What Do You Give a Horse For Christmas?

by Natalie Keller Reinert

I don't have many Christmas traditions.

In fact, I think the only one I keep up with are the Happy Hippos in our Christmas stockings, and that one is only a few years old!

Source: flickr/vintagehalloweencollector

The thing is, I didn't grow up celebrating Christmas, so it was basically an opportunity to have some time off of school and, once I had a horse to occupy me, extra barn-time. At some boarding stables, every horse got a stocking filled with treats from the barn owner -- that was the extent of my Christmas celebration, and that was fine with me. Hard to miss what you don't have, right? As a manager at an equestrian center, I carried on that tradition, making sure every boarder horse had a stocking full of horse cookies.

Sometime in my mid-teens, I decided I should have a tradition for my birthday and Christmas (two holidays I still didn't celebrate, mind you!) and naturally centered it around my horse. On those days, no matter how bad the weather or how busy my life, I'd have a fun ride on my horse. And for a while, I managed to carry on my personal little tradition, whether I was riding through scented orange groves in Central Florida or around the taxis and carriages of the lower loop of Central Park. No training, no tough work. It was time to hang my feet out of the stirrups and leave a loop in my reins.

Which was nice for both of us, naturally, so I suppose it might have counted as a present for my horse. But really? I never did much by way of Christmas presents for my horses. But I'm getting a little softer and nicer as I get older, so it's possible that someday I'll cave and shower every horse in my vicinity with gifts.

So I decided to ask the Internets: hey, horse-people, what do you give your horses for Christmas? I asked the question on two of my Facebook pages (Retired Racehorse Blog and Natalie Keller Reinert: Equestrian Fiction) and got lots of answers. Presents for horses seem to fall into a few key categories: horse clothes, horse treats, and yay toys!

Here are some responses:

• "This year it is a new halter, lead rope, horse cookies, angel mints, carrots and apples."
• "Every year they get an Xmas morning bran mash. Candy canes, apples, carrots, molasses, and banana chips." (yum!!)
• "About 25 boxes of candy canes as soon as they go on sale after Christmas."
• "Treats, new blankets- turn-out and fleece."
• "My gelding is getting some gingerbread cookies, candy canes and a tin of Werthers -- his most favourite treats!"
• "My horse gets toys, he got a Jollyball sidekick companion, football, stackers and chew toys to go on his crossbar in his stall!"
• "Starlight mints, of course! Also a new turnout halter, carrots, candy canes, and tub of Nicker Makers. Spoiled much?"

I adore all the love that goes into Christmas for these horses. One horse literally gets toys under the tree like he's a little kid! I am imagining a pony pushing around a fire engine.

So now I want to know: what do you give your horses for Christmas? Or is it just another day at the barn, business as usual (no shame in that!)? Share in the comments or over at my Facebook pages, and if you're running a little late with the shopping, maybe you'll get a few ideas!

Merry Christmas, all you pony people!

The Smooth Jazz of Christmas Past

by Natalie Keller Reinert

I didn't celebrate Christmas growing up, and I'm at a point in my life where I really don't mind. 

It takes time to come to grips with things that set you on the far reaches of society (if not completely outside of them). There is jealousy, there is resentment, there is eager adoption, and then, if adoption doesn't work out -- as it hasn't really, in my case -- there is smiling amusement. You puppies are so cute. I'll be over here listening to smooth jazz, just like I did on Christmas morning growing up.

Okay, it's not quite that serious. I actually do have a deep and abiding love of Christmas, one which I discovered over several years of working in a Christmas shop at the Magic Kingdom. You can do one of two things while listening to Christmas carols and wishing people a Merry Christmas 365 days a year -- go utterly insane, or get into the groove of things. I opted for the latter. It was easier, and it was happier, and there's nothing wrong with easier or happier in my book. 

This guy. My once and future Christmas memory.

And I have at least one really special childhood Christmas memory. It just so happens that it took place two days after Christmas, when my mother and I drove down the flat stretches of I-95 to Ft. Pierce, Florida, on a chilly, gray afternoon, to a cattle ranch a few miles from the Tropicana juice factory, and I fell in love with a skinny Thoroughbred named Amarillo Elbert.

