Zapped and Nuzzled and Goodies, too

Whoowee! What a busy day I had today.
My day started off with the dreaded Physical Therapy appointment. But, at least for this first time, I was pleasantly surprised.
The rooms of the building were covered in Southwest Art and horse prints, so I felt right at home, and before I met with my PT, several of the office people chatted with me about their own horses and what a beautiful day it was...sunny and in the 50's, perfect for a winter trailride.

My PT measured my flexion and extension limits, and assessed what I was able to do. I'm still not able to stand straight with my heel flat on the ground, so we will focus on stretching my calf muscles during PT and at home first.
She then massaged my calf muscles and knee, and then set me up for some electrical stimulation therapy to loosen up my tightened muscles and ligaments so I could have more range of motion.

As I sat there getting comfortably zapped for 15 minutes, I was grateful that worse things were not done to me. Of course, this was just the first visit, and I'll be going twice a week, so things will probably get rougher as we go along. But for now I'm happy with my PT. Monica is very nice and gentle and recently went through surgery for a busted Achillis tendon (the tendon above the heel), so she is sympathetic and knows first-hand about post-op pain and rehabilitation. She also rides horses. Monica believes I can get back up on my horse long before August if I'm focused on getting my mobility back through physical therapy and home exercise.
So, today was a very positive experience. Yay!

Thank you to all of you with your concern, support and positive words of encouragement. You are all joyfully lifting me up and making me feel like I actually can heal and become strong and mobile in no time at all.
I am definetly taking heed of your words that my rehab and healing is not a competition and that I should go at my own pace and not overdo it. Monica, my PT backed all of you up on that, so I sure do appreciate it.

((Hugs)) to you all, my bloggy friends!!

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Now it's time to say thank you to my special blog friend, Andrea over at the always interesting and adorable Swamp Suburbia. She has the cutest kids and the most precious pups, too. Oh and she has horses. And her man cooks and makes homemade suckers! Gotta love that.
Andrea sent me a care package with suckers for each of my family members. (Andrea, tell me what flavors they are, ok? If you don't then I'll have to open each one up and take a lick, to make sure I pick the yummiest for me, before sharing them with my fam, lol!)
Andrea also sent a beautiful photo frame with one of my most favorite photos of me and my mare, Baby Doll! I cried when I saw it. I truly did. It touched me and made me decide that I wasn't going to wait any longer to get up to the barn to visit my special painted girl. (More on this later....) Thank you Andrea! You're a great friend!

Also arriving in the mail today was a package from my favorite candy company in the entire world. English Toffee Anytime!! Last month I had just barely slipped in to participate in the Free Give-Away over at Andrea's blog, and I was sent a box of scrumptious toffee...and devoured it mostly by myself, in short order. So yummy!
Well, Ron, of English Toffee Anytime found out that I fell off my horse and was goin through surgery and asked his Toffee Elves to send me another package of toffee to give me sustenance and the strength to go on, after my surgery. Hey Ron, and the Toffee Elves.....It's working. Thank you!!!

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And guess what else happened?

Jocelyn over at For the Love of a Horse held a little contest a few days ago and invited me to enter. I love her blog not just because she's a paint horse sister, with a gorgeous bling-bling chrome princess named Star, but also because she knows how to keep it real. And she's hilarious, too.
Well, she asked to Star to pick the winner of the contest, and Star picked me! How awesome is THAT?! I've never been chosen by a horse to win anything before. Yay!
Thank you Star and Jocelyn!
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Well, I bet you want to know what the "Nuzzled" part of my title post is all about, right? Well, I just couldn't take it any longer. I just had to go to the barn and visit with my critters. The weather was on my side and the mud had dried up, so after my PT appointment, hubby drove me up to see my critters!!!! You all know how excited I was now, don't you?

I remembered to take my camera with me, just so you all could come along with me and visit my special animals, too.

Join me!

As soon as we opened the gate to drive up, Baby Doll was right there. She seemed to know something was up, and when the door was opened, eagerly popped her head in to say Hello. This is when my smile showed up....and it didn't leave until my visit was over.
The llamas, goats and sheep saw the van and heard me calling them and excitedly headed up for the barn.
Catlinite, our gelding male llama, who is usually very reserved around me, seemed perplexed and curious. Remember he, and my other animals haven't seen me for 3 weeks. But I don't think they forgot me. yay!
John went in the tack room to get Baby Doll a few cookies and Jenna was happy to visit with Baby Doll first.
Baby Doll got a bit confused and couldn't figure out how to get closer to me. She tried to reach through the front door window. Silly girl!
And then it was my turn. I called my mare over to side door of the van and I was in horse nirvana. I was so happy, just talking with my girl, petting, scratching, breathing in that earthy horse smell, nuzzling, just being. I'm not usually sappy, but I was crying tears of joy. Here are some photos that John took while I was getting my Baby Doll Fix.

Check out my fancy painted yak! lol! She's so furry, she even grew a beard! hehe


Baby Doll was very interested in my injured leg and kept taking a few moments to sniff and nuzzle my leg. She was very gentle and sweet and seemed to be worried about the changes surrounding my leg. I wonder if she knows or remembers and understands. I wish she could tell me.

Since the ground was dry, I couldn't help myself, and decided to get out and visit the woolies, too. Cataleya, my lovely female llama, was expressing herself with humming, and she nuzzled her head into my hands so I could scratch her cheeks and rub her ears. Her eyes got all droopy and she really seemed glad to see me. I was thrilled to see her, too.
All the goats, Mud Pie, Moon Pie, Pepper, Luna and Latte wanted some loving and I was happy to oblige.
Svetlana, the Karakul sheep came close for some chin scratches, but Blanca the Churro is too cautious around Luna, my Angora goat. Luna isn't very nice to her and head butts her whenever Blanca tries to get near me. I wonder if Luna's jealous?
I could have spent all day up there, but I was fading fast and getting achy, so it was time to say good bye.
Baby Doll, my sweet mare, stayed close and seemed to understand our visit had come to an end. I think she was pouting a little.
"Hey! Let me in, Mom! I wanna come home with you. I promise I'll be good and won't break.......much".
What a fantabulous day! Three weeks is way too long to go without nuzzling a horse, llama or goat.

How about you? What did you fill your time with all day?
Did you nuzzle a critter? Or get zapped?

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