Stables...

Yesterday after school I got to go to the stables! I go to the stables every Thursday to volunteer. We left at 1:00 P.M and went to the post office to mail some things then Mom dropped me off at Freedom Ride.

As I went up the sidewalk to the gate the instructor, Missy, called to me asking me to bring in Lady Bug and Pete for the next lesson. I started to go to the volunteer room to sign in but decided I probably should get them right away so I went to the pasture and brought in Lady Bug (another volunteer got Pete) after I had groomed and tacked her we had a lesson in which I horse handled (led) Lady Bug. We had to trot a couple of times, too (Lady Bug is very fast so I have to run to keep up. =P ).

After that lesson I untacked Lady Bug, groomed her again and put her away before heading out to the pasture with Jerry (our barn manager) and getting the other horses. It was about upper eighties to lower nineties outside at that time, with no shade. We brought in all the mares first: Flikka and Little Bit (Ginger, Marigold, and Lady Bug were already in). Then we went to the gelding's pasture and all of them except three were up at the front (we have to boarders in the gelding's pasture) we brought in Big Easy, Zues, Cody, Titan, and Equity and the others started grooming while I went to get Argus, the last horse that we would bring in.

In the pasture still with Argus were Abdullah and Porscha, our two boarders. Abdullah stood about ten feet away from Argus and Porscha who stood together. I had Argus's halter in my hand and slid it over his head before looking at Porscha (she's a brown almost black mare).

Blood was pouring down her muzzle from a gash in the side of her face. The gash was about the side of a half dollar and almost two inches deep. Part of it went around her eye as well, swelling her eye shut. A small cut was under her eye and another long gash starting at the half dollar gash ran down her hole face and around her lip (just recalling it makes me feel sick). She also had cuts along her stomach and a bunch of skin missing from her hind right leg.

I lead Argus out of the pasture as fast as I could (and of course he was going as slow as he possibly could) and got him into his stall before getting Jerry. She and I went out to the pasture and looked at Porscha, Jerry brought a lead rope to put around her neck so we could lead her out of the pasture (since a halter couldn't be used). I ran ahead and opened a side smaller pasture in case she bolted. As soon as she got there she did bolt but Jerry was able to get her into that pasture. She called Linda, another person in charge of the boarders, and they started calling the vet and Porscha's owner. I ran back to the tack room to get some sponges and a bucket so we could sponge Porscha down since it was so hot.

First one vet said he wouldn't come out and then we couldn't get a hold of Porscha's owner. It was almost an hour before her owner and another vet came (I groomed some more horses during this time). They sedated her and put her head on a pole with a pad on it so the vet could examine her. After they had all the cuts washed out they started gushing more blood and the vet said she needed immediate transportation to the hospital in Ocala (which is an hour away).

So they took Porscha to the vet and that's all I know. I hope I can hear more about her on Saturday... Earlier that morning the geldings were being wild and kicking, managing to kick two whole sections of fence down (they repaired it right away and examined all horses close by but she was on the other side of the pasture). We think she could have hurt herself on that and/or gotten kicked. If this is true, she was bleeding like that for over three hours, and then another one before the vet got there.

Aside from all of that it was uneventful. When Porscha left I gave Zues (our white horse who was ...grey... at the time) a bath and helped groom some more horses. I was going to feed after that but Mom came to pick me up for my viola lesson which I went to right after.

I had a busy day yesterday. o.o