Orion - Writing Challenge, Day 14

Yesterday morning I put my foot down.  I've had plenty of plans to go out where I board Orion in past couple weeks, and none of them have panned out for one reason or another.  So, Saturday morning, I woke up and decided that since there were potential plans for the day that were undecided and wouldn't happen for a bit if they did indeed happen, I jumped up, took care of the furballs, and headed out for a visit.

I didn't have any plans of doing any real work.  It's been a while since I've really spent any substantial time with Orion, whether for work or play.  I wanted to just hang out with him for a little bit and reconnect.

 It couldn't have gone any better than it did.  We had the barn to ourselves.  He was in the section he likes to go into, and there are places to tie to in there, so I just haltered him and tied him where he was and set to work grooming him and talking to him as I did.  He likes hearing the sound of someone's voice when they're working with him.

His legs were in good shape - no heat or swelling.  There rarely is anymore, but I check every time I'm there just to make sure he doesn't need any bute or poultice/wraps.  He's literally gone over a year in the past without an obvious DSLD flare up, but since it's not something that will ever go away, I usually check just to be safe.  Nothing out of the ordinary yesterday.

Massages are sooo relaxing...even for horses.

I took my time grooming him and did a little massage on his front legs since they're usually his trouble spot.  I figured it couldn't hurt anything and that he'd probably like it....which he did.  I got lots of nuzzles and sniffing while I knelt next to him to do the massage.  He was super sweet and lovey the whole time.  Sometimes he's a stubborn snot, but that wasn't the case yesterday, thank goodness. Haha.

I spent about an hour and a half hanging out with him, and even when I took the halter and rope off, he was content just to hang out with me there in the barn.  He stood at his gate and watched me walk away when I left.  I'm going to have to try to find time to go back out this week and have another visit like that.

Re-establishing that ground relationship will be important once we eventually do start trying to do anything under saddle again.  That's probably still a long, long way off, but I'll update here as things progress!

TGIF - Writing Challenge, Day 12

I've been doing a lot of late night writing lately.  It's not a habit I particularly want to be in, but here we are.  I am so tired, but I'm determined to do this whole thirty days thing, so...it might be a short one tonight.  A short post is better than no post at all though, right?

This week felt exhaustingly long, but sort of flew by at the same time...as little sense as that makes.  We laid my great uncle's wife to rest yesterday.  It was an emotional time for all.

I had planned on following that up later in the day with some happiness in going to see Orion, but I ended up with a close second to the worst migraine I've had in quite a while, so that didn't happen.  I'm gunning to hopefully do that this weekend instead.

I worked in Philippi today and hurried to get home so we could go to the rodeo at the Randolph County Fair tonight.  It apparently wasn't Darryl's cup of tea, but I had fun!  I got to see a friend barrel race, and the calf scramble and branding were hilarious.  It probably wasn't the cowboys' night tonight, but it was still entertaining, at least to me.  I drooled over the horse in the arena the whole time.  I probably will never have Orion trained to that standard, but I could easily picture him doing something like that.........if he wasn't terrified of cows...hahaha...

Horse Massages

Yes.  You read that right.  I said horse massages.

Last night, I took the evening to go hang out with Orion.  All I did was groom him and massage him.  And let me tell you, he was loving it.  There were multiple times he almost fell asleep, and the rest of the time, he stood quietly with his head hanging low, just enjoying the attention.

I also took some essential oils out with me to see if he'd be interested in any of them.  In the past he's usually chosen lavender or eucalyptus.  I couldn't find any eucalyptus anywhere.  I'll have to order some of it.  He turned the lavender and everything else I offered him away, so we didn't end up using any oils.

After a pretty thorough grooming session and seeing if he wanted any of the oils, I started his massage.  I basically just started working at his poll, his forehead, around his eyes and ears, and worked my way back from there, really putting pressure on the larger muscles and working down his spine.  After working his topline, I worked down the underside of his neck and chest and then focused on his front legs.  Due to his confirmation and DSLD, his front legs take on a lot more strain than a lot of horses' would.  By the time I finished the last leg, he was standing quietly with one hind foot cocked.  He had hay in the manger in front of him, but he'd stopped eating and was just enjoying his massage.  I finished up the session by brushing him with long strokes of his soft brush and trading him some treats for kisses (he doesn't always feel like doing it, but he will raise his nose to your face when you smooch at him).

I really felt like it helped me get back in tune with him a little bit better.  By the time I was done (the whole session lasted about an hour and a half), he was content to just hang out in the barn with Darryl and I, no halter or lead on anymore, while I was putting everything away.

