Had a little mishap this morning during turnout. All the horses had been out in the fields the day before, and with the warming trend the footing in most fields had improved. Three fields went without incident, but there was a problem leading Jake and Donny. I led them onto a patch of ice that was not porous and crunchy like the rest I'd encountered. By the time I realized how bad it was we were in the middle of it. Donny was okay, but Jake started to struggle, and all four feet went out from under him -- he hit the ice and sprawled out awkwardly. I maneuvered Donny away toward stabler footing while he tried to rise. How did I not see this ice? Poor Jake was repeatedly scrambling and falling. In desperation I went over and held his head down, saying sternly "Stay down!" Would you believe, he rolled on his side and laid there. I took Donny back to his stall, grabbed an armful of hay from an empty stall, and went back to Jake. I spread the hay around him, and it did the trick. He was able to get up, but as he rose I saw drops of blood on the ice. He was shaking as I led him into the barn. I put on a dry blanket, did a quick inspection, and called the barn manager.
She was out within 20 minutes. Thank goodness, Jake is fine. He's a spry little guy, I didn't know he was 27 years old. Poor boy! We figure he'll be sore for a few days. He has a bump on his rear cannon bone but aside from that he is well, all bandaged and banamined up. Ironically his owner could not come out to check on him because she had fallen on the ice the previous day.
Did I mention I HATE THIS ICE????
To top off the day, Riley stepped on my foot while I was changing his blanket. He had a "duh" look as I screamed "Get off me!" at volume 10. Guess Jake and I will both be a little sore.
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where did the blood come from? Is he all right?
ReplyDeleteOw, I hate when they step on your feet. Sometimes, I think they do it on purpose too. I had my big toe broken once. And my mom had her big toenail pulled completely off from a horse standing and shifting on her foot.
trust me here in montana.. i feel your pain with the ice stuff.. wreaks havoc...
ReplyDeletestay safe
gp in montana
Oh, poor Jake! Ice is terrible, that's why I haven't been doing anything with Gilly. Too much ice around here, but today a LOT of it melted, yippee!
ReplyDeleteHope you foot gets better too, that's painful!
OH!!! Crumb, thats sounds scary and hope all is really gonna be alright!
ReplyDeleteKK
I hate the ice too!! Fortunately, ours here in New Jersey melted today. We had a really bad spell right before Christmas and this last storm left patches, but not as bad.
ReplyDeleteIt scares me to think of a horse falling, let alone me. Poor Jake, but what a clever boy to listen to you about staying down so you could get that hay. And brilliant of you to think of that. Hope he is OK besides the cut. I do think he deserves an extra carrot or two--good tonic, you know.
Being the owner of a very senior horse, my heart goes out to Jake. Being the owner of a foot that has been stepped on a few times (even 12 hh ponies can hurt), my heart goes out to you.
ReplyDeleteI'm impressed with how well you handled the fall - getting the hay was a really smart thing to do and I'm not sure I would have, so quickly!
ReplyDeleteI've done that "get off me" thing before - hope your foot isn't hurt too badly!
FV, we think the blood came from a small cut on the inside of the hind leg that had the bump, but it must have closed up fast. It's mushy but we couldn't see a cut. It wasn't much blood, just a few drops.
ReplyDeleteIt's funny, the dansko clogs that I wear every day hurt the most. The rest of the people wearing dansko in the horse world must not get stepped on much..
Eek! Glad Jake's alright.
ReplyDeleteArmani steps on my feet often. I feel your pain.
Oh dear...I hope everyone is better soon!
ReplyDeleteI cannot believe he laid there! Such a good horse. Normally they get so panicky when they fall like that. Good thinking on the straw!
ReplyDeleteI had a two year old Arab stud colt that was being skitish on a walk out to the paddock one frigid January. He bounced on some ice, went down and got up very slowly. He thought I had done that to him, and thereafter he walked like a gentleman beside me. He never forgot.
ReplyDeletePoor you with your foot. I've had that happen before many times. If you have a bruise on the skin but no broken skin, you can use a bit of Vicks Vapo Rub on it to bring it up faster.
me and my horse fell down on ice the other day during a warm spell, the ice had freshly fallen snow ontop of it so couldn't see it. but i sure felt it as soon as i stepped on it it was slick underneath and knew what it was right away. i tried to turn around slooooowly but he was very eneretic and walking forward so he fell then he hit me with his neck?? and i fell.
ReplyDeletegood thing was he fell with his feet away from me and scrambled and fell down half way again. then got up. the bad thing was since i was turning i wasn't facing him and didn't know what part of his body he fell on first/the most.
he looked sore and slight headbobbing while turning in the arena but then next day he was fine and perky like nothing happened. sigh...i thought i ruined my horse from my dumb mistake :(