WHO REALLY WON THE LOTTERY?

If you know me, you know how much I love to play the lottery.  Now, I do not have a gambling addiction.  You see, I believe that my little $1 will win Megamillions or Powerball.  The only thing I'm not clear is when...  I wanna be a Billionaire!

OHEC - Sugar's View

Ahhh, to live a life of leisure with my full time staff attending to my every need.  My home will be fabulous with stunning views, carefully prepared meals and transportation, complete with my own driver, on the finest vehicles.  My personal assistant will scurry about making sure I look my finest wearing the latest (and most comfortable styles).  Ahhhhh...  that life...

Wait!  Hold on!  That life I want... that life I dream about...  OMG...  IS SUGAR's!  How did that happen? Hmmmmm...

OHEC - Her paddock view

I do believe Sug won the lottery 'cause she has everything I dream about, including calling the City Barn her home with its fantastic facilities, great views and a caring staff.  She is a lucky horse, indeed!

Tuesday is Sugar's appointment at Tufts Veterinary Hospital ('cause only the finest will do).  She is still NQR - reluctant to move forward on the lunge, unable to hold her canter and still exhibiting neurological symptoms.  An organic cause was ruled out - not EPM. 

Folks have asked me how "I was holding up".  For the record, I am a rampant optimist.  I believe that they will either find something and fix it or they won't find anything and she'll be good to go. There a million of scenarios lurking in either of those results - a million of them.  I choose not to open any of those doors...

This philosophy works for me.  I learned this well when I was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2005.  I knew I was going to live because I had all the good characteristics...  Yet to survive the ordeal from mammogram, surgery, chemo and finally to radiation (6 months), I had to deal with "What I Know to be True" rather than live in fear and speculation.  And, I did this one day at a time...

So, now I have to run out and get that lottery ticket.  I want to live a life just like Sugar!

DIRTY GIRL...

Used with permission
www.yokinasphoto.com

{{{{Hmmm, that title will boost readership...  I just wonder how many folks googling will be wicked disappointed.  Just sayin'...}}}}

"How do you get her so white?" 

There are times in my life that I believe that I'm low maintenance, just an easy-going-take-life-in-stride kind of gal.  You know the type, nothing bothers them, things come into their life and they toss their long blonde hair and with sparkling blue eyes they laugh with delight while hopping in their shiny immaculate blue dually. 

I am brown haired, brown eyed and really kind of not.... low maintenance.  And, Sugar is dirty...  yup, dirty.  Her bright white coat is blotched with manure stains and one very prominent dollop of urine.  Below her hocks, you can not detect the white in her tail. 

I groom.  I do not bathe for cleanliness, I groom.  Torn between two lovers (work and Sug).  I need to work today but those dirty bits call to me, they beg me to wisk them away.  Begging even more for the hard brush

And this morning, my dirty girl is still NQR and I have finally begun to feel the worry and fret of what is unknown.  She is better than she was that first night, yet she still appears to have neurological symptoms.  My vet, god bless her, agrees that its time for the big guns and that waiting for it to resolve may just prolong that very appointment.  So, she's scheduled for a neurological exam at Tufts Veterinary Hospital and, if appropriate nuclear scintigraphy (bone scan).

Oh, did I mention that Sugar is a dirty girl? 

Tonight, I left work late after finishing a presentation that will take me away for the next two days and I groomed my lil' pinto pony as Da Boys cleaned food bits off the stall floor.  She is white again  and I will sleep well tonight. 

"How do you get her so white?"

PARENTING JUST GOT REAL!

Observing the farm happenings in
solitary confinement!

This one is for you!  That's right, this post is for all you working mothers, single parents of both sexes and families with two working partners....  this one is all yours!

You see, I am one of those single-never-been-married-with-no-children kind of person.   If you asked the teenage me, I would have told you I was going to be a veterinarian with four kids and a husband living on a beautiful farm filled with horses.  Yup, that was my teenage self.  {{{Hmmm...  note the order... hmmm).

Life rolls out on a winding path and I end up being a really fantastic aunt (my blog, I write what I want to) and that suits me just fine.{{{My mom is shaking her head somewhere muttering, 'those horses and those dogs"  and "spinster"  She's not an animal person and had a husband and 8 kids.}}}

"Run away!  Run away!"

