It's Hay Season!

Up in the North here it is finally hay season. And there is a lot of hay to be moved. Especially when you have a rather large herd of show horses, whose pasture is small enough that those large plate-sized feet destroy more grass than they graze, and you are close enough to your neighbors that it would not be unusual to find a stray bullet on your property from their target practice. So, we supplement with hay......a lot of hay. We don't have enough acreage to make it feasible to make our own (plus it's not that great) so we buy it. And therein lies the problem.

You can't find help to move it as fast as it needs to get moved. You would think, that with all the talk about the economy tanking; with all the people moaning about losing their jobs; unable to pay bills; and on and on.......that people would be willing to get paid for a day or two of hard, physically demanding work....even if it was just enough to get them groceries for the week. But no. No one wants to get hot and dirty, even if it will get you more per hour than McDonald's or Burger King. And the time commitment is minimal.
Time was when the football coaches would "hire out" their teams to haying farmers instead of doing weight lifting or two-a-day drills. After all, their team would be getting both cardio and weight-lifting all at once!!! Not so any more....the emphasis is on weight-training in an air-conditioned gym (last I knew games were played outside!) and constant game plays. After all, winning is the all in football!

But it seems to be a common problem everywhere, now. We work for the money to provide for our horses (no really!!! That's where most of my income goes!) As a firefighter/paramedic I see it with our probies coming up.....they really don't want to work and love the job because they feel they can spend all their time sleeping, watching TV or playing PlayStation. And in many stations they can.
Not in ours. We do a lot of training and have other duties.....which the youngers don't like.
But we also have air-conditioned work-out rooms......and they are very happy to spend time with their bros in there......usually competing with each other in the nice climate-controlled atmosphere.
But ask these guys to come out for REAL work? Ummmmm.....how many excuses can they come up with. The same guys who praise themselves for bench-pressing 300+# have absolutely no intentions of getting dirty and sweaty for an afternoon of tossing 85# bales (yeah, we weighed them! Friends down the street get 35#-ers).

What does this have to do with horses listening/training? Well, this philosophy spills over into the general dealing with horses. You know what I'm talking about.....the person who comes to the boarding stables or school and does absolutely nothing to get their horse ready, yet takes them out for their lesson then goes home until next week's lesson. This same person gets all bent out of shape at a show, where they spend more time with the horse in a less-than-ideal-situation (i.e. competitive) and they quickly get frustrated because the horse "won't do everything I ask" for several hours when it usually only takes 1 hour at "home". Or the person who has their horse at their place, but only feeds it until such time as they want to do something and then gets bent because it "won't do what I want". Am I guilty of that? ABSOLUTELY!!!! It was one of the things that Rusty taught me only too well. Do I still do it? Absolutely. I'm not proud of admitting it. But, then, I don't EXPECT the horse to be perfect when we DO start something. And that makes a big difference.

I've spent a lot of time watching my horses be horses. I've spent time in their stalls with them. I know their personalities.....I know when they are feeling good and not-so-good. I have horses who are pretty steady and predictable.....and I have goof-balls who are always on the look-out for mischief-making. I'm the one who needs to make the adjustments....because, quite frankly, they don't care if they "look good" in the show ring. Well, except for Bud.....who thrives on an audience.

But that's the difference. The same people who moan and groan about "not having" are the same people who won't make that effort....won't do the work necessary to "make it happen". Even if the work is to simply listen.