Mini-K Ranch Underwood Iowa - Original Post Date March 12, 2007
This past weekend was
great because it marked a return of the warm weather returning to the Mini K
Ranch and also marked the return of our chestnut mini horse Dolly finally making
a return to the pasture after an 11 month absence. The attached video shows
Dolly enjoying the pasture once again with an exuberant gallop. However, to
view this short video of Dolly galloping, this is something far more that just a
normal horse running up and down a hill. One has to know the long journey that
this horse had to endure in order to really appreciate this moment….a moment
that Mama K & I had huge doubts we would ever see again from this horse. The
hill that you see Dolly galloping down and then racing back up to the top is
significant as her exit from this pasture 11 months ago concluded with Mama K
pulling her up this hill while I pushed her up from behind in an effort to get
Dolly in the barn where she would spend a better part of a year recovering from
severe laminitis that developed a few days after the vets from a local clinic showed up to give our horses some routine shots. We are convinced that
they botched something up or injected some bad serum in Dolly and another mini
horse that we called Blue as they both became sick at the exact same time
shortly after their visit. If that wasn’t bad enough, Dolly also developed a
real bad abscess in both of her front hooves and a mild one in each of her back
hooves. In addition to Dolly getting sick, we also lost Blue as she succumbed
to the illness a couple of weeks after her illness was brought on by what the vet clinic had done.
Dolly spent the first
four to six weeks on her side, not wanting to stand as she couldn’t tolerate the
pain. In her mind she probably thought that Blue was the lucky one as she
wouldn’t have to endure the pain of just standing up and trying to walk. We had
several different vets out to try and diagnose the problem and provide a
treatment that would help Dolly get past her severe limping and pain. A couple
of months after coming down sick, our horse farrior discovered the abscess in
Dolly’s hooves and proceeded to cut and drain her front hooves in an attempt to
relieve the pressure and pain. This however opened up Dolly’s hooves to
infection and the farrior suggested the best thing for Dolly might be just to
put her down. I threw it around in my mind for a while as I hated seeing Dolly
go through so much pain and discomfort..but at the same time I could see that
Dolly had the spirit to fight. But I still presented that option as maybe the
best route to go to my wife Mama K, even though I knew that was an option that Mama K would never want to hear.
From that point on, Mama K was determined and dedicated for the rest of the summer to provide Dolly
every opportunity to get as close as possible back to her old self. It took both Mama K and I getting up at 4:00 am each weekday morning to pick and then soak
Dolly’s hooves in hot water and Epsom salt, scrubbing them with a brush and then
applying Kopertox to each of her hooves….and then repeating this process in the
evening when we got home from work along with giving Dolly a penicillin shot,
which she hated. This was a daily process that went on and on and on and
consumed a lot of our summer last year. Mama K did a lot of the work and I
provided the backup help she needed. So now when you look at the attached
video, you can get a bit of an idea how special it is to see Dolly running again
with her fight and spirit. I would like to thank Mama K for all her
determination, dedication and hard work and not giving up …and not allowing
Dolly and myself to give up ..as without all of Mama K’s hard work and
determination, this video would not have ever happened with this special
horse. Thank you very much Mama K!!
With Love...Farmer Looking Guy in Overalls
Click Here for the video (25 MB).