The (Hopefully Last) Big Move!

Hey all!

I promised to write again soon, and I am now about to start fulfilling that promise.

Remember how I said there would be some new and exciting news?  Well...my boyfriend and I bought a house!  It's definitely a bit of a fixer-upper, but we both love it.  We closed on April 18th, and started preparing the main rooms the next day so that we could begin moving in ASAP.  We painted the living room, and cleaned the house from top to bottom.

The first coat of the green made me question EVERYTHING about this paint...but the second coat transformed it, and we ended up absolutely loving it, especially when paired with the yellow I picked out....so much so, that we decided to do the spare room with the leftover we had of these two colors!

A quick picture I snapped before they started moving the living room furniture in.

Plus the furniture and some more chaos.

See? The green worked out really well.  (I don't think Darryl realized I was going to take this, lol)

After that, we started moving things in from Darryl's apartment.  I wanted the living room, kitchen, and bathroom to be finished first so that we could kind of have a command central.  We lived out of the spare bedroom for a couple of weeks while Darryl and his best friend, Justin, installed floating floors in the upstairs (the upstairs consists of two rooms - one sort of leads on to the next, so we're using both of them as the master bedroom area).  I also painted upstairs, and the finished product looks like a completely different space than it did when we started.  It is absolutely freaking amazing.  (Stray piece of information: Every wall in this picture that isn't white, we painted.  The only wall in the house that didn't start out white was a brown wall in the living room - that's the green wall behind the couch now.)

I forgot to take a lot of better before pictures until things were already well under way, but I did have this and a couple of others!  This is upstairs in the one half of the bedroom.

Annnd, almost after!

The other half of the bedroom, while it was in progress.

We got this flooring from Lowe's.  It's called "Tavern Oak".

I'm in love with my kitchen.  I'll post pictures of it plus our stuff later, but right now I have boxes all over the place from where I moved more of my stuff in last weekend.

Once that was completed, we moved our bedroom stuff upstairs and started working on the spare room, then after that, the office.  I had the painting completed in both rooms long before the floors were completed (again, floating floors), but honestly, the guys really had the hard part.  The house was built in 1938, and it seems like there isn't a completely straight wall anywhere in the house, as they found out while trying to get the ends of boards to match up exactly.....I don't think it ever happened precisely the way they wanted it to. lol

One corner of the spare bedroom, post-painting.

The office, in progress.

Almost all of our stuff is in now (some of mine is still in a friend's garage, but we're slowly moving it in as we get other stuff out of the way).  It's really starting to come together!  Darryl put a bunch of his photos up a couple weeks ago, and as soon as I dig out the box mine are all in, they will join them!

Leo and Sawyer and Felix (you all haven't been introduced to him yet, but he's Darryl's hamster, lol) are all here and right at home.  Leo is ornery as usual, but he's much better behaved and happier now that he's back with me full time.  (My apartment situation over the last year didn't really work out well at all, and I ended up pretty much just in and out to take care of Leo and Sawyer and clean anything that needed done on a regular basis, and that was about it - not an ideal situation at all, and I hated leaving them there, but I had nowhere else to take them - where I was staying didn't allow them.  So now we're all back together, and it's so much better!!)  Everyone has adjusted incredibly well to the new place.  Leo is still nervous of new people when they come in, and his go-to is to jump behind the couch and stay there until the new people leave, but he's slowly beginning to come out quicker and quicker, if he even hides at all.

It's been an amazing experience so far, and I can't wait to see what happens next!

Making A Comeback

Hey all!

I hope everyone out there is doing well! It's been so long since I've been able to sit down and truly blog. I thought I was going to be able to start last summer (I look at the last post, from July 2015, and shake my head in disappointment), but instead life threw me a few curveballs that I didn't see coming, and all extra time kinda went out the window. I had internet access but not much time to put anything together, and for a long while I had some things going on in my life that were a constant source of negativity that in part made it impossible for me to write anything of value that would have been tasteful to post. 

Now though, things finally seem to be going right again - they've been starting to for a few months, but now we've got a really good feeling that everything we've been working toward the last couple months is going to come to fruition.

It might take me a few weeks to really get going (I'll be moving into a new place sometime within the next month), but I plan to start updating on all slices of my life again soon!  There are a lot of new things to share, and I'm super excited to start writing again!

News! News! Read All About It!

So, taking a short break from the TV show posts...

Goodbye for now, A-B!

I got a new job!  As of 2 days ago, you are reading the words of C.J. Maggie's newest host/server!  I'm still waiting to hear back from some of the other jobs I interviewed for, but I'm just so happy/excited/relieved to have picked up something to bring money in so quickly after finishing up my last shift (for now) at Sodexo.  I was really starting to internally panic about my financial situation, as it relies on bringing in money each week so that I can make all of my bill payments, which I have spaced out a certain strategic way throughout the month so I'm not bleeding myself dry all at once.  With the move coming up and all of the expense of that plus the expense of commuting from my current town to the one I'm moving to and my new job is in, money was a big worry.

