You Wanna Fat Lip?

I'll give you a fat lip!

I was prepared to do an exciting post this evening showing a ton of photos from the mountain trail show scheduled today at the Washington State Horse Park.  Grandson Mike was to be official photographer/groom/general go-fer.  Last evening, the tack was all clean, the trailer was hitched up and the gear was loaded, and the water tank and hay bag were stuffed full.  Kate was bathed and beautiful--I put a light weight sheet on her to try to keep her that way overnight.

This morning, Mike woke up on the first call (amazing, in itself--he's 14), I braided my hair and squeezed into my skinny jeans (yeah!) and my no-bounce sports bra.  We went out at 6:30 to feed everybody and catch up the horse...

Both Mike and I saw it at the same time:

BLOOD!

The Boo-Boo Baby, once again

A palm sized patch of Kate's nose, between her nostrils, was bloody.

I couldn't tell from outside the barn if it was just smeared from a small cut, or if the whole nose was raw.  The other thing I noted as I sprinted through to the girls' paddock was the absence of Kate's nylon sheet.  The scenario began to form in my mind.

I gave everybody their grain (else I contend with their sense of entitlement whilst trying to assess the damage) and very gently slipped the halter over Kate's head. She did manage to finish most of her pellets, though she didn't hoover up the last little bits in the bottom of the bucket.

I led her over to the water trough and gently rinsed her nose. 

"Ouch, Mommy!"

Her upper lip was swollen and hot to the touch.  I gingerly checked her mouth, but there didn't seem to be any internal damage to gums or teeth or tongue.  It was your basic road rash/rug burn type of abrasion. 

There were also a few scrapes over her right eye, and one shallow cut just under her lower eyelashes.

My best guess is that she somehow got tangled up in the sheet (most of which was found later in the pasture), and in arguing her way out of it, she managed to do your basic face-plant.  So much for my coordinated trail horse.

I brought her into the barn and smeared Novalsan ointment as tenderly as I could.  Kate was not happy with this plan at first, but the cool blue salve must have felt good, as she relaxed and let me liberally cover her nose and the eye scrapes with it.  (I like Novalsan as an initial antibiotic, as it is water based rather than oil, and lets the wound breathe--it tends to prevent a lot of scarring.)  I also gave her a gram of bute for inflammation.  I checked the rest of her body and didn't find any further injuries.  In the arena, she jogged out reluctantly, but sound.

Mike took her over to the tall grass while I pondered whether she was up to the trail competition.  This was the last of a series; I had missed the first because of rain, and the second due to haying commitments.  She had been so together the other day in the wilderness that I thought nothing man-made would slow her down.

Physically, Kate was sound.  But when Mike brought her back over to me and said she wasn't interested in the grass, I knew she wasn't going.  She was hurting and I wasn't going to ask her to perform just for my ego's sake.

In the end, Kate's injuries are all superficial.  The good nylon sheet, however, was toast.