The Golden Carrot Newsletter's Archive
The Golden Carrot
July 4, 2005 Newsletter
SUCCESS!
I am proud to announce that I am now an Equine Massage Therapist! I have completed the 100 hour course offered by Northwest School of Animal Massage, and am ready to work. I have spent the few days I’ve been back getting a flyer put together with the assistance of Nancy Bradshaw (my web site builder) and at least partially distributed. I’ve also spoken with my vet, Dr. Fred Zadick, about my service. Please keep your fingers crossed and send positive thoughts my way - this could make all the difference for TGC horses, when donations are low. Not to mention, help me pay off the expenses of the course and the trip to Oregon for the practical.
Mike did a great job while I was away - and my favorite part is that now he has some respect for what I’m doing here. He couldn’t stop complaining, starting at about day two, about “how much there was to do!” But he kept everyone fed, including my dogs and cats and birds and goats, and despite a couple of cases of colic which greeted my return (these were probably due to his refusal to read the directions I left him, so he only salted the feed once, the day after I left. Thus, some horses, such as Lucifer and Debbie, didn’t drink enough, and in the heat became a little dehydrated and developed blockages), I think Mike is owed a round of applause and appreciation for his efforts.
Oregon was beautiful - and I’m filled with ambition to move there. The place looked like horse-heaven to me - and I’m told if you’re inland a little, there’s not quite so much rain. As a born and raised Southern California girl, I am intimidated by the idea of 10 months without sun! Grass pastures everywhere, trees growing gorgeous and prolific as weeds and get this - they won’t allow you to pump your own gas! How wonderful is that?
Class was exciting with very impressive instructors - ladies whose experience and expertise was only matched by their impressive people skills. They ran a classroom of diverse people - with different backgrounds and experience both with massage and with animals, and I don’t believe anyone felt ignored or neglected. They relayed tons of information in a stress free setting, and showed patience and kindness without allowing the class to lose direction - driving a difficult team with elan. I would recommend this school to anyone interested in either large or small animal massage.
I met some wonderful people in that class too and have remained in e-mail contact with them. If it wasn’t for missing my horses and other critters so badly, I’d have had one terrific time. But I’m back now, and looking for work -
Came home to find Lucifer colicking - Dr. Zadick pulled him through despite his ornery-ness. Lucifer’s strength, his determination to survive which pulled him and Jack through the horrors of starvation and neglect, is also his weakness. Luc will decide that ANYTHING that hurts or annoys him is something to be avoided. Unfortunately for him, when a horse colics, he has to get a thermometer up his butt, a hose up his nose, and endure injections. The humiliation alone is enough to send this guy into orbit, so we had to accomplish a lot of this torture by twitching him. Now, twitching looks worse than it really is - but a horse like Lucifer will only submit to the twitch and stand still for the treatments with a very ill will. He’s still made a serious effort to kick Dr. Zadick, and is still mad at me, 4 healthy days later. Fine - he’s still here to be mad and that’s all I wanted. The day after I was sure he was OK, Mary showed signs of colic too. But hers was much less severe, and with a drink of ginger and baking soda and some massage, she’s fine after just a couple hours of discomfort.
I also got the farriers out just after I returned and we found a huge abscess in Sara’s left fore, not a surprise as she’d been limping horribly. So for a couple of nights, as her foot soaked in mineral salts to hasten healing, she enjoyed a massage as well. You’d have laughed at her amazement the first night - she even took her head out of her feed bin to look back at me when I worked on the hip diagonal to her injured foot. She might as well have said ‘that’s it - right THERE’.
Other than that, everyone seems well and I am happy to be back.
The Golden Carrot will roll on, with your continued support. I don’t really know how long it will take me to develop a client base in the equine massage field, and hope to continue my off-site legal-secretarial work. It will take me a couple of years of decent earnings, as well as your continued support for the horses, to pay off the credit card debt I’ve built up over the years, covering the horses when donations drop. But hopefully, the end of the tunnel is in sight, and TGC can continue to do good. Please don’t forget the horses - they still need you so much.
Happy Fourth of July, and happy summer of 2005 to all of you!