TGIF!!

Thank goodness its finally Friday!! It has been one crazy week of ups and downs but I'll start at the beginning...Memorial Day weekend or the calm before the storm. With the arrival of summer there comes the arrival of vacations, well at least for all of the barn help. Which, of course, really means that Courtenay and I get to pick up all of the extra shifts, so I spent most of Saturday out at the barn which ended up being completely relaxing and fun. Then on Sunday Mike and I set out to enjoy the wonderful weather and found some interesting friends along the way.

With it being Memorial Day weekend we just had to grill out because well, what else do you do on an American holiday:) Shrimp, chicken and steak kabobs were on the menu and s'mores as dessert. It just isn't summertime if there aren't s'mores!

Mike was a tad over enthusiastic with the fire

 Mike had to work on Memorial Day so I spent the day between the Wesleyan barn and visiting Lou pony up in Forsyth...and then Betsy decided that she wanted out. On the way home from Forsyth she decided that screaming loudly all the way home was super fun. Of course, after the 45 minute drive home I was in a full panic and spent the rest of the day safely at home. Thankfully I have a wonderful fiance who drove me to work in the mornings this week and wonderful students who gave me rides home when Mike had to work late. 

Then Thursday came, all week long I literally could not think past Thursday. It was an early morning starting off with picking up my car at Wesleyan so Mike could drive it up to Forsyth to get fixed, then we loaded up Lou pony and Colonel to head back to Wesleyan. Lou got to spend the day at Wesleyan while we took Colonel and Spence up to the vet.

I think he enjoyed his day at college...so much so that he didn't really want to leave at the end of the day!

Spence was a trooper about going back to the vet and was a gentleman about his minor eye surgery to insert the catheter under his eyelid. He will stay at the vet for a couple of weeks to receive eye treatments through the catheter every two hours. Dr. Jennifer was much more optimistic about Spence's eye and things are looking up for being able to treat the infection.

Everything is all set for treatment and Spence settled in well in his new stall

Dr. Jennifer said that I am welcome to visit anytime, so there will be lots of Spence updates coming soon! Upon returning to Forsyth with Lou and Colonel in tow after work, I got to pick up Betsy. Now if you know Betsy you know that she squeals and squeaks on a good day...not any more!! Betsy the Blue Explorer is alive and kicking! I am beyond excited and beyond grateful to Phillip and Steve for spending the day figuring out what was happening! So now that Betsy is back up and running I will get to visit Spence man and continue to spoil him during his recovery:)

Now that it is Friday and every horse in the barn has been worked this week, its time for a relaxing weekend....hopefully!

A short tie and Mother's Day

While Spence has been going through his eye issues he has never once moped around or acted like the world was ending...life has certainly taken a cue from Spence and has continued to give Mike and I lots of blessings and things to look forward to. We are so lucky to have each other here supporting our dreams for the future. We are so lucky to have our families and friends' support in everything we do. And we are so lucky to have such great opportunities to pursue all around us. This week Mike reached out and grabbed one of those opportunities by the horns and sold 3 cars in just 2 days!! As a result, however, he had to sacrifice a tie for his first sale! He said it was a tradition at the dealership.

It was a great reason to get out of the apartment for the night and go celebrate. So, of course, we headed out for sushi!

Mike and I would also like to wish our mothers a very Happy Mother's Day!! Thank you both for always being so supportive of us in our choices, it truly means the world to us!

Even the geese and turtles were celebrating Mother's Day today. And we do believe that is a Denniston turtle on the left enjoying the company of some new friends:)

"Another Expense"

1...2...3...breathe...I find myself saying this to students fairly often during lessons when they hit a rough patch. There are moments in riding when you have to ride through the moment and then just let it go, you aren't going to be able to go back and not make that huge spook happen but you can ride through it and then relax and prevent the next spook from happening. We often ride thinking about things that our horses have done in the past and worrying about them, I often find that we often live in this same manner. If you let the past have too much of a hold on your thoughts you won't be able to move forward and prevent the past from repeating itself...learn from it and move on. Sometimes I remind students to breathe to simply make them relax...which is what I am trying to tell myself right now.
I graded my last final presentations yesterday, the baby shower went well on Saturday and now its time to focus on my riding, Spence's training, working the college horses and getting ready for summer camp. On Saturday I hosted a Kentucky Derby themed baby shower for our current head coach/barn manager, Courtenay. Let me just say that planning surprise parties for people that you share a small lobby office with is not easy! But the girls on the team and some of our wonderful barn helpers made it possible. Even though it was a very rainy day down here in the south, we had a bright and happy shower for Courtenay's baby girl who is due to arrive at the end of August. It was great to be able to hang out with all of the girls on the team before some of them head off for the summer and it was nice that they were able to celebrate with Courtenay, especially since she'll be gone on maternity leave when they return to school in the fall. The addition of the races and ponies was also a nice touch with such a horsey group! Congrats to Orb for a great race! And congrats to Rosy...the only female jockey in the race...she placed 5th which is the highest spot a woman jockey has ever taken in the derby!
Now that lessons are over for the college students I have until June to have a fairly quiet barn so I should just relax and take advantage of it. Of course, my mind has been in over drive and relaxing just won't seem to happen. Recent changes in Spence's right eye haven't been helping the relaxing cause either, so it was off to the vet today to see what in the world is happening. I'll start by saying that he is super awesome about loading up in the trailer now! And he was quite content grazing in the "waiting room" at the vet before it was his turn.

Once it was our turn though he wasn't quite so content about the happenings...a nice shot of a cocktail helped out a lot and he relaxed right away! After collecting some cells from his eye, Dr. Jennifer determined that he has both a bacterial and a fungual infection on the cornea of his eye. After going through several different treatment options I decided to bring him home and treat him myself...I am hoping this will reduce his stress level as he will be able to keep his usual turnout and work schedule. He will be getting treatment directly to his eye three times a day for the next week along with some pain killers and then we go from there as to what the next step may be. It is so tough when making treatment decisions and hoping you are making the right one. On another note I may be selling my kidney on the black market if anyone is looking for one! Lord knows that Spence is certainly living up to his show name right now....Another Expense.