December? December?! Good grief where does all the time go? I have a confession to make that we have not been updating this howl as often as we should, but we have been going through a really horrible couple of months at home and
its had quite an impact on how chatty we've been feeling; I like to come on here and update you all on what's happening so that we feel we can keep a connection with all you lovely online friends and customers, but as a generally upbeat and happy person its been quite hard to come
on and write when we have been feeling anything other than upbeat.
Work is going just fine, home life is going just fine and really I shouldn't have much to complain about, however my beautiful mare Isha (the horse I am pictured with in my 'about us' page), has been suffering from lameness and has been on box rest for months. For any of you with horses you will immediately share a sympathetic groan with me, as 'box rest' has got to be one of the all time worst things you can hear from your vet.
Basically it means shutting your horse in a stable, 24hours a day, 7 days a week - and for most horses this is incredibly stressful as they are not designed to be confined, for all owners it really is incredibly depressing and stressful as you are left dealing with a very unhappy horse. I think I felt more trapped than her, she actually coped admirably well considering she is a personality that cannot stand still for more than a minute and is always wanting to charge around at full speed. My stable wall does have large holes in it now where she took out her frustration with her back feet and her teeth, but after a while she got used to the routine and just kind of resigned herself to it. And that is when it got really hard for me.
I could literally see the mare I have had since she was a 3 year old disappear before my eyes - her cheeky playful nature became withdrawn and anxious. Normally outgoing she became neurotic and explosive when I tried to lead her out of the stable.
And after months of this we didn't seem to be progressing, some days she would seem to be in less pain, other days she could barely walk.
And I became very withdrawn and depressed myself, feeling very isolated as no one could seem to offer a better alternative or any advice.
By pure luck after a late night googling session trying to find other people in my situation, I stumbled across a center in Exmoor specialising in the type of injury Isha is suffering from - soft tissue injury in the hoof - and this is where my story takes a happy turn!
Any horse owner may feel that it would be a very hard decision to send their horse so far away from home, but we had reached a point where actually it felt like I had been thrown a life line. We decided to send Isha to Rockley Farm in Exmoor under the care of an amazing lady called Nic who has successfully rehabilitated horses like Isha.
She has now been up there for just over one month and is already showing massive improvement, she is now walking out happily not hopping on three legs and has other horses to play with so her brain is much happier too! She has a way to go yet but considering I thought she may never be sound again its all looking very positive :)
The only downside is my insurance company are being a nightmare and are currently refusing to pay towards the cost of her rehab (something that should have been covered under my policy but I shan't get into a rant about it on here...), so I am having to find £107 a week (yes you read that right) to keep Isha at Rockley at the moment - so if you have been saving up your pennies and are considering making an order, please, order like you have never ordered before!! Every penny is going to the Isha fund at the moment!
I will keep you updated, I'm going up to visit her in 2 weeks and can't wait to see how she's doing :) Fingers crossed everyone for a full recovery for a beautiful mare.
Ok, that's my chatter and apology for our absence over, I shall pass you over to a very bouncy Kestrel:
Howl hello to you all, not only is Christmas almost upon us but we've got proper snowy weather down here
in sub-tropical Cornwall to get us all in the festive spirit!
It has caused us a smidgen of bother as for some reason a few inches of snow managed to knock our internet connection out for the best part of the week, but we are back online and raring to go now :)
Its blooming freezing here but I am managing to keep snug and warm in my doggy pajamas (yes I do wear pj's, don't laugh!) and a doggy coat when I am out, so I have had fun playing in the snow:
You may notice some young upstarts creeping into some of Fayley's photos - don't worry she's not replacing me, but she has gone and introduced some new dogs to the herd of animals here - so, here's introducing Kobi and Kujo:
In all honesty I am not very impressed, they are noisy, hectic and lack any social grace (honestly, they come bounding up to me and lick my ears without so much of a how do you do), but on the plus side Fayley is buying them lots of puppy toys and chew toys, which being top dog I get to steal and have for myself, so I guess I shouldn't moan too much ;)
Hugs and Howls, Kes xx