If you're interested in the methods I used to do his massage tonight, read here about massaging while grooming and here about acupressure in horses.  I didn't focus as much on the acupressure as the massage, and I groomed him before I really started in on the massage (it's been pretty muddy here, so he was definitely dirty!).  I did use some of the acupressure points though, especially PC6, GV 24, and Yin Tang.  He really seemed to enjoy the ones on his head.  He was a little indifferent to PC6, but I'm still going to continue using it.

More to come later!

Orion - Going Back to Basics

You haven't heard about my boy for a while, and that's because he's been literally out to pasture for over a year now. Life has just been so crazy busy that I haven't had time to do anything other than occasionally run out to where I board him to love on him, and I can ashamedly admit that even that has not been as often as it should. All of his basic needs are being met, but I haven't been able to dedicate the time to him that I've been wanting to.

That stops now.

I've actually had this post written for a while, but now that I'm actually getting ready to dive into this, it requires an update. I was thinking of doing some light riding with him again. I've flip flopped back and forth on the idea a million times. As of right now, that's not going to happen. There's too much else we need to work on and too much concern in my mind that riding will make his DSLD worse. (Just an FYI, the vet who diagnosed him did not say not to ride him. She actually told me that light riding on a level surface shouldn't hurt him and just to keep an eye on it if I do. He's not been ridden for 2 years and only had a couple of flare ups that lasted only a day or two. He's been fine. Others say they think riding him should be out of the question, some don't think it would hurt him at all, but for right now, I'm just not willing to risk it.)

The following story is actually kind of hard for me to write, because it brought to the forefront, in a painfully public way, just how much I need to do to fix my relationship with Orion and get his training and overall attitude back on track.

I took him, along with some of his barn mates and some of the other owners where I kboard him to the annual 4-H Hoof and Health Clinic to get his vaccines and Coggins updated and have an annual exam done over the weekend, and it was BAD.  He's been doing fine with me on the sporadic times I've worked with him. We've had one bad groundwork session, and the rest have been pretty good. But holy CRAP. He was a train wreck when it came time for his exam. He was a spazzy mess every time I took away from his barn mates, and when I took him into the vetting area, he wouldn't let the vet look in his mouth (a new vet we hadn't met before - she was super nice and knew what she was doing, but my horse was being a complete jerk). He clamped shut and wouldn't let her in, then tried to kick her when she tried to take his temp. (Just another FYI, he had a mouth abscess about 2 months ago, and he let us take his temp without problem then…)

That was bad enough, but then when she went to do his blood draw, he swung his head at her and tried to bite her. I couldn't hold him steady because he was dragging me with him. They ended up giving him a break. I took him back to his barn buddies outside the vetting area, because that was the only place he was calm and not whinnying up a storm and looking frantically around for them. I did some groundwork near them, just stuff that we could do in a small space, just basically trying to get him to pay attention and not have his mind everywhere else. Usually if he's nervous or tense, that stuff gets him thinking productively and listening in better to what he’s being asked to do, and it seemed to be working. 

However, as soon as I took him back to the vet and they tried to take blood again, he started lunging sideways trying to get away from them. He was being completely out of control, and they ended up having to put a stud chain on him. The way he was acting seemed to make them think he was always like this, and I kept being asked how he does with a stud chain and all this other stuff they might use on a difficult horse. The thing is, I have NEVER had to use anything like that on him before. Never, in the nearly six years I've had him, had he acted like that. 

Finally his original vet showed up, and I think it took her a second to realize which horse she was watching (he was still acting like an idiot). Then she saw me, and her eyes got big, and she asked, “Wait, is this Orion??!” Her disbelief was something I almost latched onto, like Yes, thank God, someone else here who knows he is not normally like this!!!! And I suddenly didn't feel like this crazy fool anymore, just concerned and really freaked out, and honestly ashamed of myself because regardless of what other underlying reasons there may have been, this is in large part my fault.

She immediately walked up to him and took charge, and while he still acted like an ass for a minute or two, he finally calmed down and let her give him the shots and do the blood draw. She made him back up and come forward a couple of times to reinforce who was in charge and then handed him back to me, and we talked a little bit about his legs (after both puzzling over why the heck he was acting like a psycho after having a relatively normal morning).

