Storm spooked on me while I was taking care of his feet yesterday and then he and I had quite a discussion about such things. The cat ran by him first in the very narrow barn aisle, and I was really proud of him that he didn't spook. Not 30 seconds later something scared him and he JUMPED forward. While my head was by his back feet. I was NOT amused. Somehow I managed to keep a hold of him as he kept plunging towards the door. I had enough of a hold of the rope that he was unable to get his front end out the door, so he ended up broadside to the door (and his broadside takes up the whole door, thankfully he didn't fling his head up and hit his head on the door frame at the same time...). There was a bucket sitting in the edge of the doorway that he kicked as he went sideways out the door, and from there he kept kicking the bucket backwards for about 20 feet. He got free of the bucket and then ended up tangled in the hose lying on the ground. Eventually he got free of that and I kept pushing him backwards around the barn yard for a bit to make sure that he wasn't worried about anything else except for me. He made some big efforts to calm down again, so I took him right back into the barn and stood him in the aisle again where we were before. I stood in front of him and asked him to focus for a little while, and then when he calmed down a little more I began to work around him grooming again, being very particular that he didn't get distracted. I did that for a bit, and then took him out into the barn yard, and worked against the paddock fence backing him up and really making him think about where his feet were. He put some really good effort into that, and so after about 10 minutes I turned him out again. I felt his energy shift as I opened the gate, so when he was in the pasture and the gate was closed, I backed him up another 20 feet just to remind him that he doesn't get tossed back in the pasture automatically. As I expected, he did bolt away, however, he squealed, cantered for 2 strides, then dropped to a trot. Instead of heading all the way out into the pasture, he wavered to the left, and went to where the hot wire divides the sacrifice area off, and turned back to face me again. It was a sort of strange look like he wasn't sure if he should really be upset or just be ok with things.
I've been stressed out about numerous things, which I am sure he picked up on. I somehow need to convey to him that he needs to NOT get sucked into my energy just like I shouldn't get sucked into his energy. Somehow he's too dependent on me being really level in order to stay level himself. He had been doing really good, and I felt better about handling the spook than I ever have of that magnitude before. I also felt very certain that he always does his best NOT to hurt me. He could have pretty easily injured me in his haste, but somehow he never does. The two of us just need to find some sort of balance that isn't so dependent on each other for stability. I felt very present in the moment, I wasn't off in lala land thinking about the dinner I didn't have prepared or anything like that. I was very focused on what I was doing and where he was, but somehow my underlying stress level must have affected him. Hopefully we can find a way to separate that a little better soon.
Spirit has been giving me a hard time this week since DB is away. He is getting one pergolide pill per day, and he does that pretty well. However, the poor thing has goopy eyes, and the bugs are really making them swollen and worse. And somehow in the process recently he scraped his face itching at his eyes. So now he has a scrape that won't heal just below one of this puffy eyes. I've been playing this crazy balancing act trying to keep the fly mask on but keep him from rubbing the scab off under the mask. The wound heals a little with the mask off at night, but I can't leave it off during the day because then his eyes get really bad and he scratches. Ugh! The problem with this whole scenario is that it has been sucking away my time that I would have been preparing for my parents to be here. So add to that having to take the dogs out on a leash several times a day and I have not accomplished ANYTHING this week. Nothing. Nada. Oh, wait, I did get the bed changed, and the sheets washed and hung up to dry. But they're still hanging. And that was a few days ago.
And now, to throw another monkey wrench into the plans, the conflict that my mom had on Saturday that meant they were leaving Sunday was cancelled, so now they might leave on Saturday, which means they'd arrive a day sooner. EEK!!! I'd enjoy that, but OMG now I have one less day to prepare!!
Things I need to do before they get here:
Clean the kitchen THOROUGHLY (wipe counters down, put away miscellaneous crap, run the dish washer, attempt to organize the water bowl and dog food....)
Clean the bathroom THOROUGHLY (mop, scrub the sink, clean the shower, toilet)
Mop the rest of the hard floors
Vacuum all the floors including the bedroom
Wash the sheets on the guest bed since KN slept in them
Organize the office so that it can actually be used for sewing
Check the inflatable mattress and see how bad the leak is, plus figure out where to put it (my parents won't sleep together in anything less than a king sized bed...)
In general clean up and declutter everything so there is a place to put stuff
Dust the entertainment center to get rid of the cobwebs
In addition to that my car REALLY should be cleaned out and have the back vacuumed since it has hay all over it now. The BF is planning on changing the oil in my truck, too, and I'm sure there is other stuff that needs to get done. We need to get the lumber purchased for the next hay feeder sale that we have, I'm just not sure how all of that is going to get done while they are here. I guess we'll see.
In good news, my sister's house sold in TN. They've been out of it for over a year, and it is FINALLY selling. I know they're relieved!
