Thursday, September 29, 2011

Confuzed

My mom beenz busy. I hates when she busy because I get less snacks. I needz snacks so that I canz keep my beautiful figure. Snacks help make pony sound for more snacking. Iz don't understandz why shez so busy and worried. She come to barn but work in office and Iz don't see her.. She work hard to help my pony friendz. She had party in the summer to clean out rockz. Now she worried because there no money to buy rockz to put in. Iz don't understand getting worried about rockz. She worriez and gets ridz of them. Now she worriez and said she needs to find more for the Center where my friendz and I livez. Why she do that?

I said Mom, ask your friendz. She say that she feel like she alwayz asking for moniez for things and she feel bad. I say it for poniez they okay if it for poniez. So Iz will ask. It is a tax deductible donation, whatever that meanz. Thankz for reading about me I tookz over tonightz. Ignore any future stories about me and trimmer. They liez. Iz good girl.

Love-Denali

Sunday, September 25, 2011

Lessons

This weekend was B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L in Seattle. I wore shorts yesterday for probably the last time before the rain really starts. For the first time in two weeks I was able to go out to the barn to see Denali. She looks GOOD! She's still on the loading dose of Adequan, but I swear I can already see a HUGE difference. She's such a good girl. I'm so grateful that the vet let me keep Denali a the center. She is so happy.

One problem. Her feet. She is still really, really foot sore. I couldn't tell before because she was ouchy all over. Now that she's moving better I can tell that it's her feet. I think I'm pretty knowledgeable about lots of things equine. Feet are the one thing that I don't feel very knowledgeable. What can I do to keep her comfortable? I don't want to put shoes on her (unless I have to.) Are their other options? I'm thinking that once the rain starts, and the ground isn't hard she won't be so ouchy. Are their other options and have you tried them?

Today it was REALLY, REALLY windy. I had to pick up a donation at a house near the Giant Warmblood Barn. What was the donation?

The center that I volunteer for is 80 acres and it is a TON of work! On my way to the house to meet the person that was going to transport the Cub Cadet, a tree hit a utility pole and I watched the box blow up and smoke. I got to call 911 for the countless time since I've moved to Seattle.

LESSON 1: When you hang up with your husband saying, "I need to call 911." It's best you finish the sentence and tell him why.

I got to the house, and walked around. I knew the owner wasn't going to be there, but she had left the keys in it, and told me it was fine to take it. I couldn't find the Cub Cadet, but admired her barn and property. After about five minutes I couldn't find the CC and I also noticed that her horse trailer wasn't in sight like she said.

I WAS AT THE WRONG HOUSE!!

LESSON 2: Even if your GPS takes you to a house, make sure that it knows the difference between Place and Street. I was SO EMBARRASSED! Thankfully, no one was home at that house either!

After getting to the right house, I tried to start the Cub Cadet. No luck. The battery was dead. Once the trailer showed up, it took us two hours to get the Cub Cadet onto the bed of the trailer. Talk about being creative. I'm glad that I learned about pulley's in high school.

We finally got the Cub Cadet onto the trailer and to the barn. Two hours to get on the trailer, two minutes to get off the trailer. It still wouldn't start, but luckily the owner of the horse who survived the fire (that we are still treating) said he liked to putter with engines so he gave it a look over. We finally found the battery and jump started the Cub Cadet.

After we got it running, he told us to keep running it to charge the battery. I decided in my great wisdom to drive it up the driveway to the center (about a quarter mile.) About half way out there it made a horrible noise, blew blackish/blue smoke and died. The girl who was feeding and I pushed it MOST of the way back to the barn, but it's still sitting out on the road as I write this.

LESSON 3: Do not drive a new boy far away from the barn if you were told that "It needs some work."

After "parking" the Cub Cadet I went to the Giant Warmblood Barn. I wasn't going to work today, the girl that I've been training is taking over most of my shifts for me. I called the owner to let her know that I couldn't make it (due to pick up for the Cub Cadet and MASSIVE migraine that I had.) She was fine with it, but let me know that one of my favorite horses became Ataxic. I had to see him, she told me it was bad and no one could figure out what was wrong with him. They are going to give him a few days on anti-inflammatory, but it wasn't looking good. He is such a sweet, sweet boy and I love him so. I hung out in his stall with him and loved on him for about twenty minutes. Giving him as many kisses as he could handle. Think good thoughts for Vegas. I hope he pulls through. He definitely doesn't know where his feet are right now.

LESSON 4: Be grateful for today, because you'll never know if you'll have a tomorrow.

Monday, September 19, 2011

Food for Thought

One of my friends asked me over the weekend if I can ever just "relax."

Nope. I don't think so. I need to feel some level of stressed at all times of else I don't function. I don't know how else to explain it. I need to be involved in a few things at a time or else I get "bored" and start to worry about stupid things.

So if working full time isn't enough (and the non-profit) I am starting a food bank. Okay, not a food bank, but a "Backpack Program" (I haven't thought of a good name yet.) On the first day of school on of my former students (now 3rd grader) had to finish a writing prompt. The prompt was, "My biggest wish is...." Many students filled it in with wishes for expensive clothes, shoes, etc. Not my student. His greatest wish was "to have enough food so that my mom doesn't need to worry." This is the same kiddo who was placed in my program as a first grader. After looking at data, I quickly realized that his behaviors were triggered by hunger.

