Anniversaries. And looking ahead.

I rode Snips again yesterday.  On the way there bought more sugar cubes, and put a decent sized handful into my pocket. Seeing Snips was really lovely.   He wants to throw his head up when being bridled, but I was gentle and after only one head toss he stood quietly while I slipped it over his ears and told him gently he was a goose.  He's still barging along a bit, and hanging onto that left rein, but by the end of my lesson with Kyrstal, while Grant recuperates from his operation, we were working better together.  After the lesson I sat on Snips while Krystal talked to me about the horse and his idiosyncrasies, I would lean forward, and he turned his head back to me, so I could give him a sugar cube.  Alright, it might have been 3 or 4 in the end.  When I took him back to his box, and unsaddled him and rugged him up he leant his face into my hands, and I breathed him in, and that's done me a lot of good. 

Last Thursday was the 8th August 2013.  It was a tough day 10 years ago.  Ten (10) years ago, on 8 August 2003, my 18 month old son Heath was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes.  My mum had been with me the day he was admitted.  And Fenella came  to my aid as well, and stayed the night in hospital with me, and Heath's Dad drove all night from Cobar to return home the next morning.  I couldn't put Heath down, he was so sick, and he clung to my chest with all his drips and leads.  Mum stayed with me all day, then without warning Fenella walked through the door of the ICU, and she stayed the entire night with me.  When I was almost out of my head with exhaustion, she picked him up and held him for 2 hours to let me sleep, and he just clung to her. 

I dug up these images I took a few days after we were admitted, when Heath was well enough to be moved into the general pediatrics ward after being in the Intensive Care Unit for 2-3 days. 

Mochy, Heath's special bear (he still has him) is in the centre.  Rufus, The Bear With Diabetes is on the right.  He's the bear the Diabetic Educator handed to me when she walked in to me and Heath in the Emergency Unit as they tried to find a vein to rehydrate him, and I stared at her with unseeing eyes.  Ainsley is on the right.  Hospital cots are cold. And clinical.
Heath.  Aged 18 Months.  Type 1 Diabetic.  With his bear troop.
Night time in hospital.  10 Years ago.  My Dad phoned me the evening Heath was admitted, with urgency in his voice, saying that really firm decisions needed to be made about the future.  I'm at that stage again.
The showjumping and Pony Club shoots went well and I'm working on another project with a good client and so that's exciting.  Bungendore is a fantastic little Pony Club, and the day reinforced our desire to live in a region that has a strong horse focus.  There were some lovely horses, and ponies that made Jessica renew her begging for a horse.  Who can blame her for this?  Evan came and picked up Heath and Jessica about half way through the day and they went back to their house.  Anya, Fenella and myself joined them after Pony Club finished.  We stayed for dinner and Evan cooked the tastiest pork belly I've ever tasted.

Yesterday we also came dangerously close to a very costly mishap on our way to school yesterday morning on our way to school. I snibbed the door, asked Heath to pull it closed, and got into the car.  Heath didn't listen and he didn't do it.  I arrived home 2 hours later to find the door wide open.  My head spun as I walked through the door.  I guess that one little mistake could have turned this into The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Month....  We were very lucky.








 
 



Now this WAS a super looking and moving mare..  Temperamental..  But imagine being bought a horse like this..  At whatever age...





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