I MISS MY BABY GIRL! and 2010 Resolution #3

*Warning: There are lots of links in this post to make up for the loss of pictures from the ITD my computer contracted.*

The four-legged one, not the teenaged one.  I had this whole year-in-review, decade-in-review thing planned for today, but then started my daily blog crawl and it dawned on me how many horse blogs I follow, just look at my profile for the list (note: Preachers and Horse Thieves is not a horse blog, though K. is a hoot and a half; everyone should read his blog).

Maybe it's because I'm sick yet again, which may be a year-end record for me.  Three illnesses in three months, WTH?  I'm never sick.  Maybe it's because she went down to winter pasture much earlier than the other horses and I haven't had nearly enough time with my baby.  Maybe it's all of the horse blogs I now follow.  Who knows?  What I do know is that I miss her so much it hurts.  I just want my baby girl.

I know that she's nearby - in Lyons - with the rest of the herd.  And I know that she's fine.  And I know that it's better for her to be out running with the herd than up at the Lodge where there's no wind cover and it's too cold and miserable to go for a ride anyway.  But damn it, I miss her terribly.  And I'm terribly envious of my horse blog friends who have their horses either home with them or boarded some place close, who can see their babies any time they want to.  And, if the weather's nice, they can just climb on up and away they go.

So, I guess my current year-in-review is going to involve my baby girl, Miss Estes.  She came home shortly before my wedding, and though she couldn't be in the wedding, I had to share our special day with her...

...yep, up and over the fence in wedding dress and boots!

She wouldn't have anything to do with the RockCrawlinChef being in the picture, but A-butt managed to get a nice shoot of me and Estee...We didn't get to the lodge in time for Estee to get a Spa Day, so she's a little rough around the edges in the picture, and still wooly from the cold.  For some reason, A-butt thought it more important for me to get the whole hair and makeup thing done for the wedding than Estes getting a good grooming.  Crazy kid!

We didn't get nearly enough ride time this summer, I'd blame it on a new husband, but that wasn't the case at all.  I'd gotten a big promotion at work, my counterpart quit as soon as we came back from our Honeymoon, and the librarian walked out without notice shortly thereafter.  The education department in a growing college does not run itself.  Thank God for the then-education department-assistant, Amanda.  Recently, she's been promoted to full-time Academic Advisor, but there wouldn't have been any way for me to keep the department running without her.  So, needless to say, my visions of spending a couple of days a week on the trail went by the wayside.  I did mange to get up the hill most Fridays and we got to go out...

We had good days; we had temper tantrums; and we slayed ghosties.  We rode, as usual, in the 4th of July Parade, but those pictures were lost when my computer crashed.  I think RockCrawlinChef has some pictures on his computer, but, honestly, his Mac scares the crap out of me.  They are not easy computers for us PC-types.

Our riding this summer got cut short by an accident in the pen.  We're not sure what happened to spook the horses, but something set them off and Estee ended up sliding off a short ridge and impaling herself on a tree stump that Missy Meeker and Washoe had chewed up a couple of years before.  Luckily, her injuries weren't too severe, but required time off to heal. 

Mom took great care of her and the good news is that the fall seemed to straighten up whatever was causing her to tighten up.  Let's hear it for natural chiropractic adjustments from falling off a ridge.

I didn't get to spend nearly enough time with her last summer, which leads us to Resolution #3...

More time with Miss Estes.  At least every Friday, but I'm going to make a point of adjusting my work schedule so that I can make it up at least one additional afternoon a week to spend with her.