For about 33% of the time I’ve owned Azid he has been injured, his curiosity combined with lack of courage makes for a spooky, act now, think later, suffer the consequences attitutde. Which unsurprisingly quite often leads to some injury or other.
This time I broke my hand riding my mountain bike, just 6 weeks after breaking my ribs falling off Qantas filming the slosh bottle training video. For Azid we will never know what happened as there is no evidence in the field other than the pools of blood strewn across the land and the blood spattered rug.
When the vet arrived I was pretty worried that this was it for Azid, although the wound doesn’t look bad at first glance, you could put a finger down inside his hoof, two bits of loose bone were flushed out, he’d severed some arteries (which he was very lucky clotted in the field) and there was a real risk of joint involvement, infection, nerve damage and the coronet band was mushed. We’re crossing everything in the hope that the hood grows, the joints are fine, his nerves will be ok and later down the line not compressed by scar tissue. The future is pretty uncertain but for now he’s still with us and his silly little face makes me smile over the stable door everyday.
So here are the injury diaries of Azid for the past year…..
July 2019
I decided to be lame the week before Euston Park, I was meant to be doing 80km but I didn’t feel like it so I’m being lame on my right fore, this seemed like a good option because it’s also the leg I scraped on that branch the other day, so my human might think they’re related, plausible story right there.
My plan of missing Euston has gone a bit OTT. I’m still lame and now my human is taking me to the vets. Literally driving me there at 7:30am and abandoning me to their evil devices, apparently she has to go to work and can’t be at my every beck and call. Rude!
I refused to go in the vets stable or their scary barn…….Mwhaha! They had to bring all their equipment out to me in the yard. One of them breached my perimeter and now I feel very sleepy……it’s a full on invasion…..3 of them with their blocks and bone picture machine!
My human has arrived to take me home, thank god, this lot have made me trot up and down on every surface they could find and then not content with that made me do it all over again in circles. I couldn’t be bothered to do the left one so one of the vets had to run around the lunge pen with me while the other watched, at least I got my own back for them making me sleepy and he was a bit out of breath, would never keep up with me at a competition that’s for sure.
Home sweet home, though my field has shrunk considerably….hmmm. Tissy said she’s had to do it before and it’s called restricted turnout. I mean how am I meant to run and play and leap in a paddock this size, better get sound quick so I can go back to the life I have been accustomed to. I’m not happy with this new regime.
August 2019
I have been sound now for a couple of weeks and my human has started relentlessly taking me for walks, up hills, over poles, around the block, in the sand school, she won’t stop and she won’t let me have any fun, like trotting or spinning or basically anything, she’s so boring.
I am the best at stretches, I can get my nose all the way to my bum and I can do the bestest bow, my human seems really happy with this so maybe she might let me trot soon. My Physio is on maternity leave having a human foal so apparently this new person, an Osteopath, is coming to see me, this doesn’t sound good. I liked my Physio, she gave the best scratches and rubs, what if the Osteo-ma-pathy-thing is mean.
Osteopath lady has been, wasn’t so bad, she moved me around a lot and declared me ready for ‘increased work’, this sounds bad, I hope it means trotting though. It’s just I’m a bit busy to have increased work, with the grazing, annoying Tissy, snoozing, messing around in the field (which thankfully is back to full size) my schedule is just too full!
I needn’t have panicked, we’ve got rid of most the walking and now we’re trotting, yay yay yaaaay! Trotting is much more fun, I can spook and spin way better. Plus I think I look super fancy and handsome when I do this cool floaty trot and snort a lot, all the mares love it!
September 2019
I’m back in training, my human tells me that we’ve missed all the competitions now so I’ll have to wait until next year, she didn’t seem happy, it’s a shame because I like going to competitions, I get all the attention from everyone, I just have to whiney and they’re there will 3 types of food, 3 types of drink, rugs, massages, kisses, everything you could ever want. Maybe being lame was a silly idea. I won’t do it again.
November 2019
Ouch, ouch, ouch, ocuh, OUCH!!!! The worst thing has happened my back foot hurts, like really really hurts, no one has even been in this much pain in their whole entire lives, I might not make it to tomorrow. Tell Tissy she can have my grass.