Working mothers, single parents and working parents, I salute you!  And, if you also are a rider/competitor, I bow in your honor!  I do not know how you do it!

Sugar is NQR.  She came up, well not really lame but, scary unsteady on her feet and wobbly walking.  Her step was that of a big time model walking down a Paris runway...  her front legs carefully and slowly crossing over each other...  very strange...  Her hind end was not "right" either and once when turned too tightly she almost fell over.  

"Neurological' stated the vet after her examination.  X-rays of her neck show "something" on the C6 vertebrae which could be arthritis or something more.  The nerve could be pinching...  All of the vagaries are due to the difficulty of getting a GREAT x-ray on  a very muscled horse.  She is being treated as if she had slip and fall in turnout which injured the neck causing the symptoms and possibly splayed her legs which may have caused a muscle strain or pull in her hind end.



Da Boys looking for love
in all the wrong places!

I'm running back and forth from vet to work and Da Boys are being short changed for attention.  When I come home, I want to crash but they want me to play...  "leave me alone"! 

And the DMSO bolus Sug rec'd as part of her treatment leaves me nauseous.  Every time she breathes in my direction, I can not help but to turn away and tell her that she stinks.  I abandoned my lil girl to the Barn Manager because I could not deal with the smell.   Really, what mother does that to an ailing child?  

Not a worry, it's all being taken
care of...

How do you do it?  I'm asking all of you working mothers/single parents?  How do you take care of your kids, get them to the doctors, manage their care and still take care of those kids still left at home?  Oh, and while doing all of that, how do you manage your career?  Are there any tips or tricks you can share? 

And, if these were my kids and not just my animals, would I need to prepay their therapy sessions to help them deal with the neglect?  {{{And what is with the word my - my kids, my animals...'sup wit dat?}}}

Note - Sugar is showing improvement after the first treatment of DMSO and Dexamethasone... Vet feels it really is an acute injury possibly a slip and fall in turnout injuring her neck and possibly splaying her front and/or hind legs in the slip.  If the tests for an organic cause come back negative and she continues to show improvement, then she may be back in work in a week.  (Didn't want to leave you hanging.)

RIDING DA BUS ALONE!

Lots of people want to ride with you in the limo, but what you want is someone who will take the bus with you when the limo breaks down.

Oprah Winfrey

If you've followed this blog for any length of time, you know that I had a bad fall and then it, and a series of other falls and injuries left me confident-less riding a mare who requires a confident ride.  And, it's been "entertaining" to go through the ups and downs of rehabbing a broken brain. 

Tomorrow marks the beginning of Area 1's Eventing Season!  It is the day I drop my first entry into the mailbox and dream the dream of the mad...  And I mean - the madness of a bat-sh*t, crazy person!  I have secretly begun to plan my move-up to training in the fall as often as I've retired my vest, skull cap and colors to be a full-time DQ.  See?  Crazy, bat-sh*t, crazy!

And this season the DWSB (Double Wide Short Bus), I say with a heavy heart, will have an empty space.  The Bestest Eventing Buddy moved to new barn... far away.  (Well, too far away for me to trailer-pool with her.)  It will be the first time in 7 years that I will drop that entry into a mailbox alone. 

Folks, if you have a Bestest Eventing Buddy, you know what a gift it is to share the wild weirdness of eventing. Will I laugh as hard at achieving another level of mediocrity?  Will there be another coffee addict who understands the value of a well placed hotel near a Dunkin Donuts?  Who will eat the strawberry glazed donut chased down with a medium iced hazelnut with cream and sugar?  Is there someone out there who can keep the secrets of "Da Bus" secret?  Will they make me laugh?  And after we unpack the trailer and tuck the ponies in for the night, will that person eat inappropriate foods that live a lifetime in our bodies?

I'm sure there will be others and some as much fun but there will never be anyone like the Bestest Eventing Buddy - she was truly unique.  For this, I say thank you!  I will miss you!  I know we'll still see each other, still share experiences and for that I will cherish. 

Tomorrow, I will drop that entry into the mailbox wondering if it will be as much fun!  Let the season begin!