Poor Bay Girl. I introduced her today to the torturous flymask, something I'm 100% she has never had to deal with before. Now that summer is in full swing (no, really...), the flies have become unbearable, and I wanted to give the poor girl a little bit of relief from the neverending swarm. She is pretty sensitive to bug bites, and has a number of little welts all over her. A good spritz with the flyspray was no cause for concern, but the flymask? Would she let me get it on?
Barely, but we did it. I rubbed her casually all over with the mask, letting her sniff and get accustomed to the idea of the weird meshy thing before attempting to rub it on her face. She didn't seem to mind much, pulling away a little when it touched her forehead, but she soon relaxed into it. When it got onto her forehead, she pulled back, alarmed and unsure of what was about to happen. I couldn't reach out to her while she was scooting around at the end of her lead rope with the flymask half on, so I had to just talk quietly to her and let her think it out. This has worked well for her in the past, and this time was no exception. Bay Girl's consistent response to anything she is unsure about is to skitter around at the end of her rope until she realizes that whatever she is concerned about is not going to eat her, and then she stops and thinks about it. This time was no exception, and after a moment, she stopped and waited for me to help. When she stopped snorting and flailing, I was able to talk gently to her and pull the flymask up onto her ears and attach the velcro. After that, she was fine.
Following her dinner, I was watching her mill around for awhile, and I became a little concerned when she started doing the flehmen response repeatedly (AKA the stinky smile). Since horses tend to do that when they are a bit colicky, I was pretty worried, but decided instead to try taking off her new-smelling flymask and see if that was the problem. Sure enough, she stopped when the flymask came off... maybe it really did just smell weird. She was not amused with the removal of the flymask either (oh god, it's touching my ears!), so we will see how she does tomorrow with the mask.
I was also able to do a better hack job on her mane than the previous hack job that I had done. Poor thing was sporting a horrible bowl cut... I had to do something!
It's not great, but it is better than it was! She's looking rough right now... no topline, saggy mom belly, somewhat empty demeanor. I'm not sure she really enjoys her mom job all that much... it's taking a lot out of her to keep that colt fat and well-fed.
After me walking in repeatedly to check on her after I took off the flymask, I think she was a bit tired of me at the end of the day! On my final check, she moved away a few steps like, "please just let me take a nap! I'm fine!" All was forgiven with a good scratch and a facerub though. Sweet girl.
Donations have now reached up to $468.20!!!!!! That is almost halfway there!!!!! :D
Little man's growing so fast, no wonder she's feeling the strain! That coat though, just beautiful. Do horses have any long term effects after giving birth, or does everything more or less tighten back up to pre-pregnancy condition given the right care? Can you tell if a mare has had foals a few years down the track?
ReplyDeleteI noticed the care you took in Bay girls hair cut, you should give me some tips in the cutting of it, Ive been gradually pulling my girls mane, but she doesn't have that much debt to it to continue. And keep up the good work, It makes my day to see you have written a post about horses. I am a long time follower and fellow barefoot believer. Your doing some wonderful things out there!
ReplyDeleteI like her mane. It looks great! :D Congrats on getting halfway there. Soon Bay Girl will be yours! So exciting. I'm so happy for both of you. I don't blame her for not enjoying motherhood. Babies are exhausting!
ReplyDeleteAndrea,
ReplyDeleteA quick question if you would be so kind as to answer it.
I'm curious about the whole embryo transfer process for the colt. $1000 seems extremely cheap to pay for a mare.. or a hired uterus... how much do they charge the owner of the colt for the rental of bay girl? Or are they just making their money on the embryo transfer process? I'm trying to figure out the business model here and I always assumed that ET would be super expensive and therefore only used for mares who had super careers and were worth mega bucks?
Granted Red Colt's mama might just be a super reining champ but I really never thought that the technology would become commonplace.
How much does this cost in the US and is it becoming a relatively common thing?
Scylla, I don't actually know how much they charge the owner of the colt for Bay Girl's lease/uterus rental... I know they implanted about 6 or 7 surrogates and Bay Girl was the only one who took. They tried to get the actual mare pregnant a million times and she would never take or keep the embryo. The mama was a roping horse... which are a dime a dozen so I have no idea why they bothered to spend so much money.... I mean she could have been super amazingly bred or something, or they were just that attached to her? Either way, embryo transfer is $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$. And I mean $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$!
ReplyDeleteHow much are you up to now, if Chipin isn't showing the full amount?
ReplyDeleteThanks for taking the time to answer my question Andrea.
ReplyDeleteIt did seem a little bizarre to me.