From Bad to Very Good

Hello everyone, sorry for the long break…it’s been so nice being home. A lot has gone on since we got home about a month ago. H and I flew home after Pendleton, OR so that I could attend a bachelorette party for one of my good friends Christy. We had so much fun hanging out and are really excited for Caddo and Christy to finally get married. Anyway I didn’t get to stay home long, I was off the next weekend to meet Hunter in Omaha for the last Tour Finale. My Grammy and H took me to the airport and it’s a good think she “Insisted” on being early because sure enough right after I got in line it backed up so bad that people were missing their flights. All this fuss was due to a “suspect situation”, needless to say I wasn’t feeling just real safe as I sat there waiting to get on my plane. My flight was pretty situation free until I got off my second flight at Omaha…I somehow missed the sign that said CAUTION UNEVEN GROUND!! And managed to trip, fall down and my gigantic purse swung up and hit me in the back of the head and completely ruffled my hair. And my fall caused the line getting off the plane to back up!! It was so embarrassing, but hey I’ve probably had worse. I was in need of some attention after that so Hunter and I went out for a nice evening since Houston got to stay home and hang with his grandparents, but our nice evening quickly turned pretty awful. Blair Burk came banging on our door to tell us Cajun, our good horse, was trying to colic. For those of you that may be unfamiliar with colic, its where horses guts hurt them real bad, like an awful belly ache, if you don’t catch them early it can cause their guts to twist because they roll and thrash around, which they can die from. We rushed outside and shot him up with some medicine to try and help his pain, we’d never given a horse rompum before, buts it’s like a muscle relaxer/sedative. It made him look like he was drunk, this horse could not walk a straight line. I drug him around in circles for an hour trying to help him work things out. I thought he was looking better so I put him back in his stall and then sat with him for about 45 minutes. Just to be sure I made Hunter switch out with me, so he came and thought he needed walked again so he did that for another hour and thought he was better once again. We put him back in his stall and went to try and get some sleep. We finally got in bed about 1 a.m. It wasn’t much longer and Monty Lewis came banging on our door and said that Cajun was in bad shape again. We ran over there and he was completely upside down with his legs in the air, thrashing around. It took us a minute to get him up and so we decided the meds didn’t work, it was time to get a vet out there. This was now about 3 a.m. We finally got a hold of one and he said he’d be right over. We had to keep walking him around because if he stopped he would try and lay down to roll. Finally the vet got there and immediately decided to put a tube down his throat and get oil in him, this lubes the guts up and things move along. He also thought he was dehydrated and hooked an IV up and put 6 liters of fluid in him. By 5 a.m. the vet thought he looked better and told us we were probably safe to get some sleep. So off to bed we went, but 3 hours later Clint Robinson came banging on our door and said Cajun was trying to roll. We got ready and headed back out, Clint and Fred were giving him some more medicine and it wasn’t long before he was feeling good enough to eat a little grass. We let him graze by our trailer for a good 30 minutes and went to put him back up. Everyone assured us they would keep an eye out for him so we could try and get some rest. Things were looking better. Hunter got up and checked on him and then was off to his meeting. After he got done with that we checked Cajun again and then headed down the road just a little ways to grab a bit to eat since it was well after 1. We no more than got our food ordered and Fred called to tell us Cajun was in bad shape once again. By now everyone was convinced that his guts had probably twisted because he kept coming in and out and usually after they get oiled they are fine. There are only 2 options after that happens, surgery or have them put down if they don’t die first. We scrambled around and found someone to let us borrow their bumper pull so we could rush him to the vet about 40 minutes away. Driving there we prepared for the worst. It was a terrible feeling as Cajun is like part of our family. We finally made it to the Vet and got him unloaded to take inside. The vet shot him up with a strong sedative and he was so out of it he started to drool. The vet examined him and listened to his gut sounds and thought they sounded okay. He then lubed his arm up and managed to pull out handfuls of poop. The news he gave us next was the best thing we’d heard all day, he was just very constipated and he was going to be okay!!! He still wanted to keep him and watch him close just to be sure. It was hard to pull off and leave him there alone but Hunter had to be back to start getting ready for the rodeo. We are very lucky to have so many good friends that offered to let Hunter ride theirs horses. Hunter decided to ride Cody Ohl’s horse Pearl and it turned out to be a good choice. Hunter won 4th in the round. It was a good start. The next night he won the round and average. And Cajun was getting much better. It’s amazing what a lot of prayer will do and how quickly things can turn around. Hunter had just boosted himself into the top 5 in the world with another night still to go. Saturday night was the finals and Hunter won the 8 man round and qualified for the final 4, he ended up winning 3rd in the final round. He won over 25,000 for the weekend and is now number 2 in the world. We appreciate all the prayers and well wishes from everyone. We are very lucky and loved!! Anyway we were ready to get home and see our little man who was definitely not ready to come home yet. He loved getting all the attention all weekend long.
After that hectic weekend it was so nice to just lounge at home for a couple of days, but before we knew it, it was Friday and time to go to Caddo and Christy’s wedding in Tulsa. Hunter, Houston and I all got to be in the wedding. It was beautiful and we were so happy for the two of them. Of course Houston was hammin’ it up for everyone with his slick dance moves. He got those from Hunter!!
Hunter is now in Waco at the Heartland finals. This is the last rodeo that can be counted towards the finals. And last night he set the arena record with a 7.5. He ropes again tonight, but is pretty sure he already qualified for the finals next weekend. But we are still hoping for another big win. Houston and I had to stay home since H is a little on the sick side. Nothing serious but were trying to get him well for his 3rd Birthday Party on Monday. Ah how time flies. They grow up so fast!!
Hope everyone is well, God Bless…we Love you!! Ash, Hunter and H