Thus ... when I went down this morning AltaNero (Picollo for Brenda) was lying down... not unusual in itself but when you know they normally are all waiting up for breakfast ... Then you know that something was wrong. But Picollo saw me with breakfast and immediately got up and put a pack down... so I was relieved.
I gave breakfast to everyone ... all alfalfa and Chiki & Negro their grain + alfalfa:
But then I saw Picollo lying down again next to his food and he rolled (something he had never done before) ... and so I decided to put him a halter on, and to isolate him and call the vet ... The vet had to come today anyways if Aston "Pretty Face" would not improve.
And Aston did in fact not improve at all....and Picollo went rolling ... and rolling ... and rolling ... and then a good thick Plops double pack came out .... and he was playing the deadgame ...
I stayed with him ... of course .....but meanwhile he had rolled down to Pretty Face and got stuck and Pretty Face did not want to get up so I had to turn Picollo all 4 feet in the air and roll him over again myself. He got up to go and lie down again a meter further and about 10 minutes later, another load of manure came out ... he obviously had had an obstruction in his intestines ....
I left him lying for a while so he could recover and later on he voluntarily got up .... And Aston also just got up when the vet arrived.
Meanwhile, the Black Stallion went down loo but that he does that every day after breakfast. The vet checked him out as well as possible ... but found nothing special. Picollo was well enough to go back to the group, according to the vet. But with Pretty Face the vet encountered the Nigara waterfalls and the vet was really worried ... He did not like that at all.
We had to intervene .... all contact with the little ones should be avoided because what came out of Pretty Face srayed easily further than a meter aways
And so he wanted the little foals to be moved into the round pen during daytime and locked up at night .... all well and good but it does take several hours of work to make the roundpen foalproof and I still have to clean and desinfect all the stables, I had to go and get medication at the farmacist and so on ....
Thus a temporary solution was necessary.... I asked if Negro and Chiki could go up the hill at the other stables but F refused... He just took his horse Negro and left me with my problems...
Long story made short ... I've put double cables everywhere so the horses can not get into contact with each other. The little ones are at the stable of Chiki and Chiki is standing in between the littlens and the big boys
All the big ons are getting Urbal again every 12 hours, the sick ones every 8 hours and also an injection Fluxinine and a paste every 8 h with Flore process and ultra-levura.
And now I have to go back down and later on I ll take a rest....So until later ....
I'm at the end of my strength but I continue to fight .... I have no good news ... I'll try to post more info tonight ... need to go back down .... Fortunately, 2 neighbours come down at 4 p.m.... because I saw that I just could not finisch the work before it would be dark ... And now let's hope Chikiboy will stay calm because F just came to get Negro to put him up at his place with his other horse.... yes I was not amused ... It's not the right time to have more stress
The vet is on his way ... AltaNero has colic .... will lie and roll, roll, lie ... Vet is on his way, more info later ...
Edit 10:30: We're still waiting for the vet but everything is already better again. Altanero apparently had an obstruction because after 10 times a double load of manure came out and he released 10 minutes later another load .... all together more than a dayload ....
He also got up from himself 15 minutes ago. I left the stables as they are so the vet can have a look at all the manure. Of the littlens only Filly suffers a bit, the rest looks fine .... Even the manure from the big boys is acceptable this morning.
Sunday 11am .... meeting with the neighbors and the horses
Horses were brushed and caressed in all positions ... and it must be said, there is no one who does not like it ..... they all love it ...
We also kept an eye on the horses and only Aston, who did not have any real problems untill now ... was having big intestinal problems... but he was lively and wanted to play.
Every day you learn more and more about each horse ... like Aston for example is a bit "mouthy" , he likes to touch everything with his mouth and AltaNero loves scratches behind his ears ...
But everyone is so surprised about the Black Stallion .... last week where almost nobody (except me) could touch him, he did not want to go away from the caressing hands of my neighbours ...
It became obvious that the place for the kids was now too small for them ... but to put the big ones back in their old space, meant everything had to be cleaned up....
Even the neighbors came to help me after the brush hour and so all areas were cleaned up completely, closing all the wires back and moving the horses back to their old spot.
And then we had a visit ... the pictures speak for themselves
Somebody asked me on the "Bokt"forum if the hay tht was delivered is now soaked from the rain ...
No, of course not ...
Everything is inside .......
Vraag me alleen niet om in de gastenkamer te komen....want het bijgebouw is voor de gelegenheid ook gevuld....met alfalfabalen 'm Just don't ask to get into the guestroom.... because it's filled up with alfalfa bales ....
I was so tired last night that I had to rest after giving the last piece of alfalfa of the day to the horses.
Despite the terrible storms we did sleep a bit.
The horses seem a little better than yesterday but with these winds, I still have given them their alfalfa inside the stables.
And now I have a new concern ... My rescuecat Maxime did not come for dinner last night and did not reappeare this morning ... I have to go and look what has happened to her....
Max normally never leaves home ... no she never does ...
I made a start with the website about the horses ...
It aims to find names for the horses and a new owner in the future. So come on with those names and if you want to be owner of 1 of the foals, let me know
I have got so much to tell .... but I have not got the strength for it right now ... sorry!
We had an almost sleepless night and a difficult day .... After Altanero, Cubanito went lying down this morning to have his brekfast, and later on Amaroso, Aston and eventually the Black Stallion got sick....
It hurts me to see them like that...
Some people would go and sit down and mope....others try to fight and do something as long as they can ... thaats me... I fight, fight, fight ... until I can't anymore ...
And so I began to clean the land up by hand and with a wheelbarrow of all leftovers and excrements
Paco came at 11 am. and after having some words, he finally was ready to help with the tractor to remove about 20 cm of the paddocks
The big 5 only have the paddock of the littlens now and the littlens have another small piece next to Chiki & Negro. This way I have a better overall control and the area is so saturated with water so that the tractor is doing more harm than anything else.
I treated most of the horses with the torch so I'm pretty confident that this will come good.
The parellihalter and similar ones made it quite easy to put on the foals. The others made strange noises which they don't know yetand they know it is not yet ....(this will change soon ). ).
The DecemberDVD of Parelli is a gift from the sky ... I saw him yesterday for the first time and it is just about these kind of things .... how to prepare the horse to give an injection, how to get them used to many things ... enfin everything related to DA and farrier etc. .. just GREAT!
I ll write more later on ... I'm just too tired now
This WE a friend will come and make halters for the foals (he also made the yellow one of the picture ... There is also a person interested in one of the 3 big ones ....
P:S: We had a delivery yesterday and today of 100 bales of alfalfa for them ... So we have good food for them for the next 6 weeks (3-3.50 bales per day at 4 30 per bale) ... and with the bill of the vet we spent another 1000 in less than 24 h... It just flies away ...
Marlies, in name of the horses and myself, we say "THANK YOU" !, Thank you, thank you for your friendship, your help & thank you for what you sent them....It 's incredible that you invested so much in horses you've never met...
I hope you will have time in future to come & visit them !
I was looking on "tracktrace" this morning to see where the package was that Karen sent from Holland, on the 2nd ...it "arrived in destination country" on the 8 / 1. Then I went to "correos.es" to have another squeak ... but here they did not recognise the number... So I closed down that line ... And then the mobile phone started ringing straight after : MRW has a package to deliver ......
Just wait another hour and then we 'll know whether the box is for me or for the foals
Marlies, in the name of the horses and myself, we say... "Thank You"! Thank you, thank you for your friendship, your help and thank you for the package that you sent for the foals ....
It is incredible that you've invested so much into horses you've never even met ...
But we do hope that in future you'll find the time to come and visit them!
..... they all love it ...
