Thursday, July 31, 2014

Thankful, Day One

Well, Carly "roped" me into this one, and that's fine.  I'm supposed to name 3 things I'm thankful for for 7 days. And like her, I feel like doing it. I need some more positivity in my life right now.  However, due to how much time I want to dedicate to this first one, today I'm only going to do one.  He deserves that.

1. Orion.
I think everyone could have guessed this.  And it's fitting to put this on here now because the more I've thought about it, the more I've realized that I only ever seem to put problems that I have with Orion on here.  It's not something I do all the time, but the other day when I said I didn't have any reason to believe he'd be bad for the vet, or something like that, my friend who was with me said something along the lines of, "Are you kidding? Everything I ever hear of Orion is of him being bad."    .......     Wow. That doesn't reflect on her, but it does reflect on me. I write about the bad a lot because I'm looking for advice on how to fix it, but I don't write about the good nearly enough.

I love everything about this horse, including his difficulties, but here's the thing. He came into my life at a time when I wasn't really looking for a horse. Did I want one? Hell yes. Did I think I could pull off owning one? No. I had just started a new job, which was a plus, but other than that, I still felt like my life was a mess.  I felt like a had no sense of direction and just couldn't figure out what I wanted to do with my life, something that continued until these last six months or so.  Orion was kind of dropped into my life, for cheap, and though he had problems, they weren't something I couldn't handle.  I didn't know if I'd ever be able to ride him, but that was fine. I wanted to do groundwork and aromatherapy and massage therapy, things I had read about and always wanted to try, but above all, I wanted my heart horse. That companion horse that would always be there for me that I could bond with and love and have love me back unconditionally.  I didn't know at the start if Orion would become that or not, but I hoped.  And if I couldn't ride him, it would be okay.  I could still do everything else, and I could still try to have that bond.

When I got him, he couldn't really have cared less about any one person specifically.  As long as he was cared for, he was content.  He seemed a little bitter with the world at times, but with how his legs were probably hurting him, who could blame him? I think we all get that way to an extent when we're hurting.  You could tell he appreciated what I did for him, but it took a long time to really truly bond with him and to see that manifest itself in him.  I loved the crap out of him and got to know his quirks and what worked and what didn't when working with him. We had a lot of mishaps along the way. It's been a constant learning curve, and there have been lots of challenges.

The first time he came to me in the field, on his own, was a great moment.  For at least the first year I think, he would look up at my whistle, see me coming, and go back to grazing. "Cool, you're here. Whatever. You can come to me; I'll just stay here."  Then one day, after spending about a week going out there consistently, I grabbed his halter and headed into the pasture and whistled.  His head came up from grazing, he whinnied, and trotted over to me, leaving the other horses completely behind.  He dropped his head to me and gently sniffed my hair and face, which has since become his normal greeting.  He doesn't always have this eager of a reaction, but he normally will at the very least meet me halfway.

The biggest moment I think I've had with him was when my grandma got sick a couple months before she died.  She had been like a second mom to me, and it was pretty clear that this might be the illness that finally did her in.  The doctors weren't that optimistic about her chances of recovering.  After returning from the hospital, I didn't want to go back to my mom's house. I wanted to go to the barn.  I just wanted to be alone with my horse with no other people around.  I appreciated people trying to make me feel better, but it was all either "I'm so sorry," which didn't make me feel better at all because it was a reminder of what was going on and how bad it could be, or they were overly optimistic, which didn't help either because I knew what they were saying wasn't accurate and wouldn't happen.  I just wanted silence and the unconditional love of my horse, and I just hoped he wasn't in an overly ornery mood. 

He wasn't. He was standing in the woods beside the creek, and I went out with halter and lead rope but no real intention of bringing him in.  He came right to me as I entered the treeline and pushed his nose into the halter as I put it on him.  I ended up just draping the rope over his shoulders and not holding onto it. I didn't need it. He stood still and close to me while I put my arms around his neck and cried.  He even gave me his version of a horse hug by turning and resting his muzzle against my back, so that I was folded between his face and his neck, and he stayed like that until I calmed down.  I sat down on a nearby log, and he walked over and just stood there with me. Like Carly's moment with Skip, he didn't know what was wrong, but he knew that I needed him.

There have been many other moments like this since.  Anytime I need to just get away from life (or embrace it by going somewhere away from people to at least figure stuff out), I try to go to him.  Deaths, breakups, disappointments...I go to Orion.  Yes, he's a horse, so he doesn't get why I feel the way I do, but he gets that I'm upset and is concerned about me. 

We have our ups and downs, but I really do have that bond that I always wanted with a horse with him.  He is my heart horse, and I don't know what I would ever do without him.  He's been the one constant thing in my life that loves me unconditionally and doesn't care what I do or how many times I fail. It's what makes all of this new information so hard, because I know how it will eventually end.  But that doesn't make me any less thankful for the time I've had with him or the time that remains.  I will always be thankful for the opportunity I had to buy him and everything that I have learned and experienced since, but most of all for this bond and this horse.

