Bunny had given me my dream horse, Belle. Belle was perfect in so many ways and from the beginning, she was so friendly, sweet, and easy to train. Her first month of life flew by, with her learning daily and our bond getting closer and closer.
When she was about a month old I came out to the barn to do the morning feed and turnout. I found her sprawled out in the middle of the stall. She was trying to nurse from Bunny, while laying down. Bunny, being such a great mom, stood still and let Belle do this. As I entered the stall, I realized that they had moved all the bedding out of the center of the stall and had exposed to the stall mats, which were now slick with urine.
Belle could not get up on her own, on such a slick surface. I quickly moved bedding out of the corners to try to help her get some traction, but she still required my help to stand. I checked her over, and she was weight baring on all legs, so I just hoped she had bruised something and she would be fine. When I turned her out she was a little lame behind, but it did not appear too serious, so I decided to watch her and see how she was in a day or so.
But the next morning, when I came out to the barn, she was down, again, but this time there was plenty of bedding under her, she had not moved it out of her way and she was not getting up. I went into the stall and again, had to help her get to her feet. It was at this point that I realized that there was something wrong, so I fed them and went back to the house to call the vet.
The head vet came out a few days later, as they didn't consider what I was describing a true emergency. He looked Belle over, as I told him, there was no heat, no swelling, nothing outward to indicate what was wrong, but she was obviously favoring her hind right. I told him she had gotten more lame over the few days, so he continued with the exam. He started blocking nerves, starting with just above her hoof, no change. Then he numbed her pastern, again, no change. Next her ankle was blocked, same result. The last attempt to locate the injury was to block her hock, but again, as before, there was no change.
He felt her stifle and did not think it was that joint, so at that point he started to think it was her hip. However, we could not be sure what was going on without x-rays. Since it is very difficult to get x-rays of the hip, I was told I'd need to bring her to the clinic, where she'd be put under sedation to get proper x-rays.
I called a friend of mine, Katie, and she and her father came a few days later to help me transport Bunny and Belle to the vet clinic for the x-rays to be done.
It took some effort, but I finally got Bunny on the trailer, as she remained hard to load from her bad experience years before.
When we got to the clinic, I took Bunny and Belle to a waiting stall, with Katie's help, and one of the junior vets and a tech met us and then sedated Belle. Bunny remained remarkably calm as they worked on Belle, flipping her onto her back so that a proper image of her hips could be taken.
After the first image, he wasn't satisfied and another one had to be taken.
About 20 minutes later, I was given the bad news. Belle's hips were fine, but her pelvis was fractured. I was told that Belle would need at least 6 months in the stall and she still may not be 100% sound, only time would tell.
We loaded Bunny and Belle back up on the trailer, this time Bunny went right on for me, I think she knew we were going home.
When we got home, I put them in their stall and cried. My beautiful dream horse had a fairly serious injury. She would probably live, but I may never get to ride her. I had given up riding her mother several years before, due to Bunny's mental stress, from what I believe was abuse by a previous owner or trainer, I just couldn't believe I may never get to ride her daughter, who I'd dreamt of having for so long.
I was very worried about how Bunny might handle stall rest for 6 months, with Belle. Bunny had gone through 6 months of stall rest, herself, in September 1996 to March 1997. I did not know if she could handle it, yet again.
So, I started to research how to raise an orphan foal, as Belle was only 5 weeks old, at this point. I even called a farm in PA that was considered one of the authorities on raising orphans and got some great advice.
After another week, Bunny was starting to show signs of stress from the confinement in a 10 by 12 stall. I could open up the foaling stall, but I was told not to, because they didn't want Belle moving that much, just yet. So, I talked to Bunny, because I seriously believed she understood a lot of what I said to her.
I told her that Belle really had to stay in the stall and I didn't want to have to wean Belle at 6 weeks, but if she couldn't handle being in the stall, I would let her go out.
Bunny remained a bit nervous or high energy, so after my husband got home, I decided to let Bunny out and see how things went. I held Belle as my husband opened the outer stall door to let Bunny out, and then close it, separating mother from baby. Well, Bunny went absolutely nuts that she could not get to her foal. I let her run around outside of the barn for about 10 to 15 minutes and then I let her back in with Belle. I told her that she had to calm down to get to stay with Belle, and I swear I never had any other problems with Bunny after that and her getting too high of energy.
After about 2 months of stall rest, only going out to walk down the barn aisle to be moved to another stall, I had the vet come out to evaluate Belle's progress, because she was becoming more and more sound as she walked.
At that point the okay was given to open up my foaling stall, which gave Bunny and Belle an area of 12 by 18. They had two outer stall doors that I could open the windows to and two inner stall doors, but I kept those closed, so I could hang fans, as it was starting to get hotter, as spring was over half way through.
Bunny would calmly stand looking out of one of the stall door windows and Belle would pace back and forth from one to another. I wish I could have closed one of the windows, but it would have gotten too hot. So, I figured if she developed a slight pacing habit, I could live with that and maybe she would grow out of it after she healed.
When Belle was 5 months old, 4 months after the injury, the vet came out to evaluate her progress, again. He could not believe what he was seeing. She was so sound in the stall that while he was there, he had me turn Bunny and Belle out in the small 1/2 acre paddock, that came off their stall. Belle behaved herself and did not run around like a maniac, like a foal who had been stalled for 4 months. She did move around at a walk, trot, and slow canter, enough for him to realize that she was healing a lot faster and a lot more complete than he could have ever imagined. What should have taken a minimum of 6 months, only took 4, it really was a miracle that she had healed in such a short period of time.
He told me that Belle could start going out on limited turnout, for a few weeks, slowly increasing the time she got outside. After about a month, Belle was out with the other foal that had been born on the farm that spring, and happily playing with him.
For about another year, she would sometimes stand cross legged, behind, which is what she did, at times, to rest her pelvis, but slowly she did it less and less. She was sometimes difficult to work with her hind feet, but by her 2nd Birthday, she was fine and the farrier was happy, too.
I continued Belle's training and she would trot in hand, knew all kinds of voice commands, and if i stood in front of her, she would put her head on my shoulder and give me a Belle hug.
Belle has never been broke to ride, there is a chance that her pelvis could be a bit weak, but maybe one day I will get on her back and see if she can handle my weight. I had the vet check her, when she was 5 years old to see if she would be able to have a foal, safely, and the report was good news. She stands only 14.2 hands, Bunny was 14.3 hands and Belle's sire, Rho-Quest (Khemosabi) was 15.1 hands, so she definitely ended up a bit smaller than I expected, but the vet said I could breed her, I'd just have to limit it to pony stallions who are known to sire smaller sized foals, even when bred to larger mares. Belle has not produced a foal, yet, on two tries. Once she didn't get in foal and the other time she did, but lost it at about 7 months gestation, out in the field, where we never saw it. I am hoping to try breeding her in 2012 to Land's End the Colonel's Fox, who sired one of Belle's half sisters. Perfect Peace What a Blessing is cleaning up in the show ring and I'd love to get a 3/4 sibling to her.
Belle, my dream horse, remains the first miracle to happen here at Perfect Peace Farm. She has a life long home with me, she will never ever be sold or given away, she's mine forever!
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