Alex and I, when we graduated in May, decided that we really needed to do something for ourselves. We both really want to travel together and figured we may as well start now. Neither of us had full-time job offer at the time (we started planning in January) and figured "what the hell". So now we iz going to Europe!
We are leaving Tuesday morning (VERY early in the morning), have a 6 hour layover in JFK and then it's an 8 hour plane ride to Iceland, another 2 hour layover and then we land at 6AM at the Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris.
I've written out five million pages of instructions for Stella, made a list of emergency contact numbers, and I'm in the process of creating an emergency bag with Banamine and other necessary colic diagnosing/treating tools. The grain has been fully stocked, the shavings bags are stacked outside her stall, and we just got a fresh delivery of hay.
She'll be fine, she'll be OK...
It is a little scary knowing I will have no way of really knowing what's going on with her while I'm over the big blue: I have no cell service or texting ability, just access to Wi-fi when it's available. But she's in good hands.
In other news, we had a sort of break through moment. It sounds a little pathetic, but it was actually a pretty big deal.
The test has been getting her away from where she is "stuck" mentally. The idea is that her focus is usually where she spends most of her time, which is at her haybag in her stall. I've been doing all our grooming while she eats freely, for the most part. The other day I decided to change it a little bit and tie her to her stall door to trim her mane. Sounds stupid, right? It's only a few feet difference, you say. But when you start to notice the really small changes in their body, the eyes, ears and lips, you start to realize just how quickly their sense of inner OKness can change. When I brought her over she was OK: there was some tightness in the lips, a couple of little twitches, but she stood quiet for the most part, resting a hind leg. It was only 10 minutes or so, and a few time I redirected her attention to me when she got tempted to look behind her, but otherwise it was successful. It's the small pieces that count, and this was a good place to start.
I probably won't be posting much while in Europe, but I'm SURE I'll have lots of stories (and pictures) upon my return!
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