There and Back Again

A few months after we moved to Maryland in 2013, Charles was looking for a used DVD store. He's a big movie buff and one of his things is to buy and trade used movies. In Florida he used to go to Moviestop but there aren't that many of those up here. The closest one was in Baltimore, which was an hour away from us. So he Googled "used movie store" and found Record Xchange, of which there are two: one in Silver Spring, one in Frederick. Traffic to Silver Spring from Rockville, where we lived, was always kind of a bitch and since he'd never been to Frederick and he loves exploring, Charles chose to go check that one out first.

There is a point where I-270 makes a big curve up a hill and as you crest the rise, you suddenly get this astounding view of the Appalachians and a small city nestled against the foothills.

Frederick.

It was the first time Charles truly saw a mountain range since moving to the continental US from the island, other than the infrequent visits to PR and the rare visit to other states (this was before we went to WV for the first time). It was his first time seeing mountains and knowing they were part of his home state in 12 years.

He sent me a photo of it and returned to our apartment so, so excited about showing me Frederick. He took me a couple of weeks after that. It was an overcast cold spring day, but I had the same reaction he did when seeing the city at the base of the mountains for the first time. I gasped.

"Isn't it awesome?!" he exclaimed. 

Weeping willow. I had never seen one in real life until this moment. It reminded me of What Dreams May Come.

We parked on Market Street in downtown, had lunch at Bushwaller's, an Irish pub, and wandered around, exploring. I loved it too. The city had an artsy, grunge-rock vibe to it that struck a chord with both of us. Old Town in Alexandria, VA has a similar vibe, but Old Town is twice as expensive and kind of ritzy. Which makes downtown Frederick feel...authentic by comparison. I felt like the underdressed person at the party when we visited Old Town; we felt right at home in Frederick.

One of the many stone houses near the park. It made us think of Lord of the Rings. A lot about Frederick reminds us of LOTR.

Charles continued going anytime he had movies to trade. We went on special occasions like Fourth of July, and would take guests up to show them the city. My mom especially fell in love with it.

The art district

A man with wings in a window. The window next to it is also painted.
There is a lot of artwork like this throughout the city, which makes for frequent double-takes when you realize that something that appears to be real is in fact, not.

Our lease on the Rockville apartment was going to be up in February 2015. Having lived in MD for 2 years now, we were familiar enough with the different areas to feel confident about moving to a less expensive area. We looked around Germantown, which was about 15 minutes from our jobs and Kathy's. A lot of places looked promising price-wise online but then in person rent was anywhere from $100-$200 more/month than what was advertised online. Or they had a bunch of hidden costs like pet rent and amenity fees. We set our sights on one place but were apprehensive about it because it was even smaller than our current apartment at the time and we were worried about the yearly rising cost of rent: we really wanted to have a place where we could stay at for several years!

Both Charles and I have a lot of coworkers that live in Frederick and Charles had mentioned how much more affordable it is to live there. He was all for moving there, though I wasn't super excited about the longer drive what with winter and all. However, around that time one of my Frederick coworkers listed her townhouse for rent on Facebook...for almost $300 less than what we were paying for our 1-bedroom apartment! Which prompted me to check out the cost of rent at rental communities...and then the price of field board...and my jaw dropped: the cost of living only 30 minutes north was significantly less expensive. Enough to make the longer drive to our jobs worthwhile.

I found a particular rental community with excellent reviews online and we went to check it out. They had an apartment that would be available in February, but we could push the move-in date back to the first weekend of March if we wished. (We wanted to avoid moving in the snowiest coldest month of the year for this region.) This was perfect: none of the other places we'd looked at in Germantown had availabilities for when we needed. We paid the holding fee and set about giving notice.

So then it was time to look at barns. I did some Google searching,  mapped out 3 that were within 30 minutes driving time from the new apartment with decent reviews on COTH, all with board for $250 or less per horse, which to me was astounding. You're lucky if you can find field board for less than $350 in Montgomery County, where we've been living and keeping our horses for the last 2 years. And these weren't the only 3 barns...there were several others within that 30-minute radius at the same price point.

The first place we looked at was a dud. They had a massive indoor and 2 outdoors, and well-kept fields with huge run-in sheds. But field board was the equivalent of self-care at best. They had the capacity to separate the horses for graining (the run-ins had partitions with gates) but the BO wouldn't do it; he was clear about that. He would grain but not close the gates. In the winter the horses were only given hay once a day in winter and when I asked about the water source the BO just said, "We have automatic waterers for the fields. Sometimes they freeze and we'll bring water buckets for them once a day. They do fine; they can eat snow."

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

At least he was honest? One of the COTH members had warned about this BO's style of horsekeeping, so this wasn't completely unexpected. The funny thing is that I still got the impression that the guy liked us, as he was quite willing to show us the entire property and even offered us a discount on the deposit.

It was a 15 minute drive from the apartment but we would have been sharing the field with 2 other horses. Supplying additional hay would have gone to 4 horses, not just our 2. Adding a water trough with a heating element was impossible without an electrical power source in the fields. There was no hose attachment nearby either for refilling the trough, for that matter. It was close enough for me to do my own graining, but what would happen when it snowed and I couldn't make it? No, it was too much of an enormous hassle. For what the BO was providing, board should have been $100 and no more: you're basically renting a field and doing everything yourself. Not worth it just for an indoor.

On to the next farm.

This one was a family-owned farm on 40 acres. They used to breed Crabbet Arabians; they still have several on the property but they are trying to move more towards boarding. There were 14 horses on the property, 3 of which were owned by boarders who trail rode; they have two trainers that come work with the baby Arabs and are familiar with all of the neighboring riding areas. The horses were all unblanketed and at healthy weights despite it being mid-winter. They had access to a couple of round bales. The BO also breeds goats and they had chickens and geese running around: it was a real backyard farm and it reminded me of our own farm back on the island. I loved the layout of the land: the entire property is on rolling, fairly steep hills and the horses have access to most of the acreage. A creek flows through the fields and the horses had two troughs: one with a heating element, one without. There is a bank barn for shelter and they were willing to split the girls for individual graining. They have a small outdoor sand arena overlooking the fields and a very large covered round pen. I have always wanted access to a covered round pen since seeing the Paso Fino barn in Homestead, FL (the link to that adventure is this one!) No trails per se, but you could ride on miles of gravel roads and some of the neighboring farmers allow riders to go around or sometimes through their land. I really, really liked the BO. And something about this farm just clicked with me. It was strong enough that I didn't really want to look at the third farm; I had already made up my mind, especially after we timed the drive to the apartment: Google Maps said it was 20-25 minutes but it could be done in 15 thanks to almost no traffic lights.

Farm yard and wash stalls. Look at all the guinea hens!

