Thursday, Thursday

The pony in my wordless Wednesday is the vet's pony from Veterinary school. He is one of the reasons she created the Center where Denali lives. I don't know 100% of the facts, but I believe he was her surgery pony, and he was suppose to be put down (like the rest of them) after a surgery. Instead she took him. :) He is a sweet boy and I love him. She has students come to the Center from her old Vet School to assist in surgeries so that no ponies need to have un-needed surgeries and suffer. I love her.

In other news, I think that Denali and I are having a contest to see who can be lame the longest. I started having hip pain in April with lots of odd problems, but I just ignored it...and ignored it...then I went to PT for my knee, and mentioned to her my hip pain....and then did nothing. This week I've been sitting in a training and my hip started to hurt, and then I went lame. I finally caved and went to the doctor's today. At first I got really frustrated because they were running so late and my hip hurt so freaking bad and then quickly life reminded me to be thankful for what I have, even if it hurts.

The person in front of me was an older woman who had no hair and looked so weak. I would wait for weeks if it would heal her from what I assume is cancer. The person in front of her was a quadriplegic. He was hit on his bike 4 months ago. I would wait for months for him to have feeling again. Life always reminds me to be thankful, always. Even if something is bad, not going the way it is suppose to, or doesn't work out, it could always be worse. ALWAYS. 

I finally got in and I still need x-rays but she suspects one of two things. A. I fractured my hip in November (they never xrayed it.) or B. (Something else that I don't remember because I stopped listening to her once she mentioned needles into my hip.) Maybe God sent Denali to me because he knew we both have problems.

If you get a chance today go over to Abbie's blog The Chronicles of Ernest and give her your sympathies. Ernest was let go from this world earlier this week. Also, Muddy K, who writes A Fearsome Beauty  (and who was so good to me when Denali was sick) lost one of her sweet 4 legged babies today too. Rest in Peach Malden. I think this blogging community is amazing and you are all so good at cheering each other up when we're down.

Happy 4th of July. I am going camping (yes, with bum hip) and won't be near a computer. I plan on spending Monday with the ponies trying to keep them calm. What do you do during fireworks? I'm especially interested in those of you who have ponies in pastures.

Wordless Wednesday

Denali Update

My husband and I spent Saturday night camping out on an Island near Seattle. It felt very fancy sailing over and sleeping out under the stars. Too bad the real world was only an hour away (I could see downtown Seattle from Blake Island) and we came back Sunday morning. I had taken off from the GWB because I thought that we were going to be there longer.

I ran out to an open house at the rescue that has April. I love them, and it was nice to see April out being a horse.  After a quick visit I decided to go see Ms. Denali. Someday I need to take a video. I walked up to the field and Slewy was about 300 yards out. All I do is yell her name once. She looked up and came galloping over to me. I love it. The rest of the horses came galloping over too, trying to figure out what she was running for.

I got her halter and took her out of the field. I still get super nervous handling her. I try, and I try, but it doesn't get a lot easier. I let Denali eat some grass and took her blanket off. She was really sweaty and I noticed all of her horse bites on her. Poor thing. The guilt took over and I took her down to the barn to give her a good grooming and put some medicine on the bites. No one was at the barn, which made me even more nervous. She was a good girl. Someone did decide to start shooting guns while I was leading her, but I screamed (out in fear) and she calmed right down. Damn guns.

I turned Denali out and she just stood by nickering (I also double as the food lady.) I decided to see how she's moving for myself so I grabbed a lunge whip and asked her to walk. She decided that gallop would be just as good and around and around she went. She looked great! A little ouchy, but she's barefoot, so it almost seemed to be a foot thing and less of a nero thing. She even did some head tosses and no nero signs. Maybe the time off is doing good for her. I also changed her supplements to Cosequin ASU from SmartRepair. I don't know what's causing it. I'll take it. It makes me nervous when I think about her being ridable. I know that makes no sense, but if she can be ridable that means that she needs training and that I need to do research. I want her to be ridable more than anything, but I also want my intense fear to go away.  I get on other horses and automatically get terrified because it reminds me of our rides (there were not many good ones.) Disclaimer: I can not (nor do I want to) sell or give Denali away. If you knew truly how much money went into her upkeep you'd think I was totally insane. I can't risk her ending up on a slaughter truck again.

