So theoretically the Olympic Eventing team was meant to be announced yesterday…but it wasn’t. It’s stressful. You try not to think about it or let it make any difference to the day but it’s the elephant in the corner.
Friday was a rough day. At 6.30am I thought I heard one of the paddock gates. No sign of anyone moving around so I carried on with my day. Five minutes later I heard galloping hooves. Three of the horses had got out and were cheerfully cantering around between the turnout paddocks. Two were older horses that have been with us most of their lives and they were having a gay old time and not in the least upset or anxious, the third was Benny, our four year old OTTB and he was at the back with absolutely no idea what this was all about or what he was meant to be doing. Anne Marie and I ran downstairs to catch them. It didn’t take much, we rattled a bucket and they all three followed us into the barn. They will do backward flips for food.
I wish that were all there was to it, but sadly when I led Benny around to his stall I could see a small cut pumping blood in a steady rhythm. I called to Anne Marie and she appeared within seconds carrying everything we needed for first aid. We called the vet, pressure packed it and Anne Marie held it up until the bleeding slowed. Trouble is he had been cantering around for at least ten minutes and we were not sure how long he had been bleeding. I think he lost quite a bit of blood because he lost a little condition from the whole procedure, he looked more tucked up and gaunt. It has not lasted, his condition is almost back to where he was. He is on stall rest and being very good about it. We lead him out to graze a couple of times a day.
Cameron – August 2015
Age 31
The vet started stitching Benny and the girls went out to the paddocks to get the other horses in. Sadly we found ‘The Main Man’ aka Cameron had passed away in his paddock. I think he probably tried to gallop around with everyone else when the loose horses came by and the excitement was too much for his heart. It was a good way to go, and on his own terms. We had already made the decision that this was to be his last Summer as he had had some episodes of staggering last winter and it is very difficult to convince him to drink enough water in the cold weather. I didn’t want to see a bad ending. He was 32 and I bred him, he was by a stallion called Mainstay who was the first horse I owned in Canada. We had Cammie his whole life and he was Selena’s first YR horse and her first YR Team horse. He was the first horse she did Prelim and Intermediate on Losing Cammie is the end of an era, he was the last Mainstay offspring that I owned.
It was not all…in a few minutes we found Tori’s four year old OTTB had a cut on her foot, she was not lame but it is in a nasty spot so we have been taking a lot of care to keep it clean and covered. Finally, one of my boarder horses walked in that morning a little stiff, nothing much, just not his usual obnoxious, pulling us all over the place, self. By the evening he couldn’t swing his leg forward. We think he might have run into the fence when his buddies paraded by his paddock. He has bruised the muscle around his shoulder. All in all, what should have been a very small incident of three loose horses for ten minutes, ended up being a huge issue that affected several horses. Trouble is, everyone is fit and well and any excuse for some excitement and tails up over their backs.