(Interestingly, my musical memory from that trip is Nights in White Satin. We listened to a cassette tape of The Moody Blues on the way. I could recite the weird poem at the end. I still can. Party trick!)

So Christmas and I don't have the strongest relationship, but we have some good times together, and a few traditions, too. Like the gorgeous trees that my husband and I have laughingly carried home from the Gowanus Home Depot, avoiding the jacked-up prices at Brooklyn's neighborhood tree lots (this year we had to bring it home on the subway. It was the nicest smelling subway car you've ever been on.) The endless supply of Mickey Mouse ornaments I have from my time in the Christmas shop. Polish chocolates from the neighborhood market in my son's Christmas stocking. 

This is a very, very small sampling of my Disney Christmas ornaments. I have a problem.

Little things, but good times.

And I suppose no one could be too surprised, after reading this, that Claiming Christmas was the first Christmas story I ever wrote. Or that, like Alex, I've always been too busy working to give Christmas too much extra thought.

But the season is there, and sooner or later, I guess, we all find ourselves with little holiday traditions. Even if we were so busy we didn't even notice they were happening. 

And smooth jazz... man, that's just always going to be a tradition for me. I spend a lot of time listening to music that's cooler than I am, but you can't escape your childhood, can you?

My Christmas story this year is Claiming Christmas. My favorite chocolate surprise at Christmas is a Happy Hippo. And, since you know you want to hear it, my favorite smooth jazz song is Behind the Waterfall.  

Which, by weird coincidence, is also played at Disney.

Merry Christmas boys and girls!

Merry Christmas from our crazy family to yours!

I really do love the holidays, even though I find myself galloping from one activity to the next, trying to get the house decorated, perhaps some baking done, parties, shopping... well, I'm sure you know the drill. You're probably living at the same breakneck speed.

What's Christmas without a family portrait?

Christmas is special for my horses because it the season of Candy Canes. Yes, those delightful, striped hooks of minty-fresh sugar. Snoopy and Frostie both love them. I remember the first time I fed Frostie a candy cane. She was only four years old. As she crunched into it, she pursed her horsey lips and inhaled like Hannibal Lector describing fava beans and Chianti. I wish I had gotten it on video.

I did video Snoopy's way of eating candy canes. Dropping them into his feeder breaks them, and forget hand-feeding him. He's a sweet boy, but he's a land shark.

What kinds of special things do you do for your horses during the holidays? Do they get stockings?

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Snoopy has written a book for all ages, about growing up to become a champion, then suffering an injury, and having to fight to return to health. The reviews have all been complimentary. Readers have overwhelmingly labeled the book, "Sweet, funny, uplifting, and endearing."

Click on over to Amazon and check it out. I think if you're a horse lover, you won't be disappointed.

Claiming Christmas: a New Holiday Read

by Natalie Keller Reinert

Happy Thanksgiving week! I hope everyone has already cleaned their houses from top-to-bottom, gotten all their groceries ready, and is preparing to strap on an apron and get cooking bright and early Wednesday morning.

(Oh, wait, I'm talking to horse-people here. I hope everyone is excited to have Thursday off for extra riding time! Don't forget to pick up some take-out for dinner on the way home!)

Of course, last year I was in the barn on Thanksgiving too, prepping the NYC Parks horses for their march in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. I marched in it too, but I'm very happy to be spending the holiday indoors this year! It's supposed to be frigid and blustery. This year, I'll be doing the cooking thing in my warm kitchen, and thinking of all my chilly friends out there on horseback. I'm from Florida, people. I just wasn't built for cold weather. I hibernate, I write, I cook. See you in spring.

And so it's probably inevitable that as the leaves fell and the temperatures dropped, my thoughts turned to the greener trees and balmier climes of home. Most holiday stories concern themselves with sleigh bells and snowfall, but when I wrote Claiming Christmas, my new holiday novella, all I had on my mind was a mild Florida winter. No snow need apply, and the only sleigh bells are on carriage horses trying to look Christmassy on an eighty-five degree afternoon.

