Snakebite & Snake-Spooked Bolt

It took both fangs in the muzzle while grazing, and the swelling is a live thing, nose and nostrils ballooning by the minute toward the moment they close entire. A horse cannot breathe through its mouth; when the nostrils shut, it strangles standing up. The old fix is the only fix: segments of hose or hollow cane worked into the nostrils and sewn fast to hold an airway, done in the next hour or not at all.

• Tubes sewn into the nostrils for up to 5 days, a sight that stops all conversation
• The horse cannot graze, hand-feed wet mash at chest height for 5 days
• If the tubes fail or come too late, you will be holding the halter at the end
• /me holds the horse's great swollen head still while the tubes go in

Recovery 5 days tubed while the swelling falls, 7 to feed normally, untubed, it suffocates within hours.·Doctor, urgently

The muzzle swelled to a barrel while you rode for help, but the hose segments went in with the nostrils still a finger open, and the terrible whistling breath eased into something a horse can live on. Now come the ugly days: a head like a rain-soaked saddlebag, drool it cannot help, and mash fed by your hand until the face it had comes back.

• Nostril tubes checked and cleaned twice daily for 4 days
• Hand-fed wet bran mash only for 4 days
• The muzzle sloughs a patch of dead hide, a rough scarred nose thereafter
• /me wipes the drooling, swollen muzzle with a wet cloth, gently as they know how

Recovery 6 days from tubes-out to a face you recognize, it was hours away from a far shorter story.·Doctor, urgently

Struck low on the foreleg at the waterhole, and by nightfall the leg is one straight swollen column, stovepipe thick from knee to hoof, hide weeping serum through the stretch of it. Grown horses rarely die of the venom itself, the vet says, but the flesh around the bite dies instead: a patch will blacken and slough over the coming days, leaving a crater that must granulate closed.

• The horse is three-legged lame, no work at all for 5 days
• Bathe and dress the slough wound daily for 5 days once it opens
• A permanent bald crater-scar on the cannon, a story trophy of the ugliest kind

Recovery The swelling falls over 5 days but the slough heals over weeks of story, dressed daily it stays clean; neglected, it festers.·Doctor, urgently

The rattle sent it sideways and then flat-out blind across broken ground, deaf to the reins, and mid-stride a foreleg found a burrow. You felt the awful check and lurch as the world somersaulted. The snake is forgotten; what matters now is the leg. Hold your breath and roll again on the Horse Leg Break table, and if you parted company at a gallop, your own fall wants a roll too.

• Roll on the Horse Leg Break table for the leg, that result stands
• If you were thrown at speed, roll your own fall
• Brush cuts and a snake-shy horse for 5 days regardless
• /me scrambles up from the dirt, spitting grass, already running for the horse

Recovery The burrow decides, see your Leg Break roll. The scrapes alone are 3 days.·Doctor, urgently

The snake got it in the shoulder as it shied, fang marks a hand above the elbow, and by morning the whole shoulder is hot, tight, and hanging in swollen folds. Painful and grotesque, but a muscle bite on a grown horse is a survivable misery: cold cloths, rest, and days of watching a leg-sized swelling slowly remember its shape.

• No saddle, the swelling crosses the girth line, for 4 days
• Cold-water cloths on the shoulder three times daily for 3 days
• A stiff, shuffling foreleg gait for 4 days

Recovery 5 days for the swelling to fall with cold cloths, 7 without, a small slough scar either way.·Doctor required

No fang ever touched it, the buzz alone did this. A half-mile blind bolt through mesquite and deadfall that ended with you hauling one rein to drag it circling to a stop, both of you bleeding from the brush. The horse wears a dozen whip-thin cuts and a wrenched fetlock; you wear your own scratches and the particular exhaustion of nearly dying at speed.

• Wrenched fetlock, walking work only for 3 days
• A dozen brush cuts salved daily for 3 days
• The horse bolts at any buzz, dry grass, cicadas, a shaken matchbox, for 5 days
• /me flinches along with the horse at the sound of dry grass rattling

Recovery 4 days for fetlock and cuts together, 6 if ridden hard meantime.·Doctor required

Two clean fang punctures in the forearm and, the vet swears by it after a day's watching, not a drop of venom behind them: a dry bite, the snake's warning shot. The punctures still need what punctures need, carbolic and daily watching, because a snake's mouth is no cleaner than the ground it lives on.

• Flush the fang marks daily for 3 days
• Watch the leg for late swelling, morning and night, for 2 days
• The horse refuses that waterhole ever after, water it elsewhere

Recovery 3 days of clean punctures closing, 5 if infection finds them first.·Doctor required

The bolt was short but expensive, it went through a stand of thorn scrub chest-first and came out wearing the proof, a torn chest and forearms full of broken-off thorn tips that must each be found and picked before they fester. You were still aboard at the end, though your hat was not.

• An hour of thorn-picking with pliers today, and a follow-up check in 2 days
• Chest scratches salved daily for 3 days
• One hat, missing in action, recover or replace it

Recovery 4 days once the thorns are out, 6 with festering pockets if any are missed.·Doctor required

Two neat punctures low on the pastern and a swelling that rises, then stalls at the size of an egg and starts back down. A glancing strike, the vet judges, most of the venom spent in the air. It earns the horse a day of rest, cold cloths, and a level of scrutiny normally reserved for bank clerks.

