Reaching out to the community

We have visitors today.  A nice family interested in trading work for some unused equipment I have laying around, turning into rust piles.  Better to have the stuff used!

We spent about 30 seconds looking at said equipment (he'd seen it before), then walked out to the pasture to see the horses ... and donkey ... and llama.  Turns out the llama was the big hit.  When a camelid walks up to you to smell your hair - and touch it - and that head is higher than most adults, well, that's impressive.  here she is from when we got her:

Like every good horse person, I was more than willing to answer every question they posed about the horses.  You never know what kind of people they are until you talk a while and I prefer to assume they are horse people until proven otherwise.  Turns out they are horse people, just not recently.  So, I'm cultivating the relationship with them.  If they are going to get back into horses, it might as well be with Arabians, right?

And that's the point of this blog.  Take every opportunity that presents itself to talk horses with the people you meet.  If they are coming to see your lawn mower you've advertised for sale, take them on a tour of the horses, if they seem at all interested.  It's the job of every horse lover out there to "spread the illness" that is our love of horses.  These people left with a photo of their daughter on a pony (I couldn't get her to get on the totally bombproof stallion because he was so much bigger).  Next time she may be brave enough to actually ride!

To top it off, one of their friends who came with wants to come out and help out around the farm.  OK, that's a win-win for me because I have 22 horses right now and not enough time to work with them all.  She wants to know "everything".  Boy can I help her there!  Shovel manure.... ride a horse.  Mend some fence ... play with the new babies.

Do you have work that needs doing?  Maybe you can befriend a horse-less person and introduce them to your horses.  Horse-itis, it's a disease worth catching and spreading far and wide!  I've even seen ads on Craig's List where experienced horse people are looking for horses to hang around.  It's worth investigating, IMO.

One final picture:  Lisa on the pony the little girl sat on, in 2010, when Lisa was this little girl's age and size:

Karen

Lawton, OK