The Ice Chronicles: Peaks and Valleys

Photo copyright Wings, 2014; all rights reserved.

I don't know whether to laugh or cry. I think I'll just have a nice fit of hysterics and get them both all over with at once.

Let's start with the observation that I have been up since 3:14 AM. I have not yet had a shower. That should tell you something about what this day has been.

No vet until 12 hours after I capped off the drip at 3:30 this morning; she had two surgeries today. Meanwhile, Ice's sedation had mostly worn off, he wasn't able to get any IV fluids, and he was hellishly uncomfortable. A couple of globs of sand and a lot of green water, but not much else making its way on through.

Have you ever tried to medicate a horse? If you haven't, it's not something I recommend trying just to say you've done it. Most horses aren't too thrilled with having a syringe full of crap shoved into their mouths in the first place. Add to that a horse who clearly has been abused in a way that involves, among other things, an apparently likewise-hellish experience with a bit (useful as a torture device, unfortunately), and add to that a horse that, despite what all the evidence says should be happening, is strong as an outraged draft horse, and it's a recipe for disaster, or at least serious injury. In his case, it takes two of us, sometimes three, to hold him, and Wings is the one who has to do the jamming in of the syringe. We've been through that routine three times today so far.

Earlier today, not having heard from the vet again yet and not seeing anything in the way of . . . erm . . . movement, I was at the "cry" point. I'm just beat, so is Wings, and there's nothing we could do except wait.

Just before the vet left, she amended her statement from yesterday. She said, and I quote: "Any other horse, he'd have been dead. This guy?" He's incredibly strong, despite the damage and trauma to his body; his will to live is apparently made of iron. I know, logically, that the medical indicators are still very much not in his favor. But I still think he's gonna make it.

As usual, more when I have it . . . .