When One Door Closes, Another One Opens....

There has been so much going on around here and so many things I need to share with you all, but I will start with recent events and then in future posts I will continue with older events. Since the not so good diagnosis on Fritzy, I have been turning her out for short periods of time. I started by hand walking and grazing, then one day I still needed to clean her stall, so I just turned her loose. I was unsure if I should do that, but my vet did say to just turn her out. I can't just turn her out permanently though, she has to get used to eating grass before that can be done. When I took the lead rope off of her halter and watched, there were no fireworks from being locked in a stall for 8 months. She never even lifted her head from the grass. No running, bucking, kicking out her heels. Just eating. Yes, that green grass kept her mentally sane. But since that first day of turnout, she has ran and bucked and snorted. But not much. She really only cares about eating.

A taste of freedom for Fritzy.

So now that Fritzy is no longer going to be a rideable horse, my OH and I have been going over what we want to do horse-wise. We only have one rideable horse right now. Fritzy is done. Brandy is not sound either due to her arthritic knee and it only seems to get worse. I can take her on some short, easy trail rides, but her arena days are over. I also don't want to put my OH on her for trail rides because her knee gives out on her.... A LOT. And carrying around 240 including the saddle is just not good for her. I can put a lighter weight rider on her and she would be able to go on a ride. So she is down to limited use. Rio is only 2 and not only is she way too young, but she is in no way, shape or form going to be ready for my OH in the next couple years. I just don't think she is going to be the "right" horse for him. But that could change, yes, it could. And then I have my one sound rideable baby, Chance. Well, I need to ride her since she is still green and she also isn't big enough for my OH. So, what to do.

Well, I have a friend that has offered up her big 16 hh QH gelding for my OH to borrow for trail riding. That sounded great. And then Tracey (Mustang Diaries blog) messaged me on Facebook and said she had a friend that needed to find a temporary home for a Mustang gelding that could possibly work for my OH. So I got in contact with Tracey's friend to see if we could go look at the mustang gelding to see if he would work for us. We knew that we could take another horse on our property if it was during the summer. Well, then I was looking at the mustangs on the BLM online adoption gallery (I do this every time the online adoption comes up, so this is normal for me) that was going to be starting soon and my OH was telling me that I have a problem, an addiction. He said I needed therapy. Well, sorry to break it to you OH, but therapy is just not going to work for me. And I will be the first to admit that I have an addiction. To mustangs. I have just fallen head over heels in love with these horses, whether they are easy or difficult. And I have one of each. I had just so happened to have mentioned this on Facebook, and well, you know, Tracey saw it, commented and then said "Come get Flirt." Oh dear. I had already known that she was looking to reassign Flirt, her 2 year old Mustang filly from the Coyote Lakes, OR Herd Management Area (HMA.) And ever since I knew she was going to be doing that, I had been thinking about Flirt. Then after Tracey's comment, well, that voice in my head started screaming at me. I hadn't even talked to my OH about it and was already making plans to go meet Flirt in person the next day. So last Saturday when I woke up, I told my OH I needed to kidnap him for a couple hours. He wanted to know where we needed to go. I said we had to go to Tracey's. He wanted to know who we were seeing. I told him I couldn't tell him. Then he said "Flirt." I said "Yep." He got this big, goofy grin on his face. So we went to Tracey's.

My OH and Flirt.

And met Flirt. Sensational Flirt.

My OH and Flirt.

Some of you who follow Tracey's Mustang Diaries blog may remember that when she picked Flirt up from the BLM corrals last October, arrived at home and turned her loose in the mustang safe corral, the next morning Flirt panicked and busted through a 6 foot high wood fence and was gone. For 10 days. Tracey was besides herself. Everyone you could possibly imagine was out looking for this wild mustang filly. She became famous. Yes. Famous. She was found and safely returned back to Tracey. And now here we were contemplating if she would be the right fit for us, for my OH's future trail horse. Flirt is big. When I say big, I mean BIG. She is already 15hh and just turned 2 years old. She should top out at 15.2-16hh. Perfect for my OH. And she is quiet, super sweet and did I say beautiful? So we left Tracey's and talked about it the whole way home. By the time we got home we had made a decision. We wanted Flirt. 

Obviously with Flirt being so young, she would not be ready for my OH for a couple years. So what we are going to do is borrow my friends big QH gelding when my OH can go on trail rides with us. And we will not need to look at the mustang gelding that belongs to Tracey's friend. We found our match with Flirt. Flirt is perfect. And my OH is so excited. I haven't seen him this excited about a horse in a long time. I am excited too. So that means we will have 5 horses. We were already maxed out for space, but we have a plan. We are just hoping that the plan will work. The issue we have is winter time. Mud. We will get it figured out. We have 4 months to do that.

Later that night my OH was in bed and I was sitting on the couch relaxing and watching t.v. I have had a terrible cold for the last week and just needed some down time. I heard Cooper playing with the pull cords to the blinds in the guest room. He does this all the time and have never thought anything of it.... until that night. I hear this blood curdling scream. I heard it again and again. I also heard hissing, so I thought maybe Cooper and Madison were going at it. But the screaming wouldn't stop. It was the worst sound ever. I knew something was horribly wrong. I jumped up and ran as fast as I could down the hall, into the guest room and turned on the light. Cooper was hanging by his front paw from the blind cords. His back feet could not touch the ground. He was bouncing off the wall trying to break free. And that scream. Horrible. I tried to pick him up to see if I could get his paw loose. He was so upset, he bit me on the hand. It hurt like HELL. I tried again, I could not get him free. I screamed for my OH to get in there and help me now. My OH came flying into the bedroom. He picked him up and was able to get him free from the cord. I have never been so scared in my life.... well, yes I have, but this was bad. I was shaking like you wouldn't believe. The adrenaline wouldn't stop. I think I shook for an hour. Cooper looked unhurt, physically. But mentally he was terrified. He would not go back into that room. I think Madison witnessed what happened because she wouldn't step foot in that part of the house for a couple days. She hid in the laundry room, terrified. From now on pull cords to the blinds will never be down again. Huge safety hazard. I keep thinking "What if this happened and we weren't home?" He would have probably pulled his paw off. I have no idea and I never want to know. I am just thankful we were here and able to save him.

My trouble maker... Cooper.

And that cat bite on my hand? It hurt like hell for about half an hour. Then it felt better. Then it got bad. Very bad. Within a few hours it was infected and the entire top of my hand was swollen, red, hot to touch and just plain hurt!! The day after it got worse. All my friends and family said I needed to go to the DR or ER immediately. Later that day I had my OH take me to the ER. Yep. Infected. I was given antibiotic's and pain pills. And told to keep the scab opened up, cleaned out and soak my hand in warm water. 

The first picture is of my right hand. The one that got bit. You can't really tell how red it was, but it was red. And the pen outline shows how large the swelling was.

Cooper's cat bite.

This picture is of my left hand and what my right hand should look like.

My normal left hand.

So I have been out of service for a few days. I have had very limited use of my right hand. Thankfully my OH was only working one day this week and he has been taking care of everything for me. Feeding all animals, cleaning stalls, turning horses out to graze, doing laundry and dishes, cooking me dinner all while building a chicken coop. Yes, I said chicken coop. We got chickens. And that will be an upcoming blog post!! See, I told ya'all I have been busy!!!