Okay, Okay, I know, it has been AGES since I last updated you all. I apologise for my slackness to Dee’s fans, it was wrong of me know, but I have been so busy working long hours to keep Dee in carrots, I am sure you understand.
So, Delicia is now 116 days in foal to the marvelous Amour G and is positively thriving! She has settled well into the herd and pretty much taken over the role of herd leader by being the most hormonal cow of this century. I don’t think I have ever been so embarrassed or apologised so much for Delicia’s behavior. She entered this lovely peaceful herd of 3 horses and proceeded to run the 31 year old herd leader into submission. I think Britvic pretty much decided it was wiser to let the hormonal cow get on it rather then risk running lap relays around and around the field every time Delicia gets a peak in her hormonal activity. I have however decided that is motherhood doesn’t suit Dee then she will be entered in the 100m sprint against Usain Bolt in the next Olympics. Well, she is doing her own interval training.
Normally her prating around wouldn’t worry me but 5 weeks ago we had a huge storm this way. We are not sure what happened, whether she was spooked or whether she got up too quickly from lying down, but she managed to kick herself and damage her Extensor Tendon on her hind leg. Of course, it was done on a weekend so out came the emergency vets. So there I am on a weekend, holding a hormonal pregnant mare who wants to be out in the field but who has a huge fat and very hot lump on her leg I thought was either a tendon or hairline fracture (not that i panicked much).
After cold therapy. Lil bump = big vet bills!
To their credit, my vets are fantastic and were there within 30 minutes of my initial call despite being based 40 minutes away (go figure?) A quick trot up proved Delicia was sound as a pound however, it was indeed a tendon. Cold therapy and (make note of this dee) GENTLE exercise was the order for the day. The main reasoning behind getting the vet was the heat of the injury, swelling and because shes pregnant I am adamant she is to have no drugs at all. Plus, at this point it was before the 90 day marker and drugs during early stages of pregnancy, especially phenylbutazone (commonly known as bute) can carry a risk. The vets agreed with me and unless she was in a lot of pain (another contra indication of pregnancy), we should let her just heal naturally.
By this point I put Delicia back in her stable to talk rehab with the vet. Well, clearly I had put Delicia out as her indignation was very very evident to all. The hoof stamping, neighing, grunting and snorting alerted me that little madam really, REALLY wanted to go out with the herd. As i approached this snorting beats, little leadrope in hand and sheepskin lined headcollar to keep her lil nose comfortable I thought i might do better with a chair and whip, or maybe one of those metal containers they used in Jurassic Park to move the Velociraptors about.
Don’t be fooled by the innocence!
Delicia thought she would demonstrate to the vet how sound she was by doing the most beautiful piaffe/passage transitions up to the field and bolting off to the theme of Black Beauty once i released her of her dead sheep hell. I winched as i watched her gallop around the field, bucking and doing her sliding stops, waiting for her to calm down before approaching her to check her legs again. Lucky she had been lifting her feet so high that she hadn’t kicked herself.
I did shout a few things at her, words I cannot possibly repeat on here, but a certain four letter word beginning with ‘F’ was used.
Delicia is a creature of habit. She doesn’t like to be first out, nor does she like to be the 2nd, 3rd or 4th one out… in fact, I think she would rather she didn’t come in. A thought that clearly crosses her mind every time i bring her in at night. It is not that shes naughty, she no longer rears in hand and is generally well behaved, but she lets you catch her then….nothing. It is as though all four legs are glued to the ground and she cannot possibly walk.
Who you gonna call? BATHORSE!
The first time she did this i thought Oh My God! Is she lame? Is she footy? Is he colicy? No, shes fat. Shes fat and she doesn’t want to leave the buffet but equally cannot be bothered to put the effort into a proper evasion i.e. walking away when I try to catch her. Once I got over the initial worry that something was physically wrong with her, I put it down to her hormones and in her mind, she was starved and therefore needs to gorg herself.
Speaking of eating, Delicia’s stomach area is definitely changing. She shape has changed so much already since she has been out of work and out all day, but her belly has changed shape.
Fatty bum bum
I don’t know how much I can attribute to pregnancy changes as mini D is the size of a small rat at the moment, but there are changes afoot and it is so exciting! To be fair to Dee, she has calmed down in the last week or so and is being very good on the ground to handle.
Team Dee are off to the British Dressage National Championships on the 20th September to meet Amour G ‘Spider’ in the flesh as he contests for the Dressage Deluxe Medium Open Championships. We are very excited to finally be meeting spider in the flesh so expect a few pictures and an update to follow.
It seems like only yesterday that we were waiting for Dee to get in season to have a crack at AI’ing her, but now we are at 116 days and counting down till we get to meet mini Dee. The registered names have been chosen, but for now I am keeping them under wraps. We do suspect she is carrying a colt, and as long as it is healthy, i couldn’t care less the sex nor the colour. Of course, I would love a coloured filly, so I suspect and typical Dee fashion, I will be getting a solid black colt. Either way, it will be loved and spoilt and thanks to the BD rule changes, subjected to bling and matchy matchy of the highest quality.
Some things don’t change 🙂
Over and out, Rachel and ‘fatty’ Dee
My good mare.
Delicious Dee - The trials and tribulations of a horse of a lifetime 