What Would You Do If......an Arabian Horse Owner's Dilemma

I got a call this morning from a friend telling me about a horrible incident. It had happened earlier in the week to another horse person I know. Things like this definitely gave me something to think about. Here's what happened

Late in the evening the husband(non horse person) had come home from work asking why the horses were running outside. The owner couldn't hear anything from the house so went outside to look. She could hear the horses were definitely frantically running but it was too dark to see what was causing their distress.

Running to the field she began to make out dark forms but still couldn't tell what was happening. It wasn't until she got into the enclosure that she could make out two pit bulls attacking her horses. Both dogs were dragging leashes and fiercely assaulting the horses. The first thing she did was dial 911 and report the attack in progress.

In the field were several a yearling and two year old filly and a four year old mare. The older horse had taken on the role of herd protector. Running behind the two fillies keeping herself between them and the dogs, the Arabian mare was trying to fend off the dogs by striking, kicking and biting The pit bulls weren't about to give up.

The two pit bulls were grabbing at the horse with gnashing teeth trying to latch on to anything they could get. One dog managed to grab the mare by her neck and clamped down hard not letting go. Then the other one tried to take advantage of that and ganged up on her too. The horses were running so wild it was a miracle no one broke through a fence.

The owner and her husband managed to corner the horses so they could get the running stopped. Then they tried pulling the dogs off their victim. The dogs fought this interference with everything they had. Their jaws were locked and it was difficult getting them loose.

Sometime in the middle of this the owners of the dogs showed up and they too tried to get the dogs off the horses. Even when the four people did manage to get a dog off a horse, the dog would break free and lunge at the horses again. The dogs were crazed with the taste of blood and totally out of control.

The sheriff arrived at some point. The people were finally able to get the dogs away from the horses. The owners took the dogs home while the horse owner filed her report with the sheriff and called the vet.

The four year old mare who had taken it upon herself to protect her younger sisters was very lucky. The dog had gone for her jugular vein. Had the wound been an inch inch closer the mare would have bled to death before the vet ever would have arrived. Other than that there were lots and lots of stitches.

It turns out these dogs were known to the sheriff. They had been involved in an attack against some hikers. They had nearly killed one man. There were court orders against both dogs. The owners were supposed to have left the area altogether or have the dogs euthanized.

While the report was being filed with the sheriff, the horse owner noticed the dog owners were loading the dogs up in their car. The owners knew the old information would surface and were trying to disappear with the dogs. The sheriff prevented their escape. The pit bulls will be back before the courts again.

I would imagine that it's fortunate for the people involved the dogs had the taste of blood and were locked in on the horses. Without that blood, the dogs probably would have turned on the people interfering with their plans. I can only image what that would have turned out like.

I have had dogs get into my fields and run my Arabian horses a couple of times. Fortunately I have never had vicious dogs do this although one dog was a pit bull. Each time I've been able to chase the dog off pretty easily and my horses have escaped with minor injuries. I guess in my mind I just expect that's how it should go. But now I have to think of the other possibilities.

Visit Blog Village and vote daily for this blog Here They are now measuring the rankings by votes out, so if you find my blog on the site, please click that link too to improve my rankings. TY

So What Would You Do If...................Your horses were attacked by vicious dogs?

Life & the Arabian Horse Breeder - Foal Story

It was a long night, last night and even longer day in the life of this particular Arabian horse breeder. My first foal of the year is finally on the ground.
Thank God! I'm too exhausted to write a post so this picture will have to do. His mom (Arabian horse) didn't like the camera much so that explains the cut off ear. More on this new young Arabian horse and his trip into this world tomorrow.
To be continued.........

Twins Saga Delayed for Life Turns with Arabian Horses and Stallions Part 2

This picture is (obviously) NOT my Arabian horses (I will write a post about the picture later this week) but it does display the violence happening at my farm on Saturday. (without the audience)

Part 1

The trouble making colt that had started this whole trauma by taunting the Arabian stallion, Scandalout Legacy, has been returned to the barn. But my problems with my Arabian horses are far from over. I still have raging hormones to deal with in a number of horses. So I headed back out to break up the two stallions. Thank goodness there is a fence in between them.

