Equine First Aid

[Cortney Smit]

Cortney was having fun winding bandages up and down the bay Drum's off legs - both fore and hind - even practising working out how to bandage the hock and knee. She smiled up at Dr Carr as the woman came into the yard and helped sort out what she was doing wrong.

She unwrapped the bandages and tucked them into kit before she walked around to Belarus' head and ticked the large gelding's chin. "You're like a rock, big guy." She told the gelding, as he had barely moved the whole time that they had been playing with him. She glanced over at Aurora who was working on the gelding's near hind. "How would you feel about putting the bandages away from now and we check his pulse and heart rate?" She grinned at the relieved look she got.

Walking over to where she had dropped her notebook, she picked it up and opened it, reading through the notes she had taken about where to find the pulse and heart. She handed the book to Rory as she walked back to the gelding, not sure if the younger girl had taken notes herself or not. She choose to check his pulse under his jaw, pressing her index and middle fingers against the squishy part and looked at the second hand of her watch as she counted the beats until the had got to fifteen seconds, it didn't take her long to multiply the number she had counted by four to get the beats per minute. "I think you might be so close to sleep that I'm surprised your eyes are still open." She laughed as she kissed his cheek." She took the book back from Rory and took it back to where she had left her pen.

Walking back to the gelding, she rubbed his neck vigorously and then pinched a little skin, not at all surprised when the skin instantly went back to normal. She then checked his gums, smiling when the colour returned almost instantly when she removed her thumb from his top gum.

She jumped when she heard the bell, Belarus didn't move a muscle, and her eyebrows shot up when she heard that it was lunchtime. "Wow, time really does fly when you're having fun." She laughed as she stooped down and picked up the first-aid kit and then removed the halter from the giant horse before she held the gate open for Rory and the two of the left the yard.

Walking over to the barrel where she had left her bag, she opened it up and pulled out the sandwiches that she had bought and began eating, only then realising how hungry she actually was.

[Deleted]

Aurora felt like she was finally getting into the swing of things after she had bandaged the horse's leg half a dozen times... Ok, that might be exaggerating things a little, but to a fourteen year old, it felt like she had done it that many times. She moved from front leg to back, bandaging each in turn, pausing a moment as Dr Carr came over and gave her some advice. "Thank you." She said as she took in what the woman had said and then corrected what she was doing to match the advice, finding that things were a lot easier afterwards.

She looked up in wide-eyed surprise as the older student spoke to her, an then gave a relieved look when the words sunk in. "That would be great." She said as she unwound the bandage she had been using and tucked it into the kit. She then walked up to Belarus' head and rubbed his forehead. "Thank you." She whispered to him as Cortney walked over to review her notebook. "I probably should have tried to take notes." She told the horse and then her eyebrows shot up in surprise when Cortney walked back and extended the book toward her. "Thanks!" She said as she accepted the proffered book. After reading it quickly, she handed it back.

Since the older girl had chosen the jaw, Rory decided to try and find the gelding's pulse at his elbow. It took her a few goes, but she finally found it. She saw that Cortney was using her watch, but Rory had a digital one, so there was no second hand. As soon as it flicked onto a new minute, she started counting beats and continued counting until the number changed again. "You're not being overworked at least." She told the gelding as his pulse rate had been the lower of the number Dr Carr had mentioned earlier.

She looked over her shoulder at the sound of the bell and clamped her hand on her stomach as it released an angry growl when the veterinarian mentioned lunch.

Leaving the yard, she walked over to her bag and grabbed the lunch out of it that her mother had packed.

[Othello Buskirk]

Othello grinned when Miranda said that the gelding was good with everything, which would explain why Dr Carr had chosen the gelding for the clinic. "As long as you're not just a lady's horse." He said softly as he rubbed the gelding's forehead. As he'd met a few gelding on the show circuit that had female riders and didn't like male judges, but that could be just because they were judges.

As his partner took the gelding's pulse, Othello used this time to lift the horse's upper lip and pushed his thumb against Guardian's pink upper gum. When he removed this thumb, it left a white thumb print, but this only lasted a matter of seconds before the colour returned. His eyebrows rose when Miranda spoke to him and rather than using the same spot that she had used, he decided to use the digital artery, found on the inside (and outside) of the gelding's leg just above the fetlock. He was pleased that his parents had bought him and analogue watch, rather than a digital one, as he had the second hand and counted the beats for fifteen seconds before taking his fingers from Guardian's leg and straightening up again. "I got thirty-six beats." He said after a quick calculation.

