After a fun morning with Schmall, telling stories of a clinician he had in school who referred to the girls as "angels of mercy" (except one, who he called "angel of death") as well as many other stories that had us laughing, Amy and I decided to ride with Dr. Schmall for the day.
Our first stop was to radiograph 2 horses. The first was a 3 year old Thoroughbred (prior race horse) who was young and misbehaved. I was holding the horse when something must have spooked him. He was standing about 2 feet away from $85,000 of digital x-ray equipment when he began freaking out on me and backing up. "Get him up!" Dr. Schmall frantically yelled to me. I was trying, as best as I knew how, pulling as hard as I could to try to move the horse forward and away from the equipment. I got him a few steps when he jerked his head as high back as he could, snapping the lead rope. Suddenly we had a 1000+ lb unrestrained horse much too close to the equipment. What do you do when all you have in your hand is the torn off end of the lead rope? Dr. Schmall tapped the horse's rear end to get him to move forward, but he reared a bit in my direction. Trying not to panic, I looked to the owner of the horse who was now standing by the horse and had just yelled something along the lines of "she no longer has control of him". Nope! I sure didn't! The horse came forward towards me, I stood my ground, she grabbed a hold of him and he calmed down. I took hold of him again and we were able to get the right radiographs. Whew! My heart was racing.
Our next stop was uneventful and pretty routine. We did a few lameness exams on a variety of horses, dispensed some meds, and headed to our next stop!
Our last appointment of the day also proved to be quite interesting. We began with a pre-purchase exam (something quite common in the world of horses - a veterinarian evaluates a horse and makes note of anything they find that seems to be abnormal and reports this information to the buyer and seller). Starting with the neuro exam, Dr. Schmall drilled Amy and I on cranial nerves. Needless to say, we were a bit rusty in naming ALL of them and giving the exact tests for them. Dr. Schmall told us that it was valuable information that we should know - the first thing I did when I got home (after laying top soil and planting grass) was look up neurological exams in horses. You better believe I'm prepared to answer tomorrow if Dr. Schmall asks me again.
After that, we had to look at a few lame horses. Typically uneventful, you jog the horse down and back in order to check the gate. It was my turn to run with the horse. I was handed a "nice horse" who had been on stall rest for a few weeks. "He's really good. He'll go right with you" Dr. Schmall noted. I "clucked" (I believe that's what it's called in the horse world) and the horse did NOT come right with me. He freaked out, spun around, and moved backwards the other direction. Pulling down hard a few times, he finally stopped. Whew! "Ok, now just try it again" I was instructed. And so I did. The damn thing did it again! Of course, it never fails that there is a group of people (including the owner of the horse, the owner of the barn, riders, etc) watching you attempt to control the horse. Really? This happened to me twice in one day? Yes, really. Twice in one day. After that, I got the horse to behave, jogged him, and examined his suspensory ligament. It was quite sore.
From that horse, we moved on to another in need of joint injections. Amy and I scrubbed the heel bulbs after Dr. Schmall had given local anesthetic (which was after I had given IV sedation). He injected the joints and Amy and I wrapped the feet! To the left is a picture - I did the right foot and Amy did the left (that's her in the picture!). We injected some mares with progesterone and headed back to school for the day. It was a long enough day for me.Whew! I survived. The $85,000 digital x-ray machine and computer survived. And, I'll do it all over again tomorrow...
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