I'm Back!! And the Porcupine Misadventure

Goodness it feels like it has been FOREVER! I think I squeezed in three rides in between my trips... nothing terribly eventful except for one unfortunate flashback to the olden days of Finn having a panic attack and me handling it not-so-well. That happened last Monday between my braiding trips, when I was thoroughly exhausted and really shouldn't have been in the saddle in the first place. Lesson learned.

I got back from braiding yesterday afternoon, super stoked about having the next two weeks to play with Finn without interruption. I am HOPING the smoke from the King Fire will not wreak havoc on my time, as it sure is unpleasant to be outside when the air quality is so poor. So far, though, the smoke has been intermittent, and usually not too bad in the morning.

Headed out to the barn this morning planning on a short, relaxing ride on Finn. It takes a couple days for me to really bounce back from working nights for two weeks, so I didn't want to push it too much. Plus, the smoke. But, my plans abruptly hit a road block when I found THIS:

I know the picture is not the clearest, but those are, in fact, porcupine quills sticking out of the front of Finn's nose, NOT newly evolved super whiskers. There were eleven of them, to be exact. Having never before had ANY experience whatsoever with porcupine encounters, I was a little freaked out at first. I consulted Google and tried to gather info from a couple friends, reluctant to spend money on an unnecessary vet call. In the end, though, I called the vet to be sure. He gave me the a-okay to remove them on my own and said it would be highly unlikely for complications to develop.

Now, I was feeling none-too-awesome about the idea of actually yanking these things out of Finn's nose, but once I got the first one out I realized it wasn't such a big deal. I tied Finn in the grooming area and was able to convince him to cooperate with a little effort. In between each quill, I let him have a few bites of grass. By the third quill, we had it pretty down pat... I would back him to the end of the rope, hold his nose against my shoulder with my left arm, and take hold of a quill with my right hand. Once I had a good grip, I would pull a little and Finn would yank it right out with a sharp toss of his head. Done deal.

After the removal of porcupine quills was complete, I let Finn have a nice graze along the driveway. And then, since it really seemed like such a non-event, I decided to have our little ride anyway.

I decided to stretch our comfort zone by riding in the opposite direction from the pasture... instead of up towards the barn, down towards the mailboxes and the road. I really expected this to be a bit of a challenge, and planned to do some approach and retreat, but Finn surprised me by being totally chill about the whole thing and we made it to the mailbox in no time:

Funnily enough, it makes me more nervous than Finn to be so close to the road. No doubt because I can imagine the dire consequences of being hit by a car, while he mostly seems to consider passing cars to be unworthy of his attention. I guess I'll need to do more approach and retreat! If I build up enough confidence, I could ride to Washoe Lake one day... what a feat that would be! For me, anyway.

Finn wasn't as soft or responsive as he might have been, but we worked on doing the little things with feel and I left it at that. It was hot and a little smoky, and I was pretty much spent, so I thanked Finn for being such a super horse and turned him back out.

There's a tiny bit of localized swelling around where the porcupine quills were, so I'll be keeping an eye on that. As long as it keeps going down and Finn doesn't seem bothered by that, I'll assume we're in the clear. Tomorrow, hopefully we'll have a decently clear morning to get a more serious ride in...