August/September Photo Dump

 Well, August and September happened.

Seven weeks after coming home

First things first: after ten days in hospital, more money than I spent renovating our house (yay for insurance!), and a whole lot of prayer, Magic is home and thriving. He was a skeleton when he got home on the 20th of August, with a boatload of medications and a very strict feeding schedule. The poor soul had really been through the wringer - he was about 3/10 (which is not bad actually, considering that he'd been starved for 6 full days), with terrible phlebitis and scrapes all over him from the night he'd thrown himself down in the stable in pain. He was so subdued, too. I had visited him five days before he came home, right in the middle of his hospital stay, and the fight had gone out of him. I was ready to put him to sleep them; it just seemed a better option to set him free. His lovely team of vets persuaded me to give him one more day, with the proviso that they would immediately put him to sleep if he had any more pain, and that night he finally took a turn for the better. Still, he had been through appalling suffering and it showed in his eyes and his soul. He just didn't have anything left in him. He felt so tired and not sure if he even wanted to be here.

The transformation since then has been amazing. When he first got home he was on seven small meals a day, with medications three times a day, and I did everything myself except his 9:30am feed when I was at work. I just felt like he needed me, or maybe I needed him to need me, or maybe we just needed each other a little bit. I was so burned out within a couple of weeks, but it was absolutely worth it. He finally went out on pasture during the day last week, and he was leaping and bucking and snorting and playing like he'd never had a sick day in his life. That was when we both finally felt like it had been worth it. Before then, I had been wondering if it had been selfish to put him through the hospitalization for as long as I did, but when I saw him gamboling around like an idiot I knew it was OK. He's now back to living his best spoiled life. Summertime will be easier on both of us because he can go on pasture 24/7 and never colics when he's on pasture, but in winter he has to be on a super strict feeding schedule:

6:15am - 300g Capstone Lifetime Balancer with a handful of lucerne pellets, all soupy, and a tablespoon of Epsom salts. 2kg teff in a slow feeder, dampened.

9:30am - 1kg lucerne pellets, 750g Capstone Cool Time, 1 tbsp Epsom salts, 1 tbsp zeolites, 10g Protexin (probiotic), soupy.

12:30pm - 2kg dampened teff in a slow feeder

3:30pm - same as 9:30am

6:30pm - same as 6:15am, but with 2 generous tablespoons of Epsom salts and a tablespoon of zeolite added to his balancer and lucerne pellets.

So he's a very high-maintenance little lawn ornament, added to which he has only one functioning jugular vein and his face tends to get pretty swollen after a day of grazing, but that doesn't affect his welfare at all. In fact, he is a happy dude who is currently roaming around the yard pretty freely to get all the juicy grass and making a general nuisance of himself.

The fruit trees' blossoms came and went, replaced by leaves. It is so good to see something green in the world again.

I think perhaps the combination of waiting for the rain, generally disliking winter, and having the beloved work away for the last three springs in a row have given me a touch of pseudo-SAD. My mental health was not great right up until the first rain. Since then I've been back to really happy.

We had many miserable, cold and cloudy days before the rain finally came. This was in late August, right after Magic came home. Two of my newer liveries went on their first long ride in this group, and they were all just perfect.

I had the two big girls in front to set the pace, so Lancey and I could hang out in the back, keep an eye on everyone, and enjoy the friendships growing between the kids. This is most of my SANESA team for next year and everyone is such good friends. I am super blessed to have a no-drama yard (and I stomp on drama the moment it looks like it wants to appear).

Lancey has stayed in consistent work. A lot of this has been lungeing and hacking, but we've made some progress on the schooling front too. When I had a couple of school ponies out of work for one reason or another he helped out by teaching some kids how to lunge and do Join-Up, which he is a little pro at (I have video of him doing beautiful Join-Up with a five-year-old, which is adorable).

Another reason why August/September are not my favourite time of the year. With the dry ground, the electric fences pretty much quit working. The beloved spent days trying to come up with solutions for why this particular young livery was climbing right through the fences even though the tester was showing that they were on.

