The Rest of the Zoo

So, I should totally have included Teddy in the riding horses post. He's ridden, after all, but my mom rides him most of the time. I did hop on him the other day when my mom was trying a couple saddles (threw one on Red, one on Teddy, and swapped horses/saddles--that was a very fun ride, and productive, as Mom has a nice saddle now). Anyway, I'll lead with him.

Teddy
Teddy's been on the "let's be a veterinary pain in the ass" tip lately. He actually fell down one day, right to his knees, when my mom was on him. She was just walking him on a long rein in the ring, too. Nothing to fall ON. He didn't trip, he just kinda collapsed. Thus began a very VERY long and even more expensive journey to figure out why he did that and what's making him off. The short version is, we never did really figure it out, but through some "diagnosis through treatment" efforts, he does seem to be sounder. He isn't sound enough that I'd show him, but for some light hacking out, he's just fine. And he's still incredibly adorable.

Ink
My darling love Ink is 34 now, and celebrated his advanced age by scaring us TO DEATH the other day. This was the day Mom and I took Teddy and Red to our friend's ring. When we came home, he was lying down, with his butt uphill from his head, in a rocky ditch (our ring is at the top of the short hill--it's all designed this way to drain, and the ring doesn't have a fence around it, just a small panel to keep the footing in). He must have been stepping down the hill from the ring and tripped. He can't really see out of his left eye because he has glaucoma, which we're having trouble managing. So anyway, he's lying in the ditch groaning and kicking at his belly. His gums were purple and sticky. I called my vet and was like GET HERE NOW WITH THE PINK JUICE HURRY, because he was groaning like you would not believe and we just wanted to put him out of his misery ASAP. So Mom and I were sitting in the mud with him and crying when the vet arrived, hopped over the fence, stuck a syringe of banamine in his neck and hurried through an exam. She was like, "Let's get this sheet off, it's kinda tight on him." He was wearing a turnout sheet, and when he slid down the hill, his shoulders really jammed up in the front of it.  We struggled a bit to do so, but when we got the blanket off, he... stood up. Like it was nothing.

So we walked him slowly back to the barn, and he was nudging us and nickering and generally acting fine. After about ten minutes, when he didn't try to lie down again, we let him go in his stall. Where he stood, all pricked ears and nickering, until we gave him a handful of his dinner. He gobbled that up and was super insistent about eating, so we gave him his whole meal. He was fine. Totally fine.

He was just blanket bound. We almost put down a horse for having tightened his blanket on himself.

Not all is perfect with the old man, though. That glaucoma is bothering him (despite rigorous treatment on our part) to the point that he rubbed his eye and gave himself a corneal ulcer you can see with the naked eye. It's a really horrifying injury. Now he gets five drops in that eye twice a day (and three of those drops every 2 hours) in an effort to save his eye. I don't know if it will work. A couple more days and we'll make the call. The encouraging sign is that his eye is vascularizing, so his body is trying to heal it. I do think it looks a bit better today, but maybe I'm being optimistic for no reason.



Rocket
Rocket... is a coming-two draft cross filly, you know? She's beautiful, and sweet, and totally smart. She's also got an ATTITUDE, and is a handful to handle. Nothing out of the ordinary for her age and type, but Mom and I are realizing that we're not really set up to work with her and handle her safely (especially if I do manage to land a faculty job and move away). So... at this point, the plan is to send her to the cowboy we love. He'll pasture board her over the winter, and then in the spring/summer he'll start her VERY lightly (the mare is probably 16hh now and solid as a rock--please do not post anything slamming me or him or whoever for choosing to lightly start an enormous 2yo). Then she'll likely find a new home. Mom and I want to make sure she ends up in good hands. I think she'll be a very nice horse for someone, because she's a gorgeous mover and quite clever. But for us, right now, it isn't realistic. If you're interested in her, shoot me an e-mail and we can chat.

Grayson
Good ol' Grayson is just Grayson-ing around. We thought we'd have to take him in to get a tumor removed, but then it just kinda... went away? So he got to skip surgery. In the meantime, he's still acting like an idiot racehorse when we bring him in about half the time. He's 23. He's totally sound, I could be riding him, but he's a lunatic. So he can just hang out in the pasture and harass Red and that'll be that.

 

Overall, all is well around here. I just wish it would STOP SNOWING and GET WARM. I have important canter transitions to work on.