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!

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.

Defeating the Killer Plastic Bag

Anyone who is anyone knows about the famous Spyder. But just in case you're currently no one, I'll tell you a bit about him.

Last December I bought a Missouri Fox Trotter mare (Apple) to be a trail horse. Come spring, surprise surprise, she's pregnant. Thankfully the sire is a really nice Missouri Fox Trotter, so I wasn't stuck with some cross-bred trainwreck.

I figured, in for a penny, in for a pound, and sensationalized the entire thing on Facebook. Pictures and updates of Apple every day or so, and when the time got close, I hooked up a web camera and livebroadcasted Apple's pen online. Cool right?

Everyone thought so. Most were lucky enough to catch the birth live. We had some 60+ viewers. It was quite the night! I also recorded the birth on my camera for those who missed it.

Since then, people have become Spyder Followers, as the foal, (a bay colt), is named Thunder's Spyder Prince. They follow my updates, my pictures, my training videos of him, and now they can follow this blog too.

Spyder is now coming up to five months old and is weaned, well halter broke, stands for baths and hoof trimming, and is pretty well in hand.

Except for plastic bags.

Plastic bags were made for the specific reason of KILLING foals, don't you know? Spyder decided he HATES them and will have nothing to do with them. I can throw a rope around him and his legs, a towel, just about anything else, but the noise of the plastic bag freaks him right out.

So I left it alone for a while, giving him a break, and then reintroduced it this morning. I started by allowing him to stand some ways away on the lead while I shook and waved the plastic bag. When he stood quietly, I took the bag away and gave him a break. Then asked him to take a step closer and repeated the process.

Patience, patience, patience is the key to working with any animal!

Eventually he was standing beside me as I waved this plastic bag all over the place, making horrifying noises with it. Not bad! We walked around a bit, taking a break, then started again and this time I TOUCHED him with it.

Oh the humanity! Eyes got wide, nostrils flared, and skin flinched triple time. But he stood still. Cue bag removal and lots of praise. What a good Spyder.

And after a few minutes, I was able to rub the bag on him. Patience, that's all it takes.