I certainly enjoyed the view.

The pregnant fairies gave me grey hairs. More accurately, Faith did - Arwen has been plugging on merrily, now at just over 270 days, with nothing but a minor scrape on her belly to complain about. Faith was the third in a very uncharacteristic string of colics (potentially to blame on a bad batch of hay) that I had. These have been my first non-Magic colics in easily five years. Anyway, I decided not to take any chances and had the vet out the moment I saw what was up, and she was fine by the next morning. The owner of her foal was angelic enough to pay her vet bill, which was extremely kind of him.

She lost a little weight, but nothing too bad - for which I'm very grateful as we're now entering the last stretch of her pregnancy. She is 303 days today, with Rene at 307 days. I have no idea what either of them will do, Faith being a maiden and Rene new to me, so I'll be on foal patrol in the next couple of weeks.

Our first few days of T-shirt weather finally arrived in early September, to my huge relief. It was still bitterly dry and gross outside, with unbelievable winds, and we were all waiting desperately for rain. We had a few days of oppressive, dry heat.

The kiddos rode at Gauteng Finals, where Jamaica's kid had a massively unlucky stop that cost her a place on the team, and Zorro's kid squeaked onto the team in her discipline. Thanks to some relaxations due to COVID I did manage to shove Jamaica's kid into nationals, so all ended well. We also got to visit Kyalami Corner for the first time, one of the yuppie upmarket malls in the heart of South African horse country. Everything was pricey, but at least they had pretty statues.

It was so, so dry. At least it was easier to keep Lancey clean.

I wanted to go for a ride with his long mane blowing romantically in the wind, but it ended up getting snarled up in my hands more than anything else. Another reason why he lives in plaits.

Just the beloved washing my jacket for me late one evening after work because I was having a little meltdown about how I was going to be a trainwreck at SA Champs. I was not a trainwreck, my jacket was clean, and my man is an actual superhero.

My favourite Friesian, who for blog purposes we will call Madam President because that's exactly who she believes she is, on the second day of SA Champs. I have never been so nervous in the days leading up to the show, but once I was in the warmup I was surprisingly OK. In fact, I was great - really focused, not too relaxed, but not panicking. I rode every stride and Madam President showed up to work the way she always does. We had run into some issues with the contact in the weeks before the show, but we pulled it together and had solid scores for a placing in the middle of the class in good company.

Beloved couldn't be there on the first day of the show, but he was there on the championship day, which helped me calm down quite a bit.

It was unforgettable. My first SA Champs ever, on probably the best dressage horse I have ever had the privilege of riding. Madam President will inevitably outgrow me and move on to the upper-level rider she deserves, but I'm bent on enjoying every ride while I've got it.

 The following week was a Friesian show at my favourite venue in Parys, which was amazing to experience as always. I didn't ride because Madam President had had enough pressure on her already, but Coach rode the stud stallion, who was a very good boy.

Erin came over to spend the day at the show with us, and posed beside the big fella for scale. He is just over 17.1 and all power, but he stood across the aisle from a mare at the show, and I lead him around the farm with a flat halter and no chain. Such an incredible creature.

It's so hard to believe that last year's foal crop has turned into yearlings already. This one is my personal favorite, the oldest of them, who just turned one last month. There's so much to like here.

The rain came in late September, and it was wonderful, wonderful rain - about 60mm in a week. It was nice and early, and the pastures have gotten a good start on growing. My garden woke up, too, even though we'd been watering it for weeks. There's just something about rainwater that no artificial means can beat. A continual reminder of how helpless we truly are, and how great the Lord's mercy really is. This phlox was a huge bush last year and reseeded itself; I didn't even know until it started blooming.

After another six weeks off for that check ligament injury, Thunder finally returned to work, having lost so much of his muscle tone and fitness. Between the check ligament and the biliary he had in the autumn, he's had three months off this year. And we started out so well. Anyway, I did two weeks of lungeing and continue to have him on a fairly strict lungeing schedule right now, hoping to build up a ton of fitness. It's always hard with him to balance fitness and freshness, but I also switched him to a super high-energy, high-protein feed, which seems to be working. He's even sassy sometimes now, which is great. As long as he has the energy, I can redirect it.