I've trained as a host for three shifts, three days in a row, and I got to fly solo on that today.  It's easy.  I like it.  Tonight I go back in for my second shift of the day to start training as a server.

I have about half of my stuff moved out of my apartment, not counting the furniture that still needs to go.  No room in storage for all of that, so it will have to go once we actually can start moving into our new place.  Right now I'm just trying to get whatever I don't need out with each trip that I have to make to the new/old town, so that I don't have to make as many longer trips once we get the place.  I'm trying to streamline it all so that it's not quite so stressful.  This way, I can pack up the furniture and the present necessities and go to the new house when it's time, and I can move the stuff from storage in as I need it, rather than do it all in one day and completely and totally exhaust myself.

So that's the plan for right now!  I'm really excited.  It's a lot of work, but it's happening.  Keep your fingers crossed that everything stays according to plan!

This is how Leo deals with the heat this summer.

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!

Orion's First Moments with the New Horses

So, I definitely have some other posts cooking up right now, but I was finally able to get this uploaded this morning.  I wanted to post it with The Big Move since that's the day it was shot, but my phone has been a butt lately about letting me sync things with my computer.  However, I've finally triumphed over it! Take that, stupid phone.

So without rambling your ear off, this starts probably less than a minute after putting him out with Merrill and Vanna for the first time, after the obligatory nose-sniffing and investigation of each other was over.  Orion just trotted off like it was nothing, and the other two fell into single file behind him and followed him wherever he went.

Enjoy!

Theories Of Why All Hell Broke Loose

So, in my last post, I told all about what happened when I tried to get on Orion at the new place.  I've talked at length with a few people that I trust in all matters horse and otherwise about it, and these are the things we have come up with.

1. Boss horse who thinks he's a badass mentality
2. Seclusion from other horses during work
3. Pain
4. New place
5. New blanket
6. Bee sting/fly bite (But really, no.)

1. Boss horse who thinks he's a badass mentality.
It quickly became clear, pretty much from the moment he was put in with his new herd, that Orion is going to have a much higher spot in herd dynamics from what he used to be.  In every other place he's ever been in, no matter how many or what kind of horses he was with, Orion has been at the bottom of the totem pole.  No respect from other horses.  Bullied constantly.  Wouldn't stand up for himself.  Most of the time not allowed a primary spot in the barn with the other horses, or really even to hang out with them in the field.  For a time, he had a buddy who was pretty much herd royalty and didn't take crap from anyone, and that helped him out a little.  After that horse (who was very old) died, Orion still had lingering privileges that he had gained when buddied up with him.  Also after he died, he started standing up for himself more.  Not enough to rise to the top, but enough to keep from constantly getting his ass kicked and to allow him to socialize more and make new friends.

So, imagine my surprise when he immediately seemed to take the lead with Merrill and Vanna.  Huh.  Oookay then.  I had joked around beforehand that it would be hilarious if he became boss horse....welllll.... I didn't really think it would happen, and I definitely didn't think about the consequences it might have on our dynamic.

It had been discussed in the past that his overly pushy, stubborn demeanor (which came out a LOT in the early days, whether from the ground or under saddle) might be coming from the fact that he couldn't be assertive in the field, but with little old me (or any other person if you want to compare their size to his), it was obvious he could get his way just by throwing his weight around, threatening to bite or kick (or in some situations, actually biting), and just overall acting like an asshole.  I worked with him from the ground A TON to form a bond and still gain his respect.  I learned the hard way that I couldn't just be his friend.  I had to be his leader, because while I wanted a partnership first and foremost, there had to be a leader in the dynamic, and it couldn't be him.  I learned just how aggressive I sometimes had to be from the ground.  When we started riding more, it was a whole new learning curve of learning just how aggressive I sometimes needed to be when he was under saddle, and over the course of a summer when I was actually able to work with him a lot, he started behaving really well for me no matter what we were doing.  As free time dwindled and I was forced to go out less and less, those manners started to dissipate.  I learned pretty quickly that if I hadn't been out there for a while, I needed to do some serious back-to-the-basics work for the first part of our visit; otherwise, he had the idea that he was still in control of everything he did, just like he had been for months in the field with no work.

I write all of this because this is the basic process I have been through with this horse for the past three years.  He's grown better through leaps and bounds and has definitely had some two-steps-back situations, but altogether, he's a very different horse than when I first met him.  But all of that work was done while he was in the same herd, with fairly consistent dynamics, at least as far as he was concerned.

This is why I feel like this is one of the biggest reasons he acted out when I got on him.  Our bond and respect for each other has ALWAYS been stronger from the ground because that's where we've done the most work together.  His respect for me from the saddle has always been shakier because we've done less work there.  So it makes sense that he was being good, calm, collected, and giving no signs of what was to come when I was dealing with him from the ground that day. We haven't had a problem with that in a long time.  It wasn't until I got on him - literally THAT SECOND - that he blew up.  A close friend recently said that it seems like he was in the mindset of, "It's MY body, and I'll do what I WANT," which obviously did not include riding in a new place.

