Back in the Saddle

For a few weeks, I was laying pretty low.  Having a shoulder injury, of course, is unfortunate.  Probably not high on the list of unfortunate events to ever occur to humankind, but still, moderately more annoying than a hangnail.

Chili and Donni have been sitting on the back burner.  Donni is back home, after leaving the farm to see if she could be bred.  Unfortunately, she did not cooperate, so no cute little foals next year.  Sad, but probably not hangnail pain worthy.

Another gal at the barn said that she wouldn't mind riding Chili in an upcoming show that I really would like to go too, even if I just show in hand.  So the other day, we dusted off the now semi feral four year old and decided to see what she could do.  She was really quite good and quiet for a four year old with almost four weeks off.  So I think that of course, deserves one or two cookies.

Tuesday, I decided it was time to ride the Chili myself.  The gal was back at the barn and was exercising her beyond adorable Fjord mare, so I had company in case something stupid happened. I doubt it would, but considering I have approximately a pound or less of strength in my right arm, who knows.  

This is the really adorable Fjord. 

Chili was really well behaved.  She also picked up her canter leads with great delight, having shown me that perhaps, dumping what seems to be endless amounts of money into things like chiropractics and bodywork, do sometimes seem to accomplish things.  :)

Adorable Fjord and Chili also had a lovely short jaunt through the wooded trails.  Chili was mildly sidetracked by a very menacing looking rock, but let's be honest: there are some pretty terrifying rocks out there.

So all in all, I consider that a success.  It does feel good from an emotional perspective to be back in the saddle.  My back and shoulders are definitely complaining about it, but I'll put this in the physical therapy category and say that the pain will be worth it.  ;)  

Happy Trails (or Tails...your pick)

Chili & the Peeps

My husband gave me a camcorder yesterday for my birthday.  I obviously need a lot of help to learn how to use it, but here is Chili & the Peeps

Hopefully first of many videos to come ;)

One Armed Bandit

So my work has begun to call me the one armed bandit.

I'm not really sure where the bandit part is coming from.  But now, the back story.

As promised, Chili and I trucked off to a horse show last week Thursday.  I'll fill in more of those details later.  I also showed a couple horses for a few other friends.  Two of these horses were young, very enthusiastic yearlings. 

The weather was also tricky, with a storm heavy on the horizon and extremely brisk winds, making it difficult to even see in the arena at times.  

It kind of felt like we were going to be joining Dorothy in some far off adventure

Unfortunately, the yearlings were spending a bit of time whirling around and not generally cooperating.  While I was showing the last one for the second time, I felt something pop in my shoulder.

I turned the yearling back over to his owner and then realized that the pain I was experiencing was incredible.

Oh crap.

So, long story short, is must to my embarrassment, the EMT came over to the ring and examined me.  I bawled.  I hopped in a friend's husband's car for a ride to the ER (because the idea of an ambulance was more than I could bear), and then I sat and waited.

And waited.

The ER experience wasn't particularly a positive one.  The examination was fine, but I ended up feeling quite sick from the pain meds and it was very cold and poor care.

But I survived.  

I also have the best friends.  Little did I realize, but everyone was figuring things out back at the fairgrounds.  My horse had been scratched from her remaining classes and loaded up and taken home, where she was fully sheeted up and turned out, despite the fact that my friends hadn't ever actually been in her stable there!

My stuff was all packed up.  My husband was called and talked too.  Another friend drove my truck and camper back home with my friend Katie following to take her back to the show grounds.  And so forth.

I am so very lucky that things worked out the way they did.  It doesn't seem like this will be a horrific injury.  They think it's just a shoulder sprain for now and unlikely it is a rotator cuff tear, so that's optimistic. 


So there you go.  I went, I showed, I survived.  I have wonderful friends that are willing to bail me out when I do stupid things.

Life is good.

Life in General

Things change so rapidly.

Just a few weeks ago, I was working full time as a microbiologist and also completing my internship in a laboratory at a hospital.

In a fortuitous twist of fate, the laboratory manager where I was doing my internship attended a meeting and met another director who had an open position.  One thing lead to another and I was finally able to give my two weeks notice at my microbiology job.

I am now working in a laboratory at a medium sized hospital.  It's a novel thing having an eight hour shift.  I've never been able to know when I start and when I end work, so I am having a bit of a difficult time adjusting.  Mostly, I keep forgetting to take my breaks!  One kind worker keeps chastising me and chasing me out to the break room.

More pony time now!  Hurray!

 

Danny, a Morgan stallion I know

 Chili's leg is still healing up well and the proud flesh has drastically cut down.  We are still aiming at a horse show at the end of July, but we definitely have our work cut out for us.  We need a lot more work with trot to canter transitions.  She keeps trying to throw herself and run into the canter, instead of picking it cleanly up.

