Moved to Anarchy Acres!

A lot of excitement this week.  On Sunday afternoon Andrea called and informed us that Diego, Maddie's only pasture mate, had been sold and she was moving him in a couple of hours.  Since we did not want to have Maddie alone at a barn where we could not monitor her, we made immediate preparations to bring her home.  Tracy met us at the stable within the hour and Maddie loaded without incident.  We were prepared to ride her home if she had not loaded, but she actually did very well in the trailer.

We showed her around the property and threw her in the mud lot.  Sebastian, the stud donkey, had arrived only 3 days earlier.  He went to live with the goats and we cautiously introduced him to Maddie over the fence.  This all went well.

More excitement was in store soon, though.  Monday morning was Sebastian's date with the vet to get cut, and the procedure went poorly.  One of the blood vessels could not be sutured and Sebastian would not stop bleeding.  He had to be given a second shot of ketamin and the the vet tech was sent back to get more sutures.  Maria and I were holding him down to the ground and watching in horror (he kept waking up).  It was hot and we were all covered in flies.  Finally the vet was able to stop the bleeding and Sebastian stumbled to his feet.  After this, the vet knocked out Maddie and scrubbed out the wound on her front leg (the one she got on the driveway the week earlier).  So the vet left us with two groggy equines.

Sebastian spent the next day sulking and listless.  By Wednesday he was feeling better when Maria noticed he was bleeding again.  The vet rushed out and checked him over, deciding it was primarily drainage.  Sebastian got another dose of antibiotics but finally seems to be on the mend.  Later that day Maria & I both took the first ride on Maddie at Anarchy Acres.  Until her wound heals more we are limited to bareback rides only.  The girth seems to rub into the wound when she moves.

Maddie is nervous and pushy at the farm, getting goofy over the flies and walking all over both of us.  This is a real opportunity to revisit her ground work and get her more solid overall.  I pushed her hard in a couple of sessions so far and will continue to do so until she can stand respectfully next to me regardless of the heat or the flies.  We're over the initial moving in period now and we can get back to work soon.