Badger's Second Week

Whew! Badger's certainly had a whirlwind of a week...

Tuesday was his first visit by the ranch's veterinarian. I was a little concerned since of course her yea or nay would decide whether Badger could be moved into his more permanent housing and be around the other horses. As it turns out, neither he nor I had much to worry about.

Increasingly I think Badger must have had a lot of training in his youth, as he was incredibly well-behaved for all of it. Of course I don't imagine any horse likes having stuff sprayed up one's nose, or needles, or a thorough sheath cleaning, but I was really thankful he was so mild about it all since the initial knock-out injection barely fazed him! After the vet tech had given him what she explained as a mild sedative "so he'd get sleepy," we watched for a few minutes...and nothing. He kept looking around calmly as if to say, "are you folks waiting for something?" so on with the rest of the checkup. He passed with flying colors as far as his general health; he has a faint heart murmur that wasn't any immediate concern, and he seemed a bit sore on his feet so he gets some bute (the horse equivalent of Tylenol) for a week or two with his feed to see if that helps him feel better and later we could possibly pinpoint the actual problem.

The vet offers a convenient discount plan that cares for several horses in one session, so since Badger was only the second horse of the day, I hung around to watch the vet deal with some of the others after him. One of the other horses got so sleepy that the vet tech had to stand there until the medication wore off a little, and one old guy was so grouchy he tried to kick out at the vet tech when she went to halter him. Needed quite a bit of the whip, which is unfortunate, but since he has Cushing's (a neurological disease affecting the brain), his aggression levels are way higher than would be normal. From what I heard, he was a bit of a jerk to begin with, so adding the crankiness of the Cushing's on top of that is frustrating to deal with, and kind of sad.

So really, Badger did fantastically that day, especially since he was still in a brand-new environment with strange horses and strange people.

On Saturday, I went back to visit him again. With repeated effort, I've been working on getting him less nervous about the halter, and Saturday was the best yet as I only had to have him trot a slow half-circle before he'd stop and let me take his fly mask off AND put his halter on, all in one go. Previously it was chase, remove fly mask, chase, put on halter. It's great to see him responding so well, especially since he now also sticks his nose into the halter a little when I hold it in front of him! That's already very different from his first few attempts. I hope getting brushed and going out for walks is interesting enough that he continues to be encouraged to put the halter on.

As usual he's very good about walking, stopping, backing up, etc., and he's a little rusty about things like picking his feet up but he does remember how. That day was a big day for him too because he moved into his new stall! With a neighbor, too. Hopefully they can be friends. They're like horsey doppelgangers, both of them tall, almost identically-colored chestnut geldings...it was odd to see them nose to nose.

On the topic of strange experiences for Badger, he apparently had a REALLY big day between my two visits, since one of the workers at the ranch had a really bad fall off a ladder and had to be medevaced out...the helicopter had to land in the open area behind the stalls, and the fire truck drove right past Badger's quarantine pen and the nearby row of stalls. Yikes! Amazingly, NONE of the horses injured themselves, and the guy is conscious and recovering. For what happened, it's still relatively good luck.

Later last night the ranch held a small fundraiser party, so I went back to attend. I think this was the first time I'd made the drive out there twice in one day. I had to laugh a little, though, because Badger's new pen was closest to the 'action,' so he got to experience a live Southern Rock band and a whole bunch of strange people walking in and out, talking and dancing...he was standing with his butt in the furthest corner away from all the noise and lights, his face and ears riveted on the whole event. My fiance and I walked around the side of the pen to take a look at him, and I think during the whole time we were talking behind Badger, he turned one listening ear briefly back towards us just once, before immediately refocusing on the more pressing concern of whatever all that noise and chatter was.

This has been a BIG week for this big old guy! Wow! Next week will seem so quiet by comparison...but I'm sure he won't mind that at all. Going to keep working on his headshy problems, though, since he can be quite tall when he wants to be! Learning to put his head down will require a lot of trust, but it's really amazing to see how smart and perceptive he's been so far. After all he's been through, I'm really happy he's been able to transition as quickly as he's been.

Here's his newest photos, looking good in his new stall! His neighbor Tio is just barely visible on the right in that first pic.