Round pen

Arabs digging into a really nice timothy round bale

Charles was not hugely excited about place because he said the almost grassless hills made it look like Mordor. I had to burst out laughing, "It's WINTER! EVERYTHING looks like Mordor!" It was a 38-degree dreary rainy, cloudy day which added to the gloomy effect of everything we saw that day. But it was a good way to get an idea of mud management at farms! I was happy with what I saw in that respect at the second farm too.

We had an appointment for the third barn so we went.

This farm was the one farthest away at 30 minutes on highways and the driveway to the barn itself was a narrow one-lane road on the side of a forested cliff with a drop-off into the Catoctin River. No guard rail. The driveway made me nervous, especially if driving with a horse trailer or later in the winter when it's icy.

The BO was in our age bracket and had only 7 horses on the property: 2 of her own and 5 belonging to owners that were basically absentee (some of the horses were retired, others had owners who were retired from riding). The BO has over 100 acres, 15 of which are used for the horses. The rest is wooded trails, which is impressive: you have an infinity of trails to ride on right off of the barn. They had a small grass arena which I wasn't too excited about: the one problem I had encountered at Kathy's was not having a sand arena for schooling in the winter when the entire world in the Mid-Atlantic turns to mud. While there I realized that for my own personal horse conditioning goals, I really do need a sand arena as a backup plan: it's the only thing that kept me going last winter while preparing Lily for her first endurance season. Not a fault of Kathy's farm at all as she manages her pastures excellently and I knew there wasn't an arena there when I moved the horses to her property; it's just something I realized I personally need if I want to keep my horses in shape during our area's wet winters. The ground simply isn't frozen often enough to allow for safe riding/ground work/longing in the pastures. So while looking at this particular farm I figured: if we have to move the horses, might as well move them somewhere that has everything I want.

At this property the horses had shelter in the form of both bank barn access and run-in sheds in the fields. There was still grass on the ground and the horses had access to round bales as well. My other concern with this barn was that all of the horses were obese. Lily would have thrived here but Gracie doesn't need extra weight. While they would grain the horses here, they would not separate them.

Small grass arena. The access to the trails is the narrow gravel road you can see going up the hill behind the arena.

Charles fell in love with the river. The water was maybe a foot deep and you could see the smooth sandy bottom: perfect for galloping through the water! He voted for this barn.  While I loved the idea of all of those trails and the river, I was bummed about not having other boarders to ride with and about the lack of a proper arena. The drive didn't excite me either: I could see traffic being a problem during rush hour, and going to the barn to grain and blanket on my work days would be impossible with that long of a drive in addition to the longer commute.

Catoctin River. Note that you can see the bottom!

We ultimately chose the second barn. The BO was lovely, staying in touch throughout the 2 months before the move!

Move-in day was set for Friday February 27th, with our official move-out date from the old apartment being Saturday February 28th, so we'd have a buffer in case the weather was bad. The horses would be moved on Sunday March 1st.

We had such a hard time moving from Alexandria, VA to our third-floor apartment in MD (it involved me getting bronchitis and Charles dealing with an asthma attack while carrying ALL of our belongings down a half mile hallway, driving through rush hour during an impending storm, and then up 4 flights of stairs...) that we swore we wouldn't move out again until we could afford movers.

We kept our promise to ourselves and after looking on Yelp, hired a crew from Universal Movers. A diverse crew of three showed up at 9:00 am sharp on move-in day: a middle-aged man who was a tri-lingual Iranian named Moses along with a father-and-son team of bilingual Salvadoreans. All three spoke English, of course, but I thought it extra-cool that our Iranian team leader was 100% fluent in Spanish. (Mine and Charles's first language is Spanish.) All three men arrived smiling and worked their butts off to get all of our stuff out of the apartment quickly and efficiently. Charles and I have never hired movers before; in FL his parents and brother always helped us with moves or we just did it ourselves. We weren't sure if we were supposed to just stand around and let them do the work but that felt weird so we pitched in and helped. We already had the fragile valuables in our truck prior to the movers arriving, so all they really had to do was move our larger, heavier furniture and boxes.

The trio was amazing. The Salvadorean father had an insane gravity-defying ability for carrying things. He was a lean, wiry guy that was maybe 5' 7", but he carried our 100 lb trunk slung over his shoulder one-handed like it was 10 lbs while balancing my two 7 lb dumbbells with two fingers in the other hand. It was like everything he touched became immune to gravity. Every time he walked by me carrying stuff I couldn't help my jaw dropping. I told Charles later that I was convinced that man had some serious super powers.

Hispanic power, yo!

They had us moved out of the Rockville apartment and into the Frederick apartment in 3.5 hours, including driving time. They were awesome!! I had done some research online about whether you're supposed to tip movers and the general consensus was that yes, you should. These guys weren't expecting the tip, so they were extra-excited when we did. Really, really wonderful crew and service, so it was great to give them a surprise in exchange! 100% recommend them.

Charles and I went to get lunch afterwards at a local BBQ place that Charles's coworkers had told him about and then we went grocery shopping. This might sound silly to some, but we were pretty excited about having both a Walmart Supercenter and a Target close by. We did the brunt of our grocery shopping at Walmart and Target in FL and it saved us so much money in the long run.

The cats were initially confused about the move, especially with the strangers coming and going with our stuff, but once it was just Charles and me in the house, they ran around exploring all of the nooks and crannies of the new apartment, rubbing against boxes that they had already rubbed on while they were at the old apartment, and generally being quite silly. Cats in new spaces are quite entertaining to watch!

They are also quite entertaining when you are in the process of packing. Evidence here:

Zombie-in-the-box
He would leap out of it at all passers-by...

Cats and boxes, man...
Astarte had to "approve" all new boxes in the house and then Zombie and Aengus warred over who would get the highest spot amongst them. This was one of the few times that Aengus won...Zombie was ultimately the One Cat to Rule Them All. (Yes, we are continuing with LOTR references here...)

Charles said this was a photo of Zombie stew...
He was sitting in our cast-iron skillet.
The skillet is so heavy we couldn't figure out what box to put it in that would make sense. We ultimately ended up not boxing it and just putting it our truck with the fragile stuff!

On Saturday we slept in a bit and drove back to Rockville to finish cleaning out the old apartment. I had checked the weather forecast for Sunday that morning at 10:00 am and they were calling for freezing rain late on Sunday afternoon, which I figured would not be a problem since we were planning on moving the horses earlier in the day.

Around 1:00 pm I got a text from Kathy asking if I had seen the forecast. I checked it...and it had changed dramatically: it was calling for snow AND freezing rain ALL DAY Sunday. Goddamn it! The other option was to move the horses on Monday but Kathy had friends coming over and Verizon was coming to our apartment to set up our internet in the morning. None of us wanted to deal with rush hour on 270 with the horses in the trailer.

