Hard Decision = Retirement Party

Yesterday I took Tanner and Harlan to the farrier to get their pedicures and we went for a trail ride afterwards. Another Kelsey (I'll refer to her as KR because I have a habit of slipping into third person to tell stories) is riding Tanner this summer so she came along.

I tried the different cinch on Harlan and set it back farther than usual, and I really think it helped! He was very good on the ride, despite me starting it off by falling off the mounting block onto my butt. And then repeating the performance when I had to get off and get on again mid-ride, this time taking the saddle with me. It was on purpose, to desensitize him to stuff, alright? Totally planned.

Tanner however did not have a good day. He was stiff in his right hind for the farrier and kept trying to pull it away from her. Then on the trail ride, when the trail turned to woods and deep mud he kept tripping and stumbling, scaring poor KR. I figured it was just his clumsiness until I looked back and saw Tanner had stopped and was just standing and leaning his whole body on a tree (and squishing KR's leg in the meantime). My heart stopped because it looked like he was ready to collapse. We sent the rest of the group on while we both got off and walked back towards home. Tanner seemed fine, so when we got back to the road we re-mounted and rode the short remainder home.

As much as I want to deny it, I think Tanner is telling me that he's ready for retirement. His back legs are both compromised, one with ringbone and one with a 5-year-old injury that left his leg permanently stocked up (swollen). Although he hasn't had any soundness issue with the ringbone for 10 years and none with the injury once it healed, I knew it was just a matter of time before arthritis set in or another soundness issue arose.

I just can't justify putting unnecessary stress on his legs especially if he's uncomfortable.

So that means no more long rides over tough terrain. It means I won't be certifying him for search and rescue.

This is really hard.

But instead of focusing on what I'm losing, I want to celebrate our partnership. We had a great 14 years worth of adventuring and we'll still have some (mild) adventures. Tanner will still be pack around my friends and go with me on short, easy jaunts. He is just telling me that it's time to let him relax and quit bushwhacking through the woods on off-road adventures.

So Saturday will officially be his retirement party. Please come and have a relaxed evening while congratulating Tanner on his successful career of trail horse extraordinaire and celebrating his well-earned retirement.

Hope to see you there! The party starts at 4; bring a dish to pass and I'm sure Tanner would appreciate a carrot, apple, peppermint, or sugar cube. ;)

The Harlan Experiment

Yikes. I'm not sure why but it was another coma month, hence no blog posts. Work has been super busy and I've been playing the detective game with Harlan, but I did have a LOVELY visit from my brother and his fiance (Tyler and Mary), and we met up with my sister and her husband (Meredith & Chris) for some lobster in Portland.

I got to show Tyler and Mary my very favoritest view, up the hill from my house, on horseback. Well, I was on foot, but Mary rode Tanner and Tyler rode Harlan (we started off with him on a lead rope just in case he would act up, but he didn't need it and Tyler did great for not riding in, what, 8 years?). It was wonderful catching up with everyone.

I've been putting a lot of thought into Harlan's behavior...could it be medical, behavioral, or physical?

We ruled out Lyme disease and ulcers.

I am very reluctant to ascribe it to purely behavioral issues. He is so wonderfully attentive and engaged on the ground and was not behaving this way in the fall/winter.

So this week has been the Harlan Experiment.

Day 1 (Tuesday)
Hypothesis: Physical issue.
Method: Ride horse around home to establish baseline.
Results: Calm on ground, flinches when saddle pad and saddle are put in place. Very tense horse under saddle. Freaks out when scientist moves her leg. Gathers up under himself and shoots forward.

Day 2 (Wednesday)
Hypothesis:  Something with the saddle is wrong.
Method: Ride horse bareback up the road.
Results: Perfectly behaved horse, 180 degree switch from previous day. Alert and happy to walk along.

Day 3 (Thursday)
Hypothesis: Something with the cinch is wrong. Based on previous test using alternate saddle.
Method: Ride horse with saddle but no cinch up the road.
Results: Initial sensitivity to leg movement, disappears within minutes. Horse releases tension. Tentatively confirms hypothesis.
Note: Scientist did not think through dismounting without a cinch; scientist tries to dismount and saddle slides off. Bonks scientist in the head (helmeted, no damage) and scares the bejeesus out of horse.

