enough sniveling....

I was looking for a photo today to post on a German Shepherd Dog page on Facebook.  They are always looking for pics that are not the usual stacked photo out of the show ring.  This photo jumped out of hiding and mugged me.  This is from the 70s, a puppy named Robin at what was probably her first ever puppy match.  She finished her championship a few years later and I have some spectacular pics of her..... but nothing can beat this. lol

This is it ???

The new year ???
OK.  This new year is NOT off to a good start and since there seems to be a simple choice between hiding in the closet for the rest of the year.......... or ........... adopting the attitude that all bad things for the year are over in the first week.  I will accept the second choice.

On the 2nd I taught a lesson at the barn, fed Nina and almost (SHOULD HAVE) left to run a million errands.  I was still feeling very crappy and very slow from my wonderful dance with shingles.  But for some STUPID reason I decided to work with Nina about her blanket.  She had been spooky, stupid and potentially dangerous over being blanketed, for no reason that I know.  BUT I was feeling stupid and slow.

After a few rounds with spooking 16h horse she suddenly sucked herself into about 20h and charged right over top of me.  I lost my footing before she hit me and so had NO chance of getting out of her way.  Then I smashed my head on a rock on the ground and fractured my skull.
I thought I had been kicked but the doctor in the ER said he just didn't think so, he thought it look more like a rock bruise/cut.  He did agree that the foot long bruise on my forearm was definitely horse inflicted and the mud probably saved me from a fracture.

So I spent a week in the hospital.  I am home now and dealing with screaming muscle spasms in my back and legs, I think from just laying still for so long.  Way too many people have told me to sell or shoot Nina.  I think making decisions while in pain is probably not a good idea so I am doing NOTHING for a while.

The only possible redemption for her is that she is extreme pain somewhere, which has crossed my mind before.  I don't have the money to explore this right now - especially after missing weeks of income - but I can't ride for a while anyway and I think I will come up with some money and explore this before I do anything else.

Happy New Year!  Yuck!  Is the new part over yet?  Can we start doing something constructive yet?  I sincerely hope everyone else is having a better January.  I'll read some blogs today and try to find something to cheer me up.  If you are writing happy/hopeful horsey stuff - tell me where to find it!

A day late...

 A Belated Happy Birthday 

to Thoroughbreds Everywhere !

Happy New Year

I'm still around.  I haven't posted all week because I have been sick.  I only made it out to the barn one day and Nina is a little cranky.  She is not getting enough exercise on the ice and mud AND her next door neighbor moved away.  She loves this horse and has been crying for her.  It's a hard week. 
And 2011 was a hard year for us.  Illness, injuries and financially hard.  It turned into survival mode. 

Here is looking forward to 2012 and a better year. 

Merry Christmas!

I found the original longer version of the Christmas Budweiser Clydesdales. Twice as long, definitely worth seeing again.

st

Have a great Christmas weekend!

a little snow at the barn

the outdoor arena...

one of the round pens cleared out...

Back home

I made it to the barn and back.  The only place I had any trouble was on my own street.  I got stuck just yards from my driveway, luckily I was able to back out of that one and try again.  And coming home I got high centered on the dam that the snow plows throw up.  I thought I had a path through it, but nooooooooo.   That one took about 10 people to get me out of.  Heavy little car, sunk down in the snow.  The roads around town were floating in mag chloride so even though the temps were in the 20s they were mostly wet, snow packed here and there.  I noticed that the E/W streets were more snow packed than the N/S streets.  Weird. 
Nina was glad to see her beet pulp.  The snow was deep and drifted at the barn, fortunately it was still powder cuz it was up to my waist around her gate.  The sun is suppose to be out tomorrow, I sure hope so.

a better view of winter

This looks like more fun than rush hour on C-470.

winter......

DenverWeather

Yuck.  And it is still coming down.  My street is full of snow, you can't see sidewalks, driveways or anything.  yuck!
I am trying to move my lesson this morning to tomorrow and put off going to the barn until mid afternoon after they have had some time to work on the roads. 
I have lived in Colorado for 30 years without a 4 wheel drive, the last two winters are making me rethink that.