{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"Life and Death of Livestock and Pets, a Short Conversation with Nina Fuller","description":" We love to hear from listeners and contacting us is easy here.  We offer these shows for free. If you think it\u2019s worthy of a small contribution, we sure would appreciate it. This is Episode 3 of Season 5 and we\u2019re dedicating the next few shows to some horsey intellectualism. I like to look up words, to make sure I\u2019m 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\u2019re 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\u2019m riding along, sometimes as I\u2019m 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\u2019s an award-winning photographer. But until about 10 years ago, we hadn\u2019t 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 \u2013 long story short \u2013 they ended up at Nina\u2019s 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, \u201cWhat should I do with these lambs? How can I save them?\u201d Nina and I didn\u2019t know each other except through email. I\u2019m 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\u2019m 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\u2019s 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 \u2013 something I reported on years ago. We\u2019ll 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\u2019s 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\u2019t 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\u2019t 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\u2019s one reason I\u2019m interested in hearing from your shared or different perspectives.  I like to think we\u2019re all mindful to carefully avoiding anyone or anything suffering, but, of course, we can\u2019t avoid death. It\u2019s part of life. I\u2019ve 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\u2019s world, I\u2019d managed to avoid much interaction with death. On the eve of turning 60, I\u2019m giving it more attention and considering how just like life, death is all around us if we\u2019re paying attention. We don\u2019t 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\u2019s salt available free choice for your horses. We think they\u2019ll 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\u2019ll 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\u2019s it. Another episode in the can and out of the barn. Thanks for listening y\u2019all. ","author_name":"Best Horse Practices Podcast","author_url":"http:\/\/besthorsepractices.libsyn.com\/website","html":"