February in a nutshell

February was an interesting month...between snow, rain, lessons, ambulance rides, and doctor's appointments and crazy wildlife, it's been a little chaotic! Snow and rain are a total bummer when it comes to riding. Especially because the construction of the covered arena does not start until summer/fall, my riding is primarily done in a grass arena or a hilly paddock for conditioning. But them's the breaks! Mother nature is a fickle one and I don't want to make her any more lethal than she already is, so I accept her forecasts and work hard to work around her.

My lesson from Lynn happened at the beginning of the month when she made her first trip up from FL. The glory of the half-halt and the uphill canter were our focus and though it was not easy, great moments were definitely had! More to come later about our next set of lessons and future show plans.

The ambulance ride was not for me but for my father. To make a long story (12 hours in the Duke University ER) short, there were 3 trips to Durham, lunch in their fantastic cafeteria, 3 EKGs, 1 CAT scan, 1 MRI and 1 spinal tap that resulted in the procedure being repeated 3x because they had trouble getting to my dad's spinal fluid ending with 0 idea on what caused him to be there in the first place...Oi! What a day! But I do have to say, the doctors and all of the staff were fantastic! They were kind and gentle with dad but quick with results and showed real concern when listening to our questions and opinions.

Doctor's appointments came for me when I started experiencing back of the head headaches that were affecting me during the day and made riding very uncomfortable. It was eventually concluded that I had either a migraine/muscle pull that ticked off one of the lymph nodes in the back of my head which was causing my rather irritating headaches. After a shot of "super anti-inflammatory" and some lovely muscle relaxers that did much more that relax my muscles, I am back with fewer headaches, less neck pain and most importantly back in the saddle!

As far as the wildlife goes...it's as I stated previously, they are crazy! First, (something which I wish I had pictures of) our neighbor's 4 miniature donkeys and mountain goat got loose from their contained area and were making a field trip up to my barn. Rounding them up was a sight to be seen! In the end, everyone was returned to their appropriate living quarters and I can now add "donkey wrangler" to my equine resume! Next, our Russian ducks have decided to live between two ponds during the day which made everyone nervous thinking that they left permanently or worse had been killed due to our next wildlife problem. A fox has setup shop in one of the corners of the farm. He is quiet and shy but has a bum leg. Every once in awhile, I will see him laying down in the corner of the dirt paddock while the horses are out. It doesn't give me the warm fuzzies but I have come to the conclusion that he is just doing this for company, but I'll have to keep an eye on it. We are also overpopulated with vultures due to a deer that died on near the pond. Although they don't necessarily cause any problems they choose to leap into flight every time Khakie and I are on a trail ride...the poor guy is starting to get a complex! Last but not least is our newest inhabitant. Yesterday, I saw him/her moving through the back 5 acres (aka the hill arena) and boy was this sucker HUGE! Now, I love me some turtles but there was no way I was getting too close to this one! He/She is now residing in our pond and I think we may be in store for more of her kind and less of the ducklings this Spring :(

Here is the closest picture I could get of super turtle!

Now for current news...This weekend, Buddy and I are taking a training adventure down to Lynn's farm for 3 days of training. I think I will be completely exhausted by the end but I'm hoping to have a couple of break-throughs during this time. I am going to try and write everyday with it like a training journal and hopefully include some more pictures too! We have to start getting into show shape since the first one is the second week in April (eep!). Well, until next time!