Gene must have attention by any means necessary

It all started out nice.

Richard had his first lesson with my new instructor, and Peanut tacked himself up and greeted me by suggesting we go for a ride.

Well, maybe not, but it would be nice.

My plan was to hang out and watch Richard's lesson, but by the time I rode up to the ring he was done.  So, we puttered around the farm.

At one point I was trying to get him to stop nibbling on a baby oak, and when he let go (after trying to pull the damn thing out of the ground) some thorny thing entwined in it lashed out and stuck me hard in the thumb.  While I was paying attention to that, we spooked a heron that was right next to us and as it took flight it spooked Peanut.  I have to say, despite his spin and sideways bolt, I had absolutely no issue keeping my balance.  :)

Here's the heron, where it landed after we spooked it.  We then walked over to it and it flew off again, this time without any issues at all.

After exploring a bit more, Peanut got in some good grazing.  Richard had released Gene at this point, and that appy (who turned 27 yesterday) cantered off into the field and out of my view.  Peanut and I were chilling and heard a loud crack, like a shot gun.  Seeing Richard staring into the field and not moving, and knowing that our instructor was pulling a horse out of the back field to work with, I wasn't concerned.  Most of the farm was out of my view as I was tucked behind the hill of Peanut's field.

We then heard a quieter bang, and I saw Richard enter the field and start running across it.  I listened for a second, heard nothing more, and then Peanut and I cantered back up to the driveway.  On the way, we met the instructor who had just come out with the other horse on lead.  I said that I heard two loud bangs followed by Richard running across the field, so we headed out to where Richard was leading Gene out of the field to find out what happened.

As we approached, I heard Richard say something that sounded like it ended in "stitches."  Apparently, Gene had rolled too close to the fence, got his rear legs caught, and they were all cut up.  He was walking ok, so we all went back to the barn to triage.

He had lost skin on both hind legs, the front of his right cannon, outside of his left cannon, and on the inside of his right hock and down the inside of that cannon.  Nothing seemed deep, and nothing was bleeding.

With the help of Gene's two aunties (one of whom is the instructor and the other one who arrived as we were treating), we cold hosed him, iodine scrubbed him, applied Vetericyn, applied Neosporin, put Swat around (not on) the wounds, and are going to keep checking up on him.

At first, Gene would stand with one or the other hind leg lifted off the ground, but by the time we were done he had both feet down and was actually dozing.  Richard turned him out and he started calmly grazing.

After turning Peanut out and telling him that he has to take care of his brother, I went to see where it all happened.  Aside from the broken board, there were divots kicked out of the grass and hair from Gene's lower legs everywhere.

It's a good thing that we didn't have plans for the holiday.  We'll have to check on Gene, although his aunties will be out in the morning and will make sure he's ok.  Jacqui (instructor/auntie) fed tonight and let us know that he was fine and his legs looked good.

27 years of rolling, and he misjudged how much room he needs?  At least he seems ok.  It could have been a lot worse (and his deformed hind is a remnant from a night spent caught in a check wire fence).

In other news, the blackbird himself is done.  I may try to reapply highlights on top as they seem to have muted when I sealed it, but it's otherwise ready for finishing the grass and calling it done.