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She nodded. ‘I’ll watch Denby.’
‘Good girl.’
He headed over to Hazel. ‘That leg looks nasty.’ She didn’t say anything, she was upset, worried. She put her cheek against Cinnamon’s, still using soothing words to calm him now he’d at least let her get closer. ‘Did you call your equine vet?’
‘We’ve been calling him constantly but he’s out on another emergency. He’ll be with us when he can.’ She looked at the blood pooled on the concrete and then closed her eyes. ‘I’ve got a first aid kit, but Cinnamon is too agitated for me to use it.’
‘May I take a look at him? I don’t specialise in horses, but I know enough, and like every good doctor, I have my bag in the car. I can go get it, if you like. I know my way around my own kit better than yours, save your supplies. And Cinnamon needs you to calm him first anyway.’
Her face said it all before she added the words, ‘Yes, please.’
Gus went to grab his bag and with Abigail, who’d slipped her hand into his as he walked past the paddock, went over to Cinnamon. Abigail stood well back and with a bit of soothing and coaxing, Gus managed to get a look at the leg. ‘What happened?’ he asked Hazel and her brother as he gradually put his hand near the wounded patch but not quite on it yet.
‘We think he cut it on the fence behind the trough in the farthest paddock,’ Hazel explained. ‘I checked the fences but right behind the trough was a damaged part I hadn’t seen. I check regularly but somehow missed a spot.’
‘Easy to do,’ Arnold told her. ‘We’ve a lot of fencing.’
‘It’s likely that it weakened in the storms a while ago and finally came apart. Cinnamon must have turned too close to the trough and the fence, or perhaps backed up into it, who knows.’
Arnold carried on. ‘I spotted it when I turned out the horses following the lesson and went to fill the troughs again. That’s when I found Cinnamon.’
Hazel moved over to Abigail, who had started to cry. She put her hands on her shoulders reassuringly, told her that Cinnamon was going to be okay. She was rambling, doing it for Abigail, and for that Gus was grateful.
‘Is he going to die?’ Abigail’s voice shook.
Hazel leapt in with a ‘no’ before he could. She crouched down on her haunches after turning her body and Abigail’s so that his daughter was looking at her, not the injured horse and the blood. ‘He isn’t going to die. He’s just hurt, that’s all. Your dad is taking a look at him.’
‘But he’s upset.’ Gus could hear the wobble in his daughter’s voice, and was torn between Cinnamon and going over to comfort Abigail.
When Gus saw out of the corner of his eye that Hazel was hugging Abigail to her, he focused all of his attention on Cinnamon. He pressed his fingertips to the bleeding area and maintained pressure, the bleeding slowing quickly. It appeared to only be a very minor wound, but he cleaned it first and then wrapped it, using gauze and a bandage. He didn’t have his portable ultrasound scanner in the car, but he advised Arnold to have the equine vet ensure there was no worse damage. He could check himself, but to be on the safe side, their regular specialist in horse care should have a look.
‘I’m sure it’s only minor,’ he said again to Hazel, who had taken Abigail over to Peony – the horse had come to investigate what might be going on.
Hazel was shaking and without hesitating, Gus put an arm around her. ‘He’s going to be fine, you did everything right.’
‘Did I?’ The shake of her head suggested she very much doubted it.
He’d taken his arm away but put his hand on her shoulder. ‘You calmed Cinnamon exactly the way you should have, you had a first aid kit at the ready and if I hadn’t turned up, you would’ve eventually been able to inspect the wound yourself.’
‘You really think so?’
He smiled. ‘You don’t?’
She was nodding now. ‘I suppose I would have done.’
‘Calming an animal down is sometimes the hardest part of all and you had no problem taking charge of that with Arnold.’
She put her hand against her chest as though reminding herself to breathe. ‘Thank you for being so kind. I feel silly now, panicking, creating such a drama.’
‘It was a lot of blood and often looks worse than it is. And the way a horse reacts, the way any animal reacts, can cause you to worry ten times more.’ It wasn’t that different with kids either.
Abigail’s tears had gone now she’d heard that Cinnamon was going to be all right and she was laughing as Peony sighed, nostrils flaring slightly at first and then the air escaping onto Abigail’s arm as she petted the horse.
‘I can go back to my practice and get my portable ultrasound if you’d like me to take a closer look at Cinnamon,’ Gus said to Hazel. He might as well offer, let her decide, rather than making assumptions. ‘I can make sure the little bit of swelling isn’t hiding anything more sinister, although I’m sure it’s not.’
‘I’m sure it’s fine to wait for our vet – although now I feel rude, unappreciative.’
‘Not at all. Joan was always the same. People generally are – they have someone they trust, and they stick with them.’
