Feel like I've been sitting for a month without moving a muscle as far as writing goes.  Writing has been confined to emails and emails do nothing to stretch the creative muscle.  Alas, the creative muscle has been wrapped  and strapped and immobilized.  I thought it had to do with guilt as I procrastinated about calling the RSPCA about some starving horses up the road in hopes the owner, who's quite a friendly soul, would take the hint and do something.  Unfortunately every nicey nicey hint I dropped his way came to nothing.  And then I didn't see him on the road for weeks.  He'd bought a new rig and was working a different schedule.  The dogs and I were wading through grass to try and get a couple of armfuls for this poor gelding.  But whatever I picked was never going to be enough.  Hence the guilt.  Hence the phone call.  Guilt gone!  Surely I'd get some kernel of an idea for a painting/drawing?  Zip. 

So I rang about one horse.  Yesterday I saw three more.  His property is so large that I don't see the different groups for weeks or months.  The property is large but is also completely overgrown with lantana.  The 'good doers' still look good.  Some are so fat it's as though they have been grain fed.  Others are okay, a tiny bit light but still holding their own.  Then there are the vulnerable ones who need that extra help.  One little pinto mare has already died.  I'm sure of it.  I've not seen her for months.  Then there was another bay.  Haven't seen it either.  Yesterday I saw an appaloosa, a brown and a bay in addition to the one I've been picking grass for.  They are all number two on the Horse Body Condition Score (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henneke_horse_body_condition_scoring_system).  And that's very bad.  (Just let Dakota out to eat.  He's probably a 6 or 7 and as such is shut in the yards 17 hours out of 24).

Spent a long time explaining to the RSPCA operator what the property was like, what to look for, how it would be impossible not to see the horse if he wasn't right next to the road.  (Yesterday he nickered when he saw me, as he does, but I couldn't see him.  He was completely hidden by lantana but was only about 20 feet away).  If the horse are not near the road the RSPCA inspector will have no idea how bad things are.  I fed the gelding yesterday but didn't try and feed the others.  The healthy stronger horses push the weaker ones out of the way.  And I can't pick enough grass anyway.  The rhodes grass is too tough to pick by hand and the green panic, due to my harvesting, is getting scarcer. 

But I have to let it go.  I've done all I can.  If I see the owner on the road I'll ask him when he intends to feed them.  Other than that, unless I start buying round bales, there's little I can do.  He has about 17 horses in that paddock and another 7 or 8 (miniatures along with 2 sheep, 2 cows and a horse) in another.  IF he was destitute I'd offer help but money is not the problem.  Apathy and laziness is. 

Anyway, enough.  There's so much cruelty in the world that it is easy to despair.  And forget all the good, the generosity and the beauty.