Wednesday, October 31, 2018
I believe there are reasons for the struggles and shaping I go through. They are good for me in the long run, but that doesn’t mean I don’t occasionally throw a tantrum.
Sometimes I have the energy to take the annoyance or difficulty in stride and sometimes I wish God would work on the other people around me instead…
Can’t you work on him/her for a while right now so my life is easier!?
Silence.
I’m tired. Can we do this some other time or never?
Silence.
Ouch that hurts! Why do I have to go through this?!
Silence.
Why?
Silence.
Then I went to the barn to check on Khaleesi’s painful scabby scratches on the right hind. I wasn’t able to do much the previous two days due to cold rain leaving fields completely mud soaked. No chance of drying the infected spots out which is necessary for them to heal.
It’s been a losing battle with this wet 2018. Just when I get a window of headway the mud and rain return creating new hot painful scabs.
First I used the hose to wash the mud off her legs and feet. She tolerated it.
But when I began as carefully as I could to dry and just assess the bad foot with my eyes she avoided, sidestepped and even air kicked at me.
Stop! That hurts! Leave it alone!!! GO AWAY!!
I know it hurts but I need to help you.
In order to truly help her I had to dry the area I’d just cleaned, run the mini clipper over it to remove as much hair as possible, then spray an aloe-antibacterial gel that cleans and cools the area (slightly easing the pain), then add some skin cream to soften the scabs so I might be able to remove some of them to allow them to heal – and a protective zinc oxide to help them feel better and protect them as they heal.
She was highly and visibly against this process and I understood. It hurt. The low level irritating pain is easier to deal with than the excruciating pain involved in true healing.
We know as humans that if we put up with the bad pain in an effort to heal we will then be well and not eventually to lose use of a leg and possibly die if you’re a horse who gets taken down by a predator.
So here I am in the barn knowing I absolutely have to get the scratches treated. With her consent or not in this case.
So I picked up the one thing that gets that mare’s attention beyond any other mental or physical distraction.
The flag.
And the next time I went to spray the cooling gel and she danced away I flapped the flag and she understood I was now not negotiating. And I had her undivided attention.
I want to pause to explain a couple things here:
First– I have worked to build a solid relationship of trust with this mare over years. Most times she will go along with me even if she’s unsure because I’ve built that foundation. I cannot say I would take this same course of action with Wyoming the mustang. She is learning to trust me but the foundation isn’t solid enough yet.
Second– I did wave that flag toward her and I meant business. But I was not emotionally upset with her. I didn’t act out of anger but love. While the flag gets waved either way- the intent behind it was to help her. It does matter. If I’d have been frustrated, angry and out of control this would not have worked out the same way.
She is sensitive already and the flag is BIG language for her.
It brought her back to me and though she still moved it was much less… no air kicking. I didn’t get everything done to the level I wanted but I got done what I needed.
And though she didn’t like it, she was able to relax and process when we finished and we walked to the field connected and the relationship not broken- in fact probably stronger for it.
There was a moment however in the barn while I watched her struggle and stood back a moment to allow her to calm that tears began to puddle in the corner of my eyes.
I was thinking of something I’d heard earlier that morning.
Tim Keller described watching – years ago on a farm in Europe- sheep got dipped for parasite control that saved their lives. The process was terrifying to them. As a soft hearted human, Tim explained, we want to explain to the sheep that it’s for their own good.
We want to explain.
So… suggested Tim…
Go ahead and explain.
😶
😚
Exactly.
green to 100 
Love your articles Jaime and how this one relates to Trust, which all of us deal with.
Continue writing. Many Hugs.
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I hope she heals.
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As of yesterday already it looks good. My hope is the dry spell gave it a chance to get ahead. More rain tomorrow.
I can’t see stalling her a whole day or two as the stress of that I think is worse than the scratches- but it could come to that if the rain doesn’t subside!! Our pastures are all green like spring still!
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Bummer! I dealt with an unprecedented outbreak of scratches in my homebred, life-long herd a few years ago (and we were in a drought at the time, Southern California — so it was not brought on by mud or water). It was the worst thing I’ve ever had to deal with — and spread from one horse to the other, and back again, in my herd of (at the time) 5 horses :(( It started when my mare went off for a stay at the vet hospital to heal from an injury. After she returned, all hell broke loose. “These things always have a staph infection element”, my vet told me. Sadly, everything that the vet had to offer failed to rid the problem. “People get really mad that I cannot cure this!” the vet said. So I started researching, rather than the term “scratches”, the term, “staph”. That was when I began to make progress. If your condition persists, if the leg blows up and inflames, rather than just usual scratches, that’s something that might help :)) Dawn
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Oh thanks! I will keep
An eye and see if there’s something more to it!
My other mare Faygo has them seasonally and they always went away… but this is the first time Khaleesi has had it.
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There was a hay element to it as well — had to switch feed. Keep an eye, and if you need to know more of what worked for me, let me know . . .
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