PLEASE everyone ~ CHECK YOUR SADDLES TODAY IF YOU HAVEN'T IN A WHILE. Blankets, too. And check even places you wouldn't think would come in contact with the horse. Here's what's moved me to say this and what moved Kenny to let me post these pictures...
Ed (BIL), Kenny and I have been working the new paint horses in the round pen all this week. They're coming along nicely. Especially Patience, the one that's extremely head-shy. I put a bridle on her yesterday, going really slow, with hardly any upset. YAY! Her gait is so smooth ~ won't take much polish before we can drink a cup of coffee while riding her. Moon, the BIG two-year old, was as calm as a cucumber as we put her saddle on her. Didn't even bother her when we tied the lariat rope to the saddle horn, and not even when we tied a milk jug to the end of it. She sure is pretty under saddle. We've got saddles on four of the five so far with nary an upset.
Until yesterday. We were working Glow, the one that came to us green broke, and Kenny got bucked off. He took quite a tumble as you can see from the pictures.
He landed on the right side of his face and it REALLY rang his bell. He laid there for a full second, then raised his head and put it back down again. That scared the h*ll out of me. Thankfully, my experience as an EMT taught me how to turn off my emotions and be objective when I need to. He sat up (I couldn't keep him still) and his eyes were crossed. The one that was looking at me looked like it was really looking at someone standing three feet bedhind me. We called an ambulance immediately. I asked him what day it was and he didn't know. I asked him who the president was and he didn't know. He did know his name and asked where his horse was, so he wasn't totally out of it. It was 45 minutes before he could answer all the questions I asked him.
As if the scrapes, scratches and little shiner wasn't enough, his nose is a bit swollen today, too. I don't think you can see it in the pic, with the angle I took the pic, but it's definitely scratched and wider than normal.
This message was edited Monday, Aug 11th 3:45 PM
