A Life Well Lived
CNN did a story today “15 Reasons Mr. Rogers was the Best Neighbor Ever” http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/wayoflife/07/28/mf.mrrogers.neighbor/index.html
It’s not just a charming article, it’s the story of a gentle man who loved children, family, music and people. He stood up quietly but fiercely for what he believed in and he practiced what he preached. What may have seemed like meekness was supplanted by his unwavering “Walking the Line.”
Ladies and Gentlemen – here’s the good news you have been waiting for: The antidote to Charlie Sheen.
Now, for some much-needed sunshine.
j
Joy
There’s an old Spanish saying that states; “When I am on my horse, only God is taller than I.”
I thought about the saying on my rainy drive home tonight. It’s one of those things that sinks through in layers.
Yesterday, before the rain and after a busy day of teaching, I managed to take one of our project horses out for a training ride. I had my trusty cadre of teenage girls saddle up as well. The jumps were up in the arena and we set out with a plan to tackle the course.
I should add that it’s been a heck of a month. Short days and bad weather and a nasty cold that keeps kids in bed for over a week have wreaked havoc on our lesson income. There are two major fundraisers looming and hundreds of hours of work to be done with volunteers counting on me to deliver information and projects to them correctly and on time. There’s 16 horses needing care and new and eager volunteers to train. I feel like I’m pulled in many, many directions and I’m still letting people down – this is a feeling not conducive to restful sleep by the way.
But for just that 45 minutes after the last lesson was over and before evening chores needed to get started and hatches battened down for yet another rain storm, I got to ride.
Within minutes, the sagging budget is forgotten, the backlog of bills and phone messages from parents canceling yet another lesson are locked in my office. At least for now. As this young horse and I start to warm up, I can feel that he’s keen to play and rather than force him into some kind of a working frame, I’m game to play with him. In no time I’m squealing with delight. Our young and famously independent OTTB Stanley is taking me to the base of the jump and then leaping not just gracefully but happily over small fences. By the end we are both misted with sweat and I’m draped over his shapely shoulders hugging and patting him.
My “A” team is in the ring with me. Two teens with lovely seats and hands are also riding and sharing in the excitement of a young horse learning and enjoying a new skill. These girls have left behind their teenage lives with college applications, scary doctor appointments, grades, boys and family issues and for this moment we are living and breathing that which is the best of what life can offer.
That old Spaniard, whoever he was, said a mouthful when he said “When I am on my horse, only God is taller than I.“
Square Peg Celebrity Bartender Event March 31 from 5 to 9pm – It’s Italia Restaurant
Half Moon Bay, CA 94019
650-726-4444
Celebrity Bartender Night
Thursday March 31 FROM 5-9 PM
Featuring your “celebrity” bartender – Joell Dunlap
Executive Director and co-Founder, Square Peg Foundation
Supporting
The Square Peg Foundation
“Where we turn “I wish” into “I can.“
…Changing the world, one horse, and one child at a time.
Featuring the “Square Peg Julip” a special preview of
Square Peg’s upcoming “Run for the Roses” Gala April 28!
Come in for an evening of fun and community support!
Learn more about the Square Peg Foundation!
We LOVE hearing from former students!
If I Donate to Square Peg, where does the money go?
It’s a perfectly legitimate question.
It’s December and so you are probably getting bombarded with requests for support from some very worthy causes. When making decisions on who to support, we think that it’s only fair that you know where your money is going.
Guide Star does the best job of publishing information about non profits. You can see Federal tax returns and financial statements for Square Peg Foundation here.
What does a donation to Square Peg accomplish?
- $10 buys a bag of cat food for our FIV+ barn cats
- $25 buys a bag of specialty feed for one of our elderly horses
- $55 sponsors a student for one group lesson
- $75 sponsors a special needs student for a private session
- $125 feeds all the animals at Square Peg for two days
- $160 pays our facility rent for one day
- $500 pays for semi-annual vaccination boosters for the herd
- $1,000 cares for an Off Track Thoroughbred Racehorse for one month including board, feed, shoeing and training
- $3,500 buys 11 tons of feed
- $4,850 pays our lease for a month
- $7,000 provides bedding for the horses’ stalls for one full year
- $7,500 builds the new pasture including fencing and shelters
- $18,000 builds our covered arena, including lights
- $25,000 kickstarts our program to provide job and leadership training skills for young adults on the autism spectrum
So many have been so generous to Square Peg Ranch. This past year has seen our biggest growth yet in in-kind donations. The Lazarow, Anson-Hayes and Freiberger-Loveland families all jumpstarted our pilot job training program. JRD Custom Saddles sent us beautiful tack, Dr. Ashton Cloninger again helped us through all the hard times with our horses. Giant Steps Foundation, HEW Foundation, the Coxe Family, the Bielagus Family and the Finch Family all made our move to our dream location possible.
