How to cure a diva!

This summer was such a bad one, and my time has been so busy, that I haven't worked the horses in over 4 months.  Yes, I know ... shame on me.

Two weeks ago, I had the farrier out.  Well it turned out that Miss Pam has become quite a Diva!  My horse who stood awesome for the farrier had been replaced by a raunchy, impatient mare who didn't want to stand at all, but only wanted to go back to the other horses.  She resisted quite a bit.  It was one of those moments where you find yourself telling the farrier "she's normally really good", which you know he must hear from everyone.

That cemented in my mind that Pam needed to be cured of her new Diva ways.  I figured I knew the best way to cure that.  WORK!!!  It's amazing how a horses temperament changes when they have a job.  So here's how it worked out.

First, I just got her out of the pasture and tied her up.  I left her tied for 45 minutes.  She spend the first 15 minutes pawing the ground and trying to turn herself all around to get free.  The last 30 minutes she settled in, and just waited on me.

Pam the Diva ... standing tied.

Next,  I took my time harnessing her.  She was pretty good with this.  No real issues at all.  Once the blinders were on, she started turning her body a bit, but nothing too big.

Rachael, being the amazing hitch horse she is.

Next came the work.  I ground drove the girls together at first, and the first few starts and stops were a tad rough on Pam's part.  Rachael was a dream and acted like the pro she is.  After the girls were stopping and starting well on command it was time for the sled.  I should note,  Pam was still not staying stopped very well.  She would start to pace and paw to keep moving, however, she would stop on command.  This was OK with me, because HARD WORK cures that impatient crap.  :)


Up next came the heavy work sled.  I got a new work sled this past spring.  It's got metal runners, and it's pretty heavy.  I hitched the girls up to it for the first time and away we went.  I made them walk for a good 10 minutes, then we stopped for a rest.  I watched Pam, and as soon as she started to Pace, off we went, for another 20 minutes.  On the next break, she stood for a few minutes, then paced once, so off we went again.  Another 15 minutes later, we stopped, and she stood perfectly.  Success!!!  I did this a few more times, till they were standing with no intention of moving.  This is the team that I know and love.  Even stood well enough for me to walk away from the sled and snap a picture.  :)

What a good team!  Enjoying a nice break after pulling the heavy metal training sled.

Working a horse hard enough to realize that a break is a good thing is a wonderful cure to the pacing/impatient horse.  Once they realize that a break is something to fully take advantage of, it really sets them up well.  The important thing to note in draft horses, is that it takes a lot of effort to work them hard enough to need a break.  Even on that heavy sled, it was only after an hour of pulling it that they finally started sweating.  Work work work!  It brings out the best in these animals.

The result ... I got my sweet Pam back.  For the rest of the day, she was the horse I used all spring and last christmas.  It was great.

So ... how do you cure a Diva?  Make her work ... and work HARD!  :)

Update on Nellie

A bit more happened with Nellie since the last blog posting. Nellie seemed to be fine the next morning after the vet came out. However, the next night, she was laying down again, and rolling worse. She had really scraped herself up on her hips, withers, and side of the head from rolling.

Vet said to bring her to him and we'd tube her again. We also needed to get her some more bantamine. We took her to the vet that night, While looking her over, the vet noticed a small string hanging out of her rear end. He pulled on it, and out came a 1 foot long piece of Hay wrap/netting. He tubed her again, and this time there was no reflux at all. Also, she wasn't passing much through her intestines. This led the vet to diagnose her with an obstruction instead of just colic. We figure that Nellie unknowingly ingested some amount of hay netting (the plastic wrap that is used on round bales now days).

A sick Nellie.  Note the IV bag hung from the tree.  This is country living!

This started a long 3 day long ordeal. I made a pen for Nellie in our front yard near the house. We had to keep an eye on her. She had a catheter put in, and needed to be on IV fluids. We also had to tube her twice a day and pump a gallon of mineral oil, and a 3-5 liters of water into her belly to try and flush out the hay netting/wrap that was stuck. Suddenly it seemed that our whole life was about Nellie, and making sure she made it. We were also advised to give her 4-5 small amounts of hay each day to keep the digestive track functioning.