Claiming Christmas is an Alex and Alexander novella, picking up where Other People's Horses left off. It's late October, and the Christmas songs are starting to play in the stores, but Alex is on a self-imposed vacation from the world, only paying attention to her horses. Then she's tapped to fulfill a Christmas wish for a local girl with a tragic past and a future that's less than merry and bright. Grudgingly, Alex takes on the job -- and finds herself ready to do anything to give the kid a merry Christmas at last.

Writing this story reminded me of some of the dedicated riding instructors I had as a child, and the relationships we developed. I was a determined rider without a huge bank account to fund my ambition; along the way I met trainers who saw how hard I was willing to work, and they found ways to see me through tough times and keep me in the saddle. Alex has never had that interest in people (or children) but in this story, she finds out what it feels like to be a role model, and to hold the key to someone's happiness -- and she likes the feeling.

And so as we descend into the madness -- I mean the spirit -- of the season, I hope you all have people (and horses) in your lives that remind you of how much you give every day.

Claiming Christmas is available for 99 cents as a Kindle or Nook ebook, or in virtually any format your heart could desire at Smashwords.

May the Planets be with You

Recently, it seems that the planets are rolling around in the sky, conspiring to align in the crappiest positions possible for so many people around me. Every other person seems to be getting sick, or if they’re not getting sick, they’re dealing with sick relatives, or a sick or injured animal. Some are worrying about their kids’ problems at school, or about problems at work, or about how the heck they’re going to pay a particularly impressive mountain of bills at the end of the month. The ones with the most crappy planet alignment are dealing with all of the above, which seriously sucks. Come to think of it, I’m in the latter category this month. Mars and Mercury must really have it out for me.

Oh well. Chin up. Things could be a whole lot worse. Blessings aligned and standing by for assessment. The only way out is through, right?

The planets will realign, of course, as they always do, and things will improve. This time of the year tends to be pretty hectic, with everyone running around preparing for the holidays, which is pretty insane, really, as Christmas is supposed to be all about love and peace and hope, and not about stressing about decorating and what to buy who. The notion of “all is calm, all is bright” tends to only exist in the Christmas music the shopping centres have been force-feeding us with since late October. I used to quite like Wham’s “Last Christmas”. Now it makes me break out. In spots, not into song.

The crazy thing is that we all know Christmas is supposed to be all Zen and Silent-Nightish, yet with all the pressure it’s hard not to scurry over to the frantic, frazzled, dark side, be it physically or mentally. My frantic scurrying has been more mental this year, as all sorts of unpleasant recent events have shoved high-energy shopping sprees right to the back of my mind. And I’ve always been aware that there are more important gifts to give than material ones, but I always like to “give” in one way or another, and not just at Christmas. I love making things for people, and as I mentioned in a comment on Alison’s latest post, in the last few weeks, I’ve spent hours knitting scarves for friends and family. The clicking of my knitting needles makes watching Jack Bauer’s curtain call (we’re watching the final season of “24”) more productive, it’s also kept me from biting my nails down to painful levels, although the sorry state of my gnawed disasters suggests knitting with Jack has definitely not been enough. I wonder if Jack Bauer bites his nails…

Otherwise, Kwintus is fine. He’s been officially retired for a month or so now. His shoes came off about two weeks ago, when a giant dump of snow made going out into the fields with shoes impossible as he ended up teetering around on ice-wedges. He’s definitely a happy horse, quite full of himself, dancing around on his lead rope whenever he’s led from his stable to the field and back. He’s always delighted to see me, and one of the nicest images I have of him lately is him cantering towards through the snow after I called him. He stumbled once or twice, presumably due to a mix of uneven terrain and neck arthritis, but camouflaged his momentary lack of elegance with a series of bucks and cat jumps! Cute!