I took him out to the gravel (we were in a sandy arena) and trotted and walked him for her, and she said that she didn't think his legs looked any worse than they had before, noted that he's standing with his front legs under him to make it more comfortable to stand, but that she thinks he looks good. She said that since he's not having flare ups often at all, to keep on with the trim schedule we've been doing and not change anything in regards to the care for his legs, which at this point is basically just maintaining his feet so that it takes as much pressure off his suspensories as possible. She recommended maybe taking his heels down a little shorter, but other than that, she thinks he looks good. She said she also thinks his natural confirmation is also just wonky and lends to how his legs look and how he stands to make up for it. 

All in all, it was the day from hell from the time I took him in to the arena until I got him back on the trailer. Once he started acting up, I was able to remain calm for him, but inside, I was also a nervous wreck that someone was going to get hurt or he was going to hurt himself. That was the worst feeling in the world.

The only thing I can chalk it up to, in a very oversimplified explanation, is that I need to work with him more. I'd already planned to start that before all of this happened. With bigger house projects out of the way and the days being longer, I can actually start getting out there more, but this really opened my eyes to just how much more he needs it than even I thought. We've been pretty good when I've worked him. He wasn't like that with his other vet when she was out in mid-February for his mouth abscess, and at that point, I would’ve expected him to be a pain more than now because he felt like crap at the time.

But I can't make excuses. I had already decided to take our relationship back to square one and start to rebuild and figure out something for him to do that doesn't require riding, so that we can work toward something and he feels like he has a purpose again. Clearly, being out to pasture has been good for his physical health, but his overall attitude and training need to be reworked. And that's my fault. 

There are obviously some very serious ground manner issues that we need to fix, pronto, but I decided that I'm going to go back even further than that for the first couple sessions, starting with this evening. 

I went out to just spend time with him. I used to do massage and essential oils and just spend a lot of time hanging out with him the first year or so that I had him.  At first I couldn't ride him because he was injured, so I had to find other things to do to bond with him and not put strain on him. Then that just sort of became our thing when we weren't doing other things. The past few years or so we have completely gotten away from just “hanging out”, and for the past year, I have had to drastically cut my time with him because so many other things were going on. It's not been fair to him, and I think going back to where we started might put us both on the right foot to start addressing everything else.

I'll let you know how that went.  We have a lot of work ahead of us, but I hope this puts a new beginning on things so that we can get back to how it should be.

Back to Normal

Hey all!

I have been hard at work the last couple of weeks drafting new blog posts and coming up with some ongoing series of posts. I've really felt the need to write lately, and I'm finally enthused and have some things I'm working on that I can easily write about!

Most of our big projects for the house are done for now, and I have some more time to dedicate to stuff I want to do rather than only the stuff I need to do (and some of the stuff I had previously only wanted has majorly turned into stuff that is now needed - you'll see in an upcoming post, one that will probably turn into a series.)

I hope all of you are doing well, and I hope you enjoy what I have to say! I'm looking forward to getting back into this and a lot of other things I've been back-burnering for the past couple years.

Have a great day, and happy reading!

A New Start to Riding

It has now been a year since I really went for a ride on horseback.  I miss it...a lot.

The last ride I had on Orion before he threw me last summer was a couple weeks into May, about a week before the infamous bucking fit that eventually turned into a piece of the DSLD puzzle that led to his diagnosis.

I rode Kit once for a few minutes in the paddock, but that's it.  Zip.  No more.

I've been catching up a little bit on some of my blog reading lately, and reading about people riding has me itching to go and do it.

So saddle up and get ready for some riding stories (hopefully soon!) because I'm determined to get back into it!

Dr. Kellon's Study

Well, I finally took the plunge and applied for Dr. Kellon's study on DSLD and am hoping to start getting Orion supplements.  I know that this recent flare up is most definitely due in part to the mud and his hooves being too long at the moment, but I've been wanting to get him started on this for a long time now, so I just submitted the form.  Part of my issue was money, but the larger part was that I knew before that I couldn't get out there to give him the supplements every day like it needed to be and did not want to lay that onto whoever was boarding him.  It's not fair to them, and I prefer to be in charge of it just so that I know for sure what he is getting and how often and how that is effecting him, etc. etc.

So now if we get approved for the study and can start on the J-herb and AAKG, we will see what happens when that is paired with me keeping his hooves trimmed to where they should be and everything else that goes with his upkeep on my part.  I am anxious to find out how this goes.  I hate seeing him in pain and want to prevent that as much as I can.  This disease sucks, but we will fight it.

