Monday, July 13
I drive onto the gravel lot and park, pull out my water bottle and snacks (yep, just like in OLP), and see Mona.  "Is that you, Eileen?" shouts Mona.  I know it's Mona because I've watched their site video and seen her white hair that stands out now in the dimness of the barn.  Up close, her sky-blue eyes remind me of the sky in Ireland behind my photo of wild fuchsia.  I decide not to mess                                               
with the locked gate and duck through the fence itself.  Mona notices and chuckles, "Couldn't figure out our lock, huh?"  I will not be the cause of any escapes.  I introduce myself to a couple of volunteers on my way in.  Mona introduces me to Sharon, a long time volunteer and an animal communicator who will be with us for the week.  Oh, this should be interesting!  I'm impressed at the openness to using alternatives which fits with the "gentling" philosophy rather than the "breaking" of a horse.  Sharon doesn't look at me so I assume she's shy or unsure of how I'll hear her described.  She tells me later that she's still learning and doesn't consider herself a professional animal communicator.  A burro or two is roaming the barn freely.  Chalupa introduces himself by trying to chew my boot and I'll come to hear a cacophony of braying from one or both of them in the next few days.

Before we get into the day, a large trailer pulls up and Mona lets us know that Charkoal has arrived.  His Massachusetts owner adopted him two years ago but has decided she can't keep him.  Contractually, adopters need to return a horse to the Rescue no matter the reason they can't keep their horse.  And what a beauty.  Charkoal, or Koal as he is known and it is spelled with a K, unloads without incident and is led easily through the gate, the barn, and into a pen in the ring.  He's my dream horse except that mine is a mare.  He stands about 15 hands high, dapple gray with black still on his rump and legs, a black mane, and a flaxen tail.

Charkoal

His owner is distraught but knows it's best for Koal.  She loves him but ran into some trouble with him and has two other horses.  A trainer she hired pronounced him fine but then he reverted back to old habits.  She thinks he was gelded too late and that stallion tendencies still hold.  Mona doesn't hold with that thinking . . .  she's seen stallions gelded much later and still be manageable.  Koal gets assessed tomorrow morning and Chris, the trainer, will check him out this week.

While the intake is going on for Koal, an SUV pulls up and a man and woman get out and talk with Mona briefly.  She let's them know that she's in the middle of the intake so puts them off for a time.  Eventually they leave because it's taking a while.  Mona feels badly on reflection that she didn't have time to talk and worries that she was abrupt.  "He was looking for a horse for his daughter and you never know who's going to walk in and be your million dollar donor."  She encourages appointments because it's a working stable run completely on volunteer care and love.  While Sharon was telling me who some of the horses are, the couple had come near us.  I thought about talking to him but felt new and out of place and what could I say to a guy about horses.  Maybe "Hi" would have been enough. 

After lunch, Mona, Sharon and I take a look at Cheyenne and Tenaya in the pen behind the barn.  Cheyenne, I'll come to learn, is a favorite of many and of the trainer Chris.  She's a special project of Sharon who has worked with her consistently.  She has a lot of fears and while we watch her, she spooks and spins in her pen.  Mona, who I know is assessing me and my capacity asks, "Based on what you just saw, on a scale of one to ten, how afraid would you say she was?"  Oh, I hate tests.   I'm thinking ten but don't want to be alarmist so say, "Well, an eight?"  She asks Sharon who also says an eight.  Mona says a ten.  Damn!  Why didn't I just come out with it and sound brilliantly in tune?  We'll be back with them later.

After lunch we work with Cheyenne and Tanaya.  Sharon opens the barn arena gate and their pen gate and I'm instructed to stand clear.  I know why when Cheyenne and Tenaya tear out of their pen and into the arena.  Cheyenne has a fear of gates likely from her original capture and being run into pens with gates slammed behind her.  If Tenaya had the same fear she's over it but follows her buddy.

It's late afternoon and I hear that it's time to "Open the gates!"  I stand out of the way near Koal's pen and watch as a small herd comes trotting ghostlike from out of the daylight, into the darker inside arena, into the barn and down the aisle, each turning into its own stall.  Creatures of habit.  Koal neighs horse to them.  Maybe he recognizes someone, maybe he's feeling territorial.  I am in awe and thrilled that I am here.

We drove to Mulligan's for lunch and again for dinner.  Decent and inexpensive.  At a red light in town, I see Mona ahead of me talking and laughing with couples on motorcycles next to her.  Clearly they know each other and laughing, they turn my way.  I wave.  Turns out they're her son and his wife and her daughter and her husband.  Mona and I get to know each other a bit more over meals and plan to meet at the barn tomorrow at 9:30.  Mona has already put in at least a twelve hour day at the barn and then spent time schmoozing with me. 

I'm so happy here.  I'm doing horse stuff.  I'm finally at horse camp and learning so much.   Thrilling!  Horses and ocean.