Gran's float training was slowly coming along but the night of my last ride, Wednesday week, I was in a lot of pain ( nothing to do with the riding) and ended up in emergency at around 4.30am. Since then I have been in and out of hospital and under strict orders not to do much until my problems resolve. I'm not even allowed to drive until after Easter. This has resulted in Gran being in the paddock at home with Teddy; no float training and definitely no riding. I had booked Norm Glenn to return for a few more hours of float training, which had to be cancelled, and I hoped to do the KDARC rally in April, and two clinics at Aurum. I'm pretty certain I won't get to the KDARC rally and one of the Aurum rallies was today. Unfortunately all I could do was stay home and knit! There is still a possibility that I could do a clinic later in the month so I have my fingers crossed! On top of this my regular weekly rides haven't been happening, but my toes are crossed on that one restarting soon as well.
The up side to all this is I've had a lot more bonding time with my horses and they are just adorable! They really make me smile even when I don't think I have it in me.
The first few days I was home I couldn't really get around much so I'd slowly wander to the front paddock gate and call out to them and they'd look to see if I had something. If I did they'd wander over at a pace I could have lapped them at. They would always come but it was just a bit hoo-hum, probably more on their terms, and being loose in a paddock it was certainly their turf as the two have bonded very closely. But now that I've spent more time with them I don't even have to call, they come over, food or not, and no matter what gate or paddock I'm near they will spot me and wander over to check things out and hang with me. They have almost become my shadow. And now if I have food they don't just come, they come running! But I think that's more a test between themselves on who can get there first.
Each day I'm trying to do more and get outside. The horses currently have access to a front paddock, the lane way that stretches the length of the house, the area that leads to the dam and the dog run, which is more like a paddock you could make four yards out of. It seems no matter where I go I look up or around and there are two massive heads looking at me! Once they were so quiet while I was taking out slates from the compost to let the chooks in that I didn't see them inspecting my work from two feet away, I just looked up to their boof heads! If I grab a chair and sit in the paddock Teddy comes and stands right beside me with his head low, almost sleeping with his head on my shoulder. I can be standing in a paddock looking at something, not even thinking about the horses, and they will often just come stand near me - not eat grass near me, but stand there with me. Gran was even so cheeky the other day that I was in the hay shed and she stuck her whole front half right in the shed to eat the hay! I told her to nick off and she stops eating, looks at me but didn't move, just waits for her next opportunity to sneak a gob full! She was there with me the whole time, so now she can't act like that float is claustrophobic for her cause the space left in the hay shed is not much better!
Don't get me wrong, I always get greeted by them when I come home from work, they play the guessing game, "which shed are they feeding us from today?" and they go wait by the one they think it is each evening, Teddy often neighs when he sees me come down the driveway, if I go out into the paddock they never run off, though Teddy has always had the 'one foot rule' with everyone where he's wary of being caught so will back up. So they have always been pretty good but now something is definitely different. Maybe they know I'm unwell or maybe they see me more as a herd member? I don't know what it is but they are definitely more curious and are happy just to be standing with me. They seek out my company now and I love it!
I look forward to getting back into the swing of things and will do what I can with them until I go away, then when I get back from overseas I'll get stuck right into it and hopefully nothing will stop me. I'll get Norm back as soon as I can consistently reinforce the training, I would like to do some KDARC rallies this year along with my Aurum stuff, and I have plans to give the mounted games a go with Lee at the end of the year.
On one more positive note, I've also lost 6 kilos and hope to loss more as that will definitely benefit my riding. I've got my fingers crossed for that too. Actually I've got so much crossed I'm becoming a contortionist!
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