How Do They Manage

First let me say that if you don’t like blood or are squeamish you probably don’t want to scroll all the way down on this post. Today I want to talk about the horses we love and the various ways they manage to maim themselves. Up until Houston I never dealt with that many injuries – my horses to that point had possessed the skill of self preservation. Houston did not posses even an ounce of such a skill and in the 5 years that I have owned him has cost me more money in vet visits than I care to tally up. Note to self: do NOT use a calculator when reading this post.

Houston Injuries: (to name a few larger incidents)

  • Assorted cuts and scrapes that would inevitably lead to elephant legs
  • Cut Fetlock (farrier accident) –ย many stitches andย 2+ months of stall rest
  • Cut Pastern (pasture)- few stitches and more stall rest
  • Cut Face (pasture) – couple stitches
  • Puncture/Cut Shoulder (pasture)- stitches, LOTS of antibiotics and flushing

Annie has seemed relatively aware of her surroundings and aside from being a mastermind at pulling shoes and the odd scrape here and there really hasn’t caused that much damage to herself. Until the past few weeks anyways. In the course of 5 days she has managed to scrape or cut all but one of her legs (I realize that by saying this I will now be tempting fate for her right front…). It started with cutting the inside of her LF – a small and relatively superficial wound. Then she must have kicked at the fence because her right hind has a gash. Last but not least I was met with the gem below upon arriving to the barn last night:

Yes. That is her hind leg. How she managed to give herself a deep gash on the FRONT of her hind foot I have literally no idea. Thankfully it is not severe enough to need veterinary intervention and at worst I may have to put her on some Uniprim to ward off any infection.

What are some of the weird unbelievable things that your horses have done to themselves? Does anyone else want to invest in bubble wrap?

 

 

 

14 comments

  1. Rhiannon says:

    I’m hesitant to talk about injuries for fear of tempting my horses to injure themselves.
    A few notable Dexter injuries:
    -foot slid down next to his shed and he cut right by his coronet band on the way up (problem area by shed has since been fixed)
    -Bolt stuck in his foot next to his frog. Somehow unscathed by that one.
    -Somehow caught his foot in a stock type panel, dragged it across the electric fence and scraped up his hind leg in the process.

    Knocking on wood and crossing my fingers that I didn’t just invite him to maim himself

  2. avery says:

    My mare, when I first got her did some crazy things that no one could explain. Almost sliced her jugular (at the same time her dam had a crazy weird injury that I volunteered to treat because, why not…I guess she comes by it naturally), crazy puncture on upper, front leg that swelled to more than twice its normal size, and ripped her shoulder open while blanketed. I have thought these things through over and over. I do not get it. She has been better lately. Knock on wood. Maybe I should just delete this??? Funny thing. I have found her colt on the wrong side of fences 3 times and he comes out unscathed…..I can not say the same about the fences. I am currently searching options to stop him from doing this. Knock on wood he does not turn into his mother and her accident prone ways.

  3. Karen M says:

    Eli manages to grab a heel pretty much regularly, even though he is in front bell boots 24/7. He also like to suspiciously swell up in less than ideal places.

  4. Joanne says:

    How can I even reply to this without attaching photos?

    – Sliced a piece of forehead open, resulting in many stitches to hold the flap back on and a shaved forelock

    – Severed the saphenous (spelling?) vein in her hind leg, literally spewing blood with every heart beat.

    – Sliced open abdomen from shoulder to hind.

    Never found any of the culprits, must’ve been alien abductions. If you would accept my friend request on FB ๐Ÿ˜‰ you could see all these and more in my “Grossness” album. ๐Ÿ˜‰

  5. Nicku says:

    If I reflected on this with my last horse (internal/genetic issues not included) we had multiple massive puncture wounds, pierced tongue, part of lip chomped off, cuts/scrapes/swelling on all body parts. He was brutal on himself. Oh yeah and that broken in half pastern.

  6. Austen says:

    I think my horse has done that exact rear coronet band laceration about 3 times already this year. It’s honestly the reason he wears bell boots on his front feet, even though he’s barefoot all around. I draw the line at bell boots on the hinds, though. Those just get cut up. Silly athletic redheads. Lol

  7. Stacie Seidman says:

    Oh! I know how she did this one! How do I know? Cause Badger has the same one…. They do it at some point when they go to buck or leap or something. Or at least that’s how Badger did it. He went to leap up in the air, stepped on his own back foot and knocked himself right down to the ground. Damn kids.

  8. Wendy says:

    Lol, my Savvy is so much like poor Houston. She has had front knee gash, hind hock small gash/big infection, hind pastern cut/swelling, neck puncture wound–and all of this has happened in the past three months. Looking for blood at morning chores has become the new normal. ๐Ÿ™‚

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