Merciful heavens… can this year just be over?

My poor daughter has had one mishap after another… all on top of the trials and tribulations of moving forward with the transition, including painful surgery and a long recovery period that seriously set back her competing in endurance events.

Just when it seemed she and young master Czar were back on track, they had a near miss with the horse trailer on a narrow country road. Ro had to stand the truck on its nose to avoid the dump truck that pulled out without looking. From 50 mph to oh shit in the blink of an eye. That threw Czar against the stall guard, hard. He was badly shaken but they proceeded to the event and the tender ministrations of the vet and staff because it was closer than trying to come back home.

They all took a wait and see position. The next morning Team Czar were okay to start but by the end of 15 miles it was clear Czar was done for the day. Ro withdrew and let him rest in a stall while she helped out with the other volunteers.

Czar was off in the hind end for a couple days but eventually he was back to his old, pesty self. That included a 1:00am prison break out of the pasture, leaving Mr Bob screaming bloody murder and us dressing in the dark and wondering… WTF? Ro caught him by the horse trailer in the front yard, chowing down on grass—that same horse trailer where he’d ping-ponged just a few days before. Go figure.

Bottom line: Czar seriously needs a job. So when he passed a lameness inspection, Ro and good friend, Dodie, decided to share the trailer and head for the Mustang endurance ride in Jersey.

Cue vengeful weather gods: temps plummeting, heavy rain, high winds. The gals decided their fun meter had already pegged so they opted to stay home. Turned out not to be as bad as predicted, but hey ho… you do what you think is best for the horses.

Team Czar had one more shot at a competition. The plan was a Sunday playdate on the mountain to make sure he was sound enough, but the day before was devoted to getting in 120 bales of hay. Ro secured the first load—a primo second cutting of alfalfa and orchard grass. 65-70lb bales. Ro kicked a dozen or so to the ground, I fired up the hay elevator, she bent down to sling a bale onto the device and… went down like a ton of bricks, her back seized up.

Long story short—she got back to the house, did the heating pad/meds tango, and bad went to worse in no time. Gods bless good friends. Dodie came over and helped us get the hay in the barn. #CountryGirlPower

Now it’s the Wednesday after a chiro visit, more heat, more meds, barely able to move, lots of pain, but she’s finally able to drive herself to the chiro for another round of adjustments and then on to work.

I mean… come on! How much bad luck can a person have?

Needless to say, Team Czar is done for the season. Maybe it’s not so bad to have some down time. Hopefully next year they’ll both come back stronger than ever.

Meantime, Mom’s taken on feeding and farm chores, and that includes going mano-a-mano with the Bobster who loves to devil me. Rotten little toad.

Heh, not sure what I’d do without the boys and the kidlets (chickens) and the budgies and Herself and Mr Tom.

Peace and blessings to all!