2. Seclusion from other horses during work.
This was something I honestly hadn't given a whole lot of thought until after the fact.  At the old barn, the paddock that we groomed, tacked up, and did any kind of groundwork in, was just on the other side of the fence from the field where the other horses were.  So even when we brought them "in", they were still able to interact with their friends from the other side of the fence.

Cut to the new barn: It's a good long walk up the road from the field the horses are currently in.  He couldn't interact with his new friends.  He only had me and a big, unfamiliar barn.  Yes, we did a bunch of stuff there that morning before this happened.  Yes, I loved on him and spent time just trying to get him to chill and relax further so he would associate this new place with those kind of things, in addition to the work we'll hopefully be doing there.  But in retrospect, even though he was calm, the whole time we were there, he was staring up the driveway, back the way we'd come from - back toward the field and his friends.

My other top theory is that he knows I can't stay on him for more than a few seconds when he bucks.  He knows that.  He's done it to me four times now (including this last one).  Once was on our way through an empty field to get to some trails, and he didn't want to leave the barn and got pissed at me when I wouldn't let him go back.  Once was when he got bit by a ginormous horse fly (I barely stayed on for that one) in the paddock.  The other time was last fall when we had the Gator/four-wheeler incident (that was one buck that technically didn't unseat me, but it came damn close.  What actually did it was when he whirled and fell into the ditch).  Then there was this, which was by far the hardest he's ever bucked with a rider.  I think he knew he could throw me so he could go back to his buddies, which is exactly what happened.  He didn't wait around as he has when I've been thrown or fallen (I've fallen more than been thrown) in the past.  He was there for maybe 30 seconds before he trotted up the drive and back to his herd.

Not okay.

Pain.
This is a new one that I don't really think I've discussed on here before.  I don't necessarily think this was the reason for what happened that day, but it is something I want to get checked out in the near future.

It was suggested to me last summer that Orion may have a condition known as degenerative suspensory ligament desmitis, or DSLD.  I've never had him checked for it because it hasn't appeared to cause him pain.  I have, however, been watching for it to see if the symptoms worsen....and they have.

The most obvious symptom is dropping of the fetlocks.  The condition usually develops after a tendon or suspensory ligament injury (deep digital flexor tendon strains, anyone?), and the weakening of the ligament causes the fetlocks to sink lower to the ground.  Going back through pictures, it's slightly noticeable in the first couple of years that I had him.  I didn't know anything about it until a year ago, but when I did find out, I decided to do some research and ultimately made the decision to wait and see.  The thing is, there's not a whole lot that can be done for it if he does have it.  There are some experimental treatments, but most of them are insanely expensive.  The only way to really diagnose it is through ultrasound, which is what I'm planning to see if I can have done.

The reason for doing this now is not that he appears to be in pain, though now that I have him closer, I plan on watching him very carefully to see if any develops.  The reason is because ever since I found out about this, I've been paranoid and anal about watching his legs every time I'm out there.  They do appear to have gotten worse since I bought him.  I was willing to admit that.  They weren't perfect then either (his conformation has always been wonky; it's just how he is), but they looked better than when all of this was brought up.  Before the end of May, I hadn't been able to do anything with him since the end of January.  I had taken out grain and gone out to pay my board and had always run out to check on him and say hi, but those visits didn't last long.  It didn't occur to me at those times to look at his legs.  When I went out by myself in May, I noticed how much different his legs appeared to be.  And in the next couple visits leading up to the move, I noticed it again - it was like it jumped out at me, which is what really made me take a step back and go, "Holy crap, that's bad."

That is what made me start kicking around the idea to have him looked at.  I was thinking about it before any of this went down.  Now that he's where I can go out at a moment's notice, I want to have it done.  Whether he has it or not, it will give me peace of mind in knowing.  If he doesn't, we'll know it's just bad conformation.  If he does.....I will give him the life he deserves until it's no longer good for him.  I won't let him suffer if that's what happens.  But I will give him the best life possible in the time he has.

I hate even talking about that possibility.  I was discussing it with my mom a few days ago and completely lost it and started crying, and so did she.  No one wants that to happen.  But it's a real possibility.  Maybe not in the near future - it may be years and years down the road.  But if he has DSLD, there's nothing that can be done for it, and there's a possibility that eventually, the only humane thing left to do would be to put him down.

I just hope with all my heart that it doesn't come to that.

4. New place.
I've heard this one suggested over and over again. I won't deny that it may have played a factor in some way, but really, I don't think this is what caused it.  From his behavior during every other part of the visit, I expected a little nervousness, maybe some jigging, or "WTF is that?" reactions - things he's done in the past when dealing with something new and a little scary - if he even did any of that.  I know a lot of horses have bad reactions to new places, but my horse has always been ultra chill about almost anything new put in front of him.  If he were to do anything in reaction to being in a new place, I really don't think it would have been anything as extreme as what he did.

