Broken

On Friday, Cabbage broke his finger.  He was handling a racehorse for a friend at the racetrack, and it reared.  Somehow, his finger got in the way.

By the time he got home an hour or so later, his left ring finger was swollen and bruised.  Take a look at the difference in the size when compared to his other hand.

Before we were married, Cabbage decided against a traditional metal wedding band, and instead opted to have his ring tattooed on.  He made that choice partly for safety reasons (one less thing to get caught on a horse or a rope), and partly for simplicity's sake.  In any event, I'm so glad he wasn't wearing a ring when his hand was hurt.  The damage could have been even worse, and the doctor most certainly would have had to cut off a ring.

By the time I got him back out the door to drive himself to the urgent care clinic, it was 10:00pm.  When he came home a couple of hours later, he had this x-ray to show me.  The break is a slight dark line that spirals around his finger, running almost the length of the bone.

Accidents happen in any person's life, and the fact is, they happen more often around horses.  Horses are bigger, stronger and faster than we are.  They're wonderful animals and have the most gentle and kind hearts, but horses still have instincts that can override the training we instill in them, and this was one of those times. 

Experience helps a good horseman like Cabbage understand what's happening during a wreck, and how to minimize risk to himself, anyone else around, and the horse itself.  It takes a cool head, quick reaction, and experience to make things come out right.  Sometimes it takes luck.  In this case, although Cabbage's experience minimized the bad situation that was developing, his finger's luck ran out.   

It's a strange thing to be around a former professional bullrider with a small injury.  Cabbage is stoic and tough, and is still doing all his regular chores despite the inconvenience of wearing a splint and dealing with swelling and moderate discomfort.  He does have to be reminded that he can slow down if he needs to.  He has a helpmate, and nothing to prove, and his hand will heal better if given a little TLC.

But it's hard to keep a cowboy down.

He's still doing chores, like taking care of Junior and keeping an eye out for snakes *shudder* and other things found on the MNS. 

He's still watering a drought-weary tree at the end of our drive.

And walking our baby girl during a day trip yesterday (more on that later).

He finds a way to pick her up with one hand plus the other forearm.

And he humored me by fire-roasting green chiles by moonlight. 

Four to six weeks and he'll be good as new.