Monday, July 28, 2014

Sunday Visit

Chelsea and I went out to visit Orion yesterday.  Before heading out, we stopped at Sheetz for lunch, and I picked up a bowl of carrots from their to go section.  The horses were happy with us, to say the least.  Orion was his usual GIVEMEFOODNOW self, but when I promptly took away said food when he got too nippy about taking it from me, he chilled and acted a little more like a gentleman (You can see it done once in the following video, but it was done more before this video was taken. He'd mostly learned his lesson by this point.).  Merrill enjoyed them as well, but no one was more polite and gentle than Vanna, who slowly and gently lipped the carrots out of my hand with great care not to catch any fingers.  The boys, on the other hand, had to be watched carefully, and as soon as the carrots were partway in their mouths, I quickly pulled my hand away.  They wouldn't take them from a flat palm, so I was playing with fire in the way I was feeding them. Well actually, correction: They tried to take them from a flat palm, but for some reason they were failing all over the place, and carrots were all over the ground outside the fence. -_-




I got Orion's medical record from Friday today, and they did officially diagnose him with DSLD. I wasn't sure if it was official just from the visit, though it seemed to be leaning that way. The record solidified that idea though.


This picture isn't great because they're not standing the same way and are on an incline, but you can still see Orion's fetlocks (he's the one with the white) vs. Merrill's.

All we really did out there was treat the horses and love on them, especially Orion. Chels got some good pictures of me with him, but I'll post them after she's done whatever she wants to with them and has posted them on Facebook or sent them to me. For now, I just have these that were taken with my camera phone:



"Oh look, the humans are coming."

Swatting flies for each other. I guess Vanna gets the short end of the stick with this. lol

Chelsea and Orion sharing a moment.

I love how Vanna looks like she's imitating Chelsea. She's not, but the picture made me laugh when I went back through them later.

He went to get a drink and then apparently decided our company wasn't interesting enough anymore.

Pony! This little guy's name is Tommy, and the BO bought him for his niece.  He's adorable and tiny and has the cutest liiiiiittle, tiny, high-pitched whinny. (Oh and for anyone who might not get just how small he is....the full-size horses can only fit their muzzle through that hole. Tommy fits his whole head through it.)

Saturday, July 26, 2014

The Prognosis

I still feel like, to a certain degree, I’m still processing the news that I got yesterday.  I know what’s happening, what I have to do now, and what I will eventually have to do.  I knew that I would probably get the news that I did, but I was hoping and praying that I wouldn’t.  I expected it, but I didn’t want it.

Orion has a tendon/suspensory problem.  He’s not too bothered by it, but it’s there.  It may be part of the reason why he reacted the way he did the day I tried to get on him at the new place.  From what I understand about DSLD, which wasn’t officially diagnosed but has a good possibility of being what he has, it’s always there, but there are good days and bad days.  That may have been a bad day, and because he’s such a chill horse most of the time, he just wasn’t letting on that anything was bothering him.  Heck, even yesterday when the vet was messing with his legs and really cranking down on his tendons in places, he couldn’t have cared less.  He just stood there, calm as could be, sometimes nuzzling Sara, me, and at times, the vet herself, loving on everyone and just being his usual loves the world self.

So he is okay for now.  There are a couple things that I am going to add to his regimen that weren’t there before, such as putting a bar shoe on both front feet to help take some of the strain off of his suspensories, and starting him on Biotin as a supplement.  Both were suggested by his vet.  Also suggested by her were things that we’ve already been doing in an effort to try to reverse what had been done (I know now that these things will never actually reverse it, but they will/are helping make him more comfortable), such as lowering his heels (his farrier has been doing this, and I had planned to start doing it myself in between farrier visits this summer), using SMB boots or polo wraps for added support when doing anything with him (I’ve done this from the beginning, first with polos and starting a couple years ago with SMBs), and keeping him at a healthy weight so that he doesn’t have any extra unneeded strain on his legs.  His weight hasn’t been an issue until recently.  He was at a pretty healthy normal weight until the last few months, at which point he’s started to turn into a regular chunkmeister. Until I can ride again and when my arm is strong enough to deal with it, he’s going to start walking with me everywhere.  If I can get a friend to come walk with me before my arm is strong enough, he can walk then too, with them leading him.

He can still be ridden at a walk as long as it doesn’t bother him and he doesn’t come up lame because of it.  We rarely went above a trot when riding anyway, and even that wasn’t often, so this isn’t a big concession.  I’ve always been super paranoid about what I do with him because of his previous tendon issues, so I guess in hindsight, that’s a very good thing.  And the fact that he can still be ridden is good, because that means I have another means of exercising him besides hand-walking and lungeing.

She also left me with a tube of bute and instructed me to give him a gram of it if he seemed to be in pain.  No more than four grams a day, but if it gets to the point that he needs more than even two grams, I’m to call her and let her know.  At that point, it might be time to re-evaluate.