5. New blanket.
The only difference in our tack that day was his new Western saddle blanket.  This has been suggested, but I don't think this was a factor either.  It was a different material than what we've been using, but not something different than he's experienced before.  It has wool padding, which we've used in the past.  I spent a good long while looking over it when I took the tags out to make sure there weren't any little plastic pieces left behind that could poke him, and by the time I was done, they were all accounted for and not in the blanket anymore.

6. Bee sting/fly bite (But really, no.)
This just occurred to me in the last few days, mostly because it's been a reason for him bucking once before.  But honestly, I don't think that would have warranted bucking of that violence.  Plus, the flies and other insects had been leaving him alone for a while at this point, as I had doused him with fly spray not once, but twice that morning.


So, those are my ideas.  If anyone has anything to share or add, please feel free to do so.  My shoulder isn't at the point where I can go start working with him yet, so I'm still in the planning phase of what to do when I can get back out there to do stuff.  Any help or advice is much appreciated!

All Hell Breaks Loose

Grandpa dropped me off at the pasture Orion and his new little herd were in. They were all standing close together, grazing quietly.  Orion looked up and watched attentively as I approached.  I set my bookbag, which contained my lunch, a few bottles of water, and some music for the barn, by a fence post and let the fence rails of one section down. I didn't have to go far to catch Orion, and I had to shoo the other horses away to keep them from leaving the field with him.  I tied him to the fence once he was out and quickly put the rails back up.

King of the new herd.

We walked up the road to the barn with no incident.  He was curious of everything, but not alarmed.  We went into the barn, where I tied him, brushed him down, checked and picked out his feet, and did some T-Touch massage to further relax him.  He was very looky, but not nervous of anything.  Even the BO's dog, who'd been lying in an empty stall, unbeknownst to me, didn't bother him when he growled lightly to let us know he was there. He warranted a long, curious look from Orion before simply being ignored again in favor of gazing longingly outside.

After loving on him for a while, I decided to take him for a short walk up to the arena so he could have a look at it.  If I DID end up riding him that day or any other, I planned to start there, so I wanted him to be comfortable there.  I didn't want his first look at it to be while I was on his back, where I know he has less respect for me than he does on the ground.  If anything startled him, I didn't want him to feel alone.  So to the arena we went, where he was curious but completely at ease.  There are a couple of barrels set up in the middle, and I led him over to those so he could inspect them.  His inspection included trying to eat one. -_-  Other than those, the rest of the arena is flat and grassy, with trees/bushes completely enclosing it on all sides along with the fence.  We stayed there for maybe fifteen minutes, while he meandered and grazed.

When it became clear he wasn't worried about this place, I decided to take him back to the barn and start working with the bit.  Remember those goals I posted?  I wanted to get started on them right away.  Feet could wait.  They'd been recently trimmed.  Bitting could not wait, as I planned to start riding him around the property to acclimate him as soon as possible.  At that point, I still hadn't made up my mind if I would get on him that day or not, but I at least wanted to get him to take his bit more willingly than he had on our Sunday ride.

It took a while and a lot of attitude and giraffe-necking from him, but I finally got him to take it somewhat willingly four or five times in a row.  It wasn't perfect, but it was a start.  I planned to come out early the next day and do it again to reinforce the lesson.  

Gazing longingly outside and up the drive, probably wishing he was with the other horses.

By this point, he was taking everything in stride, and I thought it would be okay to ride him for a few minutes.  I wasn't going to push it for long, only maybe ten minutes to the arena and back.  I figured I'd hop on, figure out his mindset further, and stop pushing it if he seemed too skittish, which I didn't think he would be.  There were no warning signs of it.  I thought he might be a little more nervous when I wasn't on the ground with him anymore, there might be some jigging, maybe a little headstrong-ness...nothing like what actually happened.

I took him outside the barn and swung up onto my Western saddle.  That was it.  I didn't have time to get my other foot in the stirrup, collect my reins further, nothing... He immediately started bucking.  Hard.  He's bucked a small handful of times with me before, but there have always been reasons leading up to it, some of them nothing to do with me, and never like this.  Because I had no way to really save myself, I flew over his head, and I landed on the gravel driveway, shoulder first...hard.  Orion stuck around for a minute or two, then trotted up the driveway and back up the road to his herd.

I was left on the ground, crying and screaming...not by choice.  It was like I didn't have control of it.  I have never felt that kind of pain in my life.  I tried to get up, but I couldn't because my right shoulder wouldn't work at all.  Trying to roll didn't work either because I was dizzy and couldn't get my body to cooperate.  So I laid there, hysterical, for two or three minutes before I was finally able to half drag myself back to where my phone was laying on the ground, where it had landed as it fell out of my pocket.  I knew where it was because I could hear my music playing quietly from where it was laying.  Before you think it, no, I do not think the music had anything to do with what happened.  I play music around him all the time, same kind that was playing that day, and he's always liked it.  It's actually always seemed to calm and focus him.  I noticed it when I started playing it while doing ground work and have had it playing when riding him in the paddock at the old barn.  So this day, aside from being in a different place, was no different in terms of the music playing.  I have other theories, but I'll explain them later.