Read more about Dr. Kellon's study here: 

http://buyaakg.weebly.com/dr-kellons-de-study-info.html

Making It Happen

Well, fellow bloggers - and anyone else who feels up to reading my lengthy post - how is everything?

It's been a super busy, productive month so far.  I am currently in the process of moving back to my hometown of Elkins.  My best friend from high school and I might be getting an apartment there together, and I'm being considered for a position as a vet assistant and some other jobs up there at the moment.  *excited squeal*  I don't really know the status of any of those at the moment, but I am both nervous and confident and excited and impatient all at the same time.

I got my license and my own car, finally.  The freedom I'm experiencing at the moment is incredible, and I'm SO glad I finally have it and can go and do what I want, when I want.

Other than the past couple of days when the weather has been crappy, I've been out to see Orion every day, even if it's just to take a couple of horse cookies out to him and love on him for a few minutes.  When there's time and it's not threatening rain or about to get dark, I've been working little by little on getting his hooves trimmed myself.  It's a very slow process because I'm a newbie, made even slower by the fact that his DSLD was flared up for a few days last week, during which I didn't want to make him put any added strain on his legs, so I just fed and Buted him while cleaning him up and brushing him (I could seriously make a mini horse out of all the hair that came off this guy).  The third day, he finally allowed me to mess with his feet more and I got a little done, but I was on a time crunch, so only a bit got done.  Then I had to work over by a few hours a few nights ago when I had planned to go out and do more, so that visit was cut to just a ten minute visit with treats and games in the field (he followed me at a walk and/or trot as I walked and/or jogged, and he got a treat - if he was behaving like a gentleman and not a brat with pinned ears).  He caught on quickly and even threw in a little hop as he was trotting behind me at one point - scared the crap out of me for a second because I thought he was acting up but then realized he was just having fun and that was it.

So I'm getting him back to where he needs to be - albeit slowly.  He's been putting weight back on since the move, and he's doing pretty well with that.  Still not where I want him to be, but it's just a long process.  I'm impatient for him to be back to normal, and I know that's not realistic at this point.  But he is definitely showing improvement.  I'm withholding pictures at the moment, but I will post some here in another week or two.  I've been taking them every few times I go out to track the changes, so I can definitely say for sure that he is looking better and showing steady improvement.  These past couple of days I've been frustrated with the rain and haven't gone out just because I know I can't really do anything in that and could do other productive things in prep for the upcoming move.

Speaking of moves, I've also talked to the B.O. where I used to board Orion in Elkins, and she has told me I can bring him back, so as soon as I find someone to trailer him there, I will be taking him back home.  He'll be there before I am, but I know I will be there soon and will be able to drive up and visit/check on him in the meantime, so it will work out.

Big changes are happening all around, and I'm more excited than I can accurately express right now!

Lazy Day

Sooo long since I last wrote.

I've had a super lazy day, laying around and binge-watching Gossip Girl (I started binge-watching it here and there a few weeks ago, and I'm now in the 3rd season on Netflix).  It was needed and I feel like kind of well-deserved.  It was a stressful week.

I moved Orion for reasons I don't really want to discuss publicly right now due to it not really being my situation to discuss.  Suffice it to say that there were goings on that I did not want to be around and did not want him to be around, and where he is now is somewhere that I feel he will be much better taken care of.  Where he is now is not necessarily where he will stay long-term, but for now it is safe and he is with a couple of horses he knows, so there is less after-the-move stress for him.  I'm focusing on saving up money to be able to put into him and get him back up to full health because he's gone a bit downhill in the past month, one of the many reasons I decided to move that I actually can throw out there.

That move was last Saturday, and I feel like I haven't really truly stopped moving since then.  If I wasn't working, I was tending to my apartment, helping out a couple of friends, or visiting Orion.

So, I've had a lazy day.  I haven't truly had one for a little while.  But a few hours ago I started getting restless and anxious and wanting to just DO something.  So I fixed myself a cup of coffee to clear the cobwebs from my head, caught up on some The College Prepster blog posts, finished up a lesson and took the exam for it (aced it!), cleaned out my email (it's been neglected for the past week), did my dishes from today (I actually have managed to get off my butt and cook for myself today - I've not been a total sloth), and put out some feelers on Fiverr for some more work (it's been a little difficult getting work on there recently since I've been off it for so long - and of late it hasn't been my first priority to market it).

This always ends up happening.  I can have a lazy day, but at a certain point in the day I just feel like I have to do something.  Anything.  I just can't sit here anymore.  Or I can.  But I have to be productive while sitting here, lol.

