Thank God for good friends
Okay, I still want to cry.. but at least now I don't want to give up.
This has not been the easiest two weeks or so. So much stress and pressure for the RRP. And I know, I'm putting it upon myself. And I don't even expect or want to do well.. I just don't want to overwhelm my poor horse. Yet that seems to be exactly what I am doing. Sigh..
After the horrible experience cross country schooling at Chatt, I rerouted and signed up for Poplar. Which meant that yet again I had to reschedule my passport appointment. It also means that I have to work Tuesday next week because I couldn't move my clients to Thursday of this week from Friday. Which, is fine... Jacel can't teach anyways... and now.. I won't be able to ride Lyric til Thursday most likely anyways... But it means I won't get to ride Dan as much and he's not been ridden in a week thanks to being shoeless. Sigh. But not just that... it's all the stress of rearranging... being gone yet again from home and having Mike feed.. And more money.. that I don't have. Because I finally got my taxes from last year done and apparently I owe basically everything in my business account. And my personal account has nothing either. I suck.
So... then, I had to bring Dan to Dr. Barrow to get steel shoes put on on Friday. Which is fine, it's early enough that I should still have time to XC school with Aubrey on Friday. She said it's just us so no rush. But mentioned 3/4ish. I debated bringing Lyric and putting steel shoes on her. I feel like she's occasionally foot sore... and she hasn't really improved her sole depth. But then she went so well in our lesson Tuesday... and Jacel said she didn't really see foot soreness... just body soreness... (Which, in retrospect could be foot.. could also be growing giant TB who doesn't know how to move properly yet). And Dr. Barrow mentioned that perhaps we don't change things a month out from RRP, just... in case. Which, I sort of agree. So I went back and forth and while I prayed on it.. maybe I didn't listen enough. So I started with Dan.. then added Lyric.. then cancelled Lyric. So I just took Dan on Friday. And I'm so glad I did. He seemed much happier and more comfortable and wasn't foot sore. I talked to Patrick and he also mentioned that he would have suggested not changing Lyric also, so.. was feeling pretty good about that. But... some of her tabs were starting to flip up and pop off, so I was a bit anxious she would lose a shoe. To the point that I started praying that she would keep them on through the show... Sigh...
Anyways... we loaded up and headed to Chatt. Later than I wanted but Aubrey told me not to stress as she had the other 2 to cross country school. It was a disaster of a drive up there. Lots of traffic and either I missed the exit or GPS sent me on a ridiculous goose chase. Instead of just taking the exit right after the Chatt exit.. it sent me up a few, then a mile or so on whatever insterstate that was, then basically do a u-turn and go back almost to where I came from, to exit onto 85 South. Um... ??? What?! So then of course I missed my turn because I was trying to merge with people from the left and the right and it said stay right, but there were two rights, so... then I had to backtrack YET again. Sigh.. And traffic sucked. And I was annoyed because it rained all morning at home and was supposed to rain all afternoon at Poplar. So...like, now I've done all this and may get rained out? And I could have just hauled up the next morning because my ride time wasn't until 11:22, so.. I could have saved stabling, and being away. Argh. But... we finally made it to Poplar and the weather cleared and was actually quite nice for schooling. Yay! Except not. Sigh...
Aubrey was finished with the first horse but about to hop on the second, so I had time to get unpacked and parked and get Lyric settled. She got back and we tacked up. I got on first and Lyric got a little squirrely in the aisle and stepped on her hind foot or something. She spun and it sounded like she stepped on herself but her shoes were still on. So I got on and we walked a few circles while Aubrey finished getting ready. And she was fine. Then we headed across the drive to the path to get to XC. And after we crossed the gravel, Lyric was suddenly just about 3 legged lame. She was struggling hard and almost shaking. And at first, it looked like it was the front left, but then it almost looked like it was a hind.. then the front.. then the hind... I got off and couldn't see anything wrong. I pulled her boot off and she was still lame. She was all spazzy and wouldn't stand still. So.. I got back on... still lame. So Aubrey went to go school her last horse and told me to take Lyric back and see if something had gotten stuck up in her shoe or something. But I had to take her back to the stall as she was a little spazzy. So I did. It took me a minute, and I lunged her a bit before I could finally find it and get it, but she did have a small pea sized pebble stuck between her shoe and in her frog crack. Sigh.. .okay, yay! Now you should be sound! Except it was stuck laterally on the left front. And when I lunged her with the left front on the inside... sound!! When I lunged her with the left front on the outside... head bobbing lame. Sigh... Dammit! And in her stall, she was clearly uncomfortable. She kept shifting and was standing medially to avoid that part of her foot. But then still almost looked like it may be an other foot too. And her right front foot had a pulse medially. What the heck mare!? So... Aubrey and I talked and we decided that I would hang out for the night... see what resting in her stall did for her... not give her bute or banamine since it's unlikely to really help a foot and that way I wouldn't worry that I was covering up a soft tissue injury or something... and see how she was in the morning. Luckily I could school XC before 1 pm if I wanted to/she was sound. That meant a lot of riding in one day, but... it was worth staying to see. Plus my eyeball was killing me. I must have scraped it or something because it was burning and bright lights were killing me. I wasn't sure I wanted to drive home. I wasn't sure I'd be able to do it without having to close my eyes. Not that closing them made it hurt less. Sigh...
