Rain rain go away...
Hooo drama-drama today.
I went out to the therapy barn today (they needed the help, and they didn't need me Thursday). The morning did not start out well. I left super early so I had time to go by and get some coffee. I go inside to order (had to check the breakfast choices at Starbucks) and after placing my order I wait around. There are only 3 other people inside (who then had ZOMG YOU HAVE NO REAL MUGS? drama). So I wait at a table for my coffee. And wait. And wait. And then they fixed the drinks for the drive-thru people. Then more came inside and THEY got their orders. The barista then got a death glare from me. "Oh, have you not gotten your drink?" "NO". I was then given an upgrade in my drink size and a coupon for a free drink since they forgot about me.
Because of this issue, I was now not running early enough to park my car and enjoy my coffee & muffin before hitting the barn. Piss. The route my GPS gave me to the barn was much faster (not as much Pleasant Hill traffic light congestion) although one of the roads was closed due to the flooding. So glad I had the GPS or I would've been screwed.
I get to the barn and I can tell something is wrong, the owner of the barn is absolutely in tears. One of the Therapy horses colicked last night and had to be taken to UGA for colic surgery. They had just brought the horses back to the barn, because they had to be evacuated due to flooding. M felt terrible and was just out of sorts, wondering if there was anyway she could have prevented the colic or if she just missed out on something. I told her it just happens some time, it may have been moving back and forth during the flooding just stressed him out. While we were working with the first girl the vet school called back and he made it through surgery, but they were still being cautious.
M was worried because the vets were telling her all these things that were going wrong, so she didn't know how bad this might be. It was a twist in the small intestine and they had to cut out about 4 feet of damaged tissue. The horse, Oreo, is only about 7 I think, so hopefully he'll be okay. I told M she was okay for the most part on feeding, although she might want to water down his hay, since I've known several post-colic surgery horses do this just as a precaution. At one point M just asked me, "So, what do you think the chances are of his being okay". I told her I honestly don't know, but she took him to one of the best colic vet schools in the country, so she gave him the best chance possible by taking him there. She didn't realize he'd be out for a few months, however. If I remember right, its 2-3 months. Even if all their riding is extremely light.
I was cleaning out my closet this week and brought M a whole box of old horse show ribbons to give to the kids. It became a prize at the end of the lesson for doing one of the exercise well. The kids loved them, I'm glad they're getting a second use, because other wise I would have just tossed them.
The first little girl was fairly uneventful. She was super cute and definitely did "Hands and Knees" (basically kneeling on the horses back. All the kids hate doing it) the best out of all the kids I've seen do it. She got a pink ribbon for doing and she got such a smile on her face with that.
They only had 2 kids in, so we had about an hour break between kids. I cleaned some stalls and got a lesson in how to lead the horses when there was a kid riding. Mainly you have to keep everything as smooth as possible, and stay right at the horses head. Marley, the horse I was leading, really likes to suck back and try to stop, so that's something I'll have to keep an eye on and try to keep from happening.
The second boy that rode today was definitely a pistol. M had warned me he could be handsy, and noted it was good I wasn't wearing any jewelry. Right off the bat he was trying to knock off M's hat during the lesson. And grabbing onto my pony tail. We spent a good part of the lesson with him getting to blow bubbles (not really sure the purpose of this) while sitting backwards in the saddle. But his posture definitely did improve.
A little later in the lesson things started to get interesting.
It started out with him pointing at me and then reaching out and patting my boob. He then started talking about how the three of us had "ping-pings". Yeaaaaaaaaah, it's what you're thinking. The woman leading the horse looked confused and asked what ping-pings were. M said "I don't think we want to know". A few minutes later P caught onto what he was talking about. Especially when the boy started asking M to lift her shirt and show him her ping pings.
He ended up having to do the hands-and-knees exercises every time he talked about ping-pings or tried to grab one of us after that. That calmed him down. For the record, he was probably between 8 and 10 years old.
That lesson ended and I helped pick everything up. I agreed to come out on Thursday and Saturday since they need the help. We also talked about me coming out and riding some of the horses. Marley, probably, but I might work Bruiser too (who P owns and lets them use for therapy). M is going to wait until things settle down at the barn for to schedule some riding times, which I told her was fine. She's going to instruct me some the first couple of times to make sure I'm riding them the way she wants (she rides dressage, so that's a good idea). Riding Bruiser is going to depend on what P's trainer thinks. They want to get him to a show at some point, so if the trainer believes that will help, i'll probably pay for a lesson with her while riding Bruiser to make sure I'm doing things correctly.
So yay! I might be getting back on a horse again! Uh, downside. I have no riding gear. It's all rather inaccessible in my trailer o'crap. No helmet, no half-chaps. The boots I'm using right now were some my mom had, but they're a little too small. I can deal with those, but I might have to go out and get some cheapo half chaps at horsetown or something.
