Her name is actually KARLY (not Carly). Her actual name is Ryan Day Karly Lyn. Now, I do not pretend to know why any breeder would put that many names on ANY horse, but they do. They are usually some combination of the sire and the mare. In this case, it is that and then some. In any event, I convinced Eric to take her as a rescue...an "easy keep" as we horse people like to say. That is a horse that requires not much of anything. Karly stays out to pasture and that is it. $200 a month in boarding and that is it. Oh yes, quarterly hoof trimming ($60) and 1 annual vet visit. No big one, right?
Guess again.
Within the first week we owned her, she colicked. That is what happens when horses get sick. They cannot throw up so if they get sick, their intestines and colon get backed up, twisted or something in between and it can cause them to die. Many times, they do. And the process is fast. I got a call from the barn owner that Karly was "down" (not a good thing). When horses are down, they are sick. Not that they never lay down, but she was clearly in pain. When this happens, you call the vet and try to get the horse up and walking. I got there as soon as I could and spent the next hour, while waiting for the vet, walking her around to try to keep her on her feet. This is protocol with colick. As soon as I would stop walking her, she would go down. We would get her up and repeat the process. Finally, I knew she was just going to collapse so I brought her into a stall, let her go down and prayed for the vet to get there.
She did. She examined Karly and made a determination that she had a blockage. We got some meds on board and "tubed" her. This is sticking a hose down the nose into the stomach and flushing with an oil/water combo to determine if there was a twist in her gut. If the water comes flushing out her other nose, she has one and we would have to put her down. She did not have a twist so we sedated her and spend the next 24 hours walking her every 2 hours and keeping her well sedated. The long and short of it is she made it. It took three days but she is back to her old gentle self.
However, our "easy keep" that would only cost us $200 a month ended up costing us nearly a thousand dollars the first week we owned her. She is still my gentle giant. I love her and I love my husband who works so hard for me to keep her.
Until next time...