At least Lancey still looks like something. We have been chipping away at the gait quality again. He is much better off my leg, and we've been able to take his big, rushy trot and turn it into a more engaged, rhythmic trot. The canter is another story. He still won't let my rein aids go through him in the canter. I identified a problem in his response to the left rein and worked very hard on that with a ton of renvers/travers, which does seem to be helping. I honestly really look forward to having BabyDragon and training it properly (or at least, as a dressage horse) from day one - I love my two repurposed beasts, but I remain aware that Lancey could have been Elementary-Medium or Medium by now if I hadn't spent all this time fixing his man-made problems with the contact.

I rode this super cute green bean livery for his mother while she was on holiday. He is accident-prone but adorable. The rain had already brought a flush of green to the veld in the background here; it feels like the earth is alive again. As soon as the green came, my spirits just lifted, and the horses are obviously much happier to have something succulent to nibble on.

Without constant dust hanging in the air, we can see all the way past Bloekomspruit almost to the Vaal Dam again.

The wind still hasn't quite stopped, though, which hopefully means that we'll have good rain this season. I'm not sure if the thought that a cold winter and a windy spring bring a wet summer is entirely based in scientific theory, but I'm clinging to it anyway. These kiddos enjoyed a nice long ride on the last day of school before spring break. The one on the right has been riding with me since she was three years old, which feels like a ridiculously long time.

Having a lunge between lessons. I am so happy to see summer coats returning, too.

On a perfect, wet Friday at work after a beautifully stormy night, an angel spread its wings in the sky. Africa's summer skies are just something else. The horse in this photo is my second favourite Friesian, who had been off with an injury for months, but is finally back into full work now. He is a huge pleasure to ride and we get along really well - we actually make really good progress together. We'll give him the blog name of Shy Boy.

We went away on holiday together for the first time since we moved into our cottage in 2019. There just never seemed to be a point in going away while the beloved was still living and working three hours away for five months of the year - we spent too much time away from home anyway. This weekend was very, very sweet, and just a much-needed break from everything. It finally managed to set my inner dial back to "happy" after a hard spring.

I'm aware of just how honoured I am to have my very best friend as my constant companion. He is a tremendous blessing. My lighthouse.

We came home to perfect skies. Old Skye herself gave us a bit of a fright while Magic was in hospital when she spiked a low-grade fever and had some diarrhea, but she shook it off herself and carried on with her life. She seems to be enjoying her privacy and I think perhaps her days of running around in a herd are over. She was the best old lead mare for so many years - I think she's ready to just hang out with companions over the fence, and not have anyone in the field with her to try to play or push her around.

Of course one of the best Friesian mares waited until I was away to suddenly pop out an early baby with no prior warning, as maidens do. Mom and baby are both healthy and happy, and the little guy might look very small next to his enormous mother, but he's destined to reach over 17 hands himself.

Foals are the best. He's a very bold little man, always exploring and definitely a fan of wither scratches. I've gotten to spend a lot of time with him because his mom has rather too much milk and it tends to squirt all over his face, which then needs to be washed. There is a line of people eager to do this tedious chore but I managed to nab it for a few days before the grooms were onto me and started doing it early in the mornings before I got there. He certainly isn't starved for attention.

This was his first day outside. His dam has been an absolute rock star even though she's a maiden, taking really great care of him and letting us do what we need to do, too.

I had my first carriage driving lesson! It was pretty amazing, and actually not that difficult once my seat realized that it wasn't on a dressage horse and my foot realized that it wasn't in a car, and my hands realized that it was OK to pull to slow down. This very tolerant mare is a fantastic old schoolmistress and helped me out. I hope to drive Madam President someday.

There are so many things I love about summer, but perhaps my favorite is the longer days. Instead of shuddering out into the cold just after six in the morning, I can head out early, before the world gets going, and lunge my horses in the golden quiet.

