In which Seamus has run of the barn area

While waiting for the vet today, I picked at rain rot... *blegh* Then the vet called and had to postpone us til Monday which is fine, though I wanted to pick his brain about Seamus' hind legs stocking up a bit. I suspect it's due to a secondary infection because of the rain rot... I'm thinking I should put him on antibiotics. I have SMZs handy but I will call the vet in the a.m. to double check with them. Meanwhile, Seamus is gonna be bald by the time I've got all the scabs off him!

Since we had 60 degree weather today, I was able to take some soap and water to clean up under his tail a bit as he lost so much weight he's made a bit of a mess of himself, the poor guy. Also wiped some of the dirt off his face and trimmed up his bridle path a bit which he was pretty good for. He will be clean eventually but I can't wait until it's warm enough and he's well enough for a head to hoof bath! To really get an idea of how skinny he is, here's a pic of the inside of his thighs:

 

His thighs should be muscled up enough to be touching somewhat, instead I can fit my hand all the way up to where his haunches meet his stomach in the groin area. He'd lost all his body fat and the muscle was being eaten up next.

After I fussed with him awhile, I put him out in the barn area to pick grass and enjoy a little sunshine. I was in the barn straightening up and a few minutes after I put him out, here he comes wandering back in and comes up to me. I gave him a peppermint and put him in his stall to eat with the door open while I filled his water buckets. When he was done I put him back outside and a few minutes later here he comes again! He pesters me in the barn as bad as my mares do when they think there's something good in there LOL .

Our barn is an old tobacco barn so has rather large gaps between the siding which is great in the summer for air flow, but not so great when the weather is bad. Belle's stall is on the northwest end of the barn so I put a blue tarp up the first winter we moved in to keep out the bulk of the wind and snow. She couldn't care less and it's been great for desensitizing her and any other horse who is stalled near her. Trust me, she's a champ when it comes to any ACTHA obstacles involving tarps! The second time Seamus came in the barn, he wandered into Belle's stall to see if she'd left any of her dinner (no such luck) so I made him look at the tarp and when it was apparent it didn't bother him, I started shaking it and he really didn't even give it much of a look... I'm hoping this means he's got a good mind on him for further desensitization :)

Seamus meets the munchkin...

...aka my 9 year old daughter, Sasha :)

While the acquiring of Seamus was going down, my kids have been off visiting their grandparents since Christmas and came home last night. My son is not really interested in the horses but my daughter is really getting into that "love of horses" stage that all little girls go through. Admittedly I have encouraged it ;) She has her own collection of model horses as I have mine and we go to model shows and events together. Two years ago I started teaching her to ride my mare, Belle, and now all I have to do is put a bridle on the pony and a helmet on the kid and they go out and do some easy obstacles and just spend time together while I work with my green Paso Fino, Sugar (my last rescue pony).

When Sasha got home last night I got to tell her that the skinny horse we'd seen on Christmas was now ours and she asked me all about him and wondered when she would meet him so I promised her it would be today. I picked her up after work and we headed to Tractor Supply for a few things and then headed to the barn. I threw hay to my pony girls for the evening and got Seamus up. I put him on the wall tie in the barn aisle with a lead rope on his halter so I can correct him if he started moving around again as he showed he was prone to the one other time I'd put him there. Instead of moving around, he pulled up a hind foot and took a break so he's already learning the wall tie, I guess :) I intro'd Seamus to Sasha and told her she could use a soft brush on his face and neck if he'd let her and he seemed perfectly fine with that. So while keeping an eye on them, I cleaned his stall. Then we got his water buckets filled up while he still chilled on the tie like a good boy.

And finally I had a chance to start working on all that awful rainrot! Ugh... he has large patches over the top of his ribs and small patches down the sides of his haunches and next to his tail. He's got large, nearly quarter sized spots over the top of his haunches. I knew it was bad but you never really "get it" until you start pulling it off... I worked on the big spots on top and the patches next to his tail until you could tell it was starting to bother him, then we sprayed the bald areas with wound spray and hit all the patches with fungal spray again. I can't wait until his own blanket comes in so I can cover him in MTG! That stuff reeks so I don't want to get it all over his borrowed blanket. Darn... that reminds me I need to pick up some more nitril gloves.

