The High Point Of The Show

Again with the big silence…sorry! The hand didn’t do so well casted but it did it’s job and my hand is now free from it’s bright pink and/or purple prison. I am typing a bit better now so I’m going to try to catch up on all of the happenings of the last month…before the BIG excitement of my excellent Horse Year happens this weekend. I brought my laptop along and have free WiFi so hopefully this will work out.

I think I left off going into the big Race & Show weekend…

Dr. Wells told me she’d take off the cast before the show so that I could ride without it at the last Donida Farm Schooling show in the series…the one we were in 3rd place going into and the final show that I was preparing for. I’d been riding in my cast for a few weeks and even though holding a riding crop was a challenge, requiring me to switch to the left hand full time, I was beginning to feel a bit more confident. Chrissy asked me to be open to the possibility of keeping the cast on for the show because by that point it would be three weeks since the break and I’d already adjusted to riding with it. When I went into the Dr. Office that afternoon before the show & they removed the pink cast, I was glad she’s prepared me for the possibility because I might have been very upset to figure out that the finger was still bruised, atrophied & without any strength.

By the look on my face Dr. Wells knew I wasn’t feeling confidant and suggested we re-cast it so that it would be protected. She wrapped me up in a purple cast to coordinate with my lavender show shirt and I arranged to borrow a purple saddle pad from Chrissy. When life gives you purple, make the most of it…and so I did!! Chrissy even joked that we should wrap Coconut’s front right leg in a purple polo wrap for fun. We couldn’t come up with one overnight so it had to remain a funny idea!

We kicked off the big weekend with Opening Night at Emerald Downs…but more on that later…

My family hit the skies early and left me home alone again (and no, I did not hurt myself THIS time!) I headed out early, myself, to do an early haul in to the show. Coconut was flying solo …no friends to distract her this time! We got to Donida and Jack was already there and tacked up. We had about an hour to settle in and get ready for Halter & Showmanship. As I mentioned, we were in third going into the event I looked for my competition, Mona and her incredibly beautiful Friesian, Isobella & Lys with her handsome paint, Ory. There was no sign of Mona or Isobella but Lys & Ory were there & did incredible all day. We actually showed 15 classes that day and got lots of ribbons.

Coconut was pretty relaxed in the morning and I was very happy with her performance but she didn’t place very high. About three riding classes in she started to act up & we had to go out to the practice arena with Pete who was out to support Ruth and Jack but graciously coached us again. He has a great sense of Coconut and it was great to hear the deep voice with a hint of that German accent as we went around the arena when things were going well and hearing “You look good!” and when Coconut was acting up and doing that bit-rooting thing I had to crack up with the “Noooooo Coconut!” almost like she was his daughter! He’s firm but connected. I do think she likes and respects him a great deal. I’ve joked with Ruth that I’m going to leave Coconut to him in my will!

On my team was also Chrissy & Kelli who were valuable in keeping focused and minding the details…and making sure I was signed up for classes…and very importantly, collecting ribbons so we could keep riding. We also had our very important cheering section of Monica (and her fabulous camera!) and the big, bright and supportive smile of Kim! We also had a visit from “The Nut” fans, Cathy & Chelsea. It meant the world to have everyone there.

In the events we rode with Lys & Ory, they out rode us every time. We may have done more classes, but in the end, they racked up the very important placement points. Overall, however, I was extremely happy with Coconut’s performance. I actually think by the end of our classes, she’d never held herself better. Monica did a great write-up about the show with some awesome photos and tells about our encounter with the Easter Bunny very well...Check it out over at HorseBytes.

I am very proud of how far we’ve come over the winter and this series truly gave me goals that got me out there riding and working with her more than I have any other winter. I came home with nine ribbons but I can’t even tell you exactly which classes I placed in what order. The most important part actually came after the High Points were awarded.

I had seen Lys loading Ory to leave before the show was over and in my head I was sure they had surpassed us in points, even though we were only 6 points behind them going in. I figured it was close but we had a chance… They called the contenders to bring their horses to the arena. I dressed Coconut in our (now) traditional pink halter for the post show activities and walked back to the arena. The Open Division High Point winner was announced…. Lys & Ory…I felt bad for them that they’d already left and didn’t know they’d won a whole table full of award gifts!

We're Number Two!

