Deworming Woes

Artemis has been out in the pasture for a week tomorrow and so far I think she's loving it.  Her and Ebony are tight.  Socks, Ebony, Tona and Artemis all hang togther in their own little herd while the rest of the horses are another herd.  We went out twice during the week to see them, once when it was basically dark and once a little earlier in the day.  The first time we brought out treats.  Big mistake.  We were mauled.  Luckily just Socks' herd was on our side of the creek and so Ebony and Artemis did the mauling.  The second time we did not bring out treats. 



Bays at their prettiest, in the falling light.

 We were harassed by Charlie, the little Arabian foal, right away.  He's a biter, he tries to rip your arm off and he follows you around.  He was also trying to mount all the mares, with the exception of Socks because she goes at him if he goes near her or her baby.  Artemis enjoyed a good scratching, she kept making extremely funny faces while she was being scratched.  She was following my mom around everywhere until she'd get distracted by the dog and chase after Si.  When we finally left them Charlie came racing over to us and promptly started trying to bite us.  He is not my favourite horse, to say the least.  He's going to be weaned at the end of the month and I'm not disappointed.  However, his owner is planning on keeping him as a stud and I am a little worried about that.



My silly pony being silly

 On Saturday we went out to Deworm them and give them their Strangles vaccination.  Socks and Jimmy were getting the Strangles, but Artemis is still too young.  We dragged my brother out since I still have a concussion and wouldn't be handling the horses.  We went to Jimmy first and he was, well a disaster.  Last time I dewormed him he was a monster but I got it done.  I got some of it on me as well but most of it in him.  I can't really say the same for my brother.  It took twice as long.  Alex is too slow about it so it took forever.  I filmed a bit of it and then sat with the dog in the shelter to get away from the wind.  Once deworming was finally done, we needed to give him the Strangles, which isn't a needle but needs to be sprayed up his nose.  That did not go over well.  E was feeding the horses and offered to help.  We brought Jimmy in the barn and he put him in a stall.  He showed us how if you wrap the lead rope around the stall bars and keep the stall door open, you can safely give him the Strangles and get out of the way if he freaks.  I have to say though, E was surprised at how strong Jimmy is.  He may be small but he's fierce!  After Jimmy was done we put him out in the grass pen and went to grab Socks.  She was in a mood.  My brother went to get on her bareback, like we've done a thousand times and she bucked him off.  She never does that.  After I got her out of the gate she proceeded to hit my head with hers.  I wanted to kill her.  We left Artemis in the field to see how she would deal with it.  Ebony was more upset than she was. 



Before Jimmy realized that the dewormer was indeed not a treat


Socks on the other hand, was horrible.  She's always great to be dewormed.  She was not.  I think Alex got more of it on me then he did in her.  She kept throwing her head up.  Then we had to do strangles.  I handed her off to my mom because my head hurt and they ended up putting her in the stall like we had with Jimmy.  At least she wasn't too difficult to give the strangles too.  I was really annoyed with her though, she's never given us a problem with deworming before, she's usually pretty great with it.  We also put her out in the grass pens.  Then we went to grab Artemis. 




Artemis with her dewormer beard

 Artemis was being chased around by Charlie.  Ebony would then chase Charlie.  Artemis, who usually won't walk over to my brother, went right over to him and practically put her halter on herself.  She was dying to get away from him.  Ebony wasn't too pleased that we took her friend away.  Artemis, who had never been dewormed before, stood perfectly fine to be dewormed.  She did however, end up with hug gobs in her little beard which she then wiped on my hand.  So I wiped it on her face, which is what all that yellow stuff on her is.  She needed to have a special dewormer because most dewormers are too strong for horses under the age of one year.  They can severely damage their intestines so she got a special, caramel flavoured one.  I don't think she actually enjoyed the taste too much.  After that we measured her and weighed her again.  She's about 400 pounds, if we did it right which chances are we were a little off and just over 12.3 hands.  She's catching up to Cas who, at the age of 2, is 13.2 hands.  My mom began talking to T at this point, so Alex and I brought Artemis back to the pasture.  We were accompanied by her children, L and M, who at 9 and 6, were very, very hyper.  There was a lot of yelling going on.  We let Artemis go in the field and she immediatly ran to the herd.  Ebony and Charlie came racing to meet her.  I took a video of it so I'll show, not tell. 

I absolutly love Ebony for defending Artemis like she does.  We were all hoping Ebony and Artemis would be pals and they are.  This is also why I kind of hate Charlie.  He doesn't try to play with her, he just harrasses her.  I hope Artemis learns to stick up for herself a little bit better.  She is also under the impression that she is an Arabian as she holds up her tail like one, and a Mule deer, since she hops like one.  You can hear the kids yelling in the background since, like I said, they were pretty hyper that night.


Silly pony being silly again

 We went back and put Jimmy in his pen.  He ran straight to his food.  When we'd first gotten there he'd come running up to us.  After giving him the dewormer and strangles, I have a feeling it will be a while before he does that again.  We then grabbed Socks and put her back in the pasture.  Artemis came running to meet her.  So did Charlie and Toy.  Charlie almost ran into Alex until Alex spooked him off.  Then Socks took off, chasing Toy and Charlie.  It was kind of funny, watching one mare and foal chasing the other one.  Toy and Charlie than stayed with their herd and Socks and Artemis went to theirs.  I was frustrated with Socks and Jimmy that day but proud of Artemis, she did pretty good since it was her first deworming.  We've decided not to wean her until Charlie is out of the field, so that she doesn't have to be harrassed by him constantly. 

Also I saw Lion King 3D tonight with a friend.  Since that is one of the best movies ever, it was of course, amazing.  However I have to say one of my favourite parts was when Mufasa died and the little girl behind us started freaking out and asking her mother if he was gone forever, and then asking if her daddy was gone forever too, even though he was just a few seats away from her.  It was really cute, although I felt bad that she was so upset.


Asking EB not to hurt her