This summer is going to be simply beautiful. I have lots of plans for it, but ultimately I'm just glad to be here where God put me. God is good!

Lancey Dancing

 First, thank you all for the concern over Magic 💜 He is hanging in there and being the best patient, as always. God's will prevails 💜

Thunder's leg also finally felt a lot better to me last night, and is even better this morning. It's a difficult place to ice, but I think I've gotten the hang of it now. Of course, the big guy is also being a super patient. He had a little run around in the field last night before he came in, but that was right before the leg felt a lot better, so it might actually have been just the thing to shake off the last of the edema. It's not hot anymore, at any rate.

On to the actual riding this week. Despite the disgusting weather (August arrived with a vengeance) and all the other chaos, Lancey and I did fit in some training. I didn't get to him Monday (deadline) or Tuesday (taking Magic to hosital) so I was a little worried that I might have a f e i s t y Arab on my hands for Wednesday's lesson, a fear that turned out to be entirely unfounded.

This was the first lesson ever where Coach J started out by asking what we were working on. This came as a bit of a surprise to me, as normally Coach is not particularly interested in my opinions and works on what he sees. I told him about our super awful score in test 5 at the show in June (I totally disregard the 51% for test 6 because lil dude was spooking so much) and that he was obedient and put in a clean test but was kinda hollow throughout. Coach first gave me a little bit of a pep talk and said not to put too much stock in the scores at a single show. "One show isn't a pattern," he said. "Three shows is a pattern. Not three tests - three shows." I felt a bit better after that. To be fair, this was our first proper dressage show together and his first one ever, so I can cut us a little bit slack.

the stuff this poor coach puts up with

Then we got to work, and Coach, as he does, immediately identified the issue. Lancey was being obedient and doing his transitions like a good boy, but he wasn't truly forward off my leg. I was pretty surprised to hear this because he feels forward and responsive compared to Thunder (and honestly most of the Friesians), right up until Coach said, "OK, now do a medium" and we did a medium and he then said "Right! This isn't your medium trot. This is your working trot." My mind blew a little bit.

Turns out that just because Lancey feels so petite to me, compared to the Friesians and Thunder, I've been riding him like he's a pony and has pony gaits. "You've been playing too much My Little Pony," said Coach, possibly in reference to the giant hearts on my horse's butt, causing my manbeast to snort in amusement. Lancey actually has HUGE gaits when I actually ask him for them, and as soon as I pushed him up into my hand and got him really flowing forward, he rewarded me with the most balanced, powerful trot I've ever gotten from him. I've been trying to balance him by slowing him down in the front, when I should have been pushing him up from behind. (Amazing how applying, you know, the basic dressage principles makes your horse... more dressagey).

Coach's actual words: "You know this, woman!"

The weird thing is that I do ride most of my horses really up in front of my leg, except Lancey. Like I say, I think somehow I just expected him to have tiny gaits. But when I really started getting that big trot... wow. He felt amazing. Best of all, my aids felt like they were actually going through him. I could bend him, put his bum out, put his shoulder in, send him forward, bring him back - he wasn't blocking me through his neck the way he so often does, because he was over his back and into my hands. He also gave me a great feeling in the connection; not curling and soft, but no longer pulling and setting his jaw and constantly grinding his teeth, either.

I had a lot more trouble applying this in the canter, but his canter is naturally his best gait, so we still did some good work there before Coach called it a day. Watching the video, I am SO happy with how he looked by the end. He was pushing forward, using his back, lifting his neck, and not curling up at all, but he also wasn't hollowing every 10 seconds.

Our homework is simply to ride him forward - borderline running, at first; we'll regain the rhythm and balance once he is truly obedient off my leg - throughout all of the normal exercises we always do. Shoulder-in, but in something that feels like medium trot to me. Canter-walk-canter, but covering much more ground in the canter. An exercise we did a lot during the lesson that I really liked was just to trot in shoulder-fore on a 20m circle, then straighten for a circle, then shoulder-fore again for a circle. It reiterated to him that my leg always means something, that he needs to balance and not just run forward when I'm asking him to go more forward, and it will build up to doing better shoulder-in since that's where he always wants to block me and hollow or curl up and lose his hindlegs.

