Transformation Tuesday: King Update

 Nat over at PlanBE (also a fellow Canadian horsey blogger, stay tuned for our Secret Santa posts as we drew each other!) asked for an update on King's journey back to health, and I realized I wasn't exactly holding up my end of the bargain as I had previously promised to keep everyone apprised of his progress. 

For those who don't recall, missed it, or simply don't feel like flipping back - King is an OTTB who was born and raised on my in-laws farm. We used him several years for everything from Jumping to lessons, and last year I free-leased him to my Niece in BC as her horse had passed away. Unfortunately, he didn't fare well and I made the extremely difficult decision to pull the plug (thus breaking my nieces heart) and bringing him home. We brought him home over the (Canadian) Thanksgiving weekend, and had our work cut out for us.

I'm not proud of his condition, and I can make all the excuses I want but I wear the guilt of it happening thickly across my face.  I take full responsibility, and still struggle with accepting what happened. Naturally it wasn't anyones intent, but I was so wrapped up in having my own baby that after June, when he was putting weight back on after a tough winter on the coast, I stopped the weekly check-ins and became consumed in motherhood.

When I reached back out in September, they admitted he had regressed in his weight gain since we last chatted about it in June.  I saw a few photos, and knew right then and there he had to come home but even still, I was in utter shock when I picked him up.  King was the horse who, when in race training, was on half rations because he got fat on air. I'd never seen him in anything less than stellar shape, even when he's just sitting in the pasture.  He was always a rude, rammy, bossy and arrogant bugger and yet when we picked him up, his eyes looked lifeless. I was heartbroken for him and my family all at once.  

Quick refresher upon pick-up.

October 12, 2020

One week after arriving back home in Alberta.
October 20, 2020 - not sure why it's blurry, sorry!

He started putting on weight quite fast. Initially, I was going to put him in a paddock alone and drop a roundbale in for him so he had zero competition for food as I suspected that was one of the leading causes in the loss, but after much thought I decided to turn him out in the pasture after a few days of quarentine.  Besides the food issue, I think going to life in a small pen didn't agree well with him. Since he retired from racing, he had been used to being in a big pasture with a variety of herd-mates to boss around, and while I worried about his inability to stand up for himself given the lack of 'zest for life' he now possessed upon pick-up, I thought it might be best. 

We had a fairly long fall, and the horses were grazing well into early November. We provide a mash every night, and even without providing hay at that time he was gaining weight well while grazing and getting a nightly mash.  Our Mash includes:

Beet Pulp
Alfalfa Cubes

Peas
Ground Flax
Oats
Sweet Feed
Salt & Mineral Powder

We have buckets hung on the fence for each horse with adequate space between them, however at least one horse is a bully so in the beginning I'm not sure how much King was actually eating initially. He had no desire to fight for food (previously unusual for him) and wasn't really integrated with the herd at all - often the others would come galloping for their mash while he would hang back and continue to graze.  In hindsight, grazing wasn't really an option in his previous home so perhaps it was just more exciting for him.  If you follow my bestie Cathryn you'd be familiar with the location he was in as she's posted about the area several times.

As time passed, we more or less left him to his devices in the pasture.  I was beginning to lose hope that the spark we all grew to love and respect in him would re-ignite, but as days turned into weeks we saw little change and eventually, his weight seemed to stall out.

October 25, 2020

I caught him every few days when I had a few minutes to spare to give him a quick brush as he had some rain-scald along his spine that I wanted to clear up. I assume it was related to the awful 'shelf' of ribs he had, and in a wet climate water no doubt sat there without much ability to drain off.  Add that on top of a sensitive red head and it's a recipe for disaster.

Eventually, winter arrived and the rain scald was mostly cleared up, so I began to leave him be apart from blanket changes when the weather permitted. I had decided to keep him blanketed beyond -15C (give or take), as he was still much too thin for my liking.  He spent the previous winter in a much warmer (albeit much wetter) climate, so I wasn't sure how his coat would fare.  It was very dull upon pick-up (obviously), and had shown some improvement but wasn't quite where I'd like it for the cold months ahead.  At the end of October we decided to Deworm him again, as his weight gain and coat improvement slowed.  When weather allowed he got some naked days, and his coat continued to improve; suddenly he fluffed up over night it seemed.

November 5, 2020
Filthy and yucky from a dirty coat and constant blanketing

He had a few more blanket changes and brushes since then, but truthfully his weight had stalled for most of November and I suspect it was mostly related to the nutrients in the grazing being next to none.  With the introduction of hay (free fed on high quality round bales), his weight and general condition took off again and I can proudly say that after about 6 weeks King is * almost * back to where I want him.  In addition to his weight gain, that saucy zest for life we all grew to love and respect in King seems to be back.  He's still not top of the pack, but perhaps he's passed that torch onto the younger buck (literally, Banker the buckaroooo).  He's back to dragging me around like a fly on the end of the lead rope, and constantly begs for attention. He's integrated with the herd, and finally seems like our King man is back.

I'd still like to see more over his topline again, but regardless he's now in a condition where I would feel comfortable with him being ridden, and I think he's waiting for that day too. He's even escaped a few times when the gates are open for putting out bales, and he runs straight to the barn and waits as if he's expecting to go for a ride!

His coat is insanely thick now, and he's very dirty. Recent antics caused him to sweat under his blanket, leaving a bit of a matted coat with some funny lines despite my vigorous brushing before these photos were taken.  His wavy and dirty coat currently alludes to the vision of ribs, but you * almost * can't feel them and it's purely an optical illusion.  His neck has almost entirely filled out again, and his SI and Hips are well covered once again.  He's always had a sharkfin and a well-sprung ribcage, giving the faint view of a few ribs so I would consider him pretty close to back to normal.

January 3, 2020

I'm so relieved, and while my heart still hurts for my family, King is right where he belongs and I have some new plans in his future that he will hopefully find more enjoyable and more rewarding.