Playing Vets

Busy times. I've called this blog post "playing vets" because my horses have been a nightmare recently. The two new polo ponies are not settling in well. Nakita cut her leg in the boma (paddock) and has also injured two other horses in the space of two days. She was fighting with one and poor Magic ended up in the watertrough so she has a very swollen back leg and lots of cuts. The following day, Sij came in with a kick on his hind leg which I think we can safely assume was also Nakita's doing. Amarula (the other new one) seemingly tried to eat a thorn bush and has cut her mouth. Fortunately it hasn't stopped her eating and it is healing quickly. But essentially 50% of the polo ponies are injured and unrideable, and we had just started getting them fit again for next season!

Still all the above is fairly manageable. Cleaning wounds and administering antibiotics, painkillers and anti-inflammatory drugs is straight forward enough. Naturally worse was to come... One afternoon I get a call from the head polo syce asking me to come to the stables. As he is more than capable of dealing with minor injuries, I know something very bad has happened. Sij has cut his neck completely open including through the muscles - a gruesome sight it has to be said although he is stood quite calmly in his stable eating hay. We later discovered a jagged tree stump in the boma covered in blood so assume this was what caused the injury. Luckily Will (the owner) was around to stitch him up (he's not a vet either but he's stitched up quite a few horses over the years as it isn't easy or cheap to get a vet here). It took over two hours and we all lost count of how many stitches. This happened two days ago and amazingly Sij seems to be doing okay. It's a massive wound though and I'm not sure how much muscle damage there is and how/if that will heal. I guess time will tell..

All in all, that was a very dramatic day. It started with Coco's foal finally putting in an appearance and ended up with Sij's hideous injury. My aunt has been staying at Wilderness for the past week which has been lovely. Will was going to take us for a flight in the bi-plane that morning so we were at the airstrip at 6.30am and then got a call saying Coco had her foal. So flight plans abandoned, we rushed off to see the new baby. It's a little girl, dark bay in colour, and she is absolutely tiny and a bag of bones. Not sure what was going on inside Coco but baby obviously wasn't getting enough food. Her back legs were also very wonky but it is day three now, she is still with us, and fighting hard for survival. She drinks brilliantly and stays on her feet for hours until she falls asleep standing up / collapses. She couldn't stand up by herself for the first 24 hours so once up, she seemed to know she should stay up as long as possible so that she could feed and get her legs stronger. Coco is the most amazing mummy too, very protective and loving. Quite a contrast with Santa's mum who was more interested in eating than looking after her foal. Santa's legs are slowly healing by the way - he now only has two legs bandaged not three!!

Anyway, enough of the horses. Ann and I finally did get to go on our bi-plane flight. For those, like myself, who know nothing about planes, the bi-plane (Waco) is an open cockpit plane that sits a pilot at the back and then two passengers in the front. It is based on the 1930s Out of Africa style plane, and it is certainly an incredible way to experience the scenery. We went for an hour long flight up to Samburu and along the river. Will used to be a crop sprayer so at times he flies barely 10 feet off the ground. Going through the valleys in an open cockpit plane, you literally feel like you could reach out and touch the sides of the gorges. Brilliant!