Justin B. Long - More Adventures of the Horse Doctors Husband

More Adventures of the Horse Doctors Husband

Justin B. Long

More Adventures of the Horse Doctors Husband

This is a work of creative nonfiction. The events are portrayed to the best of Justin B. Longs memory. While all the stories in this book are true, some names and identifying details have been changed to protect the privacy of the people and animals involved.

Copyright 2020 Justin Boyd Long

Written by Justin B. Long

www.JBoydLong.com

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by reviewers, who may quote brief passages in a review.

Published in the United States by Springhill Media

Newberry, Florida, USA

https://SpringhillEquine.com

Cover Design by: My Custom Book Cover

Limits of Liability and Disclaimer Warranty:

The author shall not be liable for your misuse of this material. This book is strictly for entertainment purposes.

First edition printing February 2020

ISBN 978-1-948169-26-4 (Ebook Edition)

ISBN 978-1-948169-27-1 (Paperback Edition)

ISBN 978-1-948169-28-8 (Hardcover Edition)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2019920776

Other books by Justin B. Long

Adventures of the Horse Doctors Husband

Other books by Justin B. Long, written under the pseudonym J. Boyd Long

THE DIMWORLD SERIES

Genesis Dimension

When Good Plans Go Bad

Inside The Machine

Table of Contents

C hapter 1. Introductions Are in Order

Chapter 2. If You Mess with the Bull, You Get the Horn

Chapter 3. What You Dont Know Can Hurt You

Chapter 4. Just Hanging Out

Chapter 5. Gerald and the Rental Sheep

Chapter 6. Ernies Entrapment

Chapter 7. A Load of Sand

Chapter 8. Seriously, Those Donkeys

Chapter 9. A Rough Start to the New Year

Chapter 10. Visiting Highway

Chapter 11. Just Follow My Nose

Chapter 12. Im Not Crazy, Youre Crazy

Chapter 13. A Pain in the Neck

Chapter 14. Expert Supervision

Chapter 15. You Ate What?

Chapter 16. The Recipe for Disaster

Chapter 17. Double Trouble

Chapter 18. Stuck in a Loop

Chapter 19. The Sharp Tongue

Chapter 20. Wild Child

Chapter 21. Final Thoughts

For Erica, who lives fearlessly and loves unconditionally

Chapter 1

Introductions Are in Order

I f you havent read the first book in this series, Adventures of the Horse Doctors Husband , then Ill take a minute and get you caught up on all the important stuff, like who I am, and what this is all about. Youll probably want to read that book too, but if this one is in your hand and that one isnt nearby, well go with what weve got. You gotta start somewhere, right?

My name is Justin Long, and Im married to Dr. Erica Lacher, a famous equine veterinarian in the horse world. A lot of people around the world listen to our podcast, Straight from the Horse Doctors Mouth , which is all about horse health, and how to make the world a better place for your horse. We own Springhill Equine Veterinary Clinic in Newberry, Florida, which Erica has been captaining since 2006. I married into all this; she did the hard work.

The first book has the long version of how we met, our amazing costume wedding (she was Lara Croft, Tomb Raider, and rappelled out of a tree to the altar rather than walking down the aisle. I was King Arthur from Monte Python), and how I ended up in this job, so Ill make this version short and sweet.

Like many people do, I picked the wrong person on the first try. Or, maybe she was the right person for me at that point in my life and helped me get to the next phase of my life, I dont know. She was (and still is) a wonderful person, but we stopped being right for each other at some point. So, after twelve years, at the ripe old age of 33, I found myself single, almost two years sober, and on an intense path of self-discovery and personal growth. I give a ton of credit to my mentor and my therapist for helping me evolve into a much better version of me than I had been up to that point. I worked my ass off too, and Ive learned that its important to acknowledge that. I was a group project.

When I was 38, I felt like I might be ready to try to find my soulmate. I had a few false starts, which is reasonable, since I hadnt dated in 18 years. My best friend, Kristen, convinced me to try out eHarmony.com and see who else was out there in the world. There was no one that matched me in my town, or even in the whole state of Georgia. A last-ditch nationwide search in June of 2014 showed two really strong matches. One lived in Oregon, and one lived in Florida. I started with the one in Florida, since that was reasonably close. Her name was Erica, and while I was excited to find her, I had absolutely no way of knowing how much she was going to change and improve my life. (Spoiler alert: It was a LOT!)

My therapist had helped me develop a list of things I was looking for in a partner, and as I got to know Erica, I determined that she met all thirty-one of my criteria. She was incredible in every way. At this point in my life, my struggling self-confidence wasnt sure what she saw in me that she liked so much, but my therapist helped me avoid sinking my own ship with all the nonsense that goes on in my head. We dated for nine months before I moved to Florida, and when wed been together for a year and a half, we got married.

My job plan in the beginning was to work somewhere else and stay removed from the veterinary clinic. That was Ericas thing, and I didnt know much about it. I certainly didnt want to barge in there as Ericas new husband and start screwing things up.

I dont know if it was coincidence or divine intervention, but I didnt find a job somewhere else. I have a pretty diverse skill set, but I just wasnt finding what I was looking for. Erica finally convinced me to start helping at the clinic. She needed someone to handle the bookkeeping and pay bills, run errands, and so on, and with some training, I stuck my toes in the water. It turns out that the water was fine, just fine.