seriously you have no idea how bad this day has been. just horrid.

So in the wee hours of the morning, my mom calls me but she isn’t saying anything. The call drops a few times and meanwhile, I’m tryin to call back. I hear her slur “Help me”, and I instantly know what is happening - she has too much insulin in her system and she’s going into diabetic shock. I immediately hang up on her, call 911, who transfers me to Fayetteville 911, I tell them I need an ambulance, give address, blah blah.

This isn’t the first time my mother has done this to me.

She was unable to move or summon help (my sister and stepfather were in different rooms sleeping with their doors closed) and all she had was her cell phone in bed. I happen to be the last person who talked to her, so she fumbled and hit ‘talk’ which dialed my number. She couldn’t hear me but she knew I had gotten up/through because she could hear me ringing back (I have the Lone Ranger “William Tell” as my ringer on my mom’s phone). So I call my brother and wake him from his slumber, grab some pants and a sweatshirt and start flying down to Fayetteville (1.5 hours). I have had the jeeps doors off for a while and that was terrible. It had dropped down to ~60 degrees at 4am, so I froze all the way down there. Adrenaline had me wired. So by the time I got down there, she had recovered enough to be coherent and was on her way back to the Land of the Living. Both my brother and I gave her a hard time … but what does she expect? She doesn’t take care of herself, and she makes bad decisions concerning her health. I don’t want to bury my mother at age 32.

So after it looks like she is gonna be fine, my brother and I make our way to go to our respective jobs. So I endure another 1.5 hours of FREEZING, which was just horrible and completely miserable. I sadly had some dried sweat, dirty saddle pads which I pathetically wrapped around me to try and reduce some of the wind cutting through. So I’m on my way to work when my jeep battery warning light comes on.

I go to walmart, because it’s the closest place that actually has an auto place and they replace the battery.

My light is still on. Something else is still broken.

I really need a drink.

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Had a private lesson with Shep last night. I don’t wanna bore everyone with details, so I’ll just say that we worked on finding spots, and coursework. Elvis was strong, but not unmanageable. (and strong is also comparative).

Shep totally made my whole YEAR by complimenting me. He rocks!

Do you know how nice it is to have someone (besides Meredith**) tell you that you ride well and mean it?……

and you believe them when they say it?

You couldn’t wipe the grin off my face.

**Mere often tells me I am a good rider. But she has to, we’re close friends. It’s like my mom telling me I’m pretty or Theresa telling me I have nice hair.

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Cook has a big hole in her foot from the drained abscess. So yeah. What else is new? It has to grow out. It still sort of grosses me out. I really don’t like it but what can I do? Except chant every day “I wish your hole in your hoof would grow out”.

I have pictures to freak the non horse people out but my camera is dead. Maybe tomorrow.

2 motivating things about Miss in the past week that shows me Miss is 1) relaxing and 2) well mannered.

In the past few months I have been riding Missy bareback in order to get her to relax and accept my leg being on her without getting so worked up. Mere only knew of one instance before me of Missy ever being ridden bareback. The first time I rode her bareback… she was a lil freaked. But now, she’s totally settled and fine with it. In fact, she’s really good about standing there while I hop on. Miss is taller than Cook and requires a little more effort in getting on. So anyway that has been going well. So this past weekend, I decided to ride her in a halter and lead ropes like I do Cook and Patty. I started out first in an enclosed pasture. She did awesome. The next day, I ventured out with Rachel, trail riding on the farm. Besides a spook at a frog by the pond, it was rather un-eventful. We even did a little trotting. She was way awesome.

So the second event happened yesterday. I was riding Miss and she started acting funny. Sort of a jiggy, weird trot. I was like what is wrong with you? I looked back and there was a HUGE horsefly biting her butt! I couldn’t swat at it from the saddle, so I immediately jumped off. As soon as I did, Miss totally let out a big buck and kick out to get it off of her. She bucked a few more times, while we tried to escape it. So it left, and I got back on. Did some more work. AGAIN, the horsefly comes back! It gets close, and I jump off again to try and get it from the ground. Miss again waits until I’m off before she bucks and kicks out. After that, we went ahead and left because we were both sweaty and I didn’t think that Mr HorseFly was gonna leave us alone.

So I was majorly pleased. Miss has good sense not to buck, kick or go insane when her rider is on her.

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Miss is going to an Oldenburg Inspection soon, so we have been in boot camp, working those butt muscles. Lots of hill work and bending exercises. I’m sure she’s tired of it but I want her to do well.

I went out (of course) last night to check and double check on the girls. Cook has a nice sized hole in her hoof now where the abcess had to be cut out. (again, I’m grateful to my farrier for coming out and getting it out). It’s quite nasty. I have to stick iodine soaked cotton b alls in the hole.

Again. It’s quite nasty.

~Shiver~

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Funny - I called out to the barn to check on Cook this morning and I heard her whinnying in the background. I know her voice. She was upset that Miss is out and she’s on her last day of stall rest. Oh well. Soon enough, she will be back in the swing of things.

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Here is a picture of Derby (yearling - Welsh / Hanoverian cross), after washing and mane pulling, before braids.

Here is a picture of Belle (Hanoverian yearling).

and here is one pic of Belle that I snapped of her running.

My mom is up for an eye appt at Duke, because they found a growth on her good eye (she is blind in the other eye). So she came up last night and I took her this morning. I’ll update more when we get all the final tests back.

Meanwhile, Loren Griggs went to my barn this AM to hoof test Cook. He called me and told me he found the abscess, drained it and she will live.

Big sigh of relief. Loren saved me a crapload of money by not calling the vet.

She will be on another few days of stall rest …. I have so much shavings in her stall, it’s ridiculous… but I wanted her to be able to lay down and rest if she wants to. The other night she did lay down, because she had shavings all in her tail and on her back… so that made me feel good.

I’m not ready to let go of you yet, Cook…