When I arrived back at Storm's paddock, (stalllion) both horses were standing on their hind legs locked in battle even with the fence in the middle. The horses' heads, necks and front legs were enmeshed together as I ran through the gate. The chesnut horse (Storm) did not want to be caught. The horse ran off as soon as he saw me approaching. This young stallion saw his chance to take over the herd and the horse was going for it. This young stallion didn't plan on letting me interfere.

Unfortunately for the horse, he's a wuss about mud! If you can picture this, the young stallion is fighting for his own band of mares (and from his look, willing to fight to the death) and the horse doesn't want to get his feet muddy! (Thank you, Lord! I have something to work with) There's mud along most of the fence line between the two fighting stallions. The relatively dry spots are the two corners. So as I'm trying to catch up the red horse, the stallion shakes his head at me and runs a big circle off and around the mud to the get to the other corner where the horse can again make contact with the other stallion. Thankfully, there's deep, squishy mud in front of the manglaed gate. Storm, the big, brave stallion that he is, is not going anywhere near that gate. From this side, that gate is not only manglaed, it's pretty flattened. Either of the two horses could easily have crossed over it. Fortunately, neither of the raging horses got near enough to figure that out.

After a couple of attempts to catch the red horse, I climbed over the mangled gate. By the time I got over the thing both Arabian horses were back fighting again. Up on their hind legs, biting, screaming and striking with their ears pinned flat to their heads locked in combat. This was as serious a stallion fight as I have even seen. The only thing keeping the two Arabian horses apart was a 4 foot fence. Both rearing stallions seemed to tower over the top of it.

My heart was in my throat. My dream of breeding great Arabian horses is trying to crash down around me. I took a deep breath. I walked confidently up to the bay horse (my great wonderful kind senior Arabian stallion) and hollered his name over the screams of the fighting horses. Legs turned and looked at me. The Arabian stallion took a step back, dropped down to all fours and walked to me leaving his competitor behind. As I lifted the his halter, the horse put his face squarely into it. There was blood gushing out of both nostrils but the horse's eye was instantly soft as he came to me. I patted the Arabian horse on the neck and reached into my pocket for a cookie. I glanced over my shoulder to check out the other horse. The stallion was clearly upset, running around the paddock but the horse didn't try to follow us. The silly stallion was still trying to avoid the mud.

I led the foaming Arabian stallion, Legs, ( 10 year old horse) around back through the gate he had demolished just minutes before as a raging stallion. We stopped at the horse trailer to grab a cooler. The sweaty horse snuffled my pockets looking for treats. My raging stallion had turned into a puppy solely because I had asked him. I thanked my lucky stars.

It took all my muster to walk back to the stallion's stall. I wanted to run but didn't want to excite this horse again. It was safer that we walk, even though I knew I still had crazed horses running around my fields.

As we walked back to his stall, the stallion spoke softly to the mares as we walked past. Telling the broodmares everything was all right, I would guess. The horse's turnout coat was torn and all lathered inside as I stripped it off the frothing stallion. I tried checking the horse over quickly for injuries as I threw on the cooler and tied the Arabian stallion to the wall. Other than the blood still running from his nostrils, the quick once over revealed nothing.

I didn't have time to examine the stallion closely. All of the Arabian horses on my farm were upset by the commotion. The mares outside were running and talking. The red stallion, Storm, was still screaming and racing around. There was another Arabian stallion right across the drive from Storm (the red horse) that most likely was disturbed as well. Even the horses in their stalls were protesting, some kicking or rearing. The entire herd needed to be settled before more damage was done. When a herd of Arabian horses or other horses, stampedes like this, horses can be injured. I had to get this under control. So I raced to catch the red horse. This Arabian stallion was the most upset, settling this horse would surely help settle the other horses.

This time, without the older horse to fight, the red stallion was ready to be caught. Agitated, the horse wanted back to the safety of his stall. Once there, the Arabian horse (stallion) began to settle some. I tied the horse to the wall. Just to make the Arabian horse stand in one place would help with his calming process. I still had more horses I needed to bet in before the my herd would quiet down. Only when all the Arabian horses were safe would I be able to go back and check what kind of injuries the stallions and the other horses might have.

