The Bear, the Owl and the Hibernation of my Confidence

It's been another cold week.  I'm really just losing track of the days to be honest.  After the first blast of winter and -17 to -20C temperatures we had a west coast-like day of 7 C.  Most of the snow sublimed and the entire farm was blanketed in fog.  What a relief to work in that!  Really reminded us how much easier things would be for us and the animals if we end up moving home to the coast.  We would have so much extra time for projects and hobbies if we weren't constantly working on preparing for the seasons and recovering from the efforts of working under extreme conditions.

My body has adjusted for the most part to the extra work.  Hauling about 30 water buckets per day, hauling manure on the sled, and just walking through snow and across slippery surfaces all day while wearing heavy clothing.  I'm pretty sure I've lost a few inches around my waist already.

What really tested my fitness (or lack thereof) was the last driving lesson with Oakley, where he pulled the stone boat for the first time and we went all the way to the back of the property, up on the hilly hayfield.  My legs and lungs were burning keeping up with him and for days afterwards my thighs burned when I walked up stairs.  Oakley has a huge stride, so that combined with the deep snow at the time really tested me.  Not complaining at all!  What a great way to experience winter on the farm, and keep the bear engaged and fit.

Oakley behaved horribly that day, but coach wasn't giving up on us.
So after about an hour this is how we looked:

Coach Steve with Oakley, giving him a rest at the top of the long hill

Attabear!!


Unfortunately episodes like that really erode my confidence with the bear.  So finally I set my mind to getting him out there again.  Coach was hoping I would do it within a few days of the 'acting out episode', but the soonest I could do it was six days later.  I had to back up a lot of steps just to make sure we would succeed, and I would have the confidence to move foward.  I even put his work bridle on earlier in the week and fed him his grain with it on to try to ensure it had a positive connotation.

On Thursday I planned to simply put on his surcingle and work bridle instead of the entire harness, and I wasn't hoping for too much.  Oakley was in the perfect mindset that day, and he was thoughtful and willing to do what we asked, except for a few disagreements with standing still during harnessing.  Horses in harness have to be trained to stand perfectly still, so even one step sideways has to be corrected.

The funny thing with the bear when he's in such a sweet mood is that he tends to keep offering his feet and bowing his head, something I'd taught him.  It's pretty cute, and hard not to laugh and give him treats when he does this. This set me more at ease and of course I loved him even more in that moment.

We had a perfectly civilized drive up into the riding ring, where I drove him over jumping poles on the ground, around cones, tight turns and steps, into the scary corner of the ring where he had reared and completely freaked out at out last session.  He did fine there, as I was hoping.  Horses have incredible memory for stressful events and places, and according to Coach they even remember the direction of travel.  So knowing this I worked that corner multiple times, from different directions including halts and stands, with a tonne of praise and encouragement of course.  This was a different type of incident to work through, since Oakley didn't actually spook at the corner, the trees or the fence there, so there were no 'real' triggers in that corner, I just wanted to make sure his memories were not tarnished in any way.  Horses simply can't process or make good decisions when they are full of adrenaline!  I would never ask the bear to do something that honestly terrified him.  His acting out was based on separation anxiety (not a scary goblin in the corner), since Winston his buddy abandoned him at the beginning of the session.

*****


The next day I got a call that there was an owl caught in a golf ball exclusion net in my county, and could I go and rescue it? I arrived to find the homeowner and two police officers, who honestly seemed a little surprised to see someone like me showing up to extract a big scary owl.  (clad in Carhartt overalls and other winter gear since I didn't know how long I would be out there in the snow)
 It's certainly not my first animal rescue, just my first great horned owl rescue.  Thankfully I've gotten such good experience handling these birds during my 2.5 years volunteering at TRC, so my confidence in this case was pretty high.  Not only that, it appeared to be a male owl so was smaller and less powerful than a female.  He was hanging upside down with one foot and all his talons wrapped multiple times in the thick netting.  The extraction went well but I was very concerned about his foot.  He couldn't really move the toes and they were ice cold.

This is the gorgeous bird before I dropped him off at TRC:

Hoping for a good outcome for this guy!  Owl are often caught in soccer nets that people leave up as well.  So if you know any soccer coaches or school administrators please try to pass this on and see if we can work together better to keep these birds safe! I've seen some pretty bad ones--wings strangled by the lines and half destroyed from the bird trying to struggle free.

The farrier apprentice will be here soon--I had to push them to come out and put studs on Oakley's shoes.  With the melt and then refreeze out there we've had very legitimate concerns that Oak would slip and fall--and that's a long way down.  Winston doesn't seem to have the same trouble, likely because he's smaller and his center of gravity is so much lower.

Many other projects on the go today and tomorrow, and on Monday I will leave the farm for six days!!