Carrie's been doing a lot of thinking about Annie. She remembers Annie as being a brave and curious horse.
However, the Annie we've seen here has been an anxious horse who's scared of everything the first time around (and sometimes the fifth when she forgets it's okay).
Carrie thinks it's due to trauma.
This is a photo of Annie before she moved to us.
That's Jeff in the dinosaur costume. Annie and her friend wandered right up to say hello. Sonya is a photographer. She sometimes does silly things to make a good photo or just to be silly.
Annie's friend is dead. He was a sudden case of colic. He died right in the aisle in front of her stall.
Horses are large animals.
They didn't immediately have the equipment necessary.
Not long after, Annie's sire was rushed to the vet and didn't return. I can't recall if any other horses were sold/transferred after that.
I do know Annie came to us. She'd never been off property before. She immediately tried to bond with Nibs who started to terrorize her. She didn't really have a buddy until Kitty came along.
Trauma wouldn't have occurred to me, but when Carrie laid our her reasoning it seemed to fit. It would explain why she's seemed so fearful. Horses have surprisingly good memories, and Annie went through a lot of change.
Fast forward to present day: Annie and Nibs are in the same field at Tori's. Nibs has learned a lot about how to get along in a herd. They are doing well together.
After talking to Tori and her mom, Carrie decided that Annie is the horse we're going to sell. That was the original plan and Annie's demeanor means she should fit in easily to most homes.
Annie's still under training and it's not a seller's market. There are people posting "Coronavirus sales" where they need income quickly. We're hoping Annie finds a home fairly quickly to have her off the payroll.
"You don't get into horses for the money," Carried said.....and I can confirm! It's like being a professional gambler! There are those top level people who can turn a buck, but most people are cruising for a losing (unless they're the House!).
We bought Annie to help a friend, so we weren't looking to make a profit. It'd be nice to come out even or money in the pocket, but the main goal is to get her to nice home for Carrie and Sonya's sakes.
Carrie gave our new boarder a 48 hour ultimatum: the pony had to go.
He was overly attached to Lorelai. He acted like her lackey or goon (or Scrappy Doo!) and would chase off any horse that came too close to her. When separated, he'd become anxious and agitated. He charged past Carrie out of his stall once when Lorelai was let out before him (She had to dodge). Another time, he started to rear in his stall when Lorelai was away from him (Thankfully, his owner was there to see his behavior. Carrie was worried his feet are small enough he'd get a hoof stuck in in the cattle mesh between stalls).
Carrie said it wasn't safe. The pony had to go.
Aquilla only came on Saturday, but he'd already started to affect our other boarders, too.
Madeleine came to ride Kitty, but pony intervened. Lorelai and Aquilla were between Kitty and her owner. Any time Kitty started to head towards Madeline it was too close to Lorelai for pony's liking. He'd chase Kitty off and Madeleine would be back to square one catching her. Carrie saw it from a window and had to go out and grab Aquilla's halter to help.
"This will not do," Carrie said.
The pony had to go.
Ironically, Kitty got her courage up to fight back the Wednesday night. Aquilla kept trying to dodge around Lorelai and nip and kick at Kitty, but Kitty gave it back in equal measure. It went on a lot longer than we liked, but no one was hurt and pony was forced to accept a field demotion.
If we had a larger set of fields, we would have separated the pony from Lorelai. Anywhere we did put him, he'd be able to see her and there was a chance he'd risk charging through the fence lines to get back to her. Aquilla's possessiveness of Lorelai seemed to be the root of his problem, but we weren't the right place to treat it. A larger barn with multiple herds could do that and find a herd with the right alpha to put pony in his place.
It turned out Carrie had a friend willing to help.
Sonya was willing to take on pony as a project. They've got space galore and she was connected with many possible homes. If the behavior could be fixed, Aquilla might be able to go back to being a lesson horse for some 4-H or young rider who couldn't afford a pony of their own.
Aquilla's owner relinquished her rights to him on Wednesday. Carrie was checking tire pressure in the truck and ready to haul Thursday.
