Wednesday, May 7, 2025
Take the Picture Anyway.
In the past I have taken my horse out during their last few weeks to let them graze the better patches of grass. I stood and watched them, remembering our time together. I took photos, lots of photos and the odd short video of them grazing.
I decided to take a photo each day I took Brat out to graze this year. It's a record of the year, and also a challenge to not take the same photo over and over. Two weeks after I started I'm already feeling like I'm just taking the same photos. Yet I keep taking pictures.
Several years ago a friend and I did a photo day for our horses. She wanted a nice portrait shot to hang on her wall, and I was always up for taking photos of my two. The horses were good - not entirely cooperative all the time, but I kept taking pictures. Digital cameras are a wonderful invention! In the end the best photos of the day, the ones we had enlarged and printed on canvas, were not at all what we had in mind when we started. They were moments where the horses weren't posing the way we wanted, they were doing something else and I had continued to take pictures.
I remember that day's lesson every now and then. On the day this photo was taken I thought I had missed the light, took a few photos hoping one would be okay. Then the sun set, the last light of day came through under the clouds, and I took this picture.
Take the photos. Keep shooting even if you don't think it will turn out. You might just get something special.
Thursday, May 1, 2025
The Long Slow Build To Euthanasia Part 4
It's been three weeks since Brat got his Osphos injection, and two weeks after starting back on Previcox. The ground is drying up, despite the frequent rainy days. And in the last week spring has reached the tipping point as things begin to grow again.
Last week green started to appear in the fields of dry, brown grass. Seemingly overnight they turned more green than brown. A few days ago I spotted the first pale green fuzz of new leaves on the willow trees that I drive past on my way to the barn. A couple of days ago there were a few more trees waving tiny green leaves in the woods along the road. In past years this was the time Brat's winter trace clip changed colour as the dark summer coat grew through the pale clipped areas. I haven't clipped him in the last two winters as he hasn't been working hard enough to need it. I kind of miss watching the clipped maple leaves on his shoulders disappear.
We have had more very warm days than cold in the last week and Brat's breath rate has been higher than it should be. His lungs sound all right, leading me to conclude that he's just been too warm. So today I gave him an apron clip. I'll do more if necessary. I want him to be comfortable.
Comfortable and happy. The next six months may be all we have left. While I hold that tiny hope for more, I don't want to miss out on what time we do have. The grass is growing, and I have started taking Brat out for a walk and half hour graze. I hope to take him out to graze every day (with as few exceptions as possible) during the next six months. Today we got wet. I'm sure it won't be the last day we're standing in the rain while he picks out the best bits of green.
Thursday, April 17, 2025
The Long Slow Build To Euthanasia Part 3
Thursday, April 10, 2025
The Long Slow Build To Euthanasia - Part 2
Saturday, April 5, 2025
The Long Slow Build To Euthanasia - Part 1
Thursday, February 15, 2024
The Promise of "How Things Should Be"
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Photo by Wendy Webb Photography |
Very few of my best horse memories are of competitive events, but this one weekend with my fourth horse, Rory, was special. It was my favourite endurance ride, not that I'd done very many by then. It was the closest ride, and one for which I did a lot of pre-ride volunteering.
Saturday, January 13, 2024
The Limits of Veterinary Care
There comes a time in a horse's life when the limits on veterinary care, both dollars and treatments, will change. Depending on when you got the horse, this may occur more than once.
My super horse, Brat, has been with me since he was only a few days old. At one point when he was in his prime, I was going away for a few days, and I wrote care limit letters to my barn owners and vet for him and Tommy (the horse who inspired this blog). The letters were to provide authorization for treatment in the event they couldn't reach me. At that time Tommy was retired and at the point of pain management. His letter had a lower dollar amount and a "no hospital" directive. Brat's letter had a much higher dollar amount and permission to take him to the hospital if the odds favoured a good outcome.
Brat has a few well managed health issues, and is still in very good shape for his age. It's only in the last year that I've been seeing the indications that he is a senior horse. As much as I would like him to live for ever, we're at the point of having perhaps a handful of years left.
He colicked in December 2023. A month ago, as I write this. I caught it early and had called the vet about an hour after he stopped eating. It seemed a fairly straight forward gas colic, and he hadn't had time to develop secondary issues like dehydration. But he was still uncomfortable ten hours later, and still showing the tension line of pain on his belly the next morning. We had the vet out a second time, and I had to tell them that Brat was not a surgical candidate. If he had to go to the vet hospital for treatment, we would be euthanizing him.
It was a heart stopping, gut wrenching realization that my Super Brat is no longer young.
As our horses age we learn manage the issues that develop. It is easy to add one more little thing, and then another, until we have a carefully balanced house of cards. As long as nothing upsets it, we can keep things going. Brat has three chronic health issues, and has been healing a stifle injury and reinjury for over a year. Stall rest would upset the management of two of his chronic issues, and not do the stifle any good either.
It is important to regularly assess our horse's management and health, and think not just about what our dollar limit is on emergency care, but also on how current health issues and management would be affected by various treatments. While not a pleasant task, it is easier than trying to make emotionally charged decisions in the middle of a crisis. Knowing those limitations can help with treatment during an emergency. I had considered giving Brat some anti gas and waiting for an hour or so to see how he did, but because of his age and not being a surgical candidate, I decided to call the vet sooner than later.
We did get the colic resolved and cause addressed, and Brat is back to normal. And I realize that it's past time to update his veterinary care authorization letter.