Day 4 (Saturday or Sunday, depends on the weather)
Hypothesis:  The cinch is pulling his hair.
Method: Switch from neoprene to felt/wool cinch.
Results: TBD

I've been using a knowledgeable (and patient!) friend as a sounding board for working through this, and she suggested a cause that is so simple that it might just be it: Maybe the cinch is pulling his hair.

I'm trying not to get my hopes up too much, but it could explain his behavior. When I move my leg, it moves the cinch, and could possibly pull his hair. I have a felt wool cinch that I'll switch to and give it a try. Here's hoping!

In other news...

My girls (the chickens) are a-layin' away!

Party next Saturday! It snuck up on me, so I'm discarding the theme. Just come and have a nice relaxing time.

Insider's Look: MMSAR - The Actual Search

The last 9 days have been crazy, informative, affirming, exhausting, exciting, and draining. I've gotten a much better understanding of search and rescue (SAR) work, the infrastructure in Maine, and the impact on my non-SAR life.

There is so much information I want to share that I will have to break it up into a few posts.

A 15 year old boy, Jaden Dremsa, went missing in southern Maine Thursday 5/8 and Maine Mounted Search and Rescue (MMSAR) was notified the following Sunday that the horses were requested for Monday.

The Maine Warden Service (the star of "Northwoods Law") is in charge of every land search in Maine (except for in Baxter State Park, which has 24 hours for its own rangers to search before calling in the wardens). When someone goes missing, the wardens decide what resources are needed based on a number of factors and calls out the appropriate units. The Maine Association for Search and Rescue (MASAR) is the umbrella organization and sets the training and certification standards for each member unit. (Besides us, there are 14 other units including a K-9 unit...the dog team is usually one of the first units called out.)


So the wardens can elect to search by themselves, call out only the "professional volunteers" (MASAR-certified members), or ask the public for assistance. We do not bring the horses to searches unless we are specifically requested to. The wardens conduct several hundred searches a year and they have a lot of resources, including dogs and boats, as well as access to planes and helicopters. Their success rate is phenomenal and they often don't get to the point of needing to call out anyone else. My unit typically gets called out to 6-12 times a year, the less specialized units tend to get called out a little more often.

In the search for Jaden last weekend, it was all hands on deck meaning public assistance was requested. People in the community and across the state poured into Waterboro to help with the search. We had members of MMSAR there Friday, Saturday, and Sunday doing ground searches and support work.

When the wardens asked on Sunday for the horses to be there Monday, Harlan and I had just gotten done trail riding with Melissa, an MMSAR board member and past president. Tanner is not certified yet so I knew I wouldn't be going on a mounted search, but Melissa's truck was in the shop, the current MMSAR president (who lives in the area) Sharon's trailer wouldn't accommodate Peekaboo, Melissa's abnormally long horse, and her truck wouldn't comfortably haul Melissa's trailer the 2.5 hours to the search. As I was conveniently there with the F-Bomb, I offered them its services.

Considering it was all hands on deck, Sharon and Melissa suggested that if I could, this would be a good time for me to get my feet wet with the SAR process. I thought about my work schedule on Monday and made the decision to go on the search, finding coverage and notifying work. I took Harlan home and the following morning got up at 3 am to drive back to Melissa's to pick up her, her trailer, and Peekaboo. We met Sharon and her horse Zephyr at a truck stop, moved Zephyr to Melissa's trailer, and headed south.

The F-Bomb looking official

When anyone, civilian or professional volunteer, gets to a search they check in with Dirigo. Dirigo is a unit based out of Orono that handles the resources for the wardens at many searches. Each volunteer gets a "T-card" with their name on it; established units have permanent T-cards while civilians get their names handwritten on temporarily-kept T-cards.

Generic T-cards

The T-cards allow Dirigo to make sure everyone is accounted for and they help organize the chaos.

