My mom has to have surgery next week on her spine, so she's trying to take advantage of as much time with the horses as she can. Today she rode all three horses and tomorrow she plans on doing the same thing. I hope that everything goes well for her in the surgery and there aren't any complications.
After looking at some stuff on Parelli Connect this past week, we went in with the intention of playing as many of the Seven Games that we know. I was more focused on getting Harry to play the Friendly Game because he had such a hard time with it last week. My brother and mom were playing the YoYo Game when Samantha's mom pulled in and started talking to my mom. Harry was making wonderful progress, coming in closer to see the carrot stick and letting me pet him with it when my brother called my mom and I over in a panic.
As we came in, he showed us a gash on Nina's nose that we hadn't seen when we came in because of the dirt covering it. It looked pretty gross, but not very bad. He took her out of the arena we were playing in to go into the wash rack and wipe off the dirt. My mom followed. I played with Harry a little more and heard some banging and my mom came in to ask me for help.
Nina was having a fit in the wash rack when you tried to touch her nose. I put Harry on the cross ties and went over to look at it. They were just trying to press a compress onto it to make sure that it would stop bleeding. It looked a lot worse once it was cleaned. The cut is about three inches in length and about half of a fingernail deep, but it's not bleeding. After much calming and talking, I can get the washcloth on her nose for about a minute before she starts thrashing around again. My mom took the hose and just let it run over her nose (which Nina still didn't like) and then I poured some hydrogen peroxide in my hand and pushed it onto Nina's nose. I got it all in one try because the length of her cut started to bubble white like cuts do when you put peroxide on them, so now it's disinfected. We put this blue stuff we have on it (I really need to learn what it's called) and only after then did I remember that I should take a picture.
Not a very good picture of the cut, but still. Maybe I'll get another shot tomorrow.
After inspecting her stall, my brother found that she must have cut her nose on her feed bucket. It was kind of shoddy looking before and I have mentioned it to Paco when Harry was living in that stall, but he never changed it. Well Nina must have cracked it and then went in to eat and sliced her nose on it. I'm just thankful it's not on her eye or her entire face or something worse like that. I am worried though that it won't grow back together and that there will always be a separation. I don't know if she needs stitches or what. Someone suggested butterfly closures, but she'd need to be sedated anyways for us to do that, and if that's the case, stitches might be the better option. We'll see how it is tomorrow.
Once we found out the bucket was the cause, my dad took down all three of the horse's feed buckets (their waterers are steel automatic) and put in new ones. Much better.
We all rode after that. I rode Brie first and she was kind of limping. I guess it must be time for her to have another arthritis shot. I was trying to get her to walk because of the limp, but she didn't want to. So after a while of struggling with getting her to walk, but a little bit of calming down, I let her corto the rest of the ride and she seemed content. Then my mom switched with me and I got Harry.
This largo is the kind that we've been looking for. He is so ready for show in a couple of weeks, I can't wait! He was absolutely flying in his largo without breaking gait (only a couple of times in the counterclockwise) and had a very nice, high-stepping, collected largo. Hopefully I can get some pictures and a couple videos tomorrow!
In the end, I ended up riding Taco a bit for Jane, because it was muddy out and she didn't get to let him out in the round pen to longe, so he was being a bit naughty for her. It took a couple of laps to settle into his tweaks, but he worked nicely for me after that. He likes to break into a canter though. If I were training him, I'd definitely have to work on that, even though his canter is gloriously smooth, it's unacceptable in show. At the end of my ride, John asked if I would show Taco. I sure hope that he was serious! I would love to! And it would give me an excuse to get a different show jacket =]
I really hope that Nina is okay. Please keep both Nina and my mom in your thoughts!
