The price we pay

So Since I've been whining about my injuries lately, I thought I'd share a couple of pictures with ya'll. These are of the scrape and bruise on my left knee (yes, I know, I have knobby knees, and my legs are white enough to use as a backdrop for a projector :P ) the first one shows the color of the bruising better, the second one shows the extent better.




This is actually the least painful of my injuries, and the only one in a place that I'd post pictures of, lol. Anyway, the bruising on the latest injury looks like it may outstrip this one, which is pretty impressive, since I'm already getting the yellows and greens on this one, even though it doesn't show well on the pics.

Yes, I'm weird, I'm proud of my bruises, hehehe.

Just a note, I had to twist into some weird positions to get these, which proved to be good to stretch out the stiffness in my thigh from yesterday's kick, bonus!

Ugh

There's nothing in the world like a nice deep tissue bruise in the crease of your leg to help motivate you to develop that slovenly college student look in your apartment...

Thankfully, the stabbing pain in the area that was cut has abated... I'm delaying pulling the gauze pad and tape off to re-dress it as long as I can cause I know that's not gonna be fun.

My right thigh right by the crease of my leg has some interesting colors in it, I don't believe I've had a bruise in those shades since I had to ditch dive and landed on my radio out on the road. Thankfully its in a spot where no one is going to see it to ask what the heck happened.

Really not looking forward to riding today, but it's gotta be done. I think I'm gonna go out early, like right after my Lit class, and claim one of the round pens at the back to run him in, work off some of that energy before we have twelve other horses and riders around to distract him. I'll work him till he's hot, then cool him out and let him rest a little before class.

I also need to start spraying down his back legs with the hose until he gets over the whole kicking thing, because he wouldn't let the kid that was doing the trimming handle his back feet yesterday, so he's still got shoes back there and they're still long. Got the front feet trimmed, and they look much better, though.

He's always been a little touchy about his back feet, but like so much else that's been going wrong with him lately, I think a big chunk of it is the new place, and all the activity and new people that are going on around him.

In other news, I think he harbors secret dreams of being a roping horse, they were practicing roping yesterday while we had class and he kept wanting to go over to the fence and watch.

The hits just keep on coming...

I have got to figure out that this isn't home and just because I've become comfortable with the routine doesn't mean that the bay has.

Got kicked, today, a nice shot right to the crotch-ish area. Got a cut on top of my pelvic bone (the one in front, hell if I know what it's called) and some fabulous bruising coming up already in the crease of my right leg.

I forgot how long that sucker's legs are... from now on we ride in the round pen.

I want to beat my head on the desk, the wall, you know, whatever is handy. 'Cause frankly, I share the blame in everything that has happened to me.

But, I'll get through this stage, I've gotten through everything else life has thrown at me, and I'll be damned if I'm gonna give up on the one thing that I've done purely for myself in many years, just because I got a little banged up.

Determination is not sitting comfy on your couch and firmly resolving to do something... tomorrow. Determination is getting the crap kicked out of you and going on, because that's just what you do.

In the immortal words of T, I'll man up, rub some dirt on it, and go on.

I am, however, seriously considering naming the bay "Buck" short for "Sumbuck" because I can say that at the barn. Since we're not supposed to cuss, "you sonofa...." is out......

Update on the injuries

Well this morning I'm still sore but not quite as bad as I expected... there was some stiffness in my hip last night, and thats gone this morning, so that's good. My bruises are developing nicely, getting pretty colors and nice deep aches behind them, nothing I'm not used to.

The ribs... I think I did bruise one rib, its pretty tender... the other side, where the scrape is, has a nice surface bruise and is a little tender but not more than you would expect from the visible stuff.

No visible bruising on the side that I think I bruised the rib on, which means it's not cracked, which I already knew because it didn't hurt bad enough to be cracked, but I wouldn't be surprised if I came up with some lovely bruising on it in a couple of days.

In the mean time, till the sore goes away, its gonna be fun cleaning stalls... maybe I can bribe a classmate into doing it for me.....

And I can't even whine about it cause I basically did it to myself.... go me! :P

What I get for getting complacent...

We rode in class today, and I wasn't really worried. I expected the bay to be a little frisky cause he hadn't been ridden in a while, but he hadn't been mean about it before, so I didn't expect it.

Yeah. I got my ass canned. I was only good enough to pick where I fell.

Got a nice abrasion where my right side impacted the saddle horn, soreness in my chest on both sides, possibly a bruised rib, and a nice abrasion and bruise on my left knee that I have no idea where it came from.

Tomorrow, I'm going out early and working his butt out in the round pen before I get on him... run some of the fresh off of him, so that he's not so worried about where everyone else is.

I got a feeling I'm gonna be one sore puppy tomorrow.... the aches are just starting to settle in and get friendly......

Serves me right.....

Expelled...

Red done went and got hisself expelled.

Had some of the HTM students test riding the EBM horses today. Red's turn came up, and he let them saddle him, played nice nice... till the kid swung a leg over the saddle.

Then he started stripping the boy. No really.

Little shit started bucking as soon as the kid's butt hit the saddle.

Hat went... belt buckle went.... shirt came untucked and unbuttoned, hooked on the horn and ripped. The belt buckle was found lying in the dirt of the arena....

I owe that kid either a new shirt or a twelve pack, his choice.

And Red? He's going home. The instructor sat there staring, slack jawed, for a minute, then looked at me and said "I can't put any of these kids on him!"

Once I stopped laughing at the little sucker's sneak attack, I agreed with her. So, Red will be going home tomorrow evening at the latest, and I get to ride the attitude out of him all by my lonesome, when I have time.

*Hangs head* I swear, he's never been that bad with me!

(Author's note: If the horse had to strip down one of the kids doing the test riding... at least he picked a good one.)

Why you little.... !!!

This evening I went out to clean stalls, feed, water, etc.

In order to clean the stalls, I had to bring the boys out, and since there were several other people with their horses out and in the round pens and the small arena, I decided to just tie them at the hitch rail and let them look around for a while.

I pulled Red out first, and since all I have here is one eight foot lead and one twenty foot lunge, I had him on the lunge line. Twenty feet is not a good length to tie a horse with, when you're looking to tie him short so he doesn't wander around and get in the way, so I had an awkward knot. Yeah, that won't happen again.

I went back in to get the bay, got him haltered and halfway out, looked up out the door and saw Red go trotting by, trailing twenty feet of lunge line, head up, tail flagged, proud as can be that he got loose.

Crap.

Luckily, he'd pulled loose to go say hello to two horses a girl was leading by, not to go exploring, and he walked right up to her, said "hi howareya you can pay attention to me now" and she grabbed his lead.

Once I got the bay out there and tied beside him, he could have cared less who was around.

Tomorrow evening, someone else will have the task of cleaning his stall, so I'll be able to put my lunge up and use it just for lunging, like its supposed to be.

That, and having the two buckets per horse that I'm supposed to have, will be nice.

Riding tomorrow, YAY!