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Updated August 18, 2004

in the last month or two since my last update, Echo has developed a rather severe case of heaves, which is essentially horse asthma. Heaves, I have learned, commonly developed in horses over 8 (she's 10) who have been kept in a stall the majority of the time being fed hay (she was), and who have experienced a long, uninterrupted trailer ride (she did) and are exposed to heat (it's been around 100 degrees here for a while now!). She has become quite sensitive to...dust...and *hay*! unfortunately her environment is...you guessed it...dust and hay!

She started out with just some minor breathing difficulty that would clear up within a half-hour or so. Then she would get it at feeding time. Her stomach was getting bigger and bigger. By the time I was able to get the vet here, she was having difficulty breathing all the time, with rather loud wheezing, extreme difficulty getting air *out*, and using her accessory muscles just to get enough oxygen! I found out the reason her tummy was getting bigger and bigger was NOT in fact her getting fatter, but her muscles getting bigger an bigger with her efforts to get enough air!

We started her on a medication called Ventipulmin, which is a horse bronchodilator, which has helped tremendously. We have also been able to finally get irrigation to the pasture, which has cut down on dust quite a bit. While the pasture is turning green, the horses and goats are standing there waiting for each shoot to appear and snatching it up, so there is really not growth to speak of this year, since we started with a bone-dry, fairly bare pasture. Next year, however, by keeping the pasture watered right from the get-go in spring, we should see a pretty good growth that will support the horses without having to give them any hay. Meanwhile, we have switched Echo to a pelleted form of grass to cut down on her symptoms.

As for her training, I stopped doing anything at all with her while she was having such breathing difficulties other than daily handling and grooming. Now that she is breathing well again, I will continue with mild riding and see how it goes.

My sister and her family came to visit on August 7th, and my sister took a gob of great pictures! Here is my niece, Cerisa, giving Echo a horse cookie.    
 
     Toby wants to know where *his* cookie is! He actually wasn't too sure how to eat them, and ended up dropping quite a bit of them.

 Now doesn't this picture just make you melt!?

    

 

    You can see in the background here what the "pasture" is like...with our very early spring and even earlier summer, we lost a lot of grazing time, and lost pretty much all of the pasture very early. Our efforts at bringing it back are proving to be *somewhat* successful, though we won't really see the difference until next year.

 Toby is really very sweet and friendly. I can still walk right up to him and put his halter on, groom him, pick up his feet, rub him all over and so on.

    

 

    I need to get a new picture to show his size relevant to someone else. The vet was here last week to castrate Toby (I know, the poor thing) and he had a hard time believing his size! Toby is 3 1/2 months old, and weights 385 lbs! The vet measured him twice to make sure. He should mature to 16.1 hh according to the formula I used.

 I can't claim my Brother-In-Law is a horse fan or anything, but he seems to like Toby well enough!

    

 

 

Isn't this an idyllic picture? :-)

 

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