Joy & Pain

I've had a real hard time blogging this post. I just didn't have the heart to post it. But, we're all doing better and I feel up to sharing now. This may not seem very important to some, but to my horse-crazy daughter & me (who wants to give her the whole horse-crazy world), it has been huge.

Last week, Hannah was getting ready for 2 horse shows over last weekend. I trailered her & Copper to a friend's house twice so they could practice barrel racing together-the skill, the technique, the finesse. Also, pole bending & the 50 yd dash. This is a young horse & young girl-both learning together. They've learned so much, bonded in beautiful ways. Hannah & I have had so many conversations about training & prayed for patience & wisdom so often, I've lost count.

So, they had the first show. Thyey did great. Copper was so perfectly behaved, loved competing. He & Hannah had a lot of fun and Hannah gained a lot of confidence. They even placed in everything they did.

The second show, the next day, went even better. They improved their times, tightened up their turns & bends. I got an awesome picture of them going around barrels, & accidentally deleted it. I was really upset, but Hannah told me not to worry-I had all summer to get more.

We also brought the baby bird with us-the little thing was doing really well-eating a lot, full of energy. I can't believe we carted a baby bird with us to 2 horse shows. LOL. Here's Hannah feeding him.

The back of our car got a lot of traffic-lots of kids came to see and some of them even brought worms they had found. LOL. Here's Copper w/ loosened saddle having some hay b/w classes. But, mostly, he & Hannah hung out together.

In this next picture, he wanted a taste of soda. Hannah gave him some-and then she drank out of it. A true horse girl she is. He flipped his lip up after tasting it. He's always wanting to taste whatever you have in your hand. Yet, he spits out apples & carrots!
Hannnah & I had a couple people tell us that once they both get more polished & more comfortable, they've got a lot of potential. We even talked about the National Barrel Racing Assoc. Someone told us he could take her there. That was really exciting to hear. For years, Hannah had 3 old horses-in various stages of lameness or arthritis or not enough skill/athletic ability, etc. Two of them are harness horses, so they pace. When they canter, it's a pleasant surprise-but you can't ever count on it. They're awesome trail riding horses, great personality & temperaments-very child friendly. We love them, but they can't compete in gymkana.

So, to have a horse (and another horse being trained, but is rather lazy) that has a lot of athletic ability & such a great personality & loves to compete-well, it's been great. When we bought him, I wasn't very impressed with him at first. He was smaller than I like & underfed & very dull looking. He has shined right up, gained weight & muscle and has turned out to be a diamond in the rough.

So, the next day, Hannah didn't ride him, but turned him out to graze & relax all day w/ his pony pal, Tootsie Toes. We don't put him w/ the 3 old horses because the last time we introduced a new horse into the established herd, one of the horses got a broken jaw. So, first we put the pony & the 2 younger horses across the driveway in a make-shift pasture. Then, we put them in adjoining pastures. Everything had been going fine & eventually, we'd put them all together.

Well, Hannah went down to check on them. She sent Jonah up to get me from the house-he was yelling for me to come quick. I went w/ fear in my heart. (the last time I was gotten like that, our young horse, Casey, was impaled with a stick & had to go to the vet hospital-he's fine now, but it was awful for awhile). When I got to Hannah, she was sobbing & panic stricken. And Copper's left back leg was torn all up-around 3/4 of his hock. It was a gruesome wound & he wouldn't walk. He apparently got into an altercation with 1 of the old horses thru the fence & must have got caught in it-it's high tensile wire, not barbed, thank God. But, still, we could see bone in places.

I can't begin to explain the terror, the fear of not knowing how bad this was..the helplessness at not being to fix this for my daughter. The vet was an hour & a half away. My husband was at work, but got out & came home. Soem friends came & backed up our trailer to Copper & he got on 3-legged. Our first fear was he'd die...if not that he'd be permanently lame...not to mention the end of gymkhana & the barrel racing that we'd been dreaming about.

So, to make a long awful story short. The vet came & no tendons or ligaments were cut & that he'd be ok, although, maybe not for gymkhana, as he may lose flexibility due to build-up of internal scar tissue. He got medicated, stitched up & put on stall rest. He's getting antibiotics, pain meds & we have to change his dressing. Here he is with that:
It's been 5 days now. The day after it happened Hannah said she wished that barrel racing picture didn't get deleted now because what if they can never do that together again. I did get a video clip of it, so that's good. He's doing better & we feel more hopeful. He started putting weight it on the day after the injury and now is walking around with barely any noticeable limp. The wound is looking good. He's perky & friendly, like his usual self. Oh, I almost forgot-the baby bird died the same day as the injury, too.

Hannah had drill team on Tuesday & had to ride one of the standardbreds. He was such a good boy, but he doesn't canter-no flying lead changes with him. Riding him instead of Copper was really painful for Hannah. She cried a couple times when Retro didn't do something the way Copper would have. I think it just made it more real. Her friends & their moms were so supportive. Everyone understood & made such an effort to cheer her up.
We've done a lot of praying...a lot of talking...Hannah spends a lot of time w/ Copper in his stall. He likes to lay down with his head in her lap. It's the sweetest thing & breaks my heart, too.
A couple days ago, a friend sent us pics via email of the horse show-he got some pics of them barrel racing & pole bending. I was so thankful and it kind of feels like an answer to prayer...like encouragement. Like, maybe Copper won't end up lame forever, but that maybe next summer, we'll see Hannah & Copper doing this:

...and this again:

They've had a set back...we're prayerful and hopeful that it's only temporary...that God would make something beautiful out of this difficult situation for them.