I’m home, in (mostly) one piece. Longtime readers will be shocked, shocked I say!, to learn that I had two tires go boom on the trailer on my way home from Florida, turning a 17-hour drive, one I normally take in two days anyway, into a 19-hour one. But we made it, and the horses were absolute troupers, and the van with the other nine arrived the next day with everyone safe and sound. And now… well, yeah. What about now?
My barn is closed for a little while longer. I’m one of the gazillions of small business owners who applied for a PPP loan only to find the program has run out of money. I’ve had to cancel three clinics, to the tune of thousands of dollars in revenue. And my partner is furloughed, taking us from a two-income household to a one-plus-unemployment-income household.
This is not a whine. I’m abundantly aware of how lucky I am that I can work at all, and that my work is relatively—RELATIVELY—easy to keep clean and safe. And I’m not dealing with anything that is unique in this world. But lest there was anyone thinking of raking their barn owner over the coals for doing what they can to keep you all safe, just don’t.
The closure means my staff and I are riding everything, but since the return from Florida is a great time to do very little, the timing of the pandemic is, oddly, terrific. And before reopening, I brought in our fantastic sports medicine veterinarian for a round of exams and “tune-ups” on all the horses, so they will be fresh, fit and healthy before we bring the clients back.
Read the rest at The Chronicle of the Horse!