A Cause and Comedic Relief

Thank you everyone for your thoughts about Addie. I heard from Peggy today and we all are in a state of shock. The results are not anywhere what we expected. It seems Addie died from peritonitis caused by a perforated stomach. Colic symptoms and fever are some of the signs, but normally they show intense pain. Her vet was baffled by how she little pain she presented. After reading about peritonitis, I am glad she went quickly because it is a hard road to recovery that may not even work. The rest of the results will take awhile longer.
Poor Peggy, who takes superb care of her horses, is now trying to see what she missed. I really think Addie ate something that went through an ulcerated portion of her stomach. She was the type to be prone to ulcers and Peggy fed her accordingly. Addie did not have intense weight loss which can be a sign of a chronic problem. Nothing seems to add up, making it hard to accept. It was hard to find the words that would help Peggy. I told her that Addie had 15 years to learn internalize and manage her pain and worries. Her only external sign of stress she really showed was cribbing. Recently her cribbing had decreased to the point of only doing it because it was a habit. She was moving great and more importantly willingly. Her 6 years with Peggy were the best of her life. Hopefully Peggy can soon see all the good and not focus on the end.

The good news is that the vet cleared Comrade. He can go to the show. It will be purely for fun and learning on the jumping part because with everything that has happened, we did not do all the preparation I would have wanted. Plus, I have to shake off the blues. He can at least show off his hot new athletic body in the breed classes though.

And now for the comedic relief after the heavy stuff.

"You only said I had to wear my muzzle..."

With Cobs and Corgis you can't go long without laughing. Saturday I ended up having to find and replace fly masks on both Cobs and Rosemary's muzzle. She is bad about using her mask to take off the muzzle. Plus they have tiny ears that are no help what so ever. So we use baling twine to loop around the muzzle and then braid her mane through it. It works, but she is finding tough weeds to pull out the braids in addition to using her fly mask. I told her she had to wear it and proceeded to put a loop of baling twine on her fly mask too. Both were attached to a braid.
Sunday they all went out on pasture, except Winston, because the house was having a party and we wanted them away from all the people. I suited up Rosemary and sent her out. Monday she greeted me in the above picture. My braid stayed in and she carried her mask and muzzle around as she happily grazed on the grass. I swear this pony is an escape artist. She is going to have to deal with flies while on grass because it is more important she keeps the muzzle on. Luckily she did not kill the muzzle. Peggy says Comrade is finding ways to get his off too. Ah, Cobs always keeping us on our toes.