I was unhappy with my position on the video, as well. I'm not sure why, but I was reaaaally wanting to go back into my chair seat. I lost my lower leg a lot in the trot. I think perhaps this comes from the amount of tension I was carrying in my arms - elbows lifted and wrists cocked - which is from my anxiety that he's going to hollow. Riding him more forward will help me to relax my elbows and fix my hands, and I hope this will help for the rising trot. The canter looked OK, which is nice because historically I have been really bad at sitting up on his canter. I think my old Wintec's tiny knee rolls also don't help when I'm very used to sitting deeply in the new Wintec Hart and Bates Isabell that the Friesians wear.

He was also supremely well-behaved to load, wait in a stable, and ride, despite the howling wind and cold. He is becoming such a solid little citizen for everything 💜

Coach clearly didn't think that the penny had actually dropped during the lesson, because he called me later that evening with "Did you understand what we did in your lesson???" just to be sure. It was nice to talk over it and just hear it reiterated, so I was very grateful for that.

Thursday the wind was really awful, about 9m/s, but the kids came to ride anyway and my tiniest tot wanted to go out on Flash unexpectedly so I threw Lancey's bridle on and scrambled on board. It kinda blows my mind that I wouldn't even canter him outside the arena a year ago, and now I go on bareback outrides in the screeching wind. Definitely something to celebrate. He was perfect, of course, except for one hairy moment when Blizzy came exploding out of the woods behind us. Flash noped right the heck outta there with the poor kiddo clinging on for dear life, and I, acutely aware of exactly how round and slippery Lancey is, bailed off before Lancey could move. He only cantered a step forward and then stared at me with big eyes, like, "oh no mom did you fall off??" No buddy, mom's just a ninny. The kiddo got Flash reeled in very quickly, I found a bank and scrambled back on Lancey, and we went happily on our way.

Wild as Thursday was, yesterday was one of the most miserable days weather-wise that I have ever seen. The wind was even stronger, blowing our poor little Pekin bantams across their pen, and it was overcast and unbelievably cold. Some of the crazier riding school kids showed up for lessons and clung to their plunging, snorting ponies for dear life while I shouted over the wind, which was miserable, but I appreciated their commitment.

It was so windy that just getting Lancey's tack on was a challenge. His quarter sheet and numnah kept blowing off while I was trying to put the saddle on. He was angelic for all this, even when the quarter sheet was snapping deafeningly around his legs, and I tried to ride for about 15 minutes. The wind was gusting so hard that the jumps had all blown over, and of course Mr. Araby McArabface had to snort at those a bit (standing in place - the dude has the quietest spook ever, thank you Lancey). He also didn't like the gusts of dust sandblasting his poor feet at times, and his quarter sheet kept blowing up over my back, which, to his credit, he didn't seem to mind at all.

He did express some distaste for my new ideas about moving forward into the contact by throwing a couple of his giant bucks, but I stuck on and booted him, and he quickly abandoned that idea and settled down for some really good trot and canter work on a 20m circle (if we tried to go in straight lines we would inevitably end up with his bum to the wind and the quarter sheet threatening to go over my head). I experimented with a couple of canter-walk from this bigger, more engaged canter, and they were actually a lot better. It's almost like basic dressage principles improve the moments, go figure.

Erin and I were going to do a long ride with our neighbors on the other side today, but various circumstances intervened, and it is yet another freezing and blustery day so Lancey earned a pyjama day in the field. I'm looking forward to all the rain that this wind must be bringing us.

I am so so grateful to have this wonderful little horse that I trust so much. God really does know what we need long before we do 💜 It sucks not to have Thunder in work right now, but it was really nice to spend extra time on my Lancelot.

God is good.

