Yeah. I kinda slipped there after the first post after coming back from RadCon and the flying trip to Portland. I was going to write up days 18 and 19, and then bam! Got knocked flat on my butt with what I think is the flu but who knows?
Anyway, day 18 was 2/24/2020 and day 19 was 2/26/2020. Snaffle and English saddle, road rides, and the dragon was snorting. The roads are wet and soft right now and were better footing for work at trot and canter than the icy field. She was full of herself and wanting to go. I had vowed to myself that the next ride was going to involve the Western saddle and the short-shank curb. Someone was going to get her little brown rear end ridden off because she was full of herself and raring to go.
Yeah. Excellent plan. Except that when the next riding day rolled around, I was flat on my back sick. Fever and chills, headache, bodyache. Some mucus production in my nose with lovely post-nasal drip. I lay in bed for three days straight, sucking down as much water as I could, taking Tylenol and Tylenol-3, running the diffuser with OnGuard oil, and occasionally checking my temperature before the next Tylenol dose. At one point it got up to 102.5 F, and I was taking sudafed as well as hitting the asthma rescue inhalers to keep everything clear. When something like this hits, I’m team keep the passages clear as possible simply because a.) congested sinuses in me leads to a nasty circle of infection/allergic reaction to infection/infection etc, etc etc (I am allergic to upper respiratory bacteria) and/or b.) secondary bronchitis infection. So I don’t muck around with it. And I keep track of hydration and temps with my personal criteria of “okay, at this point I go to the doc.” Didn’t help that the news about COVID-19 kept getting more and more dire as I got sicker.
But after three days the fever broke, and then it was pretty much post-infection sucky post-nasal drip, cough cough cough, probable allergies flaring from something as well (I am using inhaled nasal and lung steroids as well as taking Claritin right now, yeah, I got this). Then it was a matter of clearing the brain, which took another two days before I could brain well enough to write.
The last “getting back to semi normal” piece was reminding Miss Mocha that yes, she is an owned horse, and that happened today.
So. Day 20, 3/8/2020. Short shank curb and Western saddle, in the pasture. I got the “who are you” treatment not only from her but the whole herd. Tribute of apples and carrots reminded Mocha that she was an owned horse, though when I tied her to the hitching rail, her head shot up and she stared off toward the pen where there are now, yep, her ultimate nemesis, the PIGS.
Now I already knew about the PIGS because the barn owner had posted pictures of their arrival, complete with a disgusted expression on the face of their neighbor the sheep. Trust me, the sheep let me know of its disapproval of the new neighbors when I arrived, along with sheep’s neighbor, a mare on injury layup who was staring at the pen with an expression matching that of the sheep.
However, grain and then brushing served as a sufficient distraction. I groomed a bunny’s worth of hair off of her, then took her out to the truck and tacked her up, whereupon she once again heard (and smelled) PIGS. She danced out to the field and started blowing big roller snorts. I laughed at her but was damn glad I had the Western tack today. Climbed on, put her on contact right away, and we headed out.
I did not have ambitious schooling plans for today, but with the antics, it was clear than light serpentine schooling at the walk needed to happen to get focus and all. So we did some easy walk serpentines, then crossed to the other side of the field and did a lot of slow jog serpentines and such. Two stretches of easy lope because the footing’s mucky, the line of haunch and forehand turns, and then spins.
A couple of miles shorter than our usual rides, but I’m not pushing. The cool air was good for my cranky nasal passages, and for all that Mocha huffs and puffs like a dragon, after a couple of coughs I think she got the idea that maybe I wasn’t up for big energy. Gotta love a smart mare.
I’m not as wiped out as I feared, but I’m still on the tired side. Gonna be a little sore tomorrow, too. Oh well. Slow and steady. We’ve been through this before, with all the years I spent teaching and picked up various respiratory bugs. There was one time when my cough was so bad she would stop dead while I hacked up a lung–and she was greenbroke at the time. So yeah. Good horse, even if she is a cranky and opinionated old mare.
