The Rule of Three

It's been a busy time at Oakfield Farm. The weather has been erratic, going from sunny and warm, to cold, to rain, to hail and back again. Sometimes all on the same day.

Sunday was a nice day and I had a nice ride on Carmen. I kept Dom's advice in mind during my work. She commented on a previous post that "You can always add more pressure later, but it takes longer to fix pushing too hard too fast".   So I kept it light and low key. When she walked purposely forward in all parts of the ring I dismounted and called it a day.

Tired Carmen: so exhausted after all that work. 

Monday was cold and rainy. I began to get a headache. Which is not unusual for me with rapid weather changes.

Tuesday I had scheduled the annual check up and vaccinations for the horses. I had arranged to take the afternoon off for the appt. When I left work I suddenly felt aches in every one of my major joints. They hurt. And my neck felt awful. I took some ibuprofen as soon as I got home and took a short nap. When it was time for the vet to come I realized that I had a full on migraine. My head felt like it was in a vice. I was in the barn trying to not vomit. When she came we exchanged pleasantries and I said I was fine. I then realized that was a lie. I told her that might need to get Ed out to help and then ran behind the barn to throw up in the manure cart. #fun. I sent Ed a text and he came out. I had a quick talk with the vet.

She noted that Carmen had a small splint on her right fore. I have no idea of when or how that happened. She's not been lame at all. The vet also commented that Carmen had a bit of a sore back. I think it's from her being tight and the saddle might be a bit snug with her extra weight.

Carmen was suspicious but cooperative with the vet. I waited until she got her happy juice and then I went into the house and crawled into bed pulling the covers over my head. I have never missed a vet appointment. She had offered to rebook but I really wanted Carmen's teeth done. And I was right. She had some hooks that needed to be fixed. I'm glad that Ed was there to help.

drunk Carmen

I have had migraines before, and I usually have the visual aura before. I think that the joint aches were a precursor. I have never had that before and don't even know if it's a thing.

Wednesday I felt better in that my headache was less. I also felt like I had been run over by a bus so I decided to stay home. The weather went between hail, sun, snow, rain, about every 30 minutes.  I wanted to get fresh air so decided that I should drag the ring. But when I went out the tractor was dead. I had left the key in the 'on' position and drained the battery. Sigh.  Ed came out to rescue me (this time I took photos of how to set up the jump cables so I can do it myself).

As I drove up to the ring I realized something was wrong in the field. The gate post that separates the small paddock from the larger one was broken off and laying on the ground. One of the ungrateful wretches little darlings must have run into it. I asked them who did but both professed being as surprised as I was.
Carmen: It just exploded. 
Irish: Must have been termites. 
Carmen: or beavers. 
Irish: yeah, beavers.  

 I don't really need these to be separated right now so I just took out the post and the tape so it's more open concept.

I put a safety cone over the remains of the post and told them to leave it alone. Irish looked hurt that I would suggest that he would play with it. When I went out later it had been moved and had some interesting teeth marks. The arrow shows where the cone is supposed to be.

Innocent Carmen: I have no idea how it moved. 

I'm really hopeful that that is my three things.

Right?