Chocolate Nut wrote:
What do I do if I can't watch through it all? Can I just turn my back if other people are there? Does someone need to hold her even after she's down?


I'm telling you CN, again, do not be there, do not watch it, and do not hold her going down (if/since you've never done it before).

Of course you can turn your back. You can do whatever you want.

For whatever reason I got into the habit of, after the horse was down, I'd run over and cover/close their eye. Something about a dead, blank, open eye on an animal that is normally sooo full of expression is hard to see... After a minute or so of that, I'd let go and eyelid would be mostly covering the eye anyway (and then they/I poke it to check for a reflex and nastagmus, which sort of nulls my original point anyway. haha).
But unless there are complications, no one needs to hold her once she's down (not counting you hugging her and holding her head in your lap, like I did mine).