In talking to Liz yesterday, we contemplated the possibility that he’s always had this condition.  She was looking at pictures from the first day she met him, before getting him, and said that even then, his fetlocks looked “wonky”, though nowhere near as severe as they are now.  It wasn’t enough that anyone really took notice until the last year or two, and it didn’t drastically become worse until the first half of this year.  Throughout it all, he hasn’t seemed bothered by it and has never come up lame because of it; for now, it just looks bad.  If he did have it before she got him though, it would definitely explain why he broke down as badly as he did while they were training. 

Following that same train of thought, it makes me wonder if the reason he is a “left-handed” horse is because of this as well.  He’s always preferred going in a counter-clockwise circle when we lunge and put up a huge fuss about going clockwise.  The same goes for turning when riding. He majorly prefers turning to his left over his right.  His right leg was the one that was ouchier during the vet visit yesterday, and if I’m remembering correctly, it took the right leg a little longer to fully heal when he had his tendon injuries.  I never put two and two together, but with this new bit of information, it really makes me wonder.

Later on we might do some ultrasounds to have something to refer to as it gets worse, but at this point, they would have shown the same thing no matter what actually is going on.  There would be disruptions and abnormalities in his tendons and suspensories because it’s already obvious something is going on.  On top of that, we didn’t have enough electricity to run an ultrasound yesterday, so next time I’m going to find somewhere that we can hook up the machine just for those shots of his legs.  Regardless of what the ultrasound showed, the treatment would have been the same, so there really wasn’t any vital information lost by not doing them.

So that’s pretty much all there is to know for now.    I’m going to start cracking down on his diet, exercise, and these things with his feet (shoes will go in the few couple weeks).  But above all, I’m going to love the crap out of him even more than I normally do and make sure he has the best life he can possibly have for as long as he is happy and can be made comfortable.  I hope that this is a period of years, but no matter how long he’s still here for, I’m going to make the most of the time that I have with him.

Friday, July 25, 2014

Bad News

I learned today that Orion is having tendon/suspensory problems, andhile not specifically diagnosed as DSLD, it's pretty clear that it will only get worse from here. He's not in too much pain right now but definitely was a little bit touchy through his back and both front legs, especially his right front, which is worse than the left.

There are things that I can and will do to possibly slightly slow the degeneration process and to take some of the strain off his legs and manage his pain as it gets worse, but the bottom line in this is that he is going to get worse. There's just no telling how fast it will progress. Eventually (and I'm praying that this will be a long time from now and give me as much time as possible with him) I will have to put him down.

When the pain can't be managed anymore and living is not worth it for him anymore, it will have to be done. I want as much time as I can get with him, but I will not let him suffer unnecessarily.

So I know this is a short post, but I will elaborate and go into more detail later. I feel the need to process this for a day or so longer in order to give this topic the attention it deserves. I've known for a while that this might be the news I would receive, but my mind is still kind of an emotional mess at the moment.

Photo by Liz Stout. Cropped by me.


Tuesday, July 22, 2014

And This is Why EVERYONE Should Wear a Helmet

So, remember how I talked about the damage to my helmet here?

Well, when I went to see Orion yesterday, I was at the barn for a minute and got to see what it looks like for myself for the first time. I brought it home with me for further inspection.

Bear in mind, my description in that post was based on what my grandpa had told me. In reality, it's not entirely accurate. What he described and I pictured and the reality of the helmet don't exactly match up. I'll just let you see for yourself though...

Left side

Back
Front (missing visor fell off the first time I used the helmet.
Right side (where I landed)
Now also keep in mind that aside from the missing visor, there were no marks on this at all before I was thrown.

Looking at it gives me two strong feelings:
--Pride and thankfulness that I started the good habit of wearing a helmet while riding a long time ago and continued it that day even though I expected Orion to ultimately behave.
--An intense awareness of what could have happened if I hadn't been wearing it and it had been my head that made contact with the ground at that force.

So I know a lot of people preach it, and then there are some that don't. You can go on a million rides, do a million things, and everything can work out fine. 

But what happens on ride number one million and one, when something DOES happen? Wouldn't you rather be here to tell about it? You can't brag and tell everyone about that epic fall that you had and survived without a scratch if you're dead or in a coma or brain-damaged because you didn't wear a helmet, and your head took the full brunt of a rock, a tree, the ground, or literally ANYTHING else nearby.

I know that may seem melodramatic, but really. You NEVER know what could happen.

As for me, I'm shopping for a new helmet this week...

Monday, July 21, 2014

Still Friends

The other day at work, I was asked by a customer why my arm was in an immobilizer. I explained to him what happened with Orion, and he nodded along. It turned out that he had a little experience with horses and completely understood the theories that some of us have for why it happened.  However, before moving on to get his meal, he asked something that no one else has asked me: Are you still friends?

Well, yes. But here's an even better visualization of my yes...

I stopped out to visit Orion today for the first time since he threw me 3.5 weeks ago. (I haven't been avoiding him; I had just been staying with my mom out of town.)

Apparently he had thought I was gone forever or something, because as soon as he saw me climbing over the fence, he took off at a very fast trot to get to me from the other side of the field. He didn't slow down until he was right in front of me and wouldn't let the other horses near me. They had followed him like good little minions (hahaha, Orion has minions now! It cracks me up, but now I have to prove to him that I'm not a minion.).

