I haven’t forgot about y’all!
Moving is some serious work, I tell ya! Our house is starting to closely resemble an episode of Hoarders (except without all the poop and bugs) and I’m on nervous breakdown #12001 about shipping Willow cross country…. seriously. It’s the most nerve wracking part of this whole move. Thank the Gods that I know Stacy is wonderful and competent and loves Willow! I’m still waiting on a few more quotes from various shippers (after deciding that it won’t be worth the $200 savings that it would be to do it myself via trailer rental) before I make a decision, but once we get settled I’ll be sure to post a review from the company that we chose.
In good news, Shannon’s 12 month appointment went really well. She’s 18lbs 6 oz and 28 inches tall, which puts her in the 18th and 11th percentiles, consecutively. She’s in the 15-18 month physical development stages (whoop smart babe!) and while she doesn’t have a whole lot of words yet, she understands a ton and can tell me “Yes” or “No” depending on my question. If given a choice, she’ll usually point to what she wants. We are working on being pretty deliberate with her speech (so if we hand her a cup of juice, we’ll say “Juice” a few times).
Things on the Willow front have been slow. Dr. Cathy of Vermont Large Animal came out to do all the requisite vaccinations and do some chiropractic work on her as well. Herself’s right hip was two inches lower than her left! Yikes. She also suggested Aloe Juice to help determine if she has a hind gut ulcer issue (which we already put her on supplements for), She said the Aloe acts to numb the area, and if her cranky stopped while she was on it than it was a pretty good indicator that we were looking a ulcers. Interesting! Her attitude has changed significantly with the addition of more hay to her diet, the ulcer supplement, and the chiropractic. I mean, the mare was inside BY HERSELF (!!) and fell asleep while Tom was doing her feet. Yea… big change much?! I’d think so. She’s still a total grouch in her stall, but I think that that’s just her. She happily follows me around the arena like a puppy dog (and into the tack room… whoops). I really haven’t had time to sit on her more than just wandering around bareback, so I don’t know if the whole kicking thing is cleared up… but hopefully once we get a bit more space to really move out, she’ll know that she won’t be restricted and CAN move out.
I’m off for now. I feel like I have so many people that I want to see and so little time to see them all between sorting, cleaning, packing, errand running, vet and farrier visits, finding a shipper, etc. It’s overwhelming, a bit daunting, a bit sad, and a bit exciting all rolled into one! At least I know that I’ll have these two to liven up the sad moments!
