Posted 19 September 2011 - 01:00 PM
How can a day that starts off so fantastic turn so horribly wrong?
Ok, the ride part turned out great! I REALLY enjoyed it. Felt so good to be on horseback again. There was one slight problem though, that I never even thought about, never had even an inkling that it would occur. The thought never crossed my mind. After we got them saddled up before we trailered them to where we would be riding, I wanted to get on to check the stirup length. Imagine my shock and suprise when I couldn't get my fat rear end up and on the horse! Took every ounce of strength I had and a push from my buddy to manage to get on. If ever I had any inspiration to go on a diet, that was sure it! After that shocking revolation, for just the briefest moment while I was sitting there looking down on the mare's ears, maybe 5 seconds, I had this little panic attack. All that went threw my mind is "what the hell do I think I'm doing?" I suppose it was just related to the shock of the discover that I couldn't even manage to get on the critter to start with. When we got where we were going to ride, I found a big rock and jumped on with no problem, and no further panic attacks either. It just felt good and right.
The other amazing thing was the way riding took my mind off of every other thing in the world. My mind never strayed not for one single second on anything that was going on at home or the million other things that I should of been doing other that riding a horse. Part of that was due to concentrating on the horse and what she was doing. In all the years I have rode, I had never in my life rode a gaited horse. I've always had "cowboy" horses, Appaloosa or Quarter horses. This was a Fox Trotter. I learned that Fox Trotters don't naturaly fox trot on their own, you have to push them to the right speed and gait with just the right combination of urging them forward with your heels and gentle preasure back on the reins to keep them from just bouncing along in a fast, bone jaring trot. Since I had never experienced the feel of a fox trot, it took some concentration to feel when she was doing it right, and keep her at that pace. It's actually a bit tricky. Especially when trail riding in the woods, on rocky ground and up and down hills, and when the horse sometimes in the lead is a Pasa Fina, which has and entirly different gait and optimum speed of gate that does not match the fox trot.
But all in all, it went really well. My legs were really tired and the muscles were actually quivering when I tried to walk. I had really thought that the next day I wouldn't even be able to get out of bed. But I ended up hardly sore at all to speak of. Not nearly as bad as I expected I would be. But that could of been because I walked out all the sorness that night not going to bed like I certainly would of liked to since I haven't been sleeping good and was totally exhausted, but instead finding myself walking back and forth in and out of the ER.
And to the end of my day. Hubby has been sick for a couple weeks now. But that night about 10:30 or so he just kept getting worse and worse, so I ended up making a trip to the hospital emergency room with him. He ended up being admitted to the hospital where he spent the next 3 days. The ER doctor was talking about congestive heart failure, which scared the crap out of me. He has been having a hard time breathing, and then the past few days before going to the hospital, he started swelling really bad around his feet and ankles. He had retained so much water that his heart was having a hard time working. They never really did know what caused the problem, wether the lungs not working right cause the heart to act up, or the heart not working causing his lungs to fill up with fluid. They pumped him full of antibiotic, lasix, and steriods. He is a lot better now thank god.
Needless to say, it has been a couple of really rough days. Last time he was in the hospital, he almost quit smoking, but said when he got home the smell of smoke in the house got him started again. So I made up my mind that I wasn't going to let him use that for an excuse this time. I have cleaned and cleaned and cleaned somemore. Even rented a steam cleaner for the carpets, and have been working on washing down the painted walls. The old curtains are in the trash, along with my old couch. After I picked him up yesterday at the hospital, we went over to a big flea market that normally has a lot of furnature, and found a couch, but while we were there we found a really nice new bad with a good foam type mattress, which we probably needed worse than a couch, but anway, we bought both, and today have to take the trailer back to pick them up. It will be nice to have the house looking fit for human habitation again.
, Please 
1
At least my butt is not quite as wide as the horses!
I could probably own a hundred gerbils but that could never match one handsome horse
)