Aquilla was only 13 hands, so Carrie removed the center partition from the trailer. She was worried he might somehow wiggle underneath it during transport and hurt himself (The pony had to go, but Carrie is all about helping a horse rather than getting rid of one).
Physically, the equipment was ready to go before all of the boys were fed their breakfast. The girls were fed early to help with the next step: Carrie introduced Maddie to the herd.
Carrie was concerned about Lorelai's reaction when Aquilla was removed. Horses need familiarity and he was the horse she was most familiar with. Kitty was the other horse she liked, but Kitty's owner was getting ready to move back home with her! Maddie would be the only mare left! She and Lorelai hadn't been introduced yet, because Maddie had been in the tough-love fat camp instead of in the field.
The girls got their food early and Maddie was turned loose with the rest of the field.
The horses all ran around like banshees for the next fifteen minutes or so. Maddie was the first one to put her head down and say, "Grass! Time to eat!" The others eventually calmed down enough to coexist.
This picture is pretty telling.
If you look at Maddie, she's at full stride. Kitty and Lorelai are following, but their ears are up.
Do you see the pony's ears?
Probably not, because they're flattened. He was coming in aggression and not offering a "How do you do?" Aquilla would not let Maddie stick with the herd or approach Kitty and Lorelai. He'd break off and swoop at her.
Whether by her choice or his design, Maddie was off on her own to graze. Maddie's not a total pushover, so she didn't get bit or kicked. She'd threaten to kick if him whenever he got too close her!
However, that's not a healthy herd dynamic.
The pony had to go.
So Carrie had me lure Lorelai over to the fence with the promise of grain. Pony followed. That let Carrie grab him while I forked over the bait to keep her occupied..
She was right by the trailer to help him not worry about her being far away. Carrie stuck a bucket of feed under his snout and Aquilla walked on hesitation free.
I felt a little bad for him, because I don't think Lorelai noticed or cared. She went on eating and didn't move or even look for him when the trailer walked away.
No, I think she's gay for Kitty.
She was squirting out in the field while Kitty sniffed at her. They've been shoulder buddies every since.
Madeleine came to ride Kitty and Lorelai stayed by her stall looking in. When Kitty went to the arena, Lorelai trotted to the fence and kept eyes on her (and was winking according to Carrie!).
But back to the pony at 13 hands.
Carrie rolled off our property before 10 AM to journey south to Sonya's. It was a two hour drive and she hauled Aquilla on our dime.
He transported well and behaved like a gentle pony for offloading. Carrie really believes that the separation from Lorelai will be the best thing for him.
Sonya's a professional photographer, so she had some fun snapping pictures of the little guy before throwing him into quarantine.
Jeff wasn't as impressed. He wanted to know why there was a new little bugger on the property (Sonya has a tendency to 'collect' fuzzies).
Carrie pulled out a bottle of hand sanitizer and told him she was delivering it to Sonya (they're all out around where they are!). The pony was a prize that came with it!
Which explains Sonya's post that night.
Aquilla's in a good place. Carrie trusts Sonya's ability to find homes for horses and he's off our property.
It would have been nice to have him around generating some extra income, but there will be a less crap in the fields for now (literally and figuratively).
Bonus video:
This didn't really fit in the earlier flow of the post, so I figured I'd post it here.
Carrie wanted to make sure Lorelai and Kitty had some time to bond. Pony made that impossible, so we started to let Lorelai and Kitty out together to see how they'd interact without Aquilla in the mix.
They hit it off the moment he was out of the picture. Lorelai led Kitty off into the far fields and didn't look back for her little friend (I couldn't help but feel a little bad for the badly behaved guy!).
We weren't about to leave Pony up all day and going bat crap crazy in his stall, so we had to turn him loose. Here's what it looked like.
They were too far over the hill to see it well, but after Aquilla made it to Lorelai he started to charge and chase off Kitty. This was in the dark times before she put him in his place and things calmed down (right before he left!).
Monday morning we saddled up.......to go to a barn! Shane stole my pad of paper and wrote a book for the long drive.
We went to see Nibs. You can see the yellow skin where the cut was. It's pulling together well.