The photographer, Krista Davis, was in the arena taking the High Point formal portraits and we were standing there waiting to ask the show folks a question. Krista came over and asked if we were ready to take our formals and I said, “No, we didn’t win” but she said she thought my mare was pretty and looked cute in her pink halter and she’d like to shoot her anyway. So we agreed. During the shoot, she asked about Coconut, commenting on how much she liked the name. Kelli told her about my work with SAFE and Krista said that she was a huge fan of the SAFE website and followed the horse’s stories all the time. Then she lowered her camera and said “This is THE Coconut!…the actual Coconut!!” It turns out that she’s also followed Coconut’s story and has been a Coconut fan.

It’s hard to express the feelings I had at that moment. Tears came to my eyes. Coconut, this little mare from a remote pasture…who has become a piece of my heart and both challenges & inspires me…actually makes a difference in other’s lives. She may not have a registration or any fancy titles, but she has fans! I share her story because I want to make people aware of neglect and how rescued horses can go on to be productive equine citizens and live fulfilling existences with the people who step up for them. They also, apparently, become spokes-horses of sorts & there are actually people who care about them…people they’ve never met. Knowing she means something to others is incredibly amazing…and that touches my heart very deeply.

Krista was so sweet. She went on and on about Coconut, giving her kind of a Rock Star moment, even asking if she could please take some more photos of Coconut, leading us outside to take some really beautiful shots on the grounds of Donida Farm (Missing about 30 minutes of the trails & hunter/jumper classes). It was actually the last shot she took that got her the most excited. She later emailed it to me and shared that it was probably her favorite shot ever and so I’m sharing it with you.




So it seems we came in second…but it turned out to be the perfect place. It all led up to meeting Krista whose love of my horse ended up being the best prize of all and the High Point of my day!

A Lucky Break & Thumbs Up For Safety

It’s time to practice typing so what better way to do so than to write my latest blog entry?

So…. Saturday morning, Lynn came to pick up Coconut and I to go on a trail ride down in Orting along the river with Kim. I got all my gear loaded up and went to lead the princess into the trailer & she bolted backwards. I’ve heard that term before but never fully understood what it meant until then.

Normally she walks right in any trailer and I have never had a problem since day one that we hauled her home to KCJ. We’ve been on plenty of adventures with many different horses and trailers. While she’s never hauled with Kitty or Lynn, she’s certainly met them both before so this was nothing new. I’ve replayed the whole thing in my head over and over and I can’t say what caused it…We walked in pretty calmly, the trailer tie safety hook was closed so I draped my (safely “folded”) lead rope over my arm and reached up with both hands to undo the hook from the sliding safety latch. Kitty, who was happily munching on hay & already clipped in turned her head to us and let out a greeting but it didn’t seem all that aggressive and Coconut’s reaction wasn’t immediate so I’m not convinced that was it either but she went flying backwards and I reacted by reaching back with my right hand to grab the lead. I caught it thumbs-down and she managed to pull it through my hands, stopping behind the trailer.

Of course, I’m thinking “NO WAY!” and reached back again with my right hand to grab the rope but my hand couldn’t grasp it. I thought maybe it was stunned for a moment and reached with my left hand to grab the rope to lead her in and she stepped up but again bolted backward. This time I took a deep breath to clear my head and try to figure out how we were going to get past this and happened to look down at my right hand…it wasn’t looking right. In fact, my pinky finger was bent to the left and poking my ring finger at an odd angle. I looked at my left hand to compare and they did not match at all.

I asked Lynn what she thought and she thought it might be just the joint and maybe if she pulled it and put it back, we could tape it and still ride. In a sane world I don’t think I’d let anyone pull my finger even it if wasn’t injured!! But at that moment, all I wanted to do was ride and so I held my hand out to her, granting permission…the moment she pulled (very gently, I might add) I knew it was not the joint. I felt movement in my bone between the base of my finger and that large knuckle. I informed her that she was going to have to go on to the ride without me and I was going to head to a doctor. We unloaded the gear and put Coconut away. Lynn splinted my finger with supplies from my Equine First Aid kit and then I called Kim to apologize for not making it. I assured Lynn I was fine and that she really should go. I was REALLY annoyed with myself at that point...but surprisingly calm!

