The horse shed

Lacey says "check out my sweet me shelter from Wismer Wood Works! ". I highly recommend Alan from Wismer Wood Works for shed and similar construction jobs. Great guy, very friendly and hard working.Www.wismerwoodworks.com

Lacey Shenanigans

Lacey Shenanigans Day 1: I brought her out to eat the longer green grass in or yard and she takes off around the front of the house and down the road. I leave Hudson with the baby and take off after her (in exercise clothes and FLIP FLOPS). A few cars pass me and I wave. A van passes her coming towards me and turns around, opens their door and tells me to hop in. We drive down the road and find her in someone's back yard, looking clearly lost. The people I waved at said they wondered why I was running in flip flops on a dirt road. All I can think is "I wish I had my phone on me to track my steps!" Hahaha!

Because when...

When your 2 year old asks you to ride horses with you, you say yes.  Always. 

2 for 2

After the past 5 days of sickness going through our house, and spending New Years Eve in the ER, I decided I needed to get the kids out of the house. I'd wanted to take them sledding but decided to go ice skating.  Bad idea.

Luckily, yesterday evening I decided to ask Sydney to come with us.  The boys can skate, as can I, but Amelia has never ice skated and she's only 20 months old so I wasn't sure she'd even be able to. So... I figured if she wasn't into skating at least Syd could skate with the boys while I wrangled Amelia.

We first headed out to the barn to drop off my board check.  Lacey's pasture buddy, Trey, is being boarded inside for January and February so I decided to have her brought inside as well since the weather has been icky.   She's getting old, too, so I know the cold weather will be getting harder on her.  And I also couldn't bear the thought of her outside all night, alone in the cold.  Anyhow, totally worth the extra $50 a month for peace of mind that she's cozy, warm and has company.

The boys... as we're going down a hill on the way to the barn. 

Amelia was adorable when we pulled into Crosswinds.  She started SQUEALING... so so cute.  She was squealing and saying "Horsey!  Yaycee!  Yaycee!!"  We parked and while I wrote out a check, Porter ran into the barn to use the bathroom and Amelia about lost it thinking she wasn't going to get to go in.  So, of course I had to take her in to see the horses.  She kept asking to see Lacey so we walked out to her paddock to see her.  I love that she loves horses!

The roads were bad, so we didn't pick up Syd and get to the ice rink until about 11:30.  We got everyone's skates on and got out on the ice.  Amelia was grinning ear to ear, and trying so hard to skate.  The boys took off, having fun.   Amelia and I made it halfway around the rink and I wanted to take some pictures.  I asked Sydney to stand with her while I deleted some pictures off my camera (because the card was full)

Out of nowhere I am hit from behind and I fly up in the air, I land on my back and hand, and see my camera flying across the ice.  Porter had run into me with the walker.  I knew immediately my wrist was broken.  I felt it crush.  I pulled it close to my body and began panicking.  Here I was, in the middle of the ice, a broken wrist, with a 1 year old, my babysitter and 2 boys, and my husband is home sick with influenza.  HOW am I going to get out of this??

Everyone was staring at me.  I yelled that I needed help and finally someone came out to help me up.  I told him my wrist was broke.  I knew it.  Syd carried Amelia off the ice and as I stepped off the ice the pain was unbearable and I began to get nauseous and the rink started to spin.  I didn't know what to do... I was panicking, in pain and thought I was going to pass out.

I sat down and started bawling.  I didn't want to move... my wrist hurt so bad.  Someone convinced me to move my hand and look at it and it looked like it was in the shape of a "z" it was so disfigured.  I knew it was bad.  This made me panic more.  The rest was such a blur... someone called my grandma, and the paramedics.  They checked me out and said to head to the ER or ride in the ambulance.  Syd had just got her drivers license so somehow I managed to arrange to have my grandma take the kids home in the van and Syd drive me to the ER in my grandmas car.  Someone took my skates off and helped me get my boots on.  It was all a blur and I was in so much pain, and crying a terrible ugly cry.  I wanted someone to give me pain medication.