I know that Denali knows that I'm afraid. I know this because she is SO good for me. She stands still and even when I am picking at scabs on her legs (with my heart in my throat) she stands perfectly still. I got out her dinner and decided to feed her while I groomed her. It kept her occupied and got one horse fed. She is so dirty. We are getting a washing station, but it is going to be awhile until I think I can clean her with water.

(45 minutes later)

I had a clean horse. Her tail and mane (which is getting MUCH too long, temptation to cut off is getting really hard to ignore.) reminded me of Bob Marley so I brought out the Cowboy magic and finally her looking like a horse. Her bridle path is about two inches long and is standing straight up. I decided to let it grow in, but I might cut it off.... she looks like a punk rocker.

I went to fly spray her and she let me do her left side (no horse bites) but wouldn't let me near her right side. She kept turning around me and wouldn't stand still. I stopped her and promised that I wouldn't spray her cuts. No joke, she looked and me and sighed. Per my promise I got under her belly and her legs. I have whip on fly spray whips and went around her cuts and put medicine on them. There is a new baby (3 year old) that is getting integrated to the herd, they are determining order again. Sigh.

She was a peach, a perfect angel and her trot and canter looked better than ever. She's getting worked three times a week (I just found this out, opps!) and is doing well. Who knows, maybe she will be ridable. My only concern is tripping. I don't want to get on her first (I lack skills, confidence, guts, confidence, skills, etc.) but I won't give her to a trainer without full disclosure. I need to keep working her to see if she is going to keep improving or if this is a blip. We've had lots of those! Regardless I love this horse, and she loves me. I know this much to be true.

Thanks for reading!

I'm Alive

First course of action. I feel that everyone and their brother should go over to MyHorseFaith's blog (You get to pick! She's a good horse mommy and keeps one for each of her babies,  Change of Pace, Chronicles of Thalia, and The Wonder Mare.) After you've picked a blog, please give her a HUGE thank you. If it wasn't for her this blog would probably be no more. She kept me from throwing up at the horse show, passing out, and dying.

I somehow made myself sick on Friday. I think it finally hit me that I had somehow thought it was a good idea to go to a horses how. I was a nervous wreck. I did manage to scrub the mare up on Friday and got her as ready as I could. Her mane looked like a 4 year old child did it, but I didn't care. I just wanted to get through the show on Saturday.

Saturday morning I honestly thought I was going to throw up I was so nervous. I was reminded that my horse was white, and she wouldn't look good covered in vomit. I was terrified of the trailer, but luckily no one questioned me and someone just grabbed her from me and put her in. I think I'll get there, but it's hard.

Once we got to the show grounds it hit me what I was doing. Who was I to think that I could just hop on a horse after a 9 month hiatus and actually show. Dumb. We walked our horses around the arena and the mare couldn't care less. She was a rock. She is a rock. I love her. I took my time tacking up thinking that it would delay the inevitable. Just about then MyHorseFaith showed up and helped save the day. Being the wonderful, amazing human being she is she brought me some Rescue Remedy to try. Honestly it worked, or at least my urge to vomit went away and I felt a little better.. I owe her big. She held Mare while I got on, handed me my whip (note: I have never used a whip except for Friday, more on that in a moment.) and called my test for me. I owe her big!!! THANK YOU!! She also somehow managed to call 5 other people's tests too. Hero of the day award!

Test A went okay, but the Mare does not have much forward motion unless you use the whip. I do not feel confident using the whip AND keeping her straight so I opted for our medium walk to look like a crawl instead of us looking like we were drunk. We ended up with a 62.5 on our test and got 4th place out of 4 people. I expected that.

