Good horse - bad horse.

The Bad Horse.

Wildairo's trim with the farrier was a complete bust. Even under sedation he fought back. The farrier managed to trim one hoof but Wildairo would not let him trim his front right. We didn't even get to the backs. Looking back at the photos I took, I see the farrier did manage to pick up the front right but Wildairo would run backwards before he could trim it. We tried different things but had to call it off.

Here's Wildairo waiting for the sedative to work.


Eating some grain while he gets happy.


He launched a preemptive strike at the farrier as soon as he showed up and got a direct hit. The farrier tried everything to get him to cooperate and was more than patient. He went above and beyond the call of duty. If they had a 'farrier of the year' award, that man should get it.





Remember Wildairo is sedated in the above pictures! When we finally gave up I shook his head for a bit of comic relief to make his loose lips flap about. The farrier remarked that when a horse is that drunk you should be able to anything with him like float his teeth, oh and maybe trim his hooves. Not Wildairo, he'll never be taken alive....wait, he already was.

I told the farrier and Brad he was going back to the BLM. I was really really mad at the time. I have a horse that has a chance at a pretty good life, no work, lots of acres, and even a friend from his old wild herd to play with. But no he won't pick his stinking feet up! Crikey, we even got him high!!!!

The bastard is walking about on one little hoof and three great big ones. If I lived closer to the BLM corrals I drop him of in the middle of the night...no not really (I'm joking). I'd take him there so he could go in their mustang sandwich maker. It's how they trim their feet. They put them in a padded chute (table) tilt it over and trim their feet while they lay there on their side, complaining probably. If I was was rich I'd buy one. I used to think it was an awful way to trim a horses hooves but the way I feel now about Wildairo I'd put him in there just to see him squirm! lol.

The Good Horse.

We had it wrong; it is not Foxsun's short front nippers that's making him skinny and I have the photo's to prove it.

When we took him to the vets on Saturday he was walking fine because he was still feeling the positive affects of the phenylzone paste I'd given him the day before. Sunday it was a different story. He was in great pain and didn't want to leave his little horse house.


He was walking very slowly and stiffly. I went home to get the phenylzone and when I returned with it in my hand he took one look and bolted for the open gate and the pasture beyond. When I say bolted I mean he walked like a sloth, picking up his legs slowly and putting them down carefully with his ears perked forward to freedom beyond. I was right behind pretty much doing the same thing. I shouted "Foxsun" and he stopped because he knew the jig was up. He's never been hard to catch. To be honest I can't think of one thing he's done that's bad, beside eating that wildflower as I was trying to take a picture of it.

A few hours after he got the medicine he was feeling a lot better and went out into the pasture to use his ancient sun bleached poo place. We went out to visit with him and to our surprise he put his head down and started eating the very short brown grass stuff. He was using the side of his mouth and was eating just fine!


Well if he can eat that short stuff he'll have no trouble with the rest of it.


The vet is sending us some more phenylzone paste. He said Foxsun has no indications of an infection. So the reason for his huge weight loss is still a mystery for now. He's eating very good. I considered leading his old cow wife over to make him happy but then I remembered that she eats him out of house and home.

Here's a cell phone picture of his very skinny back.


You can see he's very thin. We are going to make sure he has the right food and control his pain. If he doesn't improve then we'll do some blood work on his including a white count.

So there you have it; this weeks Sunday adventure. One very bad horse who felt very good and one very good horse who felt very bad.

Foxsun went down hill.

Monday when the farrier trimmed Foxsun's hooves and he didn't look too bad as far as the weight loss goes. I thought he'd start to gain weight once he was back in the horse pasture.

All week he was looking worse. By Friday I was very worried because he was loosing more weight and would not leave his little horse house. He even pooped and peed in there, something he has never done before. I got him too move a little bit and he was stiff and slow. I decided it was time he saw the doctor.

As I was thinking about what I was going to tell the vet when I called, I solved the mystery myself.

First clue; I noticed that all the hay in the manger from last fall had all been eaten, even though it was old and dusty. (Some marmots who live in under the barn had pooped on it too. I really was going to clean it all up this weekend). I thought why would he eat that nasty old hay when all that pasture is out there?

Second clue; I thought about when his weight loss began. Late Summer right before his Pigeon Fever he started loosing weight yet over Winter he was fine. He began loosing weight when he was weaned off the hay and Senior horse feed and put on pasture. There's lots to eat in the pasture so why is he loosing weight?

Third clue;





His nippers are useless for cropping short grass! The grass out there is about 4"-5".

I made him a bowl of senior horse feed and threw in ( from my pantry) a little oat bran, flax seed, Quaker oats and about 1/2 cup of vegetable oil. I got one of those big white kitchen garbage sacks and went out and pulled up a lot of long grass, dandelions, and some alfalfa. I also got him some of the alfalfa hay. We had ourselves a feast. He looked so funny with his head all the way inside that garbage sack. It came up over his ears and I asked him if he was committing suicide.

I can't understand why he's stiff and reluctant to move but I gave him a dose of phenylzone paste. That evening I went to see him with Brad. He was still holed up in his house so I put a halter on him and gently got him out. I took him to his water and he drank a lot. I think moving helped him and by that time the phenylzone had kicked in and he was starting to feel better.

Just as it got dark I went out to check him and he was under the trees grazing.

This morning it was off to the vets.


He looks fatter in these pictures than he is.




He's been in here before and there's always a little pain involved. Look at his scared face.


