Recovering..........Sort of........

I've had a post rolling around in my head for days but I finally realized it wasn't even appropriate at this time. I'd been thinking "Good Days and Bad Days" would describe how I've been doing. Then I realized somewhere at the beginning of last week that I hadn't seen a good one for more than just a few days.

How I got from the ups and downs to flat out off my feet, I don't exactly know. I knew I was pushing myself a bit but I've been pushing myself my whole life. I figured I was well within my limits. Evidently I figured wrong.

I started off slowly enough. Then instead of just visiting the horses, I had decided I would turn one out. You can assume if I was thinking only one, that one would be a stallion and you would be right on.

This time of the year those boys don't get out nearly enough to my way of thinking. A break in the weather, an empty field and I'm going to take advantage of the opportunity and let one of those boys stretch and play. That's always been my way of doing things this time of year. It was one of the things frustrating me about my recovery, weather breaks that weren't being capitalized on because Dave was gone and Lindsay doesn't lead the stallions.

Considering the reputations that stallions get and my status as a recovering cancer survivor, not to mention those three surgeries in less than five months, the idea of me turning out a horse that had been cooped up might be a formula for disaster. I thought about it and decided I could trust any of my boys and I could trust myself so I went for it. I have been turning a horse out here and one out there for a few weeks now.

The horses have been fine for me even the younger ones. I might have to nap the rest of the day after only turning one horse out but I was ok with that as long as I was making progress. The boys were delighted to be out but I think even more delighted just to see me and get a little one on one time no matter how brief. Dave would put the horse in when he got back home. I was working my way through the rotation as the weather permitted.

On the really nice days when we knew the weather was going to cooperate more horses could go out, Dave and Lindsay would do that because I just didn't have the strength to put out multiple horses. The only problem has been this winter has been filled with some wild fluctuations in the weather and turnout time has been hard to come by.

I was feeling for the horses cooped up and determined if we got even a little stretch of weather I was going to see that each and every horse got a chance to get outside. Wouldn't you know when that weather break did come Dave had several requests for interviews. I couldn't bare seeing dry skies and horses inside so I decided I'd make use of the opportunity even if it meant only stallions would get out it would be better than nothing.

The first horse I chose was Andy, the most rambunctious of the young stallions. I changed the horse's blanket to a turnout and walked him out to the field. He was full of himself but listening and responsive. Once I had him in the front field, I even brought his dirty blanket up to the house so I could get it washed. It was all good but it was all I could get done. My days here and there had not been enough for me to build up stamina to do much more so I safely took myself back into the house.

Still it bugged me all day that only one horse was outside enjoying the beautiful weather so the next day I put out two of the boys, Storm and Rhet. One went in the back and one in the front and they both got changed into water proof turnouts and got their stable blankets washed.

I carried the blankets up to the house individually because I didn't really think I had the strength to do them both together. It was all good and I was feeling pretty darn happy. Even though I had to rest the remainder of the day, I was beginning to think I really was on the way back to something more like normal for my life.

So how did I get from there to flat on my back again? Well, you know me, the story is never simple but suffice it to say, I am just getting started and the horses are not responsible for me being down again. I did it all by myself........

To be continued..........

Part 2