He stood very close to me the whole time and kept affectionately nuzzling me and gently sniffing my hair and face, and when I climbed back over the fence and said goodbye and headed back to the car, he leaned over the fence and stared after me as I left.

He puts me through a lot of shit sometimes, but I love this horse with all my heart.

Sunday, July 20, 2014

Healthy Living

I'm turning my life around, in more ways than one.  



1) Doing things that I love.

          a) I moved Orion closer so that I can finally see him and do things with him on a regular basis.  He's less than ten minutes from where I live now.  


          b) Proofreading.  I've always loved to read, and I've always loved to write.  While I'm still working on writing more, I've taken up proofreading on Fiverr.com.  It's time consuming, but this is what I get out of it: I get to read new stuff almost every day.  I'm reading a lot, something I haven't done since I was in high school or younger.  I'm making a body of work better.  I hate coming across stuff in books that I read that is just wrong and thinking that I could have written or edited that so much better...now I am.  I love the feeling of knowing that, while it's still the author's work, the book, document, etc. is going out into the world with my mark on it as well.


          c) Reading.  In addition to proofreading, I've decided to take advantage of this extra free year before I start grad school.  I'm reading every book I can get my hands on (and I can get my hands on a lot because I have a TON that I've collected since college started that I just never had the time to read. Add to that the ones that have come out recently that are sequels to or by the same authors as books I've read in the past, and it's quite a long list.  Maybe I'll post it sometime.)


          d) Spending time outdoors.  This.  It's true that I can spend time outdoors anywhere, but there are specific places that I want to go, and very soon, it will possible for me to go to them whether anyone wants to go/can go with me or not.  


          e) Writing.  I love it.  Blogging and writing fiction are two of my favorite things in the world.  While I don't want it to be my career, I do want to keep this a prominent hobby for as long as it holds my interest and brings me this much happiness.  And when (not if) I finally do publish some of my stuff, it will be nice to potentially make a little money by doing something I love, as well as to know that what I wrote might be bringing someone, somewhere, some joy and entertainment.  That's one thing that I hope happens with this blog, aside from it being my chronicle of my life for me to look back on from time to time.  I hope that it helps people in some way, whether it's with a problem they have or just by putting a smile on their face.



2) Speaking of why I can do all of that traveling very soon without help: I have a car.  Until I broke my collarbone, the plan was to go test for my driver's license for the first time in my life two weeks ago.  Now I have to wait, but having a car gives me (and everyone involved in helping me get there) so much more incentive to get on the ball and do it.  I can't wait to be able to go where I want, when I want.  Feeling restless and nothing to do at home?  No problem.  Hop in the car and go to the barn....to a friend's....just for a drive in general...  I. Can't. Wait.



3) Applying to grad school. (Hold on tight; this is a long one!) Seriously, this is something I have struggled with since my freshmen year of college.  Not the application, but the decision of what I want to do.  Not long after my program lost its accreditation my freshmen year, I realized that my future plan was really someone else's.  Yes, I was very interested in the field of health care.  Yes, I love science, and the human body interests me.  But suddenly I realized that being a PA just didn't feel like the right fit to me anymore.  I think I kind of fell in love with the idea of going to AB for that program, going back to the town that I grew up in and loved so much, and going into  PA school made my family really happy.  Next to going to med school, it was the next best thing.  I just got swept up in it and convinced myself that it's what I wanted, when really, I didn't know what I wanted.  It ended up being a really long road figuring that out.  Along the way I considered med school, vet school (specializing as an equine veterinarian - surprise surprise!), nursing school, something in environmental science, something in GIS, and now, finally physical therapy.  And thank God, I think I've finally got it.  I have finally found something that feels right, I'm extremely interested in, and in all honesty, has pretty much been under my nose the whole time.  I was just too focused on other ideas, or the idea that I just didn't know what I wanted, to see it.  So the only thing left to be done is to take my GRE (very soon), finish my applications, send them on their way, and wait.  



4) Eating healthier.  This has actually been going on for a while, so I'm not going to dwell on it, but it's something that I've been trying to concentrate on for the past year, off and on (but mostly on - there have only been a couple of times that I slipped up for a while - the rest of the time, which is most of it, I've been doing fairly well).

5) Exercising.  I have a home workout plan that I was starting before I broke my collarbone.  A lot of it isn't really possible right now because since it's a home plan, a lot of it involves exercises that use your own body weight (think of push-ups as an example), and obviously that's not going to work right now.  However, I do plan to start hiking.  I love running, and I hope that once I'm in better shape and have lost more weight, I can take that up again, but right now, it kills me.  I'm not saying it's impossible, but it's not enjoyable.  So instead, I want to hike.  I want to get outdoors more; the trees and other plants in the woods (and this is WV, so really everywhere) are the most gorgeous green right now (we've had a bit of rain recently).  I really just want to get out and enjoy that, take it all in, and get some good pictures.  Hiking is conducive to all of that, plus I'm getting a good workout in while I do it.  I have the Endomondo Sports Tracker app on my phone and my iPod, so I can track my hikes with GPS the same way I try to track any long horseback rides that I do.  There are places on my grandpa's farm that I can go, but even more than that, as far as this town goes anyway, I'm excited about going on the trails at the new stable (more on that here).  