I miss riding him. I miss riding in general, and have no idea when I’ll be able to buy another horse, but as of January have been offered the possibility of riding a friend of mine’s dressage horse once or twice a week at another stable, which is great. Meanwhile, I can’t seem to stop myself from looking at horses for sale on the Internet, which is silly since buying anything at the moment is out of the question, not only for financial reasons, but also because I’m not ready emotionally speaking.

Also, I don’t really know what type of horse I’d want. Good dressage horses are so very expensive, and judging from the problems other riders around me are experiencing at the moment, they also appear to be increasingly delicate. In fact, horses in general seem to be increasingly delicate, developing all kinds of problems at a younger and younger age. My vet seems to think over-breeding is becoming an issue, as well as over-feeding during the mares’ gestation period, not to mention putting too many demands on very young horses’ athletic performances. What do you think?

And is it just a local issue (Western Europe) or are you also hearing about more and more horses failing to pass vet-checks during the acquisition process? With all the high-tech instruments now involved in vetting horses, I can’t help thinking we’ve got to the point where we’re looking for trouble, nit-picking on tiny weaknesses that might never turn into massive problems. But then again, I’m no expert, so I don’t know. Clearly, if you’re paying thousands or tens of thousands (not to mention hundreds of thousands, or even millions!!!) of Euros/dollars/pounds/et al for a horse, you’re going to want reassurance that the tiny flaw in his/her tendons/ligaments/bones/et al aren’t going to turn your investment into a very bad joke within five minutes. In this light, I totally get that the poor vets need to nit-pick in order to cover their backsides in case it all goes belly-up. I just wish things were simpler. Less stressful. Don’t you?

But I’m not going to worry about my future potential bankruptingly-expensive super delicate dressage horse’s nit-picking vet-check. Not now, at least. Nor am I going to dwell on the negative effects of those misbehaving planets. I’ve got a lovely warm house, plenty of delicious tangerines in the fruit bowl, and a nice man delivered a giant box of chocolates to my doorstep this morning. My little dog is feeling better (he had a parasite in his intestines, poor guy. He was soooo sick!), and my slightly bigger dog doesn’t seem to be cross with me for having him castrated last week (Ouch. I know. But it had to be done.) My daughter is home from University for a month, my son’s school holidays begin tomorrow lunchtime, and my husband is off work as of tomorrow evening for two weeks. How many more blessings does a woman need?

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone. And may the planets be with you!

Reducing Holiday Stress

When I can't think of a thing to post. I go back and read my fellow IE bloggers' posts to find inspiration. The last two posts by Alison and Laura and Francesca's posts regarding Kwintus, all hit close to my heart, especially this time of year.

Gailey is lame again, oddly enough, it's the front leg this time. I'm waiting for the vet to x-ray her. He flexed her on Thursday, and she trotted away quite lame. Sigh... I'm frustrated with how seldom I've been able to ride lately because of her on/off lameness.

In the meantime, another friend of mine who has two very nice dressage horses had to rush one horse to the local trauma care center. Her gelding has a very serious issue. The chances of him making it longer than the next two months are about one percent. This friend, I'll call her Sandy, is already trying to figure out how to purchase another horse. Since she works full-time and doesn't have the support of her family in her riding/showing, I question her buying yet another show horse. She questions me only having one "show" horse.

Over the years I've worked hard to reduce the stress in my life. Riding one dressage horse on a regular basis is all I can handle with writing and a full-time job, not just financially but emotionally. I don't like spreading my life so thin that I'm run ragged all the time. Yet, I can certainly see her point. I've been out of the saddle more than I've been in it these past several months. Yet, I can't justify having another horse as a "backup" in case something happens to the current one. I don't have those kinds of resources. Even if I did, I probably wouldn't do it. Especially if my family was dead set against it, and it caused tension and unrest.

Yet, I also see my friend's point of view. Horses are her priority, her life, the thing she lives for. For her, the added stress is worth it. For me, I need more balance in my life. I need time for other interests, time for family, and I don't want to tie up all my expendable income in horses. As a result, facing Gailey's eventual retirement doesn't leave the gaping empty hole it might in others. Oh, there'll be a hole, but it'll be quickly filled with all the other things I love to do.