• Rest and cold cloths for 1 day, light work for 2 more
• Check the swelling against a coin twice daily for 2 days
• /me presses a silver dollar to the swelling, measuring it against yesterday

Recovery 3 days from strike to sound, treated, 4 with a limp if worked through.·Doctor advised

The rattle went off under its feet and your horse elected to be somewhere else at any cost, a half-mile bolt down a wash that ended in a lathered, blowing standstill. The bill: cut fetlocks from the rocks, one shoe sprung loose, and a horse whose opinion of that wash is now permanent.

• Cut fetlocks cleaned and wrapped for 3 days
• Farrier visit for the sprung shoe before hard riding
• The horse refuses that wash, route around it, or dismount and lead

Recovery 3 days for the fetlocks, an hour for the shoe.·Doctor advised

A glancing strike across the muzzle, one fang scored, one missed, and the nose swells to half again its size, tender, warm, and absurd, but the nostrils stay open and the breath stays easy. Wet cloths, soft feed, and a few days of the horse looking like it lost a fistfight.

• Soft mash feed for 2 days, the muzzle is too sore to graze hard grass
• Cold wet cloths on the nose three times daily for 2 days
• No bridle noseband for 3 days
• /me drapes a dripping cloth over the swollen nose; the horse sighs like a martyr

Recovery 3 days back to a normal face, 4 if it keeps rubbing it on fence posts.·Doctor advised

The bolt through the brush cost gear, not hide, saddlebags ripped open on a snag and strewn down a hundred yards of panic, your slicker gone, your rope gone, coffee scattered to the birds. The horse pulls up scratched but sound; the ledger of losses is yours to walk back and tally.

• Backtrack the bolt line to recover what gear can be found
• Some possessions are simply gone, narrate what the brush kept
• Light scratches on the horse, salved once

Recovery The horse needs a day, restocking the saddlebags needs a store.·Doctor advised

It didn't bolt far, it spun, one violent wrench sideways off the trail that left the snake behind and something strained in the hindquarters. Nothing swells, but for a few days it moves like a wagon with one dry axle, stiff behind and unwilling to canter on that lead.

• Stiff hindquarters, no cantering on that lead for 3 days
• A liniment rub behind after each ride for 2 days

Recovery 3 days working itself loose, 4 if it stands idle.·Doctor advised

The strike came and met stirrup leather, both fangs buried a finger deep in the fender with a thud you felt through your boot. The horse crow-hopped twice and settled, unstruck; venom beads on the leather like sap on a pine.

• Two fang holes in the stirrup fender, show them to everyone
• The horse gives every stick on the trail a hard look for 2 days

Recovery Nothing to heal, wipe the leather down and keep the story.·No doctor needed

One buzz, two enormous crow-hops that tested your seat and your vocabulary, and then it planted, snorting at a coiled shape a wagon-length off the trail. You back it away calm as you can manage. Total damage: your dignity and a thrown lather.

• The horse is snorty and coiled-spring tense for the rest of the day
• You check your cinch afterward, on principle

Recovery An hour of quiet riding puts it right.·No doctor needed

One fang dragged a scratch across the front of the cannon without ever sinking, a raw line, no punctures, no venom. Washed with carbolic water on the spot and salved for a day or two out of respect for what it nearly was.

• One scratch cleaned and salved for 2 days
• You develop a habit of scanning the ground at waterholes

Recovery 2 days, mostly out of caution.·No doctor needed

Fifty yards of dead run and then sense returned, the horse pulled itself up before the brush got expensive, trembling, unhurt but for a scuff where a low branch dragged the haunch. You dismount, mostly to let your own legs stop shaking.

• One branch scuff, salved once
• The horse hugs the middle of the trail for 2 days, far from all grass tufts

Recovery A day, if that.·No doctor needed

The strike buried both fangs into the coiled lariat hanging at your saddle's fork, and stuck there a half-second that stretched very long before the snake dropped away. The rope drips venom; the horse never carried a wound at all, just a rider who has decided to relocate where that rope hangs.

• Venom stains on your lariat, a conversation piece at every branding
• The horse is untouched and mildly curious what all the fuss is

Recovery None, give the rope a wipe and yourself a minute.·No doctor needed

The buzz came from directly underfoot and your horse simply left the ground, a standing leap, sideways and up, that carried you both clean over the coiled snake and landed soft as a deacon's apology. Nothing touched anything. You ride on with a new respect for the athlete under you.

• One athletic feat to brag on at the horse's behalf
• Your heart takes an hour to come down out of your hat
• /me leans forward and tells the horse, quietly, that all is forgiven forever

Recovery Nothing but nerves.·No doctor needed

The strike came up at the muzzle and never landed, your horse struck first, one forehoof hammering down mid-lunge and pinning the rattler dead to the hardpan. You sit there a long moment in the ringing quiet, then climb down and cut the rattle free with your knife. Eleven buttons. It rides on your hatband from this day, and the horse gets whatever it wants for the rest of its natural life.

• An eleven-button rattle for your hatband, the trophy of trophies
• Your horse is unhurt and has earned lifetime privileges
• /me tips their hat to the horse, then threads the rattle onto the band

Recovery None required, the snake was not so fortunate.·No doctor needed