Winter Dramas

(CW: laceration to a horse's face with pictures)

Highveld winter weather is some of the nicest we get all year. The nights are cold, going below freezing, but there's little wind and almost no rain and daytimes are balmy and comfortable, usually around 20C. It's one of the reasons why many of our major shows take place in midwinter, when they generally don't get rained out.

The only bummer when it comes to riding is that the daylight hours get pretty short, but I can still usually fit a horse or two in most days. With SANESA season heading toward winding down and the kiddos busy with exams and holidays, I was really looking forward to a productive riding winter. So far... that hasn't happened.

Because of the family member's mental health, I've taken over running the Jersey herd. It's really fun - also cows are amazing and do not spend 90% of their lives coming up with inventive new ways to be sick or injured - but has eaten my time somewhat while I adjust to the extra responsibility.

I also suspect I'm operating under a low-level sort of burnout. It's not the stressed, getting-no-sleep, one-meal-a-day, can't-keep-my-eyes-open burnout that I had last year, thank God (sincerely), just a vague sense of not having the emotional or physical energy for much. This autumn was really rough both emotionally and physically and I just need a minute to recover, I think. Something to focus on during the upcoming school holidays.

There are exciting things in the works, though. On Saturday, we dropped Thunder off at J's for the winter to get ready for Advanced and beyond. It was a really hard choice for me, because Thunny and I haven't ever really been separated for more than 8-9 days, and he's going to be away for three long months. But J made me an offer I couldn't refuse and honestly, it's just not fair on the big guy anymore. He's doing so well in his Medium work and riding him is so exciting and fun, but we're genuinely struggling with the pirouette canter and the pirouettes. That old issue of not having him active enough keeps biting me in the butt and I don't have the toolkit to fix it to the point where we can do a pirouette on my own. It's better for us both if he can learn the fancy tricks from an expert, and then teach them to me.

Also, thanks to the aforementioned loss of daylight, I just don't have the time to school all three. Thunder was the obvious choice to go for schooling and I'll have Arwen and Lancey at home to play with all winter. Plus, I get to visit him and ride him at J's, so it's really exciting. I'm so grateful for the chance to get Thunder produced to his full potential.

On the same day that we dropped Thunder off -- he immediately went to graze happily in his fancy new field, while I was a blubbering mess, sorry J -- Wynnie did this to her face.

(Mega gory photo below. Do not proceed if squeamish).

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(I did warn you).

At 6:15 when the guys fed her, she was fine. At 7:30 when they went to take her out, she had THIS on her head. It was difficult to see the full extent at that point, so I cleaned it up, put some antibiotic cream on, put her fly mask on and called the vet. He came out that afternoon, sedated her, injected some local anaesthetic, and then gently pulled the flaps of the wound aside to assess it.

And I looked at my baby horse's skull. At her BONE. I have seen my share of gross animal injuries (and gross human injuries as a first aider) but I'll admit my stomach did a little cartwheel at the sight.

The vet cleaned up the edges, flushed the wound, and sewed it up.

He was sure it would heal nicely, since the bone wasn't damaged, and it did look much nicer once it had been sutured. Then, a few days later, when I went to clean it a bunch of gunk came out of the top. I squeezed lightly and there was a glorious explosion of chunky yellow pus. Absolutely delightful at eight in the morning on a bellyful of eggs.

Despite the antibiotic injections and cleaning, there was an infection under the stitches and it was disgusting. Poor Wynnie's wound was puffy and red. I called the vet again and got instructions to continue the injections and flush the wound twice a day with lukewarm saline, then squirt a little penicillin directly into the wound. Let me tell you, I was not particularly looking forward to this activity with an 18-month-old horse. 

Despite my misgivings, Wynnie has been amazing. I used a lot of positive reinforcement to make the injections a non-event -- she now turns her head for a treat when she feels the needle -- but the flushings are still a bit of a wrestling match, understandably. They're sore and uncomfortable. I have my lovely groom M hold a bucket of the nicest muesli I have under her nose, and she chomps away while I flush the boo-boo. It's not fun for anybody, and she still moves her head around trying to escape, but there have been no fireworks. I'll take it.

fun fact: unlike her mom, Wynnie is a very cheap date

There was significantly less pus this morning, and her temperature has been fine even though she's off the flunixin now, so I think we're winning. Her magnificent stitches-on-a-Saturday vet bill is a whole 'nother story, but luckily I'm on the brink of finishing a novel so we'll be fine.

Despite being gross and dirty (my clippers have been in for repairs for 6 weeks now... yes, 6 weeks), Lancey is still managing to be a fantastically good boy. We're exploring more power in his gaits as well as playing with the later EM work, and yesterday we touched on the changes again. He gave me one each way, very clean and easy, after a few attempts, so we called it a day on that high note.

Arwen has been similarly fantastic. She still DRAGONLEAPS into her change from left to right, but the right to left one is easy and soft now, and she's significantly more supple. Once we have paid Wynnie's Bill of Magnificence I hope we might get to do some dressage this winter.

And old Skye is doing really well. Not quite as fat as she is in summer, but coping nicely on her soupy diet and wreaking general havoc when the lesson children are unwise enough to leave treats lying around.

It's chaotic, but we're okay.

God is good.