A Mole

The other day, as part of my sons birthday treat, we took him and his friend to the Crocky Trail. The sun was shining, it really was a beautiful day!

We stopped off at Salisbury's for a few goodies to eat (we had to keep energy levels up)!

It was so nice at the trail, lots of happy faces, smiles and laughter. It was a complete tonic for me to see Harry animated and happy. I haven't seen him play like that for such a long time, it was definitely worth the admission price to witness this transformation.

I am not really into adventure trails at the moment. I am far too stiff and achy with my ailments so for me, it was a treat just to people watch and enjoy the happy atmosphere.

I happened to walk over to a hedgerow for a nosey and as I did so, I noticed a tall nettle moving in a peculiar way! It was definitely not being blown by the wind. Curious.... I decided to stay and watch, to see if I could make any sense of this peculiarity. After a couple of minutes, I realised that it was a mole, busy digging and eating insects. As he busied himself I actually caught a glimpse of him but then off he went tunnelling away under other nettle bushes.

I have never in my life seen anything like that and I must say I did count it as a blessing, one of those once in a life time moments which I will treasure for the rest of my life.

Cola and His Bad Back Update

I am not very good at keeping up with my blog, I seem to publish a post a month! I really must do better than that!

Last month I explained how Cola had seen a chiropractor to sort out his back. As luck would have it, my friend who also has her horse on my yard is training to become a chiropractor for horses and dogs. She is extremely knowledgeable and has taken Cola and I under her wing.

Claire has been regularly working on Colas back and has shown me how to carry out simple stretching exercises and strapping which I do on a daily basis. With her help great progress is being made!

Colas weight is dropping and he is now classed as "fat" but borderline ok for his breed. I weighed him yesterday with a weigh tape and he was 504kg so he needs to drop about 20kg. I am sure that we will get to that point very soon.

He is on limited turn out for grass so no more than 5-6 hours per day. His hay is soaked for 24 hours and he has an unlimited supply, he has two small feeds consisting of happy hoof, dynamic balancer and garlic.

So things really are looking up for us!

Cola and his Bad Back

* just to remind readers that if you click on any highlighted text it will link you to a page which will give you more information about that subject.

We had almost a month of no turn out this time which has been really hard work, expensive and for me.... worrying.

I am over budget due to having to buy extra hay and shavings. Also, I am out of pocket because I have had to have the chiropractor out to him a number of times and at £50 a shot its not cheap!

This short you tube video shows you what a chiropractor will do for a horse.

When Rachel came out to Cola last Tuesday he was grinding his teeth, stamping his feet, flicking his tail and pulling faces at her when she touched him on his back. By the end of the session he was relaxed and pain free. The next day I could practically "see" him smiling with relief.

The reason Cola is getting this back injuries (never repetitive) is due to a combination of things but mainly because of the confinement. Weight gain because he can't be left without hay for the fear of not only boredom but ulcers, muscle wastage and stiffness due to lack of movement. These factors combined with his age have led to these injuries.

At the moment there is turn out because the ground has dried out so Cola is going through rehabilitation.

I am starting off with walking out in hand. I will then introduce the saddle as extra weight with in hand walking out and I will gradually get him used to my weight in the saddle. This is going to take a few weeks and allot of patience and fear of hurting him on my part.

I have ordered him a memory foam saddle pad to help ensure the saddle is comfortable for him and I have been giving him stretching exercises and massage to help keep his muscles flexible. I am hoping for a magnetic back pad which I think will do him the world of good.

The video above shows some of the stretches I do with Cola twice a day.

Seeing Cola in pain breaks my heart. The other day when he saw his bridle he spun around and "hid" in the corner, it made me cry. All I can say is how grateful I am to him for being such a communicative boy, he lets me know when he has a problem not by being nasty or hurting me, he actually takes good care of me, but by showing me with his body language.

I am hoping that now spring is here we will see an end to these lengthy periods of confinement. As the summer comes I am looking forward to riding out on Cola without him sustaining further injuries.

Lets pray that the rain is not heavy and the ground dries out thoroughly.

Water, Water, Everywhere.......

... but not a drop to drink!!!

I am fed up with the wet weather now.....

We had a wet summer last year which made it difficult for the farmers to get their crops in and meant that our horses were stuck in their stables and then the winter has been appalling so much so that the horses have been stabled for weeks on end.

Not only is this costly in extra hay and bedding but the horses are suffering physically and mentally.

I started the winter quite happy with my horses weight knowing that after the winter he would be starting spring in the best shape he has been in a long while but this long confinement has made him pile on the blubber!