So now my agenda is get some blog posts written for my vastly neglected blog and all of you readers (at least those of you who are actually still interested!).  I'm still here.  Still alive.  Just dealing with life's curve balls and sometimes shutting myself off from social media so as to deal with it without social influences.  Those of you who have helped me through certain things recently though - I can't thank you enough.  I reached out to a couple of people and ended up with more helping hands than I knew what to do with.  You're all awesome!

Work Hard, Play Hard

Life has been busy busy busy lately, but in a good way.  I’m so happy with where I am now and what I’m working towards.

I’ve been working hard to be able to afford the things that I need and the things that I want to do.  You have to work hard to play hard, and the things I want to play are expensive (horses, working with animals, etc.).

Right now, all I can afford with Orion is to board him and keep up with feed.  I’ve been trimming him myself, so that’s one cost down.  I plan to have his farrier out in the next few months to check him out officially, but I think he’s doing fine for the time being.  Since it’s been cold, his legs have been fine.  That cold seems to have the same affect as icing or clay poulticing his legs would - it keeps them cool and tight rather than allowing them to get swollen/inflamed as they occasionally do.  He hasn’t had a flare up for a little while now, which is good.  I’m saving up for more feed/supplements/gear to help him out in that department and to be able to do more with him.

I’ve been studying like crazy and acing all of my tests for my vet assistant program.  I love the material I’m going over, even the office stuff.  I’ve been looking at the syllabus for the course lately, and I know it’s about to start getting into tougher stuff, but I’m up for it.  I love what I’m doing.  The idea of working with animals, medicine, and getting to do office stuff? Heck yeah.  It pretty much rolls all of what I love to do into one, and I can’t wait to actually get a job in the field and start.

I’ve been working as many hours as I can get at work, and budgeting like crazy every day.  I’ve been paying super close attention to my budget (I’ve created a living, breathing Excel-sheet that is tweaked and updated every day or every other day) and attempting to only spend what I need.  I make the occasional Sheetz run, but for the last few weeks, that’s about it.  I got my yearly raise, and that has already started helping!  Tax refunds are awesome, and I’ve never appreciated them more than I have this year.  I finally am able to pay off all of my hospital bills from last summer because of the tax refund, and that feels so good to have it not hanging over my head anymore!  Part of what’s left from the refund will go toward my student loans, and the rest will go into savings.  

I’ve also been working hard to try to get back into shape and give one of the dogs in my apartment a little exercise each day.  Walking is invigorating and cathartic, and I love it.  So far this month, I’ve walked around 14 miles and have no plans to stop at that.  I use my Endomondo app to track everywhere I go and have joined a few challenges on there to motivate me.  But really, the biggest motivation comes from the fact that I can see and feel my body changing, even if it’s only in little ways right now.  The fact that it’s an amazing feeling being outside again (even in cold temps - I know how to layer and keep warm. Haha.).  Sometimes I seem to be the only one out walking because of the cold, but that’s fine with me.  I like it.

What has everyone else been up to lately?

Wordless Wednesday

*Note: I may have already posted these at some point.  Not really sure.  I know at least one has been used a time or two, but the other ones are uncertain.  At any rate, I just re-discovered them on Facebook and fell in love with them all over again, so here you go.  Enjoy looking at the beautiful boy that I get to call mine (I sound so much like I am not talking about a horse here - oh well. lol) and his field buddies, circa July 2014.  Props to Chelsea Langevin for taking these pictures. :)*

Wordless Wednesday

Orion's Happy New Year!

Well, this was supposed to be posted yesterday, but I never got around to actually publishing it.  So here you go!

Orion is doing well right now.

This year, my goal is mainly just to keep him sound.  No big riding or groundwork goals.  I'm sure I will do more with him this year, but it will be different kinds of stuff.  If I ride him at all, it will only be for short little jaunts here and there.  I had ruled out riding him at all, but I've been thinking about it lately...if I do, it just won't be often and will be easy rides without a lot of hills and no faster than a walk.  But my main focus isn't on that.  It's simply going to be about messing with his diet and feet and finding alternative ways to exercise him that don't include riding or other things that might be too strenuous.  Keeping him healthy.  That's all I'm really hoping for this year.  Once we find the magic lifestyle combo that works for him, I'll know what to keep doing to keep him healthy and happy for as long as I can.  A lot of things we do already work..his feet (which need some work right now because I haven't had time to get out there and trim him lately - something that's going to change within the next week - namely the next 2 days, when I don't have to work) and his turnout regimen (I can actually say his turnout regimen now - he's in the barn part time and in the pasture part time rather than being in the pasture 24/7.  That's a big change from his past lifestyle.).  His diet isn't bad, but I'm definitely going to experiment with it to make it even better.  It will become much more hands on for me starting within the next month or less, when I'm able to be out there more.  So with that time, I can do more with his diet so that he's not getting strictly grain and hay all the time.