6) Looking for a new job.  I like the job I have right now.  I don't completely love it, but I like it.  I've been there for going on 6 years now, and all things considered, I have it good as supervisor, safety manager, and restaurant manager, but with everything else I have going on, I just don't really feel it anymore.  It was never meant to be a career, which my bosses know and understand (none of this is a shock to them; I've already discussed it with them).  I really never meant to stay as long as I have, but with this extra year before grad school tacked on, that I didn't anticipate originally, I really want something that will mirror what my class schedule will be like (i.e. day time instead of late evening/night shifts - 12am).  There's also the matter of going into a health care job such as physical therapy - while I'm not qualified to actually work as a physical therapist right now, I would like to get some sort of job in a hospital, preferrably the one here since I'm trying to establish myself here for the next few years, just so that I have some experience in that area since all I have right now are volunteer hours.  There's nothing wrong with volunteer hours, but I just feel that working at the hospital in some way would benefit me in addition to those volunteer hours.  



So there it is.  That's pretty much my life right now, in a long, rambling nutshell.  I'm happy with what I have and what I'm working towards.  The only thing I have not mentioned here is getting my own place.  Since I now have a bunch of medical bills to pay in addition to my car payments and car insurance, I'm thinking about staying with my grandpa a little while longer until I have some of that taken care of.  However, as soon as I have the money saved up and can swing it, I plan to get my own place around here somewhere.  I'm more than ready for it.  It's been overdue for a long time now.

Saturday, July 19, 2014

Blog Hop: Stalker

I saw this blog hop on L. Williams' blog, Viva Carlos and then again on She Moved To Texas and decided to give it a go.  I don't usually do blog hops simply because I'm generally not online enough to catch them when they're still relevant, but since I'm trying to change all that, here it goes!
I've met a few bloggers in real life, but ironically enough, I didn't meet them because of our blogs.

The first person I met was Chelsea, mentioned a lot on here as Chels.  She's been one of my best friends since we were in middle school, and we've always been drawn together by horse craziness, marching band, and many many rants about life and *dun dun dunn* boys.  She's been my sounding board for a lot of things ever since we were young, and I've served as the same for her a lot of times too.  She started her blog, A Girl, her Horse, and her Cat: The Narrative of a Life within the last year or so.  We also boarded our horses together for a few years, up until a few weeks ago when I moved Orion to have him closer to where I plan to live for the next few years.  We've shared many rides, exchanged many theories of why our horses do the things they do, and laughed at Orion and Kit's antics and their feigned disdain for each other a lot over the years.

I also know Liz from In Omnia Paratus. She was a couple years ahead of me in high school, and back then I knew of her but didn't really know her. Now, I consider her a close friend. I bought Orion from her 3 years ago. He was her first owned horse, and when things didn't quite pan out with them, I had the amazing opportunity to take him on. It's been challenging with him at times, but overall so worth it, and through these challenges, Liz has become a good friend. I often go to her when I'm having a problem that absolutely stumps me, and a lot of the times I go to her for her opinions on my ideas before putting them into action. She's an amazing horsewoman and friend, and I know I can always count on her to be frank and honest with me without sugarcoating things.

I met Saiph of Wait for the Jump last summer when Orion had a medical emergency. He came up severely lame, and I couldn't get a hold of any of the local vets, so I called Liz in a panic and begged her to come look at him. I was terrified that he had re-injured his leg, so she came out, bringing Saiph and Charles with her. So it was a short, hurried meeting where I was worried and distracted and probably didn't give the best impression of myself, but we have met. I would love to meet her again and get to know her more properly without a seemingly major horse crisis looming over my head!

Another blogger that I haven't met but would like to meet is Allison of Adventures with Shyloh. I've followed her blog for a couple years now, and she's one of the bloggers I've followed the longest, next to Liz. I always look forward to her posts about Shy and have talked to her a little through our blogs and Facebook, and she's definitely one of the bloggers I wish I could meet in real life too!

Thursday, July 17, 2014

Heartland

Ok, so I know I have a tendency to occasionally ramble on about TV shows, but this one has to do with horses.  It's amazing.  I love it.  You'll love it; I can almost guarantee it.  Whether you're a horse lover or not, it's got a little bit of something for everyone.

Heartland is a fun family drama about a girl's work with abused, abandoned, or problematic horses.  She learned everything she knows from her mother and continues her work while learning her own life lessons and her own inner strength in the process.  While Amy is the main character, the show also focuses on her family (her grandpa, Jack; her sister, Lou; her estranged father, Tim) and those close to her (stable hand and potential love interest, Ty; precocious younger neighbor, Mallory; best friend, Soraya; and competitive, cruel neighbors, mother and daughter, Val and Ashley; (and starting from the second season to the present, stable hand Caleb)).



