OK, so it's after the soccer games for the day and I am knee deep in switching the girls' clothing from summer to winter. Yes, with three girls in one room with one standard size closet and two dressers, it gets too tight to have all the clothes out at once. Then all of a sudden the dogs are barking like crazy!
Chriscelda looks out the window and says there are horses in the front yard!
Not fully believing her, thinking she must of slipped and said horses instead of cows which are across the road, I went to look. However, Bella had already scrambled over to the window. She lets out a huge squeal, "My dream just came true!!"
As carefully as we could we made our way outside to figure out what was going on. Bella was the first to try to touch one of them, after she tossed her crutches off to the side so they would not make the horses feel threatened. I started to gain their trust by feeding them grass by hand.
Bella is in pure Heaven!
After about 40 minutes we try to direct them either to a fenced area or the neighbor's house that needs their grass mowed. It's currently on the market and the owners moved out several month ago.
Finally the owners shoed up and we began to form a plan. We got four horses in a fenced area to contain them while she rode one bareback and lead another that was not broken home. Bella stayed as long as she could but having put some weight on her knee, she was in a lot of pain and went in. I stayed with the horses. When the owner returned, she asked if I could ride one back for her while she took a couple more. Two of the remaining four were babies who just followed the rest. Bella was so jealous as she saw me ride off bareback on an appaloosa from her window.
The story is, the owner has roughly 20 horses she is boarding on a large acreage about 1/2 mile from our house. Since there are several hunters in the area, the deer have been running into her fences creating breaks in the hot wires. A few horses decided to go looking for green grass and a few more followed. I helped splice hot wires, off during the repairs, and fill the hay nets. The owner hinted that Bella might be able to get a job helping her with the horses as she needs some help in grooming and working them. As a thank you for bringing them back, she wants to take at least Bella and I on a long trail ride. So, Bella is overjoyed with delight and prospects, but her knee needs to heal first! Karl commented that she is well on her way with motivation of horses. She needs that sweatshirt from her horse catalog, it reads "My therapist lives in a barn" with a picture of a horse in a stall. I know God had a hand in this as Bella is starting to get her spirits down from her knee still hurting her. She is not able to do all the activities she once could. At least she can still shoot archery with one of her best buddies, yes, he's a boy. They are good FRIENDS with lots in common. He has goats, her rooster when we had to get rid of one, a menagerie of other animals including one huge white dog that Bella buries her face in her fur when she sees her. Jacob also plays soccer on Anton's team, goes to school with Anton, and comes over a few times a week after school.
Bella has her Orthopedic appointment today, I hope we get our answers as to why she is in so much pain and not able to put weight on it. She was injured during a soccer game 10 days ago. Bella headed the ball away, but the opposing player was already timing the kick to where the ball would have been. Instead of a ball, it was Bella's knee. She got nailed in the soft spot on the inside of her right knee.