So anyway, I got my phone, took off my helmet, and called my uncle to take me to the ER, because by that point I was starting to think I had dislocated my shoulder.  I then called the BO to ask him if he could catch Orion, check him over, and put him back in the field.  Thankfully he works just up the road, and he was able to leave for a few minutes to take care of Orion.  There was also a neighbor who saw Orion trotting up the road, tacked up and riderless, and when he didn't see me go after him, he drove over to the barn to check on me.  He waited with me until the BO came back with Orion's tack and a couple minutes later, my uncle arrived.  By that point, the neighbor had helped me sit up (I had still been lying on the ground when he got there).  They grabbed my good arm and helped me up, and I was somehow able to pull myself into the vehicle on my own (it's high off the ground).

We went to the ER, with every little bump in the road pretty much causing agony in my shoulder.  They took me in, I told them my pain level was a 9 or 10, they took all of their usual data (my BP wouldn't register on the digital cuff, so they had to use a regular one because it was so low), and then they took me back to a bed for more assessment from more nurses and the doctor.  The nurses were awesome.  One of them came over and offered to clean me up while we waited, as my entire right side was covered in dirt.  In cleaning up my face and neck, she found a nasty scrape on the right side of my neck and a few scratches on my arm.  At some point, the doctor came in and said that based on the way I was holding my arm, I had probably either dislocated my shoulder or fractured my clavicle.

I waited some more, and around the time they came to take me back to x-ray, I lost all peripheral vision.  I told the doctor, and she ordered a CT scan, which didn't show anything.  Concussions usually don't anyway, but it ruled out anything more serious for the moment.  The vision loss lasted maybe 15 minutes before it started to go away.  It took forever for the x-rays to come back.  The doctor was badgering them to hurry up.  She impressed me this time around; I've had her before for other issues and wasn't impressed at all.  The only issue anyone had was that she forgot to give me pain medicine until I'd been there for a couple hours.  I didn't know if they were going to give me any, and honestly I wasn't all there at the time, so while I was thinking clearly about some things, like puzzling over what could have caused Orion's reaction, I wasn't thinking clearly enough to actually ask for anything.  It wasn't until my grandpa and uncle were finally allowed to come back, and I burst into tears upon seeing them, that the doctor remembered she hadn't administered any pain medicine yet.  She obviously felt bad and apologized profusely to me before turning to my family and saying, "She was just being so quiet and brave about it all that I never stopped to think about how much pain she must be in!"

A very short time after that, a nurse came in and gave me a shot in the butt (I HATE NEEDLES).  Shortly after that, I was moved to another section of the emergency room because they had another big emergency coming in and needed the space I was in.  At that point, I was just waiting on my x-rays to come back.  When they finally did, I think I had been there for maybe three hours, maybe a little less.  It turned out to be a clavicle fracture.  They gave me a prescription for some pain meds and an immobilizer for my shoulder, had me wait a while longer, then finally let me go.  But the fun wasn't over yet.  Ohhhh no.  I got to the waiting room and suddenly got dizzy, felt nauseous, lost all color in my face, and (thankfully after they got me a barf bag), got sick.  It was horrible, and I had to go back to ER bed I had just occupied for the last four hours.  They got me crackers and Sprite and sat with me while the concussion symptoms dissipated, including the tunnel vision that had come on while I was getting sick.  Then I got to leave the hospital in a wheelchair for the first time in my life because they didn't trust me not to pass out.

My mom came to check on me that evening (she would have been there before that, but I didn't get out of the ER until 4 and had made everyone promise not to call her until I could do it myself.  She was royally pissed about that, but my reasoning was that she would just be sitting in the ER waiting room not able to do anything, when it had become clear that, while painful, my condition wasn't life-threatening.  I didn't want to worry her.  That logic also may have been skewed by my concussion........)

Mom had to help me get ready for bed that night, and by that, I mean she had to cut off my T-shirt because I couldn't get it off any other way.  When she did, this was revealed.  It didn't hurt, which is why I hadn't complained about it, and there had been no reason to take off my T-shirt at the ER, so no one saw it until this point.  I didn't even know it was there, and Mom almost gave me a heart attack when she exclaimed over it.

The next day I went to see the ortho doctor my mom works for, where I was told that my clavicle "fracture" is actually a really nasty break.  See x-ray picture included with this post.  It apparently snapped and then was jammed together so the ends are side by side instead of connecting.  There are fragments all over the place.  I could feel the ends of the bone, and what I'm positive is at least one fragment, shift and grind together with the slightest movement, no matter how still I kept my shoulder.  It was a weird, awful feeling.  The ortho doc gave me a couple of very light exercises to do so that I can keep the muscles in my arm and shoulder from atrophying as much as possible.