Side note though.. when I was lunging Lyric she noticed the cows and the white egrets and was VERY intrigued. Not terrified but certainly alarmed and not quite sure. So.. mental note. :)
Anyways... I opted to not walk her that night and just let her rest. In the morning she was still lame though. I could tell just seeing her in the stall, but sure enough when I walked her out, she was legit lame at the walk still. Sigh.. Dammit. I went and scratched and then walked XC so that if by some chance I could sneak over again before RRP and school it, I would know what fences to jump. And.. I just wanted to cry. Aside from my eye still hurting soooo bad, I just.... argh... The course was okay. It was definitely smaller than Chatt. Some things ridiculously smaller. Like the up bank was literally like.. 6 inches. Ha ha. Why bother!? And some small little amoeba/starter looking fences. But there was also some big ones. One huge staircase cabin thing... a scary looking ramp/box thing. And a couple of sizable tables. Sigh... So yeah, who knows?! We may have had a repeat of Chatt. But at some point... I'd like to jump something of size before getting to RRP. I suppose I can always scratch, but... sigh... I don't like to do that.
Anyways.. I told Aubrey that I was going to be a poor loser/bad sport and go home. Mostly because my eyeball was killing me and I was afraid I wasn't going to make it home if I waited too much longer. But also because.. I wanted to cry. She understood. I did help her with stalls that morning.
So I packed up and we headed home. It started sprinkling when I left. I was hoping that it would just sprinkle and be done for them. I pretty much drove home in pouring rain the whole way and ... sadly, it apparently rained hard almost all day there. So... yeah. It made me feel a teeny bit better that I was missing out but I hated it for all the other competitors.
I still wanted to cry and give up. I called Liz cause she had called Friday night to check and wish me luck. And oh, how I adore her! She always knows just what to say. She let me whine and complain and agreed that it sucked and was awful and frustrating. And then ... we came up with a plan. She even offered to come with me Saturday (providing Lyric is sound and has shoes) and be my grounds person to cross country school (Provided Grace could come and she could get a golf cart and I could drive (but she would come to my house)). Which actually sounds like a really fun day. But first I need to figure out the shoes. And we talked about how if Patrick could come, then just switch to steel. OR... have Sara do the glue ons this Thursday as planned, but then have Patrick come in 2 weeks to do steel so that she's closer to RRP for the steel but still has enough time to get used to them. We also talked about how IF I decide to not go to steel... then Sara is going to have to come back out before RRP to reset her so we don't end up in the same boat. And we talked about how I've still got time... I can school at Ashland some. And do a lesson with Kelly or Jacel. And if I can get her to somewhere on Saturday, whether it's with Liz or a trainer, then there's also that. And we also discussed that... if I have to skip a fence or two on XC, then I do. I can always check ahead of time and see if I skip a fence on purpose, will they let me continue, knowing I'm eliminated, so that I can do what's best for her. And if not, it is still an option regardless because she's a forever horse, not a sale horse. And, also, I still have show jumping to be competitive in. Ha. I mean, it's unlikely we'll be competitive, but.. we still have that discipline too, so.. you know... if we can't figure out XC at BN before then.. it's okay.
So now I feel a little better. I have a plan. Tentatively. I just need to wait and see what Patrick says and then figure out the shoeing plan. And tonight, I pulled both front shoes because she was still sore. It poured all day here too so I figured the ground is nice and soft. And if she's got an abscess or bruise from the shoes/pebble... this may make it better. And worse case scenario.. it doesn't help, I still think the ground is soft enough that it can't hurt. Other than making her more butt high than usual ;) So we shall see in the morning. I didn't see the screwdriver in the barn so I used the knife that I feed the canned food with (and had rinsed off) to help pry off her shoe. She was hilarious...she was sniffing me and the knife like crazy... then kept sniffing the ground. Weirdo! Hee hee..
I do hope that she feels better in the morning. And not just because I really want to ride Thursday... but because I hate it when she hurts. And I don't want her to be uncomfortable.
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