The next horse I wanted to catch was the other stallion (Scandalous Reflection) that was still left outside. Since stallions can easily get the whole herd excited, controlling them is always the best way to quiet the other horses. This horse had been the closest horse to the fighting stallions. How much of the excitement this young stallion had taken on, I didn't know. I had been too busy to notice. When I walked up to the paddock, I was suprised to find this stallion (horse) looking rather puzzled. The young horse has such an expressive face, he was easy to read. The stallion was standing quietly and he was completely cool. The young stallion hadn't been running around like the rest of my horses. Evidently the horse couldn't figure out what all the fuss was about. This young stallion, at least, had not gotten caught up in the turmoil with the rest of the horses. I was relieved. This was one horse I didn't have to worry about being injured. I put the young stallion in his stall, gave the horse a cookie and ran off to catch the mares still left outside and still running their hearts out.

All three of these horses were glad to see me and eager to be caught. Each horse went quickly into her stall, glad for the peace, comfort and security. Other than being a little warm, these horses appeared fine. Now I could go back and check the stallions for injuries.

As I checked the youngest horse, Tag the 2 year old colt, I could feel my heart pounding in my chest and heart ringing in my ears. Sheer adrenaline had carried me through the crisis but now that it was over my body shook from the excess hormone. I found a flap of skin right down the middle of the young horse's face. It was approxinately an inch and a half in length but too narrow for stitches to be any help. Other than being a little sore and the injury to his face, this horse looked like he was ok. I wonder if he's a little wiser about messing with the big boys (the older horses, stallions).

The next horse, Storm the red stallion, had some swellings on his neck but no hide removed. My guess is the swellings are from bites. If the fence hadn't been between the two horses, there would have surely been missing hide and more trauma to these sites. By now Storm was settled and cool enough to untie. Checking the horse over thoroughly, I couldn't find any other injuries on this horse either, not a single cut or scrape.

The last horse I checked was Legs, my breeding stallion. The horse still had blood coming from his nose but it was much slower now. I washed his face and examined it closely looking for tears to his nostrils or evidence of a kick. I found nothing. I checked the rest of this horse over carefully finding a few swellings on his neck like those the red horse had. Other than that, this stallion (horse) looked good too. The stallion was still very warm and would need to cool down. The horse was fit enough that the Arabian stallion could stand tied until he was dry. I didn't want to take a horse back out of a stall if I didn't have to. I wanted to be sure the Arabian horses continued to settle down.

I lucked out, all of that commotion and terror and all I had was minor injuries and some torn horse turnout coats. I had one horse with a cut on his face (probably caused by the electric wire over the gate the horse jumped through). Two horses had mild swellings from bites on their necks and a bloody nose. I would need to watch them for edema but it was a miracle that this was all I needed to do.

Usually when stallions fight, you can figure on hundreds of dollars in vet bills, if not a dead horse or two and sometimes permanent injuries. What saved me from something that could have been very ugly, was the training and remarkable disposition of my breeding stallion. His willingness to please me had overtaken Mother Nature's urge to defend his herd. Without that, there's no way I could have broken those two raging stallions (horses) up. It's one of the remarkable things I love about Arabian horses, their unique dedication to man.

I've had more than my share of life's little lessons that have involved the instincts of the Arabian horse (and other horses). I understand how vulnerable we, as human beings, can be when confronted with the forces of Mother Nature and the instincts she has given to horses. As much as I love Arabian horses and want to share that passion with other people, (which is why I write), I also know that it is equally important for us to understand the facts. We must never forget that these magnficient creatures are horses and capable of great violence. Even the sweetest kindest horses, given the right circumstances, can be deadly. Because of this, in future posts I will share the other life lessons I have learned about horses and their instincts. So stayed tuned. You won't believe it. I wouldn't if I hadn't lived each story myself.

Tomorrow, I'll return to posting about the Arabian twin foals, Scandalous Trouble and Scandalous Surprise, and their newest challenge.