So many others to thank and so much to do.
We have some ways that you can help Square Pegs todayDonate through PayPal
Check out Square Peg Foundation – where Everyone Fits – The “Challenge Yourself” Campaign for 2011
I want you to take a look at: Square Peg Foundation – where Everyone Fits – The “Challenge Yourself” Campaign for 2011
Inspired
So rescuing horses, running a barn, teaching lessons and fundraising are all time-consuming and hard work. But wearing these hats also has some perks. Last night was one of those amazing perks.
We were invited by a dear friend to attend the Celebrity Speaker Series at DeAnza College. The speaker for the evening was Greg Mortenson, author of Three Cups of Tea and Stones to Schools. He co-founder and Executive Director of nonprofit Central Asia Institute www.ikat.org
Greg is not a polished speaker. He’s gone on record time and again to make it clear that he’s not comfortable drawing attention to himself. But his intelligence and his sincerity come through so clearly and you find yourself loving him even more for his nervous tone and fidgeting.
If you are one of the few people in America that have yet to read Three Cups of Tea, just do it. Even if you have no interest in education, in the complicated social structure and landscape of Afghanistan and Pakistan. If you don’t care at all about why it’s important to empower communities and to focus on educating girls in order to create lasting change, it’s still a great adventure story.
But the title of this blog post is “Inspired” so let me cut to the chase and tell you what got my creative juices flowing on this cold and drizzly November day:
First, Greg’s organization is not about rolling into a community and building a school. The communities must MATCH the funds donated with land grants, labor and resources. That means that the community is EMPOWERED to educate their children. What an idea! As opposed to marching into a town and telling them what democracy is going to do for them. It’s simple human nature to value what you have put some equity into.
Maybe it’s a giant leap to take, but I feel the same way about our move to our new facility and why we just don’t hire a stall cleaner. When the families of students help us to build and fix and organize and paint and develop our barns and when the kids themselves help us to clean and feed the horses, they become invested in the health of the animals and in the health of the organization. The lessons we teach when we all rush around digging trenches before a rainstorm are more lasting when the students and their families are doing real and doing necessary work as a community.
There were a ton of quotable moments in his talk. One stood out in particular
“We need to live in hope. We cannot live in fear. Fighting terrorism is based on fear, promoting peace is based in hope. And the real enemy we face is ignorance.”
Okay, so maybe in America, the term “hope” has been kicked around a bit. But think of the hope that Mr. Mortenson speaks of when he talks about “promoting peace, one heart and mind at a time.” Now that’s a recipe for change!
Again, the giant leap of the work we do at Square Pegs. The clear reality is that our organization cannot house all of the injured racehorses and unwanted saddle horses that come banging on our door. But if we can teach the next generation to value each life as sacred, to teach them to care and take responsibility and to acknowledge that each of us has aspects that make us different, but that is what makes us special. Maybe then we are creating lasting change.
Education is power. Ignorance is the real enemy we face. Thank you Greg Mortenson; I am truly inspired.
Horse (People) Heaven
The National Thoroughbred Racing Association sent me an email last month about an educational seminar event at Keeneland Race Course in Lexington Kentucky. The line up of speakers and the topics sounded really interesting. I played with the idea of going and even shared the forum agenda our vet.
Our vet pointed out that some of the speakers on the agenda were some of the brightest minds in their fields. We both mused about how nice it would be to go and be with people who are really smart and really engaged in making life better for equine athletes. Both of us knew how hard it is to go away from our horses, our clients and all the work that needs doing after leaving town for a few days. Not to mention the expense. It seemed a self-indulgent notion.
But then I got thinking. I knew that several funders of Thoroughbred related charities would be in attendance and I knew that a couple of days away from the ranch is where I do my best thinking and organizing of efforts, priorities and energies. In the meantime, I shot a text message out to Colleen Hartford, who I knew was running at least one and possibly two horses in the Breeder’s Cup races at Churchill Downs on Oct. 31 and November 1.
“I’m at Keeneland with both horses running in stakes this weekend. You would love it here. It’s beautiful.”
Co-incidence? I dunno. So I called her and asked if I could share her hotel room and get a ride from the airport.
“The airport is literally across the street from the track and of course you can stay with me. Get your butt out here!”
