Friendly Reminder

On occasion we all get the reminder that we are living on borrowed time. I had mine yesterday. One of the horses here is a bit of a head tosser sometimes.

I'm always extra careful to stand to his side at feeding time when putting his feedbag on because we all know he tosses his head, and at some point we've all had minor run-ins with his head. He's not trying to hurt anyone, in fact he isn't even trying to misbehave, it is just his way of expressing excitement and happiness. I don't even know how he did it but I was putting his feedbag on and he swung his head up and around so hard he nailed me on the head, actually right under my chin. I know I went airborne from the impact, and hit my head again on the gravel when I went down. When I came to after a couple of minutes (thanks to the fact that I was beginning to choke on the blood pooling in my mouth) and was assessing things I saw my sunglasses a good 20 feet away from where I was.

Miraculously my jaw is not broken and all of my teeth are accounted for. I have to admit I probably would have freaked out about a missing tooth or teeth. I have never even had a cavity in my life so my trips to the dentist consist of a cleaning and some x-rays, followed by being told everything looks good. I have no desire to change my routine with the dentist and some missing or broken teeth would probably do that for me.

Once I realized I was pretty much intact despite the copious amount of blood in my mouth I managed to get myself to the barn and into the office. I wanted to ice the area where I had taken the initial blow. Of course we just have a small dorm sized refrigerator in the barn so no ice. For once I was glad that Jason drinks soft drinks. I do not and I always chastise him about this habit and tell him how awful soft drinks are for you. Of course he doesn't listen to me and he keeps several chilled cans of Sun Drop (a local soda that you can only get in middle Tennessee) in the refrigerator. I sat in the office holding a can of Sun Drop to my head and thinking about how much worse it could have been.

I rotated through cans of Sun Drop, getting a new one out of the refrigerator every few minutes. Thanks to the Sun Drop the bruise on my face is not nearly as bad as it could be. I have a couple of big cuts in my mouth that are very painful and chewing and swallowing are currently not my favorite activities. For reasons that I cannot even determine, I am blaming the concussion, I put a potato chip in my mouth last night. Salt + open wounds = pain. I literally had tears running down my face from the potato chip.

I have a nice concussion and bruises located in various areas where I hit the gravel and the ground hard. I'll heal up fine and should be good as new in a few days. Currently I still feel like I've been run over by a Mack Truck about 15 times.

So take this as a reminder that working with horses is inherently dangerous. This is not the first time I've had a freak accident with a horse although I hope it is the last. You can do everything right and still get hurt. Yesterday I was taking all the right precautions and still got hurt. Other times I've done incredibly stupid things and gotten away with them. I've said this before on this blog and I will say it again, if you really think that you own a completely bombproof horse that will never hurt you or anyone else you are wrong. Anyone who makes a statement like that simply hasn't spent enough time around horses. Any horse can hurt you at any time. The horse that got me yesterday had NO intent to hurt me, he's a sweet guy and one of the neatest horses I've ever had the pleasure of being around.

Oh, did I mention yesterday was my birthday? I guess the birthday dinner has been postponed at this point, and will probably be forgotten which is fine. I did manage to eat the icing off of a cupcake, no chewing required for icing. I jokingly told a friend of mine that I guess I had a very forgettable birthday since there are a few minutes of it that are permanently lost to me.

Go have a fun weekend with your horses, just always remember to be careful!

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Tiny taking a nap using Johnny as his pillow

Kennedy and Toledo

Kennedy and Rocky

Johnny, Rampal, Toledo and Tiny

mares on the move; Missy, MyLight, Maisie and Silky

Lily

Clay and Chili; matching chestnuts with matching expressions (and ears!)

Thor and Spike

Hemi, Apollo, Ivan and Leo