Holding them closer

I guess I start with Thunderbird deciding that last week Wednesday was the perfect day to hang his leg in his haynet.

yes, this noble steed

When I came over for morning check just after 6am, he whinnied at me when I looked over the door into Lancey's stable, shouting MOM PLEASE HAAAAAALP. When I looked over at him, he was standing quietly in the back corner on three legs, his left front in his haynet, looking over his shoulder at me with big eyes.

My heart absolutely froze. How (or why) he decided that he needed to get his foot into his haynet, when his other haynet was still chock-full, I have no idea. I hurried to get him out, and bless his darling little soul, he just stood there for several minutes while I tried to get his giant foot out of the tiny hole he had somehow put it through. I was inwardly panicking. I have heard the horror stories about shattered knees and ruptured tendons from exactly this kind of injury. In fact I think I may have been outwardly panicking quite a bit as well, but Thunder obviously doesn't care about that and as soon as I freed him he just stretched out and took the longest pee ever. He hadn't touched his water in the other corner of his stable, and his bed was clean in the opposite corner, where he normally does his poos. He must have been stuck in that haynet for hours.

When my heart had slowed down and Thunder had gone over to his stable door to look around for his breakfast, I realized that he was walking on four legs with no obvious lameness and my brain finally registered that he was not actually crippled yet. I felt over both front legs for any trouble, and there was no swelling just yet, but the left fore was pretty hot over the back of the knee where it joins the cannon bone - where the check ligament sits. The SDFT seemed OK, and amazingly, his supporting leg hadn't even stocked up.

I sat down in the shavings right about then and offered up a prayer of thanks that Thunder is the most chill horse who has ever existed. If he had thrashed around or thrown himself on the ground or even twisted the haynet up so that it constricted his leg... It just doesn't bear thinking about.

Luckily, the physio was coming out to see another horse that same day, so I quickly called her and booked Thunder in for a check as well that afternoon.

To my eternal relief and gratitude, her findings were unremarkable. Thunder had absolutely no problems in his neck, shoulders, or upper back - he really couldn't have even pulled back against the haynet at all. His only problem was some stiffness in his left pectoral muscle, understandable considering he'd been stuck on three legs for hours, and a little tightness in his lower left back. He always has that when he gets bodywork done - it's just a combination of naturally being stiffer on that side, always being a little weaker in that left stifle, and me sitting too hard on my right hip. All things we're working on.

As for the leg itself, the news was much better than it might have been. He was 1/10 lame on the first trot up and practically sound after the session, and honestly I can't see the lameness at all, only the physio could with her more educated eye. There was some swelling over his left check ligament just below the knee. While there's only so much a physio can tell, she felt that scans would be unnecessary and that he likely just bruised the tendon sheath where the rope was pressing on it. Nothing major. He could have broken his leg if he'd panicked, but instead he just stood there like a very good boy. He really is the best horse ever.

the warmer weather is bringing out his allergies as well, boo

Still, the physio recommended at least 10 days completely off, maybe more depending on how he does. He can be glad that he's a very relaxed dude who spends most of his field time eating and sleeping or he might have ended up being confined in a smaller space. For now, though, he still goes out all day his friends, and gets his leg iced twice a day. The swelling has gone down quite a lot, but it's still a little puffy and hot... and we're on day 9 now. So I'm not sure yet how it's going to turn out.

I'm just so, so grateful that he doesn't seem to be experiencing any major pain, and that it doesn't seem to be a major injury even if it ends up taking a few weeks to recover. I will happily take a few weeks' recovery time over the possibility of months, years, or even completely losing him... it doesn't even bear thinking about.

When I mentioned that we had been thinking of SA Champs in mid-September, the physio seemed to think we miiight still be able to go... but I decided to just scratch the whole idea. As much as I want to be more competitive, and more bold in my competitive choices, I'm not going to bring my competitive plans into play when it comes to his soundness. I'm pretty sure he'll be rideable again by mid-September, but would he really be fit enough? Would it really be fair? Would I be tempted to push him just a little harder than I really think I should? I'm not even going to go there, thanks. So that's SA Champs off the table for us.

