Just as the title says, I now have a part time job doing some writing.  I’m not sure how much money this will make me, but we’ll see how it goes.

Now onto to what you’re really interested in – the injury.  It wasn’t me, it was the horse I’ve been riding, Nipper.

You see, 9^th November was mainly spent emailing back and forth hashing out the contract, and Aunty Sandy went to play with the horses on her own.  I joined her on the 10^th, and when I went into the paddock to catch Nipper, I could see something was wrong.  A chunk of skin had been torn off his back leg and blood was running down his hoof to the ground.  Here are the photos Aunty Sandy took to show the vet:

Pretty awful, huh?  I brought Nipper to the shed so we could get a look at the injury, while Martin patrolled the paddock to see what could have done it.  In the end, he couldn’t find anything definite – the top row of barbed wire was loose at one point, and our best guess was that Nipper had been rolling near it, caught his leg, and then ripped it free in a panic.  But as I said, we don’t know for sure, this is just what we’re assuming.

So, Aunty Sandy and I had to drive into town to see the vet and pick up some supplies.  With Martin fixing the fence, and no other obvious cause, we put Nipper back in the paddock so he could be with his friends while we got the stuff to fix him up.  I walked him into the shade, let him go…and then something unusual happened.

You see, when you work with horses, you try to get a horse ‘hooked on’, which basically means you get the horse to choose to be with you, and to look to you for instruction.  This is what’s happening in those videos of horses following people around without a lead rope.  A bit of groundwork can get a horse to hook on, but you keep working with the horse in the hope of a more permanent hook on, when a horse will approach you in the paddock and follow you around without the prelude of the groundwork.  It’s what Aunty Sandy is trying to do with Missy.

What’s the point of me telling you this?  Because when I let him go that day, we discovered that Nipper had, at least partially, ‘hooked on’ to me.

I took his halter off, expecting him to just start grazing, and set off towards Aunty Sandy and Martin on the opposite side of the paddock.  And Nipper started following me.

At first, I thought he just wanted a drink – the dam was in the same direction, after all.  And he was limping, trying not to put weight on his injured leg, so I figured he had to be pretty thirsty.  But when I stopped to pull a thistle off my sock and he stopped too, I realised what was going on.

I didn’t want him walking on the leg before it was treated, so I turned around and tried to wave him away.  It didn’t work.  I sped up, hoping to discourage him, but when the poor guy just tried to match my pace on his sore leg, I slowed down again.

Now, Nipper and Missy are very good friends, and Missy obviously figured that if Nipper was going somewhere, she’d better go too.  So, Missy started following Nipper.  And Flash didn’t want to be left out, so he started following Missy.  In the end, the three of them followed me all the way across the paddock like I was the Pied Piper of horses.

When I actually reached Aunty Sandy and Martin, and we were talking about what had to be done, Nipper sniffed at my back and hair for a few minutes until he decided he’d done…whatever he was supposed to do, and went off a little way to graze.  He and Missy started grooming each other, and Aunty Sandy got a picture of it on her phone:

Pretty cute.  Nipper seemed content to stay there until I went to the gate, then he had to hobble up a little hill to see me off.  Aunty Sandy and I went off to the vet, who gave us some penicillin (and the stuff to inject Nipper with it) and instructions about bandaging.  This was how we bandaged up Nipper’s leg:

• Warm water and a bit of iodine to clean the wound.
• Manuka honey, applied to the skinned area.
• Disposable nappy with the elastic sides trimmed off so it can serve as the pad, wrapped around his leg.
• Elastoplast over and around the nappy to secure it.
• Electrical tape over the Elastoplast to hold everything together and give the bandage more staying power.
• Antiseptic cream in the small cuts above the main injury.

We also put some fly repellent cream on his leg below the bandage.  In spite of Aunty Sandy’s diligent washing, there was still some dried blood matted into his hair, and the flies were going nuts over it until we slapped on the repellent.  Nipper was very good about it, not kicking or dancing even as we poked and prodded at his open wound.  Here’s the finished article:

Much better, huh?  That yellow stuff around that cut is the antiseptic cream.

We put Nipper in the round yard overnight, so the other horses couldn’t investigate the bandage and he couldn’t walk it into the dam or something.  We put water and hay in there, and here’s a picture of Nipper in his new accommodations:

He looks pretty happy.

We went out again the next day, to give him more penicillin and change the bandage.  Nipper took the penicillin injections like a trooper, barely even twitching when the needle went in.  The bandage was very clean and his leg was looking good, if rather swollen.  We had painkiller and anti-inflammatory granules from the vet, which he was supposed to take mixed into stuff like grated carrot and apple, but he just refused to eat them.  We got him to take some mixed with grated apple on the first day, but it probably tasted bad because he just wouldn’t touch the stuff the next day.

Aunty Sandy was worried he might get sand colic in the round yard, so we took him up to the cattle yards.  We put Missy in the paddock next to him, so they could see each other and he wouldn’t freak out too much at being alone.  So, Flash was in the main horse paddock, Missy was in the next one, and Nipper was in the cattle yards.

In the afternoon, we put Missy into a different section of the cattle yards, because that top paddock is full of grass and she’s already pretty chubby.  Aunty Sandy figured that if she was locked up overnight, at least she wouldn’t be eating 24/7.  But in the morning, when Martin and I went to check on Nipper, we found him and Missy in the same area!  One of them had opened the gate between them somehow, the cheeky buggers!

We were hoping to be able to leave the bandage on, but it was a bit stained so we changed it just to be safe.  Martin held Nipper while I did the penicillin injection, then I held Nipper while Martin changed the bandage.  I added some salt licks to Missy’s paddock and Nipper’s enclosure, just so they can get their important minerals while he recovers.  I tried to give some of those medicinal granules with grated carrot, but he took one mouthful and then spat it out.

He seemed happy enough when we left, though.  Martin had topped up his water and put some hay in the enclosure – he was eating it when I came up with the grated carrot.  Also, I learned today that Nipper will follow me even if there’s hay on the ground.  He’ll follow me even if he’s eating when I enter the little yard, and when I leave he’ll stick his head over the fence to see me go.