Fly-By Danny Boy

I was just telling my friend, Mary, this story and realized that I hadn't told about our Friday misadventures here. So, here is my email to Mary and I hope she doesn't mind me pasting and sharing it with all of you. :) Dan is doing fine but he gave me a scare on Friday. I was late getting over to the pasture to feed them and when I arrived, Danny was outside the fence. He's done this before. He's a Houdini just like his mama, Mouse! This time was different. About six or seven years ago, I went over one morning to find Mouse out and acting strangely. Like Danny, she didn't have to be led or coaxed back into the pasture. She was actually waiting on me at the gate and then she did something even odder especially for her, she refused food! It was Springtime but it was a cold, blustery day and neither Mouse nor I were prepared to be out all day with a strong wind blasting us and cold, sleet falling. But we were out from morning until five that afternoon when my vet finally could get to us. The vet had a day full of emergencies and my possibly colicky horse was low man on the totem pole of priorities. So, I walked her all day long until both she and my frozen feet and hands were protesting loudly. Unfortunately, when our vet arrived and after four hours of more endless walks and having several gallons of oil pumped into her, Mouse was no better and we ended up taking her to UT Vet Hospital in the middle of the night where she stayed for over a week and where, for the first forty-eight hours, they could not guarantee that she would live. So, you can imagine how all of that came rushing back when I find Dan not only waiting for me at the gate but laying his head up against me and whining, eager to go back into the pasture, and then refusing food! I went into a total panicky meltdown! I finally got him to take a few handfuls of sweet feed (which my vet later yelled at me about--I wanted to see if he'd eat anything.) but he seemed less than interested and kept yawning. I immediately called my vet. I got her mom at first who told me that it didn't sound like colic and then, on my second call when he tried to lie down and roll, I spoke with my vet and she told me the same thing. She told me that it was excessive rolling I needed to worry about and just to keep an eye on him for a few hours. I was of course worried when he wouldn't eat his hay but he made a bed out of it instead and lay down to sleep. I sat down beside him and stroked his head while he slept. I realized (and I know Val would say this is humanizing him and horses don't feel concern but...) that the odd, extremely affectionate behavior he was displaying were (I think) his concern over me because he could tell I was upset. I think he was just exhausted after his night out in greener pastures, lol.