The last few weeks have been unbelievably hectic, which will be evident as I take you on a trip through the highs and lows of some of the events of this period.
Thursday: Hoof trimming in the afternoon. Andrew has decided he would like to trim Anaiis himself while in Europe, so Megan has taken on the task of teaching him. Today is the second time, and already this trim needs less help from her. Now if only I could convince Anaiis to be patient and give Andrew the chance to learn…. I feel patience and not being pushy are going to big lessons for her at Klaus.
Dubu relaxing
Friday: prepare Dubu with homeopathic remedies for his rabies vaccination this afternoon. With dread I drive the 40 minutes to the vet clinic. By now I have heard and read so much about possible side effects after a rabies shot that I am willing to try anything to convince the vet Dubu really does not need the needle but only the paper work. I raise the subject innocently first, then vehemently recount my experiences of vaccinations gone wrong. Dogs most effected almost always seem to be of the small and white variety – yes, just like Dubu. Why can’t they give a smaller quantity of vaccine rather than treat him like a Great Dane? As expected, the vet argues in favour of vaccinations, has never had any problems with any of the dogs treated, and my bribery banknotes never leave my pocket. Dubu is first given his microchip, then his rabies shot and does not even produce a sound. At home, he runs around with a zest for life, begs for food and happily munches away on a raw bone twice his size.
Saturday: the second garage sale. We begin to realize how small Bellingen is, that these kinds of sales are not the best way to get rid of quality furniture, and on top of that, due to lack of sleep and too many things to organise, I forgot to place the ad in the Coffs Harbour paper…. It also rains the entire morning….
Tuesday: following a 4:30 am start I fly to Melbourne to sort out agistment for Anaiis. I rent a car at the airport, where, not used to driving in cities anymore, I promptly get lost, and arrive at my first appointment hours too late. Consequently I miss two other appointments later in the day, and try my best to remain calm and patient while sitting in congested afternoon traffic.
Wednesday: a visit to the last agistment centre on my list, a quick look around the surrounding villages and back to the airport to catch my plane. Two horse centres are definite possibilities; the choice will depend on where we can find temporary accommodation for ourselves and the dog.
Friday, Saturday and Sunday: Body Awareness with Jo Ross. This time we have 10 participants, including Andrew and myself. Andrew has put together an amazing programme to practice horse characterizations and Jo proves once again she has what it takes to teach. While we do our stretching, bending and breathing exercises, I realize how lucky we are to know these wonderful people. The atmosphere is like a miniature Compact Schooling, full of life, laughter and energy. Thank you Jo, Ross, Kate, Marliese, Lisa, Heather, Peggy, Arvai, Sheryl and Andrew!
Tuesday: a meeting with a lovely woman and her husband who are going to petsit Dubu while Andrew and I will visit the geldings in their new home in Queensland next weekend.
Wednesday: another needle day, this time for the horses. Combined tetanus/strangles vaccination is required by the agistment centres and to avoid unnecessary re-vaccination in the Netherlands for Anaiis, I have asked a vet to do it. I start Dubu’s homeopathic treatment for suspected Cushings Disease. Hopefully it will diminish his water intake and consequently his frequent trips to the garden. It won’t give him back the hair he is losing. He is beginning to resemble a Chinese crested naked dog….
Friday: a final trim for the horses and Andrew has again improved his trimming skills so much. Anaiis is a gem this time.
Meanwhile, our house resembles a drop-in with many people wanting to look at and buy the items we have for sale. Anaiis realizes our electric fencing has sold, and worms her way out of the tape yards we had erected for feeding purposes. After three times lucky we decide to start feeding in the stables again. More work, but necessary if she is to fit her sizable belly into the truck on Monday!
Sunday: big preparation day for Anaiis’ departure for Melbourne tomorrow. I wash all her rugs, put homeopathic remedies together to help with stress and possibly colic, and then wash her as well. She loves it, it has been very hot and humid in the past week, and she happily plays with the water.
Monday: we get a phone call from the transport company – Anaiis will now be picked up on Tuesday morning. Wonderful, as this gives me a chance to spend quality time with the three horses. My favourite time to do this is at night! So I venture out into a moon-lit night, seek the horses and we stand, chat (me), listen (they) and just hang out. It could not have been better.
Anaiis: Vicki fell asleep with this pic in her hand the night Anaiis left.
Tuesday: 7 am and we walk Anaiis out of the paddock onto the driveway to the road where the transport truck is waiting. She is very calm in the beginning, but curious and walks without any problems to the road. She starts to panic a little when the driver takes over and asks her to go up the ramp. It takes quite a bit of persuasion, and once inside, she calls out and calls out…. She is the only horse on the truck. The other passengers are being picked up at the showground.
She will have a huge journey ahead of her (1000 kilometres!) and I hope I have done everything I can to help her as much as possible. Our attention now turns to the geldings to help them cope with this separation. We suspected Gulliver will be very upset but he is very calm indeed. It is Farinelli who gallops frantically around, screaming. How well do we know our horses? This we had not expected at all, as Anaiis treated him quite roughly and he was always the ‘underdog’….
