Weekly Update: Back to work and just starting to write

 

HiDear Reader,

Welcome back to the blog. 

Life Update/Vet story:

This past week has been busy at the Bockhousehold. My maternity leave ended and I started back to work. Itwas a little sad as it seemed like the 6 weeks went by so fast andpart of me wasn’t quite to go back to work. The other part of mewas excited to get back to my clients and their horses. Maternityleave felt a little like a self-imposed isolation and I am lookingforward to talking about horses again.

So Hubby and I packed up the two kiddos and took them with us thisweek. One of our first appointments was to geld a colt. It was abittersweet appointment as this was the last colt that my client hadbred as they are getting out of the horse breeding visit. Thankfully,the appointment went well. The colt behaved and the surgery wentsmoothly. Baby Bock came along and spent the hour in the arms of myclient’s wife while Big sister sat next to me and watched the wholesurgery. She is not squeamish with blood. :)

A few years ago, I had to geld a colt for them. He was huge, wild,and a little mean. They tried to handle and halter break him beforehand but he was pushing 16 hands (a hand is 4 inches) and knew thathe was bigger than the humans handling him.

I went to sedate this horse for the surgery and he towered overme, looking down his long nose, like “come on, Doc, give it yourbest”. As I slid the needle with the sedative into his vein, hereared up, striking out with his front feet. Dodging the flailinghooves, I was able to give him the medicine. But it wasn’t enoughto calm him down. After another dose, he was sedated enough to bebrought out to the grassy area. We always geld the colts laying downin a flat area covered in thick grass. Most of the time, it is inpeople’s front yards. I gave him another injection which puts himunder anesthesia and Hubby helps the horse to lay down on the grass.

Hubby’s job is to monitor the horse, give more drugs if needed,and to help the horse lay down and stand up. He was monitoring thishorse and said, “You better make this quick.” He placed ablindfold over the eyes to help the horse relax.

The surgery went well. As I was finishing up, Hubby called out,“you done?”

“Yep.” I dropped my surgical instruments into a bucket.

“Then, you better get back. He’s going up.”

I pulled off my gloves and stepped back.

The colt jumped up like he had been taking a nap, tossed his head,and sent the blindfold flying. Then, he took off.

Hubby held onto the lead rope trying to wrangle this young horseinto the barn. Did I mention this was a future racehorse? They wentaround in circles in the yard, tearing it up, until the owner wasable to make a runway into the barn. We herded the colt into hisstall and slammed the door.

That was an experience. That horse is currently being trained as aracehorse and they said that he is fast.

Thankfully, this year’s colt was a perfect gentleman.

Writing Update:

I am just getting back into the swing of things. I was listeningto a podcast. Unfortunately, I can’t remember which one. Thepodcast was about making time to achieve your goals. The guest made acomment that to do a little bit every day, even if it isn’t closeto how much you want to achieve. I thought about that and he wasright. My ultimate daily goal is to write about a 1,000 words perday. Before Baby Bock #2, I was able to do that. But with the newbaby, I find that I am tired and don’t have an hour to get thosewords down. Plus, my creative juices are lacking. So, I set up mywriting station on my desk. Whenever I have a few minutes, I sit downand stare at the page. The first few days I wasn’t able to get muchwritten. Then, I was able to write a sentence or two. After about aweek, I finally am able to get a few paragraphs done every night. Itisn’t close to the 1,000 word goal, but it is better than a blankpage. I had hoped to be done with this story soon but I am only about25% done. That’s ok. Slow and steady wins the race, right?

On the newsletter, we are reading the 10th chapter ofSecond Chance with My Bull Rider.If you are interested in reading it with us, check it out atalliebock.substack.com.

Here’s a cute picture of my horse, Amber. We are getting ready to go for a ride, but we had to brush off the winter hair and mud first.

 

That’s all for now.

Hugs,

Allie