My season is going to hell in a
handbasket!!!!
Not really, but that's kind of how I'm
feeling right now. I normally don't whine or complain, I can't stand
it. But I'm going to take a minute now, so feel free to skip the next
paragraph if you like.
The last couple months have been a bit
rough. We had our pump controller on our well go out. Fixing it cost
more than our cars are worth and we had to empty our savings to pay
for it. Thank God for savings. Then both of our dogs ended up with
fatty tumors that needed to be removed, at least they weren't cancer.
More things broke, insurance premiums were due and one of my daycare
kids gave two weeks notice so there goes a quarter of my income.
I have to remind myself that everything
that really matters is great! I know God and know that these other
things aren't the end of the world. I have a fantastic husband and
great kids, who are all healthy. The fires are not near my home. I
also have a fantastic horse and we have already had three great
endurance rides this season, including an absolutely spectacular ride
at Sunriver. Life is good.
Despite this, I was still feeling a bit
stressed and really looking forward to a ride. Then Santiam was
canceled. Bummer. So I looked at the schedule and decided to ride a
50 at the Prater Mountain ride as a tuneup for Oregon 100. Then I
started looking forward to that.
For me riding is part of keeping my
sanity. I work 10 hour days with a bunch of little kids and although
I love my job, it's a lot of work. Sometimes I just need time where
it's just me, no body else needs something from me. Somehow taking
care of my horse is different, maybe because she's a lot more quite.
I love endurance rides because it's some time away. Away from my
house and my giant list of things to do. Time to be in nature. Even
if my kids come I have at least six hours to myself on the trails.
There is nothing like seeing beautiful country on the back of a fit
horse. It's great!
Things were going great till this
Sunday. I took Bunny for a little ride and when I got home, the
horses were loose in the field and I turned her loose as too. Syd,
her half sister, was in Bunny's paddock.
Bunny and Syd have this sibling rivalry
thing going on. They chase each other around. Bunny really doesn't
like Syd in her pen, so Syd goes in there any chance she gets and
Bunny runs her out, any chance she gets.
So Bunny lit out after Syd, hit a
corner at a high rate of speed and biffed it. She slid on her side,
at one point her feet were almost sticking up in the air. She slid
right into the side of her big poly water tank. When she hopped up
she took a few iffy steps on her right hind but then looked fine. She
had taken a bunch of hair off or her right knee though.
I was super irritated with her. It was
not good timing. I figured I would just leave her be that night and
then in the morning trot her out and see if I thought she was sound.
The next morning she looked 100% sound.
I trotted her out, lunged her both ways and watched her like a hawk.
But her road rashed knee had swelled up quite a bit.
So I started to work doing everything I
could think of and that I could find on the internet to get the
swelling down. Ice several times a day, clay everywhere but the
bunged up part, lots of antibiotic ointment to keep the scraped up
part supple. I even tried a brown paper, vinegar and sage poultice
and a baking soda poultice. The baking soda poultice brought the
swelling down quite a bit.
Every day was a teeter totter of
emotions. I was pretty sure the knee was just superficial and
swelling was cause by the superficial damage. But would I be able to
vet in, should I ride even if I could vet in and what about the iffy
steps I had seen in the right hind.
Wednesday night I did some dressage
with her. Dressage has many good things about it and one of them is
that it allows you to do moves where you can feel each limb bear
weight and cross or rotate. It's much easier to feel something off
then just trotting along in a straight line. So we did the works, leg
yields, bending, shoulder in, haunches in. Most of the time she felt
awesome. She wasn't quite as eager to go as she usually was but she
was still great. But twice I felt something in that back right leg
that wasn't 100%. It wasn't lame. You could only feel it in moves
where she was collected and bearing weight pushing off that right
hind but it wasn't quite 100%.
I got got off of her, burst into tears,
walked into the house and told my husband I wasn't going to do the
ride. She could pass a trot out and this morning her knee looks great
too. And there is part of me that wishes I was driving to Idaho right
now. But deep down in my heart I know I made the right call.
I don't think there is anything
drastically wrong with that right hind. I think she fell, slid and
banged into a water trough and is probably a little sore. A little of
time off and some body work by Kani and she'll be good to go.
Could she do 50 miles tomorrow? I think
there is a good chance she could. But there is also a chance that in
doing it she would turn whatever it is in her hind leg into an actual
problem.
Bunny is more important than this ride.
And in a month we will be good to go and hopefully complete another
100 miles at Oregon 100.
I have always said I would make this
call if I had to. I have encouraged others to make similar calls. But
let me tell you it was hard to do. I really want to be headed to
Idaho right now. I really wanted to ride 50 miles tomorrow.
Instead my kids and I are having a “fun
day” as they call it. They are going to spend some time riding
Quincy and I am going to take them to a park to play. I am going to
try not to feel sorry for myself but instead remember all I have to
be thankful for.
And if this means that Aarene Storms
and Fiddle get more miles than us this year and win the high mileage
standardbred award, then I will be thrilled for them.
Well I have a fun day to do so that's
all for now.
Next stop, Oregon 100!
When Larissa helped me take my August body condition photo she wanted me to take a video.
She told me it's for people who are sad and crying :)
