The chiro visit yesterday was awesome.

When the doc arrived, I was teaching BB how to pull a mane.  I was sort of horrified that she had never learned this and has owned Duke for years, but she explained that she's only ever had mediocre teachers and was really self-taught on the whole horse ownership thing.  Previously, she's only ever cut his mane so it was pretty stinking thick.  She'd also managed to do a weird partial hack job at the base of the top side with some of those thinning blade things.  It was a hot mess.  I explained to her my method and also said that people disagreed with how I started.  I start at the withers.  I've had people flip out that I didn't start pulling at the head, but I think my logic is pretty sound:  pulling near the head tends to piss off a large percentage of horses, so rather than carry that pissed-offed-ness down the neck, I'll just get to it when I get to it.

In the hour that the doc was there, BB did another third and I finished the job.  She went a little short, but it still looks good.  He's actually leaving today to go trial as a lesson horse at her work barn.  I wish her the best and am only mildly jealous.  Jealous because it's an amazing barn (they have lasers! for flies!), but not jealous because I would never let Archie be a lesson pony.

So, the boy was only a little bit of a brat for the chiro.  And she was really impressed with his improvement.  She did her assessment and his pain has moved, which is a good sign. When she finished the adjustment, he actually did not flex at all on either side of his spine, which I have not seen in years. I couldn't be happier.  She did get a little weird I'm-a-horse-whisperer on me ("See him looking into my eyes?  I'm doing this is with my eyes!" or something.  I tuned out.).  We've been given permission not to see her for another four weeks, but she's all booked around that time, so it might just be three.

Yay, improvement!

After the chiro left and finishing Duke's mane, I changed into my soccer stuff, grabbed my camera gear, and met my husband for a quick bite at Subway.  I <3 Subway.  Then we hustled to the Humane Society and took photos.  A photog hadn't been there in a week, so there were tons of animals to shoot.  I got lucky and some of them were actually kittens being adopted while I watched.  They were doing a feral cat TNR (trap, neuter, release) day, and some of the staff were being stressed-out assholes.  Oh well.

I finished my bajillion (admittedly, not amazing) photos and went next door to the soccer field.  Okay, this is a weird tangent, but it was in the news today.  I play at the Jennifer Ross Soccer Complex.  I never knew the story of Jennifer Ross, but figured that she was someone who did something with soccer on a level well enough to get recognized.  What I didn't realize until I was distributing the newspaper today and saw her name plastered: she was a 19 year old Mercer student, local Savannahian, and she had been killed in a botched armed robbery the night of her debutante ball.  I have more respect for the fields now and for her family for doing something like that in her memory.

As far as the actual soccer game:  we lost.  But it was an awesome game and we were only down by one.  And!  Missing our star keeper (who got a bloody nose last week playing - she's that hardcore).  I accidentally knocked a girl over (seriously - it was an accident).  We later collided and she busted my jaw and knee.  I saw stars.  It was almost half-time and I had to sub out.  I was really, really worried about having a concussion, my head hurt so badly.  I knew my knee hurt too, but I couldn't get past the pain in my jaw/head.  I went back in the second half and got carded for pushing her to the point of breaking her stride. Again, not intentional.  Just close marking.  I took a hard ball to my right knee, which was sort of achy at this point.

At the end of the game, when I sat down to take my cleats off, my legs and hands were shaking.  My jaw was throbbing and an egg was forming on my knee.  I texted D to meet me at the Mexican restaurant and to bring some ibuprofen.  In talking about my ouchies, I got the distinct feeling that he doesn't approve of me playing.  I think he likes that I enjoy a sport so much, but he said that if I got another concussion, I would be done.  Eh.  I can only hope that his bedside manner is more pleasant and empathetic with his patients, because that whole I-told-you-so attitude sucked.  But I'm in it now.  They said that I played well.  I tried.  I enjoyed it.  And I felt like I contributed something to the team.

Tonight, assuming that I can, I'm going to do a light ride and maybe work out.

Right leg.  It already looks bigger than the left because of the angle, but it's the swollen spot by the knee.

Okay, it's the lightly purple blob. This is from last night.

You can see it better in this one.  This morning.

This is the bag I bought at the tack store.  It's by AWST International.