It also began the awesome fun of dissecting poop. Everything that dropped out of her got dissected and analyzed. It seemed that each small pile had small pieces of hay netting with a few long pieces too. Slowly but surely, she was passing them. We kept hoping to finally see a big ball of the hay wrap come out, but instead we saw a string or two with each load.

There were storms coming through, so I moved the pen under my porch.  IV bag hung from the rafters.

On the 3rd day of fluids, Nellie started acting like herself again. She had not tried laying down and rolling at all, and we were not giving her any meds. We were advised to keep her on the IV, but to begin giving her a flake of hay at a time. We did this, and it made for a very happy Nellie. She had no problems digesting it, which also made for very BIG piles or poop for me to dissect.

On the 4th day, we stopped the IV, and put her out in the pasture. She was glad to be out of her pen, and we kept a close watch on her. She did perfectly. No soreness, no laying down or rolling. She's still doing awesome. We think we got her to pull through it. What a relief!!

One of the silver linings about this ordeal, was that Nellie doesn't care about needles on her neck anymore. Last year when it was time for shots, it was a rodeo. We didn't get to draw blood for a coggins because she was so unruly. By the last day of her being in the stall and feeling normal, my wife was able to draw her blood all alone, without me holding her. This is a great thing.

Also, on a bit of a disappointing note ... we did a blood test on Nellie to see if she is truly pregnant (supposed to be having a March foal) and the test result came back negative. Looks like she didn't take. I'm a little dissapointed, but that's Okay. It means I can work her with Rachael when Pam get's too big for her harness. :)

New Hay!!! The good, the bad, and lessons learned

Things here in NE Texas are not ideal for keeping a horse right now.  Lack of rain and good temperatures have no grass growing at all.  Hay is in short supply and is VERY expensive.  I feel worse for people in other parts of Texas because they have it much worse, but still ... it's not a nice situation we're in.

Fortunately, thanks to my Aunt Karen, I was able to get in touch with a hay guy up in Little Rock, AR.  After a month of plotting, planning, and co-ordinating, I was able to hire a truck to drive up to Little Rock, and bring 34 bales round bales of Bermuda grass (with some sage grass) home.  There were 4 people who went in on this load, and it worked out great.  The truck driver, Jaice, with Sheffield Trucking, sent me this picture of our hay before we hit the road heading our way.

Now that is a pretty sight!  A load of fresh cut bermuda!!

As you can imagine, the horses were also VERY excited about the new hay.  To stretch till the hay truck came, I had them on minimal hay rations and grain.  In the past, I've never had to worry much with the Belgians on changing food and what not.  The drafts seem to just handle that stuff very well.  So, I put out a round bale, and the horses went to town on it.  They were all very happy, and I was too.  Things were great ... or so I thought.

Yesterday I came home to find Nellie laying down.  I noted that half of the round bale was gone (in 1 day).  I walked out into the pasture and she stayed laying down.  She wasn't rolling or anything, just laying.  While looking at her, Pam laid down next to her.  This was odd to me.  I took the picture below:

Nellie and Pam laying down, with upset stomachs

 I got on the phone with some friends to brush up on my knowledge of colic.  I was told to watch for rolling and thrashing, and to also watch for them to bite at, or kick at their bellies.  The horses didn't seem to be in pain, so I went about my daily routine and just kept an eye on them.  As the afternoon/evening passed on, I noticed Nellie was laying down more often than standing. 

At 8:30PM I went out to check on the horses, and Nelle was not doing so well.  She had abrasions on her whithers, hips, and the sides of her neck and head from rolling/thrashing on the ground.  She was moaning with each exhale, and she kept bumping her belly with her nose.  At this point, I knew things were not well, and I called the Vet.

I got a halter on Nellie, and was able to coax her into standing.  I then led her out, and was walking around with her a bit while we waited for the Vet to arrive.  The vet took a look at her, and noted that she had a raised pulse, and that her gut sounds were not well.  He gave her a minor sedative, and then administered bantamine into her vein.  Within minutes she was breathing easier, and calming down.  She decided to lay down at this point, and laid flat on her side.  The vet told me that the next step would be to tube her to check her stomach contents.  He did that, and out came a gallon of gross smelling watery stuff.  It also relieved a lot of gas.  He told us that the gut sounds, plus the stomach contents led him to believe she was in the beginning stages of an impact colic, and that we're lucky to have caught it early.  From what I understand, impact is where you get a total blockage and this requires surgery to fix.