I went out to the therapy barn today (they needed the help, and they didn't need me Thursday). The morning did not start out well. I left super early so I had time to go by and get some coffee. I go inside to order (had to check the breakfast choices at Starbucks) and after placing my order I wait around. There are only 3 other people inside (who then had ZOMG YOU HAVE NO REAL MUGS? drama). So I wait at a table for my coffee. And wait. And wait. And then they fixed the drinks for the drive-thru people. Then more came inside and THEY got their orders. The barista then got a death glare from me. "Oh, have you not gotten your drink?" "NO". I was then given an upgrade in my drink size and a coupon for a free drink since they forgot about me.
Because of this issue, I was now not running early enough to park my car and enjoy my coffee & muffin before hitting the barn. Piss. The route my GPS gave me to the barn was much faster (not as much Pleasant Hill traffic light congestion) although one of the roads was closed due to the flooding. So glad I had the GPS or I would've been screwed.
I get to the barn and I can tell something is wrong, the owner of the barn is absolutely in tears. One of the Therapy horses colicked last night and had to be taken to UGA for colic surgery. They had just brought the horses back to the barn, because they had to be evacuated due to flooding. M felt terrible and was just out of sorts, wondering if there was anyway she could have prevented the colic or if she just missed out on something. I told her it just happens some time, it may have been moving back and forth during the flooding just stressed him out. While we were working with the first girl the vet school called back and he made it through surgery, but they were still being cautious.
M was worried because the vets were telling her all these things that were going wrong, so she didn't know how bad this might be. It was a twist in the small intestine and they had to cut out about 4 feet of damaged tissue. The horse, Oreo, is only about 7 I think, so hopefully he'll be okay. I told M she was okay for the most part on feeding, although she might want to water down his hay, since I've known several post-colic surgery horses do this just as a precaution. At one point M just asked me, "So, what do you think the chances are of his being okay". I told her I honestly don't know, but she took him to one of the best colic vet schools in the country, so she gave him the best chance possible by taking him there. She didn't realize he'd be out for a few months, however. If I remember right, its 2-3 months. Even if all their riding is extremely light.
I was cleaning out my closet this week and brought M a whole box of old horse show ribbons to give to the kids. It became a prize at the end of the lesson for doing one of the exercise well. The kids loved them, I'm glad they're getting a second use, because other wise I would have just tossed them.
The first little girl was fairly uneventful. She was super cute and definitely did "Hands and Knees" (basically kneeling on the horses back. All the kids hate doing it) the best out of all the kids I've seen do it. She got a pink ribbon for doing and she got such a smile on her face with that.
They only had 2 kids in, so we had about an hour break between kids. I cleaned some stalls and got a lesson in how to lead the horses when there was a kid riding. Mainly you have to keep everything as smooth as possible, and stay right at the horses head. Marley, the horse I was leading, really likes to suck back and try to stop, so that's something I'll have to keep an eye on and try to keep from happening.
The second boy that rode today was definitely a pistol. M had warned me he could be handsy, and noted it was good I wasn't wearing any jewelry. Right off the bat he was trying to knock off M's hat during the lesson. And grabbing onto my pony tail. We spent a good part of the lesson with him getting to blow bubbles (not really sure the purpose of this) while sitting backwards in the saddle. But his posture definitely did improve.
A little later in the lesson things started to get interesting.
It started out with him pointing at me and then reaching out and patting my boob. He then started talking about how the three of us had "ping-pings". Yeaaaaaaaaah, it's what you're thinking. The woman leading the horse looked confused and asked what ping-pings were. M said "I don't think we want to know". A few minutes later P caught onto what he was talking about. Especially when the boy started asking M to lift her shirt and show him her ping pings.
He ended up having to do the hands-and-knees exercises every time he talked about ping-pings or tried to grab one of us after that. That calmed him down. For the record, he was probably between 8 and 10 years old.
That lesson ended and I helped pick everything up. I agreed to come out on Thursday and Saturday since they need the help. We also talked about me coming out and riding some of the horses. Marley, probably, but I might work Bruiser too (who P owns and lets them use for therapy). M is going to wait until things settle down at the barn for to schedule some riding times, which I told her was fine. She's going to instruct me some the first couple of times to make sure I'm riding them the way she wants (she rides dressage, so that's a good idea). Riding Bruiser is going to depend on what P's trainer thinks. They want to get him to a show at some point, so if the trainer believes that will help, i'll probably pay for a lesson with her while riding Bruiser to make sure I'm doing things correctly.
So yay! I might be getting back on a horse again! Uh, downside. I have no riding gear. It's all rather inaccessible in my trailer o'crap. No helmet, no half-chaps. The boots I'm using right now were some my mom had, but they're a little too small. I can deal with those, but I might have to go out and get some cheapo half chaps at horsetown or something.