It's a Boy

It is a Walkaloosa sorrel colt with 3 stockings, a sock, a big spot on his forehead and a blanket, born at 4:50 PM. So, see there, mares do foal during the daylight hours, proof positive that mares do not only foal at night. Many of our mares have foaled during the day throughout the years, but the majority still choose to foal in the very early morning hours.

We went for many years without one foal being born with four socks or stockings, now we have had one born each year for the last three years. This colt has three nice stockings and his right front foot has a sock that comes up over the ankle but it is dirty in these pictures and hard to see.

News Flash

At 11:30 this morning, "Morning" our TW mare waxed heavily and she is now in labor, my DH came home for lunch and cleaned out her stall and restrawed it. More later...

Building an Ark

It is still raining, our barn is flooded, it has never been this bad before. If Morning foals now the poor thing will drown. Our foaling stall has about 3 inches of water in it. My DH spent this evening with a shovel trying to divert streams of water but it didn't help, there isn't anywhere for the water to go.

I just came in from checking on the goats in the horse trailer and I can hear Indian Creek raging, I am anxious for the dawn to see how bad the flooding is. I guess this will bring the water tables back up to a more normal level.

I dread trying to take care of my animals tomorrow, I won't be able to walk in this much mud.

More Waiting

Still no babies, they just love torturing me. I usually check on everyone at about 2:00 a.m., if everyone is settled down and sleeping quietly then I go to bed for good unless I just happen to wake up, which I do occasionally. I wake up in a total panic thinking that I have missed something.

I am confident in the mares not being quite ready to foal yet because I have a lot of horse experience but the goats have me tied in knots. They are so big and seem so miserable and I hear tales of does kidding without their udders being strutted and with no signs of labor whatsoever, so since I don't know their exact due dates, I am a little edgy.

We rewrapped Morning's leg this evening and it looked very good, when we changed the dressing two days ago it didn't look so good, so I was concerned about it. My DH got to hose it thoroughly the last time, so I think that really helped.

Morning doesn't do much for my ego. I went out with my hair down today, she nearly tore the side of the barn down and almost jumped the gate. She hates me with my hair down, she thinks that I am an alien from a horse devouring planet or perhaps an unidentified blood sucking earth creature.

Good News!

The good news is that warm days are ahead, I have seen the weather forecast and it is looking very good. Sure we will have rain but rain brings grass and grass is very important to us who lived through last year's drought with livestock.

Our horses have already started leaving the hay feeders, which means that they will start losing weight and pushing on the fences but that always happens in the Spring.

When we unwrapped Morning's leg last night, it was greatly improved over the pictures that I posted yesterday that were taken two days ago. It didn't bleed when we took the dressing off, that was a first, because it has always bled before. She didn't act any better as far as manners go but we didn't expect her too. We haven't seen her knuckle over on it for a couple of days either, so that extensor tendon is healing.

Morning

This is my registered TWHBEA (Tennessee Walking Horse Breeder's and Exhibitor's Association) or Tennessee Walker.

Morning Gold Dust

This is Morning's injured leg after three weeks of treatment. I wish I had taken pictures when this first happened, you would not believe that it would ever look this good.

About three and a half inches of bone was exposed from top to bottom of the injury, there were two grooves in the bone. There was a large flap of skin that hung down under it. The Vet thought that the flap would have to be cut off at some point, but it seems to be reattaching. If you haven't read my other blogs about Morning's injury and treatment they are located here:

My Bad Day

Life's Not Fair

Spring Fever

Spring Ahead

My DH was able to remove the bandage yesterday without the twitch but Morning was a nervous wreck as usual, she is just more relaxed with the twitch on. A friend of mine was here the other day when we changed her bandage and commented on how crazy she is, and was amazed at how she visibly relaxed when the twitch was applied. Her muscles stop quivering, she loses the wild look in her eyes, she lowers her head and stands still.

Spring Ahead

As I write this it is nearly 8:00 am but it is really nearly 7:00 am. Which means that I lost an hour of sleep and I can tell it. I guess that I can gain it back in November but that is an awful long time to wait.

I really like Daylight Savings Time and think that it is a wonderful idea. I don't know why it is a good idea. It does seem to make the days longer but that is probably an optical illusion.

