple of days.

This afternoon, after a change in plans, I went over to Sara’s to see how her horses are getting along. Of course, this entailed much time oohing and aahing over Jhayati, who I hadn’t seen in a while.

She’s 2.5 months old and already getting gray hairs. Sara says that means she probably got two copies of the gray gene. She’ll finish graying out before Drew does!

Love the shape of her face, which is typical of an Andalusian.

Her coat is softer than velvet, and she’s very friendly. Sara’s doing a great job slowly teaching her life skills. Meanwhile, her mom, Sully, spends a lot of time pointing out that she is beautiful and needs to be petted, too.

The lead rope setup is what Tarrin recommended to Sara. And how about that tie dye! She made it.

Aragorn pretends the foal doesn’t exist, which is cute and probably right for the Head Horse, but the other horses are helpful. I really enjoyed my visit, though it sure was hot. Mornings are much better horse time, even if mine aren’t thrilled at first.

You can see gray on her face. She’s also shedding baby hair, so it’s a bit awkward.

I guess that’s it for the ranch neighbor report. It’s so hot and dry that we just can’t drum up any excitement. That’s absolutely fine with me.

It’s Horse Appreciation Day

I thought that was every day.

Maybe it should be horse butt appreciation day.

Horses can teach us all something, even if it’s simple, like powerful animals can be full of fear, just like powerful people who’ve been mistreated.

Horses may even teach patience better than children can. You can at least try to reason with fellow humans.

The joy of cooperation, though, is what working with horses truly brings to us humans. I do so appreciate their willingness to cooperate with us to feel almost like we are one intertwined being. I hope they like it, too.

Dear horses, I honestly just appreciate being with you daily. You calm me down and I help you feel safe and healthy. Ahh.

Smiling So Hard and Learning So Much

The amount of gratitude I have for everyone who’s encouraged me in my horse-loving journey is boundless. That includes my family, Sara (who gave me Apache), the Parelli instructor I learned from early on, our late friend Christi…and of course, Tarrin, who you probably hear too much about. But hey, it’s my blog, and I can talk about anyone I want to (with certain exceptions). And what’s wrong with telling the world a professional is good at their job?

Drew is plotting to have a meltdown at her in this photo (just kidding, horses do not have brains that plot)

My point here is that I’m just so happy to have reached the point in my journey where hard work has paid off and fun is creeping into our lessons more and more. That’s taken a village!

Village member Lee doesn’t mind driving to lessons because he gets to drive Seneca, the motorhome. It looks a bit fancy but darn it, at least we’re using it!

Today I just smiled and smiled during my lessons with Drew and Apache. Sure, my side passing still needs work, but Apache’s doing way better at it. And we had great fun trotting around and improving our form and speed controls. I can’t believe I’m so much better. I like going fast and don’t feel out of control. Neither does Apache. Teamwork!

I think Apache never heard the words “good boy” so many times in his life. He really tries. And he pays attention to me. Meanwhile, I’m learning to ride one handed and it’s really working great. Why knew? And my posture! It’s practically good! Wow. No wonder I smoked.

Plus! Get this! We went all the way to the trailer, past a piece of loyd heavy equipment, and down to the exit gate and back. With ZERO spooks or panics. It was completely calm. Drew, on the other hand, had a big spook when Apache walked by. Too bad Tarrin stopped filming.

Apache is an amazing steed.

Drew’s lesson was more challenging but I learned a lot. He is better but decided it was a good idea to refuse to canter going right. Then he started crowding Tarrin and acting up. Much fit pitching occurred. I learned a lot from how Tarrin calmed him down. He ended up doing exercises for his sore leg like a champ.

It made me really hot and I was dubious about my bath. I ended up liking it.

After he calmed down and did his exercises, I got to ride him around a bit. We did just fine in an unfamiliar place with interesting distractions. And he’d walked right to the trailer so I didn’t have to carry his saddle.

In the end I was proud of Droodles, too. I had to smile as I sat in the shade (so I wouldn’t barf) and watched Tarrin get him in a better frame of mind. I’m going to learn a lot from meltdowns!

By the way, Apache has lost weight and looks like a normal horse, almost.

I probably have more to say but I took something for back pain ( hurt before riding) and I’ve grown woozy. So good night!