Test B felt much better, still not Olympic quality (: but better. I felt better and less nervous so that helped. I had to leave straight after my test so I wasn't able to stick around to see how I placed. I ran over to see my score, 66.8 and I was happy with that. There were six or seven people in Intro B, and they place to 5th so I wasn't too concerned (because I'm a 12 year old and still want to collect ribbons) and went on my merry way. (NOTE: MyHorseFaith was still there calling random people's tests!)

My trainer texted me while we were sailing to an island in the Puget Sound (Blake Island) and told me I got 3rd! I'm still shocked. I am going to have another lesson this week. Goal? How in the hell do you use the whip AND keep the horse straight.

I also visited Denali today and have an update on her, but in pure Denali fashion, she demands her own post.

T-48

Wow, what a week.

School ended on Tuesday. It was bittersweet. My kids were not as hard as I've had in the past, but lots of adult stress made this year harder on me than normal. I think my November stress, my ProCert took up a ton of my time only to get this in the mail. Pop Quiz: What's wrong? 

I promise that I haven't done anything to this other than cross out my name and my ID number. You can't make this stuff up. I thought about correcting it and sending it back in, but decided against it for now.

The last two days have been full of bliss! I got to spend time standing in a field with Denali. Nothing better. She is such a funny mare. She did her protective thing again. She stood between me and the mare that often tries to kick and bite me. She kept her away from me. I don't know if she's trying to protect me, or if she's saving me so she can beat me up. She lets other horses come up to me, but not the two who often turn on people.

Yesterday I became the communications person for the center. I'm really excited about this opportunity. I am in charge of the e-mail and the Facebook page. I love keeping busy, which often stresses me out, but I also get stressed if I'm not. I think good stress is good.

Today I had a lesson for the first time in I don't know how long. The last lesson I was suppose to have lasted such a short period of time I don't know if it really counts. T-48 hours until the show. I somewhat remember A, but B is foggy. I am going to beg a friend to come and call it for me. My ride today went a million times better than I imagined. We had some really nice 20 meter circles, some of my best ever. We also had some that resembled triangles. I only have two goals for Saturday (you can only have two goals when you haven't ridden in 9 months.)

Goal 1: Stay on horse.

Goal 2: Stay in arena.

The Paint Mare shares the pasture with the Morgan. When I went to get the Paint Mare I was trying to organize the halter when the Morgan came up and put her nose into it. It was so cute. I felt bad for her. When I was done with my ride I went back out and the Morgan was laying down. I took her some treats and started scratching her neck. She rolled over on her back like a dog and I laughed so hard that I snorted. That startled her and she got up.

Hope all is well in your worlds! 

My week

This is how my week is or will be spent.

Sunday: Went out to see Denali with best friend who is visiting. Denali is extra twitchy and nervous. Wouldn't eat carrots. (Yes, you read that right, Denali wouldn't eat carrots.) We move to a different part of the field and she follows, and is less twitchy and eats carrot after carrot. I don' t know what happened at the fence line where we were, but something made her really upset. Denali reaches back and scratches her hock with her teeth. Most people wouldn't be excited, but I was thrilled. I haven't seen her do that in MONTHS.

Monday (today): Second to last day of school. Attempt to de-junk classroom. Print out Intro A and Intro B.

Tuesday: Say good-bye to munchkins. Work at center, study dressage test A and dressage test B.

Wednesday: Go ride horse.

Thursday: Go ride horse.

Friday: Ride horse than clean horse.

Saturday: Wake up, go to barn, load horse in trailer, take horse to show, hopefully do dressage tests without looking like total idiot. It's totally fine that I have somehow let myself get suckered into riding in a dressage show without really riding since September right? THIS could be there perfect example of a hot mess. I'm riding a rock solid mare, at least I was smart about that one.

In other news, don't forget that you can mail me a donation for our Rock n' Roll party and I will make you a tail bag! :) You can read more about that here.

