As I was suturing up my horse’s leg, it dawned on me… how many of us are either unprepared or unsure of how to handle an emergency situation? Are we paying enough attention to spot the signs of colic before it is too late to effectively treat it? Do we have the relationship with our horse that allows us to perform emergency medical care without relying upon a sedative? Is our emergency kit packed with the right tools for the right job?
These are all vital and important questions, and nothing to be overlooked lightly. It is very easy for us to fall back on the reliance upon a vet being able to care for every ailment our horse might face, but the vet won’t be the one to spot the problem in the first place, and because of that it is necessary to have the knowledge to know when your horse is just kicking at flies, or when your horse is kicking at a colicy belly. And, there is always that time when your horse gets a serious injury and the vet has left for a 3 day weekend with no one reachable last minute.
All magical thoughts that came to my mind, as I was pushing with all my strength while trying to reserve some sense of tact and gentile with the suture needle. Horse skin is thick! As my horse was occasionally moving his leg, just enough to deter me in the beginning to *just do it* but not enough to frustrate me or keep me from getting the job done.
And in the end, once the last stich was in, the knot tied and the string cut, as I was putting the finishing touches on a job made in hopes to avoid scar tissue and nasty proud flesh, I reflected on the curiosity of the situation. It might help for you to understand, this was one of my four year old geldings, one of the horses who had the fortunate and not-so-fortunate luck to have been growing up while I was living 2000 miles away from home. They got to enjoy as wild a life as a horse can enjoy on 15 acres in Wisconsin. One of the horses who gets daily pasture attention but has yet to live up to any full time occupation or even part time formal schooling. And here he was, standing quite modestly with his nose to the ground waiting for me to finish stitching up his leg. Like I mentioned before, do you have the relationship with your horse that allows you to treat him without tranquilizers?
So, I hope this post inspires you to go out and check your emergency kit. Make sure it is well stocked and has the important essentials. This goes beyond vet-wrap and wonder dust. Do you have things that will be needed in an absolute emergency? Talk with your vet and create a really sound emergency kit! And learn how to be effective in an emergency situation! Ask your vet if you can help assist on calls and learn some hands on skills. Read medical books, many are put in layman’s terms to help make it easier to study.
And last, but not least, build a relationship with your horse. Does he trust you implicitly? Or only when you have enough arm-power to push him around? Draw reins will be of no help to calm and control if your horse gets caught in the fence…
