March 2, 2021

The Infection: Part 1

Alright, I finally have the green light to share my shitty February with you all. Buckle up, because this saga has more twists and turns than a checkout line romance novel.

The whole time I had her, Aeres was not really for sale. She was going to go home and be a momma unless the PERFECT situation came up, and wouldn't you know, one did. A current Castleberry Cob owner contacted Lisa looking for basically Aeres, in a nutshell, and is the absolute perfect show home for her.

She flew in to try her February 5th (fully vaccinated, so jealous, I miss flying so much!), and they clicked from the very beginning. Not one to hide anything, I let the prospective buyer groom her, tack her up and turn her out when we were done too, wanting her to get the full Aeres experience. Aeres just absolutely loved her.

All cleaned up by the dream team the night before

The buyer (or long-term leaser, I don't know and don't care what the mechanics of the sale end up being, Lisa will do whatever ends up being right for the horse), who I will call Alice for the sake of the blog, reminded me so much of myself in that she's a great rider but a little nervous on a strange horse, and she told us before she got on she definitely didn't want to jump her.

(Hello I feel that, I was afraid to jump FLOUNDER last time I rode at Kate's barn, and I'm the Flounder Fan Club President).

Best school pony

But it says a lot about how much they clicked that, by the time she finished flatting, Alice trusted Aeres enough to ask if she could pop her over a crossrail. In anticipation of this, Mary and I had left the barrel line up from her last jump school two days before, just to give still-green-over-fences Aeres the best chance of success if the buyer asked to pop her over something, and that all worked exactly as we envisioned it. They were perfect for each other.

This exercise (Mary aboard here). We took the barrels out for the trial.

Watching them go around, it felt SO GOOD, I had this big stupid grin on my face the entire time. To see this horse that came in with ulcers and ear shyness and head tossing and a Jesus-take-the-wheel canter transition and a complete lack of understanding of snaffle contact go around like she could get her first and second level Bronze scores tomorrow with a new-to-her amateur rider felt AMAZING. She found her person and her calling, and it felt good to be a part of that story.

The next couple of weeks were a blur of text messages - getting the shipper arranged, figuring out if we could fit a semi up the driveway, and coordinating shots/coggins/health certificate (with a new vet, because my awesome sporthorse vet up and quit and moved to Florida this winter - can't say I blame her but what a loss for the area). Finally it was all set that Aeres would leave on Monday February 22nd.

And then. 

The Thursday before she was to get on the bus to go to Alice, I got a text and a picture from the night barn crew.

"I think Aeres is choking. She laid down in her stall after dinner and she got right back up but I was worried she had some gas so I walked her for 20-30 minutes. She let me take a look in her mouth and I'm seeing some food paste in the back."

What came out of Aeres' mouth

...to be continued

17 comments:

  1. Whaaaat?! Cliffhanger...no! At least confirm that Aeres is okay, please.

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    1. There will be a lot of cliffhangers, this is at least a six part blog post, no joke, you would've been reading for hours if I crammed all this into one post! She's going to be fine and should lead a completely normal riding horse life after all this, although she won't be 100% the same as before. Sorry for the tease but I don't want explain it all twice - it has been the weirdest horse thing I've ever been a part of.

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    2. Thank you for verifying this doesn't end in COMPLETE tragedy, I can wait for the rest of the tale. Sorry you had to live through it!

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  2. Well shit.
    Also a cliff hanger.

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    1. Just giving everyone a small taste of the existential dread I lived with for a week plus, lol. Much much more to come.

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  3. Oh no! Please write the sequels quickly!

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    1. Parts 2-4 are already written and queued up for the rest of the week, but that only takes us as far as 8 days ago, so there will be more written this weekend!

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    1. Yeah :( It was just as suspenseful living it, only I didn't know how it would end. Ugh.

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  5. I was wondering what was going on with her bc she is so stinking cute. Can't believe you are leaving us hanging but glad to know she is (mostly) ok.

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    1. I have to leave you hanging, as I write this she's STILL at Purdue! There's so much of this story to share.

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  6. This is so much effing better than a romance novel bought at checkout. Just saying> I am so sorry this has happened to you and her but omg i am on the edge of my seat waiting for the next saga to come out. I am glad she is okay!! OMG......jeesuz youw in the shittiest award for 2021 already!!! Hugs....(PS My husband has a RWD pickup. USELESS PIECE OF SHIT when you have what we had last month here in TN). UGH. He is getting a 4wd (not a truck i have that already) but soemthing before next winter) UGH.

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    1. Yeah 2021 is not off to a good start! And yeah, between the clay mud and the snow here in Indiana I cannot imagine owning a 2WD vehicle!

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  7. Ugh. Horses!

    If she's still sold...it would be fun to follow her new owner on social media if she doesn't mind it being shared. I'm a member of the Aeres fan club!

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    1. No idea if she's the type of person to share much or not, but I will mention it!

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