His vet checked him out. Took his temperature, listened to his inner workings and all that. When the vet saw his nippers he accused my boy of being a cribber! I defended the old fellow but I had to agree he'd been wearing his nippers out on something.

Anyway, the reason for his weight loss is he cannot crop short grass and he's starving without the hay and senior feed he ate all Winter. We're going to give him hay and oats. The vet did not recommend beet pulp at all. Once he's in the irrigated meadow the grass should be long enough for him to eat it. If he continues to loose weight we will do some blood work because it may be a walled off abscess resulting from the pigeon fever.

That was Foxsun's big adventure. The last time he was hauled anywhere it was to the vets 4 1/2 years ago when he injured himself.

Wildairo is horrid.

Yesterday the wind blew very hard and Wildairo was galloping around and going crazy for most of the day. I knew I was in for trouble even though the wind had died down that evening.

Wildairo would not let me put his halter on so we could get him sedated for the farrier. I put him in to the little pen to try again, but no luck. He was acting very out of character by appearing uninterested in us and hanging his head over the gate the other side of the pen and ignoring us. When I tried to put the halter on he would toss his head up.

The idea is to give him the sedative when he's calm and let him remain calm for at least 15 minutes for it to work, otherwise he will blow right through it like he did before. We called the farrier and postponed it. We will try again over the weekend. Right now he continues to be just horrid. He comes up to see me and soon as he sees the halter he takes off. I'm super mad at him and it's a real challenge for me to speak to him in a nice voice because I want to murder him. Coming to think of it he listens better when I get mad at him.

Cats and Turncoats.

These pictures were taken Monday morning before the rain started. I took a walk in the garden in my jammies and the cats, who are always in their jim-jams ready for a quick nap, followed me about.

Here's Maxwell.


Maxwell is a Manx. He's doing very well after his operation. He's really changed. He's become playful, and has even tried his hand at hunting and wild horse wrangling. Right after his operation he struck out on his own to live off the land and become his own man. He was gone for four nights. He returned hungry and a changed cat. He ate almost two cans of cat food and slept off his adventure for a few days. Here's his surgical incision that's healing nice.


Here's old Andy. He has a bad eye after from a fight with the stray tomcat who's terrorizing everyone.


Here's Andy, Max and Muffin.


Here's Patches.


Tommy Two Tone has to watch from the window because he's too little and fool hardy to go outside yet. He has a giant paw.


The stinky stray Tomcat has been hanging around since last summer. He sprays everything and makes it stink. He's turned our cats lives into a living hell so Bobby is under strict orders to chase the Tomcat when he shows up and give him a good hard bite in the tail if possible to send him on his way. I couldn't believe my eyes to see Bobby Turncoat kissing this terrorist. I thought terriers didn't negotiate with terrorists.

BUSTED!

Wildairo ties one on.

Echo won the big mustang fight on Sunday. Good job I had no money on it because I would have bet on Wildairo.

After the play fight, Echo chased Wildairo around and around, so I opened the gate and Wildairo zipped right out of there. Our corrals are 'cow sorting' corrals and they come in so handy for sorting out mustangs. The posts need to replaced and the gates fixed though.

I put him in a little pen because Brad was cleaning out his poop palace. Both horses pile the poop in a corner now. Wildairo was so polite in Echo's pen because when he needed to go he went over and used Echo's poo corner.




After the corral was clean, Wildairo had his first tying lesson. We used the Blocker tie ring device because the rope can slowly be pulled through if the horse panics. You can put the rope through the ring twice to make it so it is harder to pull through. Brad welded a ring to attach it to on to the top of a metal post. (Cell phone pictures).



He just stood there like he'd been tethered all his life. So to get him to move a bit we walked away and pretended to eat carrots out of the plastic bag. Wildairo just looked at us and never even tested the rope. He knew he was tied!



Then Brad picked up his front hoof and he reared. That blocker tie ring really works good because it gave Wildairo more rope and he was able to get back on the ground without feeling trapped and getting panicked. Wildairo was frightened and buried his face in Brads chest wanting to be comforted. Brad tried a few more picking up his hoof and Wildairo did the whole rearing and burying his head for comfort thing each time. He tries hard to overcome his fears and wants to please.

Monday the Stranger came. He was armed with all kinds of weapons. Wildairo snorted out "Stranger Danger" to warn everyone. It wasn't a big snort like Echo can pull off though. The Stranger took Foxsun in the barn and...... trimmed his feet. Wildairo peeked at the goings on and reported back to Echo. "The Stranger dragged gramps into the cave and is cutting off his hooves and the old fool is letting him"!

It was pouring with rain and was pretty noisy on the metal roof. Because the farrier was late because of another job and it was getting dark, plus it was pouring with rain and also Wildairo hates going in the building, we decided to trim Wildairo Thursday. We will be sedating him again. This time doing it before the farrier shows up. I will also be sedated. lol. I don't even want to think about it I'm so nervous.

I asked the farrier what he thought of Foxsun's condition and he agreed he was a few pounds too thin but he thought it could be due to his age. He was telling us about his dad's old horse who just died at age 28, he suddenly got old looking and acting and was retired for a few years before he died. He didn't think he was ill. Foxsun has lots to eat in the pasture he's in right now. I will continue to monitor him closely.

The BLM's latest online auction has some lovely horses up for grabs. I found one I really like.




Isn't he lovely. He's a yearling. He comes in my favorite color as well! I keep thinking we could keep him over in the horse pasture area until he's bigger. I expect Brad to talk some sense into me tonight when he comes in.