New set of wheels.. sorta

[Palomino_Lover]

Introducing Solara de Briones. She was named because she was born during sunrise near the town of Briones.

We gained possession of her because her owner moved out of the country and when she was going to be shipped to the owner her boarding facility said she had to be euthanized due to having Summer sores on her hind fetlock.

Instead the owner wanted to find her a good home since she would never pass inspection with a medical condition. Whenever a prospective new owner would try to see the horse the boarding facility would dissuade them saying Solara was in too bad of shape and they would be sorry if they took her. Since no one was stepping forward and it was her last day before being put to death, we decided to act. The more we heard about this issue the more it sounded fishy.

We made contact with a former Marine and law enforcement official whose wife has a Paso Fino. He was able to pick her up until we could come down yesterday to bring her home.

Today we brought our Vet over and after his examination it was determined that Solara did NOT have a Summer sore this time (there was two cases of her having Summer sores in her past) but was in fact a rope burn which was infected. Per the Vets' advice we stopped giving her the 35 20mg each of Prednisone since it doesn't work on horses and she doesn't have Summer sores anyway. (I didn't know they were treating an Elephant!)

So with careful treatment over the next few weeks she should be good to go.
She also is being put on a diet. At first we thought she might be preggers but with all that Prednisone the Vet said it would have aborted any foal.

She is about 14.3 but we will stick her tomorrow to be sure.

Solara's training has supposedly been about 14 months 2 to 3 times a week of being ridden in a Bosal around an arena. She is a bit spooky so we shall see once she is healed completely and I get on her. (Jenn thinks Palominos are ugly)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v131/Seigneur/e2827d98.jpg

[pasorider]

WOW! How pretty! I want a Palo Paso SO BAD!!!!

[pnalley]

Very pretty, just wait till you strip some weight off of her & get that coat shed our. She will be a real head turner!

Good save!

[Valrory]

She is nice. I bet with some TLC she'll be just fine.

[Paso Matchmaker Extraordinaire]

So pretty. Lucky you!

[JennLM]

Sadly, she is going back to her old owner. She flipped out on us if I take my one mare out of the stall. She cares about no one else but this one mare. To the point she tried to kill herself to get out of her stall. She is obsessed with Glory.

When we brought Glory back over to her, she bit her. Poor Glory just took it and went all big-eyed like, "Mooooom, she bit me!!!" But Glory never moved an inch.

Solara is not safe left alone if we go on any trail rides, let any horses out to graze, or do anything. = ( She gets into a blind panic state. I was in cleaning her stall the first time it happened and I was so afraid to leave her to go bring Glory back yet afraid to let her continue. *sigh*

Because of this poor Glory has started to pace like a nut now. She did not until she got bit and Solara freaked out. And it's only with Glory. We had other horses next to her, tried all of them, and she has no cares at all. Glory goes out of site and she rears, climmbs the panels, bangs her head on the panels and scares the heck outta me! I've had horses who paced some ( we originally stopped Glory's with a special hay feeder) and the neighbor's horse runs back and forth when they leave to ride. But this.. this is freaky stuff. We have some big events in the next two weeks and with the weather had not been able to ride, but now we cannot because of her freaking out.

We moved her to the roundpen next to Princepe, and had 3 horses right out next to her. No good pace pace freaky freak out. Troy went in and worked her, got her focus on us and she ignored the other horses. Was calm, so we stayed a good hour and a half. Left the roundpen and she went back to focusing on Glory freaking out.

And the old owner has done nothing but pine away for her, so she is going to a place to heal up the burn and head to her old owner in Costa Rica.

Sadly the whole thing put us out close to $900.. :rolleyes: Yeah it would have been great to keep her, but we've now transported, boarded, fed, doctored, paid for Vets and lots of medical supplies for her. At a time where money was scarce for a horse we thought would be staying.

It's been frustrating and costly but hte one good thing did come of it. She was not put down, taken from the horrible place she had been boarded, and soon as she heals heading to Costa Rica to be with her old owner who really misses her and wants her back.

:mecry: I know Troy is sad, we all are. But we have to do what is best for her and our horses.

[Palomino_Lover]

Would it have been nice to ride a tall Palomino? Sure, but as soon as our Vet told us that all Solara had was a rope burn I started feeling bad for her original owner. I just didn't feel right taking any sort of advantage of a situation considering how much the previous owner was obviously lied to concerning Solara's situation. Her essentially holding our other horse hostage was a moot point but did make it easier to do the right thing. Could we have used that money elsewhere? Absolutely, but my heart told me it was more important to save a horse that didn't have to be put down. Still, this puts us in a hole that will take a while to dig out from. Hopefully this doesn't effect our ability to take care of our other horses (or us for that matter).

[Linda Y]

That is too bad, but probably best for all concerned to let her go.
I had a gelding that did the same thing...that beautiful dapple grey that was pictured on this list at one time. He attached himself to Casi and would freak if she was out of his sight. I had to sell him because it was a dangerous obsession.
I am glad for her and her former owner. Sad for you.

[paintedhorizon]

What a sad, strange story! I hope Glory is able to recover!

[Terry Wallace]

WOW Jenn and Troy....I'm just now seeing this....I think you are doing the right thing.
I've had nutty freaky horses here and all it causes is herd disruption....its just not worth it.

