The Veterinary came out today to scan Lady to check if she is in Foal, blood test Willow and do her markings for her passport. Breeze was also examined, and he also had to look at Blisse foot.
As we expected Lady scanned in Foal. I was confident that she was, but we needed to make sure that she was not having twins. It is not good for a Horse to be in Foal with twins. If they are it would be more than likely that they would abort within nine months of the pregnancy. If Lady had of been in Foal with twins, one of fetuses could have been aborted.
Willow had to be blood tested to confirm her parentage and also have her markings taken for her passport. The Veterinary marks on a printed pictures of a Horse, both sides and a front picture of a head. all the different marks such as socks on their legs, stars or blazes on their head and whirls on their coats. It is a little difficult to explain, but every Horse will have a different marks that are unique to the Horse. All thoroughbred Horses have had passports for many years, so that they cannot be passed off as another Horse on the race track. Probably a better word would be nobbled. Now all Horses have to have passport, an EU directive, partly for identifying for theft, but also for the European Horse meat market to identify any drugs that Horses may have had for illness.
Fortunately Breeze is not in Foal, we were very worried that she might have been with the extra weight she was carrying. The Veterinary gave her an internal examination that confirmed that she was not pregnant. If she were pregnant the Foal would have been born in October, I really could not think of a worse month for any horse to have a foal in the northern hemisphere. The Foal would have very little, probably no time in the fields in the first important time of growing. Breeze would not have had any enjoyment of her first Foal. I will seriously think about letting her go to a Stallion March next year.
Bliss came in Thursday night, slightly lame. She wasn’t to bad when she went out that night. The next morning she came in crippled. I got the Veterinary to confirm what I had found. She must have pricked the frog of her foot on a sharp stone. It is a little soft and pussy under the hoof, and is very painful for her to walk on. Mind you this is the first time she has ever experienced pain, she sure doesn’t like it. Although it looks like she is in severe pain by the way she is walking, it is exaggerated being her first pain experience. If the puss hasn’t found its way out by the morning we will poultice it to draw the poison out.