A good friend of mine was recently in a terrible car accident and broke both legs and her ankle. Several surgeries later she is now on mainly bed rest, some wheel chair time, and obviously NO riding or even visits to the barn. For those of you who have been in somewhat similar situations- any ideas for a gift/ care package I can take her when I go home for thanksgiving? I’m away at grad school- we are old 4H friends 
Our only common link is the horses…otherwise we are very different-so I’m having a tough time thinking of anything that won’t make her miss riding. General likes besides horses are theater, photography, and art.
What do yall think? What helped you pass the time?
I think that if I were in her shoes, having you do something for my horses that I can not do myself would mean the most.
Unfortunately I’m only going to be in town Wed-Sat for Thanksgiving- was going to make a horse visit then, but wanted to give a gift or something that she could enjoy more long term… if only I lived closer!
I love the Jackie Kennedy coffee table book - A Private Passion. Lovely, lovely photos and stories of the Camelot days. There is another I can’t remember the title of, but it’s nonfiction and written by a man who bought an old house in hunt country and the interactions with the horse folk. The title has the word “country” in it…
I love jigsaw puzzles. My Grand-daughter gave me one with a couple in their later years driving a buggy and two horses. I love the picture. We get together over the weekends and she has several really lovely ones we put together. I think the lady would have fun doing one with horses on it.
sadlmakr
Horse Heaven by Jane Smiley.
Is she ‘crafty’ at all? In a similar situation I did crafts. Two ideas spring to mind…any craft store right now has lots of ‘make an ornament’ kits (mostly stringing beads). Easy and seasonally useful. My other idea is the horse hair bracelet kit.
Dressage Extensions has it …cool idea…use a bit of tail or mane hair from her horse.
How about a book?
I’m loving the Eighty Dollar Champion right now and I loved Sarah Gruen’s Riding Lessons and Flying Changes (although MANY people on these boards hated those two).
If I were in her shoes, I’d be reading my brains out.
COUNTRY MATTERS by Michael Korda is the book I was trying to remember!!1 Loved it! Also HorsePeople, same author.
There are a lot of really gorgeous coffee table books on horses right now, if you want to tie in the photography and horses.
When I was “laid up” in the hospital, I liked puzzle books (logic, crossword, sudoku), trashy magazines, and embarrassingly, coloring books. I’ll be honest, any mention of horses or dogs made me miss my own horse and dog terribly. (Yet, I watched Animal Planet almost unceasingly - and cried most of the time!) One of my friends (who knew I was struggling with missing Gabby and Frank) came by with nail polish, flowers, a Burts’ Bees toiletry kit, magazines, candy, etc. I loved it, and it made me feel a little more “normal” and like myself. It’s not very horsey, but those little things helped me a lot!
