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Weekend Horse Riding
Feb. 23rd, 2004 11:26 amThis past weekend at Mitch's place was quite the learning experience.
As usual, I brought my dog, Joey, with me. Joey is a hound and a puppy so letting him roam loose is an unwise proposition. But when we got to Mitch's there were no less than five dogs running around and Joey wanted to play. So I let him off the leash. I knew there was a chance he'd pick up a scent and disappear into the woods (there's something on the order of 350 acres of woods there) but I had enough faith in Joey and he seemed more interested in the other dogs than anything else.
So we went in, helped out, watched Sc ride. Then St started to ride and the horse got a little spooked a) the dogs barking outside and then b) a crashing sound. Soon after we heard the dogs parking more and Mitch's wife calling for help. Mitch asked me to see if my dog was in on whatever was going on so I ran outside to find Joey and several other dogs sitting by the door with that "I didn't do it" look on their faces. I picked up Joey and saw Co trying to get a horse inside and asking for help. Then I saw the blood, everywhere.
Apparently this one horse has figured out how to open gates. She did exactly that and had managed to work her way over to some loose metal where she cut herself open and was bleeding like a stuck pig. Right by the hove.
We got the horse inside, got the horses that were in the ring untacked and put away, I did some dog wrangling. And then all focus was on Star. We took turns applying pressure to the wound which we thought was an artery or a vein. She was just bleeding too much. We were waiting for what seemed like an hour for the vet to arrive. We also took turns comforting Star, holding her head and keeping her calm. For the most part it worked, but after I was relieved from comforting, I walked behind St and the horse panicked and reopened the wound (it had stopped bleeding some). So it was back to square one and since we weren't sure why Star panicked, I was on comfort duty until the vet was done.
The vet finally arrived and confirmed it was an artery. It would have taken the horse a long time to bleed to death but the fact we were holding it shut helped. He was content to let it bleed out some but clamped it up and sutured the artery back together. Was probably an hour and a half to two hours from the time the horse stuck itself to when we got her into a stall. She got shots and stitched and bandaged up and seemed, for the most part, just fine.
Then P and I went to grab lunch while Sc and St got their lessons and Sc's horse was lunged. We got back and P had his lesson then I had mine.
My own lesson felt really good. I was posting well when I didn't have to worry about steering, ie: Mitch had Sparky on a lunge line. Even holding the reigns I was fine. But once I started jogging without the lunge line, my trotting went to shit. Overall, I had improved greatly from my previous lesson. Maybe it was having been around the horses all day. Maybe it was being tired from stripping stalls, moving hay, etc. Maybe I just relaxed finally.
Star getting injured was bad but we learned an awful lot from it. A lesson we never could have got otherwise. Almost everyone kept their heads and the horses didn't panic.
Oh yeah, when I went to retrieve Joey later, he wasn't far from the ring and when I called him he came running to me. He missed me. Then he went and found a scent and I had to run after him. DOH!
As usual, I brought my dog, Joey, with me. Joey is a hound and a puppy so letting him roam loose is an unwise proposition. But when we got to Mitch's there were no less than five dogs running around and Joey wanted to play. So I let him off the leash. I knew there was a chance he'd pick up a scent and disappear into the woods (there's something on the order of 350 acres of woods there) but I had enough faith in Joey and he seemed more interested in the other dogs than anything else.
So we went in, helped out, watched Sc ride. Then St started to ride and the horse got a little spooked a) the dogs barking outside and then b) a crashing sound. Soon after we heard the dogs parking more and Mitch's wife calling for help. Mitch asked me to see if my dog was in on whatever was going on so I ran outside to find Joey and several other dogs sitting by the door with that "I didn't do it" look on their faces. I picked up Joey and saw Co trying to get a horse inside and asking for help. Then I saw the blood, everywhere.
Apparently this one horse has figured out how to open gates. She did exactly that and had managed to work her way over to some loose metal where she cut herself open and was bleeding like a stuck pig. Right by the hove.
We got the horse inside, got the horses that were in the ring untacked and put away, I did some dog wrangling. And then all focus was on Star. We took turns applying pressure to the wound which we thought was an artery or a vein. She was just bleeding too much. We were waiting for what seemed like an hour for the vet to arrive. We also took turns comforting Star, holding her head and keeping her calm. For the most part it worked, but after I was relieved from comforting, I walked behind St and the horse panicked and reopened the wound (it had stopped bleeding some). So it was back to square one and since we weren't sure why Star panicked, I was on comfort duty until the vet was done.
The vet finally arrived and confirmed it was an artery. It would have taken the horse a long time to bleed to death but the fact we were holding it shut helped. He was content to let it bleed out some but clamped it up and sutured the artery back together. Was probably an hour and a half to two hours from the time the horse stuck itself to when we got her into a stall. She got shots and stitched and bandaged up and seemed, for the most part, just fine.
Then P and I went to grab lunch while Sc and St got their lessons and Sc's horse was lunged. We got back and P had his lesson then I had mine.
My own lesson felt really good. I was posting well when I didn't have to worry about steering, ie: Mitch had Sparky on a lunge line. Even holding the reigns I was fine. But once I started jogging without the lunge line, my trotting went to shit. Overall, I had improved greatly from my previous lesson. Maybe it was having been around the horses all day. Maybe it was being tired from stripping stalls, moving hay, etc. Maybe I just relaxed finally.
Star getting injured was bad but we learned an awful lot from it. A lesson we never could have got otherwise. Almost everyone kept their heads and the horses didn't panic.
Oh yeah, when I went to retrieve Joey later, he wasn't far from the ring and when I called him he came running to me. He missed me. Then he went and found a scent and I had to run after him. DOH!