That did mean a little breathing room in the budget (briefly... see below) so I finally bought a pair of ice boots. I can't believe I went so long without them; I have them at the Friesians and they are one of the most wonderful inventions in the world.

Anyway, I'm definitely more careful about how we tie his haynet since, but mostly I'm just really grateful about how all this turned out. He could really have hurt himself, and I will happily ice his legs and rest him and deal with this comparatively minor boo-boo compared to what could have happened.

The real disaster struck on Tuesday. Magic seemed OK when I checked on him around 6am, but there was a bit of hay left in their haynets, which isn't really that normal. Skye was eating the tops off some old dry (known and not poisonous) weeds at the time (like... why, ole lady? you can barely chew hay) so I thought perhaps she'd just been nibbling weeds instead of eating hay, but it wasn't that much left over that it worried me. He was napping in his usual place, and there were nice normal fresh poos everywhere, so I went about my day. He ate his breakfast and his temperature was normal.

When the guys went to feed Skye her lunch, though, Magic was just standing around again and their morning haynets were almost untouched (the old girl really doesn't eat much hay because she chews so slowly). Definitely a warning bell. I checked him out and he had gut sounds all round but they were a little reduced in the right upper quadrant. His heart rate and mucus membranes were pretty normal, but he did have a fever of 39.5. I was pretty confused then because he had no colic signs at all, and I know this dude well - I know when he's colicking. Still, I wasn't happy. If it had been any other horse, I would have given him a bit of flunixin and waited it out for the afternoon, but it wasn't. It was Magic, so at 3pm, I called the vet. He passed a little bit of normal-looking poo and nibbled some grass while we waited.

he was grazing and then this look came into his eyes and I knew 💔

I really didn't think he had colic until 4pm, just before the vet arrived, when he started to look at his flanks a bit. His heart rate spiked to the 50s then, and when the vet arrived ten minutes later, he was shivering, his heart rate was in the 60s, and he was panting with pain. She took one look at him, uttered an F-bomb, and told me to load and go. This was absolutely the right decision and such an important part of why I have established relationships with numerous vets in the area - they know him and they know he means business when he's colicking. She gave him some flunixin to keep him comfortable and a bit of Buscopan, and we put him on the horsebox and took him straight to hospital.

My poor beloved man was busy recovering from an awful stomach flu of his own at that point, so my mom and dad dropped everything to help me take the old boy to the vet. Thank you 💜

He's been there ever since. He has an impaction, likely in the sternal flexure, and while it doesn't seem as bad this time as it did last time, it's been three days with no real difference. At this point, everything possible is being done for him (thank God, earnestly, for insurance), but it could go either way. If the impaction finally shifts, then he'll be OK. Sometimes it can take a while - he's been in hospital for 4-5 days before with the same thing - and sometimes they don't shift medically, and he's not a surgical candidate.

He obviously has the whole vet hospital wrapped right around his little finger. He may have been a bit of a nightmare to ride, but Magic has always been the best patient in the entire world. Even though he wasn't in any pain by the time we arrived at the hospital, he submitted so happily to getting his catheter, a rectal, a tube, having his tummy scanned, all without sedation - he just played right along. The vets love him to bits and one of them confided in me that she had given him a nice long ear scratch, which he truly loves.

I haven't been to see him, partly because it is so hard for me to get away during the week, but also because I know I will be a wreck. Emotionally, of course I want to go and see him; but I know that having a weepy, stressed human clinging to him is not what he needs right now. He is so sensitive to my emotions, and right now he is surrounded by dedicated professionals doing their best for him, and that's the vibe he needs. He doesn't need a stressed-out, heartbroken mama crying into his mane. He's done that enough for me. I can cry into Lancey's mane for a bit until he gets better, God willing. I'll just be here holding the others a little bit closer. It's a privilege to have them with us, a privilege that we so often take for granted until it's too late.

All that to say, he is in Abba's Hands, just where he belongs. We have done everything humanly possible for him; now it's up to God. And whatever He wills, whatever He chooses, I trust that. I trust Him.

God is good.