Since we are a specialized unit, Melissa and Sharon went to the wardens' command post after checking in with Dirigo to get their assignment. (A second horse team of Ellen and Colleen had already gotten their assignment and were out on the search by the time we arrived.) They handed their GPS units to the wardens who then downloaded a track onto it, the area they needed to search. They were given instructions of where to park the trailer, said goodbye to me, and headed out.

I went back to where Dirigo was stationed, the lobby of a church that had opened its doors to the searchers. The wardens had their command post trailer parked in the parking lot. I started helping civilian volunteers check in; they signed in on a clipboard, I made a T card with their name on it and put it on the board, and they went to wait in the sanctuary for their assignments. When there were enough people, teams of ~10 were assembled, team leaders briefed (if a warden wasn't the team leader), and were sent out to search.

Even though it was a Monday, over 180 civilians showed up to help. The church opened its kitchen and had church members making breakfast, lunch, and dinner as well as making sure there was enough water and bug spray to go around.

It was incredible to see the community response. Jaden and his family weren't members of this church yet they threw open their doors to help. People who didn't know Jaden checked in and tromped through the woods and ticks on an assignment, came back to Dirigo and asked for the next assignment.

In that box are all the T cards for civilians that showed up to search for Jaden Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday.

People were constantly streaming in with armfuls of donations. It was warm out so people dropped off cases of water. The ticks were terrible so the church posted on its Facebook page that they were looking for bug spray. This is the result:

 

You can't see all of the bug spray but it was A LOT. One woman came in with some and said she had taken all of the spray that Walmart had.

I can't describe the feeling of being part of this. Although the family was there and worried sick and my heart ached for them, the amount of support, love, and determinedness to 'search til you drop' was enveloping. I felt so much affirmation that this is what I want to do, this is what I want to be a part of. I can't wait for June 27 and 28 to certify Tanner.

They didn't find Jaden on Monday. A couple of our mounted teams were ready to go on Tuesday if they were called out but the wardens decided to focus the search, using only their internal and state police resources.

I didn't get home til midnight so was a little late to work and when I got there found some discord about my Monday absence (and future absences due to searches). To go from such life-affirming, feeling-like-part-of-a-bigger-than-me-thing emotions to a mix of shame, disappointment, anger, and panic was not fun. 

Then we add in a 2 day state-wide MASAR conference this past weekend hosted by my unit and featuring me as the volunteer coordinator, and then the news that Jaden's body had been found in a nearby lake...I am exhausted in all ways.

I am so sorry for Jaden and his family, but relieved that they have an answer and grateful that I found something that fulfills a big part of something in me.

Stay tuned for a post on the conference and another on the specifics of mounted searches.

Wish Me Good Cluck

You didn't really think the population at Blonde Bomber Acres would remain stable (pun intended), did you? If you did, I lulled you into a false sense of security.

Behold the luscious new ladies of BBA:

There are four of them: 2 Americanas and 2 brown leghorns.

I've resisted getting chickens in the past but have succumbed for a number of reasons. First, there are so many empty little buildings on my property that I felt like I need to fill at least one more. Second, eggs. Third (and the real reason), they eat ticks and I'd like to keep Harlan and Tanner Lyme-free.

So, meet the crew. First up is Eulalie Mackecknie Shinn, the beautiful and fabulous leader of this flock.

Then there's this big girl, Edith.

And the last two are the Pheasant Sisters, Lottie and Dottie.

This is a chicken experiment. None of us should get very attached because they are all rasping and showing signs of respiratory disease. (Of course I would buy sick chickens.) I immediately checked in with my chicken-guru-sister and she gave me the skinny on it...apparently it is common, incurable, and needs to be treated with antibiotics. So off I went to Tractor Supply for antibiotics and syringes and when I got back I traumatized all of us by injecting stuff into their breasts (or the general vicinity of their breasts, I am not up on chicken anatomy).

I hope they survive until morning (and continue surviving). If not, Chicken Experiment 1.0 has failed and I will decide if I want to continue to Chicken Experiment 2.0.

In other news, I am on page 4 of a 10 page paper due at midnight, on the genetics of infectious disease. Why did I want to go back to school again?