I have this total hate-affair with the Emergency Room at St. Francis so I’ll do just about anything to avoid it. I remembered that the UW Clinic had Saturday hours so I called to plead with them to let me come in for an x-ray but that I was sure it was broken (they tend to get annoyed with me when I call and tell them what’s wrong with me and what they need to do…they’ve told me in the past that “they’d” like to diagnose my problems themselves, please…but I’m never wrong, fyi!) so the first thing out of the coordinator’s mouth after she pulls up my record is “My, you seem to have a lot of home injuries!”… Realizing what she’s alluding to, I correct her…”NO, I have a horse” (besides, my husband is out of town and these things often happen when he’s no where around!) She goes on to tell me how she’s afraid of horses & amazed she is at how funny I am considering I have a broken finger and all…what was I supposed to do? Cry? It donned on me that it hadn’t actually hurt yet…

Unfortunately, it turned out that their x-ray machine was not working so she was going to try to get me in at the Kent-Des Moines clinic and would have them call me if they could fit me in. She wished me luck and was practically laughing when we hung up…I don’t think I was that funny…. but she was amused & that was at least keeping things lighthearted. So I continued home as it was on they way to the other clinic and I’d wait there for their call. When they finally called their coordinator was not as amused with me and actually delivered the news that they really felt that this was more serious than they were equipped to resolve so instructed me to go to the ER at St. Francis. Boo-Hiss! This is not how I wanted to handle it. I thought my plan was so much simpler.

My biggest problem with St. Francis has nothing to do with the facility or the staff…in fact; they’re all very nice and helpful there. My issue is that there are some people who practically live there. They use it as their main medical office and clutter up the waiting room with their troop of (slightly?) ill kids. I don’t mean several families…I mean one mother with her four kids…who all have the sniffles today. The last time I was forced to go there (practically kicking and screaming!), I had burned my hand at about 10pm and waited there for FOUR hours behind a woman who brought in her kids, one who had been hit by a car in their apartment parking lot (ok…. I’m not being insensitive here…even the mother claimed it was at a slow speed!) at 4:30pm…but since she was coming into the ER anyway, she brought all of her kids in to be checked out…they had coughs. nasty coughs that they didn’t seem to care to cover…. but no one looked like they were dying or in pain. They were chasing each other around the room and causing problems. Meanwhile I AM in pain (the kind that did make me cry) from a burn to my hand. The misuse of the ER just gets my typically low blood pressure way up. This was probably a Monday or Tuesday and they could have easily gotten an appointment with a Pediatrician the next day…or taken the kid who got hit by the car to the ER at, say 4:45 – 5:00pm (that’s what I’d do…ya know…if it were MY Kid!)

So I grabbed Corey to keep me company but when we got there I honestly didn’t have to wait more than 5 minutes and there were only two people in the waiting room at 11:30am. I got in, the took some x-rays & I managed to whack my head on the overhead x-ray camera, which is still a little sore (I know…I know…can’t take me anywhere!) but we were able to determine that, YES! it was broken. They showed me the break…a diagonal starting from under the big knuckle on the inside and continuing across down toward the outside of my right Pinky to the base. The PA did remark that who ever did my splint did a nice job! YAY!!

By this time I was loosing my sense of humor. She said the adrenaline was probably wearing off and since I seemed a bit grumpier than when I arrived she asked if I’d like something for the pain…it was sore but didn’t seem to hurt but then I have kind of a high threshold for pain (must be the practice!) and it occurred to me that it just might start hurting really bad at some point very soon so I opted for a local nerve block which would numb it for 8 hours and I figured that would probably keep me pain free until almost bed time! YAY! They splinted it with a softer splint than the tongue depressor that Lynn had snapped in half & sent me on my merry way with a referral to Orthopedics on Monday.

As we were getting ready to leave the staff was discussing a Mom and her brood of three kids with colds who were there again…for the millionth time this week (I have to wonder if it was the same Mom from several years ago but it’s probably just another family who’s learned to use the ER as their general practice office.) I was in and out in less than an hour so my timing must have been perfect because the waiting room now held 20 or more people (or maybe just three families…who knows!...my blog, my rant...sorry...)

The block worked great and I actually went out to lunch with Corey & then headed back to the barn to hang out. That night, however, I could tell the block was wearing off so I nested with the home pets, Lola, Buddha & Captn’ Jack and took something a little stronger to relax. The plan to sleep through the pain actually worked. I KNOW… you’re expecting a better story than that…but this time it went just as I planned.

So Monday comes along and I go to the Orthopedics appointment and Dr. Wells tells me that we did such a good job of splinting that we avoided surgery. I promptly gave all the props to Lynn for pulling it and Dr. Wells said she should into Orthopedics because she did a great job of resetting it. Normally that type of break…spiral AND diagonal…would have required resetting and pinning! YAY Lynn!!!!!! Whew!!! Yay for me too. I was worried about that.

