Poet came home midday on Wednesday, and I was there to greet him with my baby OTTB starter kit: new halter, salt lick, stall toy, and lead shank. He stepped off the trailer calmer than Simon did when he arrived a year and a half earlier. My barn is a lot more animated than the place where Poet lived before. It’s open, with multiple barns, tons of horses and kids, a road with cars that go up and down, a…
I have a lot of strengths, but patience is not one of them. So I’ve been dying, dying to tell y’all something. The last week has been a doldrum of waiting for the drug panel to clear after my pre-purchase, but now that it’s finally official I’m so excited to report that I’m a horse owner again! Not only a horse owner, but a baby OTTB owner that one of my bff’s has dubbed “the greyby.” Meet Poet. Although his…
I’m more aware than I’d like to be about how time can heal some wounds. For the past month or so, life has seemed quite a bit less hopeless as I try to heal from losing Simon. It’s reassuring, because immediately after he died I wasn’t sure if it ever would again. I’m glad I was wrong. Of course the other side of grieving and healing that I’m also hyper aware of, is how refusing to let go of your…
I feel like there’s still so much I wanted to update y’all on in my long summer of no blogging what-so-ever. Of course, a lot of that involved horse show updates that seem too painful to write now, but I am feeling good enough about life to catch y’all up on some non-Simon related areas. Today we delve into the oh so fun topic of my knees. For the past several years, I’ve had pain in both knees. If I…
When I feel like I’ve been robbed of something, I try to focus on the things to be thankful for. It sounds pious, but I assure you it’s not. Rather, I have to concentrate on the amazing experience that was Tim and Simon instead of feeling like I’ve had all my happiness ripped away from me. Because frankly, I feel like I’ve had all my happiness ripped away from me. Yesterday was my local horse show organization’s year end banquet….
There are a lot of things I want to express in this post, but I also know I don’t have a ton of mental energy to accurately do that. So, let me tell ya’ll this. On Monday, I picked up a package from my mailbox that was both unexpected and large. In it was the most beautiful book of my horse beautiful horse, which I sobbed over. Like, I sobbed so hard it took me three times flipping through the…
I went to the barn today. I thought it would be terrible, I really did. I was supposed to go a week ago for the barn holiday party and yearly awards, but I couldn’t bring myself to face his empty stall when everyone was drinking and having a good time. So I sent my trainer my regrets, and put off going back until I felt like I couldn’t put it off anymore. When Simon first died, things were pretty bleak…
I wanted to live my entire life and never have to write this post, but the best horse I’ve ever had died on early in the morning on December 20th. While I was 2,000 miles away visiting family in Mississippi, he started colicing. When he didn’t come around quickly at the barn, my trainer and I agreed he should go to the clinic. There the original prognosis was good, and I want to bed at midnight my time concerned but…
When I first moved to my beloved California barn last year, I heard a lot of rumblings about a big horse show coming up. We’ll be at year end. Everyone’s getting ready for year end. They were referring to the IEHJA, our local circuit, year end show. No stranger to local horse show finales, I figured I knew what it’d be like. Maybe a nicer facility, a few special classes here and there. All year, everyone gushed about how great the…
I didn’t plan on horse showing much, if at all, when I moved Simon to California. That seemed like a luxury far beyond my grad school life, but I keep re-learning two simple truths with riding: I’m competitive as all get out, and I like to have goals. Luckily, my barn has its own four show series that awards year-end awards as well as counts for my local circuit points. At home shows in my barn? That was too good…
Last week, I said goodbye to my perfect spaniel. After I wrote the post outlining the details of his cancer, I was flooded with messages of support and love. Those notes gave me so much comfort. Both in knowing that I’m not alone with the immense struggle that is deciding when to release a beloved pet, but also that because everyone echoed that I’d know when it was time… and that it was probably not too soon. I was completely…
My last update sharing Eliot’s cancer and my fears about letting him go was a bit of a downer. In case you’re worried, let me get to the punchline early: Simon is doing fabulous. I got him insured, so I didn’t have to worry about the “can I afford colic surgery?” question. When his weight dipped, I put him on not one but two high end feeds. First we tried Ranitidine to treat his ulcers. After we doubled the dosage and…