One day, Ellen, Shari and I were in the park talking about Covid-19. We all quickly agreed on the one thing we were worried about the most, and that was not being able to see our horses. We could live with any other rules they imposed on us, but if we couldn't go to the stables, we would be devastated. We all board our horses. Shari is at a different barn down the street.
Ohio was quick to start implementing restrictions. First, all large events were cancelled. It seemed inconceivable in the beginning that the big St. Patrick's Day parade in Cleveland would be cancelled, but just a few days later, it seemed inconceivable that it wouldn't be cancelled. Each day, smaller and smaller events were cancelled. Just about the time that Kevin and I were worried about going out to eat, they closed the restaurants. We started to hear about "Shelter in Place" orders in other countries and soon in other states, and we started to worry. What about the horses?
That is when our barn manager approached us and told us that if anyone gives us any trouble about coming to our barn to explain to them that we are a co-op barn. We do everything for the horses except feed and water them. She said there would be no way that she could do it all. Also, that taking care of livestock is an essential business. That sounded good to me.
The next day, Ohio issued their "Stay at Home" order. Our governor seems to appreciate the importance of getting outside for exercise and to walk our dogs, (he must have a dog,) so he said the parks would still be open. If we can walk our dogs in the park, we didn't see any reason that we couldn't ride our horses in it, too.
We could live without restaurants--we still had our horses and we could still ride in the park.
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There were other complications to work out. We aren't supposed to have gatherings of over 10 people in one place. If we did, the government could shut us down--and then who would clean all those stalls? We tried schedules, and that was a disaster. It didn't even last a day. I don't think it lasted an hour. We do have a rule that only one person per horse is allowed out at a time. That is working, I'm glad to say. When we finish with our horses, we don't hang around but go home.
My farrier had to postpone his visit due to his wife worrying about his safety, so Cole won't be getting shoes for a few more weeks. That might be a problem, but we could end up with more rain. Our vets have a rule that only one person can be there for a visit; regardless how many horses they are going to see. I will be taking care of spring shots for our herd and one other horse; a Morgan aptly named Justin. Ellen seemed rather happy that she was getting off the hook.
And then there is the quiet skies. We board our horses very close to the airport. The planes are so loud that often we can't even shout to each other--and there are so many of them. Sometimes it is just one after the other. Well, there were so many. Now there are just a few planes, and it is so peaceful.
An even more unexpected thing happened. When we go in the park, we ride down the hill, cross the river and then we can ride either to the north or the south. The trail roughly parallels the street and the paved all-purpose trail--sometimes very close and sometimes fairly far away--but we always know the street is there. In both directions we end up having to cross the river. The cars cross the river, not by a bridge, but by a river ford. When there is a lot of rain, they close the fords.
Since one of the few things we are able to do away from home here in Ohio is to go in the park, you can imagine what it is like there on a pretty day. The kids and many of the parents are out of school and work. The parks are becoming very chaotic. That isn't the problem, though. It would be fine if there are a lot of people in the park, as long as they kept their social distance. Apparently, they weren't.
To enable more space between the users, the park has chosen to close some sections of the roadways. One of the easiest places to close is right where we ride when we come down the hill. They closed the fords. It is wonderful. I hope they never open them, again.
We no longer have to hear the loud traffic. No longer will Cole be startled by a sputtering Harley Davidson. There will be no more hot rods to destroy the peace and quiet--and we don't have to cross the rivers at the fords. We can ride over the fords, instead. That is really nice in the evenings; during rush hour when those river crossings are too high. What am I talking about? There isn't any rush hour, anymore.
Are we supposed to be enjoying this pandemic so much? Should we be feeling guilty about it? It is hard to feel guilty when the rides are so very quiet.
One thing that didn't work out so well is the big flood that we had. It was way over the trail in many places, and it damaged the trails a lot by washing up large gravel. We can no longer trot or canter over some sections of the trail. In fact, I'm not too thrilled about even riding over them at a walk. Then again, we can go around them by going on the street...
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