Box rest

 

I am still on box rest but thankfully I am in far less pain and optimistic that this operation may have made a huge difference. I certainly won't be picking up bags like this for a while! 

Healing Process

It's been a while since I saw the horses, ponies and mule but I get daily reports from David and Nathalie. Talk about things happening at the right time, Nathalie came back just as I went into hospital and with her ponies settled on our poor quality, dry grass she has kindly volunteered to help out with the chores every day. Luckily she also lives just across the valley and can see a lot of what is going on even without binoculars. She does the morning shift while David does the late afternoons and they share the poo-picking between them. They're both angels. I am hoping her girls can stay and take advantage of a greater area and herd dynamics in which to move about, but Nathalie has to be careful whenever it rains and the grass grows quickly. 

Meanwhile, I have a long road ahead, trying to get better. I am still in an awful lot of pain although my range of movement improves every day. 

Fete accomplis

Since arriving at the fields, one or other of Nathalie's ponies has been in season, and there has been a lot of shennanigins at the fence line, despite the fact that Theoden and Dave are geldings. Early yesterday morning, Henrietta, I suspect, managed to get the gate open between the two sets of horses and ponies. By the time I arrived, Theoden and Dave were taking advantage of the barn and Tuscany and Fleur were taking advantage of the grass. After a slight feeling of a heart attack, I was able to check that none of them were injured, and then keep an eye on things while I cleaned the field. By the time I came to leave, they were all seven in or partially in the barn with a blurred pecking order already established. Theoden had the bext position, Fleur and Tuscany were favoured guests, Patsy was skirting the edges, and Dave had his head in the doorway. Pie was minding his own business in the yard, and of course, Henrietta was going where she sodding well liked.

I left them together with only the slightest misgiving, happy that the two ponies who had done nothing but munch like mad when they were turned out, were now fitting into a herd routine. This may mean that Fleur and Tuscany can stay for the summer and that we might mix and match ponies on the basis of their weight for a while.

This barn, which I had never know I needed, was a gift from God - or at least my landlord. 

David seems to want to make the most of my hurting yet working shoulder and we have been trying to get some fencing up at Brune's Purlieu before it is too late for me to help. We finished at eight o'clock this evening and have another busy day ahead. 

My minor role is as go-fer, fetching, carrying and holding this or that.

My major role is in directing David back to each post - this one is a straining post - without annoying him by whirling an arm around. We have a well-practised routine where I count him back in feet and then inches, secure the post, and then move the post-hole banger-in-er-er up and down using the hydraulic switch. It take well over thirty beats to get one of the big poles in and a mere dozen for the smaller ones.

David sets them all up in a straight line with a small socket to stand up in, and then we thump them all on the head. Just forty-four to go tomorrow. I hope we can get them all in tomorrow and then I only have the horses to do on Sunday before we go up to the hotel in Warwickshire to be within easy reach of the hospital. Fortunately my neighbour, and another friend, will be staying with Nala the cat while we are gone. 

Once the worst of the pain is gone, post-op, I am looking forward to sunny days of Kiswahili and painting with water-colours. I shall have clean nails for once.

p.s. Finished! Just needs four strands of wire now. 

Surgery

I am rather daunted to be going into hospital again, this time on my shoulder. In June last year I was still recovering from spinal surgery which replaced two disks in my neck and fused them to the bones above. Sadly the operation was not a success and may have to be repeated.

Eight years ago, when working with a horse that hated being in the horsebox, I was squashed straight across my shoulders. The hospital said that there was no break and that I would get better within three months. Over the last seven years I have been in terrific and constant pain from this, and my neck, and was variously told that it was all in my head, fybromyalgia or inoperable. It led to me giving up my work as a horse trainer and trying every which way I could to reduce the pain.

I have what is know as a Weightlifter's Injury, distal clavicular osteolysis, which in my case meant that the bone in my ACJ was fractured and to protect itself has resorbed, or eaten itself (!) by about 2 inches. As a result it is unstable although, unusually, I still have a full range of movement. 

Weightlifter's injury

Fortunately the A team - Sue, Julie and Tracey - are regrouping to look after all of the horses on Monday and Tuesday, and after that David will be at the helm, again, for about four months. 

To The Manor Born

After four years, the two donkeys, Olly and Coco have moved to their new home where they will be fussed by visitors to their hearts' content. I shall miss them very much. They have been no trouble, except for the day when Henrietta ran away with them, and I found them on the wrong side of the huntsmen's bridge which they said they couldn't possible cross to get back. We have had many happy walks, David has taken great care of their hooves, and I have brushed them lots. 

Bye bye boys and good luck. 

What Three Words

Yesterday I let our two holiday-makers out into the bigger, but still small, top paddock which had been grazed by five ponies overnight. I turned them out with the donkeys and Henrietta and my most peace-loving ponies Patsy and Pie, making seven in total. Although the grass looks short, it is this short, dry, stressed grass that can cause the most problems for laminitic ponies and so I brought them in again once the poo-picking had been finished. I shall monitor the results before turning them out again. 

If I could choose What3Words to describe their behaviour it was mainly trotting flirting eating. 

They certainly are beautiful. 

Wistful

 

Despite having three beautiful girls himself, Jack was feeling wistful this morning. The objects of his desire were my friend Nathalie's ponies who have just arrived for a holiday. Jack took one look at their voluptuous bottoms and fell in love.

While his own women formed an orderly queue...

he was making amourous advances over the fence...

...but he wasn't the only one hoping for their attention and Theoden was shinging like a gold medal.

Eventually there was a stand-off and everyone kept a respectful distance...

and the peaceful donkeys attended to the weeding.