At the ER I had finally calmed down, and they were able to help me out of my coat without too much pain.  They called my wrist a "positive deformity" HAHA!  Sydney and I were there for awhile and they finally got me in for x-rays and into a room with an IV.  They knocked me out and snapped my wrist back into place (somewhat) and I woke with a bandaged up arm.  Ry showed up after his doctors appt.  They took xrays again and said I'd likely need screws because the break was in the wrist joint and my bone was in 3 pieces. Great!!  So, tomorrow I'll have to call the orthopedic doctor and find out what is going on.  I am so thankful Sydney was with us.  She was such a huge help, and great support for me.

Porter feels terrible... my grandma said he was beating himself up for knocking me down.  Part of me thinks he did it on purpose, thinking he was being funny (not intentionally wanting to hurt me, of course, but immediately after we got on the ice he had ran into Hudson and Amelia's walkers just trying to be funny, and I warned him not to run into people.  Not 10 minutes later he runs into me... coincidence??)  Anyhow, I feel bad because I totally scolded him when I fell... I growled at him that THIS is why you don't run into people!  (and then likely something like "oh shit oh shit my wrist is broke.  its broke! oh my god what am i going to do!")  I keep telling him it was an accident and I know he didn't mean for me to get hurt.  But part of me wants him to realize the severity of his actions when he's goofing around, but he's so scared hearing I might need surgery and he keeps saying "If I didn't knock into you you wouldn't need to have surgery would you mom?"  Poor guy!!

So anyhow.... 2014 is starting out GREAT.... we spent NYE and the wee morning of Jan 1 in the ER, and back to the ER on Jan 2!  And remember last year we spend the beginning of 2013 in the ER with Porter?  Oh boy.  Let's not make THIS a tradition!

First Riding Lesson

Porter has surprised me with the amount of interest he has in Lacey and riding.  Whenever I go to the barn he begs to go with me, and pouts when I tell him I'm going alone. (after all, this is MAMA time, right??).  We'll see how long this lasts.   He says he really wants to learn to jump, so hopefully I can teach him most of the basics and then we'll have to talk about getting him into lessons because I have no idea on jumping skills.

This afternoon while Ry took Hudson to soccer practice, Porter and I went to the barn for his first "official" riding lesson.   (I'm telling you, though, I am in desperate need of lessons again myself!  You forget a LOT after 10 years away from daily riding!)  He was really excited to get Lacey out of the pasture and wanted to learn all about the other horses (which I know nothing about, except for Silver- who Lacey has become very fond of!).  Once I haltered Lace, I let him lead her up to the barn.  He is so confident with her, and she is such a good girl with him.  It melted my heart to see MY child leading MY childhood horse.  I never imagined this would come so full circle... that my kids would enjoy this sweet mare that I grew up with.

I taught Porter some basic grooming things, and he found a cut on her back leg, which was likely from fighting with other horses for rank in the pack.  He immediately said "Mom, we should put some lavender on it!"  Gawd I love that kid.  Once she was all ready to go we took her out to the small arena and he got his first taste of riding English.   I don't have a western saddle, so he's going to have to learn to ride english for now.  And I guess if he wants to jump he'll have to ride english anyhow!  I was able to flip the stirrups over the saddle so that they were short enough for his legs.  And then he pulled the typical attitude with mom deal.  Whined about keeping his heels down, whined about having to hold the reins gathered instead of loose like he did riding Rocket, whined about having to ride on the lunge line instead of going off on his own, whined because I wouldn't let him trot her.  UGH.   He finally, halfway thorough, realized he wasn't going to get the privilege of riding her if he didn't do it my way. He ended up doing great, and I'm looking forward to helping him learn more!  

After his "lesson" he sat and played Minecraft while I rode for a bit.  I think he's going to end up being my barn buddy- this little schedule could work out nicely!  I'm seriously considering a 2nd horse in the spring though, if he decides he is really loving riding (and, well, it'd be nice for Ry to come ride with me too!).  I just wish we had our own property- it'd be so much more affordable!  I actually, though, really would love to get a younger horse as a "project horse" for me- I'd love to someday get back into showing, possibly jumping though I would LOVE to learn more about dressage techniques.  Let's face it- Lacey is 20, though she doesn't look it she is at some point going to have to take it easy.

All this is such crazy talk.  I can't believe that Lacey is mine again, and that I'm actually able to fit horses back into my life.  I love it.  It feels like such a huge piece of my life is back in place.