Nightmare-only we can't wake up

On May 27, 2008, the day after Memorial Day, I heard my daughter scream.  Her 20-year-old Arabian mare had run into a steel "T" fence post.  She severed the large muscle in the front of her left leg between the knee and top of her leg.  When I found them, Lady had run to the end of the pasture and was standing with the severed muscle hanging down like a chunk of meat.  I ran to the house and got vetwrap and a roll of paper towels.  I ran back to Lady and sent Mandy and her friend Morgan to call for help.  I wrapped the vetwrap around her leg above the gash to help slow the bleeding and kept wrapping paper towels around the cut to catch the blood.  

Our friend, Martha, came over as soon as she got the call.  She helped get Ella, Lady's 2 year old filly out of the pasture.  She also got a blanket to put on Lady as she was getting weak and starting to go into shock.  When the vet came, Lady was weak to the point she wanted to lay down.  The vet gave her IV fluids with painkillers immediately and then bandage her temporarily until Lady was stable enough to suture the leg up.

We were able to get Lady to walk a short distance so she was under a tarp shelter.  The vet said to keep her as still as possible and only give her water to drink and she would come back in a couple hours to stitch what she could.  She said to get something made up to keep Lady in a small corral like pen.  Martha and sister Hannah had extra 10 ft. corral panels they said we could borrow for a while.  After the vet left, Hannah, Dekelen (another friend that happened to stop by) and I went and got the panels.  Lady would not drink water, so we started giving her small pieces of watermelon and then were able to get her to drink water.  We got the pen set up under the tarp shelter, then I went to town to get shavings, more fly spray, and a few other things.  Martha stayed with Lady, Mandy and Morgan.

 The vet came back in the evening to stitch and rebandage Lady's leg.  Just when the vet came, Morgan's family also came.  It turned out that Morgan's dad had worked in a vet clinic while going to college, and so had experience with this kind of situation.  Morgan's brother, Landon helped get water and supplies for the vet while Mandy, Morgan and Gracie, Morgan's sister took care of the rest of the animal chores.

The vet said she thought that Lady would heal up but it would be a long process.  She, by no means, gave us a sugar coated prognosis.  At the very best, she would be a light riding horse.  At the worst, she would be a "lawn ornament".  If she got infection in the bone, it would be all over.  She said that her age was a factor against her but her gentle temperment was helpful.  Lady was in too unstable to try to tansport to a large animal hospital.  The biggest thing was we had to keep the horse from trying to lay down.  If she got down, we would have a very hard time getting her back up.  The vet finished stitching up Lady's leg and left at dark.  

Mandy & I decided to sleep in the small shed we have for hay that is right next to where we had Lady corralled.  Little did I know that I would be spending a better part of the summer sleeping on bales of hay and shavings.  I really wish I would have taken pictures that first day, week for that matter.  Things were just so busy and stressful that I didn't.  I can see it all in my mind, but for those who weren't there, there is no way to imagine what it first looked like.