Tuesday, December 1, 2015

Hanging In There!

My scarf gave me fancy shoulders. Also, sorry for the screen shots!
I have been a bit silent on here for a bit, and I apologize for that. Between visiting friends, working on cartoons, getting the pens graveled and sanded (yay!), hub's birthday and the holidays, it has been a whirlwind. I am almost caught up on my cartoons, so that is nice! And having sandy nice pens has been a very big blessing. The horses seem very happy, and though it may take me longer to clean the pens now, every time I walk out there I smile. Hopefully this will help Bacon's feet improve even further.
Birthday boy with his motorcycle wrapping paper.
My pig nephew, Walter, on Thanksgiving. Yes, he lives in the house.
First things first, we tried to clean to mud and muck out of the pens as much as we could. It had been raining a lot that week, so that was a bit unfortunate. Road mix was dumped and the pens were evened out. No more pee holes. Next we slapped down some mats in the most used areas of the pens, and then poured a few inches of sand on top. So glorious.
Road mix time!
Sand mountain pass.
Slowly getting there.
Supervising.
Whoa. Sand! And sad shelter, but it is better than no shelter :(
Right after that is snowed. And the sand froze (but thaws enough for safe walking and good lounging areas) and the pastures froze, So horses have been on lock down for a bit. And then I learned of an opportunity to ride in an indoor Saturday night. I know my days or very numbered for winter riding, so I jumped on that band wagon. Sure, Bacon hadn't been ridden for a couple of weeks, or turned out recently, or been in an indoor since April. With a grid and MANY other OTTBs. And mirrors and a quarter sheet for the first time. But we could deal with it.
What we should have been doing on a frozen night.
Bacon enjoys the fancy digs.
I tacked my pony up with frozen fingers and threw her on the trailer with Mr. Prisoner. I was worried about freezing (ride time was from 6pm-10pm) but once we got in the indoor, we were quite comfortable. My horse was on high alert as I hand walked her around the arena for a good 10-15 minutes. That was the spookiest she had ever been. Not at the mirrors, but at random things. Normally she calms down once I hop on her, so I thought I would give that a whirl. That was a lie. She wasn't bad by any means, just tight and tense and a bit of a locomotive. Still ridable, but not normal Bacon. There were some others warming up in there with us as well, some were not too great at steering, but we got the job done.
Vroom vroom.
Also choosing to ride in slippery fleecy breeches and winter boots not a great option.
Going through the one stride, to one stride to straight three stride or bending line.
Prisoner was being amazing. I don't know how many horses were in there with us, but I want to say 12. My horse was actually going through the grid fine. A little short strided and speedy, but having not done any grids this year, I was ok with it. Bacon was finally relaxed enough to stand still and wait for the others to go through the grid, but she was having a hard time with her feelings. Her mare side came out in full swing as she shark faced Prisoner and even had a little lunge at another OTTB. I was not impressed, but that is what I get for owning a mare. We made several passes through the grid at the lower jumps and called it a night. My knees were done and they had chili and cake waiting at the end. All in all, it was fun. Even if my horse's brain was flittering off to somewhere else.
My arms weren't up to doing a release that night apparently.
Not pretty, but ok.
I also had another doctor appointment today. I got poked a lot. And molested (yeah, that kind of appointment) and unfortunately, due to the large amount of cysts I have in my breasts, my doctor has ordered an ultrasound to make sure that they are actually cysts and not other bad lumps. The cervix looked a bit wonky too, so it got scraped (ow!) with lots of samples being sent out. There are also more tests to be run, and hopefully I can find some answers as well as rule some other things out. Stupid boobs.
Pats for the wild pony. I will also be taking omeprazole like her!

24 comments:

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    1. He really is. He also scored all kinds of goodies on Thanksgiving.

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  2. YOU HAVE A PIG NEPHEW NAMED WALTER. OMG. Your pens look GREAT! It's amazing what adding gravel or sand does to improve a dry lot! That's what I long for at our barn. Sounds like a very not-fun doctor's appointment but hopefully it will result in some answers and good treatment for you! If you ever want or need to fly out to the east coast for medical stuff, you always have a place to stay here :)

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    1. Whoa, just read that as my penis looks great! Thanks Alli, but I don't have one of those ;) And I will have to take you up on visiting some day!

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  3. Glad you got to go and ride. Gotta take what fun is available. :-)

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  4. i'm so jealous of all the fun grid nights and jumping outings you guys go on - they all look so fun! yay for new footing in the pens too ;)

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    1. We have some cool people and events around here. Idaho isn't too bad! Except there aren't any events to be seen around here.

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  5. Fellow cysty breast owner here, and one of mine is a 4 inch wide benign tumor. Be happy you're getting the ultrasound! I'm always relieved when they let me do an ultrasound, cause really, a self-exam only goes so far when they feel like they're filled with lumps. Every year the obgyn is like "well, I'm going to feel around up here, but with you, I'm almost certainly not going to be able to tell if there's anything changing up here since I only see you once a year, so that's all you." I'm nervous I'll miss something that is actually not benign.

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    1. Yeah, this was this particular doctor's first time feeling me up. She was quite wide eyed. I am interested to see what the ultrasound shows and it always scares me a little bit because they are so lumpy. Them suckers hurt too!

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    2. Agreed! Have they ever made you do a mammogram? They were like "You're too young for this to show anything, but we're going to do it anyway." Very painful, especially immediately after my biopsy, and of course showed nothing. Ultrasounds FTW.

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    3. Haha...mammograms every year for this girl! Thankfully they only have 1 side to do. :)

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  6. What a good girl Bacon is!

    I agree on the boobs. I totally get that. :)

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  7. Hilarious that your horse is named Bacon and your pig nephew is named Walter.

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    1. They have yet to meet though! He is kind of naughty and scares the dogs on purpose when they come over.

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  8. I love the pig. Your pens look great. I wish we could add sand to ours, but we have to settle with gravel.

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  9. Your pony looks WILDLY FANCY in that last picture! Sorry your appointment was rough, but I'm hoping your awesome pig nephew and a delicious thanksgiving made up for it.

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  10. Oh my gosh! Your concluding sentence "Stupid Boobs," had me snickering aloud. I'm sorry you had to undergo such "procedures," but your jumping pictures look cute. And I want a pig nephew and goat lap dog. Excellent!

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