"May started with a bank holiday for most, but not for us as usual. Channel Hfd(Valdez X Krack C x Jazz) foaled a super little dark bay colt (Ampere x Valdez X Krack C) two days late on the 6 May. We scanned for insemination on her foaling heat to bring her dates back for 2012 and she is back in foal on the first attempt to Mooiman Hfd.
Breeding horses is also about selling them and the 2011 three-year-olds training progress is underway. We like very much to have done some work with them before actively offering them for sale. By doing this, we have a knowledge of their attitude to work and play a part in preparing them for their future lives. With Mooiman Hfd ranked one of the top 10 dressage sires for producing dressage horses by the most difficult stud book in the world, we get a big tick in the performance/trainability boxes for his offspring. With the youngsters working with enough confidence and balance to present them for sale, we spent a full day on the 8 May videoing them in work mode. To see what we have for sale and see our coloured stallion Spyder under saddle, go to http://www.holdenfolddressage.co.uk/forsale.html.
We were already up at 3am on 17 May foaling a client's 22-year-old PSG mare when we received an call from distressed breeder, Mary Haworth, deep in a complicated foaling emergency. Perrie was all but finished so Brian left me to do the observations while he went to help, but all too late - both mare and foal died. This is the very sad side of our work which we do relentlessly 356 days a year. Calls come to us for help, calls come in to us of stories of success.
Edge O' Leet Stud owners Gary and Carol Bond averted catastrophe when their Wolfgang Keur mare presented her Mooiman Hfd foal with red bag syndrome. The situation was immediately recognised, the vet was called and CPR maintained until help arrived. Their stunning bay filly survived. Three-years-ago we witnessed and were called to four red bag syndrome presentations, being at the birth and speedy diagnosis of the condition is the only sure fire way of saving the foal.
Our work brings many, many highs but sometimes we are thrown some very deep, deep lows. The dark cloud that visited us that night failed to clear and our own battle with the grim reaper was on the horizon.
30 hours post foaling at midday on Wednesday 18 May, Perrie's filly foal Grace (Mooiman Hfd x T/B) became ill. Noticing Perrie's udder full and Grace's signs of loose bowel movement and dehydration, we called the vet as this was quite obviously something serious.
Grace had enteritis, a very serious condition from which few foals survive - especially if they're so young and so the battle to save this little mite began. IV canular fitted and an initial dose of fluids/antibiotics given to her were her only hope of survival. We were to continue IV therapy day and night so for the next five days and nights, Brian and I set about putting up four drips every 24 hours each bag of fluid with either glucose/calcium or plasma added and taking two to three hours to run through. Antibiotics were also given via the drip inlet valve, and we became quite expert at connecting the drip bag to the IV canular, stopping the flow to inject antibiotics and disconnecting the drip when the dose was complete, maintaining aseptic technique while applying the canular bung, and so on.
When you think the enteritis is beaten, the worry of bowel torsion raised its ugly head. 12 hours with no BO and a little colicky, knowing full well she was not strong enough to survive a bout of colic due to impaction and definitely all would be lost if she had suffered a torsion due to possible damage caused by the infection and dehydration, we decided to perform a PR,convinced she had a full rectum 20mls of fleet helped our little princess part with the equivalent of six to eight foal motions. Never ever have we been so pleased to see horse manure in abundance! This was the first time we really felt our little wonder girl had beaten the grim reaper.
We followed Amazing Grace's journey and her relieved owner Lesley Davidson be keeping this brave little girlie, who on day 11 (aged 13 days) post diagnosis took her first lap of honour around her father's arena. We posted Grace's journey on our Facebook Mooiman Holden Fold page and as it unfolded this frail little life had hundreds of concerned supporter willing her to pull through.
As the silent fight continued, behind the screen surrounding baby Grace's stable in between drugs/drips input and output monitoring, it was business as usual. Daily walk-in stallion collections, mares arriving for scanning, or being collected. Their owners very aware of her plight, each enquiring after her progress. The young horses' daily work programmes continue, Grace's father Mooiman Hfd's international training continues, vet visits for teeth rasps and non urgent procedures plus a full day photo shoot to update the web site and get footage for our June Horse Deals website promotion. A dedicated stud in the North West of England going about its daily routine taking it all in their stride. Just another day at the office. Thank you all for taking the time to take a peek into our world. That's a wrap, baby Grace!"
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