My list of things to work on:

• Quite trying to crouch forward (sit back!) to enable her to sit and carry properly
• Work on figuring out how to give her more efficient half halts before the canter transition
• Reinforce my leg with the whip if she is ignoring that aspect of my canter cueing.

Any other suggestions?

Chili Update

Chili is healing well post dog attack.

Unfortunately, some proud flesh is trying to creep up and form on the lower part of her leg injury, so we are working on nipping that in the bud.

Last Friday, a wonderful equine chiropractor came out to adjust her.  She was pretty out and uncomfortable from where she fell on her hip.  It was affecting the way she was tracking up, so it was a great relief to see her being more comfortable post adjustment.

My husband brought out our Labrador a couple days after the "incident" to see what Chili thought of a dog.  Apparently, our happy-go-lucky, mostly-an-idiot dog wasn't very threatening.

Good news indeed.

Well Chili...there's a show at the end of the month.  Who knows if we'll be able to go and how she'll be.

Wish us luck.

Call Me Lucky

Of course, life has been crazy.

But I'll keep this brief. 

Thursday, I was called at work and told that a pitbull had attacked Chili and another horse and I needed to come.  She had an injured hind leg.

I of course, immediately went to the worse extremes and picture my poor, sweet little filly laying on the ground eviscerated or a tendon severed, or what have you.

We were extraordinarily lucky.  The dog was persistent, despite my barn owner's father being present the entire time.  She attacked and harassed and chased the horses for more than an hour. 

The horses were wet, scared, and upset, but extremely lucky.  Chili, because she is a sensitive princess, was wearing her heavy duty Kensington sheet.  I think it certainly helped save her from worse injuries.  It has teeth mark, claw marks, and blood from the dog on it.

Chili just has a laceration on her left hind and abrasions on her nose, along with various small nicks and scrapes from flying around the paddock at warp speed.  She is so lucky indeed.

Lucky Girl

In my state,the owners are liable for damages.  I doubt they are going to willingly pay the vet bills, so we will see how this progresses.  I am dogged and relentless though.

So sad for the dog, that she had an owner that was improperly supervising her and couldn't handle her appropriately.  The dog is currently in rabies quarantine and hopefully will not be returned to the owners.

Keep tuned, I am sure for more dog drama updates...

We Came, We Saw, We Survived

I am not wearing white breeches.  I figured that white was not a smart idea in the rain and mud.  Good thing.

 The show was quite interesting.  The positives included the fact that Chili hopped right on my friend's trailer at 10pm at night and traveled like a boss.  Another positive is that no one died.

Downsides was that it rained.  It was wet.  It was windy.  It was really, really cold.

I had the first ride of the day and Chili did well in her warmup.  Unfortunately, due to the first ride, I didn't have much time to expose her to the full sized dressage court and the scary judge's house at the end of the ring.  When I was trying to school her down there before I went into the ring, a runner shooed me off and told me I couldn't be down there.  OK...

So, we went into the ring and the geometry wasn't very good on the far end of the ring.  The halt was a bit of a sprawl and stare.

But, we went and survived.  :) 

I then rode another mare Madison who was also not especially thrilled with the subpar weather conditions I was riding in, however, she did do her best to oblige.

She has been schooled in a more typical Arabian fashion with a tightly curled neck and martingale.  Whenever she got a bit anxious at the show, she would curl back and get tense.

However, I think she has great potential since she had a great attitude and a lot of try.  :)

After my two dressage classes in the morning, I retreated back under some shelter, trying to burrow under every blanket, sheet, and cooler I could find.

There was a tiny indoor about 60' x 60' (maybe) present on the property.  The management decided to move some of the later classes in this indoor because several of the classes were therapeutic classes and it didn't seem appropriate to subject those individuals to the miserable weather outside.

They also decided to move dressage trail, equitation, and suitability inside. 

Madison

I rode Madison, the other mare, in equitation and suitability.  She did wonderfully and the judge kindly talked to us after the fact about my equitation flaws, namely the fact that I turn my toes out.  Not sure where I picked that up along the way, but feedback is very useful indeed!

I then rode Chili in dressage trail.  It was a bit tricky because there were supposed to be 20 meter circles and such, which wasn't particularly easy in that small of an indoor, complete with obstacles. 

A couple of our halts took place right over the trot poles.

But I'll say that Chili handled all of the obstacles well.  There were trot poles, an "L", turns on the forehand/haunches, halts, and variations within gaits.  A nice introductory for sure and she got third with some positive comments. 

So overall, I consider that a win.  We came, we saw, we survived the coldest June horse show I've ever attended!