Nothing like a little work to distract me..

[midnightsjane]

After all the trauma of the last couple of days, I was really quite happy to go back to work. Somehow being in a different setting, looking after sick humans, and interacting with my coworkers made me find my balance again. I had a few teary moments when I had to tell someone about Phaedra (everyone is interested in baby horses), but mostly it was an okay day.
Nothing like having to deal with a very confused and agitated patient all day long to distract me. Thank heavens for lots of good drugs! (for the patient, not me.......although I wanted some by the end of the shift, LOL)

Came home, made myself a nice steak dinner, and watched a fascinating episode of The Nature of Things on CBC. It was about a place in Africa that rescues and rehabilitates orphaned baby elephants; the keepers are so dedicated and devoted to the elephants it was truly moving. One of the keepers is so good at "elephant whispering" that he is the favourite of most of the elephants. It was very inspiring.

Oh, and the Canucks won game four today! Good game. Everyone in ICU watched it, whether they were actually concious or not. hee. Fingers crossed for game five. The way this is going, they'll be playing hockey in August! heh.

Comments

[ranunculus]

Of course I cannot find the magazine, nor remember which one it is. The take away from the article for me was two things:
First that the baby REALLY needs a "babysitter" to be out with so he learns to speak "horse". Sounds like you have enough horses on your place so you might be able to handle that in-house, so to speak. A foster mother is ideal, but if you can't do that sometimes an older gelding is a good match. Horses who cannot "speak horse" are at a great disadvantage later in life, whether it be joining a herd, or simply working with humans who expect a base vocabulary.

As you already point out, he need manners. The bottom line was: don't let your foal, at any age, do ANYTHING that you wouldn't let an older horse do. No cute nibbling (his mom wouldn't), no letting him move your feet (mom sure wouldn't) and no just plain being rude. If anything be stricter with the foal than with an older horse. Since you have had mares and foals before you know that mom disciplines them from the very beginning.

Hope this helps! I'll keep looking.

[midnightsjane]

Thanks. We have raised lots of foals before, although none without mom, and I think we've got the rules pretty well figured out. We hope to give him a friend as soon as we can.
If you do find the article, I'd like to read it.