Hit By The Gelding Bus

This past weekend, Saturday to be precise, internet sensation Thunder's Spyder Prince was "hit by the gelding bus" as we like to call it.

Or, to put it into more simple terms, he was gelding/castrated/neutered. His testicles were removed.

It was a good experience. He loaded onto the trailer fairly easily, even though it was dark and scary that morning, then unloaded without a problem in the parking lot of the vet's office. We led him to a grassy area. There he received his first dose of anesthetic and became quite drowsy.

He got a second dose after a bit and was helped to the ground. They covered his eyes and hiked a leg up. Each testicle was palpated. The technician washed the area. The scrotum was sliced open and the testicle pulled free. The cord was twisted, clamped, and then cut (by yours truly I might add). Afterward, two wolf teeth were pulled from his mouth while he was still unconscious. He was given his rabies vaccination and a preventative dose of Penicillin.

And that was it! Simple simple. He took some time to wake up, but we finally got him back onto his feet and walking around. He decided to sing us a lovely song while he was walking. I so wish I'd have had my video camera to capture that, as it was quite funny.

Once he was stable on his feet, we loaded him back up and home he went, none the wiser that now he will be an outstanding citizen in the horse world, devoid of his testicles.

Click > Here < for the full album of gelding image.

Let me take a moment to remind everyone . . . GELD YOUR COLTS. As you can see, it can be done at an early age, if both testicles are present. This means your colt may never exhibit stud-like behavior. No worries about proper fencing to keep a stallion. No worries about "oops" foals with your mares . . . or the neighbor's mares. It's not an overly expensive procedure. If you can't afford a gelding surgery, you probably shouldn't have horses.

Your colt will be more easily sold, if he is already gelded. He will live a happier life. He may even grow taller.

There is *no* excuse for keeping a colt intact unless he has all the makings of a prime stallion. And good stallions make great geldings.

Keep an eye out . . . we are expecting our first kids of the year within a week or two!

Horses In Need

Taking a quick moment to get the word out on some horses that are in need of care.

My friend has taken in several horses that were standing in a dry lot starving to death. There includes two yearling colts (pictured), an older blue roan filly, and possibly a bay mare.

The colts have been gelded and had their wolf teeth pulled. All have been vaccinated and dewormed. From what I hear, all are easy to handle and halter broken, but need hoof care, weight, time, and attention.

A real project for anyone out there who's looking for one. She's asking just enough to cover the medical she's put into them, and would really like to find them a good home.

She is located in NorthEast Texas, if you're interested, just shoot me a message or a comment and I'll put you in touch with her.

Damn this drought and damn anti-slaughter.

** Update **
These horses found homes! Thanks!

Having Foals Isn't Easy

Today I thought of a good post. If you're a part of the horse world at all, you've heard it before.

"Oh, I really want my mare to have a foal!"

Because having a foal is just a walk in the park, right?

Wrong.

Having a foal is a right pain in the ass. I don't recommend it to anyone who isn't ready for a lot of work and has a big checkbook to cover it.

Some of you may clutch your chests now and gasp out, "But YOU had a foal!"

Sure I did. An unexpected foal that cost me a ridiculous amount of money and put my mare through hell. Which I'll explain more here!

I bet you can't wait to hear.

Most of you know how I came to have a foal. For those who haven't, I'll sum it up. I decided to buy a trail mare. Found a lovely little gaited mare for sale. Went to look at her, liked her despite from flaws, and bought her. I was informed she was "unbreedable," as per the vet's word. Which is why she was for sale, she hadn't settled when bred (according to the vet) and the previous owner kept and bred Missouri Fox Trotters and didn't have need for just a small riding mare.

Works out for me, that's exactly what I was looking for! Spent a couple of months riding and wondering why this mare continued to look so terribly fat despite the diet I put her on. When she started to develop a bag, I knew the vet had made a mistake. Whoops!

Now, having a foal is exciting. I admit to being excited despite the fact I was going to lose a lot of riding time, and a lot of money.

I had no idea.

Like in most cases, my mare's birth was quick and completely normal. The trouble started afterward. And of course, not every birth is easy. You want to breed your mare? What happens when the foal present breech (backward)? Are you ready to shell out money for an emergency vet visit. Prepared to watch the vet cut the foal into pieces to try and save your mare? Prepared to euthanize your mare when something goes horribly wrong? You should be. This is reality.

