Don't turn your back, not just for one second.

I kept looking at my watch and was wondering where my farrier was as he was running a little late. I decided it was best to keep my phone on me in case he got lost, since he got lost the first time he came to the barn last spring. Fifteen minutes go buy and Rose is happily hand grazing on some grass. My phone rings. It's Rick and he's at my old barn. "Where are we?" he asks. Ugh. Apparently he forgot that I moved barns in the middle of his vacation. "No worries" I tell him, "Rose's feet are holding up okay and we can wait until next week". Besides, I have my new friend the rasp to get us by. Still, it's a bit of a bummer. I always look forward to Rick's visits. I learn something new almost every time.

That was the bum news, but on the flip side I now had time to give Rose a well needed bath. It was 70 degrees today, which is unusually warm for our part of the country in November, and I knew that this very well might be my last bathing opportunity for Rose for the next four months. An opportunity not to be passed up. Off to the wash stall we went, and given that she's still in heat, she was more or less a good girl about her bath. Afterward I decided to put her out in a grass paddock that was drenched in sunlight while I went about feeding everyone else. Just as I turned to head to the barn I saw Miss Thing kick up her heels, fart,  and prance around enjoying a gleeful moment. I hadn't seen that in a while and I decided to run to my car and grab the camera from my purse and snap a shot. In the 30 seconds that I was gone she apparently managed to slip in the little bit of mud next to the gate (so much for the bath) and some how get her head close enough to the gate to cut her nose on one of the small vertical bits that hold the steel tubing together!

 

Had this happened a year ago I would be fretting over the cut and probably calling my vet. However, during the whole leg cut incident back in June he showed me how to determine weather or not a cut needed stitches, and therefore an emergency vet call. This cut, as it turned out, is pretty small and superficial. So I cleaned it up with some betadine, was relieved to see that it was no longer bleeding, and applied some nolvasan ointment. After that I checked the rest of her for any other injuries, and she seemed fine so I put her back in her paddock, but not on the grass. Silly pony. Just when I think she's growing up she goes and does something like this! Thank god I'm not showing her for conformation or halter or whatever it is all those super pretty horses that are never allowed to get a scratch on them show. Rose will just have to have talent instead.

Happy trails and swooshing tails!