But, I love my horse. Last Friday, the neigbor across the street started setting off firecrackers about 9:00pm. Jeeves and Lance go out over night, so they were out and racing around in a blind panic. I was already in my jammies, so I threw on jeans and t-shirt, stomped down the driveway and over to the neighbor's. It was actually my neighbor's son with his 4 yo son. The kid took one look at the scowl on my face and trotted off behind his father. I told the guy he was scaring the cra& out of my horses and asked him if he could hold off on the fireworks so I could catch the horses and secure them. He just mumbled that he was done. I went back across the street and into the paddock with the boys and calmed the horses down as much as I could, They were still pretty tense but at least they had stopped galloping and were eating hay.
The next day, when I went to ride, Jeeves had a cut at the top of his left front hoof--in the coronet band, or that rubbery tissue at the top. Grrrr! It's not bad, roughly nickel sized, sort of a horizontal slice along the top that created a bit of a pocket. I've been hosing it off and keeping it clean. A bit of a worry because of where it is, but I don't think it will affect the hoof growth. I hope not.
That Saturday, he was very tense riding in the ring. I can't say as I blame him. The ring runs parallel to the road right across the street from that neighbor. So, my ride that day was focused on stretching and relaxation, not much else.
Sunday, I had a lesson with Kathy. My first lesson in over a month. It was going really well, when I realized something was going on across the street...I heard some tree branches falling. As I started to look up, Kathy told me not to look, just keep riding. I looked up--the guy was up in a big old oak tree just across the street--he was a good 30 feet up with a chainsaw. As I looked he started up his chain saw. Ack! Jeeves can deal with chain saws, we certainly ride with all sorts of noisy equipment going all the time. However, it's an entirely different story to have large tree limbs falling from 30 feet up just across the street!
Fortunately, the guy started off trimming small branches, so it wasn't too bad. We were about 30 minutes into our ride, so Jeeves was well "on the aids" and listening to me, though he perked his ears when a branch dropped. Whenever we headed down the long side next to the street, he insisted on doing a 1/2 pass over to the center line as quickly as he could. Kathy just laughed and said she didn't blame him at all. We started to work on trot extensions across the diagonal just as the guy started dropping larger limbs and that gave us some extra impulsion! At that point, Kathy said that was enough, he wasn't going to tolerate much more.
I love this horse! How many horses would continue working relatively calmly under those conditions?! He's so good!
Then, that evening, I had just finished feeding dinner and the idiot started setting off fireworks again!! Argh! Have I mentioned fireworks are illegal in this state? Sigh. So, I marched off down the driveway again and when he saw me he just dropped the fireworks. I told him that if he would just let me know when he was going to set off the fireworks, I would appreciate it, then I could have the horses secured. He just mumbled that he wouldn't do it anymore.
So far, no fireworks since then, but today the guy climbed up in that tree again while I was tacking Jeeves up. He started the chain saw up just as I swung my leg over Jeeves's back. I managed 10 minutes of riding before the big limbs started coming down and Jeeves got so spooked he galloped off across the ring. Oh, well, I'll ride early tomorrow morning.
The pics are of one of my antique roses--Henri Martin. A moss rose--you can see the buds have a mossy look to them. If you rub the "moss", you'll find it has a balsam scent. I have a "thing" for old garden roses. I don't use chemicals and don't pamper my plants. The old garden roses are perfect for that--nothing bothers them. They have fragrance to die for, the modern roses just can't compare. With the boys going out at night, I haven't been taking pics of them, so the garden pics will have to substitute for them.
3 comments:
Oh dear. :/ We have had some neighbor issues too, although the ATV rider ones have moved, finally, and thank goodness. I tried to talk to them a number of times w/o success and finally got the sheriff involved. There was a rather heated discussion after that, in which I realized the father was basically a liar who had no insight into his own behavior, much less how it impacted his neighbors. It was such a relief when the for sale sign went up, but the biggest relief when they actually moved out.
We have other good neighbors who often don't seem to understand basic "rules" about horses - they have grandchildren and friends with young children who come to the fence line on that side and stick their hands/arms through, toss sticks, etc. I have asked them to stop, but finally I had to tell the neighbors that our horses are not entertainment for their guests, and that I don't want anyone near the fence line, ever.
Same with fireworks - they usually do them on July 4th and New Year's Eve - and now we actually call all the neighbors the day before each of these holidays to ask if they plan to use fireworks "so we can make plans to keep our horses calm."
That has helped over the years to alert them. I always take chairs out and sit with the horses, and to watch for stray fireworks - one year one came into our back field and my husband took it to the neighbors to give it back to them - that had a big impact on where they now do the fireworks.
Our closest neighbor calls us about half the time to let us know when they plan to do work that might upset the horses. Fortunately with one of us here pretty much 24/7 all the time, it's easy enough to move them if something is being done that might get them running.
At this point we are the only ones in the main part of the little neighborhood with horses - one other farm is at the end of our lane and far back from the road, and they are very reclusive - I'm hoping with two properties for sale here, one an already-established horse property, and the other with easy horse property conversion potential, we will get more horse neighbors who will be able to add to the "voice for the animals."
Jeeves is a total gem to be so good for you. I hope this chainsaw thing isn't a way to try and annoy you - but the good news is that if they keep doing it, Jeeves will soon get used to it and you'll be able to ride through the trimming!
Those roses are gorgeous - I love the old ones too.
Jeeves is an angel, let's hope the jerk stops this nonsense or at least lets you know when he's going to do something stupid around the horses.
I love your roses and like the antique ones too.
We have lots of idiots around here too. Last night they were shooting off ash cans across the street interspersed with fireworks. Luckily the horses were all in for the night. We do have Mr. Ride 'em EVERY single night on the lawn tractor on about 1 acre of land next to our riding arena. I don't know what the hell he's cutting over there, I think he's probably got a bottle stashed in the lawnmower. Or just wants to get out of the house. Then there's the ATV'ers across the street too. At least the horses are used to lots of noise now.
Hope his foot heals quickly. Good luck with the neighbor, it's so hard to try and explain to non-horsey people that horses are sort of spooky about certain things.
I hate your neighbors too. You shouldn't have had to even speak to him twice. We've got yet another neighbor doing some major construction this weekend. I can hear the crashing from inside my house each time a truck dumps its load. I grew up in a neighborhood where no one made noise. All you could hear was the birds chirping. Now all I hear is construction noises. Fortunately, he picked a weekend when I couldn't ride anyway due to 100-degree heat, unwanted guests, and having to work over the weekend.
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