Re: Horse Savaging - Part II (Long)

["superpat" <superpat@gateway.net>]

Jen,
That's an inspiring story. I have tears in my eyes after reading it. To
think that the poor guy put up with so much pain and discomfort for so long,
and to add insult to injury, such trauma as a result of his reaction to the
pain. And he is fortunate to have found you. And you are fortunate enough to
have such an excellent vet. Chances are, (excuse the pun) the chances are,
awfully good (as Johnny Nash would sing). Please keep us posted.
Pat


----- Original Message -----
From: <guest@endurance.net>
To: <ridecamp@endurance.net>
Sent: Sunday, April 02, 2000 8:43 PM
Subject: RC: Horse Savaging - Part II (Long)


> Jennifer Heim cowgirl_30_98@yahoo.com
> First off, I want to apologize for the length of my emails.  When you type
130wpm, the thoughts leave your head, travel down your arms and next thing
you know, you have 20 pages of material.
>
> In the spirit of the Oscars, I want to thank the *dozens* of people who
emailed privately and gave me their thoughts, hopes, advice and prayers.
Although with my time constraints I cannot thank all of you personally, I
will try my darndest!  With my poor memory, right off the cuff thanks to
Karen Chaton, Bette Lamore, Lif Strand, Kat Swigart, Sarah Ralston and Robyn
Burgess.  But once again, I will try to respond to all emails that people
wonderfully sent.
>
> Anyway, back to the story you wanna hear!  :)
>
> The big, rawboned chestnut gelding that peeled skin from my bone in a
horse attack is still alive and breathing.  Out of the very many msgs I
received, 90% of them were for putting him down before he put me down; 8%
were for checking for physical abnormalities, and 2% were keep him and work
thru the problems.  I was ready for the ol' ear-to-eye "X" and was whistling
happy cleaning out my .357; then the owner calls me.
>
> With crocodile tears, she tells me she cannot keep him anymore for
liability reasons, she's ready to make the appointment with the vet and the
knacker man.  But.... she can't personally do it.  She's wants to give me
the horse, wash her hands of it and now breed cockatoos.  Ignoring the
immediate beating about the shoulders that I was receiving from my fiancee
(speaker phone), I tell her if she gives me the horse he'll be inside a can
in a week.  Fine, that works for her.
>
> Now I have two non-riding equids.  One is too young to work safely, one is
too aggressive to work safely.  With the fiancee howling indignacies and
checking up on my whole life coverage; I load the horse up and bring him to
where I think he'll get the snot kicked out of him by the meanest group of
mares this side of the Rockies.  I arrange to have the vet come out and
recommend him for either "dog food" or "glue" and gleefully watch the mares
chew on this nasty horse.
>
> The vet comes out and immediately starts ooo-ing and aahh-ing over him -
he really is a fantastically well put together individual.  I explain for
the zillionth time why this horse is a safety issue.  The vet tells me that
she has problems putting down such an animal without finding out a reason
why he's aggressive.  Ignoring my "that's why there's necropies"
blatherings, she starts to examine him briefly.  I blurt out that I cannot
possibly put more money into this horse, and she replies that this is
pro-bono; we've been friends for a long time.  After the horse mistakes her
for a Big Mac and tries to take a hunk out of her shoulder, she sedates him
and continues her exam.
>
> Teeth checked first thing.  And the first issue is revealed:  a molar had
abscessed, chipped out and now there was a rotted stump.  Mouth agape, I
stammer that the horse just had a teeth floating not two months ago; vet
replies, somewhat resigned that quite often some vets don't take the time to
do a thorough exam, just float the teeth and get out of harm's way.  After
dealing with this shark, I see their argument.  Treatment, drill thru sinus
cavity (if necessary), drain abscess & remove bits of tooth.  Prognosis for
recovery:  excellent.
>
> Blood taken second thing.  Results:  this *gelding* produces more
testosterone than a stallion.  Treatment:  hormone therapy.
>
> Digressing for a moment (imagine that!), let me tell you that this horse
has an aversion to having his RH picked up.  He'll do it after lots of baby
steps and gratitude rubs, but it's always slam the foot back down.  Vet
examines this hoof - there was an old wood chip deeply embedded in his
coronary band.  Somewhat mystified, I tell her that there's never been any
heat (still isn't) and he's never been off on it, just reactionary.  The
hoof grows well, with nothing to indicate an insult to the band.  I truly
thought his reaction to having his hind foot picked up was because the owner
*never* picked out his hind feet until she sent him to me.
>
> Feeling more and more mortified, I stand back and fight back tears as I
watch my friend dig out this ugly, encapsulated wood chip out of his
coronary band.  She tells me:  "now let's see if he's going to be a jerk."
Utterly floored, supremely humbled, I ask her somewhat rhetorically where my
head was at not to notice such obvious trauma.  God bless the vets; she
comforts me by telling me that with truly aggressive horses (such as this
gelding), the reaction to pain is more a fight response than a flight
response and this guy has learned to react violently.  And humans, with our
easily-bruised Ids, react in kind.
>
> Since the horse started his hormone therapy, had the abscess in his tooth
treated and had his hoof finally treated, he's starting to come around.
Don't get me wrong, I still carry a graphite wand when I'm around this
horse; but I haven't had to remind him of it for about 10 days now.
>
> A lot of our work right now is simply sacking out and increasing the
pressure on him bit by bit.  Since the hormone therapy, his curiousity
streak has developed, I'm starting to wonder if anything scares this horse.
Just the other day I was grooming him (the urge to chew on the mutual
*groomer* is sometimes too much for him; I keep a bag of hay in front of him
now and that helps him tremendously about reminding him what he can legally
chew on) and a very bad car accident happened just 30 yards in front of us.
Municipal bus, two cars and a haz mat big rig.  Gotta love California!  This
creates a huge ruckus with clean up crews, insurance teams, news coverage,
you name it.  I was more than a bit amazed that with all the sirens,
helicopters, noise and big lights that this horse let me lead him right past
the confusion, across the street and into the pasture.  He barely looked at
them and I took his pulse for giggles at the paddock gate:  36.
>
> Do I have a second horse?  Does Alpo get the big, strapping gelding ....
coincidentally named Chance?  Enquiring minds wanna know - including mine!
>
> Stay tuned!  Same bat station, same bat channel!
>
> Jen
>
>
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