He then grabbed one of the rolled up bandages from the kit and rubbed the gelding's left shoulder as he crouched down and began to wind it up the leg and down again. Bandaging wasn't anything he really needed to work on, as it was used to doing so, with it was on art that you could forget to practice.

When the bell was rung, he looked up and was surprised to hear that it was lunch time, even though he was feeling a little light-headed. Removing the bandage, he kept his head down, knowing that his face would probably look quite grey - as it did when his head got like this.

Leaving Miranda to remove the gelding's halter, he waited at the gate for her and then headed over to his bag. Sitting down on the barrel, he pulled out a bottle of Gatorade and took a long drink before he opened the bag of beans and put a handful into his mouth, knowing that an instant sugar hit would perk him back up. And, as soon as his head had cleared, be started to eat his lunch.

[Miranda Florin]

Miranda shook her head, smiling, "In the entire time I've been working with him, I've yet to find anyone whose horse he isn't." She stepped back from the gelding and watched Othello doing the cappilary refill test as she multiplies the numbers in her head again, making sure that she hadn't missed a number. Sure, she could understand math after a while, but she wasn't great at it, and it would be embarrassing to no end if she came up with a number that wasn't multiplyable by four. As she waited for the boy to be done counting, she walked over to the bucket and came up with a roll of padding, as well as vet wrap.

Just then, she heard Leo's number for the pulse, causing her to look over and nod, "That's what I got as well." She wouldn't have been surprised had they been off by four in either direction, since one beat could be missed or skipped sometimes, but it was good to know that either neither of them had missed any, or they both had. She walked over to the gelding's right hind leg, trailing her hand down the entire leg as she shifted into a crouch. She knew that she was weaker at wrapping the hind legs when compared to fore, so while she had the time, she might as well make sure to practice the skill.

As she finished wrapping the gelding's leg, she heard the tinkling of a bell and looked up, seeing Dr. Carr holding the instrument. As the woman told them to take a break, Miranda nodded, slowly unwrapping Guardian's leg and rolling up the wrap as she did so. After putting the roll back into the bucket, she took off Guardian's indigo halter and hung it over the rail of the fence before letting herself out, grinning at Leo, who had waited for her. As he moved to the barrels, she slipped into the feed room and grabbed an alfalfa cube, which she returned to the gelding's yard with and offered the large mix, smiling as gentle lips picked it from her hand.

Wiping her hands, she returned to the barrels, picking up her bag and moving to the one next to where Leo was sitting, which still left the male with plenty of room, then started eating her own lunch, watching Fingal as she ate. Had she been on her own, she might have eaten by the mustang's yard, but since she was in a group, she didn't want to separate herself from them, and she would have plenty of time with the grey later on.

[Deleted]

Olivia stopped midwrap as she heard Dr. Carr's voice just outside of their model's yard, but as she heard the woman talking to her partner, who had introduced himself as Chase, she turned her head back to her work, knowing that she didn't want to seem to be listening in, even if she did do her best to catch what was being said, curious about why the woman would single out her partner. However, she continued in her work, as if she was doing nothing of the sort, and before long, found that she was much happier with the bandaging she was doing.

After unwrapping Beauty's leg, she rolled the padding and wrap back up and then walked back over to the bucket and grabbed one of the packets of fake blood, looking at it for a moment before returning it to the bucket. After gauging where Chase was at the moment, she stepped up to the mare, making sure to stay out of her partner's way, and crouched down to find the mare's pulse at her pastern, which took her more time to find than actually to count the pulse.

When she heard that it was time to break for lunch, Olivia smiled, stepping away from where she had been probing the mare's other leg, and then glanced around. As she saw one of the other students taking off their horse's halter, she looked at Chase, "Could you get her halter?" She moved to check the wrap that she had put back before, hoping that she had tightened it so that it hadn't unravelled, and smiled as she saw it hadn't. Waiting at the gate for Chase, she led the way out of the yard before she moved to where her lunch was and sat on the barrel to start eating.