And for great news, my equine vet called me back tonight and will be donating Seamus' initial exam and Coggins test! He'll be out tomorrow afternoon and I am looking forward to seeing what he has to say about Seamus :)

Long barn day and the farrier visit

Now that we are up to date, today was just a long barn day full of stuff to get done and today was my day off so doing finally happened LOL

First on the list was shavings. My mares don't stay in much so I like to just buy shavings in bulk from a local landscaping business. $13 a Bobcat bucket load and I buy two buckets and have it loaded into the bed of my truck. The fun part is getting it out! Okay, so it's not fun, but it's cheap and I usually only need to do it about once a year at the rate my mares go through shavings! Luckily my boyfriend, Eli, was off today too, so I conscripted his help for the day. I've been trying to get shavings for my mares stalls for awhile but the landscaper has had limited winter hours and it's been either snowing, raining, or freezing rain just about constantly it feels like. Then anytime I have time, the landscaper is closed! All the planets aligned today though and I got my shavings :)

At the barn I had to strip the stall Seamus is going to be using. It had old straw in it and was rather musty. I don't want him chowing down on that while he's still in the constantly hungry stage. Plus I hate to clean straw stalls, shavings are so much easier and cheaper for me. I got to that while Eli started shoveling shavings into muck tubs to drag to the girls' stalls. Fun stuff... okay, again not so much but with two people it makes it go quicker and so all the ponies had freshly bedded stalls.

After a short break where I got Seamus' stall ready for him and straightened up around the barn, the farrier got there for Seamus' first trim with him. Chris is a talented farrier and he'd done wonders with another rescue horse several years ago, an ex-Big Lick Tennessee Walker named Buddy. I've used Chris' services ever since and happily recommend him to anyone who wants a good and caring farrier in the area. Chris pulled the one shoe that was left and cleaned up the chips a bit. Didn't take anything off because there is nothing to take, Seamus currently sports the typical track feet and has no foot to speak of. Chris will encourage growth over time by using a modified barefoot trim. He keeps my mare, Belle, sound for even pretty rough trail riding using his methods. We will not put shoes on any of my horses unless it is necessary and I like it that way. Chris agrees with me that Seamus is a really nice horse despite his current condition. Sometimes it's hard to look at the damaged animal and see what is inside- on the outside he is all skin, bone, muscle, and sinew. It is rough and covered in rainrot and bites and a dull, staring coat. On the inside he is still beautiful and a playful attitude is starting to shine through now that someone is paying attention to him. I can't wait for the outside to mirror the inside *sigh* I think I am going to keep that last shoe and do something with it but I haven't decided what, yet, but it is a sort of symbol of change for Seamus. The last reminder of an old life, it just doesn't seem fit to throw it away.

Seamus is a little stocked up on that left hind, no idea if it's an injury from racing or something he's done since being put out to pasture. Going to get the vet in soon to look him over and draw a Coggins. Meanwhile I am going to pick up some MSM to start him on, it's one of those things that can't hurt and may help him get to feeling better faster.

And guess what, after the shavings and farrier, the day wasn't done yet! There was still hay to pick-up and put away so it was off to Giles in G-town to buy 15 bales and truck it to the barn but with me to unload and Eli to stack it didn't take long. Eli checked the mares water and threw their hay for the night while I fiddled with Seamus some more. It's supposed to rain tomorrow and his donated blanket from a COTHer won't be here for a few days so I fit Belle's light rainsheet on him so he can wear it in the rain for now, we've got to dry out the rainrot. It's about 2 sizes too small so his bony butt sticks out the back, I should have taken a picture LOL Then I tucked him back into his borrowed stable blanket, added yet another bucket of water for the night (making it three since he drank so much his first night in) and gave him dinner and more hay and left for the night. Mary will be there in the morning to feed him ,change him into the rainsheet, turn him out with the girls, and throw them all hay for the day.

Seamus comes home without leaving

Before I even left the barn on Monday, Seamus had his new name. "Green Boy" is kinda dumb and how do you make a nickname out of it? "Seamus" was immediate- he's a redhead and he's Irish according to his dam. It was perfect, it fit, it's different and a little bit goofy like him! He got a little bit of feed and on the way home I started formulating what I would do with my new and rather unexpected horse.