Arabian horse Arabian horses horses horse Arabian stallion handling stallions

Twins Saga Delayed for Life Turns with Arabian Horses and Stallions

Life always seems to have its own agenda. Whether it be about getting through each day or dealing with the Arabian horses, life just has to jump in there and throw a curve ball. I know it's coming, just don't know when. I don't worry about it, because I can't control it. I just wait for it to happen and deal with the fallout.
Yesterday, was one of those days! Life just jumped up and knocked me on my you know what......butt! I hate it when it's something with the Arabian horses. I like to think I know my horses. I know what I can expect of each horse on my place.......OK, so life wants me to know that only applies to most of the time. That's a hard lesson with Arabian horses, or any other breed of horse. It's easy to get into that comfortable place where you take your Arabian horse, or other horses, for granted.
So what in the heck am I talking about? Stallions, Arabian stallions, it starts with them. I have a number of stallions. More than I would like. I'm don't think of myself as a stallion person, I'm a mare person. I understand mares. I get along with mares. I appreciate mare quirks. But unfortunately Mother Nature has not allowed me to turn on a "fillies" only button in my Arabian horse breeding program.
I get colts too, nice colts, lots of colts (well half colts), quality enough to be stallions type colts. So as long as these horses pass a rigid inspection by a great friend of mine who I can trust to be honest with me about the quality of my horses AND (this is the really important part) the Arabian colts behave themselves, they aren't gelded. I keep them stallions. Why, you ask? Well mainly I'm getting mostly western pleasure and hunter pleasure type horses in my breeding program. Anyone in the Arabian horse industry can tell you at the National level, the western division horses are usually stallions. Only occasionally do you see a gelding win a top ten at the national level. So since I'm breeding national calibre horses leaving these horses intact as stallions gives the buyer the option of having a great horse as a stallion for the open division or they can geld it and have a fantastic gelding as their horse in the amateur division. There's no skin off my nose, either way. It's stictly a marketing decision.
Dealing with any horse takes a lot of commitment but a horse that is a stallion takes more commitment, savvy, dedication and the list goes on. I wrote some about it in my post Are Arabian Stallions Different Than Other Horses? The other thing about stallions is the liability issue. People need to remember there is more liability to owning and handling stallions than other horses. So with all that being said, I'm going to share life as it happened to me yesterday and one of the liabilites of owning stallions.
We had a break in the weather even though the forecast called for rain. I decided I was going to get some Arabian horses outside. The horses, particularly the stallions, have so much energy when they've been cooped up. The stallions needed to blow off some steam. I wanted to get as many Arabian horses, particularly stallions, but broodmares too, out as possible. I put the stallions and one colt out in individual paddocks at one end of the property (for a total of four horses) and the broodmares (three horses) at the other end of the property for a total of seven horses. The paddock in the middle had my herd sire, Scandalous Legacy, in it. This horse is used to being out with his mares on one side of him and young colts on the other side of him. The horse has been going out like this most of his life and even with other horses when he was younger, without incidence. I only quit putting him out with other horses when the horse got beat up by an old gelding.
Something was different yesterday, you know, the life thing happened. My stallion, "Legs, " wasn't a bit happy that the two-year old colt wanted to stand at the fence line and look at the "girls" (Legs' broodmares) at the other end of the property. (Two of the three mares were in heat.) But that has happened before with no problem. So the horse spent some time running the young horse off from the fence line. I could have put him in but decided the horse really needed to run off some steam. The fences are all hot wired and this horse doesn't mess with the hotwire. I can keep this horse in a paddock with nothing but hotwire fence as long as it's hot.
Yep! that was where life came in. Sometime right before I planned on putting all of the horses in and feeding, the electric fence failed! My herd stallion, Legs, was not in a paddock made of hotwire. The horse was in a fully fenced paddock reenforced with hotwire. The 2 year old horse (colt) must have gotten cocky with the fence and hotwire for protection between himself and the stallion. The young horse was taunting the older stallion when the hotwire died. Not good......
Just as I was putting on my boots to go outside I heard the crash. Horses screaming and galloping through the trees followed. I rushed onto the back deck to see the older stallion with ears flattened and teeth bared in hot pursuit of the young horse (the colt named Scandalous Tag). I called for help from my daughter, Lindsay, and then raced for a halter getting through the gate as quickly as possible.
My mind was racing trying to access the situation so I could intervene. Not only the hotwire had failed, the gate between the two horses had failed as well. The gate had popped a weld, it's chain latch had broken. The gate was a mangled mess. The hotwire across it was broken. There was no doubt where the stallion had broken through the fence line.
The herd stallion was up in the far corner screaming at the 4 year old horse (also a stallion) on the other side of that fence. The youngest horse (2 year old colt, Tag) was no where to be seen. I ran along the field searching among the trees and found nothing. Could the young horse be in with the 4 year old horse ( a stallion named Scandalous Storm)? I raced up past the house where I could see, and sure enough, there was the young horse running along the far fence line, as far away as the horse could get from the raging stallion. The young horse's turnout was torn and slipping off sideways, dangling under his belly hanging up in the horse's hind legs.
Thankfully for the young horse, he was now in the field with a stallion that was more interested in testing his mettle against the herd stallion on the other side of the fence than the young upstart trouble making colt. The two older horses were fighting over the fence. The gate between the two horses was mangled from the young horse going over it or through it. So mangled, I didn't try to get through it. I was afraid the herd stallion could slip through with me and then I'd have an even bigger mess.
I raced the long way around praying not to have an asthma attack and slipped into the paddock through the front gate. I easliy caught up the frightened young horse. The two stallions were so interested in fighting each other they paid no attention to the young horse or me as we made our escape. I ran the terrified horse back to his stall. I thought about tying him but decided the horse was too scared to deal with it. I just turned the horse loose in his stall. I checked for water. His buckets were empty so I didn't need to worry about him drinking since the horse was overheated. Then I raced back to seperate the fighting stallions (horses).

