Finally getting the stuff pulled out of the trailer, rain go away!!!
Inventoried my camping gear, washing, drying, re-packing.
Very concerned about getting it all ready, but still much to do.
Everything needs checked, and rechecked, and packed to go...
Only F-I-V-E days until The Chicken Chase. I went out and purchased red ribbon today to put in Phebe's tail, just in case. Picked up a blue tote from the Dollar Store to put her hay and cooler in at the vet check. Bought V-8 and Gator Aid, cereal, and snack food. Purchased batteries for the flash lights and Garmin. I have all this stuff piled in the kitchen as I pulled my rug out of the horse trailer to wash it...oh my gosh...a winter's worth of dirt on that thing. Dragged the water tank out of the barn, and have to hose it down and flush it out. Still need to locate my muck bucket. Used my car to drag all this stuff out of the trailer and barn, and it needs cleaned big time now.
Doug was supposed to come with me this weekend, but our old boxer girl has about had it. She kept me more occupied today than the work chores. Her hips have all but given up, and she just doesn't feel good anymore. Those kind of decisions are hard to make, but must be made eventually. The down side to pets is that you have to let them go and make the decision in the pet's best interest, and sometimes it is hard to keep your desire for wanting to keep them---- out of the way of letting them go. If Molly is still with us, he may need to spend the weekend attending to her. I've thought about canceling our ride, but it wouldn't change not one darned thing. You can't change the wind or the waves...or life or death, all you can do is love, and when the time is right, let it go. ~E.G.
I'm getting pretty excited about our ride, too! Five days is so short!!!
ReplyDeleteOne of the best pieces of advice I've ever received about pets and the difficult decision to euthanize is that you know it's "time" when the bad days outnumber the good. A very close friend of mine went through this with her companion of 14 years this summer, and she said that advice was the best thing she'd heard--it gave her a sort of concrete timeline to work with. No matter what, though, it's always hard to make the decision. The way I look at it, what a wonderful blessing to be able to give our animals a painless, peaceful passing before things get really terrible.
I'll keep you guys in my thoughts!
Elly
I've finalized my plans finally for Chicken Chase. I am riding Friday with Michelle Mattingley and Laura Spinett. On Michelle's horses. For one of the horse's it's his first ride. But she says he's always been real calm and not spooky in training. The one I'm riding is a GIANT arabian. I can't even believe he's a purebred. I've rode him once before. And he can be a handful, but should be fine just following Michelle as long as her horse behaves.
ReplyDeleteI'm telling you this is the way to go. Definately less stressful for me than taking my own horses. We are just going to drive in Thursday night. We don't have to worry about getting there in time to vet in, or setting up fence for the horses, etc, etc. Michelle will take care of that and seems used to taking a lot of horses. She's very organized and has been doing this for a long time. We will just watch and learn and try to help out where/when we can, without getting in her way!
I'd say you could ride with us at the start at the back of the pack friday, but you may not want too. Since Michelle seems a little concerned about the horses behavior.
My advice is this, consider every horse to have a red ribbon in there tail and don't get too close to another horse's butt! You could get kicked to kingdom come. Especially at the start of a ride.
Be careful and have fun!
Michelle Detmer