The next big concern is companionship. Nibs needs a horse who can teach her how to be a horse. The original plan was for Nibs to become friends with Calypso. They're stall buddies, but Calypso suddenly generated interest from a buyer. There's not much point in trying to bond them further when Calypso only has a few days left at the barn.
First up of the replacements, Gwen and her foal Dozer. Gwen helped another horse, Raindrop, back in the day. However, now she had a foal......a huge foal. Dozer was born the same day as Nibs, but she's already a hand taller.
Carrie and Sonya escorted the pair to the round pen. Then Carrie grabbed Nibs.
I'm told she leads very well for her age.
Getting into the round pen was a different matter. The ladies had to shove her in.
Nibs on the left.
Gwen and Dozer on the right.
Gwen was okay with Nibs' presence, but Nibs and Dozer had trouble. Nibs was visibly anxious (and that's from a non-horse person). She ran all around the arena, jumped, half-bucked, and worked herself into a sweaty mess.
Dozer was initially not super interested, but eventually investigated some. She didn't like it when Nibs tried to sniff her tail once and kicked. It happened again later. Dozer could become a bully, so it was deemed "not a good match."
A gelding, Kuzco, was introduced later. Nibs started running around like crazy again. Kuzco ignored her until she bolted right in front of him.
He reared.
It would've been ugly if Nibs ran under him.
So, no new companion for Nibs. Shane got a chance to say hi. He entertained himself while all of this happened.
He pet cats (and got his first cat scratch)...
...and kept working on his book.
Sonya got out the rabbit after he kept asking.
We spent over three hours at the barn before heading out.
Shane and I stopped by Dylan's that evening. Krista wanted canvases to practice face-painting.
After dinner, the boys enjoyed squirting water at Eli as he looked out through the kitchen door.
Thursday, Nibs hurt herself. It was a freak accident. Somehow, she hopped up and over her milk bucket, got the skin of her left hind leg near the hip tangled in the hook and panicked. Carrie said the gash was the size of a grapefruit. It took ten inches of stitches.
Sonya and Carrie aren't about to let that happen again.
Nibs needs formula mixed every four hours on the fours (12, 4, & 8 PM, then 12, 4, & 8 AM). That does not allow for too much continuous sleep. Carrie's starting to relax enough that Sonya can take the midnight feeding, so that she can sleep till the 4 AM feed. I took the 4 AM feed Saturday to let Carrie rest up for the week ahead.
It's important at every feeding to check Nibs' wound.
She likes to pick at it. An infection or a curious filly pulling out the stitches would be a huge problem. Nibs is on a "minimal stimuli" order from the vet. She's supposed to be left alone to rest and not get excited. Sonya and Carrie brought in portable walls to compress her pen to an 8' x 8' so she can't run around.
Shane only got to peek at Nibs once this time around, but he stayed entertained. We arrived at the barn around 3:00 PM (After a reroute from Carrie to Amelia for Mare's Milk -- Shout out to Band Man Ryan).
We picked up dinner from Pino's Pizza.
There was a new kitten Sonya rescued when they picked up some hay bales.
(I said, "No.")
We watched a movie as a family before bedtime.
If you're into owls, it doesn't get much better than this.
If you're not, it's still a fun movie.
Carrie was supposed to be asleep for the 12:00 AM feeding, but she woke up anyway when she didn't hear Sonya (Sonya was there). The ladies ended up having an adventure! More on that later.
My gut got me up and about before the 4 AM feeding. The full moon cast moon shadows all around me.
The camera doesn't do it justice. Clouds crawled over while I was mixing the formula and darkness descended. It was a neat effect.
The next morning, Shane woke up bright, early, and energetic. Carrie evicted us, so she could sleep past 6:30 AM. We read comics and listened to Hank the Cowdog in the car.
Carrie grabbed the Star Trek comic when she learned of it!
We dressed up for Sunday School a little while after the 8 AM feeding. We went back to the same church we went to on Easter.
Then we left before service to unload hay bales and get ready for the 12 PM feeding.
Shane got to watch Minions The Movie while Carrie and I helped with barn chores (We tugged on an electric fence!).
