Good Sunday, Scary Monday, Hopeful for Tuesday

Sunday I spent most of my time at the barn doing arena work instead of riding. I watered the arena, then dragged it. But before I could drag it I had to dig out the door to the arena. There was a ton of snow piled up in front of the door, and since the temperature was nearing 40 the snow was nice and heavy. After I got all that snow moved so I could get my truck into the arena, I had to dig the drag out of the snow as well. It's kept leaning up against the barn and had about three feet of snow locking it into place. After moving all the snow and trying to move the drag I realized that the bottom of the drag was frozen into the once muddy but now icy ground. Great.

Luckily the drag was propped up on it's side so I was able to pry it away from the wall and then use my weight to stand on it until it fell over in the other direction. Finally by wiggling it back and forth the drag was free. Then it was just a matter of hooking it up and dragging the footing.

I have to say I'm a little worried that the footing might freeze. I was very careful not to get the sand too wet, and after dragging it there seemed to be a decent mix of wet and dry sand. It wasn't as wet as I'd usually get it, so hopefully the arena won't be a big ice slick tomorrow. If it is, I'll just drag again. Hopefully I haven't made a huge mistake.

After all that work my back and hips were hurting, but I decided that there was no way that I was going to do all that work and not ride. So I rode both ponies for 20 minutes. Albert was a spooky little boy, particular in one corner of the arena where snow had melted and made a wet spot on the kick boards. He is usually so level headed and this behavior surprised me, but we were able to work through it. I only got after him in a punishing way one time, when I thought he was really taking advantage of the situation. Usually I'm pretty understanding about horses who are scared, and I really believe that punishing a horse who is scared or confused is a good way to make the horse scared to working or scared of being scared.

Anyhow, we go through the ride and Albert was a sweaty beast. We had also worked on unlocking his right side, and that is really hard for him so just a little work on that exercise makes him hot. I'm pretty sure that I'm going to have to do a blanket clip on him in the not too distant future. He's fine if I don't work him too hard, or if it's really cold out, but unfortunately it's going to eventually get warm and I'm going to have to work him harder in preparation for the show, so some of that yak hair has got to go! That's going to be fun. I really don't like body clipping. Ugh, such a mess.

Kaswyn really felt pretty good, except that he was spooking at the same spot that Albert was all in a twist about. For Kaswyn to spook it's got to be kind of a big deal, so maybe there was an animal or something behind the wall that they would smell or hear that I could not. Anyway, again the left canter was a bit stiff at first but he worked out of it. He still feels weak behind on both right and left, but at least I have his enthusiasm back. It's such a great feeling, and I think I'm getting my old partner back. I know it's hard for him to build himself back up, but I think he can do it. I'm really excited about this year!

That was Sunday. Today is Monday. The day that I had my follow-up appointment with New Dr. Colon. In anticipation for this exam, I made preparations. First, Craig took a half day off of work to be able to drive me down there. This was a necessity due to the fact that I was planning to take a bunch on klonopin before my visit. I was expecting there to be a certain amount of pain involved with the exam, so drugging myself up would make everyone happy. Also I got two enemas and took them at home before we left. I figured that would be a better solution to do it in my own home rather than have a nurse give me one in the exam room. Not that either is pleasant, but I'd rather do it myself privately.

Once my colon was nice and cleansed, we headed to the office. We spent some time explaining the various problems I've been having, and it sounds like many of these are normal. She said I'm not totally healed yet, and that could take another six weeks or more. Most importantly, when she examined me she was very gentle, explained everything she was doing before she did it (which is nice when someone is about to jam a metal instrument into your anal cavity) and told me that if at any time I was in pain that I should tell her and she would stop. I was as brave as I could be and was able to make it through two exams. In her exam she found one area that is still very swollen and one area that is open, raw, and still needs healing time. She did not find anything out of the ordinary, and would expect my healing to continue down this track. She hopes that within six weeks I will be totally healed, but if not it just means that I need more time. There was no infection or anything else to be concerned about at this time.

So since this exam was much less scary I think I'll be more relaxed next time. I still plan on taking my klonopin and having Craig drive me. There's no reason for me to freak out if I don't have to. That would make for a very bad afternoon for everyone. Especially my butthole.

So, more riding tomorrow. I hope the arena isn't frozen. If so, I'll be dragging that sucker again. And hopefully learning from my mistakes. No promises there, though.