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Life and Death of Livestock and Pets, a Short Conversation with Nina Fuller

Best Horse Practices Podcast

Release Date: 08/19/2024

Gillian Higgins on Anatomy and Biomechanics show art Gillian Higgins on Anatomy and Biomechanics

Best Horse Practices Podcast

Our show is a space for riders and horse owners of all disciplines to learn best practices and to discover skills, strategies, tools, ideas, and insights for better connecting with their horses, with all horses, and for getting work done.  We love to hear from listeners and contacting us is easy .  We offer these shows for free. If you think it’s worthy of a , we sure would appreciate it. This is Episode 6 of Season 5 and in it, Jec interviews Gillian Higgins, an expert in horse anatomy and biomechanics. She’s known internationally for her painting of horses’...

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Best Horse Practices Podcast

We love to hear from listeners and contacting us is easy .  We offer these shows for free. If you think it’s worthy of a , we sure would appreciate it. This is Episode 5 of Season 5 and in it, we welcome back my colleague, Jec Ballou, for her first show of our fifth season. Yay! We’ve heard from several folks who have suggested discussions on gaited horses and people with expertise around gaited horses, so Jec has done a great interview with Carl Bledsoe, from Talking Rock, Georgia. I was really excited to produce this interview as it’s clear Carl has been on a...

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We love to hear from listeners and contacting us is easy .  We offer these shows for free. If you think it’s worthy of a , we sure would appreciate it. We’re dedicating another show to horsey intellectualism. Intellectualism roughly means thinking, studying, and/or discussing complicated ideas without getting emotional. I guess what we do on this show is a sort of low-level intellectualism, redneck intellectualism, because we’re not consulting great philosophers or significant texts. But we are bouncing around ideas that are complicated and less straight forward than...

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Life and Death of Livestock and Pets, a Short Conversation with Nina Fuller show art Life and Death of Livestock and Pets, a Short Conversation with Nina Fuller

Best Horse Practices Podcast

We love to hear from listeners and contacting us is easy .  We offer these shows for free. If you think it’s worthy of a , we sure would appreciate it. This is Episode 3 of Season 5 and we’re dedicating the next few shows to some horsey intellectualism. I like to look up words, to make sure I’m saying what I mean. Intellectualism roughly means thinking, studying, and/or discussing complicated ideas without getting emotional. I guess what we do on this show is a sort of low-level intellectualism, redneck intellectualism, because we’re not consulting great...

info_outline
J.B. Zielke - The Lost Cowboy show art J.B. Zielke - The Lost Cowboy

Best Horse Practices Podcast

Our show is a space for riders and horse owners of all disciplines to learn best practices and to discover skills, strategies, tools, ideas, and insights for better connecting with their horses, with all horses, and for getting work done.  We love to hear from listeners and contacting us is easy .  We offer these shows for free. If you think it’s worthy of a , we sure would appreciate it. This is Episode 2 of Season 5 and in it, I interview , a writer, music video producer, and most of all, a cowboy. JB has cowboyed on six continents and written about it in The Lost...

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Worst Horse Practices and News show art Worst Horse Practices and News

Best Horse Practices Podcast

We love to hear from listeners and contacting us is easy .  We offer these shows for free. If you think it’s worthy of a , we sure would appreciate it. This is Episode 1 of Season 5.  For this show, I’m speaking on behalf or maybe I should say as half. Half of the interview crew for this podcast. Jec and I have had a hiatus and Jec is still doing her thing and enjoying summer. She’ll be back later this season.  I thought I’d make this a short episode to let you know what I’ve been up to and to ask you what you’ve been up to. As I mentioned, we love...

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Season Finale: On the Fence with Jec and Maddy show art Season Finale: On the Fence with Jec and Maddy

Best Horse Practices Podcast

We love to hear from listeners and contacting us is easy .  We offer these shows for free. If you think it’s worthy of a , we sure would appreciate it. This is Episode 27 of Season 4. In it, Jec and I have a fun On the Fence conversation in which we talk some about identity and, mmm, maybe a bit of barn politics and shenanigans that we sometimes see in horse communities. The topic came up when I was listening to an interview that did with , a professor at the University of Chicago. Oh, and we also give a nod, or maybe a shake of the head, to the cover art for , which...

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Best Horse Practices Podcast

We love to hear from listeners and contacting us is easy .  We offer these shows for free. If you think it’s worthy of a , we sure would appreciate it. This is Episode 26 of Season 4. In it, I interview , a horsewoman and police detective from Wyoming. She’s a clinician and colt starter, and she participated in the held last month here in southwest Colorado. This is the fourth in a series of interviews around Buck the Trend. You can find links to conversations with BTT therapists and other participants in the show notes. Buck the Trend got its start thanks to a...

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Daniel Dauphin, Buck the Trend Mental Health Forum show art Daniel Dauphin, Buck the Trend Mental Health Forum

Best Horse Practices Podcast

We love to hear from listeners and contacting us is easy .  We offer these shows for free. If you think it’s worthy of a , we sure would appreciate it. This is Episode 25 of Season 4. In it, is back, not to talk about bits and horse mouth anatomy but to talk about , the mental health forum held last month. Daniel attended BTT and we have been visiting on the phone about mental health in our horse community since the in 2022, which I directed and at which he presented two sessions. This is the third in a series of interviews around Buck the Trend, which is funded in...

