A story to warm your heart!
I made several visits out to the barn last night, where the four of them were inside out of the rain. In the course of those visits, the following tale became apparent. It will warm the cockles of your heart :-)
When they came in, Tetley went to a corner of the barn and started eating haylage. Tia went and stood guard by him. She threatened the other two and sent them packing down the other end of the barn to the other piles of haylage. Tetley would not let her eat, so she went without and continued to guard him until he had stopped eating two hours later because he was full.
At that point, she needed to eat herself and as he still wouldn't allow her to eat from his pile, she had to leave him. Jazz, the monster, took this opportunity to attack him, and I mean attack him. Really violent, really nasty. Tetley tried tentatively to put one foot forwards, looking at Jazz all the time to see if he was "allowed" to move. The answer was no, and a violent, teeth bared, full on charge at him to pin him back in the corner.
Bless Tia's heart, she saved him from that until he had enough food. What a wonderful girl she is!
The rest of the story is - guess who got taken out and spent the night on his own. Yes, Jazz! It wasn't as simple as that of course, nothing is with horses. I got Jazz into a stable but the others escaped from the barn while I was taking him out (thanks Zip, your fault!) and went off to explore the garden, including Superhubby's new piece, newly flattened and seeded after having a sheep dip removed. Sorry SH!!!! There I was, in the dark and rain, trying to control three horses milling excitedly about the yard and part of the garden while another went beserk in a stable. Finally they put themselves back into the barn.
I got Jazz into his own stable where he ran full tilt at the door and split it from top to half way down bottom. The steel bar that SH had put on it just about held although four screws popped out completely. He continue to attack the door, so I threw some haylage in and rapidly fixed the board in place over the top of the door. I had it ready, I thought we'd need it. He stayed quiet then.
An hour later I checked the barn and found Tetley , Zip and Tia, in that order standing touching shoulders, three in a row.
This morning, Jazz was calm and quiet even when I took the board down and he could see out again. And even when I opened the barn door and he could see the other three. He hadn't eaten a shred all night! His choice, he's not thin it won't do him much harm :-)
As we speak Tia and Tetley are in the barn and Zip and Jazz in the field. Later on, they will all go out together. Until I see them in the field as a foresome, or a threesome with someone other than Tetley as the outcast, or as two twosomes, Jazz will spend the night on his own.
What Tetley needs now is calm, consistent handling and food and company. You should have SEEN him this morning after a night cuddling up with the other two. He looks so trusting and confident again, just like he always used to look.
He's clearly fatter already. Now that can't be much true weight that he has put on in under 48 hours, so it must be that his gut is now full, when it was not before. That will account for the poo smelling like it did and his inability to digest unaccustomed fibre. He certainly doesn't appear to have any illnesses now, not improving so rapidly as he is. His dung is a good consistency and smells better. (I gave him live yoghurt last night, did I tell you?). His gut noise is normal. I can't vouch for whether his kidneys are OK but he drank a normal amount when he came in last night, so it seems so.
Tia is recovering her soundness after the glass in the foot. Jazz now has a small split in one of his bars and is lame! I own four horses and I can't ride any of them :-) Not that I have any energy left to do that anyway :-) I only slept 11 hours last night, but it will do for now :-) :-) :-)
C.
posted by cptrayes @ 10:21 AM
10 comments
10 Comments:
Bless Tia what a little treasure she is..got a lump in my throat reading that!
Dont suppose it'l do Jazz any harm to have some time by himself specially as this is one of his hang ups:):)
This was on my mind all night..just wished I could help in some way!
You have been on my mind as well, and a little in my dreams as somehow hungry horses kept walking through. (I was feeding, them, however.)
As for Tia, that is what I had hoped. What a sweetheart.
When Tetley recovers his strength, do you think he will put Jazz in his place, or is Mr. Knowitall too tough? I know Tucker tries to exert his power, but Toby will have none of it, and Tucker is several inches bigger. (Taller and heavier.)
It is beginning to sound as if starvation was the only explanation for Tetley's appalling condition. At least that means he will be recovering quickly. I was worried about that too.
Some of Jazz's attitude may be jealousy as I suspect you have been spending a fair amount of extra time with Tetley. He is one tough horse to break his door with the reenforcement on it. Is that when he injured his foot?
Knowing Allan, I figure he will forgive the foray into his garden, as frustrating as it may have been. I can picture you trying to round up the little herd. Horses, for some reason are always ten times harder to handle when they are outside the proper fences. I think the wild herd instinct kicks in and that "I'm free!" mentality wipes out all training.
So glad things are looking up for your boy.
OK, Ms. Tia. Time to put Jazz in his place once and for all. It sounds as if it's going to take a woman to do the job right. *S*
I think Jazz feels jealous and threatened. I hope that once he is used to Tetley being around, he will no longer feel that way and will just accept him. He's not a boss horse, so there's no reason other than that for the attack.
Jazz's bar split a couple of days back, maybe a week. He was a teeeeeeny bit unsound in the barn one morning, but sound on the road. And the same about two weeks ago, same foot each time. Now there is a definite little hole in his bar but the lameness is much more severe this morning, so something is in there trying to get out. He's making a huge fuss about it, but at least it will stop him running after Tetley!
Thanks for the continued support people. I am quite up, because I have Tetley safe and can look after him. Superhubby's job is done, and he is very flat today. He had an impossibly stressful time last week supporting me in the state I was in, and planning how to get Tetley back, not to mention the HUGE responsibility of actually being expected to succeed in that. Poor guy.
We are all just getting back to normal right now.
C
Just keep reassuring Jazz that Tetley is not there to take his place, but, at the same time, has a rightful place there.
I know it sounds weird, but explain things to him as clearly as you can. Feeding him first or giving him some attention first will also help with the jealousy. I think Tetley is more likely to understand that since he already knows you love him. His confidence may be temporarily down, but you have a long history with him he will rely on.
You could just go out there and calmly talk about the whole situation. Tell Tia you appreciate her protecting Tetley. Tell Tetley he doesn't have to worry about his food. Tell Jazz you are depending on him to be your strong, brave boy. And tell Zip you are grateful for his gentleness with Tetley.
Horses can understand a lot more than people think. We just need to be clear about the messages we give them
excellent news .. and you knew there was a reason you hadn't in fact sold Tia... it's generally a mare that leads a herd, as you know, and she's doing her job!
I like Jean's suggestion re Jazz .. that's probably a really good idea
and where was the camera of those three together?
Looking forward to end of month, will fetch mine ...(hope that plan doesnt' get cancelled now. but at least i'm not having to give up holiday like i did last year!)
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That's what I love about these hot-blood mares, the TB's and Arabs. They might not have the physical power of the warmblood but by 'eck they've got another sort of power ... here's hoping the loving support of his feisty "little sister" (Tetley and Tia - goes together!)will help him recover even quicker. You'll know he's REALLY on the mend when she starts giving him the evil eye ... I bet she'll be a cracker of a broodie when the time comes.
M
I am so tempted to breed from her Michaela, but it's a mugs game in this country. I could buy the four year old unbroken finished product for less than it would cost me to breed it, and have none of the risk of death, bent legs, accident, ugly throwback that I have seen my friends go through!
C
"and have none of the risk of death, bent legs, accident, ugly throwback that I have seen my friends go through! " and thats just their kids eh! ;-)
I'm interested in Jean's question too about this putting Jazz in his place...herd dynamic has changed so it will be interesting to see if that puts Jazz lower down the order!
Big hugs for Tetley anyway, I hope he is going to be back to his old self soon
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