Horse Laundry
During the recent rain storms, a few of our blankets were thrown from their hooks by the wind and found in a puddle on the ground. Since winter has apparently skipped us here in the bay area, we decided to clean and put away all the blankets and just keep the sheets out. The blankets all really needed washing even before getting dunked in a puddle. Nilla’s medium weight blanket used to be Dijon’s and I’ve had it for 4+ years now. And I’ve never washed it.
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| This is the color of 4 years of mud |
I decided to use Nikwax’s Rug Wash and Rug Proof. The Rug Wash was great. I didn’t follow any of the usual advice for cleaning blankets. I didn’t pre-wash or spray down with a hose. I just threw it in the machine and added the Rug Wash. Despite the look of that water, the blankets all came out amazingly clean. Nilla and Shasta’s blankets got re-washed with Rug Proof to re-waterproof them.
I have to say, this stuff smelled pretty bad. Since the blankets haven’t left my couch (we took them home to finish drying, they ended up on the couch, I’m intensely lazy, yada yada yada) I can’t tell you if the waterproofing actually worked, but I hope so. It was easy to use and if it works, I’ll definitely buy more in the future.
Arm Update
I am getting all the treatments for my tennis elbow: deep tissue massage, muscle and joint manipulation, infrared therapy, TENS with icing. I’m also icing at home and doing a variety of assigned stretches and exercises. Despite not believing in BOT, I even bought a BOT elbow wrap. And all of it is doing…
nothing
Seriously. The initial diagnosis from my doctor was a few weeks off. In talking to the PT last week, his answer was a lot more guarded. Given my lack of improvement in the last few weeks, it’s unlikely this will be over any time soon. It seems like I may have injured the tendon on both sides of the elbow joint instead of just one side because I’m just that awesome. And, to top it all off, I may have injured my left elbow in over-compensating for my right.
I kinda had a mini melt down about all of this so the PT and I discussed my spring training plans. He’d like me to continue to hold off until April and then I can start using the arm for riding even if it’s still hurting. Even still, I can feel all of my 2016 goals slipping away.
Rain
Even if I didn’t have the injury, I’m not sure how much riding I’d be getting done anyway. It just keeps on raining. This is what our paddocks looked like on Friday:
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| A river runs through it |
Shasta’s paddock was flooding by her door in addition to the stream running through the middle.
I know we need the rain, but I’m really sick and tired of it.
Winery Ride
Back before it started raining forever and ever, my husband and I took Nilla and Shasta up to the winery. It was Shasta’s first real trail ride since her injury. She was frisky and full of it and pretty convinced she should get to run the whole time. Except when eating. Then she was happy to be eating. I can’t blame her; the rain has made for a lot of delicious grass.
We did a tasting at the winery, then had cheese and crackers at the picnic grounds before riding back. The ponies stay tied up to trees while we’re at the winery. We usually do this at least once a month but we haven’t been able to go for months since we didn’t have two simultaneously functioning horses. Hopefully it’ll stop raining for some future weekend and we can do it again.
You have tennis AND golfer's elbow! Geeze you can't catch a break.
Ugh, lots of frustrating things! But, I am digging that winery ride, that looks pretty awesome. And green grass is awesome. And so is clean blankets!
Try to be patient- it needs more time you've probably been hurting it for a while. ( of course it's easier to counsel patience. I suck at it.
Yeah. I really suck at handling injuries. I'm much happier powering through them even if it does hurt.
Actually, it's really hard to describe since I don't know the names of the tendons and such, but I injured the tenon leading from the outside elbow up towards the shoulder in addition to the tendon leading to the hand which is the Tennis elbow. So I don't have golfer's elbow, but I did injure two different parts of my elbow.
The winery is a lot of fun.
I hope your arm is back in fighting form soon, sounds very frustrating 🙁 You must really be desperate if you jumped on the BOT wagon 😛
yes, yes I am. The BoT brace actually works as an elbow brace so it's not useless, it's just more expensive than what I could have bought at Target.