I haven't had anything worth posting for a while. Everything was going well once I got back from my break. Tatoum is back in gentle work, on course for our dressage training sessions (with my boss' dressage trainer who I don't get on with...) to make sure we're working on the right things for the Equine Canada tests. Grace is no longer being worked, but we are spending time each day touching her belly, brushing her, playing with her in readiness for her May baby.
Today though was bad news day. The vet came out to do a general check up on most of the horses. Mae has had a weepy eye for a while, but no other visible problems. We've been treating it with antibiotics and it has kept it ok, apart from in real cold weather. However, the vet believes it is Uveitis, probably brought on by Leptospirosis. My knowledge of the two illnesses did not extend to knowing there was a link between the two. But Lepto is apparently a very common cause of Uveitis and this can lead to such horrific things as blindness, liver and kidney failure, and it can be passed on to fetuses in pregnant mares, and Mae is really only here to be bred...so we just need to wait for the tests to see if this is the cause and then to find out what the extent of her eye problem is. She doesn't show any signs of blindness on trails or in the barn, so that's something, for now. She's not cranky, doesn't seem to be in pain, but I am very afraid that her future here is bleak if this diagnosis is made.
I've tried very hard not to have favourites since I've been here. I got on well with Maverik, and he went, and I got on with Bond, and now he's gone, and neither of those two going upset me. However, Mae is the kind of horse who will snuggle with me for fun and who comes to me first in the field and lets me ride her bareback with Gracie tagging along next to her and lets Tyler slide off over her butt and is generally a massive sweetie. As I've said before I've never had much experience with mares, and the majority of those here are pretty snarky and bitchy. Anyway, to utilise her sweetness, I took her on a trail yesterday as a nanny for Tyler who was riding Lilly, the baby, who was on her, I think 3rd ever trail. It's snowy everywhere here, and as the ground is becoming more frozen, we are able to go on more and more trails. We recently discovered a small stream that is not frozen, so we went up there to show Lilly it. Mae has done it a couple of times, but she insists on doing it in her own time, sliding down the bank, sticking her nose in the water, having a little sip, then walking over very calmly. Lilly had more of an issue but didn't panic at all. She stuck her nose in the deep snow holes the hooves had made, snorted in the water, and then went over it too.
To add to all this fun, a couple of days before, Mae and I, out trail marking on our own, had been chased by one of the neighbours dogs and their puppy also. She didn't panic, but she was worried as they kept following us so one was on either side of us at all times. When I turned to face them, they ran, but as soon as we moved off, they came back. So we skittered back to the barn, and they followed us, cheeky little gits, so I dismounted and chased them off the property.
Anyway, back to the present story, as we were practising the ditch, the dogs appeared, with their owner, who was leading her donkey, and then her son turned up behind us on his skidoo, and then the guy who works at our barn turned up on the 4 wheeler so it was a lot of fun for the horses, who were alert, but not spooked by any of this. I was very impressed by Lilly, who had a lot to contend with!
Today though was bad news day. The vet came out to do a general check up on most of the horses. Mae has had a weepy eye for a while, but no other visible problems. We've been treating it with antibiotics and it has kept it ok, apart from in real cold weather. However, the vet believes it is Uveitis, probably brought on by Leptospirosis. My knowledge of the two illnesses did not extend to knowing there was a link between the two. But Lepto is apparently a very common cause of Uveitis and this can lead to such horrific things as blindness, liver and kidney failure, and it can be passed on to fetuses in pregnant mares, and Mae is really only here to be bred...so we just need to wait for the tests to see if this is the cause and then to find out what the extent of her eye problem is. She doesn't show any signs of blindness on trails or in the barn, so that's something, for now. She's not cranky, doesn't seem to be in pain, but I am very afraid that her future here is bleak if this diagnosis is made.
I've tried very hard not to have favourites since I've been here. I got on well with Maverik, and he went, and I got on with Bond, and now he's gone, and neither of those two going upset me. However, Mae is the kind of horse who will snuggle with me for fun and who comes to me first in the field and lets me ride her bareback with Gracie tagging along next to her and lets Tyler slide off over her butt and is generally a massive sweetie. As I've said before I've never had much experience with mares, and the majority of those here are pretty snarky and bitchy. Anyway, to utilise her sweetness, I took her on a trail yesterday as a nanny for Tyler who was riding Lilly, the baby, who was on her, I think 3rd ever trail. It's snowy everywhere here, and as the ground is becoming more frozen, we are able to go on more and more trails. We recently discovered a small stream that is not frozen, so we went up there to show Lilly it. Mae has done it a couple of times, but she insists on doing it in her own time, sliding down the bank, sticking her nose in the water, having a little sip, then walking over very calmly. Lilly had more of an issue but didn't panic at all. She stuck her nose in the deep snow holes the hooves had made, snorted in the water, and then went over it too.
To add to all this fun, a couple of days before, Mae and I, out trail marking on our own, had been chased by one of the neighbours dogs and their puppy also. She didn't panic, but she was worried as they kept following us so one was on either side of us at all times. When I turned to face them, they ran, but as soon as we moved off, they came back. So we skittered back to the barn, and they followed us, cheeky little gits, so I dismounted and chased them off the property.
Anyway, back to the present story, as we were practising the ditch, the dogs appeared, with their owner, who was leading her donkey, and then her son turned up behind us on his skidoo, and then the guy who works at our barn turned up on the 4 wheeler so it was a lot of fun for the horses, who were alert, but not spooked by any of this. I was very impressed by Lilly, who had a lot to contend with!
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