So that left...move the horses on Saturday, that same day. Kathy was available that day and willing (for which I am eternally grateful), so I called the new BO and when I explained what was going on with the weather, she said, "Do you want to move the horses today? We have everything ready for them." Relief.

We had dug Kathy's trailer out for this occasion earlier that week.
The chocks were the hardest part to remove: they had been frozen into the ground under a foot of snow!

Charles dropped me off at Kathy's before returning back to the apartment to finish up cleaning. At the barn, I grabbed my tack and enough feed to last a week while Kathy hooked up the trailer. We had a scary moment where we thought her Dodge truck was going to get stuck in the snow, but she managed to maneuver it out after all. Phew! The girls got loaded up uneventfully and we headed off towards the new barn.

The drive was an hour. Kathy helped me unload Lily and Gracie. I initially tied them to the trailer while I pulled all of my tack and grain out, but Lily had a complete meltdown when she saw her first chicken and started dancing around at the end of the lead rope in a panic. I ended up stopping what I was doing, untying her and Gracie, and we put them in the round pen while I finished unloading. The new BO was finishing getting a temporary paddock ready for them, and as soon as that was set, we put them out.

It was a small paddock from where they could see the land and the other horses while they settled a bit. They were in the anxious high spirits that come from arriving at a completely new place full of unknown critters and were prancing around the paddock. Watching them I kept forgetting that Lily at least had never seen a chicken in her life, nor geese, nor guinea hens, nor goats, all of which were in abundance at this farm. Lucero was raised around all of these types of farm animals and didn't care. Gracie was surprised by the goats but seemed unfazed by the birds.

Charles showed up to meet us and we finished getting stuff out of the trailer so Kathy could head back home before dark.

After about 15 minutes, the girls had stopped trotting around the paddock and BO gave us permission to let them out into the field. They would be in a field that was close to 10 acres with 2 other docile mares owned by one of the boarders. BO's husband put up a hay ring and a fresh round bale for them and we let them figure things out. Gracie and Lily dug into the hay right away. The two other mares, a pinto and a palomino, were both very sweet. Lily and Gracie initially pinned their ears at them but they were all sharing the hay happily by the time we left for the night.

"What are those horned things?"

3 days later I stopped by to grain them before work and this is what I found:

Sharing with the goats

"Chickens? What chickens?"
Much better!

We got to put our love of Frederick to the test pretty much immediately in the form of winter storm Thor, which provided us with the most lovely driving conditions:

The highways were much better than the roads. Only a thin layer of snow that was driveable.

Just gonna say: thank God for The Beast and for us having similar schedules at hospitals only 3 miles apart so we were able to just drive back and forth together! My car would have had a hard time with the snow on the back roads.

Neither ER techs nor nurses get snow days. We are expected to show up. Charles can stay at his hospital in one of the on-call rooms if he needs to, and my hospital arranges for hotel rooms for us to stay in so we can work the day of the storm and/or the day after. It was nice to be able to drive back home though. All to the beat of reggaeton!

I find it highly amusing to listen to island music like reggae, ragga-jungle and reggaeton in winter. Reggaeton is Puerto Rico's biggest contribution to the music industry worldwide...our in-laws heard it in Italy on a trip to Europe a few years ago. Italian reggaeton! Sung in Italian!! Go figure. This is a great documentary in English about where it comes from and it's pretty fascinating that a genre that originated exclusively from the drum beat of a children's electronic piano has put us on the map in such a big way. I used to hate reggaeton for all I was worth and island musicians will tell you that it really isn't music, but there are so many wonderful fusions of it now that it's worked its way through to me. One of my favorite songs is Dutty Love by Don Omar.

Don Omar is a year older than me and he started out with some pretty disgusting songs. A lot of reggaeton is about sex, where women are very much objectified in the most vulgar ways, which is why I hated it so much in its original form. But Dutty Love? It's a very sweet song about how he can't stop thinking about a girl he met on the dance floor. The girl echoes his feelings, saying that she can't stop thinking about him either but she is shy and afraid of getting hurt. He reassures her. It's dramatically different from what he used to sing about! A slowed-down version of the original synthetic drum beat is still there.

Most of the big old-time artists like Daddy Yankee, Wisin y Yandel, Don Omar and Tego Calderon have expanded their musical frontiers, mixing reggaeton with other types of music like dance, original reggae, bachata, and American hip-hop. Thankfully their lyrics about women have evolved in the same way too. :)

So the point of all that: yes, you will find me listening to reggaeton in winter. Charles calls me "bayanga." In the warmer months I switch to regular dance music, country rock, and hits of the 90's and early 2000s.

Anyway, back to the subject of the move:
The girls have been adjusting well to the new farm. They have been desensitized to the farm animals simply by exposure and after our second ride they no longer turn into fire-breathing dragons upon seeing the geese or the hens scuttling about when outside of their field. After a move Lily always gets attached to one other horse, usually the most familiar one, so of course she would lose her mind during the first few days if I took Gracie out of the field and left her behind. She is getting better about that now. Lily and I went on a very brief solo ride this past weekend and while it was filled with hesitation on her part, I realized that the last time we went out alone on the trails was before Fort Valley in October. On our second ride with Charles and Gracie at the new farm, Lily refused to lead entirely.

By the third ride she didn't feel the need to be behind Gracie all the time and was okay with either being side-by-side or slightly in front.

Having access to the covered round pen is pretty awesome. I already worked both of them simultaneously in there, which was a first for me: I've never worked two horses at once. It started out pretty well and I figured it would work because they are both pretty solid on their voice commands, but mares being more like cats than like dogs, they both decided to ignore my orders and it took quite a bit of convincing to get them to do stuff like changing directions when I asked. -_-

So ultimately I just worked each of them alone and all was well. They are still getting used to the round pen as they do get a little claustrophobic about the high walls, but the weather has been too nice for limiting ourselves to being indoors at the moment. :) They will get better. For now we mount up in the round pen before heading out and that's it.

The area around the farm is all farmland. This is 30 minutes outside of downtown Frederick in the neighboring town. It's true, true country.

