We’re now 3 weeks into my broken ankle debacle, and there are several bits of good news.

Firstly, I’m pretty freakin good at negotiating everyday farm stuff now with my peg leg (aka hands free crutch, if you want to call it by its real name and take away my pirate status). Leading horses is still a bit sketchy because I’m a slow and unbalanced, but I can do it in a pinch. I’m still feeding and cleaning stalls and doing hay and all that stuff, so at least I’m not totally useless. The ankle is feeling a lot better, and while there’s still some green and black bruising, the swelling is almost gone. Yesterday I spent some time in the house in my walking boot, and while I’m not ready to switch over to that full time yet, I think I can start easing my way in that direction. Having two legs back… it feels so close.

I’ve also been stable enough to at least spend some time with Lottie. I can’t lead her all the way up to the main barn/crossties yet, but every day I groom her and fly spray her and put stuff on her feet. I’ve convinced her that cookies are good, and while she still takes tiny bites and only eats German Horse Muffins, it’s a solid start.

She loves her groomies and is slowly but surely starting to show a little bit of personality towards me. I think mostly she’s decided that the lady who feeds her and gives her treats and gives her lots of face rubbies can’t be all that bad. Step one of convincing her to love me. I am determined to make it happen.

In other good news, I was able to ride! FINALLY. I strapped my bareback pad to Henry, climbed up onto a truck tailgate, and swung aboard. God it felt good to be back, even if I just trotted and cantered around for 5 minutes. I hate being out of my routine and feeling like (yet again) I’ve lost all my momentum.

I’m not deluded enough to try to get on Presto until I can actually walk properly and at least put both feet in the stirrups, but it’s a start. A start I desperately needed because I’m gonna be honest this sucks and I hate everything about it. Progress though. Slowly but surely.

Presto is getting a few rides a week from friends and seems equal parts pleased with his mini-vacation and really really bored from his mini-vacation. The Presto Paradox, born of his own poor life choices. What else is new.

Other than that, I really don’t have a lot to share. We’re still breeding mares and still doing pregnancy checks… I’ll update all that here at the end of the season. We’re getting close to but we’re not done yet.