A Baby Boomer Dreams of Arabian Horses - The Legacy Continues - The Second Foal Crop Part 7

Part One of the Baby Boomer Series

Part one of the Second Foal Crop

So Fred Starr and his two farrier buddies from the track left with instructions that the colt could go out to play. We would leave the cute little shoes that Fred had fashioned on the young Arabian horse until he had shown enough growth to grow into those tendons he had so carefully stretched. Things looked like we were good to go.

But then about three days later, Image threw one of the shoes and the second shoe was loose. I placed a frantic call to Fred and went searching for the lost shoe.

Fred came out the very next morning, worried about what he'd find. After examining the foal's hoof closely, Fred determined that the fetal horn had gotten soft from the moisture on the grass outside. That softness had allowed the nails to slip through the holes and the shoe was off.

The next problem was keeping the shoes on with the holes enlarged. Even though the fetal horn had hardened again with the horse inside the stall, the holes were now too large to keep the shoe snug. Fred was concerned that a bigger nail might be too much for this little foot and the fetal horn to support.

If I remember correctly, it seems to me that Fred located a nail that was the same size but a different brand. Because it was a different brand, the nail head itself was shaped a little bit differently. That difference turned out to be enough to hold the shoes in place and not compromise the strength of the fetal horn. The shoes were back on but poor Image was going to have to stay in the stall until it was time for them to come off.

While Image was doing his growing cooped up in his stall, it was time to move onto other things on this breeding farm. Those other things included the breeding for next year's foals. This time the plan was to breed all five mares, Heiress, Solidare, Faye, Lilly and we even planned to work with Bey Aana again.

Bey Aana had to have the casslicks removed. (Casslicks is a procedure where the vulva is stitched closed.) This was done with Bey Aana at the vet's recommendations to keep her from getting reinfected over the winter.

Also I had spent most of the winter trying to find information about that ring that had been present in her vagina at the place her hymen had been. Most vet schools had never heard of such a thing. The ideas of how to deal with it were few and far between.

I decided after all of the things we had put Bey Aana through the year before that I was just going to bred her without all of that intervention. No flushing before and after, the only thing I was going to do was put her on regumate and ultra sound her to confirm her pregnancy.

We also had an outside mare in to be rebreed. She had been sent home in foal the year before but had slipped her foal and then not cycled normally after that. So Legs had a total of six mares to breed. With all six mares we did one cover and we settled all six mares.

Somewhere in the middle after the breeding had been done and before the ultra sounds confirming the pregnancies were done, it was time to take off Image's shoes. Fred came back out to see his handiwork and to remove the shoes. Image was bouncing off the walls after his month or so of confinement but his legs were looking good. Once the shoes came off, the foal looked even better. Fred's shoes had worked and this phenomenal colt was up where he belonged without the aid of those shoes.

We thought we were sailing on cloud nine. The mares were all settled. The colt's leg problems were fixed. The foals that our stallion was producing were even better than we had imagined. Life was good. or so it seemed.........

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

Another Rocky Road

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