Catching Up with Things

I didn’t get a chance to blog last night, because I had a bit of the old heat exhaustion going on. But it could have been worse, and I have no permanent damage. It was simply very hot at my lesson yesterday – as it was for Tarrin and her young helper, who had it way worse than I did. Drew helped me out a bit by still having a hurt leg issue, so there was no riding of him again. Tarrin did some exercises and said she was glad I figured out he didn’t feel good and wasn’t being “stubborn” or “naughty.” I’ll do some exercises with him after another day or two of rest.

You can see how thrilled they were to be going to lessons.

Apache and I still aren’t doing all that great going sideways, then he got a nosebleed from all his snorting in protest. On the other hand, the boy has the cantering concept down at last, and we both are improving greatly in slowing down and speeding up, even if we didn’t do much trotting due to heat and blood. What a day!

I’m still wandering around just in case there are any new birds or insects, but in midsummer, we tend to just have the usual suspects. Things will pick up once migration starts again. I did get a couple of nice photos of a ponderous spur-throat grasshopper (Melanoplus ponderosus) and a giant walking stick (Megaphasma denticrus).

I do have a little happy story to tell that I didn’t get to earlier in the week. You may recall that there was a Carolina wren (Thryothorus ludovicianus) nest in a box on our back porch. I noticed that the babies were getting pretty big and took a picture of them.

I went out to do something and wasn’t around for a while. When I got home, Lee was sitting by the pool, looking (for Lee) excited. What was going on, I wondered? He then told me he had been sitting there, just looking across the pool when he saw something seem to bounce on the water, then land in it. He quickly realized it was one of the baby wrens!

Lee rushed to rescue it, which he did by fishing it out with the pool net. He set the net down on the porch near the nest, and when I showed up, it was there resting and drying off.

You can see how they inspired Angry Birds. Look at those little bits of down!

We watched it for the next half hour or so, while I was swimming and Lee was reading (this was late afternoon before the latest heat wave). We saw it start to shake its head and fluff itself up, which we took to be a good sign that the little bird was drying off and settling down. Lee thought maybe it wanted to be closer to the nest, so he picked up the pool net to move it closer.

At the movement, the fledgling decided it was time to try to fly again, and this time chose a better direction. It went over to the disc golf set and settled down there.

We could see that it moved around a lot the rest of the evening, as we kept peeking out the window. We noted that the sibling bird was long gone, so we guessed the baby would soon head out to be with the rest of the family and learn to catch its own moths and such. Sure enough, I’ve seen the family over by the woods.

I was so proud of Lee for thinking so quickly and saving our little buddy. We are good aviary stewards, I guess. Speaking of our aviary, there’s now a pair of great egrets (Ardea alba) hanging out in the pond behind us, along with the night herons who’ve been there a while.

And I found out why there are so many red-winged blackbirds (Agelaius phoeniceus) by the driveway. There is a huge nest in the willow tree. They sure are active and loud!

Dang Horses, but Whee, a New Sedge

Not much to write about that I have time for, other than the fact that my precious horses were naughty. It’s my own fault for trying to keep them in the front pasture overnight so I could ride Drew this morning.

Drew and Mabel apparently knocked most of the fence between the two pastures down because they WANTED that greener grass. I hope they are happy. I’ll come up with Plan C.

So, I rode Apache this morning instead, and we had a fine time. We walked on the road! Briefly. Very briefly.

All these guys wanted was to hang out with me before it got hot.

Plan C was ride Drew after he ate, while the other horses were nearby. It was still 100° at that time but the sun was less intense. He was much more focused and friendly today, and even seemed glad I got dozens of pieces of dried pepper weed out of his mane. But, no riding occurred. He kept having back leg trouble. He could canter to the right just fine, but the second time he tried going left, he sounded like he hurt. Eek!

So I petted him, walked him around and told him he was a good boy. We see Tarrin tomorrow, so I’ll know more then. It’s weird, because he seemed ok Friday, though I didn’t push him. And he certainly could gallop yesterday, as seen here.

Anyway, since I had to tromp all over the pasture this morning, I also looked at plants. I was happy to see Devils Claw (Proboscidea louisianica) blooming. It is a fascinating plant with aromatic oil and edible seed pods that are beautiful dried. They’re pollinated by native bees. Thanks, Wikipedia, for that info.

While inspecting the downed fence, I saw something unfamiliar and pretty, so of course I photographed it.

I touched its stem and realized it was a sedge, which makes sense, because it was growing in a spot that stays damp longer than most of the pasture. I guessed it was a nutsedge. Two other sedges grow there, too (yellow nutsedge (Cyperus esculentus) and pine barren nutsedge (Cyperus retrorsus)). I looked it up this evening and found it was a new plant I hadn’t seen here before. Short-point flatsedge (Cyperus acuminatus) is common from here up north to Canada. It’s certainly a pretty one!

