On Hold

It looks like I'm going to be putting going to school off for a few months. August has had some not so nice surprises in store for me this month. A few weeks ago a horse at work reared up and went over backwards while I was riding him. Luckily he didn't land on me. When I started trying to get to my feet, he started to step on my right hip. Quickly squirming to get out from under him, I got to my feet, only to have him reel around and kick me in my left thigh. Trying not to freak out the people I was leading on the trail ride, I climbed back into the saddle as we rode back to the barn. And that's when my vision started yellowing and I was feeling sick. So I went to the ER to get checked out and make sure my head was ok. They checked my head and my leg and everything was clear, so they sent me home. A few days later, after trying to work and failing, I decided to go back to the doctor because my leg was extremely swollen, and so was my abdomen, which I found more concerning. She sent me to get a CT scan of my abdomen and another ultrasound of my thigh. The ultrasound revealed a blood clot that went from my knee to my groin. I was promptly ushered straight to the ER. They were going to try to surgically remove the clot by soaking it in blood thinners, and aspirating it at the same time. They went to do an iodine contrast before starting so they could get a better picture, but when they started to inject the iodine, I woke up with a pain in my back. And then they discovered the internal bleeding from a tear in a vein in my abdomen. I spent the next week in the hospital. Receiving several blood transfusions, having numerous blood draws, and trying to heal. Now I'm on blood thinners for the next 3-6 months, and only able to do light work. I should be able to get back into the saddle in the next few weeks, and only doing light riding for a while. Despite all that's happened, and all the numerous doctors appointments I'll have to go to in order to get my blood levels right, I feel extremely lucky. It could have been so much worse. I have the potential to make a full recovery, although there might be a few hiccups along the way. I'm just extremely thankful it wasn't worse.

Mirror, Mirror

I've heard a lot of horse trainers say that your horse mirrors you. Their personality, vices, actions...albeit, they may be simplified versions, they are still mirrors. I think about this quite a bit when I ride and work with Forrest. I have to say I like what I see. He's always happy and ready to go to work. He gives 110%, even when he's unsure of what it is I'm asking. This doesn't mean he's perfect. He's also extremely opinionated and high strung at times. Well, most of the time. I work hard. Both with training my horse, and at my jobs. I am a better worker than I am a student in most cases. I try to do my best when learning new things. I could probably work a little harder than at the happy-go-lucky attitude. It's funny how good matches work out between horse and rider.

Back to Basics

So, I guess I'm back to my original plan that I had when I was in high school. I wanted to be a mechanic. I took three years of auto shop and loved it. Who doesn't like tearing apart engines and learning to repack wheel bearings, change brakes and replace radiators?! Unfortunately my dad and step mom weren't as thrilled about my idea for a career choice as I was so it didn't happen. Instead I decided to go to the local JC to major in Large Animal Science. I did okay, for the most part. Well, for the Animal Science classes I did, not so much the general ed portion(You actually had to show up to the classes to pass, who knew!). I did get into Montana State, and was relatively excited to go (they have an AWESOME equine science program). Buuut I didn't get around to getting financial aid in time (okay, honestly, I just wanted to go to get out of CA, not go to school), so I ended up not being able to go. Damn. But, the more I though about it, the less I really wanted to go to school for another 5 years for a career I was less than excited about. So I went back to looking at technical schools. I learn better hands on anyways. Plus, I enjoy working with my hands and taking things apart and putting them back together to try to make it work again. And I'd much rather work on Diesels than with livestock and horses...and their owners. Mostly their owners (people in the horse industry are absolutely INSANE). So now I'm enrolled to start at UTI in the fall for their Diesel program. Now I'm just waiting to get all the ducks in a row for the financial aspect of it. But that's okay, I have two ex-racehorses that can always use some work. Forrest, my own "flashy" bay pony, and Kiddo, a reaaalllyy nice gray gelding. Forrest is becoming one of those horses you can do anything with. We're starting on barrels, roping, reining, hopefully in the near future, cow work. He'll even go swimming. Kiddo is just coming back from a bowed tendon, so we're just walking for now. And learning how to stop and turn (racehorses don't really know how to do these things. Horse racing is similar to NASCAR, straight-a-ways with big left turns). But he's starting to pick up neck reining pretty quick, which is always nice. Not bad for an OTTB! Forrest's first time in the lake. Handsome Kiddo!