Dangers

Today I was reminded of just how dangerous working with animals can be, whether they are wild or domestic. Of course I am always well aware of the dangers involved with my job, however after many months of calm, it can be very easy to become... complacent . In a related note I also discovered today that horses are terrified apparently, of moose.

Let me paint the scene, it is a usual day the other volunteer and I are driving down to the fields to feed the horses. Everything is going fine, we managed to get Ibis and Raven, the yearling horses, on the halters, tie them to the gate and they are happily eating away at their food, all is well. Until that is, we hear the two dogs barking and yelping, clearly agitated by something. The other volunteer jumps on the quad and shoots off back to the farm to check on them, leaving me with the horses, again all is well. Until that is, I hear some rustling from the tree behind me and I see Baby and Belle the two baby moose we are raising here making their way through the trees. All the horses, the 30 or so in the field and the two girls, flip out when the moose appear. The horses in the field start running around, while the girls start pulling at their halters and kicking the gate. Raven slips and falls into the fence, Ibis is freaking out, and I am standing in a field full of spooked horses, honestly not knowing where is safer, in the field or out with the girls. All I can do at this point is scream for the other volunteer to come back. Trying to help Ibis or Raven was completely out of the question, with the way they were freaking out going anywhere near them was way too dangerous.

To make matters worse Jasper the dog, came running down barking at the moose, scaring the horses even more. Luckily the other volunteer heard my screams and came to help. We managed to somehow get the two girls back into the field, and luckily everyone, horses and human escaped the whole ordeal with no injuries.

I'm not going to lie, I was pretty terrified, I am relatively new to working with horses, and the power they have can be pretty scary, so being surrounded by freaked out horses was terrifying to say the least, and being unable to help Raven and Ibis when they were clearly scared was even worse. I felt so helpless, but it was for my own safety that I stayed back, and i'm glad I did as my first instinct was to rush forwards and help.

It was a complete accident, and nothing really could have been done to prevent it. Later when we went up feeding, the moose were back up on the hill, so hopefully this is all over now and it won't happen again, because honestly I don't know if my heart could take another day like this.

To ski or not to ski

To most of the people that know me, they understand that I am ... not the most graceful of people. I fall down a lot, trip over things, drop things, and am generally a bit of a klutz. Put me then, on two long strips of wood, on a snowy mountainside, holding onto two sticks and trembling with fear and we only have a recipe for disaster. I am of course, talking about skiing. I was lucky enough, for Christmas, to be given a ski day pass by the family here, as "You can't come to Canada in winter and not going skiing at least once". 

I was feeling both excited and terrified (Terracited as I have since dubbed it) as we were driven up the mountain in a creaky, yellow, old school bus. I put on my boots, strapped into my skis and started to walk/waddle the way I had been shown by a friend who came along too. Five minutes later I had not moved forward an inch having just performed the ski edition of the running man. Ten minutes later, I was on my butt in the snow, unable to get up. It was then decided that perhaps I needed an actual lesson, to avoid me spending the day sitting in the snow outside the lodge.

To give the instructor credit he was very patient with me, lifting me up countless times when I would fall over. He taught me how to form a 'pizza' with my skis so in theory I could slide slowly down the slope. He showed me how to hold on to the pulley to be pulled up the mountain and after about an hour I was skiing by myself and had gotten slightly more comfortable. 

Then he decided to take me up the T-Bar to a higher and steeper slope. Then everything went wrong again. As it turns out I have immense trouble actually steering myself, also going slowly. I ended up hurtling straight down the mountain, at speeds which were probably not considered safe for the bunny hill. The instructor screaming "Pizza! Pizza!" All the way down. Usually I would be happy to hear anything about pizza, only when faced with trying to stop without causing serious injury, I had to put my thoughts of food on hold and try to figure out a way to stop before I actually hit a child or something. I finally did this by just falling on my butt again. He picked me up and we tried again, only this time I couldn't right my skis and ended up going the whole way down the slope backwards. Strangely enough this was my best run of the day, I didn't fall over once and even managed to stop myself correctly. I can only assume that I just do things better in reverse. When I asked him if it was okay to do things backwards from now on I just got a big laugh in return. My guess is, it's not okay.

Safe to say skiing does not come naturally to me at all. I was later told that "They say you aren't doing it right or trying hard enough, if you aren't falling down a lot." Which made me feel a lot better. Shame it couldn't do much about the five year old's skiing circles around me all day though.

Things change, and then we deal with it

Change is something that the majority of people find scary. Understandably so I think. Reaching out of your comfort zone to something that you might not have any idea whether or not will be successful. Whether cutting your hair, changing your style or moving half way across the world. Change will always be scary for the simple fact that it is different. For example a lot of people get nervous starting a new job. What if you don't do very well? What if the people, who have already established friendships, don't like you? What if you aren't as good as you think you are? There are a whole ton of things to be anxious about and it is completely natural.

However, change can be good, change can be positive if you know how to embrace it and do it right. New Years is a time when a good chunk of the country decides to make some mostly positive changes. In most blogs this is the time when the author would go on to list out all of their resolutions. I however, don't do resolutions. I'm just not that type of person. I firmly believe that if you want to make a change in yourself that strongly then it can be done immediately, not waiting for some arbitrary date that really doesn't mean anything. 'New year = New you' No thanks.

Making these changes however is a positive thing that I can greatly appreciate. It should be noted though that change is not something that happens just because you will it so. It requires time, effort and a healthy dose of motivation to make those resolutions happen at whatever time of year.

Bringing this haphazard post back to life at the shelter. Things here are about to change quite dramatically. With the money raised through Dawson's Lights, lots of building work will be starting soon, a new enclosure and new volunteer quarters. The other volunteer here leaves in less than a month, opening a vacancy that will have to be filled. In the upcoming months baby animals will start arriving, throwing my current schedule out the window, leading to a huge increase in work, and reducing the likelihood of getting more than an hours sleep at a time to almost zero. A lot is changing but really, compared to leaving home behind and moving to Canada, nothing can scare me anymore so I am going to embrace it, learn from it and hope that it will all work out in the end.