WATTYS 2019
Emily Martin, your typical seventeen-year-old girl. well, kind of. For the past fourteen years, she's been living with her aunt, Hannah, who just happens to breed and train some of Florida's finest horses. Emily's life had always been lo...
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"Is he alright?" I grimaced as I heard the pitiful noises coming from Leo's room.
Molly sighed. "He'll be fine. It's been happening a few times a day since the accident."
She was referring to the intense vomiting session Leo was having right now. We decided to leave him alone with Kendall, Dr. Kelley, and a nurse so he could have some privacy. We were sitting on the floor in the hallway next to each other.
"What else has he been hiding from me?" I asked.
"Other than dizzy spells and constant sleeping?" she replied. "Not much."
I groaned and leaned my head back against the wall. "I've been trying to get him to talk to me but nothing's working."
"I wouldn't worry too much about it," she looked over at me. "He probably doesn't want you seeing him as weak."
"I hate that he thinks he has to be all macho around me," I sighed.
"He'll open up," Molly said as she leaned back and shut her eyes. We could still hear Leo struggling in the nearby room.
About ten minutes later, Kendall and Dr. Kelly emerged from the room.
"Alright, we have some things to discuss," Dr. Kelly said. "He's obviously been having more and more vomiting episodes and dizzy spells, but that's a sign that his brain is healing. I don't know if you guys have noticed, but his vision has been slightly improving. He told us he's able to slightly see shadows now - he said he could see my shadow when I stood in front of the bright window."
"What does that mean for his prognosis?" I asked, sitting up.
"Well, it means he won't be totally blind," he explained. "But, it also doesn't guarantee that he'll be able to see again. His improvement is good, although I don't know how much more it will improve."
-
After a long day at the hospital, Molly and I headed to the barn to work with T. "We'll see how he's feeling today, and we'll work from there," I said as the two of us worked to tack him up. I grabbed my handy blindfold and brought him to the empty indoor arena for minimal distractions.
"Alright, let's do this again," I mumbled as I pulled my blindfold down. Titan again was extremely responsive and sensitive. He allowed me to trot and canter him both directions, with Molly calling out cues and warnings. I kept it simple, didn't make him overexert himself and praised him heavily when he did something well. Our only issue was staying on the rail. It was very difficult to know where I was on the rail, when I had to bend, and so on so forth. I knew that would come with practice and experience, but it was still disorienting not knowing where in the ring I was.
"Okay, I want you to hop on now," I said as I jumped off. I handed her my helmet and blindfold. "The hardest part is knowing where you are in the ring. If we want him to do dressage with Leo, that's going to be an important part of it."
"Got it," she said as she pulled the blindfold off atop Titan. "I can try some drills that might be able to increase my awareness. Hopefully, it'll work for Leo too. Just call out what letters I'm at, approaching, et cetera."
I watched as Molly trotted T around. I called out her location and helped her out the best I could. She attempted serpentines, circles, direction changes, you name it. The more direction I gave her, the better she did, but dressage was her forté. She knew the dressage ring like the back of her hand. Leo, on the other hand, did not. It would be much more difficult for him to do what she was so effortlessly doing.
"What are we thinking?" Molly asked as she stopped Titan by me and pulled the blindfold off.
"I'm thinking that we're going to have lots of work to do with Leo."
aaggggh these short chapters are killing me! i at least hope they're interesting and entertaining!
