Velvet update, and doctoring Gussie

Got an email from Kristy, Velvet's new owner, and she sent some really nice photos of Velvet with her new best friend.

Pretty pair of mares! Hopefully, we will get lots of stories as they grow up together. Thanks, Kristy!

Rode Beamer today, and had a really nice ride- which was nice because when I rode him a few days ago he was a little argumentative. My plan was to saddle Gussie next, and pony Rio again. I could see Gussie at the gate , really bothered by face flies, so figured -perfect- won't have to go get her- but as soon as I got up to her I could see that she had a very fresh cut on the inside of the knee on her right front.

Warning- graphic photo coming up.


It had obviously happened within 5 minutes of me seeing it, and I have no idea how she could injure herself in a pasture that looks like this:

The fence is barbwire, with an electric fence a foot or more inside it to keep them away from the wire:

I walked all around the fenceline and could find nothing.  Aside from the cut, she has two scuff marks on the outside of the leg:

One above the knee, and one on the fetlock joint. Here is what the cut looks like:

There is some swelling and heat along the cannon bone and as you can see, she doesn't want to put a lot of weight on it. I cold hosed her, gave her a tetanus shot, and put a bandage on with Dynamite Wound Balm supplemented by some Young Living oils. When I first saw it, I thought maybe she was rolling to get away from the flies, and clipped herself with either a hind foot, or her other front leg when she was getting up. But that doesn't really explain the scuffs on the outside of the leg. And if she had managed to get her leg through the barbwire, it still doesn't explain the scuffs. It's a mystery to me. At any rate, I'll be doctoring her twice a day and I won't be riding her for a while, so I'll come up with other things for Rio to do other than ponying. And Chickory will get more time too.
Speaking of Chickory, any bets that Gussie's bandage will still be on by morning?

Edited to add:

Decided to give Gussie a shot of long acting penicillin. The cut itself is just the skin, but there is a lot of trauma to the leg. It's evening now, and she still favors the leg so I built her a corral panel stall under the shelter (thunderstorms going on) because I don't want the other horses pestering her if she manages to lie down- probably won't, as she doesn't really like to bend that leg. But I gave her some nice deep straw. The bandage only lasted a couple of hours then slid down; pretty hard to wrap a knee. Since it isn't a deep cut, I'll just leave it unwrapped. Early tomorrow before I go to work, I'll cold hose it again, and leave her in the stall for the day. Poor girl! I hate to see my horses hurting.