It's been a hell of a year. First my pony, who I let the lesson program use in exchange for his board, pulled up lame. The first vet call couldn't find anything, so we injected him with a steroid so swelling could go down and then re-visited later that week (so already right there is several hundred dollars) to diagnose him with a flexor manica tear.

Several months of stall rest, several months of rehab, before he can go back into the lesson program. So I'm paying not only his rehab, but his board, which doubled my costs and threw a wrench in my plan as I'd been planning on breeding my mare this year.

Then my other mare started acting odd, and we had to hire a different (more expensive) dentist to float her, as the other one hadn't done a great job. More money I did not anticipate spending.

And then she outgrew my saddle. Had to sell that, yay, at a loss, and then make a down payment on a custom saddle. It took months to recover from the cost of the first set of vet bills for me to save up that money AND have enough set aside to pay the breeding fees because fuck it, if I don't breed now it'll be another set of emergencies keeping me from doing it.

So finally, money is sorted. I take my mare down to Ocala to be bred. I pick her up Saturday, they said they'll bill me sometime this week, I said okay great thank you, and then....

Sunday, my cat was not okay.

As in, presenting neurological symptoms. So I rush him off to an emergency vet and spend $1400 and 4 hours only to be told that he has a 'fever'. They give him some painkillers, perk him right up, and send him home. I'm very unhapy. Monday, he's worse, and paralyzed in his hind end, so I run off to a different emergency vet and they diagnose him with vestibular disease. It took them half an hour and $250 to do it, so I'm furious at the first vet for A) missing that and B) charging so goddamn much.

I mean, I'll pay it a thousand times over. I don't have the money. But I'd find a way.

Then I get the bill from the breeding place today. $1400. Sorry, I just spent that money at the other vet. Can I do a payment plan? They're okay with it, thank goodness, I'm emailing the receptionist, then my regular equine vet emails me with ANOTHER invoice because I have five horses because I do not make good life decisions.

Deep breath. Everything will be fine.

Then I get a call from the mechanic, because my truck is there for an $50 oil change. Did I know I needed my brakes replaced? And there's a coolant leak? That'll be a thousand dollars, thank you.

Don't get me wrong. I'm grateful. I'm so grateful that my animals are all safe and healthy now. I'm grateful that my vets and the reproductive clinic and the mechanic are happy and understanding to take a payment plan from me for a while.

But I guess today was the final straw. My truck doing me like that just felt a little personal.

It's fine. Most of this is self-inflicted, as anybody who gets into animals will say. Everything will be fine. But I wish being fine wasn't so expensive. 😂😭