The vets came again, said I was only ‘mildly lame’, the cheek, I was dying I tell you! They say I have side bone in all four of my feet, which apparently is weird for my age, breed, exercise schedule and everything. I always knew I was special. So they don’t think it will cause me any issues once it’s settled. My human has spent all day reading research papers telling me I’m going to have to change career, or I’ll be fine, or I might never be ridden, or I’ll be fine, or I might get arthritis, or I’ll be fine. Apparently the research is variable to say the least.
Anyway I’ve been told we’re back at square one. I mean this is hardly my fault it just happened and it’s almost winter anyway so who want’s to be out training in the rain and mud, I go all wooly and get rug mane. How is a handsome chap like myself meant to put his best foot forward (which incidentally is my left fore, never let me down that one) when I look like a scruffy bog pony.
December 2019
I regret the very day I let myself be a total wimp and went lame. A new horse has arrived. Apparently as a back up plan to me. I’m furious, I do not need a back up plan, I’m the most handsome, most athletic pony here, I have buckets full of potential, all the vets at the competitions say so. They say I’m a fine looking horse and you go and get a Plan B, who is he anyway!!!!
Qantas his name is, he’s all dashing silky mane, his forelock drapes over his eyes like he’s the pony Justin Bieber. Well I’ll show him who’s boss around here, I won’t let him eat at my hay station and I won’t let him talk to Tissy, respect has to be earnt around here Plan B!
I love Qantas, he is my best buddy, we play together, snooze together, eat together, sometimes we go for walks together. It’s the bestest having a buddy that gets me. Tissy just rolls her eyes and tells me to stop being such a boisterous boy then she swishes her tail at me and walks off. But Qantas grooms me and follows me around and I have to teach him everything I know so he can follow in my amazing hoof steps.
January 2020
Apparently I’m still on rest and I’m being left, LEFT I tell you, in Wales because the ground is better in these fields. I mean yes it’s not all deep and sticky and hard to move but still I do not deserve to be left anywhere, especially with this herd of Welsh mountain horses, what if they’re mean to me.
I watched Tissy and Qantas leave in the lorry, I screamed all day but no one came to load me up and take me back with them. I hate my human.
February 2020
I love my human, she came back for me and I got these treats that were amazing, they were called Stud Muffins, so totally made for me! We’re going back to the Midlands and we’re starting rehab again. I have to suffer the weeks of walking all over again.
The vets have declared me sound!! Woop woop! I told them all I was talented and amazing and I was totally going to be fine. I don’t know why they spent so much time inspecting and feeling and worrying and then watching me move and poking and prodding. I tried to tell them but humans hey!
My right front foot is ouchy, AGAIN! Apparently this time it’s an abscess, damn that clay mud! It’s burst out near the top of my hoof and it smells DISGUSTING! Someone get me the citronella spray to cover it up, no mare will come near me like this.
It took me a whole 2 and a half weeks to get over the trauma of having an abscess, the farrier said I would be fine but he doesn’t know the shame of being a limpy smelly pony.
April 2020
So I was meant to start trotting but erm Qantas broke my humans rib so it’s now delayed a whole four weeks. Like so not cool Qantas. Apparently my human could ride me really but she doesn’t trust me to not to be silly. I’m quite frankly deeply offended, I only ever dragged her along the road once and that was because there was something terrifying in the hedge, we could have been eaten if it wasn’t for my quick thinking.
May 2020
I overhead my human saying I was being sent to bootcamp. I’ve consulted Tissy and we have no idea what this is.
So we’ve been on the lorry for about 2 hrs on the way to this bootcamp and we get off the lorry, my human takes me to this barn with actual water in the middle, like a long giant puddle. I’ve been put in a stable (she’s abandoned me again) and I’ve watched as they’ve taken each pony out one by one and made them splash around in the puddle, they’re working their way along the stable line…..it looks like I only have a matter of time until they make me do the puddle thing, send help.
June 2020
I have had 3 weeks of this puddle thing, at the start it was super hard and I don’t know why everyone was doing it or why these humans were taking so much interest in me. But now I feel super fine, I look all fit and sleek, my muscles are hench and I’m feeling extra sassy. I mean I look amazing, like one of those FEI ponies we always see at competitions. I’m sure I heard I was meant to be one of them some day, is this how it happens? They get in the magic puddle and voila, extreme endurance race pony.
One of the other ponies opposite said he is an actual real life, been to the World Championships, FEI endurance pony and he laughed at me. Actually laughed and said I knew nothing and had a very long way to go. I felt a bit embarrassed really but I wasn’t about to admit it, I’ll show him, one day!!