This TV series was originally based on a book series by Lauren Brooke by the same name.  There were somewhere around 20 books with a few special editions.  I read all of them growing up, so imagine my surprise a few years ago when I learned that they had been made into a show!  Granted, the show has a few key differences that are obvious from the beginning, and it takes a lot of different turns as far as storylines go than the books did.  But I love it.  I don't think the differences take anything away from the books.  I look at them as two things that I love that are inspired by each other but have different things to offer.  And honestly, the same theme is present in the show as in the books - a family who comes together to heal each other during a terrible situation and continues to mend their broken bonds and continue to help each other through both life's everyday difficulties and the bigger road bumps that they come across, while in the process healing and helping the troubled and sometimes broken horses that come to them.

I'm writing about all of this today because I realized I still have an Amazon gift card to use, and I've decided to finally purchase the first couple seasons on DVD!



This has been more difficult than it sounds.  Mind you, everything that has been shown in the US so far (we're a season and a half behind the Canadian airings because we picked it up a lot later) is on Netflix.  If it's been show on TV in your country, Netflix will put up the episodes/seasons that have been shown.  I always come across people who complain about the fact that Canada is on *insert season here* and their country only has up to *insert earlier season here*.  It's simple.  Netflix can only rightfully put up what's been aired in your country already, and for a good long while, Canada was the only one showing this show.  Everyone else was late to the game in realizing how good it was, so everyone else was behind in picking it up.  Now fans are all in a tizzy because they've become hooked on it and realize that they can't watch on Netflix all that has been aired in Canada.

Now, this is not to say that you can't get the Canadian DVDs, which is what I want to do.  If you can find them online, you can buy them and watch up to wherever they have released to.  The newest completely aired season is usually released on DVD around the time the new season airs.  The reason I want the Canadian DVDs and not the US's GMC/UP-aired DVDs is because they have the seasons laid out differently.  Apparently season one in the US had more episodes than season one in Canada or something like that, so if you bought Canada's season one DVD and the US's season 2 DVD, you'd have a 9-episode gap missing between the two because the US's season 2, episode 1 is actually Canada's season 2, episode 10.


So this is why, to avoid all that confusing crap, I just want to go straight to the original source and buy the Canadian DVDs.  I watched them based on the Canadian seasons, and that's how I remember them, so why not just get the DVDs from there too?  They're a little bit more expensive, but I don't plan on buying them all at once, so I'm not really worried about it.  Plus, I'm using a gift card this time around, so no harm done to my bank account!

*Also, all of the links to the DVDs that I put up on here are for the Canada DVDs.  The US DVDs will have an orange band at the top in place of the red band that the Canadian DVDs have.  If you do decide to buy them, just be careful to make sure you get the same ones that will line up with each other properly.*

**Since my 24th birthday is coming up in less than 3 months, if anyone wants to get me a gift and doesn't know what to buy, Amazon gift cards are something you CANNOT go wrong with for me.  If I don't use it for something like this, I usually use it for books or things for my critters.  Hint hint, wink wink. :) **

So does anyone else out there watch Heartland?  What do you think of it, and why would you recommend it to others, whether horse people or not?

Wednesday, July 16, 2014

A Fun Weekend with Friends and Outdoors

Seneca Rocks

So, this weekend, I hung out with one of my oldest friends for the entirety of Friday night-Sunday evening.  It was great to get out and do some stuff.

Friday night saw us just chilling out, watching Greek (my new favorite old show that I just watched all of on Netflix and am now going through withdrawal over), and talking.



Stuart's Park



Saturday morning, she went to work for a few hours while I slept in a little and then got up and did some proofreading.  I had finished what amounted to almost an entire self-help book by the time she returned and started working on another one that was due that afternoon.  She had noticed that there were some street sales going on on Third Street, namely the local book store, so we headed a couple blocks over for lunch at a little cafe that I had never been to (their chicken quesadillas were amazing) and then book shopping.  This was when I had my little book splurge.




I bought a book on how to grow medicinal herbs and plants (don't let your mind run away with you here) and their healing and medicinal properties.  I've always liked the idea of using essential oils for medicinal purposes, and in all the hype that sometimes surrounds that, it's forgotten that the actual plants that those oils come from can have an even bigger effect.  It's something I've been wanting to learn more about for a while now, something that really started niggling at me last summer when we thought Orion had a tendon problem again (which thankfully just ended up being a really bad abscess that hadn't made it's appearance to the naked eye yet).  When we thought his legs were having troubles again and couldn't immediately get a hold of a vet (one was out of town and one just wasn't answering), my old BO suggested making a tea with comfrey leaves and soaking and wrapping his legs with it.  She happened to have some growing in her garden, and it made me think about starting a little herb garden myself for things like that (not to mention for cooking).




I bought the book Vampire Academy, which just came out as a movie.  I haven't seen it, and I don't really know what kind of reviews it had.  I do usually like vampire books though, and this one seemed to have a different kind of spin than others I have read.  I usually like books better than movies anyway, so I figured why not?  It was on sale.




