A fourth of July to die for...

...another year has gone.  Funny how I mark years not by the Christmas season, New Year, or even the beginning of the school year.  Nope... The year starts and ends with the 4th of July.  So much happened over the fourth of July weekend.  I took Friday through Tuesday off work, and the sun came out to play.  Of course my holiday revolved around 2 things:  Horses, and Rodeo.

Friday was a standard drill team practice, nothing too special.  Horses did great, the team did awesome, and everyone got along. Saturday we headed out to the Rodeo in St Paul.  Sunday was a bit more challenging as something very unexpected happened.

My boss and her kids came out to ride my paint gelding (such a good babysitter).  I got to the barn early to feed so he wouldn't be pushy with the six year old.  But as I walked out to his pasture, I noticed his buddy, my thoroughbred was not acting himself.  Will is normally the bully (see previous posts) ramming his big head into me, nickering / screaming for food.  Not on Sunday morning.  He looked at me with his eyes droopy, looked at the hay, and then lay down in a pile of his own poop.

Now, I have had that horse for almost a year, and let me tell you - HE DOES NOT LAY DOWN.  So I immediately knew something was wrong.  I grabbed a halter and rope, and made my way over to a very tired, very sick thoroughbred.  By the time I got him on his feet he was shaking, sweating and generally not happy.  The kids had arrived by then, and wanted to know everything there was to know about why my horse was sick, and when would he be better so they could ride the paint.

I called the vet, suspecting colic after I noticed Will kicking and biting his sides.  I finally got a vet to come out and check on him, and we both became worried when his temperature spiked at almost 104.  We had to sedate him to do a rectal exam, which came out fine.  The blood sample was on its way to the clinic by the time the vet told me he suspected Rhino.  Great.  Rhino.  Just what I frikin needed.  I put the horse in his stall to chill out, and took a deep breath.  There was nothing I could do but wait for the blood test to come back.

It came back all clear.  So what was wrong with my horse?  The kids rode, and I got ready for the parades the following day (Monday the 4th).  Larry got a bath, and he got a tune up right before bed time.  I checked on Will, took his temp and gave him the electrolytes and probiotics the vet gave me.

And then the next day Will lost his whinny.

I had no choice but to go to the parades and the rodeo on Monday.  Larry was all ready to go, the team was counting on me, and I had to just get er done.  So I put some apple juice in Will's water and prayed to god he would drink something while I was gone.

When I came home, he was covered in little pock mark like bites... hives maybe?  And he still had no whinny.  The vet gave me some more bute and we wondered if he might have some sort of Laryngitis or something... so we hoped the Bute would take away the sore throat.  It worked, and within 2 days, my boy charged me at the fence again...

Naughty boy.  Gotta love him. I'll go into detail a little later about our wild Rodeo weekend :)