January 5, 2026
I don’t think we will ever make it through one year without one of the horses needing serious medical attention that warrants a vet visit. I would love to be one of those horse owners that only see their vet once a year for vaccinations! Unfortunately that is not the case for me. This year I took on 2 extra horses(as if 5 horses was not enough).
I picked up an older pony in the spring with bad feet and apparent lameness issues, and a rehabilitated thoroughbred mare this fall. The pony is cute and smart as a button, but is starting to founder. So riding him is a day by day observation. The mare on the other hand, is completely rideable but still slightly under weight and will have to be on joint medication for life.
Both horses have adapted well to the nightly stalled life and are eager and waiting with the rest of the horses at the gate when they decide it is feeding time! Horses have an amazing internal clock and are creatures of habit. They quickly learned what time we preferred to feed them to accommodate our hectic schedules and they will stand at the gate patiently(or sometimes not so patiently) waiting! For example, today
Several months ago Lady(the thoroughbred mare) came in for the night with a huge wound on her left butt muscle. On a weekend night of course, so we cleaned the wound the best that we could until the vet could come check her out. It became severely infected and was necrotic when the vet arrived. Thoroughbreds, in my opinion, have a low pain tolerance! She was cleaned and another incision was made below the wound so that we could flush the wound daily. We also gave her antibiotics to help her fight any more infection.
If only we could hear her story, the vet decided that she had been bitten by another horse. The problem being that we do not know which horse bit her. Do I have my suspicions…of course I do! We have 3 mares and 4 geldings. The mares have their spats, but have never drawn blood. I strongly suspect one of my geldings was the culprit. But unfortunately, without proof, I will never know which one did it. I guess I will have to give them all saddle time, I’m sure they won’t mind at all! The mare has healed up nicely and we are back in the saddle again.