Larkwood Life: Horsey Tales

Well after we put Titan down at the beginning of August, we decided we were going to keep the horses home. It was best to keep and eye on them instead of worrying where they may have wandered on the plot next door and whether or not they had picked up another scrape or scratch or gash or wound of any nature.

With keeping them here it just means that they can be less picky about what they eat as they would have to settle for what is left before the rains come. So it has been more than a month of staying here with us and every day as we look out across our plot I am surprized they still find anything to graze on. Graze they do though and they are at it all day long.

Just before the end of last month I went out one afternoon to feed the horses and noticed that Switch was some way off looking most distressed. To watch her it looked like she was choking, as she went round and round on the same spot, lifting her head and then tucking it in again. I immediately phoned our vet and was panic stricken that she too may have the same problem that her foal, Titan had. She was stumbling around as she continued to lift and let fall her head. Chris, our vet, suggested that if she were choking, as she very well could be, then I should get her to water and squirt it into her mouth and down her throat to move whatever may be causing the problem. This in itself was no easy task as she was far from any water and a hose. I haltered her and started leading her up and that is when I noticed that she couldn't walk. She was definitely unsteady on her feet and was dragging her front left leg. We managed to get her up near the water tank and I connected the hose. While NiQi held her still and then managed to get the hose into her mouth, I then turned water on so it could squirt down her throat. Not a happy event for her at all as she kept spitting the hose out of her mouth. We then observed her behaviour and decided between the two of us that her leg was actually the problem. NiQi took a video on her phone which we sent through to the vet's emergency line and then I phoned them to find out what they thought. Chris decided to come through himself and soon after he was here. The long and the short of it is that it appeared one of the other horses, and by that we assume it was Navajo, kicked her on her shoulder. It was most likely an accident, as he would not have gone for her, and she unfortunately ended up being in the middle of two of them. He gave her an injection for the pain...it was the agony she was going through that resulted in her going round and round in circles tossing her head up and down. We used an ice pack on her for a few days morning and night, rubbed arnica ice on the affected area for about a week and gave her anti-inflammatories morning and night too. She will stay separated from the other horses until after she has had her foal in January. Navajo is happy there is just a fence between them as the two of them often call to each other and stand on either side of the wires talking to each other.

In the meantime she is chomping madly on what little grazing she has to herself. She has finished the back camp where the sheep used to sleep and she has finished under the top citrus trees - as well as the trees themselves...sadly. Now we have moved her around the house and flat. The rain is on it's way I can feel it in my bones...lol The horses are looking for something green for extra nutrition - thankfully they have not lost weight and become gaunt as we supplement them with horse rider meal.... in fact I think they are very spoilt horses.