So that's the goal for Orion for right now.  Dude's doing well but could be doing even better, and considering that he had a DSLD flare up not too long ago - which I honestly think was caused more from the added strain of wading through muddy areas of his field because we had had a shit ton of rain for a week or two - I really want to make even more of an effort to make sure he has absolutely every tool available to keep him sound and pain free.

2014 Year in Review

I haven't done one of these for a long time, so I'm sitting down and reading through everything I've written this year (which isn't as much as in previous years, unfortunately) and reflecting on all that has changed - which thankfully is mostly good so far!

January
I started off the year at my mom's house, where I spent the better part of the Christmas holiday break.  Even though I wasn't in school, I still had a bit of break from work since I work on a college campus.  I put together a list of goals for 2014 (in all actuality though, I haven't reflected on this list much throughout the year).

Goals for 2014:
1. Get my license.
2. Buy a car.
3. Read 5 of the classics.
4. Blog more.
5. Try at least 10 new recipes.
6. Lose 15 pounds.
7. Get an apartment.
8. Take the GRE.
9. Start working on earning my master's certificate in GIS.
10. Work with Orion more and start being afraid to go faster than a trot.

Looking at these goals now, some of them became null and void at different points throughout the year (i.e. #9 and #10).  A lot of the ones that I can't mark off  yet weren't complete failures, not yet anyway.  Some of them are in the works.  I am pretty proud of the 15 pounds and apartment though.  I've wanted to get an apartment for a long time now and finally have one that I can afford with roommates that are awesome.  And even though those other goals aren't at the point where they can be marked off yet, I do not under any circumstances consider this year a failure.  Quite the opposite actually.  I feel like I've had a lot of self-discovery this year.

February
I had a lot of self-discovery going on in this month, as I realized that I was finally happy again and continued moving forward.

March
I didn't write this month, but I was still dealing with quite a bit personally (aftermath of a bad break up in which I kinda lost myself) and settling into the new role I took on at work as supervisor and safety manager.  By this point I was doing it on my own and teaching myself as I went along because the person who had those roles before me didn't teach me very much about it when I took it on.

April
This month I reflected on how I was coping with the changes happening in my life, I journaled a lot (btw, that journal is almost completely full now; I'll probably have to start another one for 2015), I realized that I really wanted to do something with physical therapy.  I figured this out when I was going to PT for a rotator cuff strain that I obtained back in October of 2013.  In that same post, I also decided to start blogging more (a constant struggle this past year, lol).

I also started doing the FMS Photo a Day challege.  Check out the tag "FMSphotoaday" to see those.  I want to do more of those next year since I've failed to do anymore this year.

I also made up a sort of cheat sheet for myself and any other bloggers interested and created a 20 Things to Blog About post.

May
I revealed that I had been working on a book that I wrote in high school.  That is not finished at this date, but I did make a lot of progress on it and do still plan to publish.  Mostly what is left is formatting for Kindle.  I have the cover photo picked out (spoiler: It's Orion). This was also when I started thinking about and eventually did get into proofreading on Fiverr.  I did that for a few months before getting too busy with work in the fall and quitting.  Perks of being self-employed with that. lol.  I am thinking about getting back into it on a smaller scale sometime soon.

In that same post there were also KITTENS! Cute little furry gray babies that are now pretty much feral thanks to their momma being scared of her own shadow.

I also talked about some TV shows here and here.

June
I made the official announcement that Orion was coming to live in the town that I now reside in, for a price comparable to what I was paying before and with much more in the way of facilities, albeit slightly neglected facilities that needed a bit of work.

"Mom, I'm moving?"

Fiverr gigs started rolling in and kept me busy, but I started pulling together what I would need for Orion's move and asked for advice. I took my last ride at the old place and came up with goals for Orion. The main goals were to get his feet in better shape and to get him to take his bit.  His feet are something I've had to keep up with, because it's just generally good for his well-being and also especially important because of his DSLD.  Bitting, not as much since I'm no longer riding him.

