Many Firsts

This has been a season of firsts.  I fell off E Z Dollar for the first time, we scheduled our first hunter pace, we lived through our first freak October snowstorm and the subsequent cancellation of our first hunter pace, EZ got his first laming injury, and recovered from said injury.

Mid-October was a pretty wet month, and riding through the woods down towards the lake we encountered a nice big sloppy puddly area.  Perfect water obstacle practice!  It is dark in the woods and always pretty spooky anyway, and this nice puddle was muddy, deep and dark and filled with floating sticks.  EZ did not love it.  We walked through part of it to dry land, then ventured back in.  EZ caught sight of a board floating near his left front and did a gymnastic hop through the air away from it, and I ungracefully parted ways with him. Pro of being in the mini lake: soft!  Con: very wet.  EZ scuttled to dry land and then stood there nervously.  He seemed a bit ashamed.  I clambered back on and we hauled back and fort through the wetness some more.  It really was the perfect experience of a fall--he reacted in the best possible way, without getting freaked or sassy, just was sort of like, whoops, sorry, won't let it happen again.

This could have been me.  But don't worry, it wasn't.

Then we were off to getting fit for the hunter pace that KC invited us to go along to.  I bought royal blue stuff so we'd be matching and everything.  Would've been adorable!  I was worried about getting him in shape enough--the length of a pace is certainly farther and more strenuous than the ringwork we had been doing.  Cathleen chaperoned us across the brook to the hayfields on the other side, and we both realized it was the perfect place to exercise.  I was so proud of EZ going across the brook like a pro all by himself the next day.

Brook crossing, as demonstrated by Steve and Donovan last spring.  It's sorta higher now.

Finding the time to get a good ride in was hard though.  Coaching field hockey meant my afternoons were taken, and I have early morning classes.  A few times I showed up at Indian Pond Farm before the sun rose and we headed off to the fields just as it was making an appearance.  I had a minorly embarrassing display of emotion during faculty meetings when it was suggested we needed to spend more time during duty on the weekends, as I was sensitive of trying to find time to get off campus and ride.

Fall hay fields modeled by Kathleen and Donovan during her recent appearance

And in the end, it was all for naught, unfortunately.  October 30th, luckily right at the end of the school Halloween dance I was chaperoning, the power went out due to the extreme amounts of snow we received.  All in all our area got 20 inches and was without power (and school!) for 3 days.  The damage to trees and trails meant that the hunter pace was canceled, and with it our opportunity for getting out this season.  Now we'll have to wait until next spring!

View from my apartment window the morning after the storm

A few weeks later  I went home at around lunchtime on an unseasonably warm Wednesday to ride before our field hockey game.  When I went to get EZ from the field I thought something was wrong immediately.  He just seemed weird.  He was sweaty and downtrodden seeming, but I thought it was probably just the warm weather after growing out his winter coat.  I tied him up in the barn and stood studying his heavy breathing.  I unclipped him quickly and brought him down to the house, where Philippa and John were having lunch--I wanted to catch them before they left and get a second opinion if they thought he was acting weirdly.
John took a look at his breathing and sweaty self and agreed that most likely it was just the weather; probably he'd be ok with a light ride, we could see how it went.  But as I turned to walk him away John said, "You know he has a big cut on his right hind, right?"  Nope, no, I did not know that.  John took a look at it and pulled out the remnants of a barb from a wire.  Ouch.  I cleaned it up, and it was pretty gross.  One deep slash on the back of his fetlock, near the bulb of his heal, sourrounded by more superficial scrapes.  His leg was slightly swollen about halfway up and he wasn't putting full weight on it.  It didn't seem infected though, so we agreed that a regiment of cleaning and antibiotics would clear it up.

I found some SMZs belonging to Cathleen to feed him, and knew it wouldn't be a problem to get him to take them in grain--dude is pretty food obsessed.  He was anxious during the cleaning process, being away from the rest of the herd, and when I finished he absolutely jetted off, carrying his injured leg aloft.  The whole thing was a bummer, but on the scale of injuries, a pretty lucky one--shouldn't be any lasting damage.

We realized that the antibiotics had expired years ago, and I called the vet to see if we could get some more.  After describing the injury she thought it best to come out and check it out.  Only the best for EZ boy.  Of course though, it was the day of our last field hockey practice and team dinner.  I hated missing it.

Field Hockey Practice, when it was warmer.

While waiting for the vet to arrive I did a search of the field and found the offending string of barbed wire.  The old cow fence was obstructed by brush, except up at the very corner, where brush had been removed to separate the old pasture.  Of course, EZ had found it.  I found bits of his hair on the wire, and even where the missing barb came from, and immediately alerted Mr. Dad Fix It.  The vet concurred with our current treatment plan and gave us fresh SMZs and jumped back in her car to get away from the cold as soon as possible.

Two weeks later, I was concerned that the thing was still not better.  It was no longer swollen, it didn't look infected, it just looked like it had not closed at all.  It was in an awkward place, constantly flexing when he moved, so I didn't want to ride him until it looked better, and I wanted it to look better!  I called Ronan and asked if he would take a look at it when he came to pick up Aiofe from mom. I sent him a picture of the wound and he came that afternoon armed with all the supplies.  After a thorough cleaning he applied a topical penicillin cream and wrapped it, and recommended putting him back on SMZs for another week.

Not for the faint of heart, right?  Kinda gross.

 

Even with a poop ball for scale!

Two days later the improvement was amazing--fresh, pink healthy skin was already appearing.  It was really interesting what a difference the new treatment plan had.  Ronan had told me that if it looked like proud flesh was developing, to add a paste of aspirin, so I incorporated it into the routine.  It was becoming quite the process!  I wanted to send a picture of the nearly healed wound to Ronan as proof of the healing, but it was Thanksgiving, and that seemed like it might be a little offputting to the eating of the turkey, as appropriate as it would've been, seeing as how thankful for it I was.

Much improved!

I rode EZ the next day, and he seemed happy to be back in work, and the perfect gentleman.  He even gave a pony ride to my 9 year old niece afterward.  When she left following the holiday she instructed me to let me know when he was all healed up, as she as acted as my apprentice in the complicated healing process--stirring the SMZs into the food and reminding me not to forget the aspirin.

Medicine mixer: All action shots courtesy of Kath

Doctoring it up

Dad took up Project Remove All Barbed Wire with a vengeance, and I sort of helped him a few days over Thanksgiving break.  It's all officially out! (Except for a tiny section impossible to reach until we--the royal we--pull out some bushes)

Mr Fix It strikes again, hauling out old wire and poles.

Now that fall has drifted away it's time to make some winter plans!