So I had a healthy foal! Yay!

For a while. The foal, Spyder, developed diarrhea almost right away. Cue the first jab at my veterinary fund. (Something ALL pet owners should have, no matter what. A savings account you add to when you can JUST FOR VET CARE.)

We got that cleared up without too much trouble. But then my mare, Apple, began to drop weight. And drop weight. And drop. Now my vet fund is being drained pretty quickly, along with my regular budget. Vet visits. Teeth floating. New feeds. Different feeds. Supplements.

We tried literally everything we could. Then Apple began to develop a disgusting fungus? on her face. More vet fund draining for creams and tonics and whatever else I thought would fix it. Didn't do a darn thing.

Luckily the foal remained fairly healthy. No vet visits for him at least. But his dam was going downhill quickly.

The final straw came when the mare turned on the foal and took a bite out of his shoulder. Despite his young age, we had to wean. Which meant the foal's growth slowed down a little as he adjusted to no more milk, just expensive feed and hay.

Now, some six months after I realized Apple was pregnant, she is finally at an okay weight. Not a good weight, I like to see more padding on my horses, but at long last I can feel comfortable riding her. The foal won't see a saddle for another few years. Lucky for me, he's got some worth, being a purebred Missouri Fox Trotter.

If he was a grade foal? He'd be worth practically nothing.

Having a foal is fun. But it isn't easy. It's expensive. Nerve wracking. So next time you or your friend goes to thinking about how neat it would be to have a foal out of your favorite mare, really sit back and think about it.

Horse Camp

Well it's done! The Spyder has gone off to "Horse Camp."

Now, for those of you who don't know about Horse Camp, it's what we call my friend's place about three hours away. She has more horses than I do, several geldings and a colt about a month older than Spyder. I on the other hand, only have Spyder's dam and a pony mare.

Not real conductive for a youngster. They need an environment where they can learn horse manners from other horses and grow into model citizens.

Enter: Horse Camp. My friend very kindly agreed to host Spyder for a few months, so he can learn these manners from his new big brothers.

Saturday morning they arrived, hauling a trailer. Spyder of course has never seen a trail before, but he didn't seem overly concerned, even with the loud and potentially scary noises it makes. We let him have a look, sniffing and looking inside for a bit. Then we introduced an entirely new maneuver: stepping up. He was terribly confused at first as to what we wanted, but he spent some time with a hoof on the trailer floor, then two front hooves, thinking about this. Eventually with a bit of help, in he went!

He was a little startled, but very calm and collected about the entire thing. We let him stand for a little while, then I walked him out of the trailer, introducing stepping down. He took it pretty well, and in no time we had him back in the trailer. Time to go!

It was a long three hour drive, nerve-wracking for me, but Spyder appeared mostly unconcerned. We arrived and unloaded without much incident and walked around, stretching his legs, then took him into the barn. That's when the neighing started! He talked to all of her horses and called for Jetta, who of course was back near home. He was a little nervous, but he didn't act out.

We introduced him to the stall and he drank water and nibbled at the hay net. He was unhappy looking. We went inside for a bit and came back out to feed all of her horses. Now it was obvious Spyder was not feeling well. The stress from the day had given him a tummy ache. He was not running a fever and had good gut sounds, but he was distressed, kicking his belly and crying. It was the same behavior he'd shown after a strong rainstorm, the first he'd ever experienced, which stressed him out a little.

We gave him a bit of pain reliever and he soon calmed down, and when we returned later that night to check on him, he was eating hay calmly.

The next day he was very excited to come out of the stall. We walked around, then went to check out the pasture and look at things. He was still quite talkative, but continued to listen well for the most part.

We then introduced him first to Icee, a large three year old Quarter Horse gelding, and Tiger, a Mustang gelding.


Icee and Spyder seemed to get along fairly well, while Tiger seemed a little more irritated with the new youngster. We spent a little more time with Spyder, then we put him back into the stall and said our goodbyes. He'll be allowed into the pasture when my friend can keep an eye on him just to make sure all goes well, and then likely he'll continue to be pastured 24/7 except for when he's brought in for feeding, much like he was here.

On the whole, he behaved marvelous. I have no doubt he'll soon fit right in and have a great time out there with all the other horses. And I'll likely be going out there next month, and even if I don't make it, in January for sure, when we'll be taking him to get gelded.

But it was very hard to leave him.