I’m glad I’m so easily entertained.

Sixteen Seconds of Thunder

Poor Drew was not happy to be asked to exercise this morning when he was out in the far pasture with his buddies. He kept stopping. And he had no interest in what I wanted to do with him.

I just don’t have the leadership to get his focus on me. I’ll work on it. He just kept looking over where the others were, while kicking and bucking and throwing his head around.

So, we walked around and visited various unfamiliar objects, but I didn’t ride. He was thrilled to get rid of me. Here are 16 seconds of Drew zipping off to see his buds.

I have a plan B for tomorrow. And at least Apache made up for it by being a most excellent horse partner this evening, even though we rode late, after eating. Sometimes a change of routine works out. Sometimes it doesn’t.

Feelings about Horse Friends

The minute I saw Tarrin today for my lesson, I knew something was wrong. Sure enough, she’d just found out that a horse in our little community had passed away suddenly. The feelings that went through me right then awakened a deep truth in me.

A very brief weather event brought us comfort. Photo by Tarrin.

I realized that I feel connections with horses I know just like I do people. And I liked this horse very much. He was brave, funny, and very cool, not to mention gorgeous. And he’d had such an interesting life; he was a circus horse! He was lucky to spend his final years with a human who was devoted to him and learned so much to help him out.

I didn’t know him as well as Tarrin or Sara, who spent lots of time with him at shows and educational events, but I liked him, like I would a person. Yeah, I don’t know exactly why, but I cared about him a lot! I’m grieving for him and his human like I do when people I care about pass.

Don’t let anyone tell you animals are “just animals.” We can connect with them, too. The hardest part about having companion animals in our lives is knowing their lives tend to be shorter than ours. I still deeply miss my departed dogs.

My heart goes out to our community member who lost her equine friend. I sure gave all mine extra hugs today, even if they were all sweaty.

Sweaty me and sweaty Apache, with an extra cool cloud.

All our connections are meaningful. Go hug a dog, a cat, a horse, a human, or whatever living creature matters to you.

A Weekend for Me

This entire weekend I did stuff I wanted to do, when I wanted to. Now, that’s relaxing! Even sweeping the chicken house and getting rid of feed bags was done on MY time. I didn’t breathe poop, by the way. Lesson learned.

I do have a funny horse story. I was out in the pasture heading to bring in Apache, who still likes to play hard to get. I know I’m sending off good vibes, because every other horse comes right to me. And that’s what was funny. Fiona had already latched on to my side as I walked to Apache. Suddenly I heard thundering hooves, then in a puff of dust, Drew’s head appeared directly beside my face. He was just SURE I was looking for him and he was concerned he was late, because he had to pee. Obviously I have no trouble catching Drew. Eventually I once again had to maneuver around three horses and a donkey who were dying for me to take them off to be groomed.

They are all right there. Happy to see me.

Now, once Apache decides he’s ready, he is no trouble at all, and seems to enjoy walking around, being groomed, and riding. He just wants to be the one to decide it’s time to go do stuff.

I’m working on letting Suna be the boss.

He’s so much fun, though. I’m not complaining at all. We have had many years to develop this relationship, so we’ll keep working and I’ll enjoy the ride, literally.

I got a bath, so I could roll and get all dirty again five minutes after this picture was taken.

The rest of today, like yesterday, was spent knitting, floating in the pool, napping, and hanging out. Lee, Anita, and I even got to go out for dinner! My sour cream enchiladas were great, plus they didn’t mess with the temporary crown I need to keep in until Friday.

Naturally, ha ha, I took some nature pictures. This little garden spider got quite a catch!

The aviary kept me all excited again today, though. We got to watch the wren feed her brood and enjoy all those fledgling barn swallows darting and swooping along with their parents. They seemed pretty proud of themselves to be able to sit on the light fixtures.

And to top it all off, there were more genuine clouds in the sky tonight (there were some yesterday, too, but no rain).

That led to an amazing moonrise and sunset. The moon was pretty such a short time. I’m glad I was taking my time and enjoying everything that came along tonight and the rest of the weekend.

It may be time for a new Facebook cover photo.

I hope you have a good week and that the weekend refreshed and renewed you, even a little. I certainly needed some time to reflect and treat myself kindly after beating myself up a bit last week!

I felt like the heron. At home in my place.