Let Talk: Accident Prone

I'm sure you've heard me say it before, "My horse is extremely accident prone." I'm not exaggerating about that. Since the moment I brought him home, Guinness has been trying to bash in some part of his body.
"How dare you accuse me of such self-mutilation?! Why would I hurt this stunning body?"
Sure... I joke about it, but what are you going to do with a horse who has accumulated the following injuries in a one month period?

  • A swollen knee, not lame, but hot. No cuts. Obviously tender to the touch.
  • A cut across his front left cannon. Not deep, but still swollen and hot. Not lame.
  • A big knot from some kind of blunt trauma on the side of his back left cannon bone. Slightly warm. Not lame. No reaction when you poke it really hard.
  • A cut just above the fetlock on his front right. Not deep, and not lame.
  • A small cut just above his nose in the middle of his face. Zero sensitivity or swelling. Was already scabbed over when I found it. Scab has since been pulled off about 3 times.
  • A cut to the right side of his cheek (affecting the fit of his drop noseband). Slightly deep and tender. No swelling. No heat.
  • A scrape under his chin, just an inch off his English noseband. Hard to see. Lots of blood. No pain. Easily treated.
This is the randomly swollen knee. I won't lie. I freaked out about this. I was absolutely certain it was bone chip from the trailer accident settling below the joint, and that my horse would be broken for life, or need surgery, or his leg would get infected and explode. Seriously. I lost my brains. Then it went away after three days.
That list isn't even an abnormal number of injuries. There is rarely a day that goes by that this horse doesn't have some sort of bump, cut, sore spot, bug bite, or chunk missing. I mean, remember how I've dealt with two instances of a bruised cannon bone that kept us from working? I'm so well versed in treating random injuries that I even wrote up this post including "Austen's Tidbits of First-Aid Awesome." 

Bubble wrap gets talked about a lot, but I'm honestly afraid Pig would somehow get hung up in it and destroy himself. Blankets seem to work to keep cuts and bites from his body, but he destroys them so easily I try not to have him wear them more than necessary.
Maybe we could try a hard hat instead?

For an animal that is the least energetic and playful on the planet, I don't know how he gets into such scrapes. He is on full turnout with a large group of horses. You might think this is the big contributing factor, but actually he has just as many injuries when stalled or turned out with a small group. In fact, he has less bite and kick marks with this group than any other group he's ever lived with.

So basically, I'm out of ideas and I've given up. My horse is going to look like a war-torn stallion in the show ring no matter what I do, I'm going to run out of betadine on the regular, and I'm going to constantly have to adjust my tack choices to accommodate his most recent face bashing.

Hell. He's probably out there right now sawing a new hole in his backside. Ugh. Horses. Amirite?

** Edited to add: He was in fact sawing a new hole. Since I wrote this post, this lovely scrape appeared. Seriously horse? Why?
Just superficial, but definitely hot, sensitive to touch, and swollen. Grrr...

Comments

  1. Irish has spent the better part of his life trying to cut off one of his legs. It's unbelievable really. He most recently has a cut up on his inside hock. Not hot, not sore. No idea how he got it. I have a well stocked cupboard and can handle many things by myself. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I also have a well stocked first aid kit, I actually store most of it right in my grooming box. Yep. That's how often I use it.

      Delete
  2. This is seriously one of our Appaloosa's. He's so accident prone, we swear that he does it on purpose so we can't ride him or work him.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I would think that, but luckily most (most! knocking on all the wood now!) of Pig's cuts and scrapes and bumps and, and, and's are not too problematic for riding. Of course, when they're problematic, they really can be something...

      Delete
  3. Horses!!! Chloe gets little cuts and scrapes all the time. She's got a few small knots on her hind legs from what I can only guess is by kicking herself. Winter of 2013 we had several days of a randomly stocked up and FAT left hind. No lameness, no heat, just a fat leg. No trouble since then with that leg but seems like Chloe's always coming in from the field with some sort of cut or scrape. I wish she could just live in boots!

    P.S. Love your pony's fancy Guinness harp on his hindquarters!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Boots sound like such a great idea, too bad Pig is out 24/7 and would end up with huge rubs on his legs from them. Once I tried fly boots on him, but he ended up with huge rubs from the fleece. FROM THE FLEECE. Whyyyy!

      Delete
  4. Oh goodness. I think its a thoroughbred thing. Somehow my horse managed to make a large golf ball sized hole in his flank. I think he is rather proud of himself.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Totally a TB thing. Golf ball sized? Omg. Yeah. Uh. Actually. Been there. That might take forever to close up.

      Delete
  5. Oh my. Don't let him talk to Courage. He's the kind of randomly swollen legs. I try not to let myself obsess about it too much.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dear Pig, If Courage asks, you have never hurt yourself in your life. ;)

      Delete
  6. Guinness! You need to take better care of yourself you silly creature

    ReplyDelete
  7. Wow, that is an impressive list! Maybe try those corner rounder things they use for furniture and kids? You'll only need a few million to curb all the sharp edges in his turnout right?

    ReplyDelete
  8. Oh good lord Guinness!! Murray is fortunately very accident-free in terms of injuring himself, but boy does he ever go at it hard with his playmates. His body is a veritable battle ground of ugly black scars. We will NEVER look good for show season.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh yeah. Ugly black scars. We had a lot of those with other turnout groups. Now he seems to just forget he has legs and walk them right into things!

      Delete
  9. What a goof! Horses are always getting into something!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Oh no, what is he doing?! I'd go for bubble wrap! :D

    ReplyDelete
  11. Vallu has had 3 days off for being kinda lame/not quite right cos of his left shoulder... Now getting better, I think he just hurt himself in the paddock! Silly horse. I cover his legs at night with BOT boots! Bubble wrap is the way forward!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Poor Vallu!! He's just so happy to have that fun paddock he can't help himself! :)

      Delete
  12. aww poor guy! isabel can ding herself up every now and then, but very rarely anything serious. my friend B's horse tho... he's a hot mess of scabs and bald spots and awkward swellings... silly horses....

    ReplyDelete
  13. Good grief!!! I'm so glad Chrome outgrew the baby accident prone stage. He does have a cut on his ear right now and he had a hole in his face last month so he's not free of injuries, but I'm very happy he's not as bad as Guinness! I don't know if I could handle that kind of continual stress! Keeping my fingers crossed your boy is kind to himself for a while.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'll be honest, there's not a whole lot of stress involved with these types of injuries any more. Does that make me a bad horse owner? ;)

      Delete
    2. No it just means you are adaptive! :-)

      Delete
  14. My guy always has a the very least ONE scrap, scratch or cut, but as it's 99% of the time superficial, I-got-bitten type skin scrapes, I don't worry about them. We will never look shiney in the show ring either, but I am glad it's nothing more serious. I feel for you Austen, Guinness really seems to like putting you through it, and himself through the wringer!

    bonita of A Riding Habit

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. He's just a mess! I like to tell people he's the most educational horse I could have ever owned. He's taught me more about first aid and caring for horses I'd have learned owning a whole herd!

      Delete
  15. Dave met my horses on Sunday for the first time and looked at Griffin's shoulder and remarked, a little alarmed, "Is that a scar?!"

    No. No, Dave, dear. That is where he was playing too hard and the other gelding bit the shit out of him and tore all the hair out exposing the dark skin.

    Horses.

    ReplyDelete
  16. He wants to be sure he has mommy's undivided attention at ALL times!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment