Vet visit

Last May, Never (the 3yr old colt I had gelded in December) smashed his pasture gate and got in with the mares. I didn't think he covered anyone, but recently a couple of the mares are looking a little more round than usual. Considering the possible due date would be while I'm at Rolex, and the fact that one of the mares is 25 while the others are maiden mares, I thought it best to know for sure if they are or if I'm just paranoid.

I'm not totally sure which vet will be coming out, but it should be one of the two that I requested. Dr. Johnson is great, he talks to you and explains everything, and doesn't treat you like an idiot. Dr Esser is the new vet, and she seems nice enough, so I'm willing to give her a chance. She's the one that gelded Never, and she fielded my paranoid follow up phone questions with patience and grace. She also tracked down information on spaying mares for me, so she's got bonus points right there.

I'm not sure what result I'm hoping for at this point. I'm sort of half hoping that Emmy (Diadem Fa-Emerald) is pregnant. The plus side would be that she's purebred Arab, so the baby would be purebred. Emmy and Never's pedigrees are both heavy Crabbet and CMK, so that's a plus. And Emmy is the last of her bloodlines, a Royal Diamond granddaughter on her dam's side mixed with Babson and old Egyptian on her sire's side.

The minus side, of course, would be her age (25), and the fact that this would only be her second foal. Her first was born 4 years ago, and she didn't live long. We think she may have been a 'dummy' foal, but she may have had coat color dilution lethal, or lavender foal syndrome. I'm going to send some DNA samples in for a study, I hope it helps find a test like the one for SCID.

The other possibly pregnant mares that I'm having tested are Hope and Faith. Both are acting a little different, I haven't seen either in heat lately, and while Hope is a high percentage Pinto Arabian, Faith is a graying-out brown grade Quarter horse. Both have excellent conformation and any babies would be registrable as Half-Arabs. Problem is, I don't think I have enough room at the inn, so to speak. I have two possible foaling stalls, though if I got creative I could maybe have three. I'll definitely need to make separate pastures so no one gets bullied or chased, but I was going to do that anyway.

So, I don't know how this is going to go. I guess in the end, I'm just hoping for healthy, happy mares. If they have foals, I'll love them no matter what and I'm prepared to keep them forever if need be.

Gelding day postponed

Nevermore was scheduled to get snipped today, but the vet called this morning and said that it was way too cold to safely sedate him at the farm. So, after much thought, I rescheduled for Thursday at the clinic. Now I need to track down a trailer (I have a few leads) and hope he remembers how to load. I may also call and schedule Alex too, but he's not as urgent to get done as Never is.

By getting Never gelded I can play musical pastures: Bahim goes in his old paddock, the younger/dominant mares get the paddock that Bahim was in, and the older mares can get the big pasture. Everybody will have access to ice-free water, hay, and shelter, and a sperm-free Nevermore will have other horses to keep him company.

I moved everybody around this morning in anticipation of the vet visit (she called as I was leading Bahim to his pen), so Never is going to be staying in the round pen for the next couple of days. He will be coming in at night, though, as it's supposed to be pretty frigid for the next week or so. I picked up a heated water bucket so he has ice-free water, and I hope to tie some sort of material to the pen to help block the wind, as he's gotten used to a run-in shelter.

I can't wait until this is all done. Too bad spaying mares isn't this easy.