I'm alive (somewhat)

Thank you everyone for your kind words. I'm just so glad I didn't break anything. I'm going to try to explain this, but I'm still on the good stuff, so the key word is "TRY."

Sunday was a weird day.

I woke up because my right eye was killing me. It felt like it was cut, but I didn't see anything, and couldn't see anything stuck in it. I called the consulting nurse and she said I should go to Urgent Care to make sure that there was nothing wrong with my eye. I said, "Sure" and figured I'd stop by after my lessons. HA.

I went to my lesson. The horse that I rode is a beautiful paint. I saw him being ridden during my first lesson and he looked like such a sweet guy and he is...on the ground. He wasn't bad, I think that I was just spoiled during my lesson last week. There was a horse show there on Saturday and so the jumps were all still set up. He was fine going to the left, but going to the right he was a pain in my ass. It took everything in my power to keep him on the rail. Not fun. not fun at all.

Then we went over some trotting poles. Seriously, elementary things... the stupid horse ducked his head and stopped dead. I ALMOST went over top of him, thankfully I was back in the seat and able to pull his head up. It made me less afraid of Denali because she's not that naughty. I had lots of confidence going to the barn to ride her.

When I got to the barn, her lessor was there waiting for their lesson. I love my lessor (well Denali's lessor actually.) My trainer's lesson before came late so they were running late on Denali/Lessor's lesson. They went out the round pen and lunged there.

(It's not quite a Gogo tail, but I'm working on it)

After that they went into the arena and had a very beautiful lesson. They look really good together (insert jealousy here.) When they were done I decided to hop on the D-mister. As we were mounting she kept moving away from the mounting block (new behavior) and my trainer kept telling me to move it with her. I disagree. I need to find the "how to" that I was taught at my first barn. She (trainer) said that eventually she'd get tired of moving and stand still. I THINK while I'm on the ground moving around with her that means that Denali is winning. ALSO! If I ever need to get on her somewhere with an unmovable mounting block I'm screwed. Right? Ideas anyone? My first barn taught me a lot of natural horsemen ship I wish I could remember what she taught me.

(She's not built downhill. Our arena is very un-even right now)

Back the the disaster waiting to happen. This part I don't remember much of...I don't remember how long we walked around, I don't remember if we did one loop, two, no idea. I don't remember. I didn't hit my head, but I still can't remember. I do remember feeling her come out from under me. We were going up the long side of the arena at the sitting trot (if I remember correctly) and the barn owner was moving on the other side of the arena. Denali spooked. I don't remember what happened, but I do remember feeling like she tucked her head as she ran I remember feeling like I had no control of her head, and feeling nothing on the other side of the rein. I went up, and of and hit the dirt.

Our arena is really, really hard. It needs tilled bad, and although my trainer said I bounced, I'm pretty sure that I went splat.


I remember the barn owner asking if he needed to call 911, and I remember begging them to NOT CALL. I'd be mortified. After the inital shock (and lots and lots of swear words) I realized that I was okay. My lower back was aleady swollen when I stood up, grabbed Denali and climbed back on. Terrifying. Absolutely terrifying, but my mother from 18 years ago always pops into my head when I come off a horse, "GET BACK ON."


We walked and trotted a little the lunge line (see terrified) and the trotting hurt like hell so I got off and put the girl away. I walked her to the field and bawled, and bawled, and bawled. It's amazing the emotions that flow through your body. I don't know how people are so brave. I wish I was.


I crawled in my car and drove home. I called my hubby on the way and told him what happened. When I got home I couldn't get out of my car. I tried, it took me about 10 minutes to just get out of the car and into the house. I couldn't stand straight. Longer story short, I have an old injury from playing Rugby and my husband thought it would be a good idea to go get it checked out, I thought he should just shoot me.


When we got to the hospital we went to Triage, and told her what happened. I also mentioned my eye and we went back out to our seats. She said I'd be in shortly and 4 people were in front of me. I sat in the chair trying to not cry (seriously, hurt so !@#$ing bad) My ibuprofen that I took when it happened wore off and I sat in agony. I watched 6 or 7 people go in. Some who came in after me and were only coughing. I was pissed.

