Cuddle Day

Unlike the UK, today is simply "Second Christmas Day" in Germany. Early morning panic to get things done before Angie's Dad, Sepp, together with stepbrother Peter, his wife Sandra and daughter Emily arrived for lunch.

Angie had noticed Sultan acting strangely as though he had a bout of colic (stomach ache) which if not caught early enough or doesn't go away on its own, can lead to very big complications, possible expensive operation and not uncommon, death. A horse has about 30 meters (100 feet) of intenstine and a small stomach with usually no more than a normal bucket full in it (maximum is 15 liters). Hence a wild horse eats 18 hours a day - little and often so to speak. You should always be able to hear rumblings in a horses innards, silence and air pockets are not good.

The typical colic signs start with the horse stretching out on all four feet (as a male horse does when urinating) then it starts to paw the ground with it's front hooves, as it often does before taking a roll and this is exactly what it is trying to do but with a colic it is then very difficult to get the horse back up and with the rolling on a blocked innards there is a serious chance of getting a knot in the 100 ft of gut and that is then fatal.

When I got back from walking the dogs, Angie told me about it and asked me to walk him and prevent him lying down while she tried to prepare lunch. I thought it was just going to be a slight problem and quickly solved with a walk. However it turned in to a battle, Sultan was determined to lie down at all costs. Luckily Angie had called the vet who was luckily nearly finished with a job in a cow herd and was here within an hour.

In the meantime I had been massaging his stomach like crazy, even finding an electric double handled neck massage machine my former boss Tino gave me when he left for the US (voltage) in 1999. The two large rotating hard knobs seemed to do the trick and Sultan became quiet. By the time the vet came, she could confirm the colic but that it was at this stage not dangerous, there being some rumblings to be heard with a stethoscope. But him back with the others and after a while saw he was letting off "air" and finally the solids appeared - how wonderful it can be to see a pile of horse s**t.

Extra photo of vet up to her armpit in Sultans rear and Angie trying to keep him quiet with a "Nose Brake" as they say in German, "Twitch" in English - a brutal looking bit of kit that in fact is not painful for the horse but causes endorphines to be released which quieten the horse. Despite often seen it it use, I wince everytime.

By the time family arrived the panic was over but Angie not yet calmed down. However she dished up an excellent meal as always and we had a great afternoon. Young Emily was a star, she seems to have really "grown up" recently. She's as intelligent, beautiful, charming, smiling, animal loving as her mother ... I'm still working out what she inherited from her father! :-))

Nice day and good to have Sepp over to inspect things - we have an awful lot to thank him for - in the early years he spent weeks here building walls, roofs, floors, drainage..... Being an animal lover, he would love to live here. Well his granddaughter has the bug too and enjoyed giving Flash a good pat.