It's not that there haven't been best moments in the past couple of weeks - there have been lots of them. The problem has been getting time to write about them. (Who doesn't have 10 minutes a day to write 50-100 words about their best moments? C'mon! Really?) It's only sort of an excuse. The past two weeks have pretty much been all about the horses and being away from the house and the computer.
Monday, 7/30 - We had a great ride on the beach and the trails. Little did we know then how close we were to our last (for a while) ride on the beach.
Tuesday, 8/1 - Elaine and I took KTJ and Chocolate for a swim in the ocean. If you've been reading this for a while, you know how much we all love that. It was spur of the moment so no photos.
Thursday, 8/3 - A break from horses. Elaine had a party for the volunteers Calorcito p'al Corazon, the group that takes blankets to hospital emergency rooms. One of the best, most active volunteers is our good friend Carole. Her husband Rolf has dementia and needs constant supervision. So Carole could go to the party I was given the honor and privilege of staying with Rolf.
Friday, 8/4 - We were supposed to meet with the mayor of Isabela about land for the therapeutic riding center but the meeting was canceled. Apparently there was some sort of emergency financial meeting in San Juan.
Saturday, 8/5 - We've known for a while that we needed to move our horses off the property across the street. We've been looking for a suitable safe, secure location for months but haven't found one. We had several sites that looked promising but for one reason or another they all fell through. We hoped the meeting with the mayor - the one that didn't happen - would provide some options. On this particular Saturday morning the sometimes eccentric head of the family that owns the property started stringing barbed wire right next to the road in front of the corral and our access gate to the horses. Not too subtle and it kind of freaked me out. He has been known to do unexpected, sometimes dangerous (to others) things without warning. All this led to...
Sunday, 8/6 - An early Sunday morning ride to move the horses to our extreme-last-resort-they-can-only-be-here-a-few-days backup site: Marie's back yard. We figured it would be our last beach ride for a while so we all determined to enjoy it.
At first they were happy in Marie's yard - lots of green grass, for one thing. But they quickly realized how small the area is.
Monday, 8/7 - Marie and I started dismantling the corral and fence across the street, rolling up the electric fence wire, taking down rails, etc. (With everything else that's been going on, that job is only partially complete. I still have to take down the posts. I'm hoping that will happen this week.) While I was working, Fred, the construction manager for a project down the road. drove by. I stopped him to ask about dirt that was dumped on the back of the property across the street. Fred and Elaine got to talking about our project and told him about our meeting with the mayor, now rescheduled for Tuesday, August 8. Turns out, Fred and Charlie (the mayor) have been friends for years. Fred offered to go with us to see the mayor and to help any way he could. Talk about serendipitous best moments!
Tuesday, 8/8 - We - including our new best friend Fred - finally got to meet with Charlie, el Alcalde (mayor) of Isabela. With a little help from Fred, Elaine started her presentation. About half way through, Charlie said, "I'm convinced. What do you need?"
After more conversation, Charlie said the municipio has a five-acre parcel that is not being used and has no current plans for. We have to officially apply to the municipal legislature the first week of September. Charlie is 100% behind our project and sees no problems. The only hick-up is the process will take about three months, putting us into November. That still leaves us with no immediate place to move the horses. Meanwhile, the clock is ticking on their stay at Marie's.
Through a long convoluted chain, there have been conversations using the picadero, an arena and facility for holding horse shows that the municipio owns, as a place for therapeutic riding (TR). We are very interested because it would be a way to start the program fairly quickly. The mayor is interested because it gets his facility used in a very positive way. We can also work cooperatively with our other TR friends to do this. The big problem is everyone would have to trailer horses, either from Rincon, Truillo Alto way on the other side of the island, or from wherever our horses end up. Trailering horses is never as easy as people seem to think. So we were looking for land close to the picadero.
All in all, the meeting with the mayor could not have gone better. It was the most positive thing that happened all week. So far.
Wednesday, 8/9 - There is a large piece of land within walking distance of the picadero that we've looked at before. Here is one of those times when Elaine's persistence really paid off.
After at least six attempts to reach the property owner, Elaine finally was able to talk with her. Once she understood what we wanted and why, she agreed to let us use the property for three months. We hope to convince her and the neighbors we're great tenants and stewards of the land so we can stay there permanently. That doesn't rule out the land the mayor is talking about either.
Once we got permission to use the land, we walked off the part we wanted to fence first and I was off to HomeDepot to get fence posts.
Thursday, 8/10 - Armed with 50 new T-posts and a brand new T-post driver, I was out bright and early pounding posts. By 2:00 pm, tired and sunburned and proud, I had fenced in an acre-and-a-half.
Friday, 8/11 - While all of this was going on, Elaine was juggling arrangements to get someone who could trailer the horses, who at this point are destroying Marie's yard, to their new home. First it was Friday, then Saturday, then Sunday, then Saturday again.
We went up to Marie's, got the horses out and worked them for a while, just let them get their ya-yas (pent-up energy) out. That's when the idea of riding the horses to the new home first surfaced. We considered riding them Friday afternoon but we figured it to be a 14- mile ride. In the heat of the day. At least part of it at "rush hour." We decided early Saturday morning was a better idea.
Saturday, 8/11 - Up early. We planned to be in the saddle by 7:00. Didn't quite make it but we were on our way before 7:30.
We started riding a somewhat familiar route, down to familiar trails and beach, then past Shacks toward Jobos. Our route was planned to minimize riding on busy roads.
From there we went up Jobos hill which I cannot even describe. From then on we were on roads that pretty much required our full attention so there are no photos until we reached the new home. Tired, hot, and a little confused at first, the critters did not take long to adjust to their new digs.
They've now been there for two days and seem to be settling in nicely.
Next steps: Finish the paperwork for our non-profit corporation. Make formal application to the municipio for use of the land. Check out the picadero to start therapeutic riding. I finally feel like the dominoes are starting to fall into place.
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