What a Weekend

Last weekend was something else. Nothing too exciting happened, but it was exhausting nonetheless. I actually had to take the morning off from work today, because I've come down with a sore throat and some achy bones - SIGH.

Friday night was uneventful, B and I watched some movies and chilled out. It was nice and relaxing.

Saturday, I headed out to my parent's house to sit by the pool and relax. I got there only to find that my parent's had no electricity due to some Carazy storms the night before (what's up with these deadly storms, anyway?). Despite the power outage, we were still able to enjoy the pool because my dad had a generator that ran the pool's filter....ahhhh - sunshine, refreshments and good company!! If only it lasted, my cousin's dog, Andy, was acting strange. Andy is a beautiful Lab, Shar-pei mix who absolutely loves the pool. On Saturday, though, he only wanted to sleep. His legs looked kind of puffy and when he fell into the pool on accident, and could barely walk we all knew he needed to go to the vet immediately. Poor Andy made it to the vet just in time, the vet said his temperature had spiked to 106, one more degree causes organ failure!! YIKES!! One trick (if you don't have a thermometer) is to stick your finger into the dog's mouth along the gum line to get a rough estimate of their temperature....my mom said Andy's mouth was HOT. The veterinarian and staff at the clinic said that they think Andy has Shar-pei Fever, weird!! Anyway, though he is still in the "hospital" they think he'll make a full recovery.


Andy Dog

Saturday night, I was up all night with a big scare. My husband was out at a Bachelor party, and his phone quit working, unknown to me. I called and called and called, but got no answer which is SO unlike him. He said he had called and left me a message that he was spending the night at his friend's house because he had had some beers and didn't want to drive (smart). However, I didn't get the message but only a garbled, staticky rambling at about 1:00 a.m. I spent all night calling hospitals and even some jails (HUGE EXASPERATED SIGH), trying to locate him. I didn't sleep but 3 hours! He was incredibly apologetic on Sunday morning, and he did a good job in the Dog house, he made dinner (steaks, salad and fingerlings), and felt really bad. It was a stupid misunderstanding, but now he knows to CALL no matter what...aghh -men! Perhaps that whole bit was TMI, but you know - I am all about the good, the bad and the U.G.L.Y.

Sunday morning, I dragged myself out of bed for my lesson. Even though I felt completely awful, I knew riding would make it better. T has me coming an hour earlier for my lesson, so when I got there it was empty save for T and I. I rode C, the big mare I had ridden in my previous lesson, and loved every minute of it. I did have a difficult time keeping C in the canter, so T had to step into the middle to keep her going (ha ha), needless to say it wasn't very graceful. I do have to say that I'm grateful for C's ability to stay on her feet. At one point, T had us doing a 10 meter circle at the canter, and C tripped. At first I thought I was a goner, I figured she'd fall and kind of roll, but she scrambled back up so smoothly and quickly that I was barely offset and she remained in the canter. It was crazy! I also got to do some more flying lead changes across the diagonal - my favorite!

Dressage has been a very challenging yet rewarding experience. I still feel incredibly green, but I'm getting to the point where it's making sense. I no longer fumble awkwardly when asked to do simple things. I think I'm getting much better at my leg yields, though I still sometimes struggle with wanting to steer too much with the reins...I'm improving though, which is what it's all about.

After my lesson, I headed out to Mason to watch a horse show. I really wanted to watch the people from J's barn ride, and especially watch Bobby in action. Another reason was that another young blogger, Lexa was there with her Paso Finos. Though, I didn't get a chance to meet Lexa in person, I think I spotted her in a class as I got stuck on gate duty for a time. I'll go on more about the horse show tomorrow - I have a few blurry pictures that I need to upload for that post...there was a big diversity of breeds there, many Morgans, Saddlebreds, Paso Finos, a few spotted beauties and even one Friesian. :)