OK so lets start with little Coco. When her bloods came back from her initial Cushings test her ACTH levels were around 135. I have no expertise in Vet Blood Tests! But 135 is high. Normal ponies have ACTH levels of around 13. Please don't ask what ACTH is!!!!! Something to do with Cortisol, Insulin levels! What we do know is that Cushings is similar to diabetes in humans and the ability to process sugar levels in the normal way. So Coco has been on Pracsend (a Cushings Drug) for 5 weeks. She has also had homeopathic and herbal treatment (but please don't tell the Vet). In that 5 weeks her improvement has been outstanding. Her ACTH levels have dropped to around 30. The Vet was gobsmacked!! Pracsend doesn't normally work miracles that quickly. She is slowly gaining muscle.....and better still for us.....she has become a cheeky madam!! We let her graze free range for a couple of hours daily. She is now cantering away when we try to catch her to put her back with the others. That might not be a Win for some people. But for us, it shows her personality coming out, and her energy levels and zest for life!!
And so the long awaited Top Barn Challenge is GO GO GO. We all started Day 1 with great enthusiasm, despite the rain. Jo chose to tidy Lu up, while I did some Treat Manners with Charlie. Meg went big with Daisy and took her off to what we call "The School". A roped off area measuring nothing like a school!!!! Daisy was having a frilly moment. Meg took Jo off to see what she was doing. After some time had passed I realised I could hear a commotion. Charlie and Lu were upset (in fact Lu was rearing up against the Barn sides). So I turned them both out to find Daisy had run through the Stock Fence at the bottom of the "School" and had a foot trapped. Not only was her foot through the Stock Fence, but she had somehow got it UNDER her shoe!!! A tense hour passed, while we tried every cutting device we had, to no avail. By the time Daisy had consumed every apple and carrot we had, not to mention a hastily filled hay-net (Thank you Nancy - aged 7 - for filling it up quick smart), Jo manged to borrow some heavy duty wire cutters, and we finally freed the idiot!! Luckily the Farrier was due the next day, as Daisy had managed to get some wire between her shoe and hoof!!!!!
With no harm done, we had a good week. By Saturday Jo and I had pretty much achieved our hours and ended Week one on a high. We all went for walkies together. Jo riding Lu, and Meg and I long reining Daisy and Charlie. The sun was out, and despite the fact the temperature never climbed above 3c we were all feeling Spring-like. Meg then realized Covid had got the better of her and had to quit the Challenge. Meg works as an OT and Nancy her daughter is only 7. With the whole of the UK in Lockdown, Nancy was home-schooling again. Only this time Home-schooling doesn't mean 5 hours of PE and Nature. This time round poor Nancy has to actually attend online lessons, so Meg has now become teacher and health care worker! Never mind, there's always next year.
Jo and I started week 2 with a solid 45mins of training. We bounced into Day 2 fully intending to bag another hour as the sun was out and the temperature up to a tropical 5c. But we were met with the sight of all the small ponies in with Daisy, and Charlie and Lu in the Minis paddock. After Minor heart attacks, we discovered that there was not a single scrape on any pony. However the Electric Fencing between the paddocks was trashed!! Electric string broken and tangled up like a ball of wool mangled by a kitten, 4 fence posts shattered into pieces and the Paddock cut up like a Full six Chukkas of Polo had been played. It took us a precious hour to fix it all up! Turns out Lily has come into season. Charlie is in lurve. But so is Lulu. Lily is a hussy. She has been flashing, squirting and flirting over the fence, then when she gets the attention she wants, from either the Alpha Mare, or The Gelding, neither of which are capable of scratching her itch, she strikes out at the fence. Tune in next week to find out what fence related incident has thwarted our Challenge!!!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment