Thursday, October 28, 2010

Horse Play

It was a normal fall morning. I was headed out the door and up our long dirt driveway to cross the cattle guard. I notice Travis' roping horse, Sloan, standing in front of it. She usually moves when you get close, but I noticed she wasn't budging. I got out of the car to encourage her to move it or lose it and realized her two front legs were STUCK in the cattle guard! Total panic mode set in bc Travis was at the ranch in Llano.

After getting a hold of the vet he came over with one of his assistants and they worked to free Sloan. Please keep in mind this is 6 in the AM. Early!!! They pulled her left leg up very easily, but then didn't have a place for her to out it down without her going through the cattle guard again. I drove back to the house and flung a piece of decking and we used that so she could apply weight on her freed leg. The right leg wasn't so easy. They greased it up and tried and tried and tried. Sloan was SUCH a good girl...never freaking out and remained calm the entire time. It got to a point where the vet thought he was going to need to get a torch and cut apart the cattle guard, but finally her right leg became free!! Praise. The. Lord.

They walked her down and she was fine. I hope y'all know what a blessing this is. Most animals that incur this type of injury end up with broken legs and need to be out down. Sloan is sore and swollen but didn't suffer any long term or lasting injuries. This is our best, most well trained, wonderful tempered and mild mannered, champion roping horse. We would have been devastated if anything happened to our girl. God is good.

If you're wondering why our gate was open, well I'll tell you that it's because in the 5 years Travis has had our house our horses have NEVER tried anything like that or even gotten that close. We will now be shutting our gate. Lesson learned.

I would also like it noted that I never freaked out, only became teary eyed once, and handled it like a country girl. I'm finally getting used to this country stuff.

And that my friends is the life of a Riley.

1 comment:

Rachel and Matt said...

God Is GOOD! I am so thankful that Sloan is ok. I hope she recovers soon, and I am so PROUD of you and the way you handled the whole situation. You are making a great country girl!