Morning gave us fits last night, she was restless and pawing in her stall. I got up and watched her for awhile to make sure that she wasn't going into labor but she was just shaking her head, pawing and generally making lots of noise.

I woke my husband up to ask if he had checked her utter and was she strutted? He got up and went out, then came back to bed and said that she is filling up but not strutted. She continued to raise cane, so he got up and watched her for awhile. I guess she is just feeling better and tired of being cooped up.

This is one disadvantage of living in the barn, mares in labor usually try not to wake you up but devious horses like Morning, sleep all day and keep you awake at night. I know that she needs some exercise and some sunshine but we really don't have a place to turn her out that isn't muddy and/or uneven ground, we are hoping that it dries out some this week.

We are so amazed at how quickly and well this injury is healing, every time we unwrap it we are so pleased, I just wish that I had taken pictures. The extensor tendon is still not healed, so she can't always control her foot and it knuckles under, so that she steps on the front of her ankle, then she totally panics but she panics over everything anyway.

This mare acts like there is danger all around her at all times, to the point of injuring herself over non-existent threats. She has never been mistreated while we have had her and the lady that had her before us bought her at auction and thought that she had been abused but I just think that it the way she is wired. I have been told that this is common in her bloodlines.

She has absolutely no redeeming quality other than she is black, beautiful, has an extremely smooth gait, is very pleasant to watch in the pasture, has good bloodlines and doesn't seem to pass her spirit on to her offspring but then we have only had one foal out of her. Handling this mare is a nightmare. I will try to get some pictures of her and her well healing injury when I can and post them on here.

Spring Fever

I can't wait until Saturday, not wishing my life away but Saturday will be March 1st and February will officially be over! February is always the hardest month on us, it is usually in February that we get tired of feeding and our hay supply starts getting short and we think that we will never see green grass again. March gives us hope. The new babies start arriving in March, the weather starts warming up and the winds start drying up the mud.

We have a logistics problem this year. Two mares and two goats are due in March and we have an injured horse stuck in our foaling/kidding stall. We didn't breed back many of our mares last year because of the horse crisis that is going on in this country. Fortunately, the one that is injured is the first one due to foal, so she gets priority in the stall, we can't turn her out anyway. She does present a problem for our two does that are due to kid in March.

Our first kids should be due around March 19th. We have decided to move our dog kennel inside the barn for one of the does and the other one will probably have to kid in the horse trailer.

Our other mare is not due until the end of March, so hopefully the injured mare will be well enough to be turned out with her new baby by then.

Today is the last day that we have to give Morning a penicillin shot, she has had one everyday since she was injured, she hates them. She still has to be twitched to wrap her leg. We give her an opportunity to go without the twitch each time we start, but she refuses to let us take the wrapping off untwitched. Twitches are sometimes necessary things, ours is just a soft rope and not a chain, but she is totally submissive with it on.

On another subject, just to wrap up loose ends. Maude did pass away last week, she had stopped eating and I knew that it was just a matter of time. It is true that broiler or cornish chickens rarely live to see their 1st birthday. I guess that is where the term "not a spring chicken anymore" comes from, because in the fall of your spring chicken's life they start going down hill rapidly.

Life's Not Fair

When I taught school the kids all loved to say, "That's not fair!", to which I would reply, "Life's not fair, so get over it!". Life certainly is proving me right at the moment. Our old bachelor neighbor was here this afternoon and he told me that he was getting really tired of this cold weather for some reason and I told him that usually happens in February. He asked me if he would get over it in March and I told him that he would, especially towards the end of March.

He also told my husband that he sounded just like his calves that he is doctoring for pneumonia. This is true, my husband seems to get pneumonia if he catches a cold. I am not complaining, well, maybe I am a little bit but I feel so bad when he is so sick and he still has to go out in the below 20º weather to feed and water. I try to help as much as I can but I am not much help.

Add to this that we have a psycho horse that has to have her back leg re-bandaged everyday and I am feeling like life isn't fair. For one thing she is without question the hardest horse that we have to handle and the injury is on a hind foot and it is difficult to wrap. She also has to have a shot everyday. She has to be kept up in a stall, so that means a stall that needs cleaning everyday. I can shovel a little manure but my back prevents me from doing much of it and there is no way that I can wrap her leg, for one thing she wouldn't let me and for another I couldn't stand in that position. So, with my husband being so sick, this is something that we didn't need right now.