Clostridial Myonecrosis

I am always learning when it comes to horses, mostly what can go wrong with them. A horse that was boarded at my first barn got a normal injection June 11th. His mom started noticing swelling and by day two he was fighting for his life at the Equine Hospital. How many of you have heard of
Clostridial Myonecrosis? I didn't even know it existed, but after seeing the photos of his leg (he got his shot in his butt) I will add this to the list of things I pray that Denali never gets. His whole back leg looks like hamburger. His mom has a private video on YouTube and since it is private I will respect her wishes, but OH MY!

New Boots!

My new boots! I just ordered them from Amazon.com and got them for $48.00. They are Bogs Rider's Corsage. I'm pretty excited. I hope I like them on as much as I like them in the photo. Plus, I got a deal! I love deals!

Trailers and Boots

I did barn chores Saturday at the Center, and Sunday at the GWB and the Center. I am sure I was a HUGE help (insert sarcasm). I need to get a new pair of barn boots. The boots I have now are just the heavy duty rubber boots that they use for fishing/hunting/general manly things. By Sunday I had huge blisters all over my toes and bottoms of my feet and walked at a sloth's pace. I give in. I need an actual pair of boots to wear to work. I want something comfortable so that when I'm walking all over I don't get horrible blisters. I don't want my feet to get wet (I live in the PNW, so that is a big problem.) I also don't want them to sweat off. Suggestions for some good barn boots?

Yesterday Ms. April left the Center to go to her horse rescue. I know that I always say it, but I love her. There was just something about her that made her so special to me. It might be that I hear all her naughty stories about running away, biting, kicking and that she doesn't do that to me. The day she put her head into my chest and sighed was when she won me over. I love her. The one woman who works there told me that I'm April's favorite. Made me smile.

She has only been in a trailer one other time, and that time she was in shock. She had to load into a three horse trailer with two other horses already in the trailer. Just being around a trailer makes me so flipping nervous I feel ill. Because April is so sensitive and not quite trusting of everyone I wanted to put her halter on her and take her outside. She was really nervous and so I hopped up in the trailer and encouraged April to come in. She wouldn't budge, but slowly started to move forward. I felt okay until someone was instructed to close the door when she got in. The though of being in a trailer with a horse and the trailer closed put me over the edge. I had to get out. I'm terrified. I felt so bad leaving her with someone that she didn't know, but I wasn't helping her any by being in the trailer. I need to figure out how to get over my intense trailer fear.

I got out and went to the window and talked to her. After a few minutes she got in and we secured the doors. I was really, really sad to see her go. I know she is going to make someone an amazing horse.

Rock and Roll

What a weekend. Yesterday was the horse show that had to run. In may we had 80 entries. Yesterday? We had 17. A lot of barns just released from quarantine. It was fine with me. I was able to get my stuff done and get out of there by 2pm to run out and take an equine first aide class and visit Denali. 

The first aid class was great, as always. I always learn something (re-learn, it's hard to remember everything!) It's great to have such a resource so close. Plus, I love Denali's vet, so it's nice to be able to spend time with her. I have taken on the role of event planner for the center and am in the process of planning my first event. More on that at the end of this blog!

Denali saw me while I was at the class (haven't seen her since May 31st, mother of the year I am NOT!) I couldn't leave class to go so hi, so she stood staring at me. After class I went to say hi and got the butt. I ran to go help with one of the rescue horses and then went back up to see Denali. She forgave me (read: I had carrots) and happily followed me around after her treat. I decided to take her out to hand graze. She's lost some weight and you can see her ribs again. The vet is upping her food. We got some better hay, so that should help. Denali still has some scabs on her leg from scratches. I was trying to check out how they were feeling and she decided to kick. I don't know how I have the ninja skills I do, but I again caught her leg. She hates my trick.