Wednesday: the pressure gets too much in the afternoon as we have not heard anything from the transport company or the agistment centre in Melbourne yet. After shopping, we head for the pub, pondering on the whereabouts and wellbeing of our mare. Then, the much wanted phone call. She is fine, travelled like a dream and came of the truck without a scratch! The stud manager reassures me that Anaiis is already checking out her new paddock, her neighbours, and of course her food! The first hurdle has been jumped…!
Lieve Vick, ik vergat zoeven op Submit te drukken. Dus schrijf weer in geval het niet is weggegaan. Ik zei, je bent geweldig, schrijft boeiend, bent moedig en hebt een energy, daar zeg je U tegen. Hoop dat alles goed blijft gaan en hopelijk tot ziens in Amsterdam. We vertrekken 1 april. Veel lieve groeten ook aan Andrew, XX NORA en THEO
You must be exhausted!
Love
Wim
Dear Vicky…I hope you will find heaps of moments feeling proud about yourself….both of you….after all this is the first leg of your quest……maybe I am wrong…if so please tell me…..
And I can imagine there will be equally heaps of moments feeling proud about the courage of your animals….the mare going on a life changing trip……the geldings having a life changing experience but still in a position of finding support in eachother’s company….and above all amazing DUBU travelling to the other end of the world so you, Andrew and he can, will and shall continue enjoying eachothers company…..finding strength and perseverance in this transition to another frequency……
I got quite emotional reading the letterpress under Anaiis picture…..wow Vicky, I have the feeling that the mare knows and trusts that you will be there all the way…though not physically she feels your presence and you making sure that no harm will come her way….
Although she seems a wise ‘old’ mare she still has to deal with the ‘material/physical’ circumstances….it can very well have upset her emotionally a bit and it might have given her a feeling of having lost her ‘grounding’…..are you familiar with Linda Tellington Jones’ TTouch move the PYTHON LIFT?? If you are and it gives you a good ‘feel’ you could support her by PYTHON LIFT-ing her four legs…when having ‘lifted’ a leg you conclude the move by ‘screwing’ her foot…or rather the energy of her foot…..into Mother Earth….
The way you do that is as follows: put the palm of your hand against the ‘kroonrand’ with your fingers pointing down to the ground sort of covering the hoof….you make a kind of turning move along the ‘kroonrand’ in the same direction as the hands of a clock……so the right feet are ‘screwed’ into and re-connected with Mother Earth from the inside to the outside ….the left feet from the outside to the inside……you usually do this 7 times…
Not being physically present this can of course be done by visualising…
Or even by thinking….after all
Bless you all!! Geerteke
Dear Geerteke
Thank you for the TT moves; we have had a variety of body work done on our horses including physio, Bowen, and Equiine Touch. As I only remember some of those moves, my version is a ‘guess and what feels good’ of these… Anaiis loves being touched and Andrew and I are only too happy we are allowed to be with her a few times a week to oblige….
She has ‘grown’ tremendously these past few months; at 10 years of age we still regarded her as a very young at heart, at times boisterous girl. However, she now seems to have an air of calmness and wisdom about her, a sense of knowing. Yes, I feel immensely proud of her!
hai lieve mensen net thuis na 2 maanden opgehaald door jacq direct door naar stal want paarden moesten naar binnen half 4 hoogste tijd heerlijk om chet weer te zien maar realiseerde me dat ze er top uit zag ook zonder mij na 2 maanden met andere woorden als anais net zo sterk is qua karakter als chet en ik denk dat ze aardig op elkaar lijken gaat jullie mooie dame het helemaal redden zolang ze altijd op zoek zijn naar eten en aandacht zitten ze zoooo goed in hun velletje desalniettemin moet het vreselijk zwaar zijn geweest om haar in die vrachtwagen weg hebben zien gaan en arme far helemaal in paniek te zien bel snel hou je taai liefs aat
Dear Vicky and Andrew,
I just checked out your blog (have not received any postings by email? maybe something is wrong?)- glad everything so far has gone fine.
I wanted to let you know that both our horses arrived here in Switzerland last saturday from the USA. Hooray! They both did fine, were a bit unsettled in the beginning, but are now already so much calmer and used to her new place. They certainly recognized us and I hope they are content now to be in our company again- we certainly are to have them close again! Lara (my 13 year old daughter) rode her mare Spike again today and was very happy.
Perhaps this can give you both some reassurance that Anaiis travel will go well also…
Greetings from Switzerland in its beautiful spring time
Susanne
Dear Susanne
Wonderful news about your horses! Now that we have seen our mare in quarantaine, and witnessed the care she is being given by the manager, we feel much more reassured travel will go well. She will be travelling next to the mare that is currently opposite her paddock; the manager really thinks of everything, such as which horse should be loaded first, whether it should have an aisle ‘seat’ or stand in the middle and so forth.
We look forward to spring in the Netherlands; Melbourne weather has been a bit of a shock to my system…