We set off on the most beautiful day ever, riding towards the hills I felt so happy and content. We had both had a days rest, we were covering the ground well, Cognac had new shoes- we were ready to take on the world!
Cognac and I hadgot through our first set of shoes after just five days of riding, so this time round we had put a thicker, heavier set on, in the hope that they would last a bit longer. I was trying to walk him on the grass verges as much as possible to avoid wearing them out too quickly on the roads. We were ambling along a grass verge when Cognac lost his back legs down a hidden drainage channel and as he scrabbled to get up he scraped his front left leg down his front right leg. I immediately jumped off to check he was okay and didn't initially notice anything wrong, however as I ran my hand down his I felt something wet and sticky and looking at my hand found blood.
I felt a bit sick, I hadn't expected to need to use my first aid supplies at all on this trip. I used my water bottle to flush the blood away from the wound and trying not to touch it too much, I examined the damage. It was a good scrape, nothing that needed a vet, however I was worried about the amount of miles we still had to do. And also I knew I had to be careful about infection with the amount of flies around. I smothered it in savlon, put a dressing on top and bandaged it in place. I trotted Cognac up and down the road a few times and he was sound. I decided to phone Stacie to let her know what had happened and to ask for advice- I was about to head off into the middle of nowhere and didn't want to continue if I was going to have problems with Cognac's leg further on. At home, he would have automatically had a few days off.
No phone signal...
I made the decision to continue.
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