The seminar would cost Square Pegs just the cost of the plane ticket and a couple of cheap meals. It was an opportunity I couldn’t miss.
I flew in barely making my connection in Minneapolis to find the Blue Grass Airport freshly decorated for the World Equestrian Games that ended the week before. Everything, and I do mean everything was about horses. Sculpture, the pictures on the walls, the patterns on the employees ties, the ads – I mean everything was horse-related. I walked outside, eager to touch my boots on the legendary Blue Grass that I’d only heard of and never seen.
The sun was beginning to set and my feet just kept moving. I dragged my little suitcase down the road (where are the sidewalks in this town?) to take in the miles of perfect four-board fencing that surround Keeneland Race Course and her next door neighbor, Calumet Farm. Really, THE Calumet Farm. I felt like I was in a dream. Miles of rolling grass hills dotted with silky broodmares and immaculate barns. I kept walking up Gate 1 of Keeneland and was offered rides twice by passers-by who crooned in sweet Southern drawl “You want a ride ma’am?”
“No thanks, I’m just walking and then meeting someone.” I continued to drag my little suitcase down the streets breathing the air that has fueled the lungs of so many running champions. Colleen found me walking on the street and picked me up laughing and pointing out that there were no other pedestrians in sight. We drove to the stake barn and I greeted both Sweet August Moon and California Flag with carrots and pats. Both horses looked happy and strong.
For dinner, we found a sports bar and asked our server if we could tune the TV to the baseball playoff game. Colleen pointed out that we were in a sports oriented college town that was a lot closer to Philadelphia than to San Francisco. True to form, especially after imbibing in the local bourbon, I couldn’t contain my enthusiasm. Luckily, I received indulgent smiles from the locals. Thank goodness for Southern gentility.
Ahem.
The following day had me up before the dawn to watch both horses work on the main track. Again the locals were friendly and the exercise riders were first class. There’s a dignity to racing there that is something I’ve never experienced in California and it felt good to be a part of it. I got so carried away watching the horses track that I ran out of time to change clothes for the seminar. I didn’t figure it was any big deal. Clean jeans and a sweater is about as dressed up as a bunch of horsemen would be expected to be – right? Not in Kentucky it seems. Tweed jackets and ties for the fellas and matched sweater sets and pearls for the gals – some things never go out of fashion I guess. I stuck out like a grubby northern California thumb.The Keeneland Sales Pavillion, was as lovely as I had expected from seeing photos and videos of the famous sales. I could see how multi million dollar babies had been purchased on that stage. A nice man escorted me to a clubhouse room set up for the seminar portion I’d signed up for, the “aftercare” session. I settled myself (and my dirty boots) in the back of the packed room.
The morning speakers, primarily veterinarians, discussed various aspects of health care for rescued and retired race horses. My note taking pen, normally a very quiet instrument in my hand, was flying across the notebook. Mid note taking flurry, I looked up to see an old friend walk into the room. Mike Ziegler and I started out in racing in parallel jobs. He was the special events manager for Bay Meadows while I held the same position at Golden Gate Fields. Mike is now the Executive Director of the Safety and Integrity Alliance for the NTRA and I muck stalls and teach kids. We hugged and promised to check in with each other later. I think we both spent some time musing at the fact that, almost 20 years later, we meet in Kentucky, he wearing a lovely suit and me, still tracking dirt across clean floors. Ah life!
Back to the seminar. I learned that:
- The best way to put weight on underweight horses is pretty simple; alfalfa hay and corn oil. This is significant coming from one of the head vets at Purina Mills. I leaned that you need to know the DE (digestible energy) per Mcal/lb of your feed.
- Strangles can live in a water bucket for 30 days! And that dipping the end of the hose into the infected water bucket and then into another water bucket can effectively spread the disease via the hose nozzle. Who knew? If you want to prevent infectious disease at your farm or event – do not allow common water tub sources! The speaker was the vet that managed the infectious disease aspect of the World Equestrian Games. I’m so curious how that worked out in the endurance phase. Does anyone know?
- If you tell someone from Kentucky that you pay $18 per bale for decent hay, they will (quite politely) choke on their sandwich. I didn’t learn what they paid for a bale of hay as most of them have enough acreage that they grown their own special blend that their grandfather developed.
- West Nile Virus is here to stay. Vaccinate for it.
- “Operation Gelding” hosted by the Unwanted Horse Coalition and funded by the AAEP will donate $50 per horse towards the costs of hosting a “gelding clinic” in your area. It’s not currently opened up for funding to individuals, you need to host a clinic.
