It's not horse related but it is very much part of my horse story. On May 1st, I successfully defended my dissertation for my Doctorate of Business Administration. My frantic four years of graduate school has come to an end and I am now Dr. Catie. Yay!
Some days it still seems like something I dreamed up. I wake up thinking I've still got homework to do or more reading that needs to be completed or some discussion posts to write. I expect I'll be one of those doctoral students that needs six months of self care after they complete their dissertation. After my successful defense I immediately went into a massive funk and felt terrible as my body suddenly stopped producing stress hormones like it was a full time job. I had to beg Trainer Z for mercy in my lesson and we ended up working my walk pirouettes. I thought I'd just rebound and be free but no, the past four years won't be that easy to shake off. It's going to take some time for me to undo everything I did to myself in pursuit of my two graduate degrees.
But the important goal was met, I defended my dissertation before show season. I am now able to focus on getting Theo out there and chasing that Bronze medal. We ran through the test again and I genuinely feel comfortable with my test now. It's not a stretch, it's where we're comfortable. This weekend we have two attempts with two day shows. I'm glad it's a pair of day shows since I also had Theo scoped today.
Guess what, we've got ulcers! Not 'omg injectables emergency' ulcers but he is on omeprazole and sucralfate for the next 28 days. He'd been girthy in the past two weeks so I wasn't surprised. Now I know for sure what's going on and we're going to tackle it head on. He's always been rather ulcer prone, he stresses. Even with his ideal set up with Trainer Z, he's delicate. Vet wasn't worried and thinks they'll clear up with the standard treatment. We'll rescope in a month to check up on him.
We've also had x-rays done of his teeth and his front feet as a baseline, nothing wrong. We had his fasted blood work done for metabolic stuff. Got his hocks done and completed another course of Adequan. He got floated. I've really checked him nose to toes at this point and if all we find is ulcers on my 20 year old Third level horse? We're doing good. He's been feeling awesome under tack and I can only imagine how good he'll feel after ulcer treatment.
Day shows are less stressful for him since he'll get to sleep in his stall at night and roll in his turn out. Since I'm going solo (Trainer Z got injured and I'm definitely able to handle showing alone) I'm glad I'm not setting up a stall and handwalking for hours. We'll show up, do our one test, and head home. With our ride times, the whole thing will be done in 24 hours with 4 hours in the trailer. 5:30 pm on Saturday and 8:30am on Sunday. I'm going to sleep in my truck in Trainer Z's parking lot because I'm not unhooking with that short of a time at the barn. Show, park, unload Theo, flop in my truck and sleep, get up, load Theo, show again.
I don't know how we're going to do with my brain still rebooting and going out on our own but we're definitely chasing that Bronze now. And all of that brain power I was using on school stuff can start to redirect on Theo. Poor baby.
Congrats on defending your dissertation and getting your doctorate!!! And I'm glad Theo has a plan moving forward for his ulcers.
ReplyDelete