Dr. Wells offered me the choice of a “petite” cast or a two-finger splint. I told her that I intended to ride and that I had a show in 2.5 weeks so she bargained with me that if I would agree to the cast, she’d remove it prior to the show and evaluate afterward. Typically she would like it immobilized 3-4 weeks. So I have a cast…a bright pink one that I’m having a challenge in trying to color coordinate with! Today I just ignored it and went with my favorite black/red winter wear!

Oh...and the irony of it all...One day I win a national contest that's centered on Safe Riding with Helmets and the next day I'm in the ER with a horse-related injury....It could be worse, as someone pointed out, it could have been a brain scan instead!! Still...it does take me down a notch in my Coconut Week High...but mostly I was upset that I missed the river ride...now it's kind of settled in and life with a cast is not as fun as it could be if I was actually trying to get out of doing something. Age & life have a way of changing how you see things. There's not much I'd prefer NOT to do....I'm living my life pretty full and this slows things way down!

I have asked myself what did “I” do wrong in this situation. I folded, not looped, my lead rope, I walked into the trailer and she followed but somehow when the unexpected occurred I got injured and I’d like not to do that again so here’s my take…

I’m calling it “Thumbs Up For Safety”

Normally when I hold a lead I have my hand between the horse and the rope, my fingers closed around the rope with my thumb on top. I’d never given it much thought and when I passed the thought by my trainer she didn’t really have an immediate reaction either…but… when my horse went backwards, my reaction was to follow the horse in a sweeping motion away from myself and toward the horse, placing my hand ahead of the horse and rope, with my fingers closed around it and my thumb pointing down.

A "Thumbs Down" to the Thumbs Down Hold

I do have a bit of history with this particular pinky…it was injured (yes, a totally separate injury from many years ago) in a glass accident where all the tendons to my right hand were severed. After having them all surgically reattached, the tendons to the pinky and ring finger welded together as they healed. They don’t work completely independent from each other and the pinky basically has no strength on it’s own.

So when I caught the lead rope and tried to give it pressure…while she was pulling back…she, being the stronger of the two, yanked the rope harder and it drew my weak and defenseless little pinky back across the top of my hand…it twisted & snapped.

What would I do different?

To start off with, we’re going to work on some trailer loading just to be sure she’s still good. I, however, will focus on keeping my thumb pointed up when I have hold of the lead rope and I will try to remember that I do not possess the strength and power to physically stop a fast moving horse with my hand. It’s going to take trying to keep control of the situation & being safety conscious. I actually thought I was being safe but I’ve also learned that safety must be practiced before it’s performed in a stressful situation...Like all those one-rein stops Chrissy had me practice have come in several times! I’m glad I didn’t have to think about it…we drilled it until it was second nature. Coconut learned it too. One day when she broke into a canter that she wasn’t comfortable with, we took about four strides before it occurred to her that we were cantering and she turned her head all the way to the left and basically one rein stopped herself when she lost her confidence and got scared. I had to laugh at her…but her heart was beating fast and I could tell it wasn’t just defiance…it was her way of correcting something she scared of, but there she was with her nose on my boot, just as we’d done so many times before.

Probably the better hold!?

And maybe you don’t have a weak pinky and are just fine with the thumbs down hold but I’m sharing this with you because when I mentioned it to Ken, he said lots of horse people break their pinkies in the exact same way…so maybe it’s a coincidence but I’m not taking any chances, especially now that I’ll have a weakness there anyway because of this break…a “Lucky Break”? Maybe…. but I sure to have to “Hand” it to Lynn for saving me from surgery!

I’m giving her a big PINK thumbs Up!!

Irony

One day you're on top of the world...winner of a contest about Safe Riding...and the next day you're sitting in the Emergency Room with a broken finger from tying to load the (almost) always loadable Arabian.

We never made it to the trail ride....we never even made it out of the driveway of the barn. I missed the river ride :( I got new shiny stuff for my finger though....although I prefer precious metal and gemstones...in case anyone wants to know what to get their wife for her upcoming anniversary, birthday and/or I love my wife and feel bad she broke her finger day....just saying...

My typing skills are currently challenged so it's time to nest with the cats and the Captn' (Jack...not Morgan!) ...pain killers are standing by, just in case...we'll leave it at that ... for now.