Gravel road towards the farm

There are a couple of grain mills in the vicinity and land for miles and miles on end. The main road simply connects one farm to another, with the occasional houses splattered here or there. This main road is a gravel road that eventually turns to pavement. One section remains paved, as far as we've been able to see so far, but there is a different route that becomes gravel again. The catch is that you have to ride along a fairly busy road to get there. So that adventure is on the backburner for now until the mares get more settled in and confident on these rides. Otherwise these roads are pretty quiet. The only drivers we've come across have had horse sense: they have either slowed down before passing, or slowed down and waited for us to give permission to pass. Most of the drivers have smiled and waved. Big change from road riding in PR: at one time I had access to this awesome river trail over there, similar to the Catoctin river in the photo from the third barn we looked at. And then the owner of the property that had that trail access sold his land and the access was cut off. I never could figure out another way down to the river that didn't involve jumping off a cliff or attempting to ride through someone's backyard. So I took to riding on the streets on the weekends, when our town was quieter. Sundays were especially quiet, as even the big construction Mack trucks took the day off from careening around our narrow winding back roads at 60 mph with gravel and sand flying out behind them. I explored my entire hometown on Lucero. We rode on the grassy side of the road when we could and on the edge of the road itself when the side of the road wasn't safe. Sometimes we'd sneak into construction sites that were closed for the weekend and go on a wild romp across the cleared land. It was my favorite era with him.

So you can understand why, since laying eyes on those roads, I've been dreaming of riding on them.

There are two hay fields that I know of that we can also ride on: the BO's and the neighbor's. I just have to figure out the access trails to them! :)

And there you have it: I think you're all up to speed now on all of the recent changes on this side of the screen!

Good vs. Bad

So this one has nothing to do with horses, but rather with our new home. It is a big change from what we are used to, and while there is a lot to love, there are also lots and lots of rules here that we are still learning.

So first, the bad part, just to get it out of the way:


Things We Dislike About Maryland (some are specific to Montgomery County):

1. What is up with grocery stores not selling beer? If we want beer, we have to go to the liquor store. Which is not a bad thing, I guess, as it has exposed us to lots of other beers we wouldn't have met otherwise (Flying Dog Kujo, Stella Artois, Abbey Tripel), but it IS one more stop when you just want to get home and start dinner...

2. The HUGE, EXPENSIVE PITA that is registering out-of-state cars in Maryland. Jeez! And we're not done with that one yet...When I got my car, the dealership gave me FREE tints! It was the first time I've ever had tinted windows on a car of my own. But they were too dark here and didn't pass the safety inspection the first time, so I had to have them removed. I almost cried.

3. OMG: the SPEED CAMERAS! For the first time ever in my life, I have received a speeding ticket via mail...for driving 42 mph. On a main street in the city. WTF????

4. Chipotle's guac isn't as good as it was in Florida Chipotles. Back in FL, the guac has onions, tomatoes and cilantro. Here it just tastes like avocado. I hope this was just bad luck and it will be better at other Chipotles in the area...This is SO trivial. *lol* Only mentioning this one because Charles and I were on a FL vs MD kick yesterday while at Chipotle, so of course this one got added to the list.

5. The mud. I want summer to come so the mud will end!

6. You must stop before you make a right turn with a red light, or you'll get another ticket mailed to your home. Charles is having a REALLY hard time remembering this one. We're Puertorrican drivers, for Chrissakes'! Back on the island, it was okay to pass cars using the emergency lane. At 95 miles per hour. So that gives you an idea. *lol*

7. State (and county!) income tax.



Ok, and now the good part:

Things We Love About Maryland:

1. Seasons!

2. The fact that this place actually has a history and is Somewhere. Sure, FL has a history-Ponce de Leon died there. Can you think of anything else?

Uh-huh. Didn't think so.

3. Easy access to D.C., VA, and West VA. Plus we live 10 minutes walking distance to one of the Metro stations. The world is ours!

4. Amazing variety of healthy cat food and decent cat litter. I'm still astounded. I'm like a kid in a candy store every time I walk into Petco to choose stuff for the cats...

5. The bakery at our local grocery store is amazing. Must stop buying strawberry shortcake! We have yet to visit Wegmans, which I've heard is even better...

7. SO much to see and do! We really do have a never ending list of places to visit and things to do. We're just waiting till it's a little warmer to get started. I mean, this place has beaches (we went to go to Ocean City!), and MOUNTAINS, and snow (it's the first time EVER where I've lived in a place with seasons, AND beaches AND mountains), and real trails for going hiking. HIKING! And camping! And that's just for starters...

8. We can actually drive to NY in the same amount of time it used to take us to drive to Orlando. I like this trade-off better!

9. The people. Mid-westerners say Marylanders are hot-tempered (I keep hearing this at work). I just don't see it. Even when talking to stressed-out clients on the phone during my emergency shifts, I still don't see it.  Maybe compared to people from the Midwest, yes, but not when compared to South FL! Example: I was at the grocery store today and one of the refrigerators was leaking. A girl and her mom saw it, and promptly went to let one of the employees know what was going on. And they told him nicely. Who does that? Certainly no one in South FL.


You know what's funny? A little over 3 years ago, I was working as an Oncology/Internal Medicine vet tech at a huge specialty hospital in the Fort Lauderdale area. My doctor was one of the busiest specialists in the entire building, and on this particular day, the lobby was FULL of people. It was probably close to the holidays, and people were trying to get their pets in for a last round of chemo before they left on vacation, or wanting a last-minute internal medicine workup before Christmas. Everyone in that lobby was in a bad mood. It was utter chaos, and it didn't help that our service was running behind. I went out to get the next appointment, and that's when I saw them-a mom and her teenaged girl, with their cat. They were sitting patiently in their chairs, quiet, and CHEERFUL, amidst a flurry of barking and/or unruly dogs, complaining people, clients yelling at the receptionists, pet owners talking to one another in loud voices. These people. Quiet and happy. It was like an aura of light surrounded them, with a choir of angels singing above their heads...The difference between their current state and the rest of the people in the lobby was that marked!

Of course, they were visiting from out of state for the week (obviously they weren't locals-you could tell that from 8 miles away...), and their cat had become sick. They had gone to an emergency vet, who had referred them to us. I can't for the life of me remember what was wrong with their cat. I think it was fairly young, and I know it turned out to be something not quite that serious-they were going to follow up with their regular vet once they returned home. What I do remember is how NICE these two women were. They were very concerned about their kitty, yet they still found it in themselves to smile, to be patient, to be polite, to not take their worry out on us. As techs, we were constantly abused by clients, especially the high-maintenance internal medicine clients. Not these two. They were as sweet to me as they were to our doctor. We talked about these two women for the next couple of weeks-they were in stark contrast to the average pet owner that walked through our doors. I figured they must come from some magical land where everyone was always happy and rosy. *lol* I said, many times, and I was only half-joking: "I wouldn't mind moving to wherever it is they came from, if everyone is like that!"

We did find out where they were from before their appointment ended.

They were from Maryland.

"And when you want something, the entire Universe conspires in helping you to achieve it." 

When Is a Horse Tax Deductible?

When you move her 1,100 miles!! YES, WE GOT A TAX DEDUCTION FOR LILY! Hahahaha...

If you have a work-related move that is more than 50 miles, you can claim any expenses invested in moving your pets! Isn't that awesome?

