Koda - Shit happens

The other day (Wednesday or Thursday, I don't remember) I tied Koda to one of the railroad ties that acts as one of like... 8?... posts around the front end of the arena.  It's a railroad tie, sunk like 2-3 feet into the ground, right?  Would you think a horse could hurt itself with it? Most people probably wouldn't.  It looked like a solid piece of wood.  But what I didn't know, is that a long time ago the stable owners had tried to "remove" this post. They took a battery powered saw and cut into the post to make it shorter.  They cut 99.8% of the way through the post before the saw's battery died.  And they left the post like that.  

There was literally a 2" by 1/2" section of the post holding it together.  I had tied Koda to this top half, really short mind you, so that she wouldn't eat the grass on the ground.  I tied her to it for just a minute while I went to get something just outside of the arena over in the pavilion.  I get half way there and I hear her start freaking out.  She had reached her head down to try and eat the grass, like I thought she might, and in doing that it pulled the top of the post over.  It was literally falling onto her face, so she freaked out and started pulling back, and at this point that part of the post was free and hanging from her face.  She started rearing and bucking having a spaz attack right there, and then she took off down the right side of the arena galloping and bucking while this piece of railroad tie is hanging from her face.  It wasn't dragging on the ground, it was flying around in between her front and back feet. 

She went all the way down around the back of the arena and was coming back up the left side, by which time I'd made my way back into the arena.  There was no point to trying to run after her, in a game of speed the horse wins over the person every time.  So I tried to cut her off and calm her down so I could un-clip the lead rope so I could get the railroad tie off her face.  At first with how fast she was going and the look on her face I didn't think she was going to stop.  But I finally got her to stop, and she'd come not quite full circle, stopping right in front of the therapy ramp.  I convinced her to lower her head enough so I could un-clip the lead rope, and then I had to try and get the lead rope off the railroad tie.  I couldn't lift the piece of wood, i had to untie the knot on the lead rope and then roll the railroad tie to get the lead rope off.  That thing must have weighed 80-100+ lbs, and it was just under 2' long. 

By the time I got the lead rope off the railroad tie Koda had blood pouring down her legs.  I couldn't tell just how bad it was because there was so much blood.  It was dripping off her hooves.  I took her over to the hose next to the gait of the arena and hosed down her legs in cool water, trying to see what exactly was bleeding and just how bad it was.    Her front legs were pretty bad, and her back left was the worst.  Although there was one spot on her front right that was pretty deep, and being in the back of the front leg I was freaking out about tendon damage.  And then the back left was the deepest cut out of all of them, and that one seemed to bother her the most.  Once I got her calmed down, and then got myself to stop freaking out, I called for help.  

So we washed her legs in iodine, then sprayed this antibacterial spray, and then sprayed it again with liquid band-aid (the liquid band-aid is purple, so that's why her legs are colored so weird.)

The next day her front right leg and her back left hock were swollen so bad it was crazy.  The amazing part is that not once has she limped.  Not right after it happened, not after we cleaned it, not the day after when it was swollen up like a balloon.  We've been cleaning it every day and icing or running cool water on it for extended periods of time, and the swelling is finally going down.  There's no more heat in her front legs, but her back leg is still hot, but not where the slit is on the front of the hock.  There's another bad abrasion on the left side of that leg that's a lot warmer than the cut on the hock.  

It didn't seem to be hurting her that much today, even though her legs are still slightly swollen.  She was galloping and bucking and frolicking around her paddock. 


But in the mean time, Koda's out of commission for a while.  It'll be a while before I can work with her again ;n;


Yes it was my fault that I tied her to that post, but why the fuck would you cut THAT FAR into a post and not flag it or SOMETHING?  You could have easily pushed the top of the railroad tie off with your hand. Needless to say I am not a very happy camper, and neither is Koda.  She goes insane when I don't work with her, because she gets bored and is so full of energy she doesn't know what to do with herself, besides acting out and being a major brat  

This is the post I'm talking about here.  I finally got a picture.

     





(c) ShapeShifter314