As mentioned earlier in this blog, last weekend I attended a living history event at Ft. MacArthur. A friend of mine brought his horse out to Ft. MacArthur was part of an 11th Cavalry display. Everything went fine until it was time to go home when the horse refused to load into his travel trailer.
I happened to be coming by to say my goodbyes so he asked me to help get the horse into the trailer. I'm no trailer expert but it seemed to me that the first problem was that the horse had decided that he didn't want to leave. The horse doesn't get a lot of exercise and my friend really hasn't put in a lot of training. I had ridden the horse earlier and I know from that and past experience that he tends to be a bit willful and needs an occassional "discussion".
We tried all manner of methods including giving the horse a dose of Ace Promazine. Unfortunately, we were basically in a wrestling war which we wouldn't be able to win. Finally, the horse decided that he'd had enough and he reared back, broke the lead rope and fell over to his side nearly rolling on top of me- I was lucky to duck aside and roll down a hill. No had done but it looked like I'd been clocked in the head.
I finally have to leave but when I contacted my friend the next day to find out what happened, it turned out that the horse had colic and he most likely didn't want to load because he was sick. My friend had to stay at Ft. Mac overnight and the vet came out the next day to treat the horse. Fortunately, all it took was IV fluids and Banamine. The horse was ulimately transported home in a stock trailer- his normal travel trailer is just too small.
I guess the moral of this story is that none of us really saw this coming although later my friend told me that the horse hadn't really drunk much water that entire weekend nor had he eaten carrots that had been given to him- which is usually one big clue that something is amiss.
It's kind of disturbing- I was expecting more dramatic symptoms but upon doing some reading, the symptoms can be more subtle. I guess I need to bone up on this some more- I don't want this to happen to Max. It also confirmed once again why I will never use a straight-load trailer.
For more information, go HERE.
I happened to be coming by to say my goodbyes so he asked me to help get the horse into the trailer. I'm no trailer expert but it seemed to me that the first problem was that the horse had decided that he didn't want to leave. The horse doesn't get a lot of exercise and my friend really hasn't put in a lot of training. I had ridden the horse earlier and I know from that and past experience that he tends to be a bit willful and needs an occassional "discussion".
We tried all manner of methods including giving the horse a dose of Ace Promazine. Unfortunately, we were basically in a wrestling war which we wouldn't be able to win. Finally, the horse decided that he'd had enough and he reared back, broke the lead rope and fell over to his side nearly rolling on top of me- I was lucky to duck aside and roll down a hill. No had done but it looked like I'd been clocked in the head.
I finally have to leave but when I contacted my friend the next day to find out what happened, it turned out that the horse had colic and he most likely didn't want to load because he was sick. My friend had to stay at Ft. Mac overnight and the vet came out the next day to treat the horse. Fortunately, all it took was IV fluids and Banamine. The horse was ulimately transported home in a stock trailer- his normal travel trailer is just too small.
I guess the moral of this story is that none of us really saw this coming although later my friend told me that the horse hadn't really drunk much water that entire weekend nor had he eaten carrots that had been given to him- which is usually one big clue that something is amiss.
It's kind of disturbing- I was expecting more dramatic symptoms but upon doing some reading, the symptoms can be more subtle. I guess I need to bone up on this some more- I don't want this to happen to Max. It also confirmed once again why I will never use a straight-load trailer.
For more information, go HERE.
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