And the Injuries. Oh, the injuries.

Poor Baby Maggie became a target for the fiesty mares in her turn-out. (My previous horse, Piper, was definitely the "mean girl" of the herd, so it may have been a little bit of karma for me) I don't know Maggie's herd history, so I have no idea if she was ever turned out with horses other than her mom. But at her new home, she seemed to get in the way, and not know how to get out of the way. She has spent a lot of this year growing hair back on her hindquarters from all the bites she got there. Far worse, though, were the many kicks she got on her legs. To date, she has probably had 5-6 wounds from kicks that needed treatment. And they mostly seem to be near joints, which scares the bejeezus out of me (my trainer has a horse who developed an infected joint, so it's something we all worry about) The worst was probably the kick to her hock that she got in late January. The hock got huge, so of course we worried about infection. My vet put her on an injectible antibiotic for a week, and I learned how to do a really good hock wrap! I also found that lots of cold hosing alternating with hand-walking worked best to start to bring the swelling down. But the hock still stayed very big for a few weeks. Fortunately, there was no lameness with the injury (though the swelling did reduce her range of motion on that hock, making it uncomfortable for her to walk) I spent most of February up to my elbows in bute and antibiotics, and doing a lot of cold-hosing/hand-walking - which meant very early trips to the barn so I could then get to work on time. Eventually I was able to add some riding back in, even though the hock was still pretty big. Ironically and with pure coincidence I'm sure, after Maggie skidded on her butt through a closed but not latched gate (a dinnertime escapade), her hock finally started to really get back to normal. (And fortunately there were no injuries associated with the butt-skidding) There have been several other wounds that needed a lot of treatment, including antibiotics for some (and anxiety-reducing techniques for me every time). With all of this experience, we've learned about Maggie's typical healing process. Her leg/joint tends to swell up huge and take awhile to come back down to normal. She may show some lameness a few days after the injury, but typically it doesn't last long. And the wounds take quite awhile to heal. Which means that I have a large supply of bute and antibiotics on hand waiting for the inevitable, and my vet on speed-dial. And I knock on every kind of wood that I see, hoping that Maggie will figure out that it hurts when you let another horse kick you.