Update I guess: Ruby's injury, my current riding situation

So, it’s been a while since I’ve posted, mainly because there hasn’t been much for me to post. It’s not that I haven’t been active. I’ve been here, in chats and such, just not posting. My last post was a rather sad one and was completely about the ing of my old mare.

Ever since this whole covid thing has started it’s almost like everything has been spiraling out of my control. However, that is not the focus of this post. I am now down to three horses, however none of them are anywhere close to being able to just go fetch them in the pasture and go for a ride. When school first closed and went online, I thought I would finally be able to go and work with Ruby, my current riding horse. That was not the case, and if anything made it more impossible to find time to do that. My horses are great pasture pets, I can go out there and do whatever I want around them as long as it doesn’t involve tack or halters (treats are bonus points). With quarantine, the rest of my hippology contests were cancelled along with state, however my two favorite contests had already happened and I was happy with the results (I got first as an individual in the senior division and as a team we were also the first place seniors at both competitions). However, fair is pretty much cancelled with a very slim possibility of a horse show, which for me, is the only time I get to show my horse. To my knowledge there isn’t much for showing around here, and I ride “western” (I don’t really do anything in particular, but I will touch on this later). Even if I could have been ready to show, something happened that made it so I couldn’t have anyway.

Here is something to know about Ruby; She does not like fly spray, at all. This is problematic as she is to the point where she can be dangerous, not just to us, but to herself, which she proved.

June 12, almost a month ago, had arrived at work and no more than five minutes later when I checked my phone I had a missed call and two messages from my mom, one of which said “Call me when you can.” When I opened the messages, I was greeted by a picture which will be at the bottom of this post. I knew immediately that it was Ruby, and I was concerned.

So, I called my mom and she explained that when she was working with her on the fly spray, she ended up a little too close to the fence. She stopped before she could run into the fence, however when she went to move Ruby forward, she went backwards. Her back feet went into the mesh part of the fence and instead of jumping forward she spun into the fence and tried to run through it, which got her even more tangled up. As soon as she spun around, mom lost control in the situation and there wasn’t much she could do. Ruby eventually did rear up enough to get herself out, and luckily the fence didn’t break, or this could have been a lot worse. Once free of the fence she took off with the halter and lead rope still on, so mom had to go get her. She had run off without a limp, so mom was hopeful that it wasn’t too bad. However, once she caught up to her, she could clearly see that was not the case (the picture speaks for it’s self).

Another note, I work at a vet clinic as a “kennel assistant” or as I like to label it, “glorified janitor.” Well my boss, the vet, was not there that day and the substitute vet that was there only did small animals. Because my boss wasn’t their I showed the picture to two of my co-workers, neither are vet techs, one is a certified vet assistant, and the other does maintenance and other odd jobs. However, both of them have or have had horses so I asked them what they thought, and both said stitches were necessary.

My house is located a little over three miles from a vet (not the one where I work) however, that vet has proved to us to be less than reliable and we won’t take anything there unless it’s an absolute emergency. Turns out that was the only place we could go, as our old vet couldn’t get us in that day. So, mom got Ruby loaded and took her to the vet we didn’t really like and I got a picture a couple hours later of her all stitched up.

The stitches worked for one of the cuts, but not the other. With the location of the lower one, it ended up ripping back open and needed to be treated as an open wound. Luckily, with antibiotics and wound treatment, we avoided infection and it’s almost completely healed. However, I know it won’t be closed in time to show and we aren’t ready where we need to be under saddle to show anyway.

This leads me to my next point. I would not consider myself a good rider. While I am a natural rider, I am seriously behind in a lot of skills. Babie Doll taught me the basics and gave me confidence, but when I look at the others and how well they and their horses do, I realize how far behind I am. I learned the basics on one horse and now I have to go back to the basics with my new horse. Ruby has some issues that will need to be worked out in order to show her.

She has an issue with bridles and bits, and I lump these two together, because it’s not just the bits that cause problems. I’ve tried a couple different bits and a mechanical hackamore, all with similar reactions from her. The only time she behaves decent is riding with a halter, however I lack a lot of control when riding her like this and it’s not helpful to working through her issues. What I’ve noticed with her, is her misbehaviors have triggers. It’s almost if you completely flip a switch. She goes from a sweet horse that you can walk around, hang on, sit under when she is loose, to uncontrolled, sassy, and manner less. The only reason I can think for this, is that someone in her unknown past, let her get away with a lot of different things. This is something I will need to work with on her, and I’ve already made some progress, having to treat her after the injury.

Well this post is getting long, if you read all of that, I applaud you. Anyway, thanks for reading/skimming. If you have any comments or questions on what was in this post, feel free to leave them below. I just ask that you be respectful while doing so.

The following pictures are of Ruby's injury. This is your final warning. If you do not wish to see them, please click off this post.

This is the picture I recieved from my mom after I got to work. Lucky for both us and Ruby the injury was only to the skin and not the muscle as well.

I was sent this picture after the vet had stitched her up. Only two of the cuts needed stitches and the one on her leg is the one that split open again later. However the one on her chest healed fine.

I took this a couple days ago. As you can see, the wounds on her chest have completely healed, and while there is a visble scar now, we aren't sure how much of a scar will remain in the future. The open wound on her leg still isn't completely healed, but is a lot better than it was. There was an extra skin flap that had been there, but it did sluff off.

This was taken yesterday. Even with a few days difference, you can see the improvement in the wound. I don't expect it to be much longer until this wound is also closed. I'm just glad we avoided any proud flesh growth.