Don't Let The Virus Ruin Your Life With Horses

"We see our friends are weeping with the badges on their door
We see their homes in mourning for the loved ones come no more
You can say just what you please, death rides on every breeze
Look how this world has made us change

Just look how this world has made a change (made a change)
Just look how this world has made a change (made a change)
You can see every day how the people pass away
Look how this world has made us  change"   
                                                                    This World Has Made A Change
                                                                     A.P. Carter

The isolation, the fear, the loss of routine, the confusion generated by contradictory information, and the weaponizing of  social media by those who seek to divide our nation now has us all walking in a world of emotions that none of us are prepared for.

So many of the impacts are obvious. Fear makes one more accepting of conspiracy theories. Conspiracy theories generate more fear. Social media guides the fearful towards more conspiracy theories.

Physical health declines as stress reduces sleep, results in binge eating, and makes it that much harder get exercise. The new twenty pounds that so many of us have put on are obvious.

But other impacts are not so obvious. We worry about our loved ones--sometimes the worry is acute--more often chronic, until it becomes the back ground noise of our life.

And that is where the most insidious threat creeps in.  We have always associated affection with love, too many of us have come to associate worrying with loving. 

"Be careful--I'm worried about you!" has all too often replaced, "Have fun--I love you!"

This horrible conflation of of worry and love can disrupt, if not entirely derail, one's relationship with one's horses. It seems that kids are every bit as susceptible to this problem as adults.

Do you eagerly check out your horse to immediately see if he is "ok" when you get to the pasture? Do you start tensing up as you approach the pasture and do you get a jolt of momentary,  satisfying relief when you don't see a health problem?  Does your horse seem to have more health problems, especially small ones that are difficult to diagnose, than he did last year? Are you riding less because you just  "don't want to push him right now"? Are you spending more time researching equine health issues than you did last year? Are you feeding your horse more than you did last year? Have both you and your horse put on significant weight since the virus hit?

Last year when I arrived at the horse lot I was swarmed by kids asking what horse they should ride. Now as soon as I get out of the vehicle I am swarmed by kids who tell me that a horse or two has a kick mark or a bite mark and maybe we should not ride him for a week.

Worry is not love. Worry is not an effective tool in equine health care.

I have never "worried" a horse well. I have "worried" myself sick.

And nothing good ever came of it.