Finger-Breaking Good (Oct. 6)

I have a secret: I love drama. Depending on who you ask, it isn't actually a secret. Maybe it runs in the family. Maybe it’s a woman thing (although I’ll fight anyone who says it is). Maybe it’s a flaw. Whatever the case, I love a dramatic retelling. 

However, I don’t like this about myself. My experiences with other people who love drama have left a bad taste in my mouth. Drama tastes like betrayal, lies, delusions, paranoia, broken relationships, lack of character. So, I try to subdue my dramatic side as much as possible. I’ve even started to cut all the obvious hyperbole out of my vocabulary.

The exception is when something good or bad happens to me that has nothing to do with anyone else. This is when I let my wild, dramatic side run loose. I still avoid lying and exaggerating, but when I break my finger (or crash my car, or my horse does something ridiculous) I reserve the right to relish every drop of dramatic goodness. Since it doesn’t involve other people, there is no way I can slip into slander, gossip, paranoia, or hurt the people around me in some other way.

I've already told the story of the broken finger, but I never wrote about my training with Avalon that day. Here is that post, and some broken finger follow-ups. 

(There are some bruised finger pictures later in the post)

Am I the only one who thinks pastures are absolutely beautiful, even when they are inches deep in "mud"?

I began my session with Avalon by tying her in the round pen. She has gotten really good at standing tied at the hitching post, but I want to start teaching her that it's normal to stand tied in other places as well. She pulled back once or twice, but only testing the rope. She never really threw herself into it or tried to get free.

Observing from a distance so I could rush over if she did anything stupid. Throwback to when I had my Kia. 

I returned to the round pen after a few minutes with the tarp. I flapped it around on her back while she stood tied. She was much more concerned about the wind than the tarp. After that I untied her and laid the tarp on the ground, leaving her to investigate on her own. 

Fun with tarps.

At first she did her own thing.

Her favorite thing: standing by the gate.

But then she came back to investigate.

Walked right onto the tarp by herself.

The weather was windy and cold, typical to October in Wisconsin. In the round pen, Avalon showed signs of relaxation by licking, chewing, and yawning. But once we moved out of the round pen into the yard, she became alert and anxious. 

To help her process the change in weather, I brought out a variety of scary objects. There was a feed bag, an umbrella, a jacket, and a few other items. After a while she ignored all the scary objects I could find, so I got creative. I found a plastic bag and tied it to the end of my lead rope. I waved the bag around and rubbed it on her body. Avalon handled it all very well. She was more nervous with the plastic bags than any of the other objects, but she still managed her emotions like we have practiced. 

Then I decided to flick the plastic bag at Avalon's front hooves. She spooked, reared back, and struck at the bag. Immediately after, she stopped and looked toward me for direction - the perfect response. However, the rope tangled around my right index finger as she pulled back. I thought right away that it was broken, but figured I was overreacting. I continued to use the plastic bags as a training tool for about five more minutes. Once Avalon accepted the bag with her hooves, I stood back to give her release. That was when I realized that my finger still hurt, a lot.  

I took this picture right before breaking my finger. 

The rest of the story is written in my broken finger updates post. Here are some fun pictures of the healing process.

Picture from the ER as I waited for xray results.

In the ER I was given a splint.

I became worried about the finger a few days after I broke it. The paperwork from the ER said I fractured my distal phalanx (fingertip), but most of the swelling occurred in in lower joint. That joint was flattened by the splint and turned purple and swollen. 

The finger turned purple, green, and black at both of the knuckles. 

I returned to the doctor for my follow-up appointment and discovered the paperwork was incorrect. I had broken the middle phalanx, the bone between the two finger joints. This diagnosis made sense with the pattern of swelling.

The doctor showed me the x rays. The break starts at the top of my middle phalanx and goes almost all the way through the bone horizontally, then takes a corner and stretches vertically through the bone. Enjoy this beautiful diagram since I didn't think to take a picture of the xray.

Thankfully, the break did not go all the way through the bone in either direction, which meant the injury was stable. I was able to take the splint off and buddy tape my fingers instead. The tape was more comfortable and more convenient since it was water proof (I couldn't get the splint wet).

Starting to look better.

I discovered the best way to continue working with horses was to hold ropes with my pointer finger and thumb. After a few weeks the tape started ripping my skin off, so I used gauze or tissue to protect my fingers.  

I'm writing this on the 10^th of November, exactly five weeks since the injury. It takes four to six weeks to heal a broken bone typically (at least a simple, straight-forward break), so I’m almost good as new. Every once in a while, I feel a twinge of discomfort, but I haven't taped my finger in about a week.