we need your healing energy

I'm typing fast here, but this morning between 10 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. Rafer Johnson broke his leg. :/ Fortunately it is just beneath the hock and not in the long bones. Best guess is that he was running/playing and hit a soft spot or depression in the ground and torqued the leg right at the hock joint.

He is okay - the leg is stable and bandaged in a huge cast-like thing with two supports layered in to keep it straight, and radiographs are going to the vet school to see if surgery can help the outcome. There is a bone chip and a ragged area clearly visible - we are hoping for the best, and hoping surgery won't be needed b/c of the stress involved with that.

Meanwhile, recs per vet is keep leg wrapped with support, keep him contained in a 12x12 or less area for FOUR MONTHS. We'll re-do the radiographs in one month to monitor healing and decide if alternative support is better - i.e. perhaps a bi-valve (I think this was what he called it) cast, etc.

I would so appreciate any good energy anyone can send. He's such a brave boy and so good - but this is going to be tough. Four months is a long time.

triple heater meridian

The pony's herb pack arrived today smelling like a yummy cookie before I even opened it. The cinnamon!

As if getting it wasn't excitement enough, Patsy enclosed a fact sheet about the blocked meridian. I think every issue this pony has ever had relates to this blocked meridian. This is some of what it says:

Triple Heater Meridian: Commander of all Energies

Function:

The Triple Heater is a function rather than a physical organ. It represents a group of energies and involves many organs. This meridian is the functional relationship between the energy-transforming organs. The Triple Heater transforms and transports Chi as it
flows unimpeded to all parts of the body. In this role, it helps transform and transport nourishment and to excrete waste as well as direct Chi to the organs. This meridian also enhances the functions of the lymphatic system. The Triple Heater is known as the "Official of Balance and Harmony."

Absolutely amazing.

new horizons

After nearly a year of mulling this over, I finally made the leap and bought beet pulp, alfalfa pellets, and along with the rest of my supplements, will be making the horses' feed from "scratch."

As usual, the impetus for this is Salina. After reading that the soy in horse feeds is causing some mares to develop swollen udders and metabolic horses (or those on the border) to have laminitic episodes, I decided it was time to make the changeover.

This is not the first time Salina has led me into new territory, nor will it be the last, I'm sure. One of her missions seems to be to teach me all the things I need to know about horses.

So, as I type, there is beet pulp soaking in the laundry room, and tomorrow I'll begin the gradual shift from processed feed to something different. I have to admit, I'm excited, now that I've set forth.

On other fronts, I got the pony's kinesiology test results this morning. He has:

low digestive enzymes

low insulin

high blood sugar

a blocked meridian that needs acupuncture

low seratonins

Patsy had nearly NO information about the pony, and when she described the blocked meridian and where it is in the body, I nearly fell over. I was not writing fast enough to get the exact name of this meridian, but it begins behind the eye, goes down each side of the neck, behind the scapula, and into his left leg - and that's where the block is.

I immediately realized that this must be why he has always had issues with taking the left canter lead, and why he counter-bends traveling left. She said it is likely he has had soreness in the shoulder - guess what part of his body the massage therapist always finds tight and tender?

His 4-week herbal regimen will arrive in two days, and I have a call into an equine acupuncturist/vet who came highly recommended. Now it's the pony leading me into new territory.

It's also fascinating to me that he has the blood sugar/insulin issue - this time of year has always been a difficult time for him, and I have suspected the grass of late summer/early fall is just too high in sugars for his system. Hopefully (and Patsy thinks we'll really see a change) this course of treatment will give my daughter a great year of riding before she has another growth spurt and we have to look at training him to drive. (and won't THAT be an exciting new horizon to explore!)

cloudy with a little flurry (of activity)

We're getting some welcome rain this week, and a nice break from the summer sun with these gray, rain cloud days. This morning I went out dressed to ride, but by the time I got the feeding done and some basic barn chores out of the way, it had started raining. I settled into a chair in the barn aisle with the white board, which was woefully out of date with reference to who is getting what feed-wise right now. I tend to carry all that info in my head, and I like to have it written down in a pretty obvious place so that everyone knows who's eating what in the barn.

Everyone in the barn is doing well. The biggest drama this week is the gigantic horse flies, but running into the barn seems to deter them. Cody seems to be their favorite target, and the pony not at all. I haven't seen any going after Rafer Johnson either.

Otherwise, after a weekend that really did get me rolling again, I've been working on adding somewhere in the vicinity of 20k words to the novel, with plans to exchange mss with my writing partner in a week and a half. She has buoyed me to think querying thoughts for September.

Funny how one thing moving tends to set other things in motion. I've had two magazine article queries answered positively this week, and some other things are rolling in that area.

The fall flurry of activity is beginning - and I've got two big crows right outside marching toward the window even as I type. Things always flow when the crows are near.

noveling

(dream castles, courtesy of Matthew Cromer)

Through the years, a man peoples a space with images of provinces, kingdoms, mountains, bays, ships, islands, fishes, rooms, tools, stars, horses, and people. Shortly before his death, he discovers that the patient labyrinth of lines traces the image of his own face.

-Jorge Luis Borges