Horses, Husbands, and Health: The Price of Wisdom

Maybe it was the bliss of being on our one year anniversary and delayed honeymoon trip, driving through the mists of the Emerald Isle, or perhaps a spell put on my husband by a mischievous leprechaun. Or maybe it was the leftover effects of too many pints of that liquid black gold called Guinness that we had been imbibing. Whatever it was, when we saw that shaggy little white pony on a cold gray April morning excursion into the Irish countryside, it was my husband who suggested that I get a horse. Within a few short months he would be cursing leprechauns, equines, and the wisdom of his offer.

When we made the decision to add a horse to our married lives, neither of us was aware of the struggles that would ensue. I was in too happy a state to have believed someone if they had warned me anyway. I had been fortunate in high school and college to do some horse showing, have a horse of my own, and take care of other people's horses. My horse drought came after college when career and life in general got in the way for over a decade. However, as many people with "the horse bug" can attest to, the longing for a horse never left me. So, when I was finally married with a good job and income and not moving around, it seemed the perfect time to put back what was missing in my life. Two months after seeing the white pony in that clearing in the fog, I had my horse. The other "woman" had just entered our life, and she was a gorgeous palomino.

Her name was Sage, short for Sagebrush Sail Her and also another word for wise. She was two years old and a perfectly green Palomino Quarter Horse filly with beautiful, thick long white mane and tail, standing serenely by while a dog and child ran circles around her. It was love at first sight, and I knew I wanted her within the first 10 minutes without even looking at her papers or asking too many questions. I did get her vet checked at least. I also paid $200 more than the highest price that I told my husband we would spend. That was his first clue of what lay in store for the future, but it was much too late to back out now.

My instant connection with Sage was the kind of feeling that washes over you when you first fall in love. My husband's instant connection was the feeling of forking over almost two house payments immediately and then a minimum of $300 a month with nothing to show for it but a 12x12 stall that we rented and hay that got turned into manure by a horse that wasn't even trained to ride yet. At the time of this writing, it is almost seven years and countless "discussions" later. A year and a half after the start of my journey with Sage came the addition of our daughter Erin (born in the Chinese year of the horse) and the onset of me being a stay-at-home-mom and our household dependent upon my husband's paycheck alone. Things got a bit stressful to say the least. Then finally, we were able to come to some sort of an agreement and an understanding that Sage was not leaving and was part of our family, even if she was the black sheep to my husband instead of the golden girl. And she definitely did not lay golden eggs.

Without a job and with a new child, I actually needed her more than before, not less, for some sanity breaks and some sense of identity to hold onto. A little more than three years after the birth of our first daughter came the birth of our second daughter (named after the Welsh goddess of horses). So now I had two daughters, no income of my own, and a husband convinced that I needed to attend some sort of horse detox 12-step program. Then one day in the midst of struggling with how to pay for all this horse need, I was blessed with some inheritance from my dear departed Uncle Jimmy. Jimmy had once quipped that he wondered why I bought a Quarter horse and not a whole horseI guess that he left me the funds to buy the rest of the horse.

But, I had bought a sick horse. Not one that looked sick from the outside, and not one that couldn't pass a vet check. She could and she did. I certainly had not bought a horse, though, that exuded health (although, to my untrained eyes as well as to many veterinarians' eyes she looked just fine). At the time, I was dealing with a chronic health issue myself - so how objective was I, really?

I had felt from the time that Sage arrived into my care that she was not "whole" in some way. It wasn't until I went through several veterinarians over several years time that an equine behaviorist and holistic health expert diagnosed Sage with ulcers, saying she probably had had them since she was a foal (I now know that it went way deeper than that). That can lead to all kinds of digestive complications, and it now made sense why I was constantly trying to get her to a point of health from the day she had arrived. This included chronic diarrhea and a severe colic episode. She was about as bad off as the scores of people that I saw each day as I went to work, making the rounds of doctor's offices and clinics in my job as drug rep.

Yes, I was a pharmaceutical representative for a major drug company when I found Sage - and it was primarily her health issues that helped to expand and stretch my thinking and practices.

One morning when I was nine months pregnant, I got the dreaded call from the boarding facility saying that my horse was down and had been rolling all night. I rushed to the barn to begin a 5-day saga of walking, two emergency vet calls, careful watching by barn management, and ultimately a life-and-death decision point.

When the vet came out for the second time, she said that surgery was the next step as Sage had made no improvement in her impaction colic. I decided to try something that I read in a book I had recently bought - little homeopathic pills along with acupressure and within 30 minutes she had a bowel movement, drank water, and was grazing. I was in awe, and I carried that feeling with me through the natural delivery and care of my first baby. The doctor even induced my labor with the help of a homeopathic medicine when I was two weeks overdue; I was comfortable with that having recently learned about and experienced homeopathy with my horse.

From drug rep to holistic mom, I had come a long way with a little inspiration from my horse.

Taking care of Sage has at times been very stressful; however, the journey has led me to so many health realizations about equines and humans that I will be forever grateful. It ultimately led to many alternative and holistic health discoveries that currently benefit my family and I. We are all much healthier in large part due to what Sage has taught me.

I admit I almost gave up the struggle with Sage and my husband a couple of times, and even considered selling her if we would all be better off. At one point shortly after her colic and the birth of my first child, I was particularly disheartened with the whole situation and feeling beaten. I was in the middle of the arena with Sage, finishing up some groundwork exercises, and I asked her out loud if she thought that I should sell her. I was astonished to see her head instantly drop dejectedly and heard a big sigh let loose from her body. I don't consider myself an animal communicator or even a horse whisperer, but I took that as a definite "NO". Fortunately, I listened.

So is it perfect now? No, but Sage is healing herself with our hard-earned wisdom and a little help from me, some herbs, and supplements. On the family front, my husband has made mention of a dude ranch vacation at some point, and he now has two daughters that whinny and canter around the house and barn. My husband even comes down to the barn to take pictures of us riding Sage, and I have caught him in the act of petting her.

Perhaps he will never truly understand the connection or the need of his wife and her horse, but the grief and the money will all seem very worthwhile someday when his teenage daughters are too busy with their horse to pay much attention to boys.

That kind of wisdom is priceless.

About Eleanor
Eleanor Van Natta is a wife, a mother of two little girls, and a caretaker to one dog, one cat, and one horse. She has a Zoology degree from the University of CA, Davis, and prior to becoming a stay at home mom she had a career in environmental and pharmaceutical sales. You can find more of her writing on her blog Sage By Nature.