July 2020
My human has recently decided to ride mountain bikes, I mean are we not enough! But whilst doing this has broken her hand. Which yet again has delayed my journey to being a fantastic FEI pony, can’t a guy catch a break. I’m ready, I’m waiting to be saddled up and throw myself into training.
I threw myself into something else, I’m not telling anyone what it was, I have left no clues so it will always remain a mystery, just as well because everyone seems a bit angry with me. They found me in the field, and I’m not going to lie, I’m glad they’d come to get me, my left foot (the one that’s never let me down until now) is super ouchy, my rug got sprayed in blood because every few seconds my foot spurted it out. I look like someone has taken a good wedge out the back of my foot, I can see all the bones and everything.
They called the vet, they spent hooooooours stitching me, there was a lot of blood, I have this stupid bandage on now and have to stay in a stable. It’s not even MY stable because the stupid human put a new concrete floor down in my stable just this morning so I can’t even use it.
I’ve been doing pretty well really, scraping my teeth on the bars, doing some digging, snoozing that kind of thing but I’m boooooored!! So today I thought I wouldn’t eat much, not do any wee’s or poo’s and see how much it makes my human panic.
It so totally worked, she’s taking my heart rate, listening to gut sounds, walking me around and giving me hand picked sloppy grass, I even got given the Aqua aide drink, which is my favourite so I drank it all. I decided after all their effort to do one poo in return. Everyone seemed much happier then. They said they’d tell on me though and the vet would know and that he’s coming back tomorrow, spoil sports!
Today I escaped, ha! I bent my knees extra low and commando pony’d under the stable chain while she was mucking out. I splashed in all the puddles, I trotted all around and didn’t let anyone get me. I ate some grass, munched on some tree branches, made my dressing REALLY wet because the lovely long grass had water droplets all over it, and it was so yummy. They got me in the end though, lulled me into a false sense of security with some scratches and then, boom, head collar on. I thought I was going to get the biggest telling off, she always means business when she calls me ‘HS Beyazid you little sh*t’, but actually my human seemed more pleased about how sound I am, winning.
They spiked me with the evil sleepy juice again. They took off all the bandages which was lovely, bit of fresh air on the legs! Then lots of prodding happened, the vet even took pictures of my wound, apparently he’s impressed. I mean what else do they expect I’m amazing and one day will be a fantastic FEI pony. Although there was some chat about me ‘not being out of the woods’ …..I haven’t even been in any woods recently and I’m most certainly not in one now, humans are weird. He bandaged me back up, which was a shame, I was hoping after the sleepy juice wore off I’d be allowed back out with my buddies, being in a stable is soooo boring, I have been in here forever humans!
Today they put this boot thing over my bandage and I was allowed out in the tiniest field you’ve ever seen, even tinnier than the field they put me in when we go away to competitions, barely bigger than the stable. But I’m going to be so good, I’m going to stay in my tiny field and be quiet and eat grass and they will think I’m the bestest behaved pony, I don’t want to blow this chance because it’s so nice to be outside and eat all the grass even if it’s not even big enough for a Shetland!
I just couldn’t do it, I tried sooooo HARD to be good. But there were ponies going on hacks past me and the pony in the next door field was going on adventures and I just wanted to run around and be free like the wind. I’m an arab, I was born to run with my mane flowing behind me and my nostrils flaring in the air. So I broke out my teeny tiny corral cage and trotted like the superstar I am all around the field, best day EVER!
Worst day ever, my human said due to bad behaviour I am now confined to my stable apart from sometimes when she has time to watch me in the tiny field. I knew this would happen, she just doesn’t get that I need to be free, I tried I really did, I wanted to be good but it’s just not in my nature and now I have to pay for being who I am. At least she brings grass in a big bucket twice a day, otherwise I might die of starvation. I only have hay in a bucket and a haylage net, and carrots, and apples and swede on a string and salt lick and a molasses lick and feed twice a day. I might starve I tell you!
I’ve been given a second chance to prove I can behave and stay in the tiny field, after two days of confinement I will do ANYTHING to go out in fresh air and munch green grass and feel the breeze in my mane. I still get put back in the stable overnight and when it’s rainy because I have to keep this bandage dry and every 5 days the vet comes and blood goes everywhere but all in all I get lots of attention and cuddles so life is pretty good.
Beth Endurance 