Obsessive horses that tear things up including themselves, kick at the barn, scream in the night, fling themselves against things..fences, barns, etc...freak out all the time for no apparent reason.....its just not worth the disruption it cause to horses that are fine in their environment.
All it does is spread uneasyness and dread amoung the other horses who have never seen or been around a freaky horse. Not to mention very dangerous for you at handling time, walking other horses by her, trying to ride away from her, etc...

Sounds like that mare is as buddy sour as it gets and it will be tough to ever make a calm confident mount of her.

[Pasomom]

On the flip side, I had a horse come to my barn, that attached to one of our mares. This horse was a mare also, and had been subjected to being used as a teaser mare for a new stallion. She came to me with old founder issues and emotional issues from the missuse. (Owner did NOT give permission for the use of this mare, but she was the only mare "open" at the barn and the barn manager took it upon himself to use this horse repeatedly.)

We were told that this horse hated other horses, but upon reaching my barn, I put her with our oldest and most trusted babysitter, whom she promptly attached herself too. This horse, I am sure had uclers from her experience. It has taken a good year and a half to turn this horse into the sweet, trusting, well adjusted horse she is now.

It was not a big deal for me. I simply kept the two mares together away from the rest of the herd. After 6-8 months, I would add another mare, etc.
But the biggest thing that helped her was putting her on a product called Miracle Clay. OMG what a difference. I put her on it for 30 days...then took her off....withing a few days, I was noticing the aggressive behavior towards others again. Put her back on for another 3/4 months, Now she is a well adjusted horse that we use to put our newbies on.

So, sometimes a lot of patients and love (and a little help from horse products) will bring them around. :v:

[JennLM]

If we had plenty of other horses, it would be ok, but this is my mare in the middle of training and my only mount to ride. I tried her next to the 2 we are not riding and she did not care about them. We tried every scenario to make her happy and the only thing is this mare. . My mare was still pacing this morning. She cannot leave her stall, she was kicking at her gate to get out this morning and run. I had to tell her to wait until Friday or Saturday. Not fair to my horses here at all. = ( Makes this weekends first ride a fun one :crazy:

Since the owner had been wanting her horse back once she found out it was a rope burn, it will work out the best for everyone. Well, except us LOL Horses and old owner are happy. And the horse was saved from being put down.

Her leg should be healed in 2 weeks or less if they keep on the path I started with the anti-microbial, furisyn, wrapping, supplements etc. But, I am sure UC Davis will do it their own way.

She was superb for her blood draw and all the shots she got yesterday and really is such a sweet horse. Makes us sad and happy to reunite them at the same time.

[shadowsfire]

I wonder if all the drugs she was given had anything to do with her reactions. But it sounds like she is meant to go to her old owner. Couldn't they reinverse you for money spent? Even just half?

[JennLM]

Was not the drugs because she showed no other signs of any kind at all and only when this one mare was removed from her sight. She never had the shakes, nor any other behavioral problems, no problems of any kind. Even the vet who came twice more this week looked at her and she was fine. Calm, relaxed etc.

She is heading out in a few hrs and her foot is looking better with new pink skin growing from where most of the scabs were. The puffy infected part, drained and opened up so now it is on its way to healing.

We did work out for some of the reimbursement, yeah!

She really is such a sweet horse. Even stopped kicking when I wrapped her leg this morning. She is finding out we don't hurt her when we mess with her feet. She came around quite a bit from her first day. She doesn't hide in the back of the run. She comes when we approach. She learned not to go in her stall but in the run = )

We will miss her because she did really deserve to live and have a second chance in life. Her old/new owner is excited like a child and counting down the days when she will have her there in Costa Rica.

On a side note she mentioned the researchers out there in Costa Rica have a treatment for DSLD out there for $1,000 using stem cells which has cured it. Very interesting.

[JennLM]

Here is the before and after from a week apart.

http://hphotos-snc3.fbcdn.net/hs085.snc3/15308_1448876341416_1218444148_1294918_2355587_n.j pg

[pnalley]

What a difference on that leg. You did a good thing Jenn.

Equine behavior can be odd at times. We have had ChaChi since he was about 8 months old. He has always beaten the crap out of wall mount feeders. Constantly beating it like a drum. We have tried to always feed him out of a ground feeder since he is so noisy with the wall feeders. When we took him to CindyG's I told her about the issue. She said if she had a problem with him she would start feeding in a ground feeder. She said he never once banged his feeder the 3 months her was there. I have no explanation for it.

[Blair]

The drugs still may have an impact on her behaviour. She was on mega doses of steriods and if I read this right, she was stopped cold. This is a huge no-no in humans and dogs and I imagine the physiology holds true in horses potentially too. Prednisone/steriods have all kinds of effects which we can't really rationailize/quantify - at least in humans. Her endocrine system is probably all screwed up without a slow weaning and might have been a factor in her unusual attachment to the one horse. Obviously the behaviours are probably also impacted by the abuse in the former boarding barn too. Still, it is good that her former owner is getting her back if she was so attached to her!

[Cindy]

Paula, perhaps it as because that water bucket bit him in the nose shortly after he arrived here. LOL

[pnalley]

Can I borrow that bucket??
Possibly the fact that CindyG's barn is a professional barn with much more activity than mine played a part. But you never really know how a horse will behave in any given location. I guess they are liike people in that respect. I like to be in the country or at the beach, some folks love the city.

I hope that mare makes it safely to Costa Rica, and lives out her life happily.