One of our long-time clients (who has known me for about 15 years now) looked at me on Saturday, asked about Dundy, and then summed up the last couple weeks with this simple sentence: "Ellen, you have the worst luck."
It's true. Although I have hit the lottery in so many aspects (jobs, friends, family), it would appear that the balance has to be kept by ill/injured ponies (and a non-existent romantic life, but that's a story for a different day).
And as most have probably gathered from my Facebook of late, Dundy has been proving that concept in his own special fashion by needing surgery for an esophageal obstruction. Thanks to his actual owner (aka my boss), our amazing vet, and a top-notch clinic in VA, he is well on his way back to normal. I'm not going to lie to you though, it was a pretty shit-tastic week, as he was walking a pretty thin line between "going to be okay" and "will probably die." I spent the better part of it being of absolutely no help to anyone, as I was pretty much either crying or trying not to cry (not the person you all want in an emergency AT ALL), but thankfully Shelly is amazing in a crisis so she makes up for my level of crazy.
We are now on week 3 post-surgery, and life is slowly returning to normal. We have 6 weeks of rehab (for lack of a better term) and some long-term maintenance issues, but I'm riding him a little and he's feeling well enough to drive us all mental. I had been looking forward to really competing this spring (the day he came home from surgery was the day our entries were to be sent in for our first show), but obviously all those plans are on the back burner. We'll shoot for the fall after the kids' schedule settles down, and hope for a different sort of luck at that point.