This is the first time ever that Charles has said, "So what was this you were saying about having 2 horses?" *lol*

Hello Maryland!

We moved! The weathermen were wrong after all last Thursday-no snow, not even rain, until 4:00 pm when we were leaving Virginia-we had a few sprinkles at that time, but by then we were all packed up and sitting in traffic on our way to Maryland. It was cold-low 40's, but it felt like it was in the 20's from the windchill and thick, gloomy cloud cover.

Astarte curled up in the front seat on the way up to MD. She gets carsick if I leave her in the carrier while driving. She was a good girl, staying either on the seat or on the floor on the passenger side.

All went well basically, but it was a mission: we drove the 25 miles to Maryland to sign the paperwork for the apartment at 8:30 am and leave Astarte and Charles's truck at the apartment. From there we had to run over to the closest bank to get a money order-we'd had a brain fart about that the day before, and completely forgot we could only pay the first month of rent and pet deposit with a money order, but the banks don't open until 9:00 am. At this point, my right eye, which had been red since the day before, was really bothering me. I haven't had pinkeye since I was a kid, but the itching, pain and swelling are unforgettable, and I was pretty certain that this is what I had. The next day I had to go in to work, and knew my coworkers would flip out if I went in with untreated pinkeye...plus I didn't need the entire ER department to catch it! As luck would have it, there was a walk-in clinic right next to the bank, and they took our health insurance, so I sat down to wait while Charles took the money order and Astarte (who was still in the car in her carrier being a good, patient girl) back to the apartment (we wouldn't get our keys until we brought the money order, so of course we couldn't leave our little old lady until we had the keys) and unloaded the stuff we'd been able to cram into my car.

It worked out timing wise-the clinic was full, but the U-Haul in DC wouldn't have our U-Box down until 11:00 am. I was seen and diagnosed with conjunctivitis, and by 11:30 am Charles had picked me up at the clinic and we were on our way back to DC to rent a U-Haul truck and get our stuff out. 

It took them forever to set up the truck rental. There was no one else there-we were the only customers.The employees at this place are really nice, and they remember Charles by name, but man, they are SO. SLOW. We were in a hurry because we wanted to start our drive back by 3:00 pm before traffic really got bad.

We finally had our truck, and so we quickly transferred all of our stuff (most of our heavy stuff, mind you-all of our boxes of books, my filing cabinet, boxes with paintings, our futon, etc) into the truck. My cough was almost resolved, but I felt my airway constrict as we were moving everything, and that's when I realized there was a very fine layer of dust covering all of our belongings. 

We couldn't park close to our apartment, which meant we had to lug all of our stuff down the loooooong windy hallway to the U-Haul. Walking to the apartment, we were facing the wind, so we were freezing, then walking back to the U-Haul we would be roasting in our jackets. I ended up taking off my thermal first layer at this point and was much more comfortable.

The looooooooong hallway from the U-Haul to our apartment.  Ours was the 2nd door from the end. I was halfway there when I took this pic!

It took us almost 2 hours to get that done, even with the dolly we had rented to save us trips. By then it was 3:30ish and I knew we'd be hitting traffic on the way to MD. We had ordered a futon mattress for our futon (our old mattresses simply didn't fit in the U-Box, plus they were old, so we had chucked them in FL with plans of getting new ones) and there had been a glitch with the delivery. It had arrived in Alexandria on time, but it was at a UPS holding facility about 15 minutes from our old apartment. We decided to drive over and pick it up, as we only had 5 days to get it-both Charles and I were working that weekend, and Monday was Inauguration, which meant getting to Alexandria was going to be impossible no matter what. So we went to UPS and got the mattress...that took another 15 minutes, as the lady at the desk couldn't find it. She assumed that because I was a small person, it was going to be a small package, I guess. I told her it was a rolled  up mattress, the size of a large duffel bag, and she eventually found it. I was fidgeting and watching the minutes tick by. As we finally loaded the thing into the truck, it started to rain, but the car thermometer was still reading 42, so I knew it wasn't going to freeze.

Now, which route to take? We could drive all the way back through Alexandria and take the GW, which is what Charles wanted to do. Or simply take the dreaded Beltway all the way around to 270. 80% of the time, there is traffic on the Beltway. 100% chance of there being traffic during rush hour. Charles let me choose, as I had the GPS. We were right next to the Beltway exit, and we had driven past it on our way to UPS and there had been barely any cars at all on it. Despite my love of the GW, I had a really, really strong feeling that we should take the Beltway today, so that's what we did.

There were no cars. Almost no cars at all as we drove up. We found traffic when we were 5 miles from the exit to 270. As it turned out, my gut feeling had been right: there had been a massive accident on the GW, and it was backed up almost all the way to DC. We would have been stuck there forever. 

I had Aengus in the carrier on the front seat with me, and he was such a good kitten. He's gotten big-he's almost the size of Astarte now, but he still has his little kitten face and giant paws. I suspect he's going to be a solid 15 lb cat when he's done growing. He was a bottle baby-his foster mom had rescued him and his 4 brothers and sisters when they were only 3 days old. He is used to being in carriers, as she would have to take him and his siblings to work with her so she could feed them every 2 hours. Now, he made himself a nest with the towel and pee pad in the carrier, and curled up in the back for a long nap. He was a welcome distraction while sitting in traffic-I HATE traffic jams. PR is one of the most densely populated countries on the planet, and traffic is really bad there, but the police are really lax, so you could get away with cutting through the emergency lane over there. In South FL, traffic was even worse, except you couldn't cheat your way out of it. For my first job, I was driving 40 miles one way, and one time I got stuck in the Turnpike. An oil rig had crashed and spilled its contents across all the lanes, and the Turnpike had come to an absolute standstill. I sat in that for 3 hours, inmobile. And I had to pee really bad! Even after we were allowed to move, it still took me almost another hour to get to work. It was an experience that would leave a mark-I now always, always use the restroom before leaving the house for anything, and I get claustrophobic in traffic. It is a battle of will to keep myself calm when the cars are not moving. (Plus it's not like freaking out is going to change anything.) While going to tech school 4 days a week in downtown Miami, I was driving 35 miles each way. I could get to Miami in less than 40 minutes when there was no traffic, but when we got out of class at 5:00 pm, it was a solid 2 hours or more to get home. Yes, this is horrible, but I would study in the car. I would put it in Park when no one was moving, and read to distract myself.

So when we couldn't move now, Aengus would get up, come to the carrier door, and stick his paws out, chirping and purring, asking for attention. I haven't been that relaxed in a traffic jam in a long time. 

