A Baby Boomer Dreams of Arabian Horses - The Next Chapter Continues

Part 1 of the Baby Boomer Series

The new colt was a pistol. Even before the horse had figured out how to use his mile long legs he was expressing plenty of attitude. The colt really resented being dried off with a towel and particularly hated having his ears fussed with. Dunking his umbilical stump in iodine was a real trip. Dave and I ended up wearing far more of the telltale orange stain than the young horse.

Getting the newborn up to his feet turned out to be a daunting task. The independent colt really didn't think he needed any assistance but his legs were so long he just couldn't seem to get them underneath himself. Several times he lost his balance and ended up catapulting into the walls. I was convinced the new colt was going to end up deformed by his collisions with the sides of the stalls. Looking at the colt struggling to control those legs of his, it seemed only fitting for his barn name to be "Legs."

I think the vet finally arrived before the colt had actually made it to his feet. He just grabbed him by the tail (which to this day still makes me cringe) and yanked it up in the air throwing the colt's weight onto all four legs. Then the vet just hung on until the colt located his center of gravity. From that point on we were ok but I was still didn't like the vet using the colt's tail for a handle.

Later that day, I brought the family all out to the stall and lined them up. The instructions were as follows. This cute little baby needs to grow up with manners we can all live with. That means teaching him the rules of living here starts today. Just because he's cute doesn't mean it's ok for him to bite, strike, kick or rear. Anyone letting him get away with such activities will be shot! I guess that's tellin' 'em!

Life with the new addition to our horse herd went pretty well. The horse was very friendly and couldn't get enough attention. Scandalous was a good mom as far as loving and nurturing goes, but she didn't do nearly enough disciplining the little monster. I was always wishing the mare would grow tired of his aggressive behavior and give him a swift bite on the butt. I doubt that it ever happened.

Once the pair were going out for turnouts, Scandalous was more than happy to let the new filly, Krugorrs Heiress, babysit the brat. That meant the Scandalous could graze in peace while the colt tormented the filly.

The business plan for the year was to breed Scandalous back to GS Khochise. I knew from studies a friend of mine had been involved with it is much better for mares to be continuously in foal than to give them time off. The older a mare gets the wiser it is to not leave them open if you want them to keep producing.

Since we had the trouble getting the mare in foal with this pregnancy, I was not taking any chances. Scandalous and the colt were moved to the farm where GS Khochise stood at the first sign of heat after the foaling heat cycle had been completed.

This was the first time I had taken a foal off of the place. It turned out to be much harder than I had thought. Even though I went over there each day because I was helping with the breeding that year, I really missed having the colt at home. He was an easy baby to get attached to.

Spring around here is always welcome even though the weather usually sucks because of the new foals. After a long dreary winter, the fresh new face in the barn always lifts every one's spirits. Lindsay and Dave were missing the colt as well.

Khochise was breeding a lot of mares again that year. It seemed like every day there were numerous shipments of semen to go out as a number of in house mares to be bred. That meant lots of palpating and ultrasounding and not as much teasing to decide when a mare was getting close to ovulation.

I don't know how many times Scandalous was ultrasounded before she was actually artificially inseminated but it was several. Then we did the waiting game to see if the mare was caught.

When the 14 days finally rolled around and it was time to ultra sound to see if we had a pregnancy it was the senior vet from Chambers Prairie Veterinary Hospital who did the honors. Ernie Grubb was not happy to report not only was the mare not in foal but the reason was a large hematoma in uterus. He was angry the injury hadn't been detected by one of his colleagues. The mare should never have been bred. There was little chance the horse could retain a pregnancy.

Ernie's recommendation was that we give the mare until August to see if her uterus would heal.. While breeding in August would be late, at least we wouldn't loose the entire year. He also confirmed my suspicions that the hematoma was probably a result of injury caused by the foal trying to get up while its hind legs were still contained within the uterus.

August just wasn't meant to be. While the hematoma had healed considerably there were still some small abnormal signs of it on the uterine wall. The best course of action was to wait until next spring to try and breed this mare. This was the second in a series of events that would change my life forever.

To be continued.............

Down a Rocky Road

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