To be continued.....

Part 2

I'm sorry, I can hear some of you groaning. I don't know if I'm too windy or big stuff just happens to me. I do know the search engines don't like me when I make these posts any longer than this. So that's it, I"m blaming the search engines for my series type posts.
Also, I'm thinking maybe you all might be getting tired of hearing the twins saga even though is still a lot more to their story. If that's the case,let me know in the comments and I'll quit writing about them. It's your call.

Part two
Arabian horse Arabian horses horses horse Arabian stallion handling stallions

If Disaster Happens , What About Your Horses?

As a breeder of Arabian horses what concerns me most is life’s unpredictability. The best laid plans of mice and men can be blown all the way to kingdom come with one nod from fate or Mother Nature. What happens to my horses in a disaster? What happens to my horses if something happens to me? These and at least a dozen other questions plague me on occasion.
What got me thinking along these lines today? Well, this morning as I was doing my usual search of horse blogs I can across this post. One Spark Away from Tragedy and that got me thinking about a fire at a big Arabian horse training facility several years back. An Arabian stallion, The Chief Justice, that I greatly admired lost his life in that fire. According to this information from the Western Horseman website Arabian Legends, another great Bask son, Wisdom, was lost in the fire as well. That fire altered Arabian horse history according to this quote from the article.

”Sadly, two stallions near the top of the list, Wisdom and The Chief Justice, died in a tragic fire on January 31, 1996, while still active breeding stallions. Had they had full careers, they might have become *Bask's best-siring sons, based on their early records.”

I found the above picture and more pictures of this particular barn fire being fought West BarnstableBarn Fire. Note these pictures are from a third fire in Massachusetts in 2002.

Barn fires are not the only danger to horse owners and their herds. Mother Nature can conjure up all forms of problems for horses and their owners ranging from earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, tornados, wild fires and volcanoes erupting. Some of these may come with a small amount of warning time, some not. In the event of a warning, Mother Nature’s forces has been known to not go by the rules, change paths and end up other places striking unprotected areas.

So if the unthinkable happens to you, will you be prepared? If you think you are, will Mother Nature deliver her blow in compliance with your planning? One grateful woman in last week’s tornado found herself in this predicament. Thankfully, she had a great friend and a supportive community as written about on
Sierra Lynch’s Horse IQ The Problem Solver in her post In a Disaster This Is the Kind of Friend You Want for Yourself and Your Horses.

Like Sierra, I’m not going to address different disaster plans because frankly, the possibilities for Mother Nature’s wrath are so varied it would be impossible to do them all justice. But I am going to suggest that it’s important to the safety of your herd to consider the possibilities. We may not all be as fortunate as the people listed here. It’s entirely possible that we could end up left to our own devices to deal with a disaster and our horses’ lives will be dependant on us. How will your herd fare?