Nellie was calm and easy to work with.  I think it was 60% on board drugs, and 40% her desire to be made well that made her easy to work with.  My horse that hates needles was just fine with all the injections that were being made.  I was shocked.

The Vet added a gallon or so of water, and a gallon of mineral oil to her stomach.  He then told me that my job was to keep her moving for the next 2 hours.  He said I could do that by walking her, or by loading her in the trailer and driving around.  Due to the price of fuel, I opted for the first.  He also told us to pull the horses off the hay, and only let them eat it a few hours a day for the next week.  He also instructed us to give grain daily with 1 cup of mineral oil added for all horses.  He wasn't too concerned about Pam, and said that the mineral oil in the grain will help her, and if she did get worse, to call and we'd do the same thing we did with Nellie.  We thanked the vet for coming out, and I went to work walking Nellie.

She walked very easily.  She never fought me and kept her head right near me.  Pam was still in the field laying down a bit, so I decided to keep them all walking.  I opened the pasture gate, and walked out to pasture with Nellie.  All the other horses followed.  I then shut the gate, keeping them away from the hay.  Then the 2 hours of walking started.  I just did laps around the pasture.  Over, and over, and over again.  Nellie was awesome and followed my lead.  She never complained or acted up at all.  I think she must have made some kind of connection between me and the fact that she was no longer in pain.  At one point I stopped to turn on the hose and fill up a bucket of water, and she stood perfectly still in the pasture, and waiting for me to return.  She was calm and seemed to be on the rebound.

One interesting side note ... all the mares followed Nellie.  I was essentially walking the herd.  Nellie is alpha, and Pam and Whinnie followed behind her.  Then there was Buck.  He was the boy.  Ever since a nice blog article by Bob Skelding (the wagonteamster), I pay attention to how the herd acts.  Last night, the girls all fell in line, following Nellie.  Then buck ran around the entire pasture, kicking and bucking, with his head down.  It was interesting to watch.  He'd be grazing somewhere, then suddenly I'd hear the thunder of hooves, and here he'd come, running at full speed bucking occasionally.  At one point, he ran close to Nellie, and then he stopped about 10 feet on front of her.  I then learned that a lead mare who isn't feeling good can still flip 180 degrees around me in an instant, and deliver a 2 footed cow kick to a gelding who is acting out.  :)  Buck was much less crazy after that.  LOL.

At about 1:30 AM, Nellie had to stop for a potty break, and I noticed the oil working it's way out.  YAY!  That made me very happy about things.  I was scared of a blockage.  After the 2 hours was up, we gave her another dose of the mild sedative to help her through the rest of the night, and then I went to bed.  By that point, I was walking like I was drunk.  My legs were worn our, and I was a tired boy.  Walking straight for 2 hours is not something I'm used to. 

This morning all the horses were up and grazing on what grass they can find in the pasture.  They all seem to be well.  I'm very relieved.  Hopefully we're done with it.

Lessons Learned:  Even draft horses can colic from feed changes.  The Vet said this was caused by them eating too much of a new feed too fast.  When changing hays, you should not allow a horse to have free access to it.  Work them into it for a week first so their body can get used to the changes in the grasses.  I won't be making this mistake again.  The old farmers tale that draft horses aren't suseptable to this is FALSE!   

Horse Rescue/Extraction Seminar

Today was an awesome day.  Today the saddle club I belong to (Easy Rider Saddle Club) put on a Large Animal Rescue/Extraction Seminar.  The loss of my horse Lily a year and a half ago was one of the reasons our saddle club decided to purchase the equipment needed to safely and efficiently extract a large animal from a sinkhole or quicksand.  There was a newspaper article on it, and it featured Lily's story.  (Click HERE to view the blog entry for this event).

