A storm is due to blow in today, starting as rain and ending as up to six inches of snow by dawn tomorrow. Since yesterday was beautiful, in the forties, and melted all the remaining snow off the edges of the road, I decided to go for a run this morning. The temperature was in the mid-twenties, there was hardly any wind, and I did a full three miles for the first time since early December. I felt great!
Then, I went to the horse farm to do turnouts (and bring them in again before the rain hit, predicted for around noon), and clean stalls. I hadn't been there ten minutes when one of the horses (mine, of course) shied at a dark spot near where he was walking, and clipped the outer edge of my right foot.
Gosh dang it! That doesn't happen to me too often anymore, but today it did. He got me. Unfortunately, as he was connecting with the toe of my boot, I was lifting my foot to take another step. In a split second, his hoof was on my foot, my foot moved, my boot stayed under his hoof, and I found myself standing with one boot on and one boot off, trying to keep my unshod foot away from his!
Retrieving a rubber boot from underneath a horse while trying to balance on just one foot is not an easy, nor a fun thing to do. Especially while said horse is giving the dark spot on the ground the hairy eyeball and trying to climb into my coat pocket. And my sock is flapping half off my foot, in the wind that had definitely escalated since my run an hour earlier.
Sock pulled tight, boot safely retrieved and back on my foot, and horse put in the paddock he belongs in for turnout, I was feeling gimpy. But I had work to do, a couple hours worth, and it was getting chillier by the minute. So I decided to put my ouchie toe out of my mind until later, when I got back home. It's not like a doctor could do anything for it anyway; I'd been here before in my 28+ years of working with horses. Unless the toe was cut off (which I knew it wasn't, because if it had been, my sock would be wet with blood by now, and it definitely was still dry), a doctor would only say "take some ibuprofen, ice it, tape it to the next toe for support, and try to stay off it." Ha. Stay off it. Not in this lifetime, with this lifestyle. I'd had dislocated toes, I'd had broken toes, and I'd had a toenail nearly completely ripped off my big toe before--all by my beloved horses, of course--so I knew the drill. Which translates to: gut it up, get the work done, take some painkillers, and hobble around for the next two days to two months, depending on whether it's just bruised or truly broken.
Back at home, I finally took my boot off and examined my toe, which hurt like he--- Well, let's keep this G-rated and say it hurt a lot. No blood, just like I'd thought. Toenail still in it's proper location and proper coloring. Toe not swollen, but there is a big purple ring around the middle of it. Hmmm. No swelling. Not much bending. Big purple spot. Yeah, this might be a broken one.
Guess I won't be running for a while. Good thing we're supposed to get too much snow for me to even consider taking off down the road in my running shoes for the next several days. Got to rest this toe and all. . .
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