Not Always Daisies and Roses

 


It's not always daisies and roses. Not in horses and not in life. Our first foal technically came February 15th. It was a highly anticipated foal with World Champion Quarter Horse parents. This baby was also an embryo transfer into one of our Thoroughbred mares, Fanny. What should have been a wonderful morning started with sadness. At 5:45 AM, Fanny delivered a stillborn foal. The foal never moved and never breathed. The birth seemed normal, but instead of a cute baby, we had a small foal born somewhat stiff. The feathers on its feet, which exist to protect the mom from lacerations, remained intact. These usually fall off as the foal fusses around and gets its bearings in the world in preparation to stand. Instead, the feathers remained untouched, unruffled.

The placenta followed not too long after the foal. The umbilical cord was wrapped around one of the horns. It had tight twists along its extensive length, indicating that the foal had vascular compromise. The umbilical cord, when untwisted, showed signs of hemorrhage. The cord had a highly abnormal length, as well. It was about fifty inches in length when the normal Thoroughbred cord is about 30 inches. The little foal suffered from bad luck.

Most foals are born with few issues, but sometimes we can't win against luck. Even though we take all of the precautions that we can, we always search for answers to try to do better in the future. There wasn't much to take away from this foal, other than a reminder that sometimes things can't be fixed or prevented. The worst part when the foals die is watching the mares. Fanny protected her dead foal like any good mom. She pawed at it, encouraging it to move and stand, not understanding that would never happen. We leave the dead foals with the moms for most of the day, as they seem to need the time to understand that their foal isn't alive. It makes it a little easier for them when we eventually do remove the foal. The mares will still call for the foal, but they seem less frantic if they get to spend time with the foal first. Now, a few days after the removal of the foal, Fanny doesn't call for the foal anymore, and she has resumed her life.

Death is part of horses. This isn't our first, nor will it be our last. We take this as another opportunity to learn for the sake of future horses. Not everything can be prevented, but we can try, keeping in mind that sometimes luck is simply not on our side.

Popular posts from this blog

Adoption Fees

Image
  On occasion, we get a question why we have adoption fees at all or why they are high (they typically range $1000-5000 with a few going higher). We try to emphasize that the horses that we get mostly come from known backgrounds with knowledgeable horsemen with fantastic care and management. They are not rescues. We do occasionally get some horses that are rescues, but they are not the norm. That being said, our adoptable horses have real value in the horse market as good riding horses. The adoptables also play a large roll in raising the funds to care for the horses in retirement. Plus, horses simply cost a lot to feed and maintain. We are not in the profit business with CRR but simply the taking care of horses in need business. So, what goes into our adoption fees? We look at every horse that we get and decide how much down time we think is in the horse's best interest. This can range wildly from none at all to well over a year. We make decisions based on soundness history, phys
Read more

Hoof Rehab

Image
  As we wait, once again, for mares to foal, we have been searching for good candidates for hoof rehabilitation case studies. We received a great response to our post searching for hoof rehab cases. We are currently going through the list of fourteen horses to see which ones we think we can help, as well as how many we can afford to work on. Most of the horses are coming from quite a distance, so we have to factor transport into the cost. We also have to consider how comfortable the horse is before asking them to ship a thousand miles or more. Our sights are set on four, but we have not finalized the decision yet. One is a gelding with severe pedal osteitis and moderate kissing spine. As ugly as his radiographs are, he moves sound and is comfortable. He's a prime example of “you can't ride the radiographs.” The second is a gelding from Florida who has nothing major, but just can't seem to become totally comfortable. He is young, only three years old, well bred and cute. Th
Read more

Farewell, Marla

Image
  Because we have a large number of horses, many of them older or with soundness issues, we inevitably lose some. Many we have had for years when we lose them, while others are with us a short while. We take the precautions to make sure that we take the best care possible, but we can't prevent everything. Horses will be horses, even on the safest vinyl fencing and manicured paddocks, stalls or pastures. We've had fewer issues on the rugged terrain and open fields of our 2400, but accidents still happen. This time, Marla, JC Warning Track, punctured her hock somehow. We'll never know how. The entrance was maybe a quarter of an inch at best. Unfortunately, it went deep into her joint. Those sorts of injuries don't have a good outcome. The options were to let her go or to do daily flushes under general anesthesia with a guarded prognosis for pasture soundness. We chose to let her go. It is an unfortunate part of what we do. Many of the horses living with us are here to
Read more