...Other times I can barely see."
I haven't mentioned Jake's horse riding lessons in a while. Recently he met a sweet Shetland pony rescue named Smokey. Its hard to say if Jake enjoys riding Smokey as much as he likes riding Red, but for a worried mom and a child with low tone and less-than-perfect balance, Smokey is the right size. More importantly, Smokey adores Jake, and seemed to from the start. Smokey has a shifty past, and was rescued initially and found to be neglected. He was rehabilitated by an individual before being brought to Storybook Farm and put up for adoption. I had started the whole horse-riding lesson endeavor with the intention of looking into adoption, and the time seemed right. Smokey is now part of our family.
Ironically, the day that I went to work out the adoption details with Crystal, Jake fell off of Smokey. He wasn't thrown at all, in fact, Jake went to slip off of Smokey's right side and Smokey moved quickly to try to correct Jake's seat and Jake fell hard off of Smokey's right side, landing hard on his back on the packed gravel. Luckily he was wearing a helmet. He was scared and cried, but recovered quickly, as Jake usually does. He probably won't get on Smokey (and definitely not until Friday when I plan to go to tractor supply and get a perfect fitting helmet) for a while, but we will be using our time at the farm to spend time with Smokey and make sure that he enjoys our visits and is easy to catch..so.. we'll bring him treats and take him for lead-walks around the farm.
It shouldn't be hard to make Smokey love us, as, like I said before, he already loves and has a huge interest in Jake. After Jake fell Smokey just couldn't keep his nose off of him, making sure that he was OK. It was just simply meant to be.
As a long-time dog handler, I am very interested in getting to know ponies a bit more. The groomer in me wants to work on his coat a little too *wink.*
A Manny update:
After the session with Cindy last week, where Cindy expressed, among her other concerns, that Manny seemed feverish, Manny got really really sick. By Thursday Steve wanted to take him to the doctor. It turns out that he had Herpangina the hand-mouth-foot disease virus. He has been very sick all week, and eventually broke out in a rash that warranted a call to the traige nurse. It turns out, he had both the HMF virus AND Roseola as well. Life kinda sucks when you realize that your child can have two childhood diseases at one time. Jake was a good big brother to his sick baby brother.
He has been feeling so much better the last 2 days, eating and not in so much pain. He has actually been talking a bit and happily immitating his father saying "Shit" today was, in some way, a "good" sign. I haven't managed to move back to the "hopeful" state, but I am really really trying.
Tomorrow we have a fun-filled day planned with OT early in the morning followed by a trip to the aquarium with a friend we haven't seen in ages. Should be fun after a full week of sicky babies and worry.
