Gabby has bumpy things on her rear legs near her hoof. Of course she does. Naturally. I am so not surprised. She’s got bumpy tumor-y things that are causing her some discomfort when she moves, meaning that she can’t be ridden. Leah is talking about seeing if the girl can conceive and there’s a young [...]
Yesterday we rode to music! Leah started working with another student on a show piece, so she had the boom box out in the arena and was playing some new-age, sorta Lord of the Rings type music. As soon as Mo heard it, he started trotting away — or as soon as I heard it, [...]
“She’s a nice horse,” said one of my fellow students.
“She’s not a nice horse,” I said.
“Yes she is.”
No, she’s not. Gabby is not a nice horse. She’s beautiful. She’s drop-dead beautiful. She has lovely eyes and a soft, soft coat and she’s just dazzling, dazzling — but nice? Nope. Not nice.
A couple of weeks ago, [...]
I want to thank everyone for the good words of support and encouragement as I transition from Gabby to Moe. You’ve got to know when to hold ‘em and know when to fold ‘em, which is what my mom said when she retired from teaching at Michigan State University, and I’m glad I didn’t endure (horse-wise) [...]
Gabby is now the property of my barn. I visited her Tuesday, when it was still insanely warm around here. She was out in a field with three other bay mares and boy, did they ever look pretty! They looked like a chorus, all gracefully picking their way across the fresh, warm ground and nipping [...]
It’s about Gabby because the time has come to talk about cabbages, kings, and her future.
On one hand, Gabby was not the best idea in the world for me. I made my decision to buy her before I’d seen her or knew much of anything about her (and I’m not an experienced horse person so [...]
It’s time to take Gabby out for a little walk, a task I did not realize I was dreading until Leah suggested that someone else do it for her first time out in three weeks. Gabby will probably spook, start, dance, kick, etc which means that (more than likely), I would do the exact same things. I [...]
Today the vet came out to draw Gabby’s blood and after looking at her and her still-twitching muscles and stiffness said she hasn’t been on enough ‘Bute. I can’t remember the dosage she’s been on but according to the doctor, not enough for a horse of her size.
I payed $2K to the Horse Hospital for [...]
Leah moved Gabby to another stall, mostly to make room for poor old Jim. Poor old Jim has a slowly healing crater-like wound on his back that has been radiated, debrided, cleaned, protected with a hat (over the summer, a straw hat was duct-taped to his back to keep the flies off and to allow [...]
What exactly does Gabby have and how did she get it? Excellent question and the one that has plagued us all for a couple of weeks. This is the hypothesis posited by the vets, one that makes experienced horse owners nod in agreement: At some point, Gabby got an infection. She might have had pneumonia, she definitely [...]
