um, that's not good

The day started okay. I got up late, spent a couple hours sorting chickens (I'll talk about that later), worked on the Blue Silkies (flattening now), pretty much a normal sort of day.

I didn't have time to ride after dinner but wanted to work the horses so I figured I'd just do some groundwork, and I wanted to work both of them. I haltered Gwen first, and after doing various yielding and backing in the roundpen I figured I'd lunge the old gal. She used to be a real turd about this and try to get away from me, but she hadn't done anything like that for quite some time now. Til today. It's human nature I guess to try to hold onto the rope. In reality it's not a big deal if a horse gets away..she's in a roundpen, she can't go more than 30 feet away from me, the idea is you don't want the horse to GET AWAY WITH SOMETHING. And I guess that's what my hand was thinking as she tucked her head around by her shoulder on the other side of her body and bolted away from me. It was just a split second for the brain said LET GO but it was long enough for searing pain and the worst rope burn I've ever had.

I'm pretty sure I let loose a string of foul words and called that horse every name the book as I chased her fat butt around the round pen. If she wants to run away from me she'd better RUN as fast as she can or she's gonna get it. A minute or so of my tirade and she was breathing hard, trailing my once-white cotton lunge line out behind her. I left her standing on the far side of the round pen and walked back to the barn to grab some gloves. That mare was in for it...

With gloves on, I calmly took hold of the lunge line again and asked her to move out at a nice jog. And what did she do? Tried to tuck her head around the other side and make a beeline away from me! That b@#$%! I dug my heels in and jerked the line back as hard as I could, and she swung around to a stop. I dared to her to do it again, but she minded my cues from then on out, and she got a harder workout than I had originally intended. Grrrrrr. I love Gwen but sometimes she really pisses me off. I did end things on a good note though, did some more backing up and simple stuff, she was nice and calm.

And then I had to work Shylah too, though my hand hurt so bad I could barely close it around the rope. Thankfully she was quite the little darling tonight and gave me no trouble at all. So she got to go out for a little walk, since she's a nice horsey. She got to graze in the orchard, and eat some windfall peaches (I pitted them, of course!)

*sigh* Horses...

So then, I was going to take a photograph of my hand, because it looks really gross (oh, and this is my right hand by the way, and I'm right handed, and I'm supposed to be drawing!!! Hmm, maybe by morning I can do that...) So I picked up my camera and turned it on, and all I see on the viewfinder is lines and blurry shapes and strange colors. Hmmm. Turned it off, put in the other battery, reloaded the memory card, turned it on, same thing. That's right, my camera isn't working. HOLY CRAP MY CAMERA ISN'T WORKING. That's like telling you my arms fell off. That's not good. I am lost without my camera. I am queasy, nauseous, I'm not going to handle this well if my camera is dead or needs an expensive operation. I love my camera. This is what it looks like to take a photograph right now (this is the lamp in the other room, yeah, you knew that, didn't you?)


I emailed tech support, they said I'll have an answer within 24 hours. Please please please let this be something simple.

I'll blog about chickens later. Maybe tomorrow. Bleh. My hand is still hugely painful. And my head hurts.