28/5/07 Why?

Sorry for the silence – it has not been easy to update anyone these last couple of days....

The morning after the birth the foal’s near foreleg looked odd, we called the vet, decided to Xray, drove them to the surgery, and we were all gutted to see it was a badly fractured pastern bone. Possibly an unfortunate tread by Mouse, although there was no external evidence....

Despite the odds being loaded against a full recovery I decided I have to give her a chance. On Sunday we drove them (in the pouring rain) to Rossdales at Newmarket where little ‘Connie’, at less than 2 days old, underwent 2 hours of surgery to plate and screw the bone together. The operation by Andy Bathe went well, and she is up and feeding well, ‘comfortable’, standing evenly on both legs, but we have the risk of infection or collapse when the cast comes off etc. The odds are 60% against her surviving this stage, and about 10% for being sound enough to be rideable long term... no wonder other foals in this situation are simply put down.

Already she seems to be a tough little thing - and she needs to be. They stay at Newmarket for 3 – 4 weeks, so please add them to your prayers & blessings.

As a postscript, it is maybe helpful to add at this point that this little horse was always bred with the intention that she would stay with me for life, a friend whether she competes, is rideable or whatever, a mother if it feels right in time. She is Oskar’s aunt and Mouse's foal - her connection to earth... There are some fun stories about how Mouse let us know she wanted a foal and chose the stallion.... And since she conceived first time against the odds... with frozen semen from a stallion who died the week previously, perhap these stories need adding. However, in summary, this little foal is special to me and has a home for life.