I seriously laughed so hard at this. The only thing that amused me about Sunday.

When we finally got into the ER the doctor asked me what I did to my eye. I started crying. I didn't care about my eye. I just wanted my freaking back to not be killing me. They gave me some good pain killers and I had an ex-ray and nothing is broken. He said I probably pulled the muscles around my pelvis when I hit the ground, and if it doesn't start to feel better then go back to the doctors office. I'm starting to feel like I should be a club member at this point.

My pretty pelvis. See that thing in the middle? Know what that is? Let's just say EWWW!!

After we finished at the hospital (5 hours) we went to Dick's to get some burgers. We were sitting in the car when a man wearing a foil hat walked in front of us. We didn't think much about it. A minute later he was behind our truck being taken down by a cop. Next thing I know we had 7 cop cars and 12 cops surrounding our truck. It was an interesting end to a very interesting day...

(My husband said, "Don't you dare" I giggled, but didn't take any pictures of the cops. I was at least that much with it!)

I decided to go to work today and it was interesting. My back hurt so, so bad and my kids were so, so bad. Sigh. I called up the Chiropractor and made my first appointment in 9 years. My back was all kinds of wrong. I got a nice massage on this weird table, and then he snapped me back into place. My right leg is no longer shorter and I fell 90% better. It was amazing. I go back there in a week.

Still trying to figure out some stuff with the whole horse thing. Sorry if this didn't make any sense. Thanks everyone!!

8 months 10 days...

That's how long it's been since I came off of Denali... This time (yesterday) I ended up in the hospital. Nothing's broken, but holy shit do I hurt. When I'm not totally drugged up I'll explain later. I just can't do much more than lay on the couch and the computer was in reach, this is about as much as I think I can write and still make sense.

Naughty Pony

I ran to the barn yesterday to see Ms. Denali. I haven't been out all week (see yesterday's blog) and as a result I felt guilty. She was in a good mood and fine walking into the barn. I put her in the cross ties and started to de-junk her. She's so dirty. She smells like a dead animal. She just had a bath a few weeks ago, she's blanketed, and isn't a dirty horse. It's still gross. Bath time again I guess.
I had her in the cross ties, and was getting some of her stuff together when our trainer dropped something big in the back of the barn. Well, if that didn't put her into a tizzy! She was just besides herself. I got her to calm down without too much of a disaster. I got to meet and yell at the new 4-H kid. She came running out of the office RIGHT BEHIND DENALI when she heard me yelling at her to "WHOA" then, while still standing right behind a freaking out Denali she proceeded to tell me that she knows that she shouldn't stand behind a horse that's upset. Yes, yes, I'm glad you know, but can you move now and explain later?

Denali's a great horse, but when she gets scared she'll kick out if she bumps into something and can't see what it is. After her freak out, she kept biting into the air. She always bites when she gets nervous/upset and I don't get it. I wish I could get her face when she's pissed, because she WANTS to bite me, but she knows that she can't. She squints and it's awesome!

Leave me alone Iz was scared

I proceeded to clean out her feet so that I could let her go burn off her pent up energy in the arena. When I got to her right hind I cleaned it, and when I let go she tried to kick me! Yep. Ms. Denali TRIED TO KICK ME but, I used my new ninja kills and I caught her leg. I don't know how I did it, but we were both in shock. She quickly realized she was in deep shit and tried to take her leg back. She got a smack and then stood perfectly still.

Iz the best pony in the whole world. Do not believe her lies. Iz don't kick mom. Shez lies. Send treats.

Bad Pony Mom

I have been a horrible, horrible horse mom this week. I haven't been out to the barn since Monday. Work had me swamped and I was trying to get everything organized for the Ice Cream Social that my class hosted. Yep, 10 1st, 2nd, and 3rd graders with Emotional/Behavioral disabilities HOSTED an ice cream social. We had around 30 people come to our room and my little guys seated, them, took their orders, made the orders and cleaned up. They did AWESOME! I was so, so impressed, especially since our first two practice runs looked more like Hell's Kitchen.

