Insults and Injuries

Touch A Prince had a rough weekend.  When I went out to feed him Sunday morning I found him injured.  I don't know for sure what happened but we think he was probably kicked.  He has a smaller wound on his left shoulder and a more impressive wound on the left front knee. The veterinarian came out right away despite it being Sunday morning before the superbowl (thank you Dr. Landes).  We took x-rays which showed the injury on Touch A Prince's leg did not go into the joint, which is great news.  This means he should make a full recovery.  The vet cleaned him up and sewed him back together, and now I have him wrapped and on stall rest with his medicine.

I had to get a little creative with his blanket, because the shoulder wound would be rubbed and irritated by the fabric.  Leaving him naked wasn't an option because he doesn't have much at all for hair.  I dug through my vast collection of horse blankets, and I found a serviceable old Weatherbeeta (those things last forever) that now has a startling resemblance to a patchwork quilt.  I sacrificed it to the cause by cutting off the front left corner of the blanket.  I left the top chest buckle in tact but removed enough fabric that the sutures won't be rubbed or snagged by clothes.  It turned out pretty well, and Touch A Prince is comfortable in it.

Although he only injured his left front, I put supportive wraps on his other legs as well.  He is carrying more weight than usual on the good legs, because the injured one can't hold normal weight.  These additional wraps give the tendons and ligaments in his good legs a little more support while they work overtime.  A horse would normally walk around, and that would prevent the blood and lymph from pooling in his lower extremities, but since he is just standing in the stall the wraps also prevent stocking up.  I take them off during the day to let the skin breathe, and rewrap at night.

I took a moment this evening to notice and take pride in my nearly perfect wrap job.  I love to see the results of so many years of careful wrapping when I look at precisely placed crisp white puffy fabric, with smooth standing wraps making a perfect bandage.  When the following morning the wraps are still in the exact form as I left them the night before, I'm extra pleased and proud of my job because it stayed put.

Currently my plan is to keep Touch A Prince here, get him healed up, and then market and sell him later in the spring.  In the meantime he is keeping busy at the hay bags and lip wrestling with Dewey over the stall door.  Because of the injury, Touch A Prince won't be able to go to the horse expo, which is very disappointing.  A big bummer.  I was really looking forward to showing him off in such a fun setting.

However, as an Equine Comeback Challenge Alumnus, fortunately Dewey is still in my barn.  The folks in charge at A Home for Every Horse who organize the challenge said I'm more than welcome to bring Dewey and show him in the exhibition as an encore performance showing off "Where Are They Now?"  So there will still be an OTTB from Bit of Honey there to represent how athletic and marketable a horse from a rescue can be, even though Dewey has found his forever home with one of my clients.  This also means I will still be able to perform the very fun freestyle I've been planning while laid up in the house.  Brace yourself, there will be costumes!