Before I moved Orion, I spent a day with one of the boarders at the new barn, someone I'm friends with from college. We rode and swam and got horribly sunburnt in the process. I rode the barn owner's little Paint mare, Vanna, who has since been sold.  Such a good little girl.  I miss her.

Vanna is the little girl on the left, Merrill is the big boy in the middle, and then of course is Orion on the right.

Oh, and I found out there are snakes at the barn. Black snakes. Huge ass black snakes.

And huge ass spiders.

Orion moved to his new home not even ten minutes from where I now reside.  He made some new buddies and loved it.  He also was diagnosed with DSLD, a condition that is not fun for either of us to deal with.  Before I knew he had it, and what prompted me to have him checked for it, he bucked me over his head, and I broke my collarbone.  I went home with my mom to recuperate for a few weeks after that.

July 2014
This month (I'm getting lazy with my links here because there were a lot of posts from July) I talked about my Fiverr business, posted a lot of pictures, discussed some ideas about conditioning Orion in my handicapped, broken collarbone state, and bought a lot of books.

I also finally opened up and talked about what had happened with Orion.  I had to sit on it and do a lot of processing (and overcome to wooziness that the concussion I had and pain pills I was taking at the time were causing).  But I finally wrote about it and posted it on here - with a lot of pictures.  This was before the diagnosis.  Eventually I wrote about that, too.  That also took a bit of processing, and I contemplated whether or not I was willing to risk riding him again, for his safety and mine.

Went to a river with a friend.  :)  Always fun times.  Reflected on life a bit more.  Jumped on a blog hop band wagon and had fun with it (I should do more of those this year. Hmm...).  Continued to visit with my boy, who was as sweet as he's ever been and seemed to know to be careful around my injury.  I shared some inspirational pictures/quotes that inspired me and talked about some of the things I'm thankful for in my life right now, namely Orion and the bond that I have built with him regardless of the issues that we've dealt with.

August - December 2014
There wasn't a lot of blogging during these months because I went back to work and had less time and also because I went back to live with my grandpa and had no internet again.

In September, I wrote a blog post that was kind of a rant/vent session about a sort-of friend's attitude toward the world, but it ended up being kind of therapeutic for me in the process.

In October, I turned 24 (good God, life is going by fast...). I had a lot of visits with Orion, and he was the world's biggest sweetheart.  I also found out about an apartment available with some people that I knew from college, and the price of rent/utilities/everything seemed almost too good to be true, so I looked into it...and I loved it.  It was an apartment with guys, and I've never lived with guys, so I was a little nervous about that - and some of my family was REALLY uncomfortable with that.  But I knew them and knew they were good people, so I gave it some serious thought and finally decided to go for it!

On November 1st, I got some of my stuff moved into the apartment and stayed my first night there.  Chels helped me move what I had available to me to move at the time, and we went to a Halloween concert back home that some friends of ours were playing at.  Awesome times.  It was a great night and one I'm not likely to forget, made even better by the fact that when I went home that night I was going home to a place of my own for the very first time.

I finally got a new laptop during a Black Friday sale on Amazon.  My huge old HP that is still awesome will be retired as a desktop computer once my desk actually comes to live at my apartment and relinquishes it's spot in my old room at my mom's house.  It's issues just cause it to have to stay in one place at all times.  So a desktop is the perfect job for it.

December hasn't seen much writing, but there's been a fair bit going on.

For example.  Meet this goofball.

This is Tank.  He's an English bulldog puppy born on October 1st, and I've been watching him for a little while now.  He was my brothers' Christmas gift, but since my family's landlord doesn't allow pets, I've been taking care of him until some factor in that situation changes.  I can't say I really mind.  He's adorable and a really good puppy.  Ornery as all get out, but really laid back and easy going too.  He likes to flop down on my kitchen floor and snooze the day away while I do stuff around the apartment - this is if he isn't following me everywhere or chasing my roommates feet/shoes or playing with the big dog, Milton, who is a 10 month (I think?) old lab mix and roughly about 4x the size of Tank, if not bigger.

Other news from December is that my laptop arrived.  I love it.  I put up my first very own Christmas tree in my first apartment with my roommates.  And my new cat, Leo, promptly tore it down within the first day.  He gets locked in his bathroom at night and when we all have to leave now because he's pulled the tree down three times since we put it up after Thanksgiving and has broken who knows how many ornaments and pulled off and lost who knows how many more.  Turdface.  But we love him anyway.

So that's it! My 2014.  How was  yours?

