If you follow us on Facebook, you might have seen that about 10 days ago, Cody Pony was involved in a pretty freak accident here at the homestead.  Its been so upsetting to me that it’s been hard to talk about.  He’s doing much better but we’re still not sure if he will regain eyesight in his injured eye.  We’re hopeful…  it might clear up after the healing, but then again, it might not.  

If you’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting Cody, you know he is just about the biggest love baby of a pony around.  He’s just so calm and sweet tempered and thinks he’s a big dog really.  I think of him as a lap pony.  He’s just my best buddy around, and I love that pony to death!  I would probably give up my banjo and anything else (save my daughters) for that pony, he’s that special.  

So when my negligence set in motion that which injured him, I was just devastated!  it just felt so horrible.  I know it was an accident, but still, it just felt terrible.  

You see, we were going to put a few windows into the back barn.  And after some consideration, it was deemed too difficult at this time because the siding on the barn is just too wavy and we don’t have anything that can cut it.  So these two windows had been set down, next to the barn, as we considered the situation.  This was about a couple weeks ago.  On the weed patch side.  

Well, I moved one back to storage and then got sidetracked!  Next thing you know, I totally forgot that there was a storm window out there, laying up against the barn.  Now, we had closed off the weed patch because no one really wanted to be in there and we had a goat escape.  No big deal.  And over the couple weeks, it had grown up nice again and everyone was standing at the gate to go in and trim it up again.  So we let everyone back in there for a few days.  

And then, Sunday morning, we noticed that Cody was acting weirdly.  Wouldn’t come over and was staying far from the flock.  Just not him.  I went out a bit later to see what might be up, calling him over.   He was hesitant to come over and when I finally got him to, I noticed right away that he had a shard of glass lodged in above his eye, through his eyelid!!!   OH MY GOSH….  We had some friends over, farmers too, and we managed to get that piece out fairly easily, and it bled some, but not too badly.  He was pretty shaken up, and Shadow was freaking out, so we stabled Cody for the day after cleaning it and added some sulfur powder.  Called the vet, gave him a penicillin shot and called Bill, our horsey mentor pal as well.  And kept him quiet, resting with some hay and sweet feed and Shadow outside the gate all worried but keeping him comfy. 

I had NO idea where he could have gotten hurt like that, as we do our best to keep a tidy barnyard for sure!  I’m always saying to the girls, pick that up, don’t leave a bucket out, and all…  and we try, honestly, to keep it all safe and tidy.  Unfortunately, the family before us treated the place as a dumping ground and left many piles of trash, broken glass and metal bits all over and we are constantly finding new stuff as the weather and activity brings it to the surface.   We routinely use a magnet bar and just are always picking stuff up and bringing it in.  I thought, perhaps he rolled and just found a piece of old glass.   But it just didn’t seem right.  So I started to walk around and search for anything that might be out there.  And then I found it, the broken storm window!

Cody is Mr. Itchy Pants.  He loves to scratch and rub and itch on anything, anywhere.  With his short stature, it was apparent that he must have been rubbing against this window and just broke it, jabbing that piece into his head!  I felt sick to my stomach when I found that.  Just awful.  It had to be where he got hurt.  We cleaned it all up and made another journey around the whole farm seeking out ANYTHING that might be an accident waiting to happen.  Thankfully, we didn’t find much at all, but still, we looked.

It’s been a long bit of time, with meds and care and dealing with his mental issues about the accident.  He’s very head shy right now and I guess I don’t blame him one bit.   Maybe it will help him to stop rubbing on stuff with his head, at the very least.  Horses are so weird about things… it really does take a long time to earn their true trust and you can loose it so quickly.  Since I was the one doing the mean things to him, mostly his shots and washing it and such, he pretty much got to avoiding me pretty quickly.  It was dreadful.  And we’re not totally sure if he is blind in the eye or if he’s got some sight, but he’s acting like it’s not good.  Still, once he heals up good, he should be able to regain his good nature and sweet personality when he starts to deal with the change in his vision.  And Shadow has been his every present companion and seeing eye pony friend.  It’s really been surprising how well Cody is handling it all.   He’s eating and drinking fine, playing with Shadow in the mornings and can still flip a sheep outta his way to the feeder.  He certainly hasn’t lost his pony moxy!

So, it’s a sort of wait and see sort of thing.  I guess it’s a good thing that it’s coming on winter as there is not much that we ask him to help with or do other than just keep warm and eat!  When I see him playing with Shadow or galloping around the yard, I know he’ll be okay.  He’ll adjust one way or another.   I sure hope that when it’s all healed up, he will be able to see well again.   It’s so hard to tell if the shard scratched the eye, or just went behind the eye.  Might be blood in the eye that is clouding his vision and that can take a good while to be reabsorbed into the body and clear.  We’re just praying that he will recover completely.  Good wishes and prayers are very much accepted for this little guy!  He’s such a loved member of our homestead, I just can’t imagine him missing from the picture!  Thank goodness ponies can live easily 35 or more years!   I want to grow old with this little guy!