In MD, I swung by CVS to pick up the antibiotic drops for my eye while Charles drove straight to the apartment in the U-Haul to start unloading. I stopped by a Burger King to get us food, as we had not eaten anything since 6:00 am! It was now 6:00 pm. By the time I got to the apartment, Charles was cranky, which is very unusual for him, and I was exhausted, and we still had more than 2/3rds of a U-Haul truck to unload. Up 6 flights of stairs to our new 3rd floor apartment. 

Charles is still having nightmares with those stairs. Between the cold air and his lack of fitness, he was really out of breath carrying stuff up. I have to start dragging him to the gym-he was wheezing like a man in his 60's. He's 35! My airway still felt constricted, but I was recovering within 30 seconds of going up the stairs. If I took the boxes into the apartment instead of leaving them at the top of the stairs and immediately going back down, it gave me time to recover. At this point, I really started peeling layers off. By 8:00 pm, I was down to a microfiber short sleeve shirt under a fleece jacket, nothing else. 

We stopped by 10:00 pm-I had to wake up at 5:00 am the next morning, and still had to shower and set up the bed. We still had to unload the filing cabinet. It is only 2 drawers, but it must weigh close to 300 lbs, and being a rectangular box shape, there is no good way to grab it. We had to return the truck the next morning, so it absolutely had to come out...we ended up putting it in the trunk of my car, just so we wouldn't have to carry it up the stairs that day! It's still there today. We'll get to it eventually...

After I went to bed, Charles kept bringing stuff up, but the heaviest and largest boxes had already been brought up. 

We are not moving again until we can afford to pay movers to do it for us!

Between the dust, the sweating, the cold, and the effort, I ended up with full-blown bronchitis. *sigh* I'm currently on albuterol, prednisone and azithromycin, plus Nasonex and Claritin for good measure (I'm pretty sure there is an allergic component to this b**ch of a cough, and the doctor said the same thing). The eye is better, though!

Aengus enjoying the warmth from the electric fireplace after a  very long day!

No Reins

WE RODE!!!

I went to the barn on Monday despite it being a rather gloomy, overcast day (no mist, thank God), fetched Lily from the field and brought her in just in time before the farrier/trimmer arrived. As it turned out, Lily did not need her entire shoes replaced-the trimmer simply removed the casting, trimmed her front feet back a bit with the rasp, then re-casted them. It only cost me $30. This will make the Eponas stay on for another 3 weeks, at which point she feels Lily will be good to go barefoot! Yay!

The rain held, so I tacked up and I took her to the outdoor. The footing was moist, but the arena had been dragged, so there were no puddles. We did an easy workout-almost an hour, but we spent a lot of time walking at the beginning to warm up and at the end to cool down. Just walk-trot-canter sets, with a couple of walk-canter transitions, which I ended giving up on because I wasn't getting the timing of the cue right, and she was putting in a trot step or two to pull off the transition into canter. We'll try it again another day. We did no lateral work at all. I've been in need of inspiration lately when it comes to the dressagey stuff.

Happy after our ride

It was in the high 40's and she did break a sweat, so I put her cooler on her afterwards so she wouldn't get chilled while I cleaned her legs and tail, and worked on her feet. The trimmer didn't do her hinds, so I went ahead and did them myself. I ended up not backing them much at all, as her angles are perfect right now and she's been moving really well. I'll take a little bit more off next week.

Since my cough hasn't resolved 100% yet, I did take yesterday off, as the weather was awful. And also because we had to pack-we are moving again, this time to Maryland, to a little apartment we found only 10 minutes from the barn, and 7 minutes from work! It is a longer drive for Charles now, but his contract in Georgetown will be up the first week of March, and our new apartment will place us right in the middle of all of the available work options for him. I have loved living in Alexandria the last 3 months, but it will be really, REALLY nice to be so close to the barn again!

I returned today to put in another ride before having to move tomorrow. The weather was even worse today-in the upper 30's, overcast, and constantly drizzling. The horses had been left indoors due to the weather, so it was a good thing I went out so Lily could get some time outside of her stall.

She was super sweet and cuddly when I arrived, nuzzling me and practically begging for head hugs. She was wearing her midweight blanket and was comfortable in it, which goes to show just how cold it felt-she tends to get warm in it when she is in her stall.

I tacked her up, wishing I had my quarter sheet already (I scored a really cute one for an awesome price on eBay. It should arrive Friday). I left her blanket on while I did her feet and put on her dressage boots. She doesn't really need them, but I see them as leg warmers. If I feel warmer in my half chaps or winter boots, I'm assuming she feels warmer in polo wraps or her dressage boots. It also helps warm up her tendons. Does anyone else out there boot or wrap their horse's legs for additional warmth, too?

"Leg warmers"

I left her blanket folded over her rump while I put her saddle on and girthed it up, only removing it after I'd put her bridle on.

Warm butt while tacking up

The new bit-it's a soft rubber mouth Pelham with 4" shanks. She's been working really well in it!

We then went into the indoor.

Lily was somewhat tense warming up at the walk. The doors to the outside were open, and she saw something out there that scared her, because she spooked and took 3 giant leaps sideways, but stopped immediately when I said, "Eeeaaasy..." (Love my new winter breeches! Charles got me the Kerrits Power Stretch Full Seat breeches, and they are super warm AND make you stick like glue in the saddle!) I let her walk over to the doorway and look outside, and then we worked on lots of circles on the bit at the walk at that end of the arena, until she was calm and focused again. We did some short loopy serpentines from the wall to the center line, then some leg yield zig-zags from the wall to the quarter line in both directions, all at the walk. We then picked up the trot and worked on circles-big 20 meter circles at both ends of the arena in both directions, then little 10m circles in the corners, then spirals, in and out, in both directions and across the length of the arena. Lily was relaxed and concentrating, and even the spirals (which I used to hate with a vengeance!) were easy. I then let her stretch on a loose rein at the walk, then we picked up the trot again and worked on lengthening across the diagonal. Effortless. She was stepping forward eagerly, pushing from behind, to the point where I was getting that little extra half a second of air while posting, not because I was forcing it, but because she was creating it.

I then sat and we did some loops at a collected trot across the center of the arena, with lots and lots of changes of direction, and then I pushed my hands forward and rose to post, and Lily automatically extended into a medium trot without any other encouragement from me. We zoomed around the arena like this a few more times, and then we called it a day. We walked for a long time, and then I just dropped the reins on her neck and practiced doing circles and changes of direction with no hands. She did it PERFECTLY!! This is the first time ever where I've been able to do this, ride with no reins and get her to change direction only with my legs and seat. That's how focused she was today. I've tried it before, but she would get distracted and sooner or later I would need to pick up a rein to remind her she was supposed to be turning.

