Sigh.
When you are responsible for keeping horses in captivity, you simply CANNOT BE TOO CAREFUL.
The day after my victorious Instructor's Exam, we visited the farm for Tribble's belated birthday pizza. While my mom was in town picking up the goodies, I gathered up the horses for a quick ride. I tied the Little Lady to the barn while I hopped on Phoenix for a bareback-hackamore trip around the corral. When I came back ten minutes later, the mare had managed to slice open her forehead on some sneaky sharp object sticking out of the barn wall.
Needless to say, I feel like a very bad horse owner. I know from experience that every winter, the barn boards shift and nails often work their way loose. I usually go around with the hammer and pound in anything I find. I didn't do it this year. And now look at this. She's in pain, and it's going to cost me a good chunk of money to get her healed up. There's no option; an injury like this is way beyond what I'm trained for, or willing to work on. She didn't want me anywhere near it though, so I didn't realize at first how bad it was. I reached for my First Aid kit and quickly dusted it with a coagulant to try and dry up the bleeding until I could get a better look at it.
After supper I went out to check on her, and what I saw was not good. The cut was bleeding because of its location. Every time she swiveled her ear, which for a horse is constantly, the cut would open and close. By this time it had been about an hour since the injury and I could see how deep it was. I called the vet.
I'm going to admit here that I hesitated to call... an after-hours vet call is really expensive. Horses don't plan around vet hours. At least she had me there to take care of it, rather than leaving my Dad to make any decisions. I agonized over spending potentially hundreds of dollars I don't have, and called anyways. I'll find the money somewhere. I'll dig up some riding students. I'll sell something. She's worth it.
When Glen got there, I had both horses tied at the barn wall. This is after I'd sent Bucky out there with my hammer and said, "Find anything sharp, get mad at it for possibly cutting up your beloved little horse, and pound the crap out of it, until it's embedded permanently in the barn wall." Let's just say there are a lot of hammer dents in the wood now.
I told Glen I wanted to skip the fartin' around and just sedate her right away to avoid as much trauma as possible. He said it's the only way he does things now. He went up and gave her a friendly pat on the neck and stuck that needle in before she even felt it.
Soon she was drooping her head and twitching. I untied her lead rope and held her head while Glen needled the wound to freeze it. He got busy scrubbing the nasty cut. I told my kids they didn't have to get right close and see it all, but I did encourage them to hang around and be aware of the process. They're old enough. (Tribble took the pictures when the whole thing was done.)
Bucky stood by playing with Phoenix's bottom lip and telling us he'd seen more gruesome stuff than this.
"Really?" I asked. "You've really seen worse than this? In real life? Really?"
He thought about it. Then shrugged. "Nah. I guess this is the worst."
Tribble chose to back off but Bucky was right in there as Glen cleaned and irrigated, then cut the jagged edges cleanly and stitched it closed with his curved needle and clamps. I got my jar of "Swat" which repels flies and dabbed it on while she was still in a state of not giving a crap.
Just for prevention I put some under her eyes too. She usually wears a fly mask but I doubt she'll want it on for the next week.
Now I'll admit that I'm not only a bad horse owner for letting this happen, but I'm a bad person in general because... because... I think horses are... please don't hate me... I think horses are funny when they're stoned.
But come on, wouldn't you? The flappy lips, sideways ears? The way they stand there with all four legs splayed out? I mean, yes, it's pathetic, but it's also comical... I'm sorry, I really am. I feel awful about it, especially considering why a horse ends up in this state, but geez man, if you've seen it, you know what I mean. And now I feel really super awful about taking pics and posting them. (It's honestly for the sake of a cautionary tale. Don't let this happen to you!)
I'll tell you what's really sad though: some horses really are at their most manageable when they're like this. Glen said he's worked on some horses whose owners quick go untangle manes or some other maintenance before the drug wears off. I can't help but wonder why they even have that horse if they can't get close enough to it to take regular care of it.
It takes about an hour to wear off. As she started to snap out of it, I brushed her face with a soft brush to soothe her. I just felt so sorry for the poor little thing. She has the finest softest coat I've ever seen on a horse. She can be scuffed and skinned so easily, but luckily she heals fast too.
I kept on eye on her while she came back to life. Phoenix stayed tied up so he wouldn't harass her. I let her stay near the barn, slowly waking up.
She had a clammy sweat under her fur so I threw a sheet over her until she was okay again. Once she perked up a bit I offered her some water. We still had to wait another hour to feed her, to avoid the chance of choking.
Feeding has been a whole other thing, since her anti-biotic tablets have to be crushed and mixed with her feed, to trick her into eating them. She
knows, darnit, and she's a picky eater, so Mom and Dad have been trying everything to sneak her medication into her. Strawberry jam, apples and brown sugar, Aunt Jemima pancake syrup; so far she prefers strawberry jam but ate the grain around the apple chunks. She won't eat apples. Strange. We've got a few more ideas and I do hope she takes them and doesn't get any infection. If I was there with her, I'd just jam a needle full of penicillin into her buttocks and call it a day. I've done it before, I could do it again if I had to. Dad would rather not. He's sort of retired from needle duty now that he's not a working farmer anymore. Besides, she's tiny, but she's a heck of a lot bigger than a piglet.
I really hated leaving that evening, but I know she's in the good, caring hands of my parents. We've got good vets. Glen was the guy who took her case when she was a scrawny yearling with a fractured hind leg. I'll be making an appointment for him to remove the stitches in three weeks. And, I'll be back for a few visits to see how she's doing, and slather more of that pink bug repellant on her speckled face. Until then, I totally trust that she'll be well taken care of. And that Phoenix will be partially pink from her rubbing her face on him.
Oh, poor sad little horse! Mom called to say she's acting normal and not shaking her head anymore, so we assume it doesn't hurt like it did. But I beg all of you horse owners out there: please go out and check your horse's home for sharp things! It's a bit of work now that can save you a lot of pain and money later! And if you horse does get hurt, and it's more than you can handle, call your vet. I hope yours are as good as mine.
As you can see, the new shed is much bigger than the old shed. Jethro will be able to stand up straight in this one! Even I had to duck my head to get into the little tin shed, and I'm kind of short. Scrap tin anybody?
I'm lucky. My Dad and my husband work well together, and they love to build stuff. My dad was pretty impressed with Jethro's design skills. That's what growing up with a skilled cabinet maker for a dad will do for you. Jethro is also a ridiculous perfectionist. It drives me nuts sometimes - I've got the ADD impatience - but when it comes to sturdy construction, I appreciate the perfectionism.
So there we go... just a few more sheets of plywood and a couple of windows and we're movin' in. The kids are already discussing which of them gets to live in it. We have planned to build a loft or a second floor to make use of all that space, but at this point I just want to put the lawn mower and all the bikes under a roof that doesn't leak. 
However, at 10x10 feet, it's just the right size to be a one stall horse barn. Or a nice home for a little goat. A llama would fit in there real good! Oh- I know! A camel! Oh my gosh, wouldn't my neighbours like that! Actually I have told a few of my neighbours about my need for a yard-goat and they're all for it. I'd loan her out to eat down their weeds. I have exceptionally great neighbours. I've had twelve years to get them used to my farmerish ways, so I can get away with saying things like, "When my little barn is done, I'm gonna get a town-goat!" 