The break and one fragment (perpendicular to the clavicle in the middle of the break) can be seen.  In another shot, another fragment can be seen that apparently exploded with more force and was lodged higher up in the tissue of my shoulder.

Scrape on my neck from the fall.

I have to go back for follow up x-rays on the 14th to make sure it's healing properly, and if it is, I'll not have to have surgery.  All of us wanted to see if it would heal on it's own before resorting to that, as most clavicle breaks will heal without surgery.  And if it does heal on it's own, I won't have to deal with hardware problems later on in life.  It will be two months before I can do normal everyday things that require shoulder movement (like washing my hair with both hands rather than one), and it will be at least three months before I can do strenuous activity with it, such as riding.

Side note:  Grandpa went back to the barn a couple days later to look for my coffee mug that I left there in the midst of all the chaos, and he said my helmet is done in.  It would have been done in from the force of that fall anyway, but most of the black foamy part around the bottom is shaved off on the right side.  Apparently the right side is majorly scratched and scuffed up from where I slid on the gravel as well (this also accounts for the mark on the back of my shoulder, though I have no idea why I didn't feel anything from that).

So, that's the reason I haven't been able to write until recently.  That's what happened.  I'm going to stop here for now, because the next logical thing to discuss is why it happened, which is a long discussion, and this post has already been long enough!  You can look for that in the next day or two.

Poor Harry, waiting to be picked up the morning after and not realizing I'm incapable of doing it right now. :(

The Big Move

Happy 4th of July, everyone!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Wednesday (the 25th) dawned bright and early.  I got up and made my to do list for the day, which included editing, making my shopping list for Tractor Supply, then going to pick up Orion with my grandpa and Liz!  You can obviously guess which I was most excited about. lol

We were to meet up with Liz and her trailer around 4:45, so Grandpa and I left Philippi early so that I could pick up a couple of things from TSC, including fly spray, a new Western saddle blanket, grain, and wormer.

Orion didn't want to leave the barn when I got there.  Most times he'll come to me; today was not one of those days.  It was slightly raining, and he wanted to stay in his side of the barn with Kit. I had to wade through the mud to get to him, and when I got there, he started nuzzling Kit while I was tying his rope halter.  Not gonna lie, I almost got emotional wondering if he'd realized he was leaving and was saying goodbye.  I realize that's probably not the case.  He probably just had an itch, but it was so well-timed that it was very convincing.

I took him to the paddock, put his SMB's on him, and collected our last couple things that I'd left on Sunday: dressage whip in case he was a butt about getting on the trailer, treats, and his partial bag of grain.

He followed me obediently out of the paddock, through Linda's yard, and out to the driveway where my grandpa's car was sitting and Liz would be pulling up any minute with the trailer.

No matter how much they like to pretend they're not friends, this picture doesn't lie. lol

I opened the trunk and started putting his stuff into it, while he quietly stood and watched and a time or two decided to help. ...-_-...  He nosed the treat container around in the trunk.   I scolded him.  He stepped away and stood quietly for a minute.  Then, as I was organizing things to make room for the grain bag, which was sitting at my feet, he stealthily started to stick his entire head into the bag.  I let loose a loud, "Hey! Ahhht, no Orion! Get out of there!" He quickly pulled his head away with a half-mouthful of grain and went back to standing patiently.  I deposited the grain in the trunk and closed it, then led him toward the front of the car, where Grandpa rolled the window down and started feeding him peppermints.  Orion stuck his nose partially through the window to reach Grandpa's outstretched hand and gently lipped them up, then pulled his head back up and nodded as he ate them.  He was a happy dude.

SMB boots on and waiting patiently while I collected our things from the barn.

Liz pulled up, and I led him up to the trailer.  She gave me instructions, I hopped up, and he had to stand there and inspect every inch of the back of the trailer before she tapped his behind with her dressage whip.  It didn't take nearly as long to load him as I thought it would.  Once he was on, he was good.  We hopped out, got organized, and headed to his new home.

The ride was uneventful, and I got to spend time catching up with Liz, which I haven't been able to do in quite some time.

At the new barn, Orion was reluctant to back off the trailer, and it was a little too small for him to turn his big butt around in, so I had to keep asking him, "Back, back, baaack. Come on, dude; it's really not that hard.  You're not stepping off the edge of the earth here.  Let's go.  Baaack!" *hoof almost touches ground* "Goood boyyyy!" *quickly steps back onto trailer* "Damn it, Orion, you almost had it.  Let's go. Back up.  Come on." *tentatively steps back again and actually touches ground with back hoof*  "Good boy!  Good boy, Orion, keep it going!"  I pushed on chest and kept putting pressure on his halter and praising him until he'd finally backed the rest of the way off and was completely out of the trailer.  Thank God that was over.  It took a couple minutes but overall wasn't horrible.

