Whah!

I'm here to whinge. Please feel free to skip this one.

I have been sick. Not morbidly sick, mostly head colds and tonsillitis and sinusitis and it never ends. Every time I get back to about 80% I get hit with another one! It's been about 8 weeks now that I've been sick.

I nearly fainted so I went and had a blood test. Apparently nothing is wrong with me except I have low iron. So I'm on iron tablets which seem to be upsetting my digestive system.

The weirdest thing is that it's only my left sinus and my left tonsil that are having the issues. I've caught a head cold from my husband and I'm skiving off work this morning to go see a different doctor. I need to go see an ENT specialist.

The relevance to this blog is the fact that I miss riding! I've not ridden much at all over the last few months because I've been trying to get better. I have been paying Linda to keep Allie in a little bit of work and that has helped. Allie is going to Sam the eventing trainer on Saturday for two weeks - he is starting her over fences for me. I'm going to miss her!! But we think she will LOVE jumping and it will really help her with her flat work. Very excited to get her out to jump club etc. this summer (if I can ever get better!).

*edit - She's frigging lame. Hip hiking lame. Don't know yet what it is, looks like stifle to me. So no jump training until we sort this shit out :(

I've lost a bunch of trimming clients too, because I had to have two weeks off and then I was away for two weeks over the last two months for college. I have lost my trimming fitness. I used to be able to do 8 horses a day, but struggle to do 6 now.

Also, my beautiful ute was written off. :( I was driving home from interstate (passed my final exams for my equine Podiotherapy course! Yay!) and I was so tired at around midnight that I pulled over for a nap in an emergency stopping lane thingy. Luckily I was smart and slept with my seat belt on because a truck rim came off a speeding truck and hit the back of my ute!!

It bent my chassis and wrote off the car!! The truck did not stop. :( arsehole. I was terrified! I had no idea what had happened and it took me a good half hour to get the guts to get out of the car and have a look at the damage. I thought someone wanted to abduct me. :(

Anyway, now I'm truck hunting again. Ugh.

So that's what has been happening lately.

Allie Does Good

Linda has been riding Allie and OMG she is a different horse! We had been struggling with everything, she was chucking hissy fits and I felt like I was ruining my horse.

Linda just knows what she is doing, hey. She really really does!

I'm not going to bore you with the details but I am super excited to get back on that horse.

Gracie Gets a Holiday

So Gracie made a mess of her superficial digital flexor tendon on her left hind. Vet said box rest six weeks, hand walking, etc etc etc blah blah. It will be horrible mentally for her. She HATES being in a box.

Nat is taking her home to be able to care for her properly. Probably 6 months recovery time if she doesn't overdo things. :(

Gracie Grown Up

Gracie at 2 years old and again at 7 years old. <3

So, people ride their horses, right?

Because we don't.

Gracie has been kicking out at other horses and has cut herself and wacked her tendon too. Grrr.

They're both not in work. Neither of them are lame per se, but they are both recovering from injuries. Ugh.

Saturday, Allie's bandage comes off dammit and I'm riding her. Hopefully it's cold so I have an excuse to use my new pressie to myself.

Pretty, huh?

At least it's winter so we aren't missing much.

Life

What is life like for me at the moment?

Tl:dr version - I'm WAY too busy. So much so I have ended up with tonsillitis.

Well, we are trialling an early shift at work at the moment - 7am to 3.30pm. There are three of us in my department and we all take turns for a week - so every third week I get to have way more horsey/husband time.

My trimming business is going awesome. I trim about 50 horses a month, on top of my full time job. Normally 10 on a Saturday, then a few others once or twice after work during the week and I also trim on the first Sunday of the month too.

Linda has been riding Allie for me once a week putting some dressage schooling into her, plus a bit of tough love. She is a lot calmer at the tie up now, doesn't shuffle around and scream out for Gracie anymore. She is like a different horse. I don't know what I would do without Linda right now, because I certainly don't have much time for my poor horse anymore.

For myself, I ride every Saturday after I finish my trims for the day. I also try to ride on Sundays - especially the Sundays when Andrew is off racing his car (I love seeing this in our shared calendar because it means he is out doing something he loves and I get an extra horsey day!).

Nat and I share feed up at night - we take turns as to who goes out to feed during the week. I miss the horses so much when I don't see them. But it's nice sharing the load.

Our float is fixed and we have used it a couple of times to go to the vet for clipping and to go to the indoor once. Need to sort that out and get out there more!

Before Allie hurt herself we were working on inside leg to outside rein. I'm really struggling with it. I wish wish wish she hadn't hurt herself because I really wanted to get back on and work on it again! I guess I will just have to wait.

My Podiotherapy course is going well. I have so much homework and a massive 5000 word easy that I'm not even half way through yet that is due this month. I struggle finding time to get it done, I can't do it when Andrew is home as he doesn't give me peace and tries to talk to me all the time and the tv distracts me. And the cats distract me too - they're so cuddly! I try taking the laptop to work to write on my hour lunch break but I barely get anything done there either. Ugh. I need to get it done.

So that's it!! How do you make time for all you need to do? I need tips!!!

Ugh

So we were just getting Allie back in work when Linda (who is riding her for me once or twice a week) took her out yesterday, and Allie decided that it would be just awesome to flail her legs around and do this on the arena.

Awesome huh?

As far as injuries go it is a nice clean stitch job (vet call on a Saturday, thank heavens for insurance), no need for penicillin or bute, just keep it bandaged. She now gets two weeks off!

Horses!