Foal are cute, but...

They grow up, and they get hurt. It is amazing, how an animal that large, who for eons has lived in the wild and survived, can't make it to weaning in suburbia without getting hurt.

But lets go back to the beginning. First, this foal wasn't supposed to be. A Reg. Morgan mare ended up in a meat dealer's yard (yes, horses are still being sold and slaughtered for meat, they just ship them a few miles further to Canada and Mexico). A Morgan rescue group was trying to save her, but no one had space for a 3 yr old mare not under saddle. I saw her, and she looked exactly like the former horse of a friend of mine. I had the space, so I took her. Picked her up, no problem, snorty but a good girl. Brought her home and while I had her in quarantine I'm thinking 'She's really got a belly.' Most horses I get from the dealers are underweight, but I reasoned this was a Morgan, a breed that can almost live off air.

She came down with an upper resp. infection, so while I had the vet out, I asked them to palp her, and see if she was in foal. The vet checked her out, nope, no baby. Ok, then once quarantine was over, and the weather decided to warm up, I was going to hitch her and do some driving. But by the time all that happened, she was REALLY big, and I'm thinking she's really wormy, or she pulled something over on the vet. Worming makes no difference, but then the baby 'drops' and I know she is really in foal.

Now I'm a bit panicked, dealers yards are full of drafts, donkeys, all sorts, and she was only 14.2 and a maiden mare. Was I about to have a mule or huge draft cross arrive? With some e-mails to Morgan folks (very helpful!) I got the previous registered owner's contact information, and gave him a call. Yep, she was bred, and yay! to a Reg. black Morgan stallion. Whew! Dodged the bullet there. A reg. foal at least has a better chance in this too many horses too little hay economy.


On July 10 the mare had her foal. Black, gorgeous, and HUGE! See slideshow here.
He earned the name Rocket Man because he would fly around the pasture.

As foals do, he grew, got more active and bold. He also got even more adorable, and would do anything for scratches. Next slide show here.

When he was 6 weeks old, we left town for a family wedding, leaving a friend in charge of the horses.

So of course someone got hurt. (you knew that was coming) Of course it was the cute adorable baby. When I got the voice mail I am wondering what hazard was there that I didn't clear. What could he have cut himself on? I called some friends, who dashed over to give me an idea of how bad it was. I could tell it was bad but I wasn't prepared for the cell phone photos.
















Fortunately, both my friends are level headed, and while I got the vet on the phone, they hosed him off, and put a nicely professional pressure bandage on to get the swelling down. (just in case there was enough skin to stitch together)


Talking to them, and looking at the photos, my conclusion was that he had been kicked. He and his mother were in a pasture with two other mares, both former broodmares, and both tolerant beyond reason to babies. I had seen his mother kick him in the past (she doesn't share food) so the only conclusion we could come to was that he had been nailed by his own mother.

He was sore, ouchy, and not a happy camper, but was very good about being caught, having a halter put on him (wrong one and too big, his was not to be found) standing to be hosed, and them wrapped.

When my vet got there, she decided there wasn't anything she could stitch up, so she trimmed the wound, scrubbed it out, and wrapped him up like a mummy. Nothing major was cut or damaged, just a lovely scoop of skin and muscle taken out. She also concurred it had to be a kick.
The main concern was to keep it clean, and allow the wound to fill in the missing areas.

He is now running around the pasture like nothing happened. At first it was a bit of a wrestling match to get his meds in him, but now he looks for them (it must be food, right?). When I gave him his first worming, I made sure it was apple flavored, so he really thinks that is the good stuff now!

He over 2 months old now, and is happily pestering the other horses, running, playing and totally ignoring his bandage. Still comes up and begs to be scratched.

But, as mom is getting even more insistent he stay away, we will be weaning him soon. (before she hurts him again!)

OTTB saga...

After years of being content with her two warmblood geldings, a friend of mine suddenly decided to adopt a OTTB. This boy was currently on the track, had run a couple days before and came up lame. The trainer had been talking to her, trying to convince her to take him, and I was the voice of reason saying "He's gonna cost you a lot of money, etc etc.." Now my objections were nothing against TB's, I have one myself. It's not that I don't think she can handle him, she used to work on the track as a teenager, and her current horse is not an easy ride. But I know unfortunately from experience, free often equals 'damaged.' Well, she went to look at him, and cute TB face won.
Yes, he is damaged, he has chips in his knee, but my friend researched the cost of the surgery, talked to the trainer (who was completely committed to a good home for her horse, and will take him back if it doesn't work out), and decided to bring him home. This was last Sunday, the 20th.

Now, we both board at the same farm. It's pretty minimal. We have pasture, and marginal fences. Her barn has 2 big run in stalls, a hay area, and a fenced paddock that used to be used for cattle. (in other words, not goofy TB safe!)She brought her boy home, put him in the paddock, with access to the stalls, and he proceeded to snort, cut up, and generally act like a silly TB in a new place. Granted, he has come from complete stall rest on the track to a paddock where he could at least play a bit. He talks to her boys over the fence, everyone snorts and squeals. After 2 days he was settled, and calm, and really looking longingly at the grass over the fence.

