Cat Ballou

Got the call midday from the horse clinic that the bandages were taken off and the wound has healed nicely since the stitches taken out three days ago. So we can come and collect him.

Although still not feeling too good Angie wanted to endure the 250km round trip to ensure all went well. I was only too happy as there was an hour or so of paperwork and instructions on what had to be done in the coming weeks.

Luckily a dry sunny if cold day so drive went well. Eventually the paperwork was completed and it was time to load Sultan. When we first got Sultan a few years ago, we picked him up from a two day temporary home and it was a mammoth effort to get him in the traier, probably as he felt so happy to be somewhere he felt safe after leaving his previous stables. Since then he has done loads of trailer trips without any problems.

However this evening, either he felt Angie's nerves or he feared he was going somewhere to have another op, he refused to go in the trailer. We tried everything and of course the more one gets worked up the worse it gets. The people at the clinic said this often happened and offered to give sedation. Ignoring the large cost of the jab, we agreed and after waiting for it to work, we literally had to carry him in to the trailer. I prayed he would stay standing for the next 90 minutes.

Seeing him in the trailer as in the Blip, I was reminded of the scene in the film Cat Ballou - Angie would love to have played the role of Lee Marvin, she certainly could have done with a bottle of something hard to calm her nerves. The horse in the film was also a grey - check out the forefeet on the clip - no wonder Lee marvin was supposed to have said the horse should have got half the Oscar he got for the film.

Finally now dark and foggy we set off to join the rush hour traffic around Munich and after a few jams and delays eventually got home and were greeted by a chorus of neighing - the horses know the trailer means "action time".

As it was late all horses in their boxes and so could make their personal greetings without having to gallop around. Sultan is under house arrest for the next few weeks and only allowed a few minutes walk a day. Will be fun!