The weather is another thing that we don't need right now. It is 6º at the moment and the wind chills are awful. We are suppose to get sleet and snow for the next few days and that may stop me from being able to help out at all. I hurt myself the last time that we had ice. I just feel guilty when I can't do my share of the work.

Enough whining around, Spring will be here before we know it, this cold weather can't last forever. The March winds will dry up all of the mud, the grass will start growing and the horses won't have to be fed as much. Morning's leg will start healing, the dressing won't have to be changed as often and the shots won't have to be given after Feb. 28th.

I just ran out and watched the Lunar Eclipse, I almost missed it because I didn't know it was happening tonight and since this is tomorrow's blog that I am writing now, if you didn't hear about it, you missed it too.

Think Spring!!

My Bad Day

It all started out warm and comfy, snuggled under the blankets, sleeping like a baby, then the door burst open and my out-of-breath husband says, "You are going to have to come and help me, we have a severely injured horse." Well this isn't unusual because I get awakened by this tone of voice regularly but it is usually announcing that we have a foal on the way or horses out.

It was still dark when I stumbled out of bed and went to the junk room where bandages, vet wrap and other medical supplies are kept, however the room had been recently rearranged by our youngest son trying to run an extension cord. So, it took me awhile to move a few boxes in order to find the things that were needed.

I usually get up slowly and in stages in the morning because of my back, I drag myself out of bed and make it to my computer chair and take a few pills to deaden the pain, then I sit there until I can stand upright and can actually walk. There was no time for that this morning, so I wasn't standing or walking upright.

Somehow, as it turns out the electric fence had been unplugged and something had broken a fence wire and drug it into the broodmare lot where the pregnant mares are awaiting their due dates. It could have been a deer, they tend to tear down most of our electric fences. The mares have to be kept in a dry lot or as it is now, a muddy lot, so that they have no access to fescue grass or hay. Fescue causes all kinds of foaling problems and since fescue is everywhere, the only answer is to put them in a lot with no grass and feed them only grain and hay without any fescue in it.

Morning is my beautiful black registered Tennessee Walker mare and she was the one who got the wire wrapped around her hind ankle. It is a very nasty injury, we brought her into the barn to look it over and she was unable to flex her foot forward, so we knew she had a damaged tendon, the cut was to the bone and all the way across the front of the leg and partially around the side and down. We wrapped a disposable diaper around the leg and then wrapped it tightly with vet wrap.

Morning is due to foal on March 12th, so we called the Vet and had him come down at his convenience, since we knew that he would not be able to do much with it. We have been through these types of injuries before. But we still wanted his opinion.

My husband had left for work and I was waiting for the Vet, when I heard our Stallion talking to the remaining three pregnant mares, who are just across the fence from him. There was a bit of squealing, so I went to check and he was in the lot with them. In the darkness my husband had thought that the wire had come from the other side of the pen, since fence was down on that side, but it was also down on the stallion side. So, I had to walk out there on the frozen, uneven mud to make sure there was not anymore wire in that lot and to see if anyone else had gotten injured.

I wrapped up the downed wire as best I could and made sure that the mares could not get out on either side and left the Stallion in with them because there was also wire on the ground on his side of the fence that I didn't want to deal with because I had a splitting headache.

In the mean time, my little Angel (the dog), had seen her chance to slip in the barn and grab some good stuff to chew on, so I had to chase her down and scold her. Then I fed the goats, chickens, dogs and cat and watered everything.

I finally made it back into the house to make me some coffee but then I heard the Vet coming down our driveway, so I bundled back up. Did I mention that it was 19º with a wind chill of -40º? Well, that is what it felt like!

Morning is a very nervous horse, who only likes my husband even though she is technically mine, her heart belongs to him. She does not like strangers at all and she really thought the Vet was stranger than most. The Vet said that anytime a tendon is damaged like her's is, it makes them panicky because they no longer have control of the foot or leg. But I told him that she was born panicky and this was just typical "Morning" behavior.

