One More Week and Concussions Suck

I love this picture so much.  First I think Artemis' trot looks great in it, and I love how they're chasing my dog.  This post will probably be long because I have a lot to share and I have some pictures I wanted to post.  By  now though I'm sure everyone knows I'm kind of long-winded :).

On sunday we went out to the stable later in the day.  My brother came to do the horses feet and since we're watching my dad's dog, Si, she came with us.  She made it very difficult to catch the horses since, as you can see, they were all interested in chasing her.  We brought Socks and Artemis in and my brother started doing Socks' feet.  She was pretty bad, for her.  She hasn't been behaving lately and I can't wait until Artemis is weaned.  Socks was like this with Cas, the closer we got to weaning, the worse she behaved.  I don't know if she senses what's coming or it's coincedence, but it's annoying. 



My mom and I brought Artemis in the arena while Alex did feet.  That didn't last long, Artemis was horrible.  So to keep her occupied and make her work, while my brother continued with Socks, I worked with her and the saddle blanket.  She's slowly getting better about having things on her.   She was not very happy about having the saddle blanket on though.  I put it on her neck first and slowly moved it up to cover her eyes.  She tried her hardest to get it to slide back but she couldn't suceed.  After that she stood there and my mom said she looked like she was pouting.  I think she just fell asleep.

Yes, there is a head under there, somewhere.  You can just see her little nose peeking out.  She had this on for probably fifteen minutes, until Alex moved onto her feet.  She was good for her left side, but when Alex started her right side, she was not happy.  I held her head as he did her front right, and she tried to get her foot away.  Alex held on and she went down and then snapped her head back up, right into my head.  She hit my cheek first and then into my forehead.  It knocked my glasses off and instantly Alex and I had a mad scramble to get them back.  I grabbed them from underneath her and somehow, they weren't broken or even bent.  Then I could finally register the pain.  It hurt, so badly.  I had to take a minute before I could help Alex again.  Then we did Jimmy's feet.  Like Socks and Artemis, he wasn't that great.  They were acting like they'd never had their feet done before.  It was extremely windy though, the wind outside sounded like children screaming, so that definitly wasn't helping.  T (barn owner) came by to bring the other horses in and we stayed and talked to her.  She told us her daughter, L, cried because she wasn't allowed to come out and see us since it was so late.  Usually L comes and brushes Artemis and she as so upset she couldn't.  I love that family.

Today is my day off from school and so I was at home for most of it.  My head started killing me the moment I woke up.  I was getting dizzy spells and headaches, which was strange because after an hour or so the night before, my head didn't hurt anymore.  Anyway, today was the day we moved Socks and Artemis to the back field for the final step of their weaning.  My mom and I got to the stable just as T and E were getting ready to move Ebony and Tona, the horses in with Socks and Artemis, out to the pasture.  So my mom and I caught Socks and Artemis and the five of us (L came too) led the horses to the pasture.  At one point Artemis almost got away from me.  She jumped forward and I wasn't expecting it so she pulled me a few steps down the path.  T just laughed and told me she would have started screaming. 

We got into the pasture and set the horses free.  Ebony took off running and Tona followed behind her.  Socks and Artemis were a little slower.  They all went to the creek and hung out there, and then Socks decided it was time to cross.  E and T were surprised she went but she's been in fields with worse.  Everyone followed her and they all began grazing.  E kept calling for the other horses in the field to come over but it was only when L ran halfway to them that they did.  When Ebony and Tona saw them, they ran over to them but Socks and Artemis stayed where they were.  Then Ebony ran back to Socks, bringing all the other horses with her.  Socks went into protective mode immediatly.  She kicked out at the other mares and made sure none of them got near Artemis.  Charlie, the little Arabian foal, kept running after Artemis and Socks was running after him.  She wouldn't kick him but she was trying to get him away from her baby.  Once she got Charlie away, Socks, Ebony and Artemis took off running.  Socks and Ebony both ran on either side of Artemis, sandwiching her in between them.  The herd came running after them and they all thought it would be a good idea to run at us.

Here is Charlie between EB and Toya.  Toya is his mom but they have nothing to do with each other now.  Her milk has dried up too.  EB has taken over the role of being Charlie's mom.  EB is the seal brown mare and Toya is the sorrel with a star.  E chased the horses away from the gate and Socks, Artemis, Ebony and Tona went one way and the rest of the horses went the other way.  We were all surprised Tona stayed with Socks, since she'd spent most of her life out in the pasture with EB, Flip and the other mares.  At this point we decided to leave and let them get to know each other.  We slowly made our way back up to the barn, stopping every few steps to look back and make sure everything was still okay.  All the horses were just grazing.  We stayed a while longer to talk to T before we finally left.

After we left the stable we had to go to my school, across the city.  We then decided to go the the clinic nearby because my head was still hurting.  We found it but we didn't actually end up going because the waiting time was ridiculously long and we had the dog with us.  We ended up driving home, dropping the dog off and then going to the hospital.  We were there for three and a half hours, which really isn't that bad, but we only got there at 9:30 at night, so that really sucked.  The doctor I got was really nice.  He checked me out and I have a concussion from Artemis hitting me with her head.  He seemed pretty amazed that I'd been injured by a horse though, I guess they don't get too many horse-related injuries in that hospital.  He also found it extremely amusing the only other time I've been to the hospital was when I broke my pelvic bone after jumping off of Socks.  He sent me home, telling me to get lots of rest and to really limit my physical activity for a while.  I'm not supposed to work with the horses and I chose not to tell him that I'd already been leading Artemis that day.  If we go out tomorrow I'm just going to be standing back and instructing my mom and Jimmy.  Luckily we were planning on giving Socks and Artemis some time off since Artemis is going to be weaned in a week or so.

All I can say is, concussions really suck.  I can't wait for my head to stop hurting.  

My sister says this picture looks like they're about to duel.  I can't help but agree with her.  My money is on Socks.