Happy New Year!

Well hey there!

I'll start this post with saying that life is really good right now.  

I have this awesome new little Lenovo ThinkPad X131e Chromebook (something I found by looking into the suggestions of achieve1dream's husband).  It's a little smaller than I pictured in my head, but it has Chrome OS, something I've been pretty interested in since I use Chrome all of the time.  So far I really like it.  I'm slowly transferring the files from my other laptop over to this one so that when my 6.5 year old HP Probook eventually dies, I don't lose anything.  I'll probably eventually pick up an external hard drive, but for right now, I'm putting that off.

My apartment still feels amazing.  I love living here, and my roommates are awesome.  Living with guys is a lot less drama than living with girls (no offense to any of the girls I've lived with before!).  My mom is a Scentsy rep and gives me stuff all the time, so I have warmers in both living rooms, my old Scentsy warmer in my room, and an old metal warmer from a little place in Beverly in my cat's bathroom. And I have more Scentsy tarts than I know what to do with.  Of course, now that I have all these other warmers and have to combat the nasty smells that often drift up through the floor from our idiot neighbors downstairs, I expect I'll go through this stuff a lot faster than I used to. 

We put up our tree the other night.  Leo has been having a field day tearing down ornaments at night when we're all in our rooms or when none of us are here (that doesn't happen often, as we all have completely different schedules.  There's usually at least one of us here most of the time).  I've decided he's going to be locked in "his" bathroom at night until Christmas is over and the tree is down, because the first night it was up, before it was decorated, he knocked it completely to the ground.  I came out to the living room the next morning, and the tree was laying on its side in the middle of the floor... -_-  Little shit...

Orion is doing well.  I think he's having a slight DSLD flare up right now, but nothing too serious.  He's just a little sore and favoring his front leg a little bit, but the other boarder who mentioned it to me today at work said that there wasn't any inflammation.  I haven't been out since the end of the week a couple weeks ago just because of time constraints, but I'm going to go out in the next couple days to check on him and love the crap out of him.

The barn is actually coming along really nicely.  One of the other boarders has 5 horses there right now, and she and her family have been footing a lot of the bill for getting electricity, water, etc. turned on.  The owner doesn't have a lot of money, so this has been a Godsend.  They've also done a ton of the cleaning that Chelsie and I wanted to do over the summer, up until I broke my collarbone and couldn't do the heavy lifting anymore.  With her whole family out there doing stuff, they actually had the money, means, and manpower to get it all done.  It has turned into a really nice place.  It's like a completely different barn with the lights turned on.  There's still a lot to be done, but they've improved it TONS.  I'll post pictures soon.  I have some, but they're on my phone, not the laptop, and I'm going to just wait and do a photo post, which those will be included in.

Those of you bloggers that I usually read and comment on, I'm playing catch up tonight and probably the next few days.  I haven't had time to really sit down and read blogs lately (well...actually, I could have this week, but I got re-hooked on The Walking Dead and House, and so I've been watching those and Christmas movies on TV while I clean and piddle around the apartment....oops. lol).  But I'm still interested in what you've all been writing about and experiencing lately, so I'm going to continue working my way through blogs tonight and in the days that ensue.

I really can't believe that it's Christmastime.  I really can't believe that this year is almost over!  How the heck did that happen?  It seems like we just started January a couple months ago....this year absolutely flew by.  I have to start writing a year in review post soon... I've been sketchy on those the past couple years, but I'm doing on this year.  Too many big things have happened not to.

So that's that for tonight.  Expect a photo post coming your way soon, and more writing, whether it be important life stuff or animal stories.  Everyone knows I have plenty of animal stories.  lol  Or whatever I feel like writing....

Night!

Wordless Wednesday - Fur Baby Love

Best Boy Ever

Please excuse his nasty sleep-boogered eye.  I took this and then realized how gross it really looked and cleaned it off.  But aside from that, I love this picture.  

I went out to visit Orion the other day after work (one of my two days I work day shift), in a bad mood, kinda depressed, and it was a gross, nasty kind of day.  Chilly, misting, and eventually full on raining.  But when I was walking up the road to his field, he was standing at full attention watching me approach him, and by the time I made it to his fence, he was up to it too.  I climbed into the field with him, and he came up to me face to face and just stood there quietly while I talked to him and loved on him a little bit, rubbing his face and ears and neck.  Eventually he moved even closer and fell asleep for a bit with his nose resting on my arm.  

I love him.
He was just what I needed that day.

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.

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.)