One for the road

On Friday I am taking a road trip.

If you have been reading this blog for a while, you know that I love road trips. In 2009, I decided to drive to California on a whim to see a Phish concert. That was more than 30 hours in my Chevy Colorado. Bless that little truck for getting me there and back safely.

ANYway ... this time I will be hauling my best friend's horse, Lilly the Walker, to Kansas for her. (She moved there and abandoned me. *sob*)

Lilly and Hampton on a trail ride last summer.

And I am stressed out. (Remember I am already stressed from my job ... another story for another day ...)

Like so nervous my acid reflux came back and I can't sleep. As you all know, I have mild freak outs when I need to haul Hamps an hour away. This is a 9-hour trip with a horse that's not even my own.

Every single possible horrific, catastrophic event has been playing through my mind. Last night I had a dream that the trailer came unhitched from my truck on the interstate. I literally woke up screaming.

I have had 2 events in my life that have made me terrified of horse trailers and the act of hauling.

One was in 2009 when my previous horse, T-Bone, almost killed himself when he tried to jump the divider in a slant load and ended up straddling the divider between his back legs. He was stuck, then went into shock and became unresponsive. His eyes turned grey. I was smacking him in the face trying to get him to lift his head. NOTHING. I was literally on the phone with the vet hospital when for some reason, he woke up and backed off the divider. He came away with a bruise in his crotch. He was very, very lucky.

And then there was college. When I was a student at the University of Findlay, there was an accident on I-75 involving a 3-horse trailer. The horses were directed to the school's vet school. I happened to be at the farm that evening when the horses arrived. I was 19 and had never seen anything like that EVER in my life.

One horse was already dead on the trailer. Me and a couple of other students were asked to remove the horse from the trailer while the surviving horses were cared for by vets, vet students and the staff. The inside of that trailer was covered in blood. The surviving horses ended up having stitches all over their bodies. Poor things.

So see, my weird fears and anxiety problems aren't just out of nowhere. The best I can do is to be as prepared as I can for various situations. I'm also bringing along ... let's call him, Friend of the Male Persuasion, who is the next best thing to MacGyver himself. So I won't be alone.

I know I will breathe a huge sigh of relief when he arrive safely and Lilly is off the trailer and healthy.

And then I will need beers. Lots of them.