What is the grossest thing that's happened to you around horses? AND, what are the horse "age groups"?

I had to help a vet treat a mare that had prolapsed, the afterbirth was hanging out of her but the dead 9 month old fetus was still retained inside of her. It was a lovely state this lovely gentleman had left this poor mare in when he called me to come get her or he was going to just shoot her. I got my vet out and he doped the mare up really good. We then tied her up to prevent her from falling over and he went in and pulled the dead foal out. The smell was so horrid both of us were vomiting before it even hit the ground. I then loaded her on a trailer and took her to the barn I board at so I could have her treated properly. She had an infection in her uterus (big surprise) and my vet had to come out and flush it several times. Big IV bag full of an iodine mixture, we had to empty via a hose into her uterus. Then we had to "hold her shut" for a brief period, then empty it all out. The horns of her uterus had to be cleaned out by hand. Won't go into detail on that part.

Horse pulled through okay after some pretty intensive care and lots of antibiotics. When I broached the subject of what to do with her after she healed, the owner told me to keep her since she didn't put a live foal on the ground. Disgusted and not wanting to deal with him anymore I just decided to pay the vet bill and be done with him. Worked out though because she was very nice well-bred mare and I ended up really liking her.

The Mustang mare with a huge, maggot-infested sore on her neck was a close second to the first mare. The owner of that horse refused to let me bring a vet on the property to treat her so I had to restrain her and pick the maggots out myself. I wound up with that horse too and she turned out to be wonderful. Amazingly enough her neck didn't even scar after the wound healed. I sold her to my best friend who still has her, and she's been nothing but a real trooper. Great horse all around.

One of the liveries had a horse with an infection of the hoof. She was convinced that the horse just needed a rest and kept putting off calling the vet, even though everyone was saying the vet was needed. It ended in the abscess bursting at the coronet band. Very disgusting. The livery contracts were changed after that. The yard has the authority to call out the vet (at the owners expensive) at any time, even over ruling the owner. Not ideal, but they've never called out the vet unnecessarily.

Foal - Either until weaned or until a year old

Weanling - From weaning to a year old

Yearling - A year old

Youngster - This varies from person to person. A horse up to 3 or 5 years, or until a horse in broke. Personally I would call a youngster any horse under 5 whether they are broke or not.

Adult - 3/5-14 years

Veteran - 15 years plus. This is a rather old benchmark. Horses are living and working longer and 15 isn't that old anymore.

Aged - Some people use this the same as veteran. I think of a aged horse as a horse who is showing their age.

A rough guide to the human-horse age (changes a bit with breeds)

6 months - 4 (human) years (many horses are weaned and removed from their mothers at this age)

Yearling - 7 years (natural age for weaning)

2-years - 13 years (sexually mature and when a young colt might leave)

After that I'm not sure

Horses are at their physical peak at around 6-8 (human's 18-21)

Most dressage/showjumpers don't reach their competition peak though until 10-12 years showing how valuable experience is.

Most mares should not have their first foal after 15 years (though it is still possible), but an experienced brood mare can continue foaling until her early 20s.

I worked for a vet for a few years. One time I went on a farm call with my boss for a mare that the baby had died in her before giving birth. The owners had left the baby in the mare for a week without calling the vet. I don't know how the mare didn't die from sepsis, the baby was rotten inside her. We had to pull the dead baby out bone by bone, the baby was so rotten the tissue wouldn't hold the skeleton together any more. It was nasty! Two hours later, after being shoulder deep in the mare, we had the entire baby pulled out and stuffed into 5 gallon buckets. I went home and couldn't stop puking and couldn't eat anything for the next couple days.

LQ: Baby = under 2 kid = 2-5 teen = 5-10 adult = 10-18 senior = over 18. But that's just my opinion, I'm sure for other people it would be different.

Nothing really. I quess when I fell into some poops when I was 2 but it wasn't that gross (well if i did it now yes but I was 2 so I loved being dirty)

LQ- Hmm I think it depends on the person for me baby is under a year, kid is 1-4 years teengaer is 4-8 years, adult is 8-16 years and eldery is over 16. It depends on what the person thinks.

My horse was half-asleep in the cross ties when I was grooming him. He was so relaxed that he dropped. I went to wake him up a little by tapping on his shoulder, but that didn't really work. So I just bent down to pick up his front foot to pick it. That woke him up so fast he sucked his you-know-what in at warp speed. It went back in so fast he flung the bean out. It landed squarely on my forehead.