Tuesday was first a trip to the feed store to consult and choose a good low starch, high fat feed for a starved Thoroughbred. At the barn I got a stall set up for the night and took some measurements- he's at least 200lbs underweight, is 15.2 1/2-15.3hh, and should take a 76-78" blanket when weight and muscle is gained back. I put some medication on his rainrot (he is covered in it) and wounds and brushed out his mane. I checked his legs over, he's got a little heat in his left hind.  I haven't the slightest if he's got any injuries, the trainer wasn't forthcoming with any info other than his registered name and age. He's also only wearing one last racing plate leftover from his last race in October so I schedule a farrier visit for the next day. Seamus also got intro'd to my mares, Belle and Sugar, but mostly they ignored him for their hay and he ignored them to walk the field which afforded me opportunity to watch him walk, take photos, and get a short video:

He was then tucked into a borrowed blanket and a stall for the night with a small meal, a large pile of grass hay, a heated water bucket and all my good thoughts for his recovery, it's gonna be a long one.

Introducing Seamus

He's just another one of those cast off Thoroughbreds who get given away or sold cheaply after they are no longer of use to racing society... he's a gelding; he didn't win enough money to garner fame, fortune, or fans; and he apparently had an owner and trainer who didn't want to spend any more money on him than they had to since he no longer brought enough in to pay his bills.

Meet Seamus aka "Green Boy." His sire is the no-name horse Aramus, by Storm Bird; Aramus' dam is a granddaughter of Secretariat himself. Seamus' dam is an Irish River (a son of Riverman) daughter, but even more impressive on her side is that *she* is a granddaughter of Secretariat! This makes Seamus both a great-grandson and a great-great-grandson of Secretariat. Seamus' pedigree is liberally European with a good portion of a horse who is arguably one of the greatest to ever hit the racetrack. While Secretariat didn't produce many good racehorses, after watching several of Seamus' races, IMHO I think that Seamus suffered more from the lack of having a good trainer than it is from will or talent. He is absolutely stunning when in good weight and in motion. He retired this year in October, his last race was at Keeneland where he finished poorly- 8th out of 9 horses... his comment reads "saved ground, empty." Shortly thereafter he showed up at my boarding barn and was put out into a field with several other horses. He finished his racing career with a record of 48 Starts: 3 - 7 - 2, $35,286. Not the most distinguished racehorse ever, but I think he tried hard.

Now my barn is a self-care, pleasure type facility. We have had TBs out there before, but the owner/trainers of these horses were very involved and showed up three times a day to care for them. Seamus' trainer put him in the field and forgot about him apparently, along with several other horses. When winter set in, the trainer was called and he brought out a few bales of hay for another boarder to throw out to the horses. The other horses seem to be fine, but Seamus is one of those that needs more care than that.

Now mostly I am getting to the barn at night as another boarder and I are splitting duties on getting three horses between us in for the night/out for the day and fed twice a day. I've got the night shift so I hadn't seen anyone else's horses currently being boarded out there in the daylight for awhile. If they don't come in the barn, I'm not getting a good look, ya know?

Well, on Christmas Day, I had both morning and night duties so my daughter and I went out in the morning and I finally saw Seamus out there and he looked BAD. IMHO, someone could call the Humane Society on the trainer responsible for this horse... Two days later I get ahold of someone with the trainer's contact info and ask if he can find out if that is one of the horses he wants to give away. The answer I get back is a resounding YES- the trainer couldn't give me the horse fast enough! Doesn't care what I do with him as long as I don't race him (not bloody likely!). I took possession as of that night and inform the barn owner and my boarder friend that he is now mine. I worry a bit as the trainer can't be bothered to give me a bill of sale or even a Coggins, but I transferred him online via the Jockey Club Interactive Registration and I have a witness so even if someone changes their mind, there will be a fair fight... and fight I will as what was done to this horse was criminal in my mind.

I've got to say that Seamus and I would be grateful for any donation monetary or otherwise if anyone's got a little spare to help out. My plan right now is not to keep Seamus but to get him rehabbed and into another home. Honestly, I swore off TBs a few years ago and am quite happy with my two mares, a grade TWH and a Paso Fino. But let's just say that I give up a lot in order to have those two and a third is a real strain on the finances, but here is one of my favorite quotes (you COTHers will be familiar with it):

"To know what is right and not do it is the worst cowardice." ~Confucius

For me to have seen Seamus and not done anything would be just as criminal in my mind as having left him to rot as his former owner and trainer did. So my model horse sales will benefit Seamus rather than me putting the money back into my collection as is the usual case. If you're in the model horse hobby please be sure to check out my ads on MH$P to see if anything catches your eye, it's for Seamus!