I had to call the BO, as we were there a little early, and he came down to tell me what to do with him.  At first he decided he was going to keep in the barn for the night and put him out with the other horses in the morning.  We put him in the roomy stall at the back of the barn and got him grain and water.  He paced the stall, inspecting everything and occasionally grabbing a bite to eat.  He also spent a few minutes with his head hanging over the door watching every move we made as we stood outside the stall and talked.  Liz looked around the barn and made some helpful suggestions.  The BO and I discussed the timeline for water and electricity being turned on.

Buddy boy and I while waiting on the BO to get there. You can see one of the pastures in the background.

Finally, the BO left, Liz decided to head home, and I decided I was going to spend a little time brushing Orion down and maybe do some T-Touch on him to try to further calm and relax him since he would be spending the night in a strange place.  Just as I was heading back to the stall with a brush, the BO came back and said he'd changed his mind and decided we should go ahead and put him in with the other horses now and see how they took to each other.

So up the road we walked.  When we reached the field, Vanna and Merrill immediately came over and sniffed noses with him over the fence.  All three were calm and curious about each other.  The BO let the rails down at the section of fence we use to take them in and out of, and we took Orion in, removed his rope, and stepped back to see what they did.

He immediately trotted over to the other two, they completely inspected each other, then he turned and set out at a trot across the field.  Vanna and Merrill set off in a single file line behind him and trotted along at a pace to keep up with him.  They continued this up around the top of the field and back, perfectly happy, a little excited, and seemingly completely content.

From that point on, it's looking like Orion, for the first time in his life, is at the top of his herd hierarchy.  The other two defer to him, and he seems to lead their games and determine where they go, from what I've heard.

The Last Ride

Rewind from my last post, back to last Sunday, the 22nd.

I stayed with Chelsea Saturday night, went to El Gran for dinner and drinks, then headed out to the barn on Sunday morning to tack up for our last ride together on Orion and Kit at the old barn.  The only issue in getting started was Orion's reluctance to take his bit because the big brat knew he could prolong leaving the barn if he did.

Finally, after much struggling, it took a team effort of Chelsea, Linda, and I to coax him into taking it, and we headed out.  Chelsea recently got permission to ride on an old trail that Orion and I used to love and go on until the land changed hands, and we stopped going because we didn't know the people and whether or not they were okay with us riding there.  So with newly acquired permission, we headed up that way.  There were lots of new things on the way that didn't used to be there...large trucks, timber piles, and a group of people, among other things.  Both horses were a little nervous but not enough to really act up.  With our guidance and words and pats of encouragement, they kept it together.

It turned out that no one had been on the trail since Hurricane Sandy blew through almost a couple years ago.  Jeez, it doesn't seem like it's been that long! Time flies!  There were downed trees, but other than those, the trail was in relatively good shape.  We had to get off to lead the horses under two trees before getting maybe 2/3 of the way up the first leg of the trail before it branches off and coming across a tree that we could go under or around.  Both horses handled it relatively well.  The first tree presented a problem the first time we went under it, on our way up the hill.  Kit, with her pony shortness, cleared it just fine.  I had to lift it up slightly to let Orion pass under it, and when I thought he had cleared his saddle horn (I was riding Western), I let it down slightly and turned to walk him the rest of the way away from it.  Bad move.  Apparently he backed up slightly when I let the tree down, and he wedged his saddle horn under it.  I heard Chelsea yell something as she was looking back at us and heard Orion suddenly scuffle around behind me.  I glanced back and just had time to jump to side as he came barreling out from under the tree like a bat out of hell.  He just barely clipped me with his shoulder as he started to go by, and I fell.  He ran into Kit's butt, and she swung around and glared at him as if to ask what the hell he thought he was doing.  He immediately looked chastised and calmed down as I was climbing off the ground, still holding his rope.  I didn't have a mark on me, somehow, but I was peeved.  Chelsea later remarked that her favorite part of the day was me ranting and ending with, "Why the hell is it that every time we ride, I always somehow end up on the ground??"

The rest of the ride progressed just fine.  It was great being able to ride in the woods again (since last fall, most of the trails that we normally go on had been closed to us, so when we did ride, we had to ride on the road - a back road, don't worry - but it's not as good as riding in the woods.  Orion gets bored on the road but loves the woods as much as I do, if not more.).  The only other slight issue was overcome pretty easily, and I was proud of us for it.  When we got to that last tree, Chels rode Kit up the hill a little ways to see if we could ride around the uphill side of it.  That was a no go, but Orion almost had a panic attack at the possibility of his herd mate leaving him and first tried to bolt up the hill after her, then when I thwarted that, he almost crashed into a bush, contemplated jumping down the hill on the other side of the trail, then just ended up spinning a couple circles when I pulled his head toward my leg to keep him from doing anything stupid, as it was obvious he had stopped thinking logically at that point.  By that time, Chels and Kit had picked their way back down the hill to us, and he immediately chilled out.  I got off and led him down the trail in anticipation of having to lead him under the next tree on the way back.

