Heritage.........a Hasty Departure

It was not the first time Dave had called me at the horse show about Solidare. We had begun turning horses out before I'd even left for the Northwest Heritage All Arabian Horse Show. Dave and Lindsay had finished up the task without me.

Lindsay had turned Solidare out without thinking about it. Then after the fact thought maybe she shouldn't since Solidare is beginning to bag up. Lindsay called me to see if it was OK Solidare was outside. While the mare is getting closer to foaling she sure wasn't close enough to be left inside so I told Lindsay she did good, let Solidare be.

Dave is nervous about being left in charge with Solidare getting closer to her due date. He knows how much the mare means to me and that this last part of her pregnancy has not gone well. Dave freaked when he saw Solidare out in the field and immediately called me not realizing that Lindsay had already checked things out with me.

I could tell from the sound of his voice Dave wasn't too sure about the mare being out in the field and for a good reason. The mare has laid down outside a couple of times in the past weeks with her bad leg underneath her so she has been unable to get up by herself. We've had to resort to rolling her over to even be able to get the mare to her feet and that's not good. It is a tactic neither of us likes to use and it takes both of us to get it done safely.

However, Solidare hates being cooped up. She loves being outside and even more loves when the sun is shining like it was on Saturday. Depriving the mare of time out in the sun just didn't seem fair. There's just as much chance she will further injure her bad leg in her stall as there is outside so I opted to leave Solidare outside enjoying the sunny spring day.

Dave called me later to find out when I planned on coming home. Lindsay was gone for a night out and she'd left with all the mares still outside. Dave was hoping I was on my way home so he'd get some assitance putting the horses back in before the evening meal. With the show schedule being so far off, the classes I was hoping to see hadn't even run yet so Dave told me to stay at the show and he'd work on putting the mares in by himself.

The next time my cell phone rang, it was again Dave. This time I could hear the panic in his voice. Solidare was down and couldn't get up and Dave thought she was in trouble. I got the impression that Solidare was trying to foal because he said there was blood all over her back end.

At the sound of those words, Dave was not the only one in a panic. I was beating myself up for staying at the horse show instead of going home sooner as I headed for the door. All sorts of scenarios ran through my head about what kind of trouble Solidare could be in. Before I pulled out of the Tacoma Unit parking lot, I put a call in to my vet.

Even though it was Saturday AND his day off, my vet answered with only two rings. I appreciate he sees my number and answers instead of letting my call go to his answering service which most other vets would do.

When I told him about Dave's call, the vet said he was on the road in Eatonville heading towards home. That made him much closer to my farm than me. Although he wasn't in his vet rig which meant he didn't have drugs or tools, he would be more help to my mare than Dave or me. The vet heated straight to my farm.

I was relieved to know the vet would reach my farm before me but that didn't stop me from "beating feet" to get home as quickly as possible. The half hour drive from the Tacoma Unit to my farm seemed like an insurmountable obstacle. I was determined to cut that time down as much as possible.

Normally, I am not a speeder. Well, I can push that 5 miles an hour they say most cops will give you but other than that I pretty much respect the law. However, there are those situations where we pretty much all believe that are exceptions. Knowing my mare was in trouble was definitely one of those. I was flying down the back roads.

I got bogged down in traffic in a couple of different spots. I'm not one of those people comfortable with pushing the envelope passing traffic when it's not safe so I just hunkered down and tried to contain myself. My heart was pounding out of my chest and I had to fight those hysterical thoughts that by the time I arrived my mare would be dead.

I kept running over in my mind what I had seen that morning when I checked the mare. There were no indicators the mare was anywhere near foaling. It just didn't seem possible that she'd do such a jump in progress in the middle of the day. That has just not been her pattern in the past.

Sure mares can and do DO about anything to upset the apple cart when it comes to foaling. There is no such thing as a predictable mare. Any one who believes that usually ends up with egg on the face but still seasoned mares just don't seem to make the kind of leap this looked like unless something is seriously wrong. That thought wasn't much comfort.

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

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