Morning Surprise; Snow Fun

 

Everything's putzing along smoothly, and we're loving it.   

How many can make that claim for maybe more than an hour on any given day?

Seems, with each new day,  even following the usual routines, we meet unexpected obstacles, upsetting our figurative apple carts.  

How we react to these surprises can often make all the difference. 

I encountered one such event this morning, the second I began to slide the barn door open with one hand while holding Bridie's leash in the other. 

As the sliding began, a big crash sounded off near the door.

"What was that?" I said out loud, wondering what could have made that much noise immediately inside the barn. 

So, I reached in, turned on the light and, while opening the door even further, I saw the cause of the crash. 

Lily was standing in the aisle next to CB's stall with a frenzied look in her eye. 

Apparently, while snapping the chain around her gate last night, I had missed the hole, leaving the snap loose. 

Sometime during the night, Lily discovered this opportunity. 

From the looks of the manure piles in her stall, I guessed that she hadn't been loose too long, but she had helped herself to some grain. 

All that said, we had a problem.  

I had a puppy in one hand, and a horse wanting to come my way to leave the barn. 

After the initial shock of this scene, my sense for remaining calm set in.  

Slowly and carefully, I convinced Lily to back up from her position in the aisle----far enough so that I could open the gate to the little alcove in the hay stack where Bridie stays each morning while I do my chores. 

Lily had backed enough that it looked as if I could coax her further to her stall gate. 

That strategy worked for a while, but Lily is a big horse, and she would have to turn her front end in the somewhat narrow aisle to go back into her stall. 

All was going reasonably well until Lily decided to turn her front end to the right, toward the hay stack rather than toward her stall gate. 

I wish I had had a camera for the next segment of this early morning predicament. 

Lily began to climb into the hay stack, eventually reaching a 45-degree angle facing the next level of hay bales and looking like she intended to scale the stack. 

Well, she needed some time to think, as did I. During this period, Sunny, the cat, had found a perch on a bale of hay nose level to Lily. 

The two nosed each other as I continued to calmly talk to Lily in hopes of encouraging her to step down. 

By golly, she did.  That relieved me.  Next, I tried to get her body turned around enough to point her back into the stall. 

Lily is a big horse with a long body. The head and neck had very little room to maneuver around a post by the gate. 

So, I said out loud, "We'll just go to the pasture." So, we did.  A few minutes later, all three horses stood quietly eating their breakfast in pasture shelter. 

Situation solved, thanks to years of living around horses and knowing the crazy predicaments they can find. 

As I began cleaning stalls, I realized that the other two horses must have experienced some chaos, knowing that their friend was out of her stall. 

No horse apples to scoop up, just a bunch of manure mash--which they must have trampled in their respective states of curious anxiety--scattered about the mats.  

We all got through this situation unscathed, with Bridie safely watching the action from her alcove, Lily safe in the pasture and the other horses safely behind their stall gates. 

With any situation like this, we usually come away wiser for future endeavors.  Yes, I will double check that snap tonight and every night from now on when I put Lily in her stall. 

I'll probably also purchase a second chain to put around my usually very trustworthy old gal's stall gate. 

The others have those, but since Lily's gate opens toward her stall and not the aisle, I've never worried about her escaping.  Horses usually find a way. 

This situation reminded me a little of the unexpected we all watched last night as Gonzaga lost to Alabama in the Battle of Seattle.

For the past few years, things have putzed along toward some consistently high levels for our ZAGS, usually winning, seldom losing. 

Well, let's just say the past three games have brought on the unexpected with two losses and one really ugly win. 

I can't help but think that even though we ZAGS fans feel the disappointment, we need to remain calm and realize that these are young men and they're still learning the ropes of teamwork. Plus, as they've continued to improve, so have other teams. 

I learned well into my teaching career that often it was the mistakes and how we react to them that makes all the difference.  

Low points in our lives can often lead us toward some of our greatest and memorable achievements. 

If everything is putzing along smoothly all the time, we humans can get complacent and, yes, careless.   

When we hear the unexpected crashes behind the barn door, for example, we are shaken into the reality that maybe we need to take more time and care with those tasks where we consider as "automatic pilot." 

Like everyone associated with the ZAGS from players to staff to fans, the outcome last night's game was difficult to digest cuz we've all been spoiled by their consistent success. 

They'll be back, and I have a feeling they'll be back better than ever after they've had a chance to calm down and assess how they're going to resolve their situation. 

In the meantime, you can bet that stall gates here at the Lovestead will like Santa's list, and I'll be checking them twice . . . . just like I do these days as an oldster when I get out of my car at a parking lot and check those pockets two or three times to make sure I've got my car keys. 

We're always learning, and, mistakes help that happen. 

On another topic, the snow yesterday was plentiful and fairly easy for cleanup.  Plus, it created some beauty and some great fun watching doggies play. 

Happy Sunday. 

GO, ZAGS!!!  It will get better again.