She had stood fairly quiet while my husband had wrapped her leg but she just knew that this man with the knife in his hand was going to amputate. He finally got the wrap off, but only because he is very good at what he does and has had a lot of practice with stupid horses.

Then he did horrible things to her poor leg, like rub the bone and pull the extensor tendon out to show me that it had been completely severed. He also said that she had grooved the bone in two places. He said that she would probably heal back alright, and that the injury was high up enough that she wasn't in much danger of getting infection in the ankle joint.

We have had these types of injuries before and they seem to heal up with just scarring to remind you that it ever even happened. It is the cuts on the back of the legs that usually make a horse lame for life.

So, then the Vet and I discussed and solved all of the world's problems before he attempted to rewrap her leg, we were doing pretty well with her until the horse-eating chickens came into the barn, then we had to regroup and try again, we finally got it wrapped. Then he gave me my instructions of changing the wrap daily and penicillin for 10 days, we had already given her a tetanus anti-toxin before he came.

After the Vet left I went back into the house to make me some coffee, but before I did, I looked out the window and seen that one of my goats was out of her pen. So, I bundled up again and made several failed attempts at getting her back into the pen. I won't go into how I finally accomplished it but I was ready for a rest when I was done.

I had just gotten back in the house and had taken off my several layers of warm clothing, when I started hearing a strange sound. I couldn't quite figure out what it was and then I thought that I had better go outside to check it out. As soon as I opened the door I knew I was in trouble because I had heard that sound before. I ran back in the house and bundled up as fast as I could and ran for my husband's persuader stick.

The two stallions had gotten together, there was still an electric fence between them but I was beginning to suspect that it wasn't on since they were both leaning on it to get at each other, but even if it was on, they wouldn't have cared at this point.

I have had this happen to me once before with two stallions when I was home alone, it was impossible for me to separate them by myself and they both ended up a bloody mess and one had a broken jaw before help arrived. We did get them separated but they never did decide who was King.

With that earlier incident in my mind, I just could not let them get through that fence now. I tried to catch the older stud that had been in with the pregnant mares earlier but he would not have it, all I could do was run them from one corner to the other corner and back again, over and over.

Finally, the older stud stopped and came to me and let me halter him and lead him back to the gate that held the mares. I looked at the fence that he had come through and it was still up, so he had to of just walked carefully through it because it wasn't on.

By this time, I was exhausted and so was he, he waited patiently while I tried to get the stupid gate open but the snaps that held the gate closed were frozen. I fumbled with them and banged on them for a long time, then tried to think of another way to get him back where he needed to be. Finally one of the snaps broke loose and I got the gate open.

By this time the sun had just barely thawed the top of the mud, so that it was still frozen hard but slippery. I was so thankful that he is such a good boy and so easy to handle because it took me a long time to walk him across that treacherous lot and back to his pen. After I made it through yet another gate, I walked him along his fence line fixing the wire as we went.

When we made it to his water trough, it was frozen and he started licking around on it, I started pushing on the ice to see if I could find a weak place that I might be able to break it, then just as easy as can be, he put a front foot through the ice and started drinking. I guess he didn't need my help after all.

I went back to the house to make me some coffee, then I thought that I had better take him some hay, so I grabbed a flake and went through the little gate that goes into the broodmare lot, I walked once more across that uneven, frozen and slippery broodmare lot to his fence and threw the hay over.

When I turned around, I saw that one of the mares who could barely walk on the frozen ground had made it to the little open gate and was now free as a bird. Boy, was I mad this time, she knew better than that! All horses can smell an open gate, I think that I need to get a grant and study this phenomenon. I spent the next 20 minutes trying to get her back in the lot. After she was safely back in place and the gate was securely fastened, I went to the house to make me some coffee.

That was when I noticed that the same goat that had gotten out earlier was out again, reminding me to go check to see why the fence didn't seem to be working. After using the same technique that I had used earlier to get the goat put back up. I walked up the hill to the fence charger and sure enough, it was not plugged in. No one knows how the charger got unplugged but it sure caused a lot of problems.

Everything seemed fine at this point and I thought that it might be safe to go inside, take off most of my layers of clothing and fix me some coffee and that is what I did, all except the coffee part, instead I just laid down on the bed and went to sleep. I did make some coffee when I woke up at about 2:00 in the afternoon.