I have never done this before, both writing a blog, and raising a blind foal. So let me catch you up to speed, as I've been on this journey now for about 3 1/2 days...
Lets start on Thursday March 31, 2011. I was getting excited, a mare I have on lease Zoey (Royal Senna X Goldschleager) a Hanoverian maiden mare was showing signs she was going to foal out. I had been concerned when 6 weeks earlier she had started bagging up, at this point in time she was 2 months early. So out the vet came and gave us the all clear, except her combined uterine placental thickness was just a smidge over what was normal for her gestation length. So we put her on Regumate and Antibiotics for a few weeks. She continued to bag up, up until about 3 weeks ago she stopped, (fairly full at this point in time) and hadn't changed since. That was until about 3 days before she foaled, when she filled all the way up and began to have a bit of wax on her udders. So back to Thursday, I have had my eyes on her all day, her tail head was quite relaxed her vulva was relaxed, her belly had dropped, and she was fully waxed up. She was showing all the signs that she was going to have her kid sooner than later. However she was a maiden mare so you never truly know what they are going to do. I was mildly freaking out because I was just about to start my night shifts at my job for 7 nights and here was my mare primed and ready to pop. But to my surprise and luck she started becoming more and more restless and started getting up and down just after noon hour. I was hoping to get into town to do some last minute shopping but my plans were quickly stopped when I found her laying down by her hay bale in the field, I went out to check on her, you couldn't see anything sticking out at this time but I parted her lips and there was the amniotic sac, about 4 inches from the lips of her vulva. I sprang into action and brought her inside right away.
Now just try to picture this, a large framed 16.3 hh Hanoverian mare being dragged in by a 130 lbs person, I had the lead over my shoulder leaning into the rope dragging her every step into the barn.
Anyways so I called my hubby for back up, he was there about 5 min later, and everything proceeded on in a text book manner. It had been a very long year filled with pain and grief, so once I knew the kid was out and everyone was safe and sound I was ecstatic. The happiest I had been when one of my babies were born in a long time. Not to mention this was a very nice mare and I had been eagerly awaiting this foal for about 2 years (she didn't catch the first year). In my excitement I grabbed my phone and called the stallion owner who is also a good friend, and I was filling her in on the good news when I stopped in my tracks, I just noticed his eyes. Something was SERIOUSLY wrong. His eyes were not normal, they were considerably smaller than what they should have been and I couldn't see his eyes. I told her I would call her back and went to examined him closer. To my complete shock I confirmed what I first noticed, and I knew right away this horse was blind and would NEVER see. Although I had never witness or encountered this previously I just knew he was screwed and I was either going to have to put him down or have to figure out how on earth I was going to raise a completely blind foal.
The vet was called none the less, just to confirm what I saw, he was very little help. I probably could have saved my self the call fee and visit, because he looked at him for 2 secs and said "there is nothing I can do, if he was mine I would put him down." There is one thing knowing your reality and a whole other thing to hear it. There were lots of tears, and I was at war with my self as what I wanted to do. This kid was perfect in every other way. He was dark bay, with a big white blaze and 2 high back socks, he was exactly how I pictured him minus the eyes. He was strong too, and extremely lively. He was trying to get up long before mom ever decided to get up, he was hungry and drank eagerly from a bottle, and he was spunky, he would try to buck when you touched his rump and he fought you if you tried to cradle him. How could I put something down that obviously had a zest for life. I knew putting him down was probably what I should do, and I knew that most people would choose that decision. But on further thought I realized putting him down was the easy thing to do, keeping him alive was the fair thing to do but the hard thing. He's a living breathing being and he deserves the chance to live if he wants to. And from what I could see he wanted to.
Tony (the hubby) was smitten too, he loved the little guy right from the get go, and putting him down was the furthest thing from his mind. I agreed. So to the Internet I went, I researched what to do with blind horses and I found many very hopeful and promising stories about blind horses that get along just fine, and a few that are still ridden. But these horses were born with sight and lost sight due to eye diseases, how was it going to work with a foal born blind from day 1??
I found a great site called
http://www.blindhorses.org/ basically it's the first thing that comes up when you google blind horses. But none the less it's very informative, and insightful. I was renewed and relieved. It had been done before and with great success. But it wasn't going to be easy.