Some things we need to work on next time.
1. Seat people who come together, together. (We had some people come and one of the "waiters" would seat one at one table and another at another table.) Still cute!
2. When you're taking ice cream cones out to people, if it's dripping DON'T LICK IT!

That's about it when it comes to things they need to work on. They were adorable. I taught them to hold the trays on their hips and to put the pen behind their ears. They all had little chef hats on that we made. I was a very proud, tired teacher. Here's a picture of the aftermath.

Bare Foot vs. Shod

I always have this a feeling that if you want to stir up trouble with horse people discuss horses hooves. Just like anything people have their own opinion and some are pretty adamant that their way is the "right way."

Personally, (as in my opinion) I think it's great to be able to keep your horse's feet natural, but you need to do what is best for your horse. It always drives me crazy when people tell me that TB's have horrible feet and they need to have shoes on all 4's. My first farrier put shoes on all 4 of Denali's feet because she had "horrible" feet. Yes, they were not great, and I didn't know any better.

Just because your horse is a TB does NOT mean that they have horrible feet. I'm betting (and can't be for sure) but racing TB's are feed a diet to give them the energy that they need to be able to run over long distances. The feet are shod, and are not given much thought. Denali's feet were horrible when I got her, splintered, cracked, dried. After two years her feet look so much better. It's amazing what a healthy diet can do. I do think that there are some horses that just proned to bad feet, but again, a TB does not mean that you automatically have bad feet.

After that ramble, I'm not going to lie. Denali has shoes on her fronts. Her back feet look great, and Denali's front look good, but without shoes, with in days they are pancaked. I realize that it's hard for the hoof to get healthy with shoes on, but I trust her farrier. He does a great job, and always, ALWAYS watches her move, checks out the health of the foot, and always asks me questions and answers my questions. He does his trims based on the wild mustangs. I think it's called a Mustang Trim. He rolls her toes. I could be wrong. Don't quote me.

Where Denali lives she doesn't have any place that would help harden her soles. I tried going barefoot with her once (see bad farrier) so even a year later I'm nervous. My goal is to get her barefoot and keep her barefoot. Someday.

I have a few friends who have their horses barefoot. They have their property set up in a way that helps keep the foot healthy. Their feet look great! A few years ago I met the most amazing lady. Pat Wagner, she is amazing and really knows her stuff. Before I met her I thought that shoes were just the ways it should be. I didn't know. She taught me a lot through e-mails, and conversations we had about Denali's horrible farrier care.

Last week I was thinking about Laz, and my heart was breaking... I couldn't imagine what Kristen was going through, when I thought of Pat. Pat lives in WA, but she knows her stuff. I've seen her take horses with horrible hoof conditions, and save their life. I passed her info on to Kristen, and Kristen contacted her. Long story short, Pat gave Kristen another natural hoof care provider in her area. As I write this he's there...with Kristen and Laz, and I'm just dying to know what she finds out!!

What are your thoughts on keeping your horses feet? Do you feel strongly one way or another? I think personally, that you should do what's best for your horse, but WOW there are some horrible farriers out there... for both natural and shod horses. I've seen some amazing (NOT) horses feet. They didn't look healthy at all.

Umm....What the hell?

Apparently this is some type of art? I could be wrong, but seriously?! WTF?

Dear Jerk (Part 2)

You won't believe this one... our brand new truck? It got broken into last night. The same way that our car was broken into. I'm so pissed! Seriously!? They stole the stupidest things! Why must people be so rude? This is why I prefer animals over people (except our followers, you're awesome!)

I'm thinking about dressing all in black and hiding in the bushes at night. Go all ninja on them!


I've spent the night researching:

I tried explaining to Denali that you don't use weapons when you're a ninja, she disagreed and prefers to take them out using a semi-automatic. Her treats are in the car....she cares very much about those!!