I still gag thinking about it!

LQ: Depending on the horse, I would say 0-3 is baby, 4-6 is kid, 7-10 is teenager, 11-15 adult, and anything over senior. I tend to judge it more on emotional and mental maturity, so it can vary greatly from horse to horse. I'd consider my horse to be a baby, even though he is 6 years old. He has been very slow to mature both physically and mentally, and even though he is polite, he has a lot of tendencies that you'd normally see in a two-year-old.

Oh, i've had a few. One, I had the same experience with a wheelbarrow tipping over. Extremely frustrating!!! Also, I've had plenty of slobber- although i don't consider that to be quite as gross anymore. :D

Well, babies are usually from a few weeks to a month or two. A kid, i guess, is around half of a year to a full year. A teen is a few years, up to about 4, i guess. An adult is from around 4 years to late teens/early twenties. Beyond that is "senior". The whole thing is very general, so you'll probably get lots of varying answers

Well I remember walking into the pasture because I left my horse's halter there...not sure why. But I was walking back and it had rained the night before. I slipped but caught myself the first time. The second time, I wasn't so luck and just fell down right in a lovely pile of crap. It was beyond gross since it was wet and mushy...I have goosebumps as I type this.

LQ: Under 1 = baby

1-4 = toddler

5-7= kid/tween

7-10= teenager

11-24=adult

24 + = elder

Probably when I was a beginner and my coach decided it was a lesson of learning the gross stuff :P

She taught me how to stick my fingers up the horses nose, ear, mouth. Ya my hand was as clump of goop in the end. Haha, my friends were all watching and laughing too.

Although none of this is gross for me now, its a norm. Although not to excited to learn to clean a utter... If your wondering why I wouldn't know this its b/c I have worked with gelding all my riding life, until I bought to mares.

LQ: Everybody has different opinions. The best way is to go with your trainer.

At the farm where i volunteer, it floods. BAD. So we have about a foot of mud,crap, and urine to muck through in about 50 degree weather(super cold for here while we're working). The sound is absolutley disgusting to hear and it splashes... Beyond disgusting. We're all completely immune to it now, but it's really gross to think about.

LQ: I'm sorry i don't unerstand the question... And i use a different system:colt/filly, yearling, mare gelding). Really basic, sorry to not be much help here

I was feeding my horse and he stopped eating and then snot and grain started coming out of his nose and mouth. I had to lead him up to the house to show my parents, and he got snot all over the lead rope. I think that's the grossest thing that will ever happen to me around horses (unless another horse gets a lung infection and gets snot all over me). Btw, we got him some antibiotics and I prayed all night and by morning he was almost all better (my mom is a RN, so she knew what to do).

LQ:

Baby: 0-1yr

Kid: 2yrs

Teenager: 3yrs

Adult: 4yrs

Senior: Around 16 yrs (according to a bag of horse feed, it's 12 years, though)

Foals with diarrhea are gross. A couple years back I went out into the pasture to check on one of the pregnant mares only to find that she had aborted the foal at four months along. I had the oh-so-lovely job of cleaning up the mess so the dogs would not eat it. There was one horse, we never found out exactly what happened to him, but his face was covered with mud when I decided to pet him. Only to find out that no, his face was not covered in mud, it was covered in blood. He had a clean hole going straight through the side of his face right into his nasal cavity, that was SUCH a joy to try and clean out. Actually, I have a lot of gross injury stories. I found a mare in the pasture with just a huge flap of skin hanging off her leg and still gushing blood. There was the two year old I found with a fractured femur on his back leg, ugh I still feel sick when I think about that one. He broke the femur clean through, I had to lead him up from the pasture and... bleck you could just see that the lower part of the leg was no longer in place. It was sad because we had to put the poor boy down. I was at a show watching dressage when all of the sudden a gelding reared straight up in the middle of his test, fell over, and was literally gushing blood from every possible orifice. Turns out the poor horse had an aneurism right then and there. The whole scene was just made worse because his rider was trapped underneath him and had a broken leg from the fall as well. Blood and injuries don't really bother me that much, I mean I did get to dissect a human last semester which was cool, but other people get grossed out when I tell 'em about the various injuries I've had to deal with.

Also... have you ever had to hold a mare for her first live cover? That one doesn't really qualify as gross so much as awkward and feeling bad for the poor mare. They're eyes just go O.O