So we had to develop a plan, and the first thing was to ensure that he was going to be able to nurse on his own. There was no way I was going to be able to go out and nurse the kid every hours for weeks on end. but I was lucky and didn't have to worry too long about that. It took a little bit longer than a normal foal, but not too much more. After about 4 hours he was able to find the udder on his own. We (Tony and I) were able to use a beer bottle and a lamb's nipple to keep milk going into him and his drive strong, until he found the udder on his own, and then we were able to use the bottle to show him how to get to mom's udder. Using the smell of milk he eventually latched on all by himself and from then on he was good to go.
One thing I noticed was the poor kid wasn't confident enough in himself to actually lay down. Every time I went out to check on him he was up and walking around. Sometimes just standing there looking a tad sorry for himself. So I had to manually put him down, and even though he fought me the second he hit the straw he practically passed right out, and looked quite relieved that he didn't have to stand up anymore
.
So I decided he needed a strong name, something that matched who he was, and that's how he became known as Will. Like Willpower, both him and I are going to need a lot of it to get through this adventure in one piece. It suited him.
So that was day one. I stayed home that night, and checked on him throughout the night. He continued to nurse on his own well, I could breath easier at that point.
So day 2 came along, and I was feeling a tad sorry for myself. I would go out and check on him and just cry because he looked so sad with his little eyes, and the blind head tilt. Here was this big beautiful boy who couldn't see a damn thing. Although he was starting to figure out his boundaries, he still ran into walls and the water buckets. He would nicker all the time trying to find mom, or just run around in circles. He seemed to spend most of his time right close to the walls of the stall I think he felt safer when he knew where the edges of his boundaries were. I was once again torn with what I was going to do with him, keep or euthanize... Even though we had already made the decision I started to second guess my self when the full weight of my new responsibilities fell on my shoulders like a ton of bricks. Did I really want to do this, how was I going to fit all of this into my already packed schedule. How was Zoey going to be able to deal, as she was going to have to be confined to a stall for as long as it took me to get a paddock blind baby proofed. I had a lot of worries and doubts but I eventually realized that time will tell. Worse case scenario if he was proving to have too tough of a time then we would just have to euthanize him at a later date. But at least I gave him a chance to show me what he wanted to do.
So wiping the tears away I trudged forward knowing that I can't just give up on him, and it couldn't be that hard to raise a blind foal, I have no problem with the tough love stuff. He's going to have to either figure it out or he's not going to make it. It was as simple as that! But he's smart, so I have no doubt he will figure his strange life out, after all it's all he's ever going to know. He doesn't know what it's like to have sight.
So by Friday I started trying to figure out how to blind baby proof one smaller paddock I have at the front of my property. Which fortunately is sitting empty. Tony made a great suggestion that we put gravel around the perimeter so he can feel the change in footing and will know that the fence is close by. I was going to have to keep things in the same spot so he would know where to find them. I also started looking into better fencing because all I have up is electrical. Unfortunately the type of fencing I really wanted is just out of my budget right now. But I got the gravel ordered at least and it was delivered just after 1: 30. I put the word out there that I needed a diamond/small square wire mesh fence, and I found 1 roll. So now I need to find 3 more rolls.
So in the mean time I take mom and baby out for long walks so he can stretch his legs. I have about 40 acres of hay fields in the back of the property, so I lead baby and mom follows the whole time. He is a spunky one!! Once he figure out that he wasn't going to hit a wall he proceeded in trying to drag me around at full speed. Thankfully he's just small so I'm still stronger than him. I tried a few times to keep up with him, but apparently I'm not in as great of shape as I thought. But at least he started figuring out how to be lead.
By day 3 mom was getting a bit restless, and Will still hadn't figured out how to lay down on his own. So we went for a walk again, a little longer this time. And I tried to run with him even more. I think I tired him out this time. We headed back to the stall, and I had to re-orient him with the smaller confines. He looked really tired so I laid him back down. He napped and I cleaned the stall. I continued to look for more fencing but between working night shift and trying to catch up on sleep and taking care of my new duo I didn't really have much time.
By the next day I am pleased to report that he has finally figured out how to sleep on his own!! Thank goodness. I caught him once napping, and Tony found him once in the morning. I feel even happier now. He's getting even more oriented with his stall, he's starting to walk around the stall more confidently, he knows where the edges are now, and he isn't running into the wall as bad. I feel confident that he's going to get along just fine.
Now to just find time to work on that paddock of his.
Stay tuned for photos and continued updates. Thank you for reading!! :)
