In Three's

They say bad things come in threes. 

I'm really hoping they do and my life will get back in order soon. 

I'm counting my self mutilating horse as one. All three of his injuries combined. *eye roll*

Two would be my car. I got a recall on it in the mail and took it in and of course on top of the recalls (things like, drivers airbag, and wheel suspension) it needed like $1000 worth of other repairs. Not surprised, as it has over 215k miles but damn, come on. 

Three, would be me. 

Yep. That's me in the hospital. 

My ovary decided to explode, which in case you didn't know is the same pain level and symptoms as an appendix, but goes on for many more days & can't be fixed with surgery. 

So I've been off work since Wednesday and taking up space in bed, watching a lot of Netflix and ingesting a lot of Vicodin. 

Just wondering how much a CAT scan, 3 ultrasounds, a biopsy and 24 hours in the hospital will cost me. 

At this point I'm just laughing. Like fml. 

Levi is being very cute and supportive  though

(Mostly) Wordless Wednesday

*** If queasy, don't scroll very far. I'm showing progress pics of "the injury". You've been warned. 

Equitation Evolution

Got this idea from Lauren at She Moved to Texas who got it from Alison at Pony'Tude and I loved it so much I decided to steal it.

And considering I'm sans riding for quite some time thank to my dumbass redhead, I thought it would be fun to dig around the internets and take a trip down memory lane.

I've been riding for quite some time now, and actually started jumping a few years into the addiction, but sadly, because that was pre-camera phone there is not much photographical evidence.

Behold, the first known jumping picture, of tiny me on my tiny Arab jumping a tiny fence.

How fucking adorable. My mother probably regrets ever having let my trainer get me into eventing. I was about 10 here, and it was my "first" year eventing. This was a tiny backyard show, but I also believe my first "jumper" show. Even as a nugget I wasn't too horrible. Thank god for German trainers.

Second oldest picture in existence has to be this one...

I was 11 1/2, and had just moved up from a tiny pony to a slightly larger pony, who could actually jump. I sadly, had a nasty habit of propping. Oh to be a nugget.

And damn this horse could jump. I only have about 3 pictures of him jumping, sadly, but he had some knees and he cleaned up in jumpers. He was also an average eventer, but a rockstar jumper.

2004??

This was our first recognized USEA event and I want to say I was 12 or 13, judging from my size difference from the last photo. Thankfully I stopped jumping ahead, but developed a lovely habit of ducking.

From there, there's a huge gap in photo coverage which is sad, but not really, because I did not really improve.

2007

15 years old and still ducking.

At this point I had acquired Yankee as well.

Novice, 2007

This was our first Novice together. Back to jumping ahead!

Training, 2008

^ About a year later, 2008, STILL jumping ahead!

2009

By 2009 and a million training level USEA shows later, I finally got my shit together with my jumping ahead, but then restricted my release. Dammit, self.

2010, I was back at the awkward jump position. I had gained a lot of weight in college and I was very off my gravity game. I also was coming back from a horrendous injury and I was super weak, yay leg swinging!

Not sure what doing

Ah yes, the get left behind era

By late 2011 I had gotten left behind less, but fatter me still could not get it under control. I was either ducking or jumping ahead. I also had just moved barns.

What is my deal

This is where I lose track of what is what year, but I know 2013 was "my" year. I got my shit together. I was rock solid. I rode all the time. And jumped the moon.

I think theres a few 2012 in here, but not sure.

I even dabbled with some tricks

no hands, double thumbs up

And auto release practice

And to cap off 2014 in MO, we jumped 4 ft.

And then 5 ft

And then I got kicked in Spring 2014, barely rode for several months, and jumped in late fall with Yankee for the first time in ages

Felt pretty great- it was like my eq never left!

Then I sent him off to KS and I started jumping B and whomp-whomp, sucked again.

No but really wat is this

Come on

Full circle I guess hahaha

The one thing that remains consistent? Heels. Heels DOWN always haha. 

No Words

This is not a post for the faint of heart (like myself) so I will warn you when to cease scrolling.

I would cease about now.

This shit, I cannot. I literally can't even form words right now and for that I'm sorry. Therefore my emotion & story will be poorly explained with gifs.

I walk out this evening to feed and immediately I see blood Like everywhere. Actually everywhere. Bacardi's legs, his hooves, the ground, his stall...fucking massacre.

This can't possible be form the murderous horseflies we've been experiencing. No way. Surely.

In which I see the flapping piece of flesh that is Bacardi's LH heel skin, just dangling, encrusted with mud and dried blood. 

To what universe do I owe this pleasure? Which karma did I displease lately? Yes, that is the OPPOSITE foot of the one that still CURRENTLY has an abcess that I am treating aggressively.

Oh thats not so-AHHHH

WHAT THE FUCK BACARDI WHY

NOPE NOPE NOPE

He was actually quite stoic about it while I cleaned and wrapped him. he was more concerned about food than his foot. I of course was internally freaking the fuck out. So he's incredibly lame, injuries to both hinds and of course I've reached the conclusion his feet are going to fall off and he's going to die. 

All of the work we've done together, gone. He's done. For god knows how long. Bye summer & fall plans. Bye any progress we've made. 

 This has happened to another horse of mine and the vet couldn't even do anything except give me meds- which I already have. I'm obviously concerned with the nature of the injury, but i'm absolutely DEVASTATED our summer is over. And we all know what happens in fall with B---fuckface to the extreme. So there goes an ENTIRE YEAR OF trying, wasted. Gone. 

I know I'm being dramatic, but come the fuck on, horse. Get your shit together. I cannot fucking deal with this flip flopping around and scathing your body every chance you get.

A Not Wordless Wednesday

ISince I'm stuck on mostly unrelated horse posts for now, I decided to jump on the blog hop train game and give a glimpse into my daily scene at the office.

Sure, she asked like 12 days ago, but whatever. 

Viva Carlos mentioned she has a few friends that work for Google. I for one, am extremely jealous of that fun fact. She also wondered where the rest of us work and asked for pictorial tours of the office. 

Since this is an insurance company and HIPAA laws are weird, I'm not 100% sure what I can "legally" display, & you can never be too careful... so here are some really boring pics of what I stare at daily in order to fund my horse addiction. 

Welcome to Dayton, OH. 

I lovingly refer to Dayton, OH as the "Dirty D" & my distain/ fear for this place far surpass any slight fondness I might actually have for it. Hint, there is none. 

The only slight saving grace in this city is the amount of fuckery that goes on in this fountain on a daily basis. It's right outside my building and provides hours of entertainment.  I've actually seen homeless people bathing in there. Once, I saw a man fully clothed, in a suit, with his shoes and all, walk right in it and across. What even. 

I currently live in a cubicle sea for about 8 hours a day 

Considering I spend most of my day here I decided to spruce my space up with a little love

I have a few paintings I've done, my horsebeast children by my side and my Mizzou representation to keep me company daily. 

I also spend a lot of time when we are slow, drawing. 

Ahhh yes. The life of an OH insurance agent. It's super glamorous. 

Bas much as I kid, hey, it pays the bills & I'm grateful to be gainfully employed