This message is from: Karen McCarthy [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Dear List,
I had posted the message below to the Fjordings West Yahoo List, and forgot
to fwd. it on to the Fjord List. I know Tise had a few admirers out there,
and I know some of you have experienced the pain I am now experiencing, so I
guess it's my turn to share.
I really must have been fortunate, that in all the years I have raised and
kept horses, I had never gone through this, losing a horse from torsion
colic..Well, I now know what an utterly hopeless feeling it is, seeing your
horse on the operating table, literally gone, save for the artificial means
of keeping her alive. Absolutely nothing could have saved her; they say she
was gone, even before the rolling and obvious pain had begun.
When all was said and done, and the surgical team looked over at me as if to
say that's it, I asked one of them if she could cut off the end of Tise's
tail.
At home the next day, my best friend Robin washed and dried it lovingly, and
now I have this silky hank of mare's tail to make into a special shu-fly,
that Robin plans to handbead. If you see me riding one of Tise's daughters
with it hanging from the girth, just smile, and know that it came from one
hell of a mare.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
On a sad note, I did not have a great evening, nor did Beth Beymer, this
last Sunday.
Beth was here at the ranch in carson City this past weekend leading a Pre
Eval. Clinic. On Sunday evening, long after the last participants and their
horses had left, and after the heat let up, we took a couple of my horses
for a trail ride down and across the river from the ranch.
After we arrived back, and were done in the barn, I made my way up the
driveway to the house and noticed my mare Tise, down and rolling. When I
reached her, she was in a full blown colic. Beth was a great help, and we
worked together to do what we could for Tise, before and after the vet
arrived, and then later at the clinic where Tise underwent an un-sucessful
surgery to try to repair a twisted gut (2 torsions). Needless to say, it was
a huge loss, not only to me, but to Tise's little one and a half month old
filly, Imilie. As we were praying for Tise at the clinic during the surgery,
Dave was taking the trailer up to Reno to pick up Tise's dam, Jorunn from my
friend Sandy's place.(Jorunn was there for losing wieght on dry-lot,
something I don't have enough of here at a flood irrigated ranch!) Even if
Tise had made it thru surgery the chances of her nursing the foal were out,
as her post-op care would have prohibited nursing, so we wanted to find a
surrogate mom/companion, and Imilie's grand-dam Jorunn (Rosie) was the clear
choice.
So far, Rosie and Imilie are doing fine. Rosie has no milk except for a
little residual from having had 8 babies to date, and lets Imilie nurse
only once in awhile, but Imilie is now (finally!) eating Foal-Lac pellets
mixed in with her TDI-16 supplement, and eating grass alfalfa hay. So I
think it's gonna be OK. It is quite a handful to manage, and my neighbors
from across the street are pitching in to help while I am at work during the
day - thank god for them!
It is bittersweet indeed that Tise was the only horse of my own (bred
raised), that I have had evaluated for both conformation and performance.
She did us proud at the '98 Eval. in Eugene, recieving a score of 80 = a
Blue in conformation, and combined with her performance test score in Beg.
Western riding, she earned a Silver medallion. Her 2 1/2 year old daughter
Idelle, by Sven, will be going to Turlock to be evaluated this fall, and
hopefully doing her dam and Great Basin Fjords proud.
--
If any of you on this List have any ideas or opinions on how to best raise
an orphan foal, please let me know. I'm new to this one!
Thanks for listening.
Karen
_
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