Bre Does it Again

I haven't been blogging long enough for you to know Bre's most annoying little habit, slicing herself up. Bre runs everywhere. Her motto in life is "why walk when you can run?" She also thinks nothing of crashing through bushes or over logs. She takes the shortest path from point A to B regardless of what gets in her way. This isn't necessarily the problem. It makes her a great trail horse. She is bold and coordinated when it counts. However, the problem comes when she has no regard for her physical safety in the pasture. The result is yearly gashes, abscesses from running everywhere despite rocks in her shoes, and  mysterious sprains and strains from galloping through slippery mud.

Last year we got off fairly easy with just her regular spring abscess. The year before she let herself out of the pasture and filleted a palm sized piece of skin off her groin. Last week she decided to get herself into something. I have no idea what. We do have blackberries and trees to get caught up on but we walk the pasture regularly to find anything major. There is also more than enough open pasture to keep herself OUT of dangerous stuff. All the areas where the ponies hang out in a group and might scuffle are clear of anything to cut themselves on. Bre would have to go out of her way to find something to cut herself on. But cut herself she did. It started out small but a little proud flesh took over and the cut got bigger over the week. It looks MUCH better today than when this picture was taken. And the picture is a little deceiving. The tissue swells out of the cut and it doesn't go into muscle.

It is a little amusing that I have had a wild goofy two year old on the property for six months and there isn't a scratch on him. He is always crashing through bushes and eating the blackberries but somehow the 16 year old is the one who gets cut.

It's on the outside of her left hind just below her hock. 

I have been out there twice daily and I think she is happy to have the extra attention. In the morning I wash and put a new dressing on. At night she gets standing wraps to keep the swelling down. The wound is healing well but I am still bandaging it to keep pressure on the proud flesh. It isn't getting any bigger but I think she will heal up with a little lump. She is getting antibiotics twice a day because I wasn't sure what she cut herself on and the cut was so close to a joint. The plus side is she has been 100% sound through all of it. I even rode her Saturday and she moved like a dream.

Silly pony........