So, Wednesday, thinking they had all met over the fence, and better to intro them while we are there and can intervene if needed. She turned him out. There were a couple rushes, more squealing, but everyone sort of stayed in their area and grazed. Great, we think, that wasn't so bad. As we are talking, we see the horses get riled up in a corner of the pasture. Her big warmblood gelding charged the new guy, and ran him into the woods. He doesn't appear out of the woods, so we send one of the barn urchins to run down there, and make sure he is ok. After all, it's just the woods, right?

The urchin comes running back up saying he was trapped in the woods and 'sitting' on a log. So the TB's new owner jogs down to have a look, thinking surely the kid was exaggerating. Next thing I know I'm getting a call to 'come down now!'. So I grab leadline, halter and lungeline, and head for the far end of the pasture. When I get there, I had to force my way into the brambles, to get to him. This poor TB had charged blindly into the woods, fallen over a log and managed to trap himself all tangled in the branches, with indeed, his butt sitting on a 32" high log. He couldn't come back, the way he went in, so she and another horsey neighbor cleared the trees and brambles in front of him. While all this was going on, this poor TB was shaking like a leaf. He was terrified, and I could tell his new owner was thinking he was about to launch into the usual TB response to fear. But even in his fear, this boy never moved, and he kept looking at me, even tried once to turn around and come to me (would have been bad, I was behind him). So pulling out my best riding instructor voice, I told him to "Stand!" and told them to put a halter on him and hook the lungeline up. I heard some 'buts' and dithering, so I said "Do it!", and told them. "This is a track horse, his security is his halter and leadline. He is waiting for you to take control and make it all better." (yeah, I yelled. It's ok, she's known me for years, LOL!)

Once the halter was on, and they actually stepped up to him, he stopped shaking. They cleared his path, stepped back to give him room in case he jumped out, and asked him to move forward. After a minute of thinking, he scrambled out of the tangle of branches, and calmly followed her out of the briars. Once we took over the situation, he was totally calm. We led him out, hosed him down, and got a look at the damage. Of course the knee with the chips was the size of a cantaloupe, and he was dead lame on it. He was a mass of cuts and scrapes from head to tail, but all were really superficial.

So after a bath and a lot of Swat, back in the paddock he went. Through all of this, and the next day doctoring his cuts, he was a perfect sweet gentleman. I'm thinking even with the chip surgery, she has gotten a really nice horse. He's put together extremely well, and has shown he trusts humans and has a nice temperament. The swelling was down on his leg, and he was walking on it. I admit to her maybe I was wrong about her getting him. But, the fates were listening..

The next day, I get a call from the barn. The TB had been pushing a gate trying to graze, got a foot caught in a rusty panel gate, and sliced his foot open. The whole paddock was covered in blood. The only vet she could get was going to be a while, and one we didn't have the best confidence in. I drove to the barn as quick as I could. It's amazing how much blood a horse can lose, there were pools of blood everywhere, and all 4 hooves were red like they had nail polish. My friend had immediately put on a proper pressure bandage, which was slowing down the bleeding, but it still was dripping out. He had a cut downward from about midway between the coronet band and the bottom of the fetlock. The slice was about 5 inches across, and 3 inches down to where we could see something, bone, tendon, we didn't know what.

This horse is going to need stitches at the very least, tetanus booster, antibiotics, etc. The pinch test shows him a bit dehydrated, and who knows how much blood he has lost. I push for taking him to my vet, who happens to have an excellent clinic that can take emergency surgeries. She decides to take him there, where we will have everything we need no matter what they have to do. Through all this, the TB is calm, eating grass, standing for his bandages, being a very good boy. Until we decide to load him in a trailer!

If you have ever loaded a difficult horse, you know all the tricks we tried. He actually probably would have loaded in the first 15 minutes, except for all the 'helpful' non-horse people who kept stopping to see what was going on and offer advice. Eventually I got my TWH mare, Shadow, who loads happily and munches hay. The TB decides she is quite the hot chick, then realizes he is missing some food in the trailer and walks right in. At least an hour, and 7 people helping..but we were on the road. Shadow came along as a babysitter, and when we got there the TB stood quietly, unloaded without a problem, and was a wonderful boy while the vets worked on him. Seven stitches, and a lot of drugs later, all it takes is a shoulder up his butt to load him again, and we are home. The cut was all soft tissue, and he should heal with no problem. They also found an ulcer on his cornea, which they scraped and cleaned. He wasn't dehydrated, and blood counts were fine.

So now he is in solitary in the barn while he heals, and my friend figures out how to completely TB proof her paddock. Meanwhile we have my vet on speed dial. :-D