Insanities.

So many insanities over the last couple of weeks

Not the least of which involved me going to the tack store armed with multiple credit cards to take advantage of a 20% off everything sale.  (crap crap crap).  Thankfully I had an enabling friend with me who somehow managed to make sure I knew that there were things I could buy with a horse on stall rest. 

New show coat? nope, just got one (omg, it's here and it's so pretty I wear it around the house in my yoga pants).

New saddle/bridle/girth? Nope, all are relatively new in the last year

New Boots? nope, those are new too...

New show shirts? nope, have some I haven't even worn yet..

Breeches? I can always justify new breeches

Gloves? also useful

maybe a new show helmet if they've got something velvety in my size...

So we tore through the store, I managed to find a pair of cute Pikeurs to school in for a steal, some sparkly Samshield gloves (because rhinestones will totally help mask my busy hands..) and a new curry comb since mine disappeared?

Both my breech and glove sizes were bigger than I remember...

Anyway, obviously spending $$ is what you do when you have mountains of vet bills and a horse that isn't showing, let alone using her regular schooling equipment. 

Speaking of vet bills, we also spend the weekend spending $1,200 on diagnostics for the cat to learn that he "probably" fell off a tree (or a fence, or a tire swing) or something and "will be fine."  Why this irritates me so much I'm not sure.  Lord knows we've far exceeded the $1,200 mark for Prair's diagnostics, and I'd gladly write a check of that sum to learn that she was going to be fine. 

So instead of a $25 shelter cat, now he's a $1,225 fancy cat with a confirmed healthy heart, (thanks ultrasound!) and lots of consults to confirm he probably fell out of a tree (or something).

Staying on the cat insanity track for a moment, kitty's outdoor adventures were limited while we thought he was legitimately dying, but he snuck out and since we have a GPS locater on his collar, I was pissed when I saw he had wandered about a mile and a half away. 

That's totally within his normal wandering range, but at midnight, when he's not quite 100%  and there are raccoons and coyotes about, I was ticked and wanted him home.  So The Boy and I loaded into the car and proceeded to follow his little GPS beacon around the neighborhood with the windows rolled down and shaking a bag of greenies and calling his name.

Just about the time I was feeling sketchy as all get out and embarrassed about our creepy behavior in the middle of the night, kitty came running (everything in our house is motivated by food) and we scurried home before anyone called the cops on us for prowling arnoud the neighborhood at 2mph and poking around in bushes. 

Finally, to cap off the long weekend (that wasn't spent horse showing) The Boy and I enjoyed a long walk, which involved me obsessively watching a HUGE HICKEY on his forehead develop from slightly red to deep purple.  Now, how does one get a HUGE HICKEY on your forehead you might wonder?  Well, see the baby has these great suction cup toys that I adore because she can't immediately toss them on the ground, but obviously they are funnier if you STICK THEM TO YOUR HEAD and shake it around.  Baby thinks it's hysterical and - whammo - perfectly round, huge hickey accomplished. 

I should have taken a picture.  it was fairly epic.

So my friends, that is how you spend a 3 day weekend while all your friends go horse showing. 

Cat bills, hickeys and tack stores.  A perfect trifecta of something, just not sure what. 

Then the insanity continued this week with the arrival of The Vet Bill (because all previous vet bills were just practice for THIS ONE), followed immediately by wine to mitigate the realization that I am not in fact saving any money by not showing.  Wednesday I finally had my phone call with the Pet Psychic which was awesome and aside from her being really certain I had some unresolved daddy issues which clash with Prairie's PTSD, she was pretty spot on, down to the location of Prair's stall in the barn (remember, this lady was 2,500 miles away and talking to me on the phone... not meeting us in person, which would make identifying Prair's stall location not impressive at all). 

More to come on that phone call.  I have lots of notes written down and am sort of eager to schedule another call?  But maybe I should pay my vet bills first before blowing more cash on psychics in different time zones...

I could be a pro hand-grazer I think.