Then I bought Dances With Dragons, the fifth book in George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series a.k.a. Game of Thrones for those who aren't fanatics about it like I and a lot of other people are.  I finished the fourth book, A Feast for Crows, about six months ago or something like that.  I've been itching to read the fifth one because with the way the fourth and fifth books are written, a lot of my favorite characters didn't make appearances in the fourth book, but they will be in the fifth one.  I've been contemplating buying it on my Kindle so that I instantly have it at my fingertips, but since I have all of the ones before it in paperback, I made myself wait.  I had other books and other things to keep me occupied in the meantime.

Then, we later went to Walmart, where I bought Deliver Us From Evil, which I discussed in my last post.


I've been told I could be part vampire. I'm glow-in-the-dark white, and I burn in sunlight.
After our book spree, we went back to her house, where I finished editing my second gig of the day while she accomplished some stuff off her to do list in the backyard and around the house.  After that was when we went to Walmart to buy groceries for making dinner that night and lunch or dinner the next day.  We spent two hours in that store, and only maybe thirty minutes of that was grocery shopping.  The rest was spent looking at books and movies and music.  We are nerds.



I made my famous (among friends at least) chicken alfredo for dinner, and we had a nice bottle of West Virginia white wine with it.  Then we built a campfire in the fire pit in her back yard and sat around it talking and laughing at stupid stuff and drinking Smirnoffs before finally going back inside to watch Game of Thrones after the fire burned down.




Sunday we woke up super late, since we had stayed up super late watching GoT.  We both dragged our feet and procrastinated getting ready for the day.  I flopped around like a damn fish trying to get off of my makeshift bed on the floor, since I was one arm short of being able to make myself roll over/sit up/do anything at all helpful for myself, before finally somehow getting up (this wouldn't have been anywhere near as dumb or difficult if I hadn't slid down to lie on my back in my sleep - I've been having to sleep sitting up on a ton of pillows to be comfortable and also be able to easily get out of bed in the morning).

After getting ready, we went to her family reunion at Stuart's Park with her sister's family.  I felt slightly awkward at first - but she wanted me to go because she doesn't usually go to this reunion and she felt awkward.  I said yes because a)it was more friend time that I wouldn't be getting much of once I go back to Philippi to work and b)it was at Stuart's Park, which meant the opportunity to hang out at the river.  And we did hang out at the river, which is where all of these lovely pictures came from.  Usually I would be the first one in the water, but with the whole broken bone thing, I didn't think that was a good idea because while usually somewhat graceful in rock hopping across the river, I'm also usually the first one to slip and fall in the water, as has been proven multiple times over the years.  Not exactly conducive to healing a bone, so I had to be content with rock hopping on the shore and finding a good spot to sit at the water's edge and just soak my feet in the river.  Not as fun as the alternative, but it was still a pretty good day.


Best friend's brother-in-law and nephew.

After we left the reunion much later than anticipated, we went back to her house where she made tacos and rice, and we watched more GoT before I had to go home.

All in all, it was a great weekend and has inspired me to do many more outdoor things.  I'm starting a bucket list of things I want to do before summer's end, which includes but is not limited to: hiking the trails behind my new barn, going to Spruce Knob, and hiking to the top of Seneca Rocks.  Also, the second my bone is healed enough for me to drive, I'm getting my license so I can more easily do these things, as well as go everywhere else. lol  My car just needs a little more work, and it will be ready to take me wherever I want to go. :)


But seriously, is this kid not the cutest?

Tuesday, July 15, 2014

I'm Freeeee!

I went to the doctor for follow up x-rays yesterday, and I'm freeee! No more immobilizer unless I'm sleeping or at work!  Collarbone is healing well, albeit super slow, as predicted.  They said I'm doing everything I should be though, and I have good range of motion (hereafter referred to as ROM) given what happened and the short amount of time it's been (2.5 weeks).  However, I have to up my ROM exercises from here on out, or I will end up with a frozen shoulder, which I am not okay with happening.

I was told to do as much as I can with it (without lifting anything or doing any sort of repetitive motions (think washing tables or walls)).  I was also told that I'm going to feel pain and more than likely feel that bone grinding together (think two jagged ends of a stick and some large splinters all jammed together side by side - that's what the broken ends and fragments look like on the x-rays).  According to them, that is normal and won't further damage it.  Their biggest concern right now is ensuring that I don't do any lifting with that arm and that I'm getting enough ROM built back up in the coming weeks so that everything works properly when the bone is finally healed.  


So it looks like that light pushing of the limits over the past week has paid off somewhat!  The nurse looked mildly surprised when she asked me to lift my arm as high as I could and I got it almost as high as it is supposed to go (almost - not quite - and I hadn't pushed it anywhere near that far prior to the doctor's visit, so I was pretty surprised myself). Some motions still require assistance from my other hand to move my arm as far as it can go, but overall, it's not nearly as bad.  And since I didn't have it in the immobilizer yesterday afternoon up until I went to bed and had been forcing myself to use it more when reaching for things, rather than use my good left arm, I could feel that it had loosened up somewhat already and was getting easier to move.


