I haven’t done a whole lot of riding over the past couple of weeks. If dealing with a sore hip hasn’t been enough, I developed a really bad sinus infection about 2 weeks ago. Horrific sinus pain and headaches. Not fun. I managed a pathetic base time for 2pointober (1:31), but didn’t really ride much more that week. I ended up at the doctors and on antibiotics by Thursday a week ago.

However, even with the antibiotics, the sinus pressure didn’t improve all that much. I managed to teach lesson last weekend and struggled through 2 trail rides (and upped my 2point to 5:03 on one trail ride and was back down to 2:51 on the other) and started to finally feel better. Then the tooth pain began. On top of everything else, I started having tooth pain. I stayed home from work on Monday (as well as Friday and 1/2 on Thursday last week) and with regular ibuprofen, finally had some pain free moments. Returned to work on Tuesday (and had an evening workshop I forgot about which made a long day…longer) and made it through. Wednesday wasn’t good, but it was our anniversary so I went to work as well as out to dinner with my husband. Some point on Wednesday I realized the pain was now mostly in my mouth and I needed to see a dentist. I have a huge fear of the dentist and basically freaked out when I realized I needed to go. I called the local dental office and they could see me the next day, Thursday.

By Wednesday night, the ibuprofen was doing nothing (even taking 4 at a time) though somehow I managed to do OK out to dinner (up until this point I was more or less just eating bread and plain pasta as everything else upset my stomach thanks to antibiotics and pain meds), but overnight I contemplated the ER due to pain. Somehow I survived the night at home and in the morning had my dentist appointment. My wonderful mother came down to help me with the dentist (again, truly petrified of the dentist) and the office staff was very nice (probably understanding how much dental anxiety I have). Turns out, in addition to probably having TMJ, I also needed a nasty root canal in one of my molars. Due to the placement, I was referred to a specialist who could get me in that afternoon. Petrified, my mother drove me to that appointment and they did the root canal. That said, as nice as the regular dentist was, if the specialist had a general practice, I’d be moving over there. He made it so that I didn’t even feel the needles for the novocain and gave me a whole lot (past oral surgery experience had novocain wear off mid procedure). The actual root canal didn’t hurt and the wonderful dentist managed the novocain so well that only a tiny portion of my mouth was numb. Pretty impressive.

Since the appointment the pain had decreased though I’m still taking regular ibuprofen and I was never quite able to kick the sinus infection and am now on round 2 of antibiotics (which my stomach still hates). So, I’m still shuffling around, but hopefully on the mend.

On Saturday, Erik and I went out to Fair Hill to watch cross country all day. My camera died so no photos, but it was still a really nice day. But COLD. I’m pretty sure there was a massive grey cloud (and some rain drops) that settled over Fair Hill for most of the day.

Hermione’s 3rd cross country day at Fair Hill

Marble’s first Fair Hill

So sleepy after a long, hard day.

So cold that, unfortunately, when I got home, I had to pull out blankets for the boys. We weren’t ready for below freezing temps. Today wasn’t much better and tonight’s going to be colder. That said, I should be able to pull blankets either tomorrow morning or Tuesday morning. Just need to check out weather.

Today’s cold weather also had a whole bunch of strange rain showers. I left around 1 to meet my mom and it was sunny and 49*. When I left to head back home an hour or so later, it was 46* and drizzling. I drove home through rain showers and sun and clouds. I got home and it was 42*. Seriously crazy weather changes over the course of 2 hours.

Despite the weather, I did ride when I got home but decided to stick with Batt and not bother with Subi. With the sudden gusts of wind and the rain/sun/storm clouds/tornado winds (ok, not exactly), it was probably a wise choice. That said, I wasn’t feeling it and neither was Batt. Just one of those days. We started off with a lovely round of 2 point 7:21.95 in the round pen. I tried to do the 2 point as a warm up, but since Batt hates the round pen, it was interesting. Instead of a nice forward walk, we moved between shuffling our feet at the walk (I forgot my crop…), cantering, and trotting (pretty much in that order). After 7 minutes or so, I hurt and we were both annoyed. We did some trot and canter sets on the hill and we survived (I asked for the canter right as a gust of wind came up behind us) before heading into the woods to finish up. Getting in the woods was more of a fight than normal (lots of wind and flying leaves), but he was pretty good once we started working. Of course, at the end of our ride, we had a huge (for batt) spook at the canter. Not at a flying tree branch, not at stuff falling from the trees, not at any of the normal things. No, Batt spooked at the jolly ball that Marble was running after in the yard. Of course, spooking really consisted as trying to turn sideways while cantering before slamming on the breaks and acting like a giraffe. It was really kind of funny. But, he survived and we finished up before calling it a day.

Too much 2point.

Not feeling it and certainly not impressed. Practicing our angry face…

Alert ears at flying debris