So now I am having to soak his hay to reduce the sugars in it which is time consuming and hard blinking work physically!!!

AND

to make matters worse, with his age, weight and being kept in he has "done his back in" three times now. Its costing me a fortune in physio/chiro for him plus not being able to ride him during that time!!!

I am waiting for the back lady to visit on Tuesday because he is in pain again. He is such a lovely boy and rarely naggy but yesterday he wouldn't let me touch his back.... once he had been out for his 2 hour quota (better than nothing) he was feeling better....

So now I am walking him out in hand, carrying on with stretching exercises in his stable and loose schooling him at night in the menage - all of this is time consuming, worrying and hard work.

Sorry for the moan but I really had to get this off my chest!

Lets hope the sun stays out and we have less rain!

The Letter C

Well, a few years ago I was inspired by the late Barry Fraser to join a blogging group called Friday Shoot Out. Each week there would a theme and you would share photos based on that theme. This really was a fun thing to do and helped when I was recovering from cancer. 

Life has moved on since then and I have long since stopped posting in the group but low and behold, via Twitter I found a person doing the same thing and I thought I would give this a go, a fresh start with some new people.

So the theme for this week is the letter C.

Well, my Mr C plays such a huge part in my life how could I not feature this post on him my Cola.

Faith

I am at a point in my life where I am being reminded of my faith in God. I have always kept my dialogue going with Him but from time to time you need to bring yourself into line and remember that if you put yourself into His arms, He will look after you.

All my life He has cared for me.

Whatever I have asked Him for He has given me, maybe not in the conventional way but He has always answered my prayers.

I could fill a book with examples of this but I won't do that, I will just cherry pick a couple of my life experiences.

One of my oldest memories as a 3 year old was praying for a rag doll and one day, out of the blue my Nain visited us bringing with her a rag doll she had won in a raffle. I couldn't believe it! I called her LuLu, she was an ugly thing but I loved that doll not just because it was what I wanted but because of what she represented to me.

Our family dog was a rescue called Patch, she was in our family before I was born! I loved her so much and was in awe of her connection with my mum. I longed for a relationship like that with a dog and I used to sit at the bottom of our garden and pray for a dog, a special dog. She would be small and scruffy and she would follow me and love me........ I waited 20 years for that dog and in a random way she came to me in my wonderful soul mate Bobbi. I always refered to her as my "wish come true" and "my gift from God".

Bobbi was with me for such a short time but she got me through a very difficult time in my life. Trying for a family. I used to confide in her, cry on her, she was my rock and when my Joe was born..... she had cancer at age 5 and she left me. Her job on this earth was done and I hold her in my heart forever.

I need to find it in myself to put myself into Gods arms again. I have big things in my life right now, things which will affect others and I need His guidance and His care to make sure I follow the right path.

God is good.

I am at a Cross Road in my Life

Cancer has changed me, not only physically but emotionally and mentally as well.

In my life I have done many things. I started out as an office junior on a young workers scheme and worked my way up to become a buyer managing a small department. I continued my career instigating and co-ordinating cost reduction projects. It was a rewarding but it meant long hours, travel and stress.

When trying for a family was proving difficult I decided to take a huge gamble and I gave up my job with its nice pay and bonuses and started to work for a company in my village. 50% pay cut BUT it meant I actually got a lunch break and the hours were 9-5!!!!! Less stress and bingo.... Joe came into being.

When Harry was born my pay wouldn't cover child care costs so I gave up my job with saddness because I had changed the role from a secretarial position to an admin post and I really enjoyed it very much.

I am not a stay at home mum so despite the fact that I had huge problems with my boys for my own sanity I started to do Avon.

Avon gave me so much confidence and I realised that I could do anything I set my mind too so when Pickles my miniature schnauzer came into my life I enrolled on a course and became a dog groomer.

My business was beyond successful and was built on reputation and word of mouth so when I was diagnosed with cancer in 2009 it was a shock to have to give up my business.

Cancer took over my life for the 2 years of treatment. Dealing with the countless hospital visits and the side effects of treatment.

In the 3rd year I suffered from depression because I realised that my life had changed because of cancer. I was unable to physically do the things I used to do.

In the 4th year I had another breast cancer.

So here I am now with my 4 and 1 year clears under my belt and I am starting to get back to work very very slowly because my physical disabilities have curtailed what I am able to do.

Truth is though..... I dont know what I want to do with the rest of my life.

I want to work for myself but I dont know what.

Of course, if I had the money there are loads of things I could do, I would have the money to re train but thats not an option for me.

So I feel as though I have come to a cross roads in my life and I am standing here puzzled and confused as to which road I need to travel down.