For anyone friends with me on Facebook, you may have watched as the events leading up to Sunday’s show unfolded. On Friday, my truck broke down. The mechanic says it needs more than $1,600 of work on the brakes to be safe again (cue second opinion time!). We’re talking hydroboost, master cylinder, rotors and pads. I guess it’s a blessing in disguise that it decided to croak before it was hauling my horse! Anyway, I paid to rent a truck for the weekend.
I went to Rolex on Saturday (post forthcoming!) and then came back to the barn and spent several hours scouring every inch of Nibbles with my sister. Everything got bathed twice. Like I have done for years with other horses, I used a whitening shampoo on her three white socks/stockings. The truck was hooked up, everything was checked, everything was packed, and Nibbles went into her stall for the night.
Leah and I arrived at the barn a little over three hours before the show to touch her up, wrap and load her. I opened up her stall door to say good morning and did a double take. Her three white legs were twice their normal size! Nibbles had an allergic reaction to the whitening shampoo! Her one dark leg was unchanged. Commence panicked cold hosing and hand walking. The swelling actually went down quite a bit but with an hour left, it still wasn’t enough and I had to cancel our plans. The judge would have sent us right back out. Talk about a bummer.
Some banamine, sweat wraps, more cold hosing and hand walking later and Nibbles was back to her normal/beautiful self. This was of course that evening, long after the show was over. To add insult to injury, I had already paid to rent the truck and I cannot get a refund on my show fees. Ouch.
I snapped these photos that morning to offer myself condolences and at least remember how nice she looked, all ready to go.
I did however have a spot of sunshine this morning! I received my socks from Forging Fiction‘s contest in the mail! I can’t wait to wear them in my (first) lesson (in years) on Thursday night.