This Ad was run in the Greenville Herald Banner on 9/30/2011

The clinic was taught by Brooke Vrany and David Beard of Days End Farm Horse Rescue in Lisbon, MD.  They are part of one of the biggest and well run large animal emergency rescue organizations in the country (well, I don't know that for sure, but I know they are at least the biggest and well run in MD).  :)

We had a classroom session, that basically covered 3 main topics;  Large Animal Rescue Equipment, Horse Physiology and Behavior, and the Emergency Rope Halter and Lead Line.  I sat like a sponge absorbing the information.  It was very well done, and the kind of information that leaves a horseman feeling that they understand just a little bit more about their horses.  I definitely learned some things that made me see ways to improve my own training and every day handling of horses.

The second half of the day was spent at Cedar Creek Run (Thank you Connie for letting us come over!!).  We did a more "hands on" afternoon.  My horse Buck (Lily's son) was used as our practice horse.  I took Rachael as well, just in case they needed a horse that would not care at all where it was touched.  I'm still learning Buck's personality, so I brought Rachael as a backup.  However, Buck was amazing, and we didn't even use Rachael.

David Beard and Brooke Vrany, using Buck to explain some things about horse physiology

To start off, David took Buck to the side and sacked him out (worked him and made sure he was desensitized to ropes and was going to behave well for the demo).  David is an AMAZING trainer.  I'm sure Brooke was saying something important, but my eyes were focused on David and Buck.  It's like watching a master carpenter work with wood, or an artist work magic with paint.  I watched as Buck learned and reacted to David.  It was soooo cool.  In no time, Buck was responding to the simplest of pressure from David, and he wasn't spooking much at all.  In what seemed like 15 minutes, David had buck moving his feet with no or very little pressure even on the halter.  he would move his body and hands, and Buck would respond.  I hope to be like that someday.

David and Brooke

Brooke showing us more about horse physiology

Brooke did some hands on stuff with Buck to show us more about horse physiology, and things that need to be considered when the need to move a downed horse should arise.  Brooke is sharp and really has a great command at this subject.


Up next was one of the neatest things I've learned in a while.  David and Brooke showed us how to use a single piece of rope to tie and emergency rope halter.  I could not believe how simple it was.  It worked so good.  That went right into this old noggin of mine, and you can bet I'll pull that trick out when I can.

Brooke showing how to tie an emergency halter from a single piece of rope

After that, Brooke amazed us with showing us how to use a single rope and tie a rope sling on Buck.  A rope sling can be done very easily, and is great for simple and short lifts.  All you need is a long piece of rope.  It was very cool.  After that, we fit Buck with the new sling that the saddle club purchased.  We got some pictures of it.  Buck filled it out well.  :)


Buck modeling our rescue sling



Anne Sides and Brooke putting the sling together on the ground.  Me and Buck in the back ground.



One of the highlights for me was talking with David afterwards. I felt like I was trying to absorb as much information as I could. I asked him all about how he worked Buck, and some of his philosophies. I really really like his training style. I mentioned how I was struggling a little with Buck getting him in the trailer. He volunteered to show me how he does it after the clinic was over. All I can say is ... WOW! In 10 minutes, he had Buck self loading. David would walk to the back of the trailer, toss the lead rope over his back, and up and in Buck went. I was completely impressed!

We even got to eat dinner with David and Brooke tonight.  It was so fun.  I really like them and am so glad I got the chance to meet them.  I plan on staying in touch with them both.

 After I got home, I let the horses out, and decided to give them some feed before I let them back in with the herd.  They definitely earned it.  I let them just stand there with their lead ropes and enjoy a meal.  I'm sure it was nice to not have Nellie or Rosie pushing them off the food.

Buck and Rachael after a long day

Buck



Rachael

 Here's a funny shot I took during feedtime.  Something has my horses acting very wierd lately.  They are sharing feed.  I happened to catch this picture to prove it happens.

Rita and Pam, sharing a feed bucket.  Whinny cleaning up some scraps.



Also,  here's a picture I took a few days ago.  Is it possible to get 5 mares and a filly to share a bale of hay?  Not usually ... but I guess when the stars line up just right, anything can happen.  I managed to snap this picture to prove it happens.  :)



5 mares and a little lady, all sharing the same bale of hay.  I draw some funny images in my head when I think of what they might be talking about.  You may notice that Buck is NOT welcome to eat with them.  :)



Maybe this drought we are going through is making my horses be friends or something.  I've never seen them so passive towards each other.  It's almost as if the family is all getting along.  Crazy!  :)