FREE Standard Shipping on Orders $69+ with code: FREESHIPPING
×
Scrapbook.com
Inspiration ⁄ GentlewoodFarms's Gallery ⁄ Page 7
   Previous Next  

Cheers

Give a Cheer
Profile photo
GentlewoodFarms
April 4, 2012

Pasture Ornament

Give cheer Give a Cheer
Favorite

Ever heard the expression, "no good deed goes unpunished?" Well sometimes a good deed brings enrichment and joy into your life and makes you feel really good about yourself every time you remember doing it.

This is Buddy, my rescue horse. When I got him, his name was Buck, and he was three legged lame, living in a fescue pasture that was two inches deep in water. He had abscesses in both front feet and he was crippled to the point that it might have been more humane just to send him to Jesus. But I saw something in his eyes - a determination to live - so I brought him home.

Getting him in the trailer that first time was a project because he was so crippled he couldn't step up into it. We had to create a makeshift ramp from cinderblocks and wood boards. I dosed him with some Bute (like major horse asprin, big time pain killer) and he loaded like a champ and rode home without complaint. He came off the trailer ok - because I managed to back it up to a ridge so he could just step out.

My farrier and I set to work - packing with icthamal, digging out icky goop and all kinds of horrors - rocks, sticks... this horse had been in agony for a long time. He was easy to tend - stood like a rock and never moved, even though I know that standing on one front foot while we tended the other one had to be horribly painful. One abscess was so bad it had eaten its way completely up into the bone. We weren't sure if we were going to be able to save him, but his determination gave US determination. We promised him that as long as he was cooperative, we'd not give up.

Once his feet got dry and stayed dry, they healed fairly quickly - it took about six months - and eventually I realized that my good deed was going to pay off for this horse. He wasn't going to be a full blown cripple. But somewhere in his past, he's seen some hard use. He has an old bowed tendon, and whoever caused the injury didn't care enough about this horse to treat it properly. A bowed tendon CAN be rehabbed, but it takes daily effort of bandaging, hosing, liniments, and supportive wrapping.

I imagine that his former owner just tossed him out into the pasture to let nature take its course, and in this case, nature was unkind. The bow healed badly and as a result, he can't flex his right front fetlock. We did not know how bad the bow was until the feet were clean and healed. He kept getting progressively better, but at some point, my farrier and I both knew, "this is as good as we're going to get."

It's not perfect, but at least he's not in pain anymore. He trots and canters around the pasture with Java and seems to be happy. But he's mechanically lame and will be the rest of his life. He walks with a limp - not bad, but not perfect. Imagine an old war veteran with an arthritic knee.

He's only eight. He's in the prime of his life - and his usefulness as a riding horse is over. He was a reject until he met me, and I was looking for a horse just like him to help rehab another horse that had an injury and was in rehab at my house. Scratch was extremely stressed out being penned up and was fretting badly. He needed a quiet, calm, companion horse that would keep him company but not ask him to play or romp. This horse came off my trailer, walked over to Scratch, put his nose against the panel, and said, "hey, dude. Calm down. Let's eat some of this hay, okay?" From that moment, he was "Buddy."

He's not going anywhere. He's what's called a "Pasture Ornament" and he's worth his weight in gold.


layouts scrapbooking
Report

Cheer sent!

Thanks for spreading positivity!

SavedRemovedChanged