Best Bday weekend ever

I usually don’t do much for my birthday, but my birthday was on Friday and I was ready to complete my 10 hr shift, but was actually able to leave early at 12:30! Yes! So I headed straight to the house to have a small ride on Amber. I actually switched out Amber’s saddles – her back has seemed a little sore recently so the way a western saddle helps disperse pressure and weight seems to have helped her feel better. For only the bit that we do, any way to help her feel better, right? But it was a good walk finished by a short little walk about around property. She was really super, and was actually pretty consistent on our walk.

But, we actually have an actual abscess update! And yes, her abscess has STILL been draining. Why, might you ask, after nearly 4 months has her abscess still been around? Well, this is piece number one, a piece I pulled out of her abscess Friday night.

I was so shocked I basically threw it on the ground nearly screaming ‘what is that?!’ because I was absolutely not expecting to pull out this bone fragment. I had thought it was just a tough scab. Turns out – nope! This is why her abscess has persisted for so long. There was still a bone fragment that her body was trying to push out. When I went to clean her abscess Saturday night, I scraped up this:

Bone fragment #2. I’ve been shaking my head all weekend. So, now I know exactly why poor Amber has had to go on 3 rounds of antibiotics and has had this abscess for so long. Poor girl. So many of the small things I’ve noticed about her attitude the past week or so can absolutely be tied to the fact that these bone fragments have been very close to coming out.

The mystery has been solved! I’m so relieved. Since finding the bone fragments Friday and Saturday, her abscess has shriveled up and started to close exponentially. It looks so much better than it has in a very long time. I should now be able to set her debridement up soon!

Saturday, while not a horsey day, was absolutely the best day. My birthday, my sister’s birthday and our mutual friend’s birthday are all within a few weeks of each other, so we all decided to have a spa day. It was seriously the best day ever. We got our deep tissue massages first, spent a lot of time in the wet sauna, and grabbed food at the pool bar. It was pretty awesome because we all just walked out to the pool in our robes and spa slippers. We got so many looks but it was worth it! We got free shots out of it lol. Then it was time for our facials, hung out at the sauna some more before heading to a barbecue place for some amazing food.

Then dessert as well, and we got 2 free pieces of birthday cake. The waitress was really great. Best day ever. So relaxing.

Sunday we had a great but simple ride. Amber and I just walked around, but I hopped on Whisper for a bit and cantered her. She was absolutely fantastic. The lunging has absolutely helped Whisper’s stamina and fitness which is perfect to help keeping rides short but very effective. I was super pleased with how well she’s coming along! Amber was happy to be out for sure!

A friend came over around noon and we watched the 2nd Lord of the Rings movie as part of our movie marathon. It was only the second movie, but it was the extended version and we talked a lot about theory and concepts so it took a bit longer lol. But we had a great time. Seriously, the best weekend ever. As I said I usually don’t really do anything for my birthday, but this time I really wanted to do some special things because happy birthday to me, right? haha. I also bought Amber some good fly stuff so….does that count as a birthday present to myself? I think so haha.

How did your weekend go? What did you do? I hope it ended up being a good weekend!