When Gailey is no longer rideable, she'll retire at my home. Whether or not I'll get another horse is up in the air. That's a commitment I've made to her. I imagine that's how most of us come to have "unusable" horses.

Horses fill our lives in different and varied levels. What works for one of us, won't work for another. Always having two horses fulfills a need of Sandy's. Only having one riding horse fills my needs. We're all different, and our solutions to problems are different. Some of us invite stress, some of us avoid it. I've learned to avoid stress the older I get. Which is probably why I'll eventually fill my horse fix with a nice little trail horse, and why she'll continue to ride and show two horses, despite the extra stress it puts on her, the extra money she spends, the problems it causes within her family, etc. The last several times I've spoken to her she's burst into tears. Believe me, she is not the crying type. I question if it's all worth it for the return she gets?

So as the holidays approach, along with the stress that comes with them, do yourself a favor. Give yourself a present. Find ways to reduce the stress in your lives. I, for one, didn't decorate for Christmas this year. We won't be home for Christmas, and the decorating has lost its appeal to me. I found a 1-foot tree and plugged it in. I cut back on present buying. I donated money to charities rather buying gifts to exchange at parties. I'm simplifying my life. The truth is no one cares that I didn't decorate or that I didn't spend tons of money on gifts.

So to all of you, have a Merry Christmas, enjoy your family and friends, and remember the true reason for the season. Simplify your life and go back to basics on what's really important to you.

Christmas Traditions, Equine Style

by Mary Paine

Happy Holidays!

A nice side benefit of being a researcher by training is using that skill doing fun research for my books. I research such diverse topics as mythology, witchcraft, police procedure, exotic locations, and of course, horses. There are some really fun holiday traditions people have with their horses that I’ve come across. The Chronicle of the Horse at www.chronicleforums.com has some wonderful ones. Here are some of my favorites:

• Lots of people do a very special warm bran mash with lots of apples and carrots mixed in. I’ve seen reports from people who use apple cider or applesauce mixed into bran mash, too. Here’s an addition I never heard of – adding crushed up candy canes or peppermint candies on top for a garnish. Ho- Ho- Ho!

• My in-laws like to warm up apple juice and mix it in with their water buckets. It’s a nice holiday tradition and they also do it on cold days to melt any ice and encourage the horses to drink. They also like to do homemade oatmeal raisin cookies on Christmas Eve and a special Christmas salad in the morning made of carrots, apples, and raisins. Tasty treats for our equine friends!

• At every barn I’ve been at there’s been a stocking in front of every stall and each horse got an array of treats put in it by all their human friends. There’s always a preponderance of crunchy apples and carrots with some Mrs. Pastures Cookies and sugar tossed in. Lots of people go for special bareback rides as a holiday treat. My darling boys didn’t have the broadest backs, so that wouldn’t have been too comfy for me to try, but it sounds like fun!

• Secret Santas always played a big role at every barn I’ve been at, mostly because we had so many junior riders. It was tough finding places to hide presents where our horses wouldn’t be nibbling on them. At the annual Christmas party we would exchange gifts, but would never forget our partners in their stalls and some cookies or other treats always made their way out of the party to be nibbled delicately from our hands by our best buddies.

• My husband’s family first started having horses on their property about 15 years ago. When they first had the horses, they used to sneak out at midnight on Christmas Eve to see if they could hear them talk, but they never caught them!

• The most wonderful tradition I’ve heard people speak of is the extra time they spend with their horses during the holidays. An extra grooming, a long scratch to an itchy spot, a hug and a kiss on the nose is the best present our beloved horses could have.

Do you have any favorite holiday traditions you'd like to share? Hope you all have a happy, safe Holiday Season and a wonderful New Year.

If you have time, I’d love it if you stopped by this evening to chat with me at The Romance Studio at http://www.theromancestudio.com/chat.php. I’ll be chatting at 9 PM EST about my new release Never Trust A Matchmaking Witch, romance, comedy, fantasy and, of course, the horse world.

Warmly,
Mary

www.marypaine.com