Mum proceeded to tack me up and said she would lunge me for ten minutes first before getting on. This was quite routine. We went to the ménage and started on the lunge; five minutes in, the rain got worse. The sky turned black and the rain began to lash down against the sand, creating a backlash as it fell, hammering against the surface. Mum was not deterred by this but I wasn't so sure. She took me off the lunge and walked me over to the mounting block. I wouldn't stand still, I didn't want to work in this weather and the rain was really coming down; so much so, that the school was beginning to have giant puddles. I walked round and round the mounting block, trying to tell her that I wasn't comfortable with this. She told me that it was only a bit of rain and she wanted to walk me around for five minutes and that was it. Mum put one foot in the stirrup, chucked her other leg over and as her bum hit the saddle, I lost it. I ran so fast, bronching and bucking down the length of the school.
Mum went flying. She somersaulted through the air before crashing to the ground. The sound of her hitting the surface spooked me, I looked round stunned as to why she was on the floor before realising what had happened. I was stood so tall, on edge; I slowly lowered my head and walked towards her. She dragged herself up, covered in sand and absolutely drenched through, she was shaking and crying. I felt awful, I sensed she was hurt and upset. I nudged her with my head by way of apology and she led me from the ménage. Just as we walked out, a friend appeared at the stables who took hold of me and led me to my stable whilst Mum composed herself. Moments later, Mum reappeared and untacked me before leaving me in my stable to dry off and shelter from the horrendous weather. I felt so guilty.
It took her weeks to get back on. She continued to lunge me and we did some freeschool games. I really wanted to prove to her that I hadn't meant to hurt her and I really did want her to get back on board. When she plucked up the courage to get back on, I vowed I would be on my best behaviour and would protect my jockey to the best of my ability. We took baby steps once again and, slowly, Mum was getting her confidence back and learning to trust me again in the saddle.
A few weeks later, something bad happened. We were all in the paddock as usual, Mum came to check on us and give us a fuss before leaving for the night. It was a nice, warm summer evening in July and we were grazing happily. When Mum came down to see us in the morning, she walked to our paddock but we weren't there. I could hear her panicked calls for us; I knew she would be worried so I called back to her. It didn't take her long to see the broken fence and she ran into the large paddock with the main herd to find us grazing. She put our headcollars and leadropes on with a friend and began to try to lead us from the field. Her friend walked on with Babe no problems but I couldn't move. Mum was trying to encourage me to walk forward to get out of the field but I planted my feet. I couldn't handle the pain. That's when she saw it... the result of a scrap with the main herd and there were two cuts on my leg; one on my hock, the other just below. Blood had seeped down my leg onto my white socks and Mum went into panic mode. She called to her friend who came back to help encourage me along. I knew I had to move but the pain was unbearable.
It took half an hour for her to get me to the stable block. She carefully cleaned mine and my friend's legs and flushed out the wounds before applying small bandages to keep them covered. We were both left in our stables to rest and she came later to clean up and redo our beds etc.
The next day, she took the bandaging off. She wanted our legs to be open to the air and for the wounds to dry out/scab over. I was still in my stable with my best friend in the stable next door, we were both feeling sorry for ourselves. Mum took such good care of us though, making sure we got lots of attention and care.
It became apparent that my leg was infected, yellow puss was weeping from the wound. The vet came out and cleaned it all out and applied a compression wrap that covered almost the entirety of my leg. He told my Mum to remove the wrap after a few days and see if it still seemed infected. She did as he said and discovered, unfortunately, it was still infected. The vet came back out. Mum was getting stressed, I could sense that she was worried for me. The vet mentioned fracture and that he would have to probe the wound to check the extent of the injury as a preliminary measure to x-ray. I was taken from my stable and Mum held me whilst the vet looked over my wounds.
Mum stood right at my head, whispering to me and soothing my anxiety about what was to come. The vet warned my Mum that he was about to probe the wound. I buried my head into my Mum's chest whilst she wrapped her arms around my head and kept talking to me, reassuring me. The vet inserted a small metal rod into my leg and scraped along the bone to check for any jagged edges, he felt nothing out of the ordinary. It became clear further examination would be required.
I was so glad my Mum was there to comfort me and the vet was amazed that I hadn't moved a muscle during the probe. Both my Mum's mother and the vet commented on what a special bond my Mum and I had. I love my Mum very much and it was becoming evermore apparent that she loved me very much too...
Michelin Man Leg
Cuddles with my Best Friend