Also I nearly chopped off one of the baby's toes (though I didn't, so I'm grateful for that) and worked out for the first time since 2013 which means I'm functionally crippled.  (the baby isn't though, her toe is healing, I'm the only one limping around the house, thank god)

King of the Derps

I know I mentioned my fun little catch ride, and holy smokes is he kicking my butt - in a good way.  Today I was convinced we were finally going to have one of those rides where I end up in the dirt and he ends up with a crop across his backside, but in sprite of an ominous start, he was a gracious mount for my lesson.  We worked on some tricky (for me) bending line exercises with poles.  I continue to be impressed at how much harder pole work is for me than jumps.  I know why but still, every time it shocks me.  Nothing makes me feel remedial faster than not being able to get to a pole on the ground...

I will say that my core has to be much more engaged on this guy than it does on Prairie, for one thing he's got a sneaky little kick out/lurch/jolt that will get the best of me if I'm sitting like a loose sack of potatoes.  For another, Prair's massive shoulder and neck mean that I can lean off one side or lay down without having a tangible effect on her balance.  With this guy, a 2" adjustment of my upper body drastically throws him around, so it's keeping me accountable, and maybe starting to resurrect my poor, post baby tummy. 

Maybe.

Mostly though he's a hysterical dude.  he is all derp faces and klutz, where Prair offers more of a unimpressed mare stare and caution.

I don't know what this is, but it's *not* the look of eagles.

Whatever he is, it's good for me and hopefully I'll be a stronger, more balanced rider for Prair when she needs it. 

All the Toys Now...

Went down to assist in the Mare's spa day with the vet, which really only entailed me holding my checkbook firmly and watching the dolla dolla bills fly away home. 

Hairy. Eyeball.

Prair received her final shockwave session and a PRP injection into the medial branch of the suspensory.  Right now we are operating under the hypothesis that the Suspensory is the "primary" injury, and that the strain on the superficial and the DDFT are ancillary to that. 

It's never a good day at the vet when you see them unpack every single machine from their truck. 

ultrasound, check.

centrifuge, check.

shockwave, check.

I suppose we left the digital xray safely packed away, but still - I had to take a gulp as I watched all the Pelican boxes get stacked up and unpacked...

I had never watch PRP done before, so I was semi fascinated with the actual process of separating the blood sample (60cc of it.. holy smokes that's a big syringe) into red blood cells, platelet poor plasma (PPP) and Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP).  After processing, you come away with about 2cc of PRP, a lot of PPP and a lot of RBC.  Fascinating.

The horses were less fascinated and in fact were less than thrilled with something that smelled like blood and sounded like a spaceship. (I don't really blame them)

The PRP injection is guided by ultrasound, so we got a partial peek at what things look like, although since a different probe is used, it's not as useful (or comparable) an image relative to what we saw before.

It was pretty easy to see where the disruption of the suspensory is - in fact it shows up on the screen as a cloudy dark spot.  The sort of "void" that makes my stomach totally clench up and freak out - though my vet assured me the dark is an interruption but not a lack of tissue.  She still doesn't feel there is a full tear or even "lesion." So I tried to comfort myself with that interpretation.

Since we're only three weeks out from diagnosis we wouldn't expect to see much in the way of healing yet, but there was still a part of me that was hoping for some sort of miraculous progress.  Instead we'll wait 5 more weeks before we do a full comparison ultrasound.

As such, we're back to our regularly scheduled programming... turnout in the morning, wraps in the afternoon, stall and naked legs at night.

wash, rinse, repeat.

Wandering Eye

If you've been following the blog for longer than you'd like to admit, you might remember how things went down when I found Prair (wasn't shopping), fell in love (wasn't shopping) then bought her approximately two weeks before my wedding (wasn't shopping) as a sort of wedding gift to myself.  I suppose The Boy got an extra happy wife that way...

But anyway.  If I spend too much time not getting to play with my ponies, my eye wanders and while I can usually dismiss even the loveliest prospects without much thought - my eye has landed on one and sort of like Prair - I can't get him out of my head.

While I might be able to justify the purchase price - now that we have gone Full-Hunter and are enjoying the benefits of a high end, high service barn - I definitely cannot justify having two in full training. 

That may be the only reason why I'm not typing this post from a hastily purchased plane seat en route to Virginia to go see him.

I love a nice looking Quarterback baby - and this might be the most huntery QB baby I've seen thus far. 

Right age, right size, right look... just maybe not the right time.  But then again.....