Injuries, Hard Labor, and a Road Trip!
When stallions fight, get out of the way!
Last week was one of those weeks where what could go wrong with the farm did.
As a breeding farm, we have stallions. Most stallions are not “team players.” They can be aggressive, unpredictable, and have a “high libido.” Unfocussed, reactive, with little emotional control, resistant to training, don’t play nice with other horses, and are generally considered a pain in the ass. They also are fragile - working with stallions is a tricky business as it requires a funny mix of praise and consistent firmness. One must win their hearts while insisting on control. For many years, we collected semen and shipped it all over the USA and Canada, and did our our own artificial insemination work. Jill and I both understand stallions. We have been keeping stallions for decades, and when you have stallions - sometimes, bad stuff can happen.
This is why 99.999% of male horses are castrated in the USA. Castrated horses are called geldings. Geldings are generally happy creatures. Hence, not many stallions are around. Who wants a thousand-pound (+) troublemaker?
Our senior stallion is Jade- who people go crazy over because 1) he is gorgeous and 2) is a gentleman. He is now ten-years-old.
Tonight, we load Jade and two mares into the trailer and drive eleven hours straight through to the crack of dawn to go to a huge Iberian horse event at the World Equestrian Center in Ocala for a week.
Jill will be participating in three master classes with trainers from Portugal and Spain, one for in-hand work and the others for working equitation with Pedro Torres.
We will also be showing two of our three-year-old mares in-hand (morphology) and then they will get inspected by a Portuguese official - so that they can be scored and approved for breeding (hopefully!) on Sunday.
I will be riding Jade in the "Iberian Horse Spectacular 2024" in Ocala Florida, October 18 and 19 (Friday and Saturday evening) at the World Equestrian Center.
A description of this family friendly show is as follows:
"The 2024 Iberian Horse Spectacular is entitled “Myth & Legend”, an exciting equestrian theatrical production that will present a visually stimulating spectacle staring professional riders and magnificent Iberian horses decked out in resplendent costumes, surrounded by beautiful music and a story that reveals a pantheon of heroes from myth & legend spanning the history of horses."
Jill and I look forward to meeting lots of people there!
Tickets can be obtained by going to the following link: https://iberianshowcase.com/spectacular
A funny coincidence is that the Florida Summit for Health and Medical Freedom is happening at the World Equestrian Center on Saturday - so literally I will be speaking on mRNA self-amplifying vaccines, PsyWar, and riding Jade in a Horse Spectacular all on the same day! Heck maybe some of you want to go to both events too!
I believe there are tickets available for that event also - more information for the Summit can be found at this link.
So, getting ready for this road trip takes a lot of hard work, preparation and organization. We started about a week ago - Sunday.
Which is just about when Quartz the four-year-old, very large, stallion broke out of his paddock. Now, Quartz has decided that his mortal enemy is Onasis - another stallion on the farm. So, he ran past the other stallions, past the mares and proceeded to try to jump into the paddock of his worthy opponent.
Unfortunately, he got tangled up in the fence wire, as did Onasis, who ran over to try to kill Quartz. I ran as fast I as could to arrive a minute later - to find the two stallions on their backs tangled in the fencing and mud (remember Hurricane Helene) - snapping at each other. Somehow I or they managed to get free. Then we had two enraged stallions trying to kill each other in about a half acre paddock. Jill arrived with halters and a long whip - where we basically stood between them and kept them from killing each other as they reared, kicked, bucked, and generally acted like testosterone-fueled teenagers. There was no haltering those two in the same area. My goal was to keep them apart without taking a kick to chest or back - both of which I have experienced in the past. Yes, broken ribs hurt. For a long time.
The other thing we know about stallions is knowing when to get out of the way.
Jill opened the gate and we ran out Onasis - who was then footloose and fancy free. He ran to the barn, with Jill chasing. She managed to corner him and get him in a different paddock. Meanwhile I got Quartz back under control while he was locked in Onasis’ paddock.
Whew! Neither Jill nor I were injured. This was a good outcome.
Assessing damage. Quartz was fine. Onasis had a small nick on his upper foreleg- it looked ok. We put him in a stall - watchful waiting.
By Monday morning (a week ago), his leg had ballooned with an infection. The on-call veterinarian arrived, cleaned out the puncture wound, gave us a script of antibiotics with instructions to flush out the wound daily (another opportunity for us to injure ourselves - which luckily, we didn’t). Crisis averted. But he was put in a stall until his treatment was finished and until I had had the chance to completely rebuild twenty feet of fence.
We decided it was just too much pressure on the stallions to have the mares close to the house. We keep them in a lower pasture nearer the stallions during foaling season, so we can keep a watchful eye. But now the air is perfumed with the hormones from the mares coming into heat - and all of the stallions getting a bit crazed. So, we needed to move them to the back ten acre pasture. Moving six mares and five foals is always a bit chaotic, as the herd must be split up for a bit. Mares don’t like it when their friends get taken away - even for a few minutes!
Lots of neighing and running around - but then all was good once they settled into their new digs. Fresh grass - yumm!!!
Then Caranja, our foundation mare - came up lame. As in two-legged lame. This is never good. Caranja suffers from thin soles and we often keep shoes on her fronts to avoid abscesses. But as she has had a foal at her side, we don’t like shoes on - they can injure the baby. At this point, she was also in a stall. For her treatment, it was pine tar, babydiapers and duct-tape. As both feet hurt, she wouldn’t pick up either hoof easily. As a farrier - I can tell you, having a 1200 pound mare putting her weight on you, while holding up a hoof is a great way to injure a back. Which I did.
But still - fencing to fix! As there was no-climb wire to un-staple and cut out, a fence post to pull and reset, a gate to be restrung and a top rail to be reconnected. By now, my back was so bad - well…, it was a hot bath and then flat out in bed for me with lots of NSAIDs on board.
By next morning I could walk again. Barely. So, Caranja’s feet had to be dealt with again. Bandages changed - more picking up and holding feet, which did not make her happy.
Then Friday - Jade had lost a shoe - that had to be reset back on (more pressure on my back). Trust me, the photo below is not me making a “happy face,” but Jade was a gem as usual and I got the job done. Not my best work - but good enough.
Yesterday, I was getting better - and Caranja’s feet were stable enough to put shoes on. We didn’t want to have to leave her in a stall and without shoes, but she literally could not walk at that point. Now, Caranja is wise - she loves her shoes, so she tried as best she could. But still, my back is pretty sore again. Once her shoes were on, she was totally a different horse and so we took her and her naughty colt to the back pasture with the other mares.
We have decided to sell Rock - out three year old stallion, who is amazing. But he isn’t an exact match for the four year old, and it seems like time. This was a really hard decision for Jill, as Rock is so much like Jade in conformation and personality. Plus, this metallic buckskin color is extremely rare. It is a favorite around here.
Over the course of the last week, Jill has been packing, loading, cleaning, finding lost show supplies and generally going one hundred miles a minute. For those that don’t know, Jill is very “kinetic.” As in she moves a lot faster then anyone I know - I don’t know where she gets her energy, but if one could bottle it, they could make a fortune.
Tonight - we drive. With luck, we will be in Ocala by 8:00 AM.
Wish us luck and come visit us in Ocala!
We will be there until Sunday. Rest assured that the Substack essays and the memes will continue !
WHEW!
quite a story Doc.
If you have followed the Forgotten Medicine Doc lately. . . he would be suggesting some DMSO for your back and soreness. Good Luck with that and drive safely, my friend.
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