Popeye stands all of 14.2 hands high, that’s all. He’s a little guy really. When I brought him home that first day, I thought he was at LEAST 15.2, and since I thought he was just two years ole, I was sure he would grow into a impressive size. Stallions, when preparing for fight, will poof themselves up to what appears to be double their size. Pops spent the first month or so living with me looking awfully huge! Eventually, I would have to de poof the stallion.
This was obviously more easily said than done. I had gotten a halter on Pops, and had tied to it a catch line. I couldn’t keep a standard short catch line on him, I couldn’t (didn’t want to) get that close. Instead, Pops was wearing my 22 foot lunge line. That way I could step on the line without having to take my eye off of him. He was learning to lunge since running away from me was something he could do very well. When he felt like he couldn’t escape, he would lunge at me and strike down the lunge line. I was pretty happy to be 22 feet away from him. I used a plastic bag on the end of a stick to drive him off me, I was worried the whip might cause him to think I was starting a fight with him. Let’s face it, starting a fight with a horse, no matter how short they are is a really bad idea!
Pops made some really good progress with me, I was able to tie him off and groom him, and was to touch him all over with the stick, and he seemed to be curious about the idea of having a person around. He was still very tense, but he learned that if he only poofed up a little, I would respect that and back off. (I like my head where it is, Thank You!) He had sort of gotten his first trim, I held his foot up while the farrier attempted to trim him around me. It was time to call the vet to have him gelded.
I was excited for the vet’s arrival, I had Pops lunged, quiet and ready for him when he arrived. The vet pulled up with his assistant, got his equipment out of the truck and approached Popeye. The second they entered his pen, Popeye stance changed dramatically. While he had gotten used to me, he was not prepared for strangers. The vet took one look at him and said “Forget it, it’s not worth it.” Obviously, I was extremely disappointed at the thought that the job wasn’t going to get done and I somehow managed to convince the vet to at least make an attempt. I gave him specific instructions to approach Pops from behind me on his blind side so Pops would just think it was me. This didn’t work as the vet didn’t trust me any more than he trusted Pops and he kept trying to get Pops to sniff his hand. Pops had no interest in being even slightly friendly. So the vet left me hanging.
We made other arrangements to take Pops to my old vet nearly 80 miles away. The plan was to trailer him there as Dr. Dave at Eagle Fern was willing to give Pops a chance, even after hearing the horror stories. When I unloaded Pops, the first thing Dr Dave said was “He’s just a little guy!”, I sort of grumbled under my breath “try standing down here” since Dr Dave is about 6 feet tall. Pops was clearly disturbed at being in a strange place and having so many people with their attention on him. The Dr and I talked about what the best plan was on how to sedate Pops for his surgery, clearly Dr Dave wouldn’t be able to simply approach and inject him in his vein. We decided to use an intra muscular injection, 2 ccs at a time, until Pops was quiet enough for the vet to knock him out intra venously. Pops was safe to approach so long as the Dr followed instructions, Pops is currently still safe to approach, as long as you follow instructions! I would hold Popeye’s lead, while the vet came up behind me and gently stroked his shoulder. Once Pops seemed settled, Dr Dave would quickly inject Pops with the sedative and then Run Away. Popeye would rear straight in the air and leap away, then run circles around me until he felt just a tad safer. Then we would wait patiently to see if it would take effect. It took at least five injections to calm Pops, and by then, he had caught on to our plan and was pretty leery when Dr Dave approached.
We enlisted the help of Dr Shakira who gave Pops the injection that finally laid him down. The surgery was done swiftly without any issues, though at one point Dr Dave said “Keep an eye on him and let me know if he looks like he’s waking up.” I replied with “If you see me running away, he might be waking up.” Pops in fact didn’t wake up until nearly four hours after he went down! He got his vaccinations, was poked and prodded while immobile and had his eye checked. His eye is healthy, just collapsed into his head, and there is good chance he has suffered some brain damage. More importantly, the two year old stallion that I brought in was now an 8 year old gelding, funny how a horse’s age can change when you can finally see their teeth, lol! Pops stood up a bit groggy, and was a bit surprise to his vet helping him up. But he had found a vet that would help him, a vet that I completely appreciate for taking all the time Pops needed to get the job done.
To Dr Dave, I say thank you, and I’m very sorry, but Pops needs to be floated soon.
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