4 March 2007

I introduced you to my hand raised baby on 1st March and I have had a busy freezing day today so didnt get the camera out.

One of the ladies MiKael who commented on the last post about her mentioned that her attitude with laying her ears back sticking her nose out wagging her tail in irritation and rushing down the length of the barn were like a temper tantrum. This baby believe it or not used to throw temper tantrums, in fact she still does if you correct her harshly. When she was born she was a pretty sick baby and the first six weeks were touch and go as to whether she would survive, we did all sorts of medical stuff which I wont go into detail with here but it helped and I am eternally grateful to the people who helped me out. From the day she was born she loved to roll, not just once or twice, she would be walking or running along (I used to accompany her into the field, she wouldnt go out on her own - she was only four or five weeks old) and then just drop down onto the ground and roll from one side to the other about six or seven times, then bounce up run a little way and do it all over again about four or five times. She loves the mud the best!! She started doing the rolling in her stall too and sometimes would roll against the wall and not be able to get herself over again so that she could get up, so she would just lay there until I came in and I would get a hold of her and roll her back so she could get up. I found her a few times under the bars in between two stables with her head in the one stable and her rear end in the other stable. She would just lay calmly and wait for me to get her out. This became a game for her. She would wait until I was in her stable then get down and roll and just lay there looking at me, not because she was stuck, until I rolled her completely over then she would jump up and be happy. This was all well and good while she was small but as she got bigger it became harder to do LOL so we had to put a stop to it.

Because it was so cold when she was born I had to improvise with a horse blanket I had so she could keep warm as I only had a newborn one and then nothing between that and a one year old. I sewed up the seams in the yearling one so that it would fit her. She can be viewed below in her designer horse blanket. In this picture you can see the swelling in her lower legs which were a sign that she was a sick baby and there was a chance of losing her (septecemia). We werent sure if she had received any colostrum from her mother as she never got her milk in which is why I hand reared her. To cut a long story short we arranged a plasma transfusion which is what saved her, got the antibodies into her system which she should have got from her mother within the first 12 hours of life.

Did I say she loved the mud here is a perfect example.

On to the subject of temper tantrums. The first time I turned her out with the bigger horses, one of the mares kicked her, boy was she mad, she couldnt understand why this other horse had kicked her, it had never happened before, she shook her head stamped her feet, threw herself onto the ground rolled back and forth, bounced back up snorting and shaking her head, totally mad and confused at the same time. Well when I disciplined her she would do the same thing which at first was quite funny, who would believe that a horse would have a temper tantrum but here it was happening before my very eyes. And people say horses are just dumb animals, believe me they are anything but LOL.
If I do sell her I will be parting with a piece of my heart. I just hope I can find a great home for her, she is with the trainer who says she has learnt about keeping out of people's space and staying in her own but that she still is a pocket horse, loves people, and is riding pretty well considering the weather we have been having and the lack of time he has been able to spend riding her.

Well that is the story of Wiggle Monster. A bit of a change of pace for my blog, just felt I needed to get that off my chest today.

Hope you are all safe and warm.

Lori