Saturday, March 28, 2009

oops Its been aaages (29 March 09)


Sprat is now fully weaned. It was suprisingly easy, I put him in the yard with a feed and a buddy. His mother got loaded on a truck and off she went. He looked up and neighed once and then carried on eating. I let him and his buddy out a couple of hours later and they were happy together.
I weaned him a bit early as he had been having trouble feeding anyway, due to his sore snout (a bit hard pushing up on an udder when it hurts every time) and he had a few injuries that I suspect may have come from rough parenting.
He had a few issues with his front leg and it turned out he had a huge haematoma right up in his armpit that had swollen and pinched a nerve. The physio-guy thinks that his mother stood on him while he was sleeping. Poor Sprat was walking on three legs and dragging his crippled leg behind him for a couple of weeks. The physio-guy showed me how to massage it and the lump went down slowly and, as it went down, the nerve regained its feeling and he is now back to 100%.


Sprats sore leg






getting fixed by Baz the physio-guy

Kylee from Hot Spots thermography came out and thermographed my horses. We found that both horses (with Jamie being the worse of the two) had quite uneven loading on their front hooves (which I had suspected due to the cracks up the front of her hooves) I have changed farriers and they are coming right. Kylee also thermographed Sprat. He was such a little star. He stood nice and still and he picked up all four hooves one at a time and held them still for the camera. He seems to be a happy healthy foal. There was a slight lack of circulation around the front of his face, but I expected something to show up . . . I just wasnt sure what!!

Below is a pic of Manks a couple of weeks before going to her new home. I found out that she was bred by Trelawney Stud and was by a very well known racehorse called McGinty. Sprat of course will never run a race (being half QH) but its nice to know that his mother was of good breeding. (more on her at the footnote).


Sprat is now fully lead trained. I can't put a halter on him, due to his injury, so he is trained with a large dog collar and lead. But he loves going for walks and is very well behaved. I thought I better teach him before he got too strong and I couldnt hold him. He loves being brushed and has had his feet trimmed twice now (without incident). He will walk around the yards wearing a saddle blanket and doesnt seem to be worried by anything at all. Not even when I flap it all over his body before putting it on.


I spoke to a vet in Auckland who says that repairing the damage will be tricky but it is possible. She says it should really have been 'set' when it first happened so that it healed in the correct position. Too late now though.

Here are a few more shots before I end this entry. He is such a handsome man!!






On a sadder note, Manks died tragically today at her new home after some idiots let off fireworks and she entangled herself in a fence (after throwing herself through it). Big thanks to Jo for giving her a great last month or so, and for putting her out of her misery so quickly and humanely at the end when she needed it. Im so sorry you had to go through that.

((hugs))



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