Just after crossing under tree #2 on the way up the hill.  You can see it in the background, and you can kind of see Orion's sunburned pink nose.  Poor dude.  I need to get some baby sunblock for him.

He smacked his sunburned nose off a branch as he tried to grab a snack and split one of his scabs open. -_-  After that, the only thing he was concerned about as we walked back was his stinging nose and trying to scratch it on every single thing in reach. Including me.  Brat.

When we got back to the tree that he had been stuck under on the way in, Chelsea and I stood around for a few minutes trying to find another way around it to avoid the same thing happening.  What I eventually decided to do was to loosen the girth, slowly slide the saddle sideways so the horn wasn't sticking straight up, and see if Orion was freaked out by it or not.  Dude stood patiently.  I got a what-the-hell-are-you-doing-to-me glance and an ear flick at one point, but then he was unconcerned.  I then took him to the tree and lifted it with the hand I was holding his rope in (I thankfully had my long lead rope with us on this ride), held onto his girth to keep the saddle from sliding under his belly with the other hand, and clucked him through.  He was slightly confused for a minute before slowly ambling under it, unsure if that's what I wanted him to do.  Good boy.  It was an awkward situation, but it worked.  I was especially proud of the fact that all the work I did with him last summer on staying with me, not walking ahead of me, seemed to pay off at that moment.  It wasn't the best moment for that lesson to kick in, as I actually needed him to walk past me, but it was nice to see that he at least thought about it.  He wasn't scared or really even that nervous; he just seemed confused.

Once we were on the other side, I tied him to a tree and fixed the saddle.  Ohhhh if only you could have seen the evil death glare I got upon tightening the girth back up.   He was not a happy camper.  I'm pretty sure he thought he was done for the day when I loosened it the first time.  But after pointing and warning him about being an ass, he sighed and turned back to watch Kit amble underneath the tree to us.

By this point, we could hear wood saws going down where the timber piles and people had been. -_-  We decided to walk the horses back so that they felt like there were more numbers of us for safety, because the saws were loud, and we were going to have to walk right by them.  They did fine, with a couple snorts and wary looks toward the people, who thankfully stopped to let us pass when they saw us coming back up their driveway.

After that, it was smooth sailing.  I put Orion below me on the hillside and hopped up on him (I'm short, he's tall, and even with a Western saddle, I still find it difficult to get on him unless I do this or have something to stand on.), and we headed home.  We even rode through the spare field to get back, which is something I haven't done for a while because we almost always have bad experiences when riding there.  No problemo.



We faced challenges, and we handled them fairly well.  Most of them were due to circumstance and not anything with us, so I was happy with how it went.  All in all, it was a fun and interesting last ride, and I couldn't have been happier.

Orion had three days left at his home of the past two years and ten months.  I told him to enjoy it as I put let him back into the field with his buddies, and then Chelsea and I packed up the majority of my barn stuff and took it to the new barn.

It was a great day. :)

Upcoming...

Don't worry, there is a very good reason why I haven't posted about last week's move and things that went on immediately before and after it yet.

I currently have a pretty badly broken collarbone.  I had a concussion from Thursday til around probably Saturday afternoon, at which point I finally stopped feeling drunk and decided major painkillers are not for me.

Immediate conclusion: I can be dumb, my horse can be an ass, and when the two happen at the same time, the results are not good.  He's fine; me, obviously not so much. More on this tomorrow.

I didn't write about what happened right away because:

a) I had a concussion and couldn't hold a thought long enough to actually write about it in detail.
b) I was high on painkillers, and while the results of this could have been hilarious, I was with it enough to realize that's not what I wanted this to be about.
c) Until today, I was typing with one hand, and it was royally pissing me off.  Today I tried using my right hand for the first time, and after much fiddling with where to put the laptop, what height to adjust my chair (shut up, I'm short and not supposed to be moving my shoulder, so it was an issue. :P), and exactly how much I could move my hand around without moving my shoulder, I finally found a way that works decently well.

So, there's your reason for the long absence after all of the promised posts started going up.  I have 4 or 5 I've been working on, but none of them are done yet.  My Fiverr queue was blowing up with gigs to be proofread, so I've been playing catch up with that.  There's so much to do, I seriously want to shoot myself, and I've had a couple late deliveries because I couldn't work on them until the last minute.  Thankfully I had the sense to email the buyers when it became clear I wasn't going to have their docs finished in time, and when I explained the reason why, they were very understanding.  So after tonight, I'll have a couple days before the next wave of orders is due, and I'll be able to focus more on posts.

The first couple will be long and detailed, but I promise they're not boring.

So I'm sorry for the wait (Liz! :P), but there will be more to come tomorrow -  even if I have to stay up all night working on it.

Back to editing a 73 page document....... -_-