I asked her to stop, with the reins still on her neck. She didn't stop with my seat cue, but she did stop when I said, "Whoa." Since we only did walk and trot, she didn't break a sweat at all, except under her girth, despite having worked for nearly an hour. I put her cooler on while I put all of my stuff away, and the little bit of sweat dried off quickly. The cooler came off, her midweight blanket went on, and she was ready to go back to her hay in her stall.

It was a really great ride.

Before leaving the barn, I heard BQ announce she had just heard on the radio that we have a storm warning for tomorrow and we might be getting 6" of snow. We are MOVING tomorrow! Last time we moved we were driving in front of a hurricane, now we'll be moving in the middle of a snow storm. I mean, seriously. WTF??!!

I hope the weathermen are ALL wrong.

First Ride

F-I-N-A-L-L-Y!!!

Dr. O came today in the afternoon and rechecked Lily: she found her bruised foot to be 85% better (that was the number she gave), and cleared us for riding! She said only 1 more week of the Simple Boots for turnout and riding, which will end just in time for the trimmer appointment. She was thrilled with Lily's improvement: no more bounding pulses on her right front, and she was very happy with how well the bruises have healed up (yay me!). Lily even walked completely and 100% comfortably on the concrete, barefoot, for the doctor, too.

After the recheck, I put Lily's boots on and then took her for the long walk I'd been itching to give her from the get-go! I took her down to the outdoor arena, where in one of the corners they have a couple of trail class-type obstacles, and eventually convinced her to walk over the "bridge". We then walked over ground poles, then I took her for a 5 minute walk down the trail, only up to the point where the barn falls out of sight. Then we returned and I took her to the square pen, and set her loose to see what she'd do. I clucked to get her to trot, and she went a couple of times around in each direction, tossing her head, but no bucks or wild galloping around. She seemed "up" and relaxed at the same time, a new kind of mental state in her that I hadn't really seen before. Heather, another boarder, who owns Nate, Lily's handsome neighbor, a bay TB-type gelding, came over with her husband to introduce us and show him Lily. Heather and her hubs are triathletes-they are incredibly fit. Heather reminds me of Ines in the way she works with Nate: lots of magical groundwork, and that special quality of horse & owner relationship that borders on telepathy.

Afterwards, I took Lily over to the indoor and walked her around. During all of this time, I had been debating whether I dared ride my mare after 3 weeks of no riding, with no prior lunging on top of that, during one of the coldest days of the season so far (we had snow flurries in the forecast for both DC and MD that night!) The stable hands had a giant flatbed trailer in the indoor stacked with hay, that they began to unload with a forklift, and then proceeded to move the hay over to the loft above the stalls at the far end of the arena. Lily seemed only slightly bothered by the noise and machinery, so I took this as an opportunity to do groundwork with her. Ironically, her main distraction was Nate, whom Heather had just led past the indoor on their way to the outdoor arena. I was having a hard time getting her attention back after that, so, remembering one of Hempfling's tips, while holding Lily at the end of the lead rope, I gave a big hop straight up in the air. This startled Lily so much that she took off at a gallop in a circle around me, throwing in a buck. After the one circle, she immediately came to a stop in front of me, "Mom! What was that?!". I laughed at her, but right away she became distracted by the horses outside again. I gave another hop. She threw her head back, then took a step towards me, looking bewildered. After that, I had no problem keeping her attention. We did shoulder in, side pass, trot from a standstill-halt-back up until Lily started anticipating the backing up, then did a review of personal space, since, after having been spoiled for a week prior to our arrival in DC, Lily had stopped respecting that bubble of space around people. We then did several step & twirl repetitions, where she remained absolutely calm throughout. I was very happy with her.

Dr. O and BQ were both at the wash stall next to the indoor, observing Dr. S rechecking Murmur, the mare with the eye ulcer and soft tissue injuries on one of her front legs. I led Lily over to ask Dr. O if she thought it was okay to ride Lily today. She said it was fine, as long as it was in the arena.

So I tacked up. I took Lily over to the indoor and mounted up. She nuzzled my left foot for a minute, "Oh, it's you." then promptly stepped forward when I asked her to walk. She was a little skittish starting out, despite BQ being in the arena at this point hand-walking her horse Cody. At this point, Alex, the head stable hand, showed up with one of the tractors to water the arena. I dismounted and both BQ and I led our horses out so he could do his job-the indoor was indeed VERY dusty. Afterwards, I got back on, but had a brainfart: I didn't think they'd be back, but Alex returned with the drag. Initially he said that he could go grain the horses and return so I wouldn't have to dismount again, but I told him it was okay-this way he could just finish up since he'd already gone and brought the drag over. Plus the footing would be so much better after!

So I dismounted a second time and waited with Lily outside while Alex finished the arena. It was perfect after that, and after my 3rd time getting on, Lily didn't care anymore: she felt just like she used to back in FL.

We had a very, very good ride. We did a long warm-up at the walk, simply because she was offering a long, swinging gait, then we did some shoulder-in in both directions, 20m circles, some travers, and turns on the haunches. Not a lot, just enough to see how she was doing and finish warming her up. I could see both of our breaths' vapor in the quiet air of the indoor. I had missed that-in South FL, even when it gets cold, you very very rarely see the vapor of your breath. Now, in Tampa it was a different story: during my 6:00am rides in the winter before work, I'd exercise the horses in the big jump field and watch their breath steam in the air like the smoke from a locomotive.

When I asked Lily to trot, she stepped forward comfortably. I gotta say I have rapidly fallen in love with those Simple Boots! Not only was Lily comfortable, but as she warmed up and relaxed more (she was a little iffy about the sounds of the horses in the 2 corner stalls adjacent to the arena crunching their grain, and she was a little leery of the small mirror to the left of the indoor gate to the outside), she arched her neck on a loose rein and extended happily. We had a great workout. I even had her canter a half circle in each direction, just to see how she felt, and to get any bucks out. She put her head down once, but did not offer to buck. However, she did invert at the canter-I think her foot is not yet recovered enough to be cantering. So we will wait for the Eponas before we do any more canter work. Even so, after the little bit of canter, she still was willing to zoom around at her medium trot, and stretch down at the walk during our breaks. I gave her a lot of walk breaks on a loose rein, and felt her back REALLY come UP and swing towards the end. Very, very nice! The last remaining rider, a middle-aged woman I'd just met, stopped by to watch before heading out, and complimented Lily's movement. I stopped to talk to her, and discovered she is a pediatrician! So I told her about Charles and she gave me the names of all of the good hospitals in the area, but confirmed that Georgetown is definetely one of the best here.

It was a truly awesome day, and a terrific first ride at our new barn!

Lily's Crib

So we drove up to Maryland to see Lily on Sunday, about 12 hours before Sandy was supposed to hit land.

