After a very chilly and unmotivating week, the weather on Thanksgiving Day finally turned around and gave us some warm sunshine and clear skies!  We have all been cooped up in the indoor for over a week and with such a nice day and no scheduled rides, the working students headed out on one of our traditional photo hacks!  We took the opportunity to show Tilly around the property – Tilly is the new working student here that replaced Tizi, who has now returned to Guatemala.  We are all having to adjust to having someone new and different as part of the group.  I think the four of us were really lucky to have all been here for such a long time together – working was easy and routine because we got to know each other so well.  It seems very strange to change and have someone new, but Tilly is learning quickly and is becoming a valued member of our little family here at Windchase!

 Which leads me back to our hack!  Jenna, Tilly and I headed out on our little ‘tour’.  I took Gemini, who really has done nothing but light hacks since the 1/2 star and he has been feeling very neglected!  He was definitely enjoying himself out on the hack – a little too much, as when we opted for a little canter along the treeline, he decided to bolt across the field in glee.  (I believe he was reminiscing about his steeplechase moments!)  Pulling him up in the hollow mouth snaffle bit required some tact but we got the job done and returned to our calm and mellow jaunt through the fields.  

In the evening, Phyllis had invited us up to her house for dinner, so we cleaned up and attempted to look like non-horsey saturated people for once.  Phyllis has a beautiful house and the atmosphere was warm and friendly and the food was of course, delicious!!  It really goes to show how everyone here at Windchase is part of the ‘family’ and no matter what, you can still feel at home.  We had a great time and finished up the evening watching the ‘Silence of the Lambs’ movie, which we insisted was a reasonable Thanksgiving-related film because, after all, it DOES involve eating. . . .

So I was sitting here on my day off, browsing through some websites and I thought I would check out the USEA website, just to see what was going on etc.  The page opens up and I see a picture and think “Hey, that horse looks an awful lot like Gemini!”  Then I realize, it IS Gemini!!!  LOL.  The USEA has an article on their blog about the Training 3 Day and there on the front page is a picture of me and Gemini running our steeplechase phase!!  Too cool!!  I never thought we’d make front page news   

 Gemini is home from the vet clinic and is doing well, hanging out and still enjoying his vacation.  Everything checked out ok with him, he had no ulcers causing the colic and had no further symptoms after getting IV fluids so all is good!  Now it just feels like time to bundle up for the winter as the days are getting cool and the nights quite chilly!  No snow though, so I definitely can’t complain too much.

Just when you thought things were getting nice and quiet with the end of show season… just when I had decided Gemini had a long enough break after the event to start doing some light work again… well, unfortunately he managed to gain another week or so!  Gemini came down with a bad bout of colic last night after dinner.  We treated him with some IV banamine, which has helped him before when he’s been a little uspet, but after two hours he was back to kicking the walls and thrashing in his stall and he was getting very angry about it!

  So, an emergency vet call later and a referral to the closest veterinary clinic kept us up most of the night and left Gemini under close observation but thankfully not being rushed into surgery!  He is stable today and recovering well from the colic, however he is undergoing some more tests and a gastric scope as the veterinarians suspect he could be colicing from ulcers.  Hopefully another day of treatment and I can go and pick him up, because the barn sure isn’t the same without his head sticking out around the corner of his stall!!  It was a cloudy and dreary day here today and it just didn’t seem right without Gemmy here!