Happy 5th Birthday Inca!!!!! :dance:
I cannot believe that she is 5 already!!!!! It's not been easy going but I finally feel like we're starting to get somewhere.
This is her story so far....
When Inca was 2 months old she started getting bad impaction colics, she couldn't
oop: and was looking very sorry for herself. A colic workup later and she'd perked up, but her and Puz had to be box rested so that Inca was definitely only getting milk. She went back out into the field and colicked almost straight away again.
We had seen people feeding the horses potatoes over the fence and they hadn't stopped this despite repeated requests, so I moved yards as we all thought this was a likely cause. A few months later, we weaned Inca and she colicked again, this time she was getting a swollen lump next to her bottom, the vet thought this may just be from where she was straining so hard to go to the loo.
The next day I went out to the field in the rain to find my beloved foalie flat out in the field, covered in mud and freezing cold. She'd been there a while and was really struggling, I managed to get her up and walk the 1/2 mile back to the stable yard. The lump under her tail was worse and I was petrified that she'd ruptured something, I put her back in with Puz in the hope that it would ease her stress and the milk would help give her some much needed strength.
Inca started thrashing round the stable and rubbing herself on the walls, the lump turned out to be an abcess that had been forming within her hindquarters and had got enourmous! The cavity was larger than a grapefruit, which in a 6 month old foal who has matured at 13.3hh is pretty big! She was a diamond to treat, the cavity had to be flushed out twice a day with iodine solution, I just couldn't fault her in the slightest and she didn't once complain about being on box rest yet again. She healed very quickly and very well!
Six months down the road she managed to get herself badly stuck in the electric fencing and cut up her legs, more box rest needed as this was in winter and on vet's orders we weren't to risk the wounds getting infected.
So, by the time she was just over a year old she had been through one hell of alot and I was regretting not calling her Jinx!
She went to live out in another herd for that winter before I moved in with my OH which meant a big relocation to Surrey. The yard I chose offered grass livery and had pretty experienced staff so seemed ideal. Sadly the staffing situation changed just as I made the decision to bring Inca in to be stabled and start her education, this lead to a number of major misunderstandings between her and the new staff, cue one very confused and angry young mare & one very stressed out owner!
We were there for two years (the second one being a total nightmare) and finally left as we had completed on our house purchase that meant the horses be kept at home.
Inca is now lunging and long reining like a pro, backed but needs schooling on and we're going to spend this summer tackling hacking. Her behaviour has improved so much over the last six months but we still have a way to go and hopefully by her 6th birthday I'll be able to post all about our progress :happy:
........cookies for anyone who got to the end of my essay!
I cannot believe that she is 5 already!!!!! It's not been easy going but I finally feel like we're starting to get somewhere.
This is her story so far....
When Inca was 2 months old she started getting bad impaction colics, she couldn't
oop: and was looking very sorry for herself. A colic workup later and she'd perked up, but her and Puz had to be box rested so that Inca was definitely only getting milk. She went back out into the field and colicked almost straight away again.We had seen people feeding the horses potatoes over the fence and they hadn't stopped this despite repeated requests, so I moved yards as we all thought this was a likely cause. A few months later, we weaned Inca and she colicked again, this time she was getting a swollen lump next to her bottom, the vet thought this may just be from where she was straining so hard to go to the loo.
The next day I went out to the field in the rain to find my beloved foalie flat out in the field, covered in mud and freezing cold. She'd been there a while and was really struggling, I managed to get her up and walk the 1/2 mile back to the stable yard. The lump under her tail was worse and I was petrified that she'd ruptured something, I put her back in with Puz in the hope that it would ease her stress and the milk would help give her some much needed strength.
Inca started thrashing round the stable and rubbing herself on the walls, the lump turned out to be an abcess that had been forming within her hindquarters and had got enourmous! The cavity was larger than a grapefruit, which in a 6 month old foal who has matured at 13.3hh is pretty big! She was a diamond to treat, the cavity had to be flushed out twice a day with iodine solution, I just couldn't fault her in the slightest and she didn't once complain about being on box rest yet again. She healed very quickly and very well!
Six months down the road she managed to get herself badly stuck in the electric fencing and cut up her legs, more box rest needed as this was in winter and on vet's orders we weren't to risk the wounds getting infected.
So, by the time she was just over a year old she had been through one hell of alot and I was regretting not calling her Jinx!
She went to live out in another herd for that winter before I moved in with my OH which meant a big relocation to Surrey. The yard I chose offered grass livery and had pretty experienced staff so seemed ideal. Sadly the staffing situation changed just as I made the decision to bring Inca in to be stabled and start her education, this lead to a number of major misunderstandings between her and the new staff, cue one very confused and angry young mare & one very stressed out owner!
We were there for two years (the second one being a total nightmare) and finally left as we had completed on our house purchase that meant the horses be kept at home.
Inca is now lunging and long reining like a pro, backed but needs schooling on and we're going to spend this summer tackling hacking. Her behaviour has improved so much over the last six months but we still have a way to go and hopefully by her 6th birthday I'll be able to post all about our progress :happy:
........cookies for anyone who got to the end of my essay!
