Peebs vs The Fence

Peebs is normally pretty respectful of pasture fences. He hates hitting the hot wire and is generally too lazy to try and run through a fence or jump over one. So our theory for what he did Saturday is that he tried to kick at another horse on the other side of the fence, in the other pasture. Because Peebs is an asshole sometimes and would try to do something like that.

Peebs was in the pasture on the left while the others have moved to the pasture on the right.

As I drove up to ride around 11:30 on Saturday I saw the fence was down from the driveway. A had snapped me a pic at 7 when she fed of the ponies taking naps so sometime in the 4.5 hours between, this had happened. All four ponies were up by their respective gates when I went to assess the damage and at first I wasn’t too worried. But then I saw the blood against Peebs’ hind stocking and started getting worried. His left hind was pretty badly torn up and he had the leg cocked. I called A and left her a message then called the vet and left another one. I did a quick check on the other three but thankfully they were all fine.

I grabbed Peebs and prayed he could make it into the barn. Thankfully he took one lame step then walked perfectly fine into a stall. My vet returned my call and said he was en route to another emergency and I should call the vet school. A came down as I was talking to the on call vet who advised me to bring him into the hospital. Peebs had one laceration/puncture on his fetlock and I was worried about joint involvement.

(Side note: my former mare McKenna was put down last fall due to a severe laceration on her fetlock involving the joint. She would have required surgery and a long recovery with a poor prognosis so her owners decided to put her down. I was having visions of this in my head all day.)

On the right side of his barrel while everything else is on the left

I ran home and grabbed the truck then ran back to the barn and hooked up the trailer. Never have I been more thankful that I live 9 minutes away from the barn. Peebs jumped right in the trailer and we set off for the clinic. When I got there they told me due to Covid I wasn’t allowed in the clinic and that I had to unload Peebs and tie him to the trailer and then they would come and get him. Watching them walk him into the clinic killed me and I lost it in the front seat of the truck.

I then spent the next two hours waiting, alternating between telling myself he was going to be fine (he was sound, if he was dying/permanently injured he would be at least a little lame right?!) and trying to figure out what I would do if he was dying/needed to be retired. I mean technically Cinder is capable of being ridden, but this would definitely not be the best circumstances in which to start her. A, her mom, my mom, and my trainer were all texting me so I didn’t have too much time to spiral and look at sales ads.

Back home and wrapped up tight

When the vet finally called me it was mostly good news. Most of the lacerations were fairly superficial and the one on the fetlock didn’t seem to have any joint involvement. They had done a joint tap and flushed it  and everything looked fine. He got a couple of stitches but she did warn me that some of the skin is going to die off and she couldn’t reattach it. They were bandaging him up and wanted to send him home with instructions to have my vet check him Sunday or Monday and then have him decide how to handle things from there. They also gave Peebs some Bute and sent me home with antibiotics and instructions to keep him on the Bute until my vet looked at him.

 And that was the extent of the instructions. No “keep him on stall rest”, no “you can hand walk for 10mins”, nothing except have your vet look at him and go from there. So on the way home I called my vet and left another message asking for an appointment either day. When we got back to the barn Peebs unloaded fine and immediately tried to eat the weeds at the edge of the driveway. I put him back in a stall and threw him hay then went and grabbed a beer from the tack room fridge.

Matchy matchy with the vet school’s vet wrap

After I decompressed a bit I did pull Peebs back out to put a standing wrap on the other hind leg. He has a few scrapes on it and he went from being out 24/7 to stall rest and I knew he’d stock up. Also it makes me feel better to have both hinds wrapped instead of just one. I also put a fly sheet on him to help protect the cut on his barrel. I did slather it with cream and will get my vet’s take on what to protect it with. Peebs seemed totally fine if a bit confused as to why he was stalled and not going outside. He happily ate his Bute and antibiotic laced grain, mixed with copious cookies, and when A did night check she said he was perfectly fine.

My vet’s coming out tonight to change the bandage and give me more instructions. Fingers crossed everything looks ok and we can get a better idea of what his recovery will look like. I’m hoping we can do some hand walking and he gets the ok to have one of the stalls with an attached paddock.