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Best Horse Practices Podcast

We love to hear from listeners and contacting us is easy .  We offer these shows for free. If you think it’s worthy of a , we sure would appreciate it. This is Episode 24 of Season 4. In it, I interview KD Bryant and , the two therapists who anchored the development and facilitation of , the mental health forum held recently in southwestern Colorado. BTT got its start thanks to a generous grant from the and with the support of . Donations have been extremely helpful, too. Big thanks to all who contributed. Buck the Trend is a two-and-a-half day, all expenses paid...

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This is Episode 3 of Season 5 and we’re dedicating the next few shows to some horsey intellectualism. I like to look up words, to make sure I’m saying what I mean. Intellectualism roughly means thinking, studying, and/or discussing complicated ideas without getting emotional. I guess what we do on this show is a sort of low-level intellectualism, redneck intellectualism, because we’re not consulting great philosophers or significant texts. But we are bouncing around ideas that are more complicated, less straight forward, say, than which muck rake is best or how hay prices are looking this summer.

I think horse owners and riders inevitably come across these ideas in their time with equines. I know I do, sometimes as I’m riding along, sometimes as I’m lying in bed, pondering a life with or without horses.

Anyway, for episode 3, I invited Nina Fuller of Lily Brook Farm in Hollis Maine to join me. Nina is a heckuva accomplished woman. About 14 years ago, she got in touch with me and wrote a few guest columns for what was then my new website, NickerNews. She is a farmer and raises sheep. She’s an award-winning photographer. But until about 10 years ago, we hadn’t met. That was when I was driving cross country, from Utah to Maine. I stopped, off a state highway, in a desolate section of northern Colorado and was just about to let my dogs out for a break when two lambs came rushing up to me. They were very young, maybe a week old, with shriveled umbilical cords, and in the middle of nowhere. I picked them up and searched in vain for a rancher, a ranch, someone or some ewe who could claim them. To no avail. So, they joined me cross country and – long story short – they ended up at Nina’s farm.

Find Nina on Facebook. 

Order her book, "Where's Hope?" from Cayuse Communications. 

Listen to the cross-country story here.  

So, yes, back then when I called her for help, “What should I do with these lambs? How can I save them?” Nina and I didn’t know each other except through email. I’m indebted to her for her kindness, her expertise, and for taking the lambs. I think she has been happy with the lambs, who she named Emma and Pearl and who have given her many lambs over the years. Pearl died last week.

Our conversation ties into a broader conversation around pets and livestock, animals in our modern world. Next up, Daniel Dauphin, who has been doing some pondering over the recent hullabaloo with suspended Olympian Charlotte Dujardin. This has gotten Daniel and I and I’m sure many of you thinking about what folks consider wellness, if it belongs in the livestock world, and with what different people consider abuse, horse welfare and wellbeing. Let’s just say what Charlotte Dujardin did pales in comparison to what Brett and Alexis Ingraham did at the tragically ironically named Fair Play Farm in Maine – something I reported on years ago. We’ll consider the broad spectrum of standards in horse communities, amidst the many disciplines and cultures.

Horses, of course, are livestock. When it comes to laws and policies, that puts them in the roughly the same category as sheep and cattle, not dogs and cats. Over the last few generations, however, as an increasing percentage of horses are used recreationally, in popular culture and especially women’s barn culture, the species has moved into a grey area between livestock and pets. American laws, for instance, are sometimes at odds with prevailing attitudes. It can be messy.

Thanks to our title sponsor, Lucerne Farms, producers of quality forage feeds, extremely handy and healthy bales of alfalfa, timothy, and grass blends. A great addition or substitute for your hay or grass and way better than grain. They also make products for your stalls and chickens. Check them out at lucerne farms com

We can’t wait to hear from listeners. What do you think about animals in our society?

How do we balance old standards of agriculture and animal treatment with where we are now and what we know now and, for us horse owners, what we need and want from our equine partners?

It doesn’t escape me that Nina and I live rural existences, maybe more rural and old fashioned than many listeners. Our choices come from cumulative observation and interaction with creatures, domestic and wild, in our admittedly small spheres of land and animals. That’s one reason I’m interested in hearing from your shared or different perspectives. 

I like to think we’re all mindful to carefully avoiding anyone or anything suffering, but, of course, we can’t avoid death. It’s part of life. I’ve been thinking about these things a lot since my mom died and my horse, Barry, died, in quick sequence, less than two years ago. Like so many people in today’s world, I’d managed to avoid much interaction with death. On the eve of turning 60, I’m giving it more attention and considering how just like life, death is all around us if we’re paying attention. We don’t need to be afraid of it or get dark and brooding over it. It just is. 

Thanks to Redmond Equine for generously sponsoring our show. With the warm weather and the turn of the season, make sure to have Redmond’s salt available free choice for your horses. We think they’ll love it. You can hang the Rock on a Rope on a fence or in the stall. Order a box full at Redmond equine dot com.

Also thanks to Patagonia WorkWear for their continued support. Give us feedback, suggest a topic or guest, or make a donation and you’ll be automatically entered to win one of two free Patagonia WorkWear items that we give away every month. Redmond Equine is sending a complimentary syringe of Daily Gold Stress Relief to everyone who drops a tip in our donation jar. Pretty cool and a $15 value. If you get something of value from our podcast, please consider making a donation. We sure would appreciate it.

That’s it. Another episode in the can and out of the barn. Thanks for listening y’all.