- Some rescues are branding their horses and notifying the local auctions to get in touch with them if any horses of their brand show up at auction.
- All rescues should have a database on their website so that ANYONE can look up a horse by his registered name and tattoo number in the case that the horse ends up at an auction or racing or at a breeding farm – if your organization has a published “no breeding” clause (we do).
And so much more. Stuff that will make us a better organization, better equipped to help horses more effectively and to set an example for other organizations that will keep our horses safer and healthier. The experience was rejuvenating.
That evening, Colleen thought it would be cute to see the movie Secretariat while we were both in Lexington, the great horse’s birthplace. With the magic (not) of the iPhone maps, we got a grand tour of some Lexington neighborhoods while looking for the movie theater. The brick houses are adorable and the lawns and hedges are beautifully maintained. We finally found that the movie theater was only half a mile from our hotel. Oh well, the tour of Lexington was not only cute, but typical of the kind of wild goose chases that Colleen and I have been on in the 20 years of our friendship. We laughed a lot.
My last day in Lexington we spent traipsing out to the Kentucky Horse Park. We just wanted to see what it was all about. Of course, the Games had just ended and the flurry of activity was in putting away all the temporary barns and grandstands and signs erected specifically for the games. Nobody could direct us and so we found ourselves driving down private drives (very pretty) and wandering into barns. In one small barn we found some staff shoeing an older foundered horse. We stepped out of the shoer’s way to find ourselves bumping up against a stall gate containing a brown horse. That brown horse was the legendary Cigar. We asked the staff if we might just “hang out with him for a bit” and they said we could. He is lovely and healthy and curious. We tried to take pictures but his stall gate made the photos look strange and didn’t do tribute to the amazing champion that lived behind it. I’ve met some celebrities in my life and I’m always just a bit disappointed when and icon takes a real human shape. Not so with Cigar, his presence was awesome.
A long plane ride home with delays for weather along the way gave me lots of time to digest the experience and to think about how I might apply my new understandings to a better quality of life for our horses. When the band strikes up that first Saturday in May under the twin spires of Churchill Downs with “My Old Kentucky Home” I’ll know just a bit more of what that means to so many.
Confronting Animal Abuse
Forgive me while I self-indulge in using this blog as a way to write myself through a conundrum.
This morning, my husband was driving me to the barn. We were engrossed in listening to a sci fi story we had been following for a couple of weeks. Across the highway, some movement caught my eye, I turned and saw a young man brutally beating a dog on a leash. I begged my husband to turn around (asking him to make a U turn on hwy 1) he saw the look on my face and asked what was happening even as he had started the illegal turn.
“That guy is punching and kicking a dog.” I said.
“I saw him out of the corner of my eye and I thought he was digging a hole.” He answered as he accelerated toward the scene of the crime.
“That’s how hard he was hitting that poor dog.”
We pulled up as the guy, a fellow in his early 20’s, white, with a hip haircut, was shaking an older pit bull and demanding that the dog “look at him.” I rolled down my window, with my hand on the door and told him that he needed to stop beating the dog. I was upset and loud (imagine that)
.
“Lady, you need to mind your own business. This dog just tried to kill a cat.”
“Dude, you have no right to beat any dog like that.”
“Look lady, just go your own way and call who ever you need to call, allright?.”
“Oh, you can bet that I will. I’m going to call and you know it.”
“Whatever.”
We pulled away and I called the local police. It seemed like it took forever and I was shaking like a leaf. The dispatcher had me describe the situation, asked if there were any weapons, told me clearly not to approach the suspect and that he was sending an officer out.
We parked for a cup of coffee to calm our nerves. I was still shaking and we were collecting our thoughts. I thought with satisfaction that a police would stop the guy and….
and what?
If he scolded the guy and the guy really is an animal abuser, he would just take it out on the dog and not in view of the general public. If the cop took the dog into custody, who is going to adopt an older, cat killing pit bull? What if this guy was just trying to stop the dog from killing cats so that he could keep the dog? Maybe it had already killed cats that were pets to him or people that he cared about?
I’m struck with the knowledge that, had I “done nothing” like the other morning commuters, then presumably, I would be complicit with the animal abuse. But by yelling at this guy and then siccing the cops on him, did I perpetuate the abuse indirectly or did I rain down police activity on a guy having a bad day and trying to right a wrong with an aggressive dog?
I’m asking our readers to chime in. What would have really made a change for this dog? What would have made a change in this guy’s violent behavior? What can we, as citizens do to make real change when confronted with brutality?
Sigh.