My First Black Eye
By Susan Altman

Date: Wednesday, February 22, 2006
Time: 12 noon
Place: Gate to the large pasture
Victim: Susan Altman (picture)
Perpetrator: Miles (picture)

Haste makes waste, as they say. I was pulling into the driveway on my way home from work, and in a hurry to let the horses out into the neighbors' pasture for a quick lunch. Colin and I had a chiropractor appointment at 1:30, so I only had an hour to let them graze before I needed to put them back into the big pasture for their hay meal.

I had opened the gate to the big pasture and Paddy and Miles were standing there. I had two halters and leadropes in my hand and was trying to untangle them when I pulled on one and it was stuck on the gate, so caused the gate to swing in unexpectedly. Which caused Miles to startle and throw his head up. In. To. My. Face. jesusfuckingchristgoddamnitmotherfucker is I think what came out of my mouth when I felt the impact. Ouch!

Surprisingly, this is the first time I have been knocked in the face by Miles. Paddy and I, on the other hand, have collided a couple times. And also surprisingly, I have never been bruised by the incidents, although both times I thought my nose was broken, and my neck hurt from being snapped back so suddenly.

In case you don't know, the average horse head weighs...a lot! I've read numbers from 15 lbs to 40 lbs (of course that depends on the size of the horse). So let's say it weight 25 lbs ('cause I need more sympathy). Imagine someone VERY strong, like a weightlifter for whom 25 lbs requires no effort to work with. Let's say said weighlifter winds up and swings a 25 lb barbell at you at full force. I guess that's the best analogy I can come up with to explain the blow that I took to my orbital bone on my right eye. Ok, maybe that is a bit of an exxageration; I'm not sure, as I've never been hit in the face with a barbell.

I immediately could feel and see the swelling out of the corner of my eye. Oh, yipee!!! My first shiner!!! Colin suggested I ice it, but I'm a tough farm girl and wanted to see what it was going to look like. So I haven't iced it. Five hours after the initial blow, my eye looked like this (picture). Colin thinks it will get worse, so we'll take more pictures tomorrow and the day after. (Isn't life on the farm exciting?)

Shine on fans, shine on!
- posted by Susan @ 7:31 PM

 
It snowed here!!!! The weather report had been saying there would be snow down to 1000', and we're at about 1800', so we were waiting for it. My co-workers told me about a previous year when it had snowed at that elevation and suggested we stock up on water just in case. So we did. But we didn't need it; we didn't lose power or have any pipes burst or anything (knock wood for future cold snaps!).

Snow in our neighborhood isn't unheard of, but isn't a regular occurrence, and hasn't happened since we've lived here. I haven't seen snow fall since I don't know when, so I was excited on Friday when I was at work and looked out the window and it was snowing! It was so beautiful and quiet and peaceful...

When I got home from work, Colin said it had snowed a bit, but it didn't stick. Friday afternoon, though, it started snowing again! It was our neighbor's birthday and we had plans to go out to dinner; she was so happy to have snow on her birthday! (We had a wonderful sushi dinner, followed by a play during which we all fell asleep but it was fun anyways)

On Saturday mornings, Colin feeds the menagerie and I get to sleep in a bit. But when I opened my eyes at 7:30 and saw the snow in the trees, I couldn't sleep. I grabbed the camera and went out to take some pictures; hopefully Colin will post them. (Barn, trees, pasture, horses, back yard) The snow didn't last the day, and we didn't get anymore, despite lyingweather.com's forecast. So I'm glad I took pictures!

On the horsey-front, the boys are doing well. Miles blew a huge abscess out his heel - he was lame for a week before it blew and while he's much more comfortable now, he's still not rideable. I've been trying to figure out his attitude issues and have been wondering if it is a symptom of something else. I contacted an herbalist who recommended something because he tends to be "overly sexy" (her words!). I tried to give it to him and he refused his feed. And continued to do so over the next few days; I guess he likes being overly sexy! In the meantime, he had been grazing at the neighbors (insert picture, Putty!) and seemed to have a more agreeable personality, so perhaps the grazing has some benefit that helps his attitude issues. I took him off his beet pulp and put him back on his alfalfa pellets and he is now happily eating again, even his overly-sexy-reducing herbs! I'm wondering if he has an ulcer and the fresh grass that he was grazing on helped his tummy. Once the ground gets a bit harder again, I'll put him back on the neighbor's pasture and see how that goes. He certainly loves being out there (as do all the boys!).

Paddy is doing well. He is now back to work without his shoes on, and I'm really pleased with his progress! He is totally sound and rideable in the arena. He's a bit ouchy on the trails when it is rocky, but isn't refusing to move, so I'll keep taking him out. The weather is supposed to be nice all week so maybe we'll go to the mine on Thursday afternoon.

Colin was kind enough to come out and take pictures of me on Paddy yesterday (insert picture, please!). After I rode, Colin got on for a short lesson and I took a couple pictures of him, too (insert more pictures, please)! Paddy is such a nice horse - he is very careful and steady with Colin. I feel like Colin is safe on him and I think he enjoys riding Paddy.

I've got to go now; we're in high demand for social events this week and we're heading to our neighbors' house for dinner!
- posted by Susan @ 6:28 PM

 
Did you know there's a special kind of math for living in the country? S'true, here's how it goes: this + this = this. Yes, it was road repair day. This was the first set of sunny days in the last forty days and forty nights or something like that. Dumpy went and got us a pile of decomposed granite, which is really supercool stuff.

Hmm, this is starting to get boring. How about a funny picture of Susie instead?
- posted by Colin @ 8:58 PM