It broke my heart, and I started to think. How many students at my school leave on Friday and don't have a good meal again until Monday morning. There is no reason that this needs to happen. I have talked with our principal about starting a "backpack program." The idea is that students would be given a backpack on Friday full of food for the weekend. They would then return the bag on Monday.

This should keep me busy for a few weeks while I get the paperwork and pantry built (I'm turning one of my recovery rooms into a pantry.)

As for Ms. Slew (she would really be pissed if she knew I mentioned anything other than her) she's doing well still. She is scheduled for body work twice a month. They are doing stretching and body work on her 3 times a week and are working on building up her muscles. Again. I'm beyond the "Oh Denali, please fix her" and I'm more of "Sure, you can try." Not that I give up, but how many times has Denali been lame?? See my point? I really hope she gets better, but that means that I'm going to need to race the music and get over my intense fear of dying when I'm on a horse. Another problem for another day. Regardless I am happy having her in my live.

Fall is here which means pony visits are going to be very limited. BOO!

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Denali goes back to school.

Man I suck at updating this as of late.

School has started and keeping me busy. Denali had her vet appointment today, but I couldn't be there. She has just seemed "out of it" as of late and I knew something was wrong. The vet said that she was healthy, aside from the fact that she is really sore all over. She adjusted her and did some acupressure on her. Denali was a good girl, but did get nasty a few times when she was working on her back.

Vet's thoughts: Go back to work. She needs to develop more muscles.

Ms. Slew is going back to work. Not under saddle...yet, but that is the vet's goal. We'll see. I'm cautiously optimistic, BUT we all know Denali and how long this might last. She is going to be getting bodywork twice a month and be worked at least 4 days a week.

Maybe I should take best on how long this lasts. Anyone? Anyone?

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Quick Update

School started this week. No amazing stories yet, and I hope to have 0. I won't jinx myself yet, but I must say there have been a lot of tears (mine) because I'm so very proud of my kiddos. Again, it's day 2 and I'm sure that they will try to kill me tomorrow.

Monday I totally spaced on Denali's vet appointment and forgot what time it was. I thought it was later then it was and so we had to reschedule. There was a time that my life revolved around her appointments. I feel bad, but asked the vet if we could start Adequan now to see if there is a difference with her or not. Luckily she said yes. I still want our 4 month appointment to see what she's up to.

Started one of the gifts for Andrea and Gogo, and it's going to be amazing. Feel free to donate. I'll add your name to the card. :) Thanks.

Sunday, September 4, 2011

Sunny Sunday

My husband was asked to come to Iceland and present at a conference. He is currently there, while I get ready for work. Boo real job! I would much rather continue to "run" a non-profit than work. I am attempting to do both, and do both really well. I don't do things half-assed (well, I do, but it's things like cleaning, and cooking, and fun things like that.) I get very annoyed with people who do things half-assed and so I will run myself into the ground before I slack.

One thing I did to help make sure I can handle everything is I got an "understudy" at the GWB. She rocks and loves horses so much. It's nice to have help and it only takes us 2 hours to do everything, so that helps. Today we were finishing up our shift when we noticed that one of the lesson horses was being ridden by her lessor. We sat to watch for a minute from the barn (so we could see her, she would have a hard time knowing that we were there.) She first let her mom (very, very overweight) ride him first. He's a saint, I would have bucked her off right away. Then she got on him (he's older, 19...20?) cranked his head into his chest and asked him for a a canter (with no warm up.) When he wouldn't do it she started to hit him with the whip, and not the "lets go whip." Both of our jaws dropped and we went ripping and tearing up to the owner of the GWB's house. I normally call her but was so appalled that I just needed to let her know asap. We left after we got the owner (who was obviously not happy, she loves that horse) and so not sure what happened.

I finished up all the paperwork for the fundraiser that I organized. Final total: $10,210.25 which won't even begin to cover vet bills, but it's a start for the owners and will help them out. The horse under our care is doing better. Friend "Northwest Equine Stewardship" on FB and you can see the photos of him. Poor boy, it looks so bad, but he's doing well. Still some puss pockets, but doing okay.

Thank you everyone who sent in their dontion for Andrea and Gogo. We have some pretty cool ideas picked out, and I'm starting the "main" gift tomorrow since it will take a while, and it will make a great present regardless of the outcome. If you'd like to make a donation use the button to the right at the top of my blog. I had a "donate" button up, but I guess you can't do that. I got a wordy e-mail from Paypal asking me for my 501(c)3 status number and yada,yada,yada. So, "Buy Now!" (HA!) I sent an e-mail out yesterday to everyone who donated with what our 'plans' are and heard no "WHAT IN THE HELL ARE YOU THINKING" back so I'm going to start the one since I need to meet with the woman and she has only tomorrow off and lives 2 hours away. I'm excited about doing the gift, not why we are doing it. Send your donations in, I will keep the button up for a while. I'm putting the deposit down tomorrow morning for the "main" gift and will happily cover the whole thing if  need to. :)  IF you didn't get an e-mail let me know! I repsonded to your paypal account e-mail so check that. Also, if you want to send in a gift, but don't have paypal, e-mail me at rehabdenali@yahoo.com and I'll give you my address for snail mail.

Love you Andrea and Gogo!!