I also got to look at the "snapping turtle, whiskered bird" that Carrie and Sonya rescued last night. A whippoorwill flew into the side of the barn, became disoriented, and crashed around the inside with the women in chase. It stunned itself multiple times before they could catch it and let it calm down. Carrie told me that it tried to swallow Sonya's finger.
Jeff pulled it out for an examination. He gently petted it and marveled at it's camouflage. I took a video to show Shane, so he wouldn't scare the bird. I've never seen a whiskered bird up close. The whippoorwill's eyes were opaque (like Gollum's!) and the retina all but disappeared into them. Clearly, it was a night flyer.
And then I saw the snapping turtle. That little bird could open it's mouth like a snake. It must swallow bugs whole before they know they're lunch.
Jeff has large mechanic hands and I thought the little guy was going to try and swallow a finger. Fascinating.
Minions ended and Shane wanted to show Mommy how to play Pokemon with his new deck. She napped. I played. He's getting better about flipping the coin (though he needs to shrug it off when it doesn't land on heads!).
Shane and I left at the 4 PM feeding. Nibs was hungry and Sonya and Carrie needed to load up the failed foster mare.
Did I mention the failed foster mare? Carrie and Sonya picked the foster mare and her foal up on Wednesday in Ashland. The mare was emaciated. She had an almost violent reaction to Nibs and was stand offish to her own foal. Sonya put the mare and foal in her round pen, and started to try and return her Thursday. Carrie drove the VW all the way back to our house to swap out for our truck, so she could help haul. However, the owner cancelled and delayed until it was Sunday or nothing in Farmville.
And that's how Nibs is keeping Carrie busy. I hoped she'd be able to go back to work for a night at her parents, but Nibs has to heal before she can be paired up with another mare or buddy. She's growing, though. Nibs is up to 160 lbs by Carrie's measure. I don't know if that's good or bad growth for a filly but she looked well enough. She wanted to nibble on my beard whenever I was with her.
I'll update more after the vet and Carrie check in over the week.
Mira passed away in the early hours. She suffered from post partum torsion colic. Carrie was in town to see how her girls were doing. The vet had been out for a health check on her and the baby earlier in the day. Right before Carrie left, Mira started to show signs of discomfort.
The situation degraded quickly. Carrie and Sonya loaded Mira on to a trailer to get her to a surgical site over two hours away that could handle a torsion colic (Mira's intestines rotated and tied themselves in a knot).
Unfortunately, there was nothing that could be done. I got a call from Sonya at 1:30 AM and she dropped Carrie off at 2 AM (and she must have got back home after 4 AM!).
Carrie was distraught. That said, she also handled it much better than I expected and it was because of Nibs. Carrie knew Nibs needed her.
At this point, Nibs just crossed the 18 days old threshold. She didn't know where her Mom had went or why. She was nervous and wasn't sleeping. Sonya and Jeff stayed up with her through the night. They tried to bring in some of their goats to see if any would be a suitable companion for Nibs until an equine solution could be found.
Shane, Carrie, and I left to check on things early Tuesday. I got a sub and Shane got to miss school. He loves the barn. I wish the visit could have been under better circumstances.
We talked to him about what happened, but he only stayed sad for a moment or two before he wanted to play.
Being hyper and playing is not a good idea when there are a bunch of stressed horse people and a stressed foal in the picture. Shane got a lot of practice with his "calm walk."
He did okay overall. That's actually pretty darn good for him considering his energy level and the lack of distractions that were brought with us!
A blessing in disguise through all of this was that Nibs was already bucket trained to drink milk.
Mira had been unable to produce enough milk for Nibs, so Sonya and Carrie were already supplementing her diet with formula.
The hope is that a mare will be found who will adopt Nibs. None of the new mothers at the barn seemed too keen on it (Mira had actually become a dragon mother and charged any mare that was in the field as Nibs -- Very uncharacteristic of her).
To my knowledge, a mare is being brought by tomorrow with her foal who has accepted a second, adopted foal in the past. Carrie spent the whole day with Nibs and is spending the night to see how things go. Shane and I are back home, so that we can go to our schools.