After our grazing trip and ninja practice I ran to work. The vet was doing the shift and I couldn't let her do it herself. It was fun to do the work. When we ran up to feed the hay I couldn't find Denali. She was down in the pond again with 5 or 6 birds hanging out on her back. Look! She's ridable! 3 of them stayed on for a while as she sauntered over to me.

As for the first event. I am planning a "Rock and Roll" party. The center really needs some more gravel and shelters. We are going to try to make it big and get a rock band to pay music in the evening and an art auction or something else. We are also going to have a "rock" party in the afternoon with games and prizes (the field has a ton of rocks and we need to clean them out. Might as well have fun while we do it.) I am trying to collect horse things (or non-horse things) to use as raffle prizes. Let's say you're looking at a horse catalogue and see something that is great, but you don' need.  Consider making a donation to the NWESC by buying and mailing me that item. I will make sure you get a receipt and recognition for your donation. E-mail me at rehabdenali @ yahoo.com for my address (I'm not putting my mailing address out here for the world to see :) Thank you! I will love you forever. I am going to ask local vendors too, but they already get asked by all the local horse things going on.

Edit: If you make a donation of an item to our "Rock and Roll" party I will make and mail you a custom tail bag. OR I can make you a banner for your blog. :)



The logo I made (in Paint, lol.)



10 Days PPV

It's been 10 days since I've seen the pony (post pony visit.) I am finally starting to feel like a human being. I spent Monday afternoon bonding with my doctor and now am the proud owner of a slew of subscriptions and and Epipen, HA! Not that it's funny, but it is just so typical for my life. My body is out to get me, but it's getting better. I am just over reacting to normal allergens. Fun times right?? I miss my mare so much! I guess she saw a donkey for the first time. I'll give you a second to imagine how that went..

Have you thought about it?

She of course flipped her shit, and then tried to hid behind Melanie (who was leading her.) Um...Denali. You are 1200 pounds and 16hh. The donkey could still see you.

Thanks to our new followers! Makes me smile!

Hope everyone is having a good week!

I think this is pretty funny, and sadly all too true!

What we do for love...

I appologize first to those of you who are my friends on facebook and who have had to read my pathetic posts for the past 4 days.

As you may know I have allergies. I've had them since I was born, and often when I had an allergy attack it would trigger an asthma attack. Always a fun time. I spent most of first grade in a hospital because they were so bad and I kept getting pneumonia.

I've been getting allergy shots again (I had them from age 7-16) since January and things have gone well up to last week. On Thursday I had a systemic reaction to my allergy shot and have felt like death since. I spent all of Friday sneezing and wheezing. I got blisters in my mouth.... actually we don't need to go into details....let's just say I'm gross.

So what happens? I got to go to the doctor on Saturday and given a ton of medication. Didn't work. Sunday my Doctor checked in on me and was trying to come up with a game plan for my next shot (shutters.) Not too excited for that. My body is still convinced that it is being attacked so it is on high alert. I got to send all weekend in the house sleeping. I went out and got some movies to watch, but then went back to bed. I tried to eat some honey (yes. not something I should do right now...) but that made the wheezing worse.

What am I allergic to?

• Horses
• Hay (Timothy is the worst...don't know why)
• Dust
• Pollen
• Pine
• Ash
• Birch
• (all trees...this will be easier)
• Grass (touching it)
• Dogs
• Cats

I could go on for PAGES. Let's not. Luckily I am NOT allergic to bees, nuts, or anything else that might kill me. I think I would rather feel like total shit than have severe life threatening allergies. It does make me sad that I missed the gelding clinic, I haven't seen my horse in a week, I couldn't work at the GWB and I'm sure that was an inconvience (I told her Friday night, but still.) and I'm bored out of my mind. Boo. Still sneezing (I really think I broke a record) and still wheezing. The things we go through for love.

H-I-L-A-R-I-O-U-S!!

One way to have a horse show during the outbreak....

I saw this on my local news over the weekend but couldn't find it again to put here. If you haven't seen this yet I think it's hilarious!!