The drive was long. It took us 20 minutes just to find the correct highway (270, 495, 66, 370...oh boy), and that's WITH GPS. The GPS wanted us to take the I66 exit, but it was closed, so we had to wing it. Finally we were en route (according to the GPS, as we had no idea), and we were able to arrive at the barn about an hour later, as we did run into some traffic on the way up. It's really only 33 miles from the apartment, but it does take awhile between traffic and the speed limits. It took a few days, but I got used to reasonable speed limits (55-60mph on highways) and the fact that everyone stays within those limits. It's another really nice change...in South FL, speed limits are 70mph average on the highways, but good luck to you attempting to stay below 90, as everyone will ride your ass or attempt to cut you off in spite. I don't miss it at all.

The barn is absolutely freaking gorgeous. The turnouts, even the "small" ones, are all what we would call fields by South FL standards. The terrain is gently rolling-nothing is absolutely flat. This is another thing-in Florida, EVERYTHING is FLAT. Flat, flat, flat. Coming from an island with mountains, not that different from what you see in photos of Hawaii, it was always nearly impossible to get my bearings in Florida, first because of the flatness, and second because everything is the same. All housing is the same, all the streets and malls look  the same, the only difference being the number of signs in Spanish increased the further south you went, and the amount of concrete increased the closer you got to the cities. I invested in the GPS simply because I would panick every time I became lost-there was nothing in the skyline other than the rising or setting sun to allow you to orient yourself. Being lost in the middle of downtown Miami with insane drivers cutting in front of you while you're trying to figure out how to get back to 95 was a terrifying experience. It would take me 6 months to become familiar with the area we were living in, but as soon as you took me out of said area, the minute you took me back I'd forget how to get anywhere. This, above all else, was the one thing I hated the most about living in South FL. I shocked Charles's socks off in the car when we arrived in Alexandria at 10:30pm in the darkness of unfamiliar streets, and even in my exhausted state, was instantly able to orient myself and remember how to backtrack as we were searching for hotels, not because I remembered the names of the streets, but because my body was instantly able to remember how the terrain sloped on the way to anywhere.

Semi-private turnout

View of the main field from the area above the outdoor arena

I love mountains. :)

So back to the barn. We walked around the barn looking for signs of life, and were met by another boarder, who instantly figured out we were Lily's owners, just as BQ was coming down the house stairs. Her and the barn owner, John, live right above the barn! BQ reminded me so much of one of my favorite people in Tampa-Marianne, the owner and manager of the tack shop that I worked at for 2 years. Down to the same gravelly voice. She hugged me after introductions, which immediately made me feel at home, and took us over to see Lily.

All of the horses were in, in anticipation of the bad weather that was supposed to start that night. Lily was in her stall, looking a little antsy to be cooped up. She immediately greeted everyone with her gentle nuzzling, and it seemed to take her a second to warm up to me, but then she was giving me more attention than anyone else. BQ had me take her out to walk around while giving us the tour of the barn.


Reunion after 5 days apart. :)

 

Ready for the tour.

 Small hallway connecting one barn aisle to the other. The horses are used to going through here as a shortcut.

  Bridge connecting the house upstairs to the upstairs tackroom. This is right above Lily's stall.

  Wash stall. Note the fan in the corner for when it's hot in the summer. There are 2 of these side-by-side.

 Heated tack room full of lockers for boarders.

 Walking across the indoor with BQ.

 Stalls at the far end of the indoor. These are the big Warmblood-size stalls for the oversized horses. Not that the other stalls are small-Lily's is 11'x14'.

 Opposite end of the indoor. There is a gate that leads to the outdoors, and a sliding garage-type door that shuts out the elements when it's freezing outside.

 Outdoor arena.

 Trailhead. Directly from the property-no more riding on the street!

 Trail. Isn't it beautiful?

I loved it. I was extremely thrilled with my choice.

After the tour, I let Lily loose in the indoor to do some groundwork with her, but noticed that she seemed off to the left at the trot, and especially in specific parts of the arena, which I found odd. Later I discovered that the footing was particularly firm in these spots. I felt my heart sink, but did not mention it to BQ, thinking that maybe, just maybe, I was being paranoid and imagining it.

The next day, BQ e-mailed me, and she had noticed the same thing. Bummer. :/ It was not my imagination after all. The vet, Dr. O, was coming out in 2 days to check on another horse, so with my permission BQ made arrangements to have her check out Lily.

We weathered the storm at the new apartment, staying in the next day, and didn't even lose electricity that night, despite the winds howling around the building. On Tuesday morning, I took Charles to work in the rain- he was starting his training at the hospital- but the wind wasn't bad, so I spent most of the day checking out the stores at the strip mall across the street.

On Wednesday, I drove up to the barn to meet the vet. As it turned out, I was SO glad that I had her check Lily-her left hind was fine, but she was honking lame in her right front. Dr. O used hoof testers on all 4 feet, and the biggest reaction was from the right front. Not only that, her pulses were throbbing in that foot. When Dr. O scraped off a thin layer of hoof over Lily's white line, she discovered some very bloody bruising all along the hoof's white line, to the shock of all of us.

My theory: she bruised the hell out of that foot pawing for 5 hours straight in the trailer at the stop in Savannah on the way to MD.

Dr. O recommended booting her, but I didn't have boots on me, and BQ's Simple Boots were too big. I ended up packing and bandaging the foot as if she had an abscess, then applying my spare Velcro wrap with its rubber pad over it. Dr. O approved. I ordered a pair of Simple Boots for Lily's front feet to be Next Day Aired to the apartment (ouch-that was expensive!) and had them on her by Saturday. She has been very happy with the boots on (no bandage under the boots), trotting off sound, and we have been able to continue turning her out with the boots on. The bruising has improved over the last 4 days, lightening in color, with only the medial portion of her white line (where she puts more weight) still a dark pink. After turnout, I re-apply the bandage and remove the boots. Dr. O also recommended Epona shoes for Lily, possibly on all 4 feet. After talking to the barn barefoot trimmer who uses them (and seeing her work on all of the barefoot horses-she does a beautiful job, and I'm happy to report all of the horses have adequate heels and nicely angled feet!), I'm really liking this option, as these shoes are specifically made to help the foot maintain its full function. The trimmer said she has been very successful in getting the horses to put out more sole with these shoes, which is one thing that Lily desperately needs. The vet's concern is that Lily's thin-soled feet will fall apart if left bare after the ground freezes. The Epona shoes would be a temporary therapeutic aid in the goal to keep Lily barefoot. The trimmer comes out in 2 weeks, which is when Lily will be due for a trim again, so I had her add Lily to the list, to see what she says about Lily's feet. I liked her-she seems very knowledgeable, and even BQ herself uses her.

Dr. O is supposed to come out again on Wednesday of this week to re-check Lily.

Lily grazing in her boots yesterday

"Do you have treats for me?"