Herriot is injured by the Wilkinson stallion when he attempts to remove a small growth from the horse’s belly. The episode turns a routine veterinary task into a test of fear and professional responsibility: Herriot initially retreats from the dangerous animal, but a farmer’s need to sell the horse brings him back. A sudden kick leaves him with a serious thigh injury; after the growth is eventually removed, the experience changes how much he fears working with horses.

The Assignment and the Horse

During a busy season of equine work, Siegfried Farnon leaves Herriot to deal with a horse at Wilkinson’s farm near White Cross. The task sounds minor: remove a tumour on its belly, using local anaesthetic and instruments prepared for the procedure. On the six-mile drive, Herriot imagines a small, undernourished yearling with one of the dangling growths farmers call nanberries. That reassuring picture collapses when he hears the horse inside the stable.

The animal is a chestnut stallion, more than six years old and, to Herriot’s eye, immense. It whinnies and crashes against the sides of its box; when Herriot looks in, it lays back its ears and lashes out hard enough to send a foot-long splinter flying from the boards. The growth itself seems straightforward to treat. It hangs from the belly, roughly the size of a cricket ball, with a narrow neck that should allow Herriot to inject local anaesthetic and remove it with tumour spoons. The danger lies in having to work beneath the horse’s abdomen, within reach of its powerful feet.

Retreat and Return

Herriot leaves the farm without attempting the operation. The stallion stays with him: over the following days and weeks, it charges through his dreams, and he repeatedly wakes at five in the morning imagining himself operating. In those recurring dreams, he removes the tumour again and again before breakfast. His hesitation is not simply a matter of finding a more convenient time; he wonders whether he is hoping the problem will disappear on its own. He considers asking Siegfried to take over, but his confidence is already low.

The delay ends when Mr. Wilkinson phones. He is not angry about the wait, but he wants to sell the horse and cannot do so with the growth still attached. The practical need gives Herriot a reason to return, while leaving the original danger unchanged. This time, he knows exactly what is waiting for him: the tray’s familiar rattle in the car no longer accompanies speculation about the assignment, but the knowledge of the stallion in its box.

The Attempt and Injury

At the farm, the loose box again erupts with angry whinnies and crashing blows. When the doors open, the stallion surges into the yard, dragging two men who are holding the halter. After they manoeuvre it alongside the barn, one man applies a twitch to its upper lip while the other holds the halter. Herriot fills a syringe with cocaine solution, his hands trembling as he prepares to inject the growth.

He approaches, runs a hand along the horse’s neck and flank, and takes hold of the tumour. As he stretches the skin between it and the body, the stallion gives a warning whicker. Herriot raises the syringe and thrusts the needle in. The kick comes too quickly for him to see: the hoof strikes the inside of his right thigh and spins him to the ground. At first he feels numb; when he tries to move, pain cuts through his leg. Mr. Wilkinson bends over him, and Herriot asks him to put the horse back in its box and call Siegfried to collect him. He cannot drive.

Recovery and Consequence

Herriot’s leg is not broken, but the impact produces a massive haematoma. The whole limb changes colour, from orange to black, and he is still hobbling two weeks later. The initial attempt has not removed the tumour. Herriot and Siegfried return with a group of helpers, rope the stallion, chloroform it, and finally remove the growth. The eventual operation therefore depends on a more controlled approach and a larger team than the one Herriot first undertook alone.

The injury leaves a cavity in the muscle of Herriot’s thigh, a lasting physical reminder of the day. Yet the episode also alters his response to the work that had frightened him: he finds that anticipation can be worse than the experience itself, and horse work troubles him less afterward. The change does not erase the danger—the kick confirms how quickly a powerful animal can injure a veterinary surgeon—but it gives the ordeal a consequence beyond pain and delay. Herriot returns to the work, and the remembered wound marks both the cost of the attempt and the beginning of greater confidence.