Vet Visit, Thank You and ACTHA

 

First I want to say a huge thank you to all of you who have left me such wonderful comments on my last two posts (Just Chickens and Crossing the Bridge). I know not everyone enjoys or has an interest in chickens, but I really do. Owning my own flock of chickens and gathering my own fresh eggs every day was one of the motivating factors in encouraging my family to escape the suffocation of the suburbs and move out to the country. So, all of your gushing comments about my chickens really meant a lot to me. But I wish you all lived closer so I could share some of our fresh eggs with you.

And all of you that have followed my horse-related journey over the past year, know how important my goals were, to not only get back in the saddle again, but to ride in a Competitive Trail Ride. And with the help of my special new horse, Apache, I was able to finally meet that goal. And with you all along to help cheer me on. Thank you!!!

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Speaking of Competitive Trail Rides, the next ACTHA CTC ride is for the Guinness Book of World Records! The American Competitive Trail Horse Association has planned a special event, on June 13th that will span all 50 states to get as many riders as possible to ride together during an ACTHA CTC all at the same time. And the main focus is to honor the trail horse while helping raise money for horse rescues across the country.

ACTHA's Mission is to “Provide an enjoyable venue showcasing the wonderful attributes of the great American Trail Horse, granting them the recognition they so richly deserve, and to maintain a registry open to all breeds and a point designation system which will stay with each horse for its lifetime, thereby adding to their value and distinction. ACTHA’ s focus is also to enable the humane treatment of horses in need by donating up to 50% of its proceeds to eligible horse charities annually.”

Here’s Apache and I running walking and trotting, the barrels during our last ACTHA CTC Ride. (photo by Cory Tourino)

 

And if you join ACTHA now, as a member you get the opportunity to participate in hundreds of rides all across the country: “Six Miles, Six Natural Obstacles, Six Judges, or.…just come and ride the trails! And if you hurry, you get $25 in gifts from ACTHA’s wonderful horse-related item sponsor's stores! Act now and get an additional $25 from Cavallo!”

So, check out ACTHA’s website to see which rides are within driving distance for you and your horse, and join me on June 13th so we can set a world record!

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And finally, Apache is all caught up on her basic health care with this last vet visit we did yesterday. Apache’s first vet check was her pre-purchase exam, which included some chiro adjustments, that Apache enjoyed so much and made her so relaxed afterwards, that she could barely stand up. Her second Vet visit was to administer all of her vaccines, get her tested for Coggins(Equine Infectious Anemia), do a fecal exam for worms, and float her teeth, which were in terrible shape, as you all probably recall.

This final Vet visit was to administer Booster vaccines for VEWT(Encephalomyelitis-Tetanus), Influenza, Strangles, Rabies, and West Nile because I know for sure that poor Apache received no health care at all from the previous owner that I bought her from (besides farrier trimming to treat her very overgrown feet, caused by the owner before her). And the owner before that, neglected Apache so badly with her hoof care, that I can be pretty sure that her health care was neglected as well.

So, with my Vet’s recommendation I decided to give Apache a good start in her health care maintenance by making sure she had adequate immunization protection, especially since we do plan on joining many other horses on group rides, and I don’t want Apache to get sick nor be a carrier of any diseases and infect other horses.

Apache’s Vet, which was also Baby Doll’s Vet, is an Equine Specialist. I appreciate that he’s educated on equine health and doesn’t have to juggle his time between working on dogs and cats and other livestock, too. Until recently, his was a mobile practice and he only came to his patients’ barns. Now he has an actual office, too, and not just the one he has from the back of his truck. And even better still, it’s less than 10 minutes away. From my neighborhood, I literally only take one left, one right, and a left into his parking lot, and I’m there….all without having to drive through any traffic lights or towns. His office is smack dab in between Interstate 40 and Route 66.

(Yeh, that was an 18-wheeler, one of many, driving on I-40 behind the Vet’s office)

 

So, to save the $35 home visit and get the chance to finally see our vet’s new facilities, as well as to be sure that Apache hasn’t forgotten all the trailering work we did together a couple weeks ago, I decided I wanted to load her up and take her there for the Vet visit.

She was a very good girl and loaded wonderfully. But after I unloaded her at the Vet’s office, she was understandably quite concerned, muscles taut, snorting and eye-balling everything around us. She spooked just a little bit when the vet stepped down from the back of his truck, but I just kept working on keeping her focus on me and we did pretty good, I think. Even with the strong gusts of wind that about knocked us down, too.

 

Ranchman John had remembered to grab my camera before we left the house and he took all of the photos. He kept laughing at Apache, because her expression clearly said, “Ummm, why did you bring me here, people? There’s no trail ride going on here, ya know.”

You can see that her normally perky forward facing ears were in a less than happy place. Poor girl. I don’t like needles either.

But my sweet girl received all of her booster shots, on both sides of her neck as well as the intra-nasal squirt, with my hand over her eye to keep her calmer. Apache was very trusting and I was very proud of her, of course.

And best of all she loaded up easey peasey back onto the trailer again. But that was probably mostly due to her wanting to get the heck out of there and back home where no one was poking her with needles and squirting vile concoctions up her nose. lol! I think the cookies I gave her and lots of petting helped make up for it a little bit, though.

But most of all she was just happy to leave the Vet’s office behind.