Life Delays Twins Saga for More Lessons Learned

I apologize for taking a break from the saga about my Arabian twin foals and their mother, but another one of those life lessons has come along. I thought it important to preempt the twins’ post based on the gravity of the lesson.

I posted last week about the injury I received getting kicked by a young horse. Life Delays Twins Saga for Lessons Learned I really thought I had handled things as I should but I’ve been getting a lot of flack about it.

First off, my husband, Dave, is not happy that he was sleeping in the house and I didn’t let me daughter, Lindsay, wake him up to help me. My excuse was he’d just gotten home for a 12 hour shift and I didn’t want him not to get his sleep.

His contention is that my life is more important than his sleep. Well, obviously, I believe that’s true but I didn’t think that my life was at stake. So I made the decision to wait a couple of hours before I actually got help.

I was operating under the assumption, that I felt fine – I mean my darn hand hurt like a mother bear but once I caught my breath I was a little stiff by ok, my hand was a long way from my heart. I could wait to get stitched up.

Yesterday, Dave and I had lunch with my friend, Jean. She’s a medical professional and works trauma, so she does a lot of emergency room work. She sees it all. She knows what are the biggest mistakes that people can make and what their consequences can be. I trust her immensely, if she says I screwed up, I listen, it could mean my life.

Jean was interested in all the gory details of my accident. She actually likes all the blood and guts stuff. So I explained about the horse kicking me and where – my hand and my chest and what I did to deal with it, and what the doctors did to deal with it. Dave gave his two cents worth about not being awakened to take me for help and I depended my position. We went through the whole thing.

Now this is the part that’s important. Jean started off saying, obviously it turned out ok BUT being kicked by a horse anywhere in the body cavity is considered to be the single most dangerous accident for trauma specialists to work with. The doc that Jean trusts the most states, “give me a gunshot any day of the week, I know what to expect from that but a kick by a horse can be deadly and not give me any clue. The patient can be fine one minute and dead the next. That’s why even if they check out ok, I tell them it’s imperative to stay quietly in bed for three whole days after any kick, no matter how good they feel. I warn them f they don’t do it, the consequences can be grave even deadly.”

Jean definitely has my attention. While I knew it was possible to be injured internally and not know it, I believed that they docs could tell by my blood pressure that I was ok. So I had made it a point to notify the emergency room that I had been kicked in the midsection and had the wind knocked out of me. I, obviously, was not triaged by someone who understood the injury potential of being kicked by a horse. Only my hand injury was attended to, The possibilities of internal injuries were not explored.

Normal protocol should have been a chest x-ray to verify I didn’t have a lung collapse or partial collapse. Blood work run, examination of the injury site on my body, possible CT scan and, even if all other tests don’t show anything ,the ordered bed rest.

Now I could go into all the technical terms of what all the possibilities are but I don’t think the terms are as important as the outcome. What it all boils down to is it’s very possible to be injured in such a way that you feel fine but just moving “the wrong way” can cause a “bleed” (rupture in an organ) and you can bleed out (to death) in minutes. Normally with a few days bed rest that injured surface will heal enough to prevent the bleed from happening.

Many people don’t know the same thing is true with head trauma. If you have a concussion and don’t protect yourself (staying quiet until it heals) and you bump your head even slightly again, you can drop dead instantly. The risk of further head trauma goes up with each concussion, but a concussion on top of another concussion the danger level goes up to scary extremes.

Most horse people I know either don’t know these facts or ignore them about both circumstances, the kick to the body or head. We tend to believe if we can get up and walk away from it, we are fine. Well, there’s a really good chance that we’re not fine and I for one will not take another chance with my life like I did last Tuesday.

Next time, I’m calling 911. And if the ER docs don’t order the required tests, I’ll be making lots of noise because the odds are NOT in my favor that everything will turn out fine. And I’m writing up a set of emergency instructions, leaving copies by all the phones and in the barns, in case I’m unconscious or not lucid the next time.

For more information Handling Emergency Situations on the Farm