miss hap, the one-eyed wonder

Did you like my Christmas post? Sounded like our Christmas was right off a picture card, didn't it?
 Well, I tell you this, Christmas Eve at least, wasn't.
Because no one writes Hallmark cards like this

 Happy Christmas!

Your pony(the one you spent all year getting close to and teaching all those tricks) got her head kicked in!

That's how it felt for me, newly returned from playing prelude at both Christmas Candlelight services at my church. A suckerpunch to the throat.

We're not sure exactly how it happened, but Piggy (aka Black Pony) got kicked directly in the eye and surrounding area. Which seems impossible because she is pen pals with only Shyanne and Roanie, and the three of them are inseparable. Which makes me think they were playing around in the new snow and she got in the way of someone's joyful kick.

After spending Christmas Day (the one holiday vets get off... unless there's a life threatening case) in a solitary stall, cleaned up the best we could manage, and bandaged, we took her to the vet first thing Wednesday morning. Her eye was ruptured, and some of the bone that shelters the eye was also chipped and splintered.
 The long and the short of it is that the bone pieces and her eye were removed.
Back home now, she is doing very well, and of all our horses this could have happened too, I believe she'll adjust the best, because she is a very smart and calm pony, and more than that she is brave. If I were to hunt grizzly bears and needed a pack pony, I'd take her.
 With this new chapter  in her life unfolding, she shall need another nickname, since she hasn't been piggy in several months. I'm thinking Miss Hap, or Patch.