Here's to hoping I can rehab it on my own and get it healed and stronger as quick as possible so I can get back to doing everything I had wanted to be doing right now!

Monday, July 14, 2014

Book Geek


If you followed along this weekend, you might have noticed that I splurged and bought myself a few new books.  Seriously, books and horse stuff = only things I splurge on these days.  Generally anything else I buy is a must-have or a need for everyday life, but these book and horse shopping are the two types of things I save up for in addition to emergencies and bills.  I could spend all day in a book store and find a hundred new books that I've been wanting if you give me an unlimited budget.  Hell, I can spend all day in a book store just looking around at all the books without buying anything.  Anyone who has ever been to a book store with me knows this.  At least 3/4 of the time I spend there is spent looking around and contemplating which books I want to spend my money on.  I'll pick up a book, look at it, and either put it back or hang onto it if I can't decide, until I have a huge stack of books in my arms that there is no way in hell I can afford to get.  So then the process of elimination starts.  How badly do I want this one?  If I can't say "yes" immediately to it, it goes in a separate pile.  I do this until I get down to what I can afford and physically or mentally write down the other titles so I know to look for them later on my Kindle, where they'll most likely be cheaper, the next time I'm in need of new books.

And let's just make something else clear: I'm never really in need of new books because it's not like in high school and before that, when I read at least three or four books a week....I'm lucky if I read one book in two weeks.  Lucky, as that almost never happens.  I quickly learned in college that as you grow up and real life takes over, there's not as much time to just chill out and veg and read all day.  :(  So inevitably, I end up with a ton of books that I own but haven't read yet.  Then I see books that I want, and I put up a mental fight with myself for a long time about not spending money, until one day when I do have a little extra cash, I buy a new one, adding yet another title to my ever-growing "to be read" list.  

Yeah.  I'm that person.  

For example: I spent about $35 on books at the local bookstore this weekend.  A couple were on sale, and I just couldn't pass them up.  Then, when I was at Walmart later, my friend picked up "Deliver Us From Evil" by Ralph Sarchie and Lisa Collier Cool and pointed out that it was a book before a movie, which I did not know.  Go ahead, laugh at me; I felt pretty clueless when I learned that I had missed that crucial point.  She said it was supposed to be good, and I like scary paranormal stuff.  It wasn't too expensive, so I bought it.  

I'm prepared to have the crap scared out of me while I read this.

Maybe I have a problem....  A book-buying problem....

Nah.

To tell the truth, it's the first time I've bought books (or really splurged on anything, for that matter) in a couple months, at least.  Unless you count the two I had pre-ordered because they were part of a series I started reading a couple years ago...But those were technically ordered a while back, so I'm not counting them.  

Thankfully, I have more time to read now than I did in college (though I know that if I get into grad school, that extra time will be nonexistent).  Thus, I am slowly but surely making my way through my ginormous reading list (and catching up on my favorite TV shows - but that's a post for later).

How many of you are bookworms like me?  Do you have the same problems?  What kind of books do you like to read and what book(s) would you recommend to me or any other readers of this blog?

Sunday, July 13, 2014

Hiking the Trails



I've been thinking a lot lately about what I'm going to do with Orion once this collarbone is all healed up.  I go back to the doctor for x-rays tomorrow to see how it's healing.  I'll hopefully know by that if I'm in the safe zone and won't need surgery for sure.  It's been doing really well recently, at least in comparison to how it felt a couple weeks ago.  It's still nowhere near where it was before the fall, but it's doing better, so I'm reeeally thinking and hoping and praying that I won't need any other treatment.

So anyway, ideas for the near future:  I want to get into better shape, but any kind of weight lifting or body weight exercises are pretty much out of the question right now.  I was at Stuart's Park today (pictures and post about that later), and I saw a trail that I really wanted to explore.  I was at a family reunion with a friend though, and we were about to leave, so it was kind of out of the question.  Then on the way back, I was thinking about it and realized, there are trails behind my new boarding place.  This led to an idea for something that can both help me with my weight-loss/exercise goals and help with Orion in the future.

I decided that as soon as possible, I'm going to go out there and hike those trails.  I'll get my exercise and get to be familiar with the trails.  It'll also give me an idea of what may or may not need to be done to get them in riding shape since from the sound of it, no one's been on them for a while.  Once I can handle walking Orion around, which will hopefully be soon if things continue in the way they've been going, I'll start walking him with me on the trails.  This will give him a chance to see everything with me on the ground near him, and while he's normally not that nervous about new places, it will be a security measure.  I'll do this a bunch of times with him as I heal and we get our issues worked out from the ground back at the barn, which will hopefully start with some round pen work.  Hopefully the walks and alone time will get him used to doing things with just me and not the other horses, at least from the ground for now.  It will also get him used to the trails so that they're not a brand new environment when we finally get to ride on them.  By then, it should be old news to him.

This isn't my whole plan, but it's something I'm excited about for now.  Exercise, hiking, and horses, all in one. :)

Summer Hiking and Camping in West Virginia

Hello, friends. :)   I mentioned last post that I've been scouting out hiking trails for my family on AllTrails and other resources late...