The Finger-Flavored Cookie Caper!

Firstly, all is well in Gretalund (I think that's what I'm going to call my clinic or stables or whatever when I'm older and Greta's an old grannie and I am too and then we'll be matching! Same age spots and everything!). We had a little glitch this week from her being trimmed Tuesday: when I went to go ride her for her lesson Thursday, she was gimpy on her front left! As you can imagine, I got this queasy feeling in my stomach and mentally flipped through all of these things that could've happened and what I should do and if she'll get worse or if she'll get better... and failed to consider that perhaps she was still a little ouchy from the trim Tuesday. Of course, a boarder friend and my parents told me that's probably what it was. Friday morning (no school because we had a flurry of snow!) I walked her around and she was still iffy, gave her a gram of bute, let her graze, and crossed my fingers. Come out this morning, and she's fine. No bute, nothing, just let her graze for a good twenty minutes, gave her an apple, cookies, and said adieu.

All of the horses have been kept in for the past few days because the temperatures are dangling above 40 at midday and as you can imagine, none of us Texans are used to this. We were all so excited to see snow Friday (and by snow I mean a really nice flurry and it all melted when it hit the ground, but that was what made it kind of cool!) and Greta was the only horse that seemed unfazed. Of course, she lived in Colorado and Iowa and Idado for the good majority of her life, so that might explain it.

And lastly, just a fun story to share. Yesterday I apparently forgot all of my basic horse handling skills for a split second. I fed Greta an Apple and Oat treat (she is obsessed with those delectable goodies and it's hilarious how she checks my pockets and scans me up and down with that camel lip of hers so she can see if she find any trace of one of those cookies on me!) and held it with my fingers, not on my palm. So Greta takes it... and my fingers too. She starts this sawwing motion with her teeth after she couldn't chomp down, probably thinking "Wow, this is a hard treat!" and meanwhile I'm trying to pry my fingers out from her cookie-obsessed vice grip, and when that failed I tried to pry her jaws open. I was desperate. My fingers were cold, so it felt very painful. Then Greta has a stroke of genius: she tastes with her tongue, realizes "WTH? This isn't apple flavored!" and releases my fingers. Immediately she proceeds with eating her real treat.

Now to clarify things, no bodily harm was done, not even a bruise on my thumb and forefinger, and it all happened over the course of a few seconds. The only reason